Most of us know who built the Qutb Minar. The Delhi Sultan Qutb-ud-din Aibak commissioned it in 1199 as a tower to commemorate the victory of his master and mentor, Mohammed Ghori. He died before he could complete it; therefore, his successor, Iltutmish completed it 20 years later. Iltutmish named it after his own master and predecessor, Qutb-ud-din Aibak. Did he, really? Some historians think that Iltutmish had a different Qutb-ud-din in mind when he christened the tower: Qutb-ud-din Bakhtiyar Kaki! [Detour: While this story is about the ‘Other Qutb’,  we have another story about the ‘Other Minar’ at the […]

Have you ever wondered why one end of the Chepauk Cricket stadium, in Chennai, is called Wallajah End? Your response would probably be “That’s because, that’s where the Wallajah Road is!” Yeah, so why is the Wallajah Road called so? Well, THAT requires a serious answer. Wallajah Road is so called because it leads to the Chepauk Palace of the Nawab Wallajah. And who was Nawab Wallajah? To find out, let us travel back to a time when the British were a formidable power in these parts.

In 1960, a Tamil fiction film called Raja Desingu was released, starring the swashbuckling matinee idol, MGR. It flopped. But after centuries, Raja Desingu stories continue to be told in street performances like Therukoothu, Poi-Kal-Kuthirai, and even the Burra-Katha tradition of Andhra. In fact, many boys in Tamilnadu are named Desingu even today, after the legendary hero of Gingee Fort in Tamil Nadu. 

Shahjahan, who ruled between the years 1628 and 1658, was the great Mughal Emperor who built the magnificent Red Fort of Delhi. But Shahjahan was neither the eldest son (he was the third) nor the son of the empress (his mother was one of the MANY wives of Emperor Jahangir). Not surprisingly, Shahjahan’s journey to the throne is a story of gory politics and intrigue. How exactly did he beat the odds to take over the Mughal throne?