How about this- a weekend getaway situated within a sprawling estate, topped with your very own hot tub? Sounds like a great way to spend time away from Delhi? Yes? Well, how about all that, but, with just one little caveat, the house that you will be staying in, is err, actually a 17th century tomb!
Remodelling a Tomb
Dilkusha by nvvchar
Disconcerting? I am sure you are saying ‘yes’ by now but that’s exactly what a British administrator in the 19th century did! Lying between a sea of ruins in what is now known as the ‘Mehrauli Archaeological Park’ (near the Qutub Minar), is the derelict tomb of Quli Khan, a relative of the Mughal Emperor Akbar. This relic was converted by Sir Thomas Metcalfe (1795-1853), who created a weekend retreat for himself away from the hustle and bustle of old Delhi.
Re-christened ‘Dil-kusha’ (the Delight of the heart), the house once boasted of a drawing room, library, an oratory, as well as an external wing for guests and separate servants compartments. In fact, to add to the eerie quotient, the central chamber of Quli khan’s tomb (where his cenotaph existed) was removed by Metcalfe who made it into a dining room!
The Eccentric Mr. Metcalfe
To say that Metcalfe was eccentric is an understatement, as you would rightly concur. His own daughter Emily called him ‘an extremely fastidious man’, who could not bear to see women eating either cheese or mangoes!
But while his peculiarities were obvious, Metcalfe also held the reins of power in Delhi at a time when the British East India Company was consolidating its affairs in North India. Forging relationships with the local elites was one of the central tasks a Resident like Metcalfe had to perform and he conducted his duties so convincingly that a young Dehliwala called Syed Ahmad Khan (the reformer and subsequent founder of Aligarh Muslim University) dedicated a book on Delhi in his honour.
Metcalfe, himself a connoisseur of the arts, also commissioned a book on Delhi’s monuments for his daughters and employed local artists to sketch the sites. His other contributions ranged from establishing an Archaeological Society in Delhi to supervising the affairs of the ‘Society for the Promotion of Knowledge in India through the vernacular’, a collaborative effort with local Dehliwalas. Thus Metcalfe’s idiosyncratic personality was multi layered and complex and as interesting as his ‘converted tomb’.
What about his 'real' house?»References
The Golden Calm : An English Lady’s Life in Moghul Dehlie, Reminiscences by Emily , Lady Clive Bayley, and by her father, Sir Thomas Metcalfe. Ed. M.M Kaye, Webb and Bower, England 1980
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