Visit To Sultan Garhi;Thursday 4th of September

   The Heritage Action Research Team was back into action with another visit to Sultan Garhi,the tomb of Iltutmish's eldest son,Nasir ud-din Mahammud.What is fascinating about this tomb is that it is also revered as a shrine by the residents of the nearby villages.We all went together to see the tomb's transition into a shrine on the tomb's auspicious day:Thursday.

    At the tomb,we saw a much different atmosphere from what we had ever seen before,there was an ongoing langar,many devotees were going to the shrines and offering thier prayer.We split our team into three parts one was going to interview the flower seller,the other group would interview the people at the langar and my group went into the tomb to interview various devotees who were offering their prayer.As we interviewed the many devotees,we discovered many new facts:

1. The devotees come to worship Peer Baba.
2. According to tradition,they always pray to Peer Baba every Thursday,that being the holy day of Peer baba.
3. The devotees also told us that they believe that everything that they wish for comes true when they ask Peer Baba.
4. One man told us that behind Sultan Garhi there had been a village known as Milakpur(Malikpur) who used to pray at this shrine.Then,the water ran out from their well and they had to leave that area but they still come and pray at the shrine.
5. The group that went to the langar found out that it was being managed by the Shehrawat family,residents of the erstwhile Milakpur village.
6. For the prayer,devotees go below the octagonal chattri and lay a chadar,light aggarbattis,place a garland of flowers and as prasad put laddus,pedha and gudh(jaggery).
7. Certain devotees described their prayer as a parampara(tradition) and some as aastha(faith).
8. Young men climb upon the chhatri and put water and grain for the birds as a part of their prayer,every Thursday and Sunday.
9. Adjoining the tomb and near the Tughlaq era well is another shrine of Dada-Bhaiya which has been for almost 150 years as told to us by one man.He also told us that the shrine is incomplete as the government is not allowing them to construct as Sultan Garhi is a protected monument and construction is banned.

      Overall this trip was a very productive one and we seemed to have got a much deeper insight into Sultan Garhi.I would like to thank Mr.Jha,Mrs.Shukla,Mrs.Ghoshal and Mrs.Aggarwal for this wonderful research trip.We hope to very soon develop this knowledge into a movie and a written brochure/manuscript.