Humayun's Tomb

The life of Humayun, the second Mughal emperor, was marked by struggle and vicissitude. He ascended the throne of Delhi after the death of his father, Babur, in 1530. The Mughal empire was not yet firm on its foundations, and Humayun had to suppress a number of rebellions at the outset of his reign. Early success was followed by prolonged disaster.

In 1539 Sher Khan, an Afghan nobleman who ruled over tracts of what is now Bihar and Bengal, rose victoriously against him and the vanquished emperor fled the country. He spent 15 years in exile, some of them at the court of Shah Tahmasp of Persia, and in 1555 returned with a borrowed Persian army, recovered his lost dominion and re-established the Mughal Empire. He did not long survive his return and died on January 19, 1556, after a fall on the steps of his library in Sher Mandal, a monument inside what is today called Purana Qila.

Humayun was buried in Purana Qila, but, according to some scholars, the emperor's remains were removed from there to a supurdgah or temporary tomb in Sirhind when Hemu advanced upon Delhi in 1556 and the Mughals had to vacate the city. He was re­buried in the Sher Mandal again when Akbar defeated Hemu, and was moved into the mausoleum erected in 1569 by his widow, Haji Begum, also known as Bega Begum, at an estimated cost of rupees fifteen lakhs.

Scholars have disagreed over the date of construction. Sayyid Ahmad Khan in his book Asarus­Sanadid (1846 gives the date of its construction as AH 973 (AD 1565) and this date has been followed by all later writers. But an older manuscript of the Siyarul Manazil by Sangin Beg (late 18th century), at present in Delhi's Red Fort Museum, states that the foundation of the tomb was laid in the 14th year of Akbar's reign, that is, 1569.

A radially symmetrical plan, a garden setting and a bulbous double dome on an elongated drum are the main features of Humayun's Tomb. Each of these had strong Timurid associations for the Mughals, who gloried in their dynastic descent from Timur.

Most 15th century Timurid architecture was built to symmetrical plans. These included monuments such as the Ghur-i-Mir (1404) built by Timur for his grandson at Samarkand, and which was his own final resting place as well; Ishrat Khaneh also at Samarkand (c.1460-­64); and the shrine of Abu Nasr Parsa in Balkh (c. 1460-64). The Ghur-i-Mir also had a bulbous dome and high drum that was repeated in Humayun's Tomb, the first mausoleum for an emperor of the Mughal dynasty.

As one of the first important buildings the Mughals erected in India, Humayun's Tomb introduced purely Persian features to the subcontinent, but it also drew several elements from the land it was built in. The red sandstone and white marble, for instance, was a common feature of 14th century architecture of the Delhi Sultanate.

West Gate

The mausoleum of Humayun and the enclosure-walls are built of three kinds of stone. The walls and the two gateways are of local quartzite with red sandstone dressing and marble inlay. The red sandstone for the main building came from Tantpur near Agra and was used with white marble from Makrana in Rajasthan.

In the centre of the garden, the mausoleum itself rises from a wide and lofty platform about 6.5 metres high, which in turn stands upon podium just over a metre high. The latter is the only feature of the mausoleum built of quartzite, the remainder being entirely of red or yellowish sandstone with marble panels or outlines and a marble­ covered dome. Each side of the high terrace is pierced by 17 arches, while the corners of the structure are chamfered, giving the monument a pleasing depth. At each corner, an oblique arch cuts the angle.

The central arch on each side opens on to an ascending staircase. To the east of the southern stair a horizontal passage leads to the actual tomb below the monument. The remaining arches open into cells, most of which contain subsequent and subsidiary tombs. The floor of the terrace is paved with red sandstone and contains a number of un  identified graves.

Inside, the octagonal tomb chamber rises through two storeys and is surrounded by smaller octagonal chambers at the diagonal points. These chambers also house a number of other tombstones, making Humayun's mausoleum almost a family one. The central hall containing the cenotaph (vertically above the actual tomb in the basement) is roofed by a double dome carried on squinches, with plastered interlace in the spandrels, It is in three stages, of which the central is a gallery and the uppermost a clerestory. Most of the openings are filled with sandstone grilles.

