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| Bara Gumbad, Delhi thewire.in |
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| Bara Gumbad, Delhi indianexpress.com |
Above image: Two Lodi-era monuments — Gol Gumbad near Nizamuddin and Bada Lao Ka Gumbad in Vasant Vihar — in the national capital will be available to corporate entities to hold ‘small’ cultural events soon. The space around the site would be used to stage cultural events. The restoration on Bara Gumad was being done by the Delhi state Archaeology in association with INTACH. Invisible paintings covered with dark soot, damaged arches, damaged glazed tiles on the dome etc would be taken care of using traditional materials. The first phase of restoration took place several years ago. Originally, basic restoration work was taken up way back in 2010...............
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| Sikandar Lodi notesonindianhistory.com |
Above image:: Sikandar Khan Lodi (died 21 November 1517), a Pashtun Sultan of the Delhi Sultanate between 1489 and 1517. He was the second and most successful ruler of the Lodi dynasty of the Delhi sultanate, and was a poet in Persian language. He expanded the territories to a considerable size up to Gwalior and Bihar. and founded the city of Agra in 1504............................
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| Bara Gumbad and Mosque at Back Shisha Gumbad in front upload.wikimedia.org |
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| Bara Gumbad mosque Lodi gardens, Delhi. wikiwand com |
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| Bara Gumbad mosque Lodi gardens, Delhi. wikiwand com |
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| Mosque at Bara Gumbad, Delhi. Flicker.com |
The fascinating huge white dome fitted with lustrous blue tiles sticking out of medieval era ruins is a breath-holding sight for the visitors to the the Basant Lok market in South Delhi
The design of Bara Gumbad, a single story building in square plan is simple, blend Hindu-Islamic styles that include bracket and lintel. It looks like a two floored structure when viewed from outside. Barring the mosque and the guest house total floor area of Bara Gumbad is 361 square meters (3,886 sq ft).
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| Carvings on the exterior, Bada Gumbad Mosque wikimedia.org |
As to the adjacent mosque built by Lodi with five bays - three have domes and the remaining two with vaulted roof there are oriel windows to the north and south and the tapering minarets. They appear to be precursor later architectural styles. Khairpur village (presently within DDA's Vasant Vihar park) was the former name where the monuments stand today.
In the past decade or so the central government under the ASI is making efforts to repair, conserve and preserve dying heritage monuments across the country. As for Delhi, there are countless monuments, mostly Islamic structures and they are undergoing conservation though the task is a tough one because of encroachment. The Bada Gumbad is part of Delhi's heritage list and I understand it was renovated in the recent past.
Dedicated efforts toward renovation and conservation of old heritage structures in which the ethos and culture of the place are preserved, have positive advantages like improvement of tourism, saving the sites for the posterity to appreciate their aesthetics, etc. The negative aspect is correct planning and implementation. Unfortunately, such efforts need sound advice of experienced conservation experts who know what kind of construction materials, etc can be used and how to prop up damaged roof built with different styles, etc. Present building materials can not match with those used in the past. However, the experts can give proper guidance as to the selection of materials and others that come close to those used in the past era.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bara_Gumbad
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