Khan-i-Khanan Tomb - Rahim Gets a New Wardrobe

Rahim Tomb

Circa March 2013

Who can forget reciting ‘Dohe’ in our school Hindi classes? Dohas are short Hindi couplets conveying profound messages that draw meaning from everyday life for easy understanding. Apart from Kabir, another prolific dohe writer was Rahim. To understand the childhood connection with Rahim, we need to jog our memory to recall a popular doha:

रहिमन धागा प्रेम का, मत तोड़ो चटकाय।
टूटे से फिर ना जुड़े, जुड़े गाँठ परि जाय॥

English Translation
Rahim says; Do not break the thread of love between people. If the
thread breaks, it cannot be mended; even if you mend it there will
always be a knot in it. The friendship will not be same anymore.

Rahim Tomb - South Western Corner - 2020

 Khan-i-Khanan Tomb: South East View - March 2013

Now that sure brought an instant childhood connection with Rahim and a smile to the face.

Khanzada Mirza Khan Abdur Rahim Khan-e-Khanan (17 December 1556 – 1626) popularly known as Rahim was one of the Navratnas (Nine Ministers or Nine Gems) in Akbar’s court. Abdul Rahim Khan was the son of Bairam Khan. History is amazing – how can a son of a Mughal general infamous for atrocities could turn out to be composer and poet.

March 2013

 The East Face - 2020

Akbar who was probably sick of the overbearing and revolting Bairam Khan – Akbar’s tutor, regent and general – retired him and sent him packing to Mecca. This was better than being thrown off the Agra Fort as Adham Khan would testify. On his way in Gujarat, Bairam Khan was recognised by a certain man called Hazi Khan whose father was brutally killed by Bairam Khan during the Second Battle of Panipat between Akbar and Hemu.

March 2013

2020

March 2013

Bairam Khan had exhorted the kid Akbar to behead Hemu as he lay bleeding from an arrow wound in the eye. Bairam must have done something similar to this guy’s father too. Anyway, Hazi Khan takes revenge and kills Bairam Khan. Maybe it was all planned by Akbar! However, Rahim Khan then four and his mother were released unharmed and they returned to Akbar’s court.

He was a contemporary of Tulsidas and both would exchange notes. You could call them today’s Gulzar and Javed Akhtar. Although a Muslim, he was a devotee of Lord Krishna and wrote poetry dedicated to Him. The reason could be owing to his maternal lineage tracing back to Jadaun Rajputs and Yadavas.

History again has a way of repeating unflinchingly in gory ways. Just like Rahim’s father Bairam Khan tutored Akbar and was unceremoniously disposed off in an ambush in Gujarat for his efforts, Rahim tutored Akbar’s son Jahangir. For his efforts, Jahangir had Rahim’s two sons killed and their bodies left to rot at Khooni Darwaza opposite Feroz Shah Kotla. Jahangir was simply annoyed that Rahim’s sons supported Jahangir’s eldest son Khusrau to succeed Akbar.

During his trips to Delhi, Mirza Khan marvelled at the beauty of the recently built Humayun Tomb. He figured that he would build something similar for his wife; just like Haji Begum did in her husband Humayun’s memory. Built in 1598, about 30 years after Humayun’s Tomb, the structure and planning of Khan-i-Khanan Tomb is similar but on a much smaller scale. The tomb, like Humayun Tomb, is faced with red sandstone and white marble. The high dome has decorated plaster work. On his death, Rahim Khan was also buried here along with his wife and sons.

March 2013

Mirza Khan’s cenotaph lies on the first floor. The tomb was stripped of its sandstone and marble for building the Safdurjung Tomb – a pattern repeated earlier by Sher Shah Suri who dismantled Siri Fort to build Shergarh and Shahjahan who walked away with Feroz Shah Kotla to build Shahjahanabad.

The chain of inspiration for building tombs for spouses continued and later Shahjahan taking a cue from Rahim Khan built a popular tomb in Agra for his wife.

 Seems like yesterday, don it - March 2013

March 2013

Today, the Khan-i-Khanan Tomb sits on prime real estate in East Nizamuddin. The lawns are lush and well maintained. Since it is a ticketed monument and that too in the shadow of Humayun Tomb, it does not get many visitors. Most people driving on the busy Mathura Road are too busy negotiating the traffic to look. Few who do, look at the tomb with some bewilderment. People are not sure what to make of the stripped exterior. The tomb looks like a once rich person who has been dealt a bad hand and all that is left now is a tattered coat and some old glory. It looks both tragic and endearing – just like Rahim’s life.

Come and spend some time among the scarred and stripped walls. You just