We had an amazing rain last night, and I was as excited as a little kid to see it come. I sat under the awning on the veranda while the wind blew up the day’s hot dust with lightning in the background. Then a fine sprinkle started, then gobs of cold water hit the tiles hard. At first, the rain just made things even hotter and more humid as the water took the heat out of the city, but within five minutes, the night felt cooler. The rain was over in ten minutes, but it was one of the most welcome I can remember.
And it was still cool this morning, so I made myself a big tourist plan for the day and got started. Well…at 10 am. I just can’t believe things don’t open until that late. In any case, I paid too much for a taxi to Humayun’s Tomb, so I doubled the price and had the driver wait a few hours to take me back while I nosed around.
Humayun was one of the early Mughal emperors of India. The Mughals, descendents of Genghis Khan, had a large empire centered in Afganistan, and Humayun’s father pushed the empire east into India in the early 1500s. Shortly after Humayun took the throne, the famed Sher Shah (famed here, anyway) defeated Humayun, and the emperor had to flee to Iran. I guess his Genghis gene kicked in there, because Humayun eventually regrouped, counterattacked and retook northeast India. The Mughals then ruled India for the next three hundred years until the last was finally deposed by the British.
I mention all of this because Mughal history is flatout fascinating (I’ve learned there’s a somewhat comprehensive book called The Mughals, and I can’t wait to get it). The Mughal era is one of the world’s high points of the arts, and their architecture (and garden design) is far-and-away my favorite of the Islamic architecture I know. The Taj Mahal, for example, is Mughal. Every Mughal site I’ve seen has an elegance and harmony to it that I enjoy, even the massive forts. There is always a tasteful, pleasing, sensual grace to Mughal construction that seems unique in much of the Islamic architecture I’m most familiar with.
And for this reason, I was excited to see my first Mughal site of this trip, Humayun’s Tomb. Unfortunately for Humayun, after reconquering Delhi, he only reigned here a year before he died in 1556. He’d married his first wife in Iran, Hamida Banu Begum, and she is the one who executed the tomb construction.
This is important because Begum’s building brought Persian influences into Mughal architecture and, ultimately, into the Taj Mahal itself. Humayun’s Tomb is a low, flat building that is capped by a not-quite-graceful-yet onion-shaped dome; in addition, there are very high, pointed doors into the building (making it feel amazingly light), and there is inlay stone work throughout, much of it black and white. If you stretched up the dome a bit and pushed in the building on the base for proportion, you’d have the Taj. This building has elements of Persian and Afgan architecture; under the Mughals, Indian lightness would enter the mix, and really glorious buildings and gardens would result.
Of course, I wasn’t the least bit disappointed with tomb and its garden. After the noise, cement and dust of Delhi, I could hardly believe I was still in the city when I went in. It was quiet (thanks to the thick walls) and green (thanks to the symmetrical gardens with their little water channels). I spent a long time walking around the tomb itself, looking through the lattice work, taking pictures and enjoying the space. I’d walk out on the plaza to look at the dome, then I’d walk back in to look at the rooms and antechambers. There aren’t a lot of buildings I could honestly say are a pleasure to be in, but this would be one.
(Note: Don’t fall for the joke: Who’s buried in Humayun’s Tomb? There are about a hundred Mughal burials here, including the elegant resting place of Begum.)
The tomb and the garden are massive…acres and acres and acres. It was so nice to get to walk though these, and even though it was the hottest part of the day, there were little shady groves with fountains where I just sat for a while, watching the birds and listening to the water.
There are several other tomb/gardens adjacent, some preceding this one and others following, and I made some forays into them, too. One earlier one, Isa Khan’s, predated the Humayun Tomb by only 20 years, but since it lacked the refined Persian elements, it is more clever (octagonal, for example), heavy and ornate rather than beginning to take off in the way Mughal architecture did. Isa Khan, ironically, had been a noble in the court of the Sher Shah, the general who sent Humayun packing off to Iran. I have to suspect that Begum was partly staging a huge game of one-upmanship in putting Humayun’s giant, elegant tomb abutting the smaller and far clunkier one for Isa Khan. And Isa Khan’s tomb is by no means a paltry affair; I saw a sign that said an entire village had been living in the tomb and garden enclosure until the village was evacuated in the 20th century.
