The manmade Bhool Bhulaiyaa

Mention Bhool Bhulaiyaa and the immediate reaction is that it is a 2007 Bollywood remake of the English film “The Maze”. The Hindi film starred Akshay Kumar, Vidya Balan and others.

The huge house that is shown in the film is in Jaipur and the many passages of the house and the staircases add to a sense of the mystery in the film.

However, India is fortunate to have a real maze, which is also called Bhool Bhulaiyaa. This structure is a Nawabi inspiration and it was built when the province was in the throes of a severe drought. The Nawab employed thousands of labourers to build the Bhool Bhulaiyaa.

One legend about the structure is that as soon as labourers finished construction of a portion of a wall, the Nawab sent away all the labourers from the work spot and had it pulled down so that the labourers would be reemployed in building it afresh.

Another legend associated with the Bhool Bhulaiyaa is that if common men were employed in the morning, noblemen and the landed gentry worked on it during the night. All in all, the Bhool Bhulaiyaa is a superb piece of architecture and it is a harmonious blend of  local, Mughal, Arabic and European architecture.       

A man made wonder, this structure is also well known as the gravity defying palace. This palace has more than a thousand narrow staircases with the stairs going up and down in a confusing manner.

It is this intriguing maze that lends the name Bhool Bhulaiyaa to the structure which comprises of a large mosque, the Bhool Bhulaiyaa or the labyrinth or the maze, a bowli, a step well with running water and two imposing gateways lead to the main hall.

This is the much visited and much admired Bhool Bhulaiyaa of Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh.

The Bhool Bhulaiyaa is mystifying palace complex commissioned in 1783 by Nawab Asaf-ud-Daula of Oudh or Awadh. This called the Bara Imambara and the Bhool Bhulaiyaa is an integral part of it. The Imambara’s central arched hall is almost 50 meters long and about three stories high. What makes this arch all the more astounding is that it has no pillars or beams. No iron is used. This is supposed to be the world’s largest unsupported structure. It contains the vaulted central chamber with the tomb of Asaf-ud-Daula.

The Imambara was designed by Kifayatullah of Delgi and even his tomb is in the main hall of the Imambara.

The main hall of the Imambara was constructed with interlocking brickwork and is  from here that the Bhool Bhuliayaa commences. There are eight surrounding chambers around the central vault and they are built to different roof heights. This allowed the Nawab to use he spaces above them to design the labyrinths with passages and stairs which are interconnected with each other through 489 identical doorways.

This is possibly the only existing maze in India and it today supports almost the entire weight of the building. The only other similar maze, though not as big or as confusing is the tunnels leading from the Ibrahim Rouza mosque or the stairs leading to the whispering gallery in Bijapur. Another similar monument would be the palace of thousand doors, several of them false, in Murshidabad.    

Coming back to Lucknow, this maze has more than 1,000 narrow staircase passages and old timers say that it was meant to prevent any possible intruders from gaining any easy access or easy egress from the building. Since the passages are open, you can roam around them but it is better to hire a guide. If not, follow the ray of sunlight that you can see at the end of the maze and you are sure to come out of  jigsaw.

Since there is an Asifi mosque, the structure is also called Asifi Imambara. There is also a Chotta Imambara nearby, a smaller and beautiful version of the Bara Imambara.

Bara in Urdu means big and Imambara means a shrine. This was built for Shia Muslims for Azadari (Azadari in Lucknow is the  practice during Moharram relating to mourning and commemoration of the anniversary of the death of Imam Husayn ibn Ali at the Battle of Karbala in 680).  

The construction of the Imambara was completed in 1791 and it was estimated to cost anywhere between half a million to a million rupees. Even after the building was completed, the Nawab spent every year several thousand rupees on its decoration.

There is also a tunnel which leads through a mile-long underground passage to a spot adjacent to the Gomti river. There are several other passages and they are supposed to lead to Faizabad, Allahabad and even to Delhi. These passages have now been sealed.

Take a look at the Imambara and explore its maze. I can assure you, it will be worth your while.

Tunnels of Gajendra Moksha

History is generally linked with myths and legends and it is difficult to sift one from the other. It becomes an impossible task in India as our country has a rather poor record of writing history .

