Dungeons and Djinns: I Spent a Day Chasing Wish-Granting Supernatural Beings

"Don't loiter around," an old man warned me as I wiped my eyes, stinging from the smoke that engulfed the area. "Get going if you don't have to pray, the Jinnat won't be pleased.” 

Ignoring his warning, I walked into the ruins of the Feroz Shah Kotla fort in New Delhi, India, with the smokey assault getting heavier on my eyes. Once a fortified palace complex built in the 14th century, today, its thick fortification walls enclose lawns, the ruins of a mosque, and decrepit masonry buildings containing subterranean passages and chambers.

These nooks and crannies lying a few minutes south of the “Old City” are believed to be home to supernatural, shapeshifting creatures from Islamic mythology known as “djinns” – alternatively known as jinns or genies. Islamic lore considers djinns to be creatures born out of smokeless fire. If pleased, they can grant wishes and provide assistance, but if angered, the visitor would incur their wrath, hence the old man's warning to me.

Every Thursday, individuals and, at times, families, head to the ruins of this sprawling fort, winding their way down its stone alcoves and niches to ask that their wishes be granted or to thank the resident djinns for wishes fulfilled. Amidst the earthen lamps and burning incense, I discovered letters which, I believe, were packed with desperate pleas. 

In the mix were also photographs of missing relatives and filled-out job applications. 

“The letters are often photocopied, as when applying to a government office. Multiple photocopies of the same letter can be found in various niches and alcoves all over the ruins, as if they are applications sent to the different departments of a modern bureaucracy,” wrote anthropologist Anand Vivek Taneja, an assistant professor of religious studies and anthropology at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, in an article on “Jinnealogy,” with a focus on the place I found myself in.

 I myself stumbled upon what looked like similar handwriting in letters distributed across the vast complex. In a way, this is an archive of people’s losses and miseries, their hopes and dreams, their everyday lives.

Reports say people started visiting Feroz Shah Kotla Fort in 1977, a few months after the Emergency was declared, but djinns are believed to have existed for the past 400 years. “This seems significant, given how destructive the Emergency was for the Old City and how many poor and working class people were displaced from the Old City to resettlement colonies across the river,” wrote Taneja.

The walls had coins pressed into them, held in place by years of soot. There were bits of food given as offerings, which I later watched street dogs devour. Some people even threw bits of meat up in the air for the eagles to catch because it is believed that the djinns satisfy their hunger through these animals and birds.

All these offerings show something more than just devotion; they show trust in the supernatural, that they care for you, and that someone is listening to your fervent pleas. 

As I came out, I saw the old man tying a thread to a railing. Silently, I said a little prayer and sheepishly asked for a wish to be granted, too. 

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