Department of Archaeology
Government of NCT of Delhi

MalchaMahal also known as WaliyatMahal is a Tughlaq era hunting lodge who reigned the Delhi Sultanate during 1325 CE. It was built by Firoz Shah Tughlaq. It is located near the Chanakyapuri area of New Delhi, next to the Delhi Earth station of the Indian Space Research Organization.  
NawabWajid Ali Shah was regarded as a fine dancer, a proficient musician and a play writer in the early 19th Century He was deposed from the throne of erstwhile Oudh or Awadh, present day Uttar Pradesh, by the British in 1854 CE. He was then portrayed as dissolute, lax in his enforcement of laws and so extravagant that he was spending his 2150-year-old kingdom in bankruptcy and chaos. After the annexation, the Nawab was exiled to Calcutta and died there three decades later. The other members of his extensive family dispersed across the country as well, that is how Ali Raza, the prince who liked to call himself Cyrus, finally came to live in the ruined MalchaMahal in Delhi. After Indian Independence in 1947, the Indian government allocated Raza’s mother, the widowed Begum WaliyatMahal, a Palace in Srinagar. That Palace burned down in 1971, so she came to Delhi with her children and her dogs in search of home.It came to as Waliyat be known Mahal after Begum WaliyatMahal of Awadh who was reportedly given the place by the Government of India in May 1985. The family was then housed in MalchaMahal: a ruin consisting of nine chambers with no plumbing or electricity or even doors and windows, but still recognizably palatial. The Palace was occupied by Ali Raza, son of NawabWajid Ali shah till 2017.

MalchaMahal is a Tughlaq era structure built in Sandstone, built of elevated top which served as a hunting lodge. The main entrance resides on the east 660sqm. The current plinth height of the structure is 1.5m which is accessed by two sided staircase. The main entrance consists of continuous arches forming an alley which further leads to central hall. The whole spaces are formed through arches reflecting the grandeur of the Tughlaqs and allowing ventilation throughout the structure. The Palace has Nine rooms in which the central rooms is larger and open in four sides. The four corner rooms are open with arches on two sides. There are total six staircase in the structure in which two front staircase are circular and others are L-shaped in the centre of rooms.The arched halls forms cloister vault individually supported with four columns and squinches. The inner chamber openings on four sides has flat lintel instead of pointed arches in all other arches with square or rectangular columns. The Structure façade consist of repetitive brackets above the arches and Kangura pattern with medallions on the parapet level above these brackets. The parapet’s hardly 0.6m in height with rain water spouts (currently existing only in the north side).