Tomb of Subhan Bibi

The Tomb of Bibi Subhan stands in the small village of Dera Mir Miran, about 3 km west of Sirhind. It is the only well-preserved Sultanate-era tomb in the area, and it is dedicated to Bibi Subhan, a daughter of Sultan Bahlol Lodhi, the founder of the Lodhi dynasty. Very little is known about Bahlol Lodhi’s children. Apart from her better-known sister Taj Mussara, we know of Subhan only through a Persian inscription on the tomb’s eastern wall. The inscription records that she died in 1495, and that the tomb was built in 1496 by her brother, Sultan Sikandar Lodhi. He built it in Sirhind, the ancestral city where the Lodhis first rose to power in the 1440s. The village’s name, Dera Mir Miran, comes from the Sufi saint Mir Miran, and local tradition ties the site to his story. In 1451, Bahlol Lodhi was on his way to capture Delhi when he met the saint, whose blessings are said to have been important in his success. In gratitude, Bahlol is said to have married his daughter to Mir Miran and given the region of Sirhind to them as part of her dowry. Today the tomb stands in a quiet village, a spiritual site and one of the few surviving monuments of the Lodhi era in Punjab. Its surroundings are calm, and it is a rewarding stop for anyone interested in the region’s Sufi and Sultanate history.