New Delhi [India], December 22 : Heritage Cell of Municipal Corporation of Delhi organised a lecture on Dara Shikoh at the historic Town Hall building in Chandni Chowk on Saturday.
On this occasion, MCD Commissioner Ashwani Kumar, Additional Commissioner, Jitendra Yadav, Zonal Deputy Commissioner, other senior MCD officers, historians and a large number of dignitaries participated.
While Executive Engineer of the MCD and historian Sanjeev Kumar Singh threw light on the life of Dara Shikoh. Sanjeev Singh also presented the journey of finding the grave Dara Shikoh to the audience in a systematic manner.
Before the lecture, Ashwani Kumar inspected the historic Town Hall building and reviewed the historical background of various parts of the Town Hall.
He also inspected the current condition of the building and felt the need for immediate repairs and reiterated his commitment to preserve the heritage of the Town Hall.
Kumar said that the Town Hall building is an integral and important part of Delhi's history and said that preserving its rich heritage is a sign of a conscious society. He said that Municipal Corporation of Delhi will make every possible effort to preserve its historical heritage.
Describing about the research to find Dara Shikoh's grave, Executive Engineer Sanjeev Singh offered insights as to the methodology adopted by him to find the tomb of Dara Shikoh definitively.
He mentioned about study of an array of books and travelIogues of Mughal era as well as cenotaph architecture which guided him further in his research. He informed the audience about the difference in style of cenotaphs of successive Mughal Emperors.
It was finally the book, namely, Alamgirnamah, the court history of Aurangzeb which acted as beacon and led to the discovery of the tomb of Dara Shikoh lying beside the tomb of Akbar's sons Daniyal and Murad in Humayun Tomb. The architecture of cenotaphs helped him point out definitively the actual tomb of Dara Sukoh which for last many centuries was in realm of hypotheses and guess work.
This momentous and definitive work of Sanjeev Kumar Singh in 2022 has been acknowledged by the Committee formed by Ministry of Culture, Government of India as a definitive work in discovery of the tomb of Dara Shikoh.