Humayun's tomb (Persian: Maqbara-i Humayun) is the tomb of the Mughal Emperor Humayun located in Delhi, India. The tomb was commissioned by Humayun's first wife and chief consort, Empress Bega Begum, under her patronage in 1558, and designed by the Persian architects Mirak Mirza Ghiyas and his son, Sayyid Muhammad, whom she personally chose. It was the first garden-tomb on the Indian subcontinent,Humayun's Tomb, Delhi World Heritage Committee, UNESCO. and is located in Nizamuddin East, Delhi, close to the Dina-panah Citadel, also known as Purana Qila (Old Fort), that Humayun founded in 1538. It was also the first structure to use red sandstone at such a scale.Humayun's Tomb Govt. of India Portal.Plaque at Humayun's Tomb Site.
The tomb was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1993, and has, thereafter, undergone extensive restoration work that has since concluded. Beside the main tomb enclosure of Humayun, several smaller monuments dot the pathway leading up to it from the main entrance in the West, including one that even pre-dates the main tomb itself by twenty years: it is the tomb complex of Isa Khan Niazi, an Afghan noble in Sher Shah Suri's court of the Sur Empire, who fought against the Mughals, and was constructed in 1547 CE.
The complex encompasses the main tomb of the Emperor Humayun, which also houses the graves of Empress Bega Begum, Hajji Begum, and that of Dara Shikoh, the great-great-grandson of Humayun and son of the later Emperor Shah Jahan, as well as numerous other subsequent Mughals, including Emperor Jahandar Shah, Farrukhsiyar, Rafi Ul-Darjat, Rafi Ud-Daulat, Muhammad Kam Bakhsh and Alamgir II.Mausoleum of Humayun, Delhi British Library. It represented a leap in Mughal architecture, and, in conjunction with its accomplished Charbagh garden, typical of Persian gardens, but new to India, set a precedent for subsequent Mughal architecture. It is seen as a clear departure from the fairly modest mausoleum of his father, the first Mughal Emperor, Babur, called Bagh-e Babur (Gardens of Babur) in Kabul, Afghanistan, although this was the first imperial Mughal tomb to be built in a paradise garden.Humayun's Tomb and gateway British Library. Modelled after Gur-e Amir, the tomb of his ancestor and Asia's conqueror Timur in Samarkand, it established a precedent for future Mughal architecture of royal mausolea, which reached its zenith upon the construction of the Taj Mahal in Agra.Humayun's Tomb archnet.org.Humayun's Tomb Frommer's India, by Pippa De Bruyn, Keith Bain, Niloufer Venkatraman, Shonar Joshi. Published by Frommer's, 2008. . p. 316.The Monuments at Delhi World Heritage Monuments and Related Edifices in India, by Ali Javid, Tabassum Javeed. Algora Publishing, 2008. . pp. 105–106.
Site The site was chosen on the banks of Yamuna River for its proximity to Nizamuddin Dargah, the mausoleum of the celebrated Sufi saint of Delhi, Nizamuddin Auliya. He was highly revered by the rulers of Delhi, and his residence, Chilla Nizamuddin Auliya, lies just north-east of the tomb.
In later Mughal history, the last Mughal Emperor, Bahadur Shah Zafar, took refuge here during the Indian Rebellion of 1857 along with three princes. He was eventually captured by Captain Hodson before being exiled to Rangoon.Humayun's Tomb Archaeological Survey of India. During the reign of the Slave Dynasty, this land was under the 'KiloKheri Fort', which served as the capital of Sultan Qaiqabad, son of Nasiruddin (1268–1287).
The Tombs of Battashewala Complex lie in the buffer zone of the World Heritage Site of the Humayun Tomb Complex; the two complexes are separated by a small road but enclosed within their own separate compound wall.
History
Following his death on 27 January 1556, Humayun's body was first buried in his palace in the Purana Quila at Delhi. Thereafter, it was taken to Sirhind in Punjab by Khanjar Beg, and, in 1558, was witnessed by his son and successor Akbar. Akbar subsequently visited the tomb in 1571, when it was about to be completed.Ruggles, D. Fairchild. Humayun's Tomb Muqarnas: An Annual on Islamic Art and Architecture, by Oleg Grabar. Brill Publishers, 1988. . pp. 133–140.Humayun's Tomb Speaking stones: world cultural heritage sites in India, by Bill Aitken. Dept. of Tourism. Published by Eicher Goodearth Limited, 2001. . pp. 45–47.
The tomb of Humayun was built on the orders of his first wife and chief consort, Empress Bega Begum (also known as Haji Begum). Construction began in 1565 and was completed in 1572; it cost 1.5 million rupees, paid entirely by the Empress. Bega Begum had been so grieved over her husband's death that she had thenceforth dedicated her life to a sole purpose: the construction of a memorial to him that would be the most magnificent mausoleum in the Empire, at a site near the Yamuna River in Delhi. According to the Ain-i-Akbari, a 16th-century detailed document written during the reign of Akbar, Bega Begum supervised the construction of the tomb after returning from Mecca and undertaking the Hajj pilgrimage.Haji Begum Ain-i-Akbari. "He (Qa´sim 'Ali´ Khan) was employed to settle the affairs of Hájí Begum, daughter of the brother of Humáyún's mother (tagháí zádah i wálidah i Jannat-ástání), who after her return from Makkah had been put in charge of Humáyún's tomb in Dihlí, where she died."
