Life Goes On Afore The Gate Of Jama Masjid

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When it was constructed centuries ago, Dilli’s Jama Masjid was the final plume in the hat of the architecturally extravagant Emperor Shah Jahan. Situated in the ancient parts of the capital, it is still the largest masjid in India and one of the largest in Asia. In the oil painting that you see on this page, a single gate of this sprawling structure of red sandstone has been depicted. One of the four minarets that surround the central prayer hall is within view, its pristine dome glimmering in the merciless afternoon sun. The architectural nuances of the masjid’s gate as well as of the minaret in the distance have been reproduced with remarkable detail by the painter. Such is the glamour of the rays of the sun, as they bounce off its towering walls, that it almost feels as if one is standing before the masjid upon a scorching mid-July afternoon.

In the foreground is a confluence of mundane happenstances. A khachchar bore its master through the alleyways of Old Delhi, and they have emerged at this gate of the masjid. They are standing face-to-face with a lion, whose master wants nothing more than for them to get out of the way. Black and white shadows at the gate of the masjid, pious souls gently climbing up the steps to the halls within. Three youths who have spread a dhurrie at the foot of the steps have no qualms about the heat, nor do the father-and-son duo in the shade who have been running their shop next to the masjid for generations now.