Isa Khan's tomb

In the saga of my favorite Mughal emperor, Isa Khan was an advisor of Sher Shah and his son, rivals of Humayan.
Yet his tomb and masjid--built before Humayan's--are inside the Humayan complex.
The walled area has been closed off to visitors for the past two years due to reconstruction work.  When I heard the gate was opening back up this month, I wanted to go.
No:  I had to go.

Isa Khan lived to be 95 years old, so he had time during his life to design his tomb and the masjid that stands nearby. 
He brought over architectural influences from his Pashtu, Afghan background in the glazed tiles and the chattris.

He put up pillars and carvings...

...and he designed gardens that reminded him of home.
He probably never imagined that he and Humayan--exiled at the time of Isa Khan's death--would be tombstone neighbors.  Or that those who visited his garden would actually have come to see his enemy's tomb.
Life--and death--doesn't seem to follow our plans.

Spring at Humayan's tomb

 It feels like spring at Humayan's tomb.  The water is running though the complex.

 The ceiling is freshly repainted.

And it's not meltingly hot....yet. 

Dog at the monument

Instead of living on the street, this dog lives at the monument.
I want to know how he got up there...so I can follow him and see from that view.
Funny dog.

Afsarwala

Afsarwala's tomb and masjid are inside the Humayan complex. 
They aren't really that exciting.
Breaking down and unvisited, there isn't much of a story to tell about them either.

Except this:
The name Afsarwala. It means just what it sounds like:  Officer wala.
It's the officer's tomb and masjid.  Which officer, no one knows.  Most nobles were officers of some sort in the military way back when.

When this area to the west of Humayan's tomb was still a bustling market, the masjid would have been in the center of it.  But even then, it seems, no one remembered long enough which officer was the patron of the masjid.

Another irony of history, choosing what it will to remember or forget.

Sher Mandal

We've been over the tragic story of Humayan's death.
How he fell down the stairs and succumbed to his injuries a few days later.

Poor Humayan.

His officials waited to tell the people that the emperor was dead until Akbar could reach Delhi from Agra.  He was already dead for 17 days when it was announced.

So it seems that I may have told this story a few too many times. 
Because at the last visit to his tomb, I said to myself, "Hey, Humayan died just up the road a ways--I should go see where."

The Sher Mandal is inside the Purana Qila.  It was built by Sher Shah as a part of his palace, but Humayan liked the building and when he returned to Delhi, he turned it into a library and an observatory.
And he spent a lot of time there.

Well, as much time as there was in the year he had in Delhi before his accident.
The Sher Mandal is also where the infamous stairs down which he fell--and died--are.

Poor Humayan.

Mihr Banu's market and gate

At one time--amazingly--the area of Humayan's tomb was undeveloped forest, well outside the gates of Delhi's sultanate.  You'd never imagine that now, with the bustling Nizammudin neighborhood and the railway around it.

But yes, once upon a time there was nothing there.

Yet, it was on the route between two important places, Agra and Afghanistan.
And someone decided that it was a good place for a way station.
And thus the Arab Serai was built up and extended into Mihr Banu's market place.

A place for travelers to rest.  A market place to resupply.  A water source to refresh.  It would have been a busy place, full of people of all kinds.

Today the impressive gateway to Mihr Banu's market is at the far southern end of the complex of Humayan's tomb.
And it's empty.  Few remember or visit. Travelers have other places to stay, and not many are on their way to Afghanistan.

Because it was near the holy place of Nizamuddin's dargah, Akbar and Hamida Begum decided to put the tomb of Humayan here.  So the market area is where the hundreds of workmen would have lived for eight years during the construction of the building.
It wasn't until about 45 years after the tomb was completed that a person named Mihr Banu built the gate and enclosed the market place.

It makes me wonder:  where did the market go?  In the history of Delhi and Nizamuddin village, 1612 isn't all that long ago.  Why did it move away?  There are still thousands of people in this area.  When did their market place disappear to spread out in other places of the neighborhood?
Sometimes it's just as fascinating to me which things of history disappear as which things are still remaining.

L-shaped baoli

How many times have I been to Humayan's tomb and I didn't even know this stepwell was there!
Ah!
But now that I've found it, I'll add this L-shaped baoli located within the complex of Humayan's tomb to my treasure hunt collection.

There's really not much to it, except for dangerous holes to fall into and some rancid water.
It's falling apart and it looks like from time to time, kids get in and throw rocks down the stairs and into the water below.

The stepwell is in a very out of the way place at the edge of the complex.  Very few visit it.  We were the only ones wandering around in this area.

I suppose that's because unlike me, most people come to see Humayan's tomb, not the baoli.

They don't know what they're missing.

Bu Halima's tomb and garden

Every time I go to Humayan's tomb, I mean to look for Bu Halima's tomb in the complex.  Somehow I always miss it.

So this time I was more intentional.  I made a point of searching it out.
And when I found it, I realized why I'd missed it time after time.  Because it looks like something that's not finished.  Where's the top of it?  Where's the dome?  Where are the arches?  What about the marble work?  What are the stairs for?

But, you know, since it was on my list of destinations, I went to take a closer look. 

