Where Stone Speaks

Mehrauli is the oldest of Delhi’sseven cities. Once the thriving capital of the Tomar and Chauhan dynasties andthe Dar ul Khilafat of the slave dynasty, today it lies forgotten. Itscongested lanes and crumbling ruins are lost in a mishmash of history andmodernity, the living and the dead rubbing shoulders with each other. Blendingstirring Urdu couplets with haunting visuals, author Rana Safvi walks usthrough the oldest of Delhis, describing the religious diversity of Mehrauli’smonuments: from the rocky Qila Rai Pithaura to the dargah of Khwaja QutbuddinBakhtiyar Kaki, from Zafar Mahal, the last great monument built by the Mughals,to the holy waters of the Hauz e Shamsi, each structure a living memory of anera dissolved in history. Embellished with stories and legends of a bygone eraand soaked in the sights and sounds of Sufi dargahs, mosques, temples,churches, gurudwaras and Buddhist monasteries, Where Stones Speak effortlesslyreveals a little known, bewitching Mehrauli.