According to Abd al-Qadir Bada'uni, one of the few contemporary historians to mention the construction of the tomb, it was designed by the Persian architect Mirak Mirza Ghiyas (also referred to as Mirak Ghiyathuddin), who was selected by the Empress and brought from Herat (northwest Afghanistan); he had previously designed several buildings in Herat, Bukhara (now Uzbekistan), and others elsewhere in India. Ghiyas died before the structure was completed and it was completed by his son, Sayyed Muhammad ibn Mirak Ghiyathuddin.
An English merchant, William Finch, who visited the tomb in 1611, describes the rich interior furnishing of the central chamber (in comparison to the sparse look of today). He mentions the presence of rich carpets, as well as a shamiana, a small tent above the cenotaph, which was covered with a pure white sheet, and with copies of the Quran in front along with Humayun's sword, turban and shoes.
The fortunes of the once famous Charbagh (four-gardens), which comprised four squares separated by four promenades that radiated from a central reflection pool, have wavered over time. It spread over 13 hectares surrounding the monument, changing repeatedly over the years after its construction. The capital had already shifted to Agra in 1556, and the decline of the Mughals in the 18th century accelerated the decay of the monument and its features, as the expensive upkeep of the garden proved impossible. By the early 18th century, the once lush gardens were replaced by the vegetable gardens of the common citizenry who had settled within the walled area. During the Indian Rebellion of 1857, British forces captured the last Mughal emperor, Bahadur Shah Zafar, together with the premises of the tomb. The rebellion led the British to take Delhi completely, and in 1860 the Mughal design of the garden was replanted to a more English garden-style, with circular beds replacing the four central water pools on the axial pathways and trees profusely planted in flowerbeds. This was reversed in the early 20th century, when on Viceroy Lord Curzon's orders, the original gardens were restored in a major restoration project carried out between 1903 and 1909, which also included lining the plaster channels with sandstone; a 1915 planting scheme added emphasis to the central and diagonal axis by lining it with trees, though some trees were also planted on the platform originally reserved for tents.A Tomb Brought to Life by Ratish Nanda Historic Gardens Review Number 13. London: The Historic Gardens Foundation, 2003.
In 1882, the official curator of ancient monuments in India published their first report, which mentioned that the main garden was let out to various cultivators; amongst them, until recently, were the royal descendants, who grew cabbage and tobacco in its confines.
In Ronaldshay's biography of Lord Curzon, a letter is quoted from Lord Curzon to his wife in April 1905: "You remember Humayun's tomb? I had the garden restored, the water channels dug out and refilled and the whole place restored to its pristine beauty. I went to England last summer and, the eye of the master being away, the whole place has been allowed to revert. The garden has been let to a native and is now planted with turnips and the work of four years is thrown away! I shall drive out there, and woe betide the deputy commissioner whose apathy has been responsible."
During the Partition of India, the Purana Qila together with Humayun's Tomb became major refugee camps for Muslims in August 1947 migrating to the newly founded Pakistan, and was later managed by the Government of India. These camps functioned for about five years, and caused considerable damage not only to the extensive gardens, but also to the water channels and the principal structures. The camps were raided many times by Sikh jathas, which caused vandalism to occur during the early partition days in 1947. Eventually, to avoid vandalism, the cenotaphs within the mausoleum were encased in brick. In the coming years, the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) took on responsibility for the preservation of heritage monuments in India, and the building and its gardens were gradually restored. Until 1985, four unsuccessful attempts were made to reinstate the original water features.
An important phase in the restoration of the complex began around 1993, when the monument was declared a World Heritage Site. This brought renewed vigour and interest to its restoration, and a detailed research and excavation process began under the aegis of the Aga Khan Trust and the ASI. This culminated in 2003, when much of the complex and gardens were restored, with the historic fountains running once again after several centuries of disuse. The restoration has been a continuous process thereafter, with subsequent phases addressing various aspects and monuments of the complex.
Architecture
Turkic and Mughal rule in the Indian subcontinent also introduced Central Asian and Persian styles of Islamic architecture in the region, and by the late 12th century early monuments in this style were appearing in and around Delhi, the capital of Delhi Sultanate. Starting with the Turkic Slave dynasty which built the Qutb Minar (1192) and its adjacent Quwwat-ul-Islam mosque (1193 CE). North India was successively ruled by foreign dynasties in the coming centuries, giving rise to the Indo-Islamic architecture. While the prevailing style of architecture was trabeate, employing pillars, beams and lintels, this brought in the arcuate style of construction, with its arches and beams, which flourished under Mughal patronage and by incorporating elements of Indian architecture, especially Rajasthani architecture including decorative corbel brackets, balconies, pendentive decorations and indeed kiosks or chhatris, to develop a distinct Mughal architecture style, which was to become a lasting legacy of the Mughal rule. The combination of red sandstone and white marble was previously seen in Delhi Sultanate period tombs and mosques, most distinctively in the highly decorative Alai Darwaza gatehouse in the Qutub complex, Mehrauli, built in 1311, under the Khalji dynasty.