Humayun's tomb

Humayun's tomb

Continuing on my lucky trend of visiting historical monuments , this weekend I went to Humayun's tomb with my folks.

As I mentioned earlier that nowadays I am reading "The City of Djinns" by William Darymple, which is the travelogue about his stay in Delhi for a year. So anyways I was fascinated to visit what all historical places he was mentioning in his travelogue. Although he din't mention Humayun's tomb yet but still it was one place which was on my list as as far as I remember I never been to that place (My dad doesn't agree with that and strongly stats that we have been there when we came to delhi around 15 yrs back).

Interestingly I was not planning to visit Humayun's tomb at the first place and instead last weekend itself I told my folks that we will go to India gate. But in the morning my colleague called me up enquiring about that place and on finding that it was on the way to India Gate , I made up a plan to visit it too. (Its another story that we couldn't see India Gate because of the huge crowd that descended there due to the lovely weather)

So coming to Humayun's tomb. Humayun was Babar's son and Akbar's father. He was the second of the Great Mughal rulers to have ruled India. He ruled India in 1532-40 and then from 1555-1560. While coming down from stairs, on hearing the Azan (Muslim call of prayer) as it was his habit that wherever he is ,on hearing the Azan he will kneel down in reverence ,is robe got stuck in his feet and fell down from stairs. He was succeeded by his 13 year old son Akbar, who later on became the greatest Mughal emperor to have ruled India.

View from center- Humayun's tomb

Hamida Banu Begum(Akbar's mother), his grieving widow, built his Mausoleum after his death. This building is touted as precursor to Taj Mahal. It stands on a platform of 12000 sq m and reaches a height of 47m.   

Peeking at the Emperor....

The earliest example of Persian influence in Indian architecture, the tomb has within it over 100 graves, earning it the name of "Dormitory of the Mughals".

First monument built with red sandstone and white marble.

Built of rubble masonry, the structure is the first to use red sandstone and white marble in such great quantities.

Lawn in front- built in Persian style

Like all Persian buildings , this one too had the 4 block garden structure with water channels separating each block from other.

Entrance to Humayun's tomb

Quite symmetrical

One striking thing about this monument is the symmetry. No matter from where you look at the main building, the lawn, the path to the monument etc everything has a symmetry and each half is a mirror image of the other.

Humayun's tomb - The Red Taj

I was glad that unlike last time when I clicked Taj Mahal, I learned to keep the base line horizontal to the ground and also clicked most of the pics keeping in mind the proportions.




Nevertheless a lovely and serene place to visit with your family and loved ones. :)

Wah Taj....

Taj Mahal

This weekend I visited the eternal symbol of love, Taj Mahal. One of my colleague from France came to India for the first time and its crime to come near Agra and not visit one of the wonders of the world. Although I have been to Taj many times but two things made me re-visit it with him and other colleagues. First for the first time I had a digital camera with me and so I couldn't miss the opportunity to click the beautiful monument myself and secondly the serenity that I feel on entering the Taj compound and viewing the Monument the first time is un-paralleled.

Taj from an angle..

This time since we hired a Guide too for our guest , I thought of noting down the history that our guide shared. And what better place then the blog to note it.

Well I am not good with remembering dates so I will rather put down the story without being too particular about the exact dates.

Mughal emperors ruled India approximately from 14th century to 19th century but predominantly there were only 6 rulers who were quite successful in their regime. One of them was Shah Jahan, who was the 5th among them. Although Akbar the Great was the first true Mughal emperor to rule India but Shah Jahan was the one who gifted India the Taj.

The story goes like this. When Shah Jahan was fighting one of the wars, one of his wife, who was quite beloved to him , Mumtaj Mahal, was pregant with their "14th child".  And despite of her advanced stage of pregnancy she decided to join him at the battle field. So there she developed some complications and died during the delivery. She asked for three last wishes from the emperor which were as follows:

1. You won't marry anyone else.

2. You will take care of all our children.

3. You will create something that will symbolize the pure and true love that we share.

The emperor was heart broken after her death and confined himself to the room mourning. Then he remembered the promise and as a result he built the Masoleum which is the symbol of their true love which we now call the Taj Mahal. Mumtaj Mahal was buried inside this Masoleum and when Shah Jahan died he too was buried along side her. The real tombs are situated inside the basement which is now forbidden for general public to visit. And instead people can see the replica kept at the ground floor.

You can imagine the enormity of the structure by comparing it with the size of human beings seen in the pic.

The building is 72 meter high and has four minarets alongside it.

Some facts about the Taj architecture.

The main building is made of White Marble which is the reason for its remarkable beauty.The building is built on th bank of river Yamuna. It took 22 years to build the building, 17 years for the Masoleum and 5 for the surrounding structures. As much as 20000 artisans and workers were deployed for its construction.

Contrary to popular believe Shah Jahan din't order cutting the hands of the workers instead he prohibited them from moving outside Agra and that too because most of them have become older by the time it has completed. The minarets are little slanted outside so that they don't fall on the main building in case earth quake hits the area. Unlike most Masoleums, in this one the side minarets are smaller in height to the main dome. The initial structure is made of bricks and over them the slabs of marble with all the beautiful art work crafted on them are pasted.

Flower crafted on a single marble slab

The lawn in front is made in Persian style i.e. it has four blocks with fountains seperating the four from each other, As per Persian belief, the heaven is like this with four rivers flowing and intersecting at the center, Also the myth that Shah Jahan built a black marble Taj Mahal too wasn't true and in fact he was building a park on the other side of Yamuna from where the beauty of Taj could be duly appreciated but he couldn't finish it as his rebel son Aurangzeb had him house arrested.

Persian style garden

Bill Clinton, former president of USA very rightly commented on seeing the Taj that "There are only two kinds of people in this world, one who have seen the Taj and other who haven't. And the latter people don't know what they are missing"

If you are from India or are planning to visit India sometime, do make sure to see this remarkable monument and believe me no matter how beautiful you may find it in photographs , its nothing compared to what you see from the naked eye.