Worldroom MICE Tourism Guide: India 2008


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	'Goodnight sweet prince'…so some devotee of the Mughal Emperor may have whispered as they lowered him into the grave. Was there a man so troubled- a man so deserving of the peace of that simple grave? How apt Lane-Poole's refrain "Humayun stumbled out of life as he stumbled through it" for the king whose life was marked by fate's contrary twists and turns that triggered off suffering, humiliation and privations in there wake. Just a short distance from his beautiful mausoleum, lie the ruins of the mighty fortified palace..the Purana Kila, he built-and within it the steps from which he took a fateful fall from his libraray….his mind engaged with the forecast of the stars…his ear harking the call of the muezzin to the faithful to come from prayer… It was not a quiet end for the Mughal Emperor Nasiruddin Muhammad Humayun, who lost his crown and his kingdom…to the Afghan usurper Sher Shah Sur. All his life he struggled to hold on to that fabulous legacy of land and wealth created for a dynasty by Zahiruddin Muhammad, better known to us as Babur, his Timurid father. Babur the boy-king himself had lost his kingdom which stretched from Ferghana to Samarkand, to his rebel cousins, and was forced to flee his homelands in Central Asia. The ambitious boy eventually captured Kabul and made sporadic raids on the fabled wealth of Hindustan. His last raid ended with the laying down the foundations of the Mughal dynasty in India in 1526 after routing the Delhi Sultanate. Babur died at Agra the capital of his empire in 1530, leaving his heir-apparent - the slightly capricious, cultured, witty, mild and generous dreamer-poet of a youth to protect his legacy. The 23-year Hamayun who ascended the throne four days later, was no Babur of vaulting ambition and phenomenal military skills. Uncommonly suspicious, ruled by the stars (literally as he was an avid astronomer) and a scholar who loved the arts and astronomy, the new king was unable to get a handle on his life. Preferring to quit Agra, Babur's capital he set off for Delhi where he chose to establish his new capital Dinpanah, on,what is recognized today as the sacred site of Indraprastha. His nightmares had just begun-spinning him out of his dream-world of pleasure and repose -- when he faced a crushing defeat by Sher Shah in 1540 near the imperial city of Kanauj. With no recourse to out-maneuver the ambitions of the Afghan after this rout, Humayun was hounded out of Hindustan, with his family, all the way to Persia. His capital Dinpanah fell into the hands of the Afghan who completed it and renamed it Shergarh. It was only when Sher Shah met his death quelling a rebellion at Kalinjar in the summer of 1545, and things became chaotic after the death of the sultan, that Humayun returned to reclaim his lost kingdom. His pleasure at wresting back his heritage as emperor of Hindustan was, however, short-lived. In 1556, on a cold winter evening, the emperor, brooding over the portents of the stars, hurriedly went to the steep steps his library--the double-storied Sher Mandal built by Sher Shah, tripped over his robe and fell to his death. His son Akbar, who rose to become one of India's finest rulers, was crowned king at the age of fourteen on 14th February 1556. When Humyaun died his remains found a temporary resting place in his citadel capital, at the Purana QiIa. His senior widow Haji Begum commissioned a Persian architect Mirak Mirza Ghiyas to build of a formal mausoleum him in 1565. Located in the present-day Nizamuddin east area, a short distance from the Purana Qila, the mausoleum can also be sighted from its southern post, with its Humayun Darwaza from which the funeral procession of the emperor passed through this gate from the Sher Mandal, where he was laid in state and then taken to Nizamuddin where he lies buried. This splendid, traditional Islamic garden tomb, in red sandstone and marble inlay, was inspirational in the creation of the Taj Mahal built centuries on, by his descendant the Emperor Shah Jehan for his beloved wife Mumtaz Mahal at the old Mughal capital of Agra. Many important scions of the house of Timur lie buried alongside the emperor, including his wives and the son of Shah Jehan prince Dara Shikoh and Alamgir II. Within the tomb complex are located the Afsarwala Tomb, an octagonal shaped tomb and mosque of Isa khan a noble of Sher Shah and Humayun' favourite barber too lies buried here. In the Arab ki Sarai are interred the Persian masons who died building the tomb. Following a meticulous symmetrical plan Humayun's tomb features traditional Timurid architectural characteristics which include the onion-shaped double dome, a raised portal facing the front platform and geometric setting of tile work. The building is one of the most important structures erected by the Mughals in India as it features both Persian and Indian elements. The architectural features may be Persian, but the use of local red sandstone and marble in lay work, were very much in practice during the building of 14th century Sultanate Delhi initiated by the building of the Alai Darwaza by Allauddin Khilji in 1311. In the words of Glen D Lowry who in 1987 wrote "The symbolic qualities of Humayun's Tomb reflect a bold attempt to create an architecture that grows out of, but is distinct from, earlier Islamic buildings in India and Iran, the two poles of the Mughal world." The red sandstone for the tomb was sourced from the Agra area, and its white marble came from Makrana in Rajasthan. The sandstone and marble paneled stomb itself rises from a 6.5m elevated platform. The imposing Persian double dome is made of white marble topped off by a finial -in the form of a crescent- a Persian feature. Centuries on in the Taj Mahal, this Mughal finial feature was replaced with a lotus. Humayun's Tomb was one of India's first structures to feature the double dome, a hot favourite with West Asian architects-it's also the first important full dome to feature in Indian architecture which was unacquainted with this Islamic bulbous shape used in construction. The massive plinth supporting the structure is a decorative affair supporting massive vaulting arches of red sandstone and many subsidiary chambers-unlike in the earlier style of a single chamber in a tomb. The actual tomb chamber itself is simple - pared - down. Set upon a black and white marble platform rests the stark white marble sacrophagus. Below it lies the actual grave. The garden in the complex is an integral part of the garden tomb architecture. The classical char bagh-style embodies the Islamic ideal of a ordered universe in the form of precisely laid out verdure, enhanced by trees and flower beds, waterways and fountains in geometric patterns. Humayun's Tomb is the centerpiece within a walled, wrap-around garden setting of elegant proportions spread over 30 acres, with gateways to the west and south. It is the first preserved garden of the Mughal vision of this classic style, in India. Today Humayun's Tomb is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a major project has been initiated by the archeological survey of India in collaboration with the Aga Khan Trust for Culture, for the revitalization of the gardens.