Location:Nizamuddin East, Delhi Map
Buried: Mughal emperor Humayun
Constructed: 1562 AD by his wife Hamida Banu Begum
Humayun Tomb is a medieval burial structure designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site in Nizamuddin East, Delhi in India. It was commissioned by Hamida Banu Begum in 1562 AD for a burial of Mughal Emperor Humayun. It was erected under supervision of an architect Mirak Mirza Ghiyath who designed it.
The mausoleum was originally close to the Yamuna
River, but changed its course in later times. The mausoleum is now
in the Nizamuddin-Ost district, at the intersection of Lodi Road and
Mathura Road. At the time of the slave dynasty, the area belonged to
the KiloKheri fortress, the capital of Sultan Kequbad, son of
Nasiruddin (1268–1287). In addition to Humayun's main tomb, the site
also includes other buildings and tombs of Mughal architecture -
including the barber's tomb.
history
Construction began in 1562 (according to other sources, 1564) on the
instructions of Haji Begum (also Hamida Banu Begum), Humayun's widow
and mother of Akbar I (1542–1605). The construction period lasted
eight years. The owner kept a close eye on the work and even opened
her camp on site. The architects of the building are said to have
been Sayyed Muhammad ibn Mirak Ghiyathuddin and his father Mirak
Ghiyathuddin, who came from Herat in Afghanistan.
The site later served as a refuge for India's last Mughal ruler,
Bahadur Shah II (1775-1862), whom the British captured in 1857.
architecture
materials
In contrast to the later mausoleums of the Mughal era with their
brick core, the Humayun mausoleum consists of only roughly hewn
rubble stones, which were rarely found along the muddy-sandy river
banks of the Yamuna and were therefore taken from demolition
buildings or from a distance had to be brought in. After completion
of the core structure, the walls were clad with slabs of differently
colored sandstone or - for reasons of cost in later or less
important buildings or components - simply plastered and painted in
color. Marble only occurs in the cladding of the main dome and in
the white braided ribbon inlay that moves around the entire main
building.
Torbau
The projecting side wings distinguish the very representative gate
construction of the Humayun mausoleum from all other gate structures
of the Mughal tombs in India. The side - stacked niches, the large
central arch (iwan) and the small, pavilions (chhatris), on the
other hand, are elements that will also be found on later gate
buildings. The entire structure is clad with slabs of red and
yellowish-beige sandstone from Rajasthan.
The building decorations are limited to two six-pointed stars with
plastically protruding rosettes in the gussets of the archway and to
narrow ribbons - enclosing the arch gussets - with incrustations of
white marble.
grave monument
exterior
The central grave structure with high Ivan arches stands on an
approximately 7 m high platform - optically loosened up by a
multitude of arcades with surrounding braided bands - above the ax
cross. The outer dome sitting on a drum, bulged and surrounded by
small chhatris was rather unusual at the time in the Persian
homeland of the architect, but can be found in earlier and
simultaneous buildings in Central Asia (e.g. Gur Emir mausoleum in
Samarqand). A ball bar (jamur) raises the dome in the center. The
central main building is surrounded by four smaller annex buildings
- sloping at the corners and also provided with pavilions. The
visible structure consists of red and beige sandstone from
Rajasthan; only the cladding of the main dome and some wall
applications are made of white marble. The domes of the smaller side
chhatris are covered with gray slate, a material that can also be
found in the decor of the arch gussets of the entrance portals.
White, unreliefed marble slabs combined into large decorative fields
play an important role in the overall picture.
inside rooms
The octagonal central room, which opens over two floors, is bathed
in diffused light through the Jali windows. It only houses the
cenotaph of Humayun, which is set on a small, but with complex
geometric stone incrustations (stars and octagons) made of white and
black marble (the actual burial place of the ruler is below the
ground level). The room octagon with galleries and Jali windows is
transferred to the domed circle via trumpets with simple Muqarnas
decor; the flat inner dome itself - like many Indian grave
structures - is left completely without decor.
The usual stucco work with floral murals or even
stone inlays used in the later Mughal tombs (Akbar mausoleum,
Itimad-ud-Daula mausoleum, Taj Mahal, Bibi-Ka-Maqbara) are
completely absent from the Humayun grave monument - apart from the
small cenotaph platform. Only the large wall niches or galleries
with their Jali windows and the different colors of the sandstone
facings provide architectural or visual loosening.
In the two-story annex rooms on the side there are more than 150
tombs of family members and distant descendants of the ruler. Thus,
the Humayun Mausoleum - more than the later buildings of the Mughal
period - can be called the burial place of the dynasty.
garden
The mausoleum rises in the middle of a geometrically designed park
in Char-Bagh style, which is provided by narrow water channels and
thus refers to the paradise garden described in the Koran - the
first of its kind in India. As with later tombs from the Mughal era,
the paths to the central tomb building, which are covered with stone
slabs, are higher than the ground level of the park, which offers
great advantages, especially during the monsoon season, and also
prevents animals; at the same time, however, to maintain the
hierarchy, they are lower than the lower platform of the grave
building.
meaning
The first Mughal tomb of India - still built without framing
minarets - is one of the most magnificent historical buildings in
Delhi and on the entire subcontinent due to its size and its elegant
architecture in Persian style. Its imposing architecture leaves the
comparatively compact tombs of the Lodi dynasty far behind and
points ahead to the Akbar mausoleum in Sikandra and the Taj Mahal in
Agra.