What a wonderful day: Mughal architecture and a relaxing, fresh garden. Finally got my cab back to the hotel (driver was a bit fussy, but at least I felt he earned his fare) and had an Indian dinner before passing out from the heat, dust and noise.
And it was still cool this morning, so I made myself a big tourist plan for the day and got started. Well…at 10 am. I just can’t believe things don’t open until that late. In any case, I paid too much for a taxi to Humayun’s Tomb, so I doubled the price and had the driver wait a few hours to take me back while I nosed around.
Humayun was one of the early Mughal emperors of India. The Mughals, descendents of Genghis Khan, had a large empire centered in Afganistan, and Humayun’s father pushed the empire east into India in the early 1500s. Shortly after Humayun took the throne, the famed Sher Shah (famed here, anyway) defeated Humayun, and the emperor had to flee to Iran. I guess his Genghis gene kicked in there, because Humayun eventually regrouped, counterattacked and retook northeast India. The Mughals then ruled India for the next three hundred years until the last was finally deposed by the British.
I mention all of this because Mughal history is flatout fascinating (I’ve learned there’s a somewhat comprehensive book called The Mughals, and I can’t wait to get it). The Mughal era is one of the world’s high points of the arts, and their architecture (and garden design) is far-and-away my favorite of the Islamic architecture I know. The Taj Mahal, for example, is Mughal. Every Mughal site I’ve seen has an elegance and harmony to it that I enjoy, even the massive forts. There is always a tasteful, pleasing, sensual grace to Mughal construction that seems unique in much of the Islamic architecture I’m most familiar with.
And for this reason, I was excited to see my first Mughal site of this trip, Humayun’s Tomb. Unfortunately for Humayun, after reconquering Delhi, he only reigned here a year before he died in 1556. He’d married his first wife in Iran, Hamida Banu Begum, and she is the one who executed the tomb construction.
This is important because Begum’s building brought Persian influences into Mughal architecture and, ultimately, into the Taj Mahal itself. Humayun’s Tomb is a low, flat building that is capped by a not-quite-graceful-yet onion-shaped dome; in addition, there are very high, pointed doors into the building (making it feel amazingly light), and there is inlay stone work throughout, much of it black and white. If you stretched up the dome a bit and pushed in the building on the base for proportion, you’d have the Taj. This building has elements of Persian and Afgan architecture; under the Mughals, Indian lightness would enter the mix, and really glorious buildings and gardens would result.
Of course, I wasn’t the least bit disappointed with tomb and its garden. After the noise, cement and dust of Delhi, I could hardly believe I was still in the city when I went in. It was quiet (thanks to the thick walls) and green (thanks to the symmetrical gardens with their little water channels). I spent a long time walking around the tomb itself, looking through the lattice work, taking pictures and enjoying the space. I’d walk out on the plaza to look at the dome, then I’d walk back in to look at the rooms and antechambers. There aren’t a lot of buildings I could honestly say are a pleasure to be in, but this would be one.
(Note: Don’t fall for the joke: Who’s buried in Humayun’s Tomb? There are about a hundred Mughal burials here, including the elegant resting place of Begum.)
The tomb and the garden are massive…acres and acres and acres. It was so nice to get to walk though these, and even though it was the hottest part of the day, there were little shady groves with fountains where I just sat for a while, watching the birds and listening to the water.
There are several other tomb/gardens adjacent, some preceding this one and others following, and I made some forays into them, too. One earlier one, Isa Khan’s, predated the Humayun Tomb by only 20 years, but since it lacked the refined Persian elements, it is more clever (octagonal, for example), heavy and ornate rather than beginning to take off in the way Mughal architecture did. Isa Khan, ironically, had been a noble in the court of the Sher Shah, the general who sent Humayun packing off to Iran. I have to suspect that Begum was partly staging a huge game of one-upmanship in putting Humayun’s giant, elegant tomb abutting the smaller and far clunkier one for Isa Khan. And Isa Khan’s tomb is by no means a paltry affair; I saw a sign that said an entire village had been living in the tomb and garden enclosure until the village was evacuated in the 20th century.
What a wonderful day: Mughal architecture and a relaxing, fresh garden. Finally got my cab back to the hotel (driver was a bit fussy, but at least I felt he earned his fare) and had an Indian dinner before passing out from the heat, dust and noise.
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