Place · Chishti dargah · India
Chirag Dilli Dargah, New Delhi
Also known as Chirag Dilli Dargah, Nasiruddin Mahmud Chirag Dehlavi, New Delhi
The 14-century Chishti dargah of Nasiruddin Mahmud Chirag-i-Delhi (c.1274-1356) at Chirag Dilli in South Delhi — the dargah of the Chishti master who succeeded Nizamuddin Auliya as the 'lamp of Delhi' (chirag means lamp). Nasiruddin Mahmud was Nizamuddin's chief disciple and inherited the Delhi Chishti silsila after Nizamuddin's 1325 death. He kept the Chishti presence in Delhi through the turbulent Tughlaq dynasty period (Muhammad bin Tughlaq attempted to force all Delhi Sufis to join his military campaigns) by resisting Muhammad bin Tughlaq's demand. The current dargah structure is 15-century with major 17-century Mughal additions and 1980s renovations. The annual Urs each 18-19 Ramzan draws over 50,000 Sufi devotees. The dargah is managed by the Chirag-i-Delhi Trust.
- Function
- Religious institution & practice
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
- Location
- 28.545, 77.235
Connections (2)
- Chishti SilsilaHazrat Nizāmuddīn Dargah, Delhi
Naṣīruddīn, called Chirāgh-i-Dehlī, the lamp of Delhi, was Nizāmuddīn's principal successor and the last of the great Delhi Chishtis. After him Muhammad bin Tughluq's forced transfer of the capital scattered the order south, which is how the Deccan acquired its Chishti shrines. Nasīruddīn refused to name a successor, saying the order should have no single head after him, which is why the Delhi Chishti line formally ends with his death in 1356.
- Site withinDelhi
Chirag Dilli Dargah, New Delhi sits inside Delhi and forms one piece of its layered sacred, royal or civic landscape. The city carries this entry as one of the sites that make its urban fabric legible — a shrine, monument, institution or craft tradition specifically anchored at this location — and the city's broader history reads better when the stop is seen in its context rather than in isolation. The surrounding streets, markets and other heritage ensembles around it belong to the same single city.
On these journeys
Sources
Wikipedia, “Chirag Delhi metro station”. Chishti tazkira literature; Carl Ernst and Bruce Lawrence, Sufi Martyrs of Love (2002).
Open Chirag Dilli Dargah, New Delhi in the repository →