Humayun's Tomb, Delhi: The First Great Mughal Garden Tomb

Humayun’s Tomb in Delhi is the mausoleum of the second Mughal emperor, Humayun, built in about 1565–1572 during the reign of his son Akbar. Designed by a Persian architect and set in a formal four-part garden, it was the first great garden tomb of the Indian subcontinent. Its scale, symmetry and double dome made it the direct ancestor of the Taj Mahal.

Background: Humayun and his death

Humayun (1508–1556) inherited the young Mughal empire from his father Babur in 1530. Within ten years he had lost it to the Afghan ruler Sher Shah Suri, and he spent about 15 years in exile, much of it at the court of the Safavid shah Tahmasp I in Persia.

He regained Delhi in 1555 but died only months later, in January 1556, after falling down the steep stairs of his library in the Purana Qila (Old Fort). He was first buried in Delhi, and the body is generally thought to have been moved more than once before the permanent tomb was ready. His son Akbar, then 13, secured the throne after the Second Battle of Panipat that November.

Building the tomb

Mughal tradition holds that Humayun’s senior widow, Bega Begum (also called Haji Begum after her pilgrimage to Mecca), commissioned and paid for the tomb, though some historians argue that Akbar’s court directed the project. Construction is usually said to have begun around 1565 and to have been finished around 1572; early sources disagree on the exact dates.

The architect was Mirak Mirza Ghiyas, from Herat in present-day Afghanistan, who had worked in Bukhara and India. He appears to have died before the work was complete, and his son Sayyid Muhammad finished it. Their background explains the strong Persian and Timurid character of the design, combined with Indian materials and craftsmanship.

The site was chosen near the shrine of the Sufi saint Nizamuddin Auliya, close to the Yamuna River. Being buried near a revered saint was considered a blessing, and the area was already home to earlier tombs, including that of the Afghan noble Isa Khan Niazi (built 1547–48), which stands within the wider complex today.

Architecture and design

The tomb stands on a broad platform about 7 metres high, lined with arched cells that contain many more graves. The mausoleum itself is a square building with chamfered corners, built of red sandstone outlined and inlaid with white marble, a combination that became a hallmark of Mughal architecture.

Its plan follows the Persian hasht bihisht, or “eight paradises” layout: a central domed chamber surrounded by eight smaller rooms on two storeys, linked by passages. The cenotaph of Humayun lies in the central hall, while the real grave is in a chamber below, following Islamic custom.

The white marble dome rises to about 47 metres above the garden. It is a double dome: an inner shell gives the interior a well-proportioned ceiling, while the taller outer shell creates an impressive silhouette from outside. Small domed pavilions called chhatris, a feature of Indian architecture, crown the roof around it.

The tomb sits at the centre of a charbagh, a Persian-style garden divided into four parts by raised walkways and water channels, each part subdivided again. The garden symbolises the gardens of paradise described in the Quran, and the walled enclosure covers about 12 hectares.

Later history

The complex became a burial place for the Mughal dynasty. Over 100 graves are associated with it, including that of Bega Begum and, according to tradition, Akbar’s great-grandson Dara Shikoh, killed in 1659. For this reason it is sometimes called the dormitory of the Mughals.

In September 1857, during the Indian uprising against British rule, the last Mughal emperor, Bahadur Shah II (Bahadur Shah Zafar), took refuge at the tomb after the British recaptured Delhi. He was arrested there by the British officer William Hodson and later exiled to Rangoon in Burma.

Under British rule the gardens were replanted in an English style. In 1947 the area served as a camp for refugees during the partition of India, which damaged the site.

The wider complex

The tomb is the centrepiece of a cluster of 16th- and 17th-century monuments. Before reaching the main garden, visitors pass the octagonal tomb and mosque of Isa Khan Niazi, a noble of Sher Shah Suri’s court, built some two decades before Humayun’s Tomb. Its arches, chhatris and coloured tiles show the Afghan style that the Mughal builders inherited.

Nearby stand Bu Halima’s garden, at the modern entrance, and the Afsarwala tomb and mosque, built for an unidentified officer of Akbar’s court. An enclosure called the Arab Sarai is traditionally said to have housed craftsmen brought from Persia to work on the tomb, though its exact purpose is debated.

Inside the charbagh, in its south-eastern corner, is the so-called Barber’s Tomb (Nai ka Gumbad), dated to around 1590–91, whose occupant is unknown. Just outside the eastern wall rises the Nila Gumbad, a tomb named after its dome of blue glazed tiles. Together these buildings show how Mughal architecture grew out of earlier Delhi traditions.

Restoration and World Heritage

Humayun’s Tomb was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1993. From 1999 the Aga Khan Trust for Culture, working with the Archaeological Survey of India, restored the gardens and their water channels, and later the tomb itself. Craftsmen removed tonnes of modern concrete from the roof and repaired the original lime plaster and stonework using traditional methods.

Influence on the Taj Mahal

The tomb set out ideas that later Mughal builders refined: a monumental domed tomb on a high platform, the hasht bihisht plan, a double dome, the combination of red sandstone and white marble, and the symbolic paradise garden. Akbar’s own tomb at Sikandra and Jahangir’s tomb at Lahore developed the model further.

Its most famous descendant is the Taj Mahal, begun in 1632 by Akbar’s grandson Shah Jahan. The Taj placed the tomb at the end of the garden by the river rather than in the centre and was faced entirely in white marble, but its debt to Humayun’s Tomb is clear.

Myths and facts

Myth: Humayun’s Tomb has India’s first double dome. Double domes had already been used in some tombs of the Lodi period in Delhi. Humayun’s Tomb was, however, the first building in India to use a tall double dome on this monumental scale, in the Persian manner.

Myth: the Taj Mahal is a copy of Humayun’s Tomb. The Taj borrowed its plan and garden setting, but changed many elements, from its riverside position to its all-marble surface and minarets. It is better seen as the culmination of a design tradition that began here.

Timeline

• 1530: Humayun succeeds Babur as Mughal emperor.
• 1540: Humayun is driven out of India by Sher Shah Suri.
• 1555: Humayun recovers Delhi.
• 1556, January: Humayun dies after a fall in his library at the Purana Qila.
• c. 1565: Construction of the tomb begins under Akbar.
• c. 1572: The tomb is completed.
• 1857, September: Bahadur Shah II is arrested at the tomb by British forces.
• 1993: UNESCO inscribes Humayun’s Tomb on the World Heritage List.

Why it matters

Humayun’s Tomb marks the moment when the Mughals created a distinctive imperial architecture, blending Persian planning and Indian materials and craft. It established the garden tomb as the grandest expression of dynastic power and memory in Mughal India, and it remains one of Delhi’s most important monuments.