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Delhi: Humayan's Tomb. General View. 1565

Date

Authors

Photographer: Arthur Llewellyn Basham

Journal Title

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Volume Title

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Abstract

Description

Shah Humayan was the son of the first Mogul leader to conquer the Lodi and Rajput sultans in the north of India in the first quarter of the 16th century. Both Humayan and his successor Babur were great art lovers and brought to the Mogul architecture their love of octagonal groundplans, open pavilions, bulbous domes, and brightly colored, glazed tile decoration. During Humayan's rule, however, few buildings were constructed to make use of these new elements, for the ruler was constantly away from his capital at Delhi fighting new wars. Those few buildings he did manage to commission consisted of a mosque, garden and this magnificent mausoleum and courtyard. For the sake of comparison, it is an instructive measure for us to place this tomb alongside of those we have studied from the early 17th century (the Taj Mahal and the tomb of Itim-ad-ud-Daula) to see from which early Mogul building techniques each borrowed ideas. If we omit the lengthy colonnade in front of Humayan's tomb - a special feature he brought to India from the capitals of Samarkand, Bukhara, and Herat - we see that the facade has the same number of units as the Taj Mahal, and that the latter has thrust forward rather than recessed its main portal for contrast. The tomb of Itim ad-ud-Daula has borrowed the cupola styles of Humayan's mausoleum but not the towers supporting them. Lastly, if we turn our attention to the subsidiary buildings of the Taj Mahal and compare them to the red sandstone decoration of the Humayana tomb, there is a similar incorporation of paneling and in-set ornamentation in the two.

Keywords

Mughal Architecture-- Mughal period Delhi, architecture

Citation

URI

http://hdl.handle.net/1885/182804

Collections

Basham Photographs

Source

Type

Image

Archives Series

Basham Collection

Date created

circa 1970s

Access Statement

License Rights

This item is provided for research purposes. Contact the Australian National University Archives at butlin.archives@anu.edu.au for permission to use.

DOI

Restricted until

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