Much of India’s ancient history and here I am talking about the Vedic Age, Epic Age and even phases in ancient Indian history, where the spoken word was given importance and Kings and Emperors deemed it haughty, unbecoming and egoistic to write down their achievements. Things did change for the better when the Muslims invaded India and since then writers were employed in the court to pen down the life history of the Emperors.

Thus, we have Abu Fazl, the courtier of  the Mughal Emperor, Akbar, writing Ai-i-Albari.  Another book is Jahangir Nama, an autobiography by Akbar’s successor, Jahangir.

In the south too, the Muslim Kingdoms commissioned historians and writers to write about their court and achievements. Thus, we have fairly accurate accounts of the reigns of the Adil Shahi Kings of Bijapur, the Nizam Shahis of Golconda, the Bahamanis of Gulbarga and Bidar  and even the Hindu Kingdom of Vijayanagar in Hampi.

However, even in the south, historical accounts have got themselves mixed up with myths and legends and it rather becomes a painstaking task to get to the truth.

Several such myths exist even today about Hyder Ali and his valorous son and heir Tipu Sultan who ruled the Mysore Kingdom with Srirangapatna as their capital.

Though Tipu died on May 4, 1799 and the Mysore Kingdom reverted to the Wodeyars who then shifted the capital from Srirangapatna to Mysore, myths and legends still abound about Tipu and even about Srirangapatna.

New discoveries in Srirangapatna seem to give a fresh impetus to the mystery of Tipu and he has now become a larger than life personality.

Almost a hundred years after his death, a new underground dungeon was accidentally discovered in Srirangapatna. A few months ago, two tunnels were discovered adjacent to the sprawling Ranganathaswamy Temple in Srirangapatna.

Archaeologists are still studying the “whys” and “hows” of the tunnels. They were discovered when the Gajendra Moksha Kalyani or pond adjacent to the Ranganatha temple was being cleaned.

The discovery gives credence to stories of Tipu that he had an underground tunnel running from his palace to the Ranganatha temple which he used often. Another story tells us that he could see the idol from the balcony of his palace which was situated opposite the temple.

Officials of the Indian Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) have dubbed it the most sensational archaeological discoveries in the history of Srirangapatna.

There are several stories that tell us how these tunnels were used by members of the royal family-Wodeyars and even Hyder and Tipu-and their military generals.

The first tunnel, which measured three feet in diameter, was found by workers while digging up the Gajendra Moksha pond. The workers discovered another tunnel shortly after stumbling on the first.

The ASI officials found that the tunnels are interlinked and diversify in various directions. Work is still on to find out more about the tunnels, their usage and when they were constructed.

However, some locals that I met, including temple officials, said the first tunnel may have been used to draw water from the river to fill the pond. However, the reasons for constructing the other tunnel, one of which was found near Tipu's Palace, are yet to be established.

Apart from the tunnel,  an ancient cellar was also discovered at the Gajendra Moksha Kalyani. The cellar and the tunnels were discovered during the desilting of the pond, as per the instructions of District in-charge secretary Amar Narayan.

When the renovation, a Banni tree which had taken root in the pond and existed since the past 30 years, was uprooted and it was replanted elsewhere.

The desilting was taken up as the famous Rathasapthami festival was scheduled to commence on February 17. It is on this occasion that the temple elephant Gajendra takes a holy dip in the Kalyani. This has been the age-old practice.

As the desilting work commenced, two smaller tunnels going in opposite directions within the main larger tunnel were discovered.
As I mentioned earlier, Tipu Sultan shared a close bond with  Ranganatha Swamy and he had constructed a big tunnel connecting his palace to the temple. He had also constructed other small tunnels to be used during emergencies in war.

What the discovery shows is that there may still be other artifacts of the period of the Wodeyars and Hyder-Tipu period that need more detailed study and monuments that need to be excavated and studied.

No wonder, historians and archaeologists always maintain that buildings tell tales. Want to as to the tale. Please check pout the tunnels and the Kalyani and for that you have to visit Srirangapatna. What better way to spend the searing Summer than drive early in the morning to the island on the Cauvery, check out the local history of Srirangapatna, watch the birds of Ranganathittu and laze around the Cauvery.  

Where else but in India could you visit a huge temple, swim in a nearby river, walk on the ramparts of a magnificent fort and go bird seeing.