History of Indian and Eastern Architecture v2.c31.s3.8

v2.c31.s3.8

The tomb of Humâyûn Shâh, the first of the Mughals who was buried in India, still stands tolerably entire among the ruins of Old Delhi, of which indeed it forms the principal and most striking object (Plate XXXIII.). It stands well on a large square platform, 22 ft. in height, adorned with arches, whose piers are ornamented with an inlay of white marble. The tomb itself is an octagonal apartment, 47 ft. 4 in. across, crowned by a dome of white marble, of very graceful contour externally. Four sides of the octagon are occupied by the entrances; the other four smaller octagonal apartments, 23 ft. wide, are attached; these project from the façades of the central bays on each face, and the amount of white marble on them, gives them prominence. In the corner rooms are the tombs of Hâjî Begam and some nine others of the royal race. These apartments make up a building nearly square in plan, about 155 ft. each way, with the angles slightly cut away.¹ Its plan is in fact that afterwards adopted at the Tâj (Woodcut No. 433), but used here without the depth and poetry of that celebrated building. Its most marked characteristic, however, is its purity—it might almost be called poverty—of design. It is so very unlike anything else that Akbar ever built, that it is hardly possible it could have been designed by him. It has not even the picturesque boldness of the earlier Pathân tombs, and in fact looks more like buildings a century at least more modern than it really is. It is, however, as will be seen from the photograph, a noble tomb, and anywhere else must be considered a wonder.