Jamali Kamboh flourished as a poet and courtier in the court of Sikandar Lodhi of the Delhi Sultanate as well as of Mughal emperor Babur who defeated the Lodhis. Jamali died during an expedition to Gujarat led by emperor Humayun and was buried in Mehrauli — a resting place he had chosen for himself.
“But if you ever find yourself in Mehrauli and ask anyone about him [Jamali], you would never hear his name being taken alone,” Delhi’s well-known history buff Eric Chopra writes in his book Ghosted: Delhi’s Haunted Monuments (Speaking Tiger). “It is always in companionship with Kamali, the identity that local lore has given to the mystery man buried beside him.”
Chopra notes that there are several theories about who Kamali might have been — Jamali’s sibling, disciple, friend, or even lover. However, the man’s true identity remains unknown. Local legends also speak of a jinn that inhabits the site, eerie sensations felt by visitors, and other unsettling stories. Chopra even recalls being advised to tie his hair before stepping inside the site.
City's spooky corners
In 2019, fresh out of school, when Chopra started Itihasology, a social-media platform dedicated to history, he began taking people on heritage walks to Delhi’s monuments. He noticed that participants were especially curious about the city’s haunted sites; their questions piqued his own interest.
Apart from the Jamali-Kamali tomb, Ghosted explores four other haunted monuments in Delhi and the stories attached to them — the jinn of the Firoz Shah Kotla fort, the “dispirited spirits of Mughal elites and princes” said to haunt Khooni Darwaza, the ghosts linked to the Mutiny Memorial, and the unsettling solitude of the Malcha Mahal area.
People often question Chopra why he didn’t include other destinations in Delhi, like Agrasen ki Baoli or Bhooli Bhatiyari ka Mahal. “It took me years to stitch together a narrative of Delhi’s history, starting from its prehistoric past and the early settlements in Mehrauli, all the way to Independence … and so on,” Chopra tells TMS. “Once that timeline was in place, I started identifying monuments that could be positioned chronologically within it. That’s why the book moves from Mehrauli and Jamali-Kamali to Firoz Shah Kotla, then to Khooni Darwaza, the Mutiny Memorial, and finally Malcha Mahal,” Chopra explains. “Placed in order, these sites show how Delhi became a ‘city of cities’ — from the Tomaras and Chauhans to the Sultanates, the Mughals, the British, and eventually independent India. That structure gave shape to the way I wrote the book.”
Myths, history, and heritage
Identifying myth from reality was tough. Chopra says he didn't want to dismiss oral histories because, in his opinion, myths “not only show how people perceive history, but also how they remember history”.
Accessing entry into these monuments posed another difficulty. Malcha Mahal, for instance, is now closed to the public. Chopra was able to visit only because he began his research earlier, in 2021, before restrictions tightened. At Firoz Shah Kotla, earlier, devotees could offer letters and food to jinns believed to reside in the complex. Today, entry inside the structure is prohibited to the public. In one of the chapters, the author writes: “… nowadays devotees can only stand underneath the archways [at Firoz Shah Kotla], there was a time when they could go inside the chambers, the underground of the mosque.”
According to Chopra, a bigger concern for him is how Delhi treats its heritage. Many structures are neglected or poorly maintained, which the author believes impacts how people perceive them. Well-preserved sites like Qutub Minar rarely attract “haunting” narratives today, he remarks, even though they have their own history of tragedy. He points to the 1981 stampede inside the 12th-century tower triggered by a power outage which claimed 45 lives and injured many more — an incident that led to the permanent closure of the tower’s interior to the public. He points out that the remoteness of the small, sealed-off Jamali-Kamali tomb, hidden within the Mehrauli Archaeological Park only intensifies its eerie atmosphere, and adds to its haunting.
Stressing the importance of the capital’s rich heritage, Chopra remarks: “Delhi is one of the world’s richest heritage cities. Each ruler, poet, or noble left behind stunning architecture. But the way we choose only a few monuments to protect and let others crumble, is unfair to the history that surrounds us.”
“Delhi haunts us in some ways,” he says, “but we also haunt it — by failing to preserve the city’s heritage.”