A temple of the Nagar Brahmins in Chandni Chowk has a unique history which, though authenticated by Maulvi Zafar Hasan as an 18th Century creation, links the community to the time of Akbar when it resolved to build an exclusive place of worship. Interestingly enough, one of the Emperor’s Navratanas (among the Nine Jewels of the court), Mian Tansen is said to have learnt the Megh Malhar, antidote to his Deepak raga, consequent to the Nagars arrival in Agra from Gujarat and subsequently in Delhi.
The Sri Hatkeshwar temple, better known as Gujarati Mandir, along Kutcha Lattoo Shah street at Dariba Kalan, Chandni Chowk, originally dates back to 1759 when Shah Alam was the Emperor-in-absentia. It was built by Gujarati Nagar Brahimns who had migrated to Delhi and made Dariba Kalan their main base. Once upon a time this neighbourhood was renowned for the majestic havelis owned or occupied by affluent zamindars and nawabs.
Ostentatious carvings painstakingly etched out in sandstone must have lent a lavish touch to temple structure when it was built with the conventional baked bricks known as Lakhori, granite, marble and wood. Even today, the centuries’ old wooden main doors are sturdy. Evident also are the intricate yellow sandstone-carved and embellished frescoes, jharokhas (balconies) and archways, according to Suresh Panje, an analyst, “Over the years these façades endured seasonal vagaries because of periodical maintenance which however eclipsed their original grandeur. Yet a visitor to the temple can feel the architectural effects — cool during summer months and cosily warm in winter. The sound-proof dynamics is another amazing factor considering the din one experiences in and around Dariba Kalan. But within the edifice, it is the silence that greets the visitor,” he says.
The custodians of this heritage building, the Nagars, preserved its historical features, except for the internally renovated courtyard with a jali screen and two adjoining rooms. As for the tiled flooring, the priest Mahesh Chandra Sharma discloses that the original black marble slabs with ingrained silver granules have been retained by cutting them into appropriately sized tiles used in renovation. The temple is topped by a gopuram. While the adjoining structures in the narrow lane, that is less than 10 feet wide, have been built up vertically, the Nagars have limited the additional floors to just two with the extended first floor being used as baithak for the congregation of the devotees during kirtans, satsangs or socio-cultural meetings. Even today, the Nagars settled in Delhi and other parts of North India such as Bulandshahr, Agra, Lucknow, Kanpur and Allahabad in Uttar Pradesh, besides parts of Punjab and even far away Kolkata are the devoted custodians of this historical mandir.
Unlike Shiva temples elsewhere, this place of worship boasts of unique features. “The prime Shiva Lingam is placed in a sort of quadrangular-shaped setting surrounded by the idols of the divine consort Parvati, sons Kartikeya and Ganapati and Nandi, the bull on which Shiva is believed to ride. Each one of them is superbly carved out from a single stone. Though they did lend prominence to this temple for over three centuries, local devotees expressed their desire to install pratimas of the deities of their liking and thus today, there are also idols of Durga and Hanuman within its precincts,” says Panje.
On retirement from the Indian Navy, Captain Chandra Mohan Vyas, a decorated Master Mariner with the gallantry award of the Nao Sena Medal to his credit, resolved to dedicate his spare time in the upkeep and maintenance of the temple. He managed to trace the official documents dating back to the Mughal era, drafted in Persian and had them translated into Hindi. According to them, a philanthropist, Mithan Lal Nagar took the initiative to construct the temple. He ensured that the land for the temple was allotted and sold by the then Mughal Emperor. To this end, he had the sale deed duly endorsed as a departure from other landholdings which were in he names of the rulers, zamindars and nawabs.
The Nagars, a generally peace-loving community, however took ups arms in the 11th Century when Mahmud of Ghazni raided the Somnath temple. They offered stiff resistance to the invader. Both Mahmud and Mohammad of Ghori after him beheaded countless Brahmins, forcing Nagar families to migrate from Gujarat to places like Rajputana, Delhi, Agra, Mathura, Moradabad, Bulandshahr, Kanpur, Banaras and Allahabad and even to Sialkot and Lahore in the northern region, apart from Gaya, Patna, Guwahati and Calcutta in the east and down south to Maharashtra, Madras, Cochin and Trivandrum in Kerala. The Nagar families which had settled in the Bulandshahr region along the banks of the Ganga constructed a temple on a mound, which continues to be a major tourist attraction. The temple of Avantika in Ahaar village was the place where Lord Krishna met Rukmani and took her away as his wife. Even today, thousands of newly-wed couples visit this place to seek blessings of goddess Avantika.
Capt. Vyas has traced the origins of the Nagar community to the ancient Skanda Purana which contains an exclusive chapter titled “Nagar Khand”. Elaborating on this, he says, “Eons ago, at a particular spot in what is today’s Vadnagar converged as a place of worship to Lord Shiva. There is also a legend behind the name Vadnagar according to which Sangeet Samrat Tansen on singing the Deepak raga could not as a result bear the burning sensation experienced in his body, which prompted him to wander southwards, all the way from Agra, traversing hundred of miles, till he reached Vadnagar. It is there that he met two sisters named Tana and Riri who emerged on the scene and soothed him by rendering the Megh Malahar raga. Two small statues of Tana and Riri adorn the place.”