Between each of the octagonal wings on the diagonal sides of the central tomb lie the great arched lobbies that dominate the exterior elevation. Although varied in terms of their numerous panels and recesses, these conform essentially to the three-fold scheme characteristic of Persian architecture, the great central arches being flanked by a smaller but emphatic arch in each wing.

Humayun's Tomb was among the first structures in India to use a double dome. This device, a favourite of Persian builders, gave a building an imposing exterior height but kept the ceiling of the central hall in proportion with the interior heights. The dome is also remarkable in that it is the first major full dome to be seen in India. Earlier domes were not full in the sense that their shape never traced a full semi-circle.

Garden in Humayun's Tomb with West Gate in the distance

The outer dome of Humayun's Tomb is covered with marble and is bulbous in shape. It is supported by pavilions or chhattris above the wings and portals. These, historians believe, served as a madrasa or college in the days when the tomb was a living monument. The chhattris serve the added purpose of masking the drum from view. These pavilions, augmented by carefully graded pinnacles at all angles of the building, unite the soaring outline of the dome with the horizontal lines of the main structure and give strength and coherence to the design.

The walled enclosure of the tomb is entered through two gates. The main gate to the south, which is now closed, and a less imposing west gate. The south gate is a towering 15.5 metres high. It stands on a podium approached by a flight of five steps. The ground floor comprises a central hall, octagonal and domed, with rectangular wings. There are square and oblong rooms on the first floor of the gateway. The outer angles are adorned with octagonal pinnacles topped with a lotus design. The gate is flanked externally by screen walls with arched recesses.

Adjoining the south gate is a compound on the west, 146 metres by 32 metres, built against the exterior face of the main enclosure-wall. It contains a low-roofed verandah, with 25 arched entrances and was possibly meant to accommodate the many attendants of the royal tomb. Its main exit is towards the south, but it is also connected with the tomb by a small doorway. There is another dilapidated building flanking the eastern side of the gate externally. Both this building and the verandah are later additions.

The west gate, by which visitors now enter the tomb-enclosure, also stands on a podium with five steps and is two storeys high. It consists of a 7 metre ­square central hall, with square side-rooms on the ground floor, and oblong rooms on the first. It is approached from the front and back through portals 10.7 metres high. The gate is flanked externally with arched recesses and measures 15 metres from the floor-level to the parapet. It is surmounted at the outer angles by small chhattri pavilions, 1.5 metres square.

The northern, southern and western walls of the enclosure are of plastered rubble and are 5.8 metres high. The interior face contains recessed arches with pointed heads and the outer face is crowned with merlons in relief.

On the east or the river side, the enclosure-wall is just about 1.5 metres in height, except for some 64 metres towards the south end, where it is again 5.8 metres high. Only this portion of the eastern wall is plastered, and it contains recessed arches on both faces. The lower wall was doubtless meant to afford an open view of the river Yamuna from the tomb and the garden. The enclosure-walls were built in several stages, as is indicated by breaks in the bond.

South-West Face

Towards the centre of the inner face of the north wall stands an arcaded pavilion on a platform 2.1 metres high. It contains an octagonal tank, about one metre across, and the room appears to have been a hammam or bath. It is plastered but undecorated. Behind this pavilion, on the north side of the enclosure-wall is a rubble-built circular well, which supplied water both to the bath and the channels of the charbagh.

The centre of the eastern wall has a more decorative pavilion, with a verandah along its east front, which faces the river. The details of the sandstone columns and elaborately cusped arches indicate that this pavilion is a later addition, probably of the 17th century.

Humayun's Tomb marked the end of the sombre style of early Indo-Islamic architecture and laid the foundation of the ornate style that characterised the mature Indo- Islamic architecture and culminated in the Taj. The rigid main lines of the building are diversified by chhattris or pavilions essentially Hindu in origin and, without impairing the strength of the design, give it a coherence foreign to its Persian prototypes.

Sher Mandal - Purana Qila