A lesser known however captivating Mughal-era monument.
Three domes, minars. That’s the Jama Masjid, the Old Delhi centrepiece.
Three domes, two minars. This is the Sunheri Masjid. It is similar to the well-known mosque, but is tinier, and no longer a centrepiece of the environment. The adjacent Red Fort ramparts claim all of the oohs and aahs. Even so, this Mughal-generation monument — commissioned through Qudsiya Begum, emperor Muhammed Shah Rangila’s wife — is extremely pickled in its awesome person.
Gazing upon the domes from the mosque’s sprawling courtyard right away moves an intimacy with the stone edifice. Its grandness has no icy aloofness. The adjoining neem bushes are taller than the minars. The mosque’s interiors have the warm temperature of a domestic. This afternoon, a taak, or arched niche scooped right into a wall, is full of books, probably copies of the Quran. A small ceiling fan, the sort clamped at the roof of educate compartments, is connected to the mihrab, toward which the worshippers pray. A big clock is nailed immediately above; the skinny second hand is shifting silently and jerkily. A Godrej almirah is status on one facet. On the alternative aspect, a choohe dani to trap the rats is mendacity beside a stack of rolled-up carpets—torn rotis are mendacity in the mouse trap. One of the elements inside the mosque is not often visible. A timber cupboard on the wall consists of a series of slits, each stacked with a skinny book. “Each of these carries a part of the Quran,” explains a bearded guy, who calls himself a khadim, a mosque caretaker. “There are 30 parts,” he says.
The partitions of the mosque are ochre colored. But this paint has peeled off in one of the three chambers, revealing a maximum dream-like colour of blue. The khadim identifies this blue as the constructing’s original color.
Now a person enters the mosque and lies down on the ground. One of his hands is maintaining onto a tasbih of green prayer beads, and the other is retaining a cellular cellphone.
Outside, a terrific crowd of people is taking walks in the direction of the Red Fort. Barely each person is glancing toward the Sunheri Masjid.