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Places To Visit In Delhi - Humayun's Tomb
Humayun's Tomb is the tomb of the Mughal emperor Mirza Nasir al-Din Muhammad, commonly known as Humayun, located in Delhi, India. Wikipedia
Address: Hazrat Nizamuddin Aulia Dargah, Mathura Rd, Nizamuddin, Nizamuddin East, New Delhi, Delhi 110013, India
Humayun's Tomb (Persian: Maqbara-i Humayun) is the tomb of the Mughal emperor Mirza Nasir al-Din Muhammad, commonly known as 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 Mirak Mirza Ghiyas and his son, Sayyid Muhammad, Persian architects chosen by her. It was the first garden tomb in the Indian subcontinent and is situated in Nizamuddin East, Delhi, near the citadel of Dina-panah, also known as Purana Qila (Old Fort), which Humayun found in 1538. It was also the first structure to use red sandstone on such a scale. The tomb was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1993,] and has since undergone extensive restoration work, which is complete. In addition to the enclosure of Humayun's main tomb, several smaller monuments dot the path leading to it, from the main entrance on the west, including one that even predates the main tomb by twenty years; is the tomb complex of Isa Khan Niazi, an Afghan nobleman from the court of Sher Shah Suri of the Suri dynasty, who fought against the Mughals, built in 1547 AD.
The complex encompasses the main tomb of Emperor Humayun, which houses the tombs of Empress Bega Begum, Hajji Begum, and also Dara Shikoh, Humayun's great-great-grandson and son of the later Emperor Shah Jahan, as well as many other later tombs. Mughals, including Emperor Jahandar Shah, Farrukhsiyar, Rafi Ul-Darjat, Rafi Ud-Daulat, Muhammad Kam Bakhsh and Alamgir II. It represented a leap in Mughal architecture and, together with its accomplished Charbagh garden, typical of Persian gardens but never before seen in India, set a precedent for later Mughal architecture. It is considered a clear departure from the rather modest mausoleum of his father, the first Mughal emperor, Babur, called Bagh-e Babur (Babur Gardens) in Kabul (Afghanistan). Although the latter was the first emperor to start the tradition of being buried in a paradise garden. Modeled on Gur-e Amir, the tomb of his ancestor and conqueror of Asia, Timur, in Samarkand, created a precedent for future Mughal architecture of royal mausoleums, which reached its zenith with the Taj Mahal in Agra. twenty]
The site was chosen on the banks of the Yamuna River, due to its proximity to the Nizamuddin Dargah, the mausoleum of the famous Sufi saint of Delhi, Nizamuddin Auliya, highly revered by the rulers of Delhi, and whose residence, Chilla Nizamuddin Auliya, is located just next to it. northeast 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, and was captured by Captain Hodson before being exiled to Rangoon. At the time of the slave dynasty, this land was under 'KiloKheri Fort', which was the capital of Sultan Qaiqabad, son of Nasiruddin (1268-1287).
The Battashewala Tomb Complex is located in the buffer zone of the World Heritage-listed Humayun Tomb Complex; The two complexes are separated by a small road but enclosed within their own separate compound wall.
History - Humayun's Tomb
After his death on 27 January 1556, Humayun's body was first buried in his palace at Purana Quila in Delhi. He was later taken to Sirhind in Punjab by Khanjar Beg and, in 1558, was seen by Humayun's son, the then Mughal emperor, Akbar. Later, Akbar visited the tomb in 1571, when it was nearing completion.
Humayun's tomb was built by order 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 in full by the Empress.[26] Bega Begum was so grieved by the death of her husband that she dedicated her life to a single purpose: the construction of a monument in her memory that would be the most magnificent mausoleum in the Empire, in a place near the Yamuna river in Delhi. According to Ain-i-Akbari, a detailed 16th-century document written during Akbar's reign, Bega Begum supervised the construction of the tomb after returning from Mecca and undertaking the Hajj pilgrimage.
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 known 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 in other parts of India. Ghiyas died before the structure was completed and completed by his son, Sayyed Muhammad ibn Mirak Ghiyathuddin.
An English merchant, William Finch, who visited the tomb in 1611, describes the rich interior furnishings of the central chamber (compared to the sparse appearance today). He mentions the presence of rich carpets as well as a shamiana, a small tent on top of 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 fortune of the once famous Charbagh (Four Gardens) was made up of four plazas separated by four walks, radiating from a central reflecting pool. It extends over 13 hectares surrounding the monument and has changed repeatedly over the years since its construction. The capital had already moved to Agra in 1556, and the decline of the Mughals accelerated the decline of the monument and its features, as costly maintenance of the garden proved impossible. In the early 18th century the once lush gardens were replaced by orchards of people who had settled within the walled area. However, the capture of the last Mughal emperor, Bahadur Shah Zafar during the Indian rebellion of 1857 along with the site, and his subsequent condemnation to exile, along with the execution of his three sons, meant that the monument's worst days were yet to come. , since the British took over Delhi completely. In 1860, the Mughal design of the garden was replanted to a more English style, with circular flower beds replacing the four central water ponds on the axial paths and trees profusely planted in flower beds. This fault was corrected in the early 20th century, when by order of Viceroy Lord Curzon the original gardens were restored in a major restoration project between 1903 and 1909, which also included lining the plaster canals with sandstone; A 1915 planting plan added emphasis to the central, diagonal axis by lining it with trees, although some trees were also planted on the platform originally reserved for tents.
In 1882, the official conservator of ancient monuments of India published his first report, in which he mentioned that the main garden was rented to various cultivators; among them until late were the royal descendants, who grew cabbage and tobacco on it.
In Ronaldshay's biography of Lord Curzon, a letter from Lord Curzon to his wife in April 1905 is quoted: "Do you remember Humayun's tomb? I had the garden restored, the water canals dug and filled, and the whole place restored. to its pristine beauty. I went to England last summer and, the master's eye being absent, the whole place was allowed to return. The garden has been rented to a native and is now planted with turnips and the work of four years was completed. waste. Drive there and woe betide the deputy commissioner whose apathy was responsible!
During the Partition of India in August 1947, Purana Qila, along with Humayun's Tomb, became important refugee camps for Muslims migrating to the newly founded Pakistan and were later administered by the government of India. These camps remained open for about five years and caused considerable damage not only to the extensive gardens but also to water channels and major structures. The fields were raided many times by jathas, leading to vandalism during the early days of partition in 1947. Finally, to prevent vandalism, the cenotaphs inside the mausoleum were faced with brick. In the following years, the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) took over the responsibility of preserving the heritage monuments of India, and little by little the building and its gardens were restored. Until 1985, four unsuccessful attempts were made to restore the original water sources.
An important phase of the restoration of the complex began around 1993 when the monument was declared a World Heritage Site. This generated new interest in its restoration, and a detailed process of research and excavation began under the auspices of the Aga Khan Trust and ASI. This culminated in 2003, when much of the complex and gardens were restored, and the historic fountains returned to working order after several centuries of disuse. The restoration has been an ongoing process since then, with subsequent phases addressing various aspects and monuments of the complex. Read More..
References: From Wikipedia
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