I was reading a book "Brothers at War", which describes the life experiences of Humayun and how he regained his throne after being reduced into a leader of band of soldiers by Sher Shah Suri. As I was reading this book suddenly an idea flashed through my mind. I wanted to go and visit Humayun's Tomb alone so that I can take my own time in admiring the architecture and sit there for sometime peacefully. I didn't want to postpone it so immediately I got ready and took a metro to Pragathi Maidan(nearest metro station as far as I know) and then took an auto to Humayun's Tomb. On my way, I came across purana Quila, which is the inner citadel of the city of Dina-panah, founded by Humayun. After around 20 min drive,I reached Humyaun's Tomb. I didn't expect it be crowded as it is not very famous. But, to my surprise it was little bit crowded with people from all over the world. Ticket price is 10/- for an Indian and 250/- for a foreigner. As I entered, I came across a tomb of Isa Khan, an Afghan Noble, which is 2 decades older the Humayun's Tomb(built around 1547-1548 A.D, as I was reading stuff related to it some guys came and started reading along with me, one of them started interpreting things for others and he explained the meaning of A.D to them as AND DEATH, 1547-1548 AND DEATH!). As I went further,I came across a big arched entrance and from there one can see the majestic Humayun's Tomb at the other end of the boulevard with trees on either side. I just kept walking towards it ignoring the smaller tombs on the way. It is a splendid building and not at all a bad resting place for an emperor.It was commissioned by Hamida Begum,widow of Humyaun, and took over eight years to build.It was also placed in centre of a 30-acre (120,000 m2) Char Bagh Garden (Four Gardens), a Persian-style garden with quadrilateral layout and was the first of its kind in the South Asia region in such a scale(info: wikipedia).It was very spacious inside with lot of windows (mihrab) to allow sufficient sunlight. They are not exactly the windows which we know of, they perfectly hinder most of the sunlight and allows enough wind inside to keep the interiors cooler. As it was built using red sand stone and white marble I am sure it will be cool inside even during summers.It is a perfectly symmetrical building and it looks the same from all the four directions. This place also happens to be the place where Dara Shikoh was executed(elder brother of Aurangajeb).
His execution goes like this: Dara lost a decisive battle against Aurangajeb and was imprisoned in Humyaun's Tomb. One night, gaurds enter Humayun's Tomb where they found Dara cooking lentils with his little boy, prince Salim. His son clung desperatly to his father's legs, but was dragged away. Dara was overpowered and they cut his head off and sent it to his brother. He sent Dara's head in a box to Shahjahan, their father, in prison in the palace in Agra. Jahan opened it at a table while he was eating, collapsed fainting, broke his front teeth. Dara's little boy was given a draft of opium and then was strangled to death. The father and the son were buried here in the Tomb of Humyaun. Along with them overall 160 Mughal's graves are here. It is often called the graveyard of the Mughals! How different history would have been if Dara has ascended the throne. He was very liberal and he embraced all religions. He even wrote a book describing the ideas of Hinduism and Islam. He quoted in his book The meeting of Two Oceans "even though the ideas of two religions differed verbally they all meant the same!".
I sat there in the garden surrounding the tomb. It was so peaceful sitting there without being disturbed.I came across an old muslim man with long beard collecting dry leaves, probably a gardener there. How many of his ancestors would have been gardeners here, I thought. There were two wells, which were filled with plastic bottles and filth. I went around and came across smaller tombs and quarters of servants, if I guessed correctly. There were names and love symbols all over the walls. Oh! I hate these people! They and their pathetic love! Why can't they write these symbols in their houses rather than on monuments! Everybody speaks philosophy and try to look educated, but when it comes to simple things like this and littering away stuff they act like mindless people. I calmed myself after that and went to one more tomb near by, the Afsarwala Tomb(meaning officer's Tomb) and went to a exhibition there describing the facts related to this place. It has been identified as world heritage site in 1993 and it is good to know that the Archeological Survey of India has taken an initiative to renovate the whole site.
I sat there in the garden surrounding the tomb. It was so peaceful sitting there without being disturbed.I came across an old muslim man with long beard collecting dry leaves, probably a gardener there. How many of his ancestors would have been gardeners here, I thought. There were two wells, which were filled with plastic bottles and filth. I went around and came across smaller tombs and quarters of servants, if I guessed correctly. There were names and love symbols all over the walls. Oh! I hate these people! They and their pathetic love! Why can't they write these symbols in their houses rather than on monuments! Everybody speaks philosophy and try to look educated, but when it comes to simple things like this and littering away stuff they act like mindless people. I calmed myself after that and went to one more tomb near by, the Afsarwala Tomb(meaning officer's Tomb) and went to a exhibition there describing the facts related to this place. It has been identified as world heritage site in 1993 and it is good to know that the Archeological Survey of India has taken an initiative to renovate the whole site.
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