This is it.
A slightly raised bump in the platform.  Bu Halima's tomb.
Okay.  I've seen it.  Check.

Who was Bu Halima, anyway?

The walls of the surrounding garden and the chatris are more fun to climb on.
You can get away with climbing on a lot of things in India that they would not let you in other places.
But then, there's a whole lot more stuff to climb on, too.
I like that.

Unkempt gardens

What happened to the little old lady who was so carefully gardening around the walk ways of Humayan's tomb?
Perhaps they are doing some restoration work in this area, but, still, they need to let her back in; these flowers are out of control.

Charming unknown tomb

On my latest visit to Humayan's tomb, I didn't enter by the usual route.  I walked around the outside walls instead. 
And that lead me to this place:  an unknown tomb from the 16th or 17th century.

"Charming" is the only description I can find of it.
I agree.

But again, it shows that if history doesn't care to remember you, it won't.

Nila Gumbad

The blue dome thing is something I've seen over the walls of Humayan's tomb numerous times.  I have wanted to go see it, but it falls outside of the walled complex of the tomb.

So I went searching.
For the blue dome thing.  And really, that's what it is.  Nila Gumbad means blue dome.  A conveniently easy name to remember.

It was built about 75 years after Humayan's tomb by Abdul Rahim Khan-I-Khana (another guy whose tomb I have to go search out), one of Akbar's courtiers.  Abdul built it for his servant Miyan Fahim who grew up with his sons and later died in battle with them. 

Abdul thought Miyan's tomb was important, but the world now doesn't seem to care.
The tomb sits near the railroad tracks and is surrounded by a wasteland of railroad ties and other trash.

Humayan's tomb and all it's well-kept glory is just right there nearby.  But the blue dome thing is outside it all.

Maybe something will be done about it.  Yet, history, it seems, doesn't care to preserve every story, even when we build giant tombs to remember them.

The barber's reward

Here's the other new thing I found when I visited Humayan's tomb: the barber's tomb.

Apparently, Humayan had found a really good shave and cut with this barber. So the barber got something special just for him right next to the emperor.
Wow.

Royal family members only get a slab on the platform of the tomb.
But a good barber? He gets his own mausoleum.

Who was Humayan?

If I'm visiting an already-been-there place, I like to be sure to still see something and learn something new--or to help someone else to.
To see the place through a new view.

This time around, I read up on who Humayan was.
The son of Babur of the Timurid dynasty, he was a slight disappointment as a warrior. He preferred books, poetry and art (and opium).
It was probably these preferences that caused him to loose his empire and flee to Persia when one of his rivals defeated him in battle.
In Persia, though, he made friends and gained a whole new appreciation for design and gardening.
After fifteen years, he returned to Delhi and took back his empire.
For a while anyway, 'cause it's rather anti-climactic that he died within a year. There are several versions of how he died; here are three:

1. Humayan was standing on the roof of the library at his palace when he heard the call to prayer.
He rushed down the stairs to pray.
Fell.
And died.

2. He was reading a book as he descended the steep stairs of his library.
Fell.
And died.

3. His habit of using opium did not help his balance on the steep stairs.
So he fell.
And died.

Take your pick.

So Akhbar and Haji Begum built the magnificent tomb.
It was the first of it's kind, heavily influenced by Persian architects.
It was the first use of marble combined with red sandstone (meaning very expensive). No cost was spared, as the statement made was meant to be: this is the tomb of not just any man, but an emperor.
And it was the first tomb to be built on a raised platform--which was later perfected in the design of the Taj Mahal.

Design was an integral part of what the Mughals left behind in India. They especially had a thing for symmetry.
As I learned this time around,
the back of the tomb is pretty similar to the front. Symmetry at work.

Right.
So there's your history lesson for Humayan, who he was, and why his tomb is so grand.

What's new at Humayan's

Wondering what's new at Humanyan's tomb since the last time I was there?

Well not this lady, she's been here gardening forever.
She told me I could take her picture if I gave her a good tip.
Though she had no intention of smiling.

There was new restoration in progress.
Painting and chiseling of things, making that chink chink chink sound of metal on stone which causes me think of elves.

And the last "new" thing to see there was this funny group of school kids on a field trip. Part of what they got to see on their outing was a couple of foreigners who obligingly shook hands and practiced English with every one of them who dared to be so brave.
One of them also told the gardening aunty that her flowers looked nice. I thought that very generous him.

Restoration elves

There is restoration happening at Humayan's Tomb.
Inconvenience regretted.

But that doesn't mean anything is closed, just don't mind them as you come through the entrance and walk around all the dirt and rubble.

And don't mind their boots in the walkway, either.

Avoid the scaffolding, though, it is probably not the safest.

Then there was the place behind the green screen where we could hear the sounds of elves with hammers.
Really, that's what it sounded like.
A dozen or so men with hammers, chiseling away at slabs of sandstone for the restoration work.

Humayan's tomb

It is (apparently) a common mistake of children, but Humayan's tomb is not to be confused with the Taj Mahal.

And I would add another warning: That Humayan's tomb is not to be confused with Akbar's tomb.

So, keep that in mind...