Zafar Mahal

Ghulam Ali Khan was a prominent nineteenth-century Mughal and Company style painter renowned for his detailed topographical landscapes and royal court scenes. Serving emperor Bahadur Shah II and British patrons. His work preserved key historical views of Old Delhi, including a famous pre-1854 painting of the Zafar Mahal.Commissioned by Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan in the northeastern section of the Red Fort, the Hayat Baksh Bagh, meaning "Life-bestowing garden," stands as the complex's largest garden. Influenced strongly by Persian landscape architecture rather than traditional Islamic motifs alone, this square garden measured approximately two hundred feet on each side. Its layout was divided into four distinct quadrants framing water channels, fountains, pools, and star-shaped red sandstone parterres originally filled with vibrant blue, white, and purple flowers. Following the failed 1857 Indian Rebellion, British colonial forces heavily damaged the grounds, erecting stone barracks over much of the area, though Lord Curzon later restored several original elements.More usage of sandstone in making buildings suggest the declining state of mughal treasury by the time of Bahadur Shah Zafar. Among the structures that survived are the Sawan and Bhadon pavilions, two almost identical carved white marble edifices facing each other across the central canal. Named after two monsoon months in the Hindu calendar, they feature wall niches that held oil lamps or golden flowers, creating the illusion of a golden curtain as water cascaded over them. Situated between them within a large water tank is the Zafar Mahal, constructed in 1842 by Bahadur Shah II. Built from red sandstone as a cost-effective alternative to marble, it was originally reached by a sandstone bridge that disappeared around the time of the 1857 occupation, after which British troops briefly repurposed the surrounding tank as a swimming pool.