Bhojshala at Dhar and Roopmati-Baz Bahadur

As thousands of Hindu Jagran Mach activists battled with police and tried to stop Namazis from entering the Kamal Maula Mosque, one could not help but wonder the era of Roopmati.

A devout Hindu, she had taken a vow of not eating until she had a 'darshan' of Narmada river considered sacred among the Hindu populace like Ganga and Yamuna in UP.

Baz Bahadur built the Roopmati palace on the hill to facilitate the 'darshan'.
The river is so far that it is almost impossible to see it but the architects took great pains and raised a gem of palace.

Sitting atop the pavilion on this palace, one gets in the morning a glimpse of the silvery hair like Narmada when the first of the rays of sun fall in the morning. The reflection of the sun on the faraway Narmada gives the impression of a silvery hair far in the Vindhya ranges.

On my visit to Mandu as a young boy almost a decade ago I was captivated at the sight. Baaz Bahadur hardly cared about his throne. The Mughals finished this sultanate and he fled to Rajputana (now Rajasthan). Roopmati is said to have killed self.

And yes the tomb of Hoshang Shah. It is a mystery no one could solve. Throught out the year a drop of water falls on the mazaar every day in the afternoon. It is understood that during rains the water gets stored somewhere in the top of the tomb and through some marvellous architecture this water does not either evaporate or go dry and rather falls drop by drop through out the year until the summer.

Meanwhile, for what happened in Dhar today. 13 Muslims were taken under heavy security inside the mosque and prayers were held amid stone pelting. Earlier the police lobbed tear gas shells, forced the Hindu activists out, resorted to cane charge and somehow the day passed until the next Juma will coincide with puja or whatever.