Sambhal
— — the old town the Puranas put at the end of the age.
Not only on a wall.
“A small district town on the Sot River, about 160 kilometres east of Delhi. Sambhal is named in the Vishnu Purana and the Mahabharata as the place where the future avatar Kalki will be born, and the Kalki temple at the centre of the town has been a pilgrimage point for generations of Vaishnavas. The Shahi Jama Masjid, traditionally dated to 1526 in the first months of Babur's rule, stands a short walk away in the old quarter. from the studio
Sambhal, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Sambhal is the headquarters of Sambhal district in Moradabad division, western Uttar Pradesh, lying about 160 kilometres east of Delhi and 60 kilometres south-west of Moradabad. The Sot, a small tributary of the Ganges system, drains the district. The town itself holds roughly 220,000 residents and the wider district close to 2.2 million. Long an important market on the road between Delhi and the towns of Awadh, Sambhal also gave its name to a powerful Lodi-era fief in the late fifteenth century, briefly held by the future Mughal emperor Babur's son Humayun, who governed it as his first independent assignment.
The Shahi Jama Masjid, set on a square plinth in the old quarter, is traditionally dated to 1526 and credited to Mir Hindu Beg, a noble under Babur. The structure is small by Mughal standards but historically significant as one of the earliest mosques of the Mughal period in north India; an inscription inside refers to Babur by name. The Kalki temple, an older Vaishnava shrine a few lanes east, marks the birthplace tradition recorded in the Vishnu Purana. Both sites have been the focus of court-ordered archaeological surveys conducted in late 2024 and through 2025.
The town is reached by road from Moradabad, about 90 minutes, or from Delhi, about four hours via NH-9 and SH-43. The nearest broad-gauge railhead is Chandausi Junction, about 12 kilometres south, on the Aligarh-Bareilly line. The principal sites, the Shahi Jama Masjid, the Kalki temple, the small Sambhaleshwar Mahadev temple, and the brick-paved old bazaar, sit within a one-kilometre radius and are usually accessible during daylight hours. Security around the Jama Masjid has been heightened since late 2024, when a survey-related incident prompted state-level restrictions; visitors check current local conditions before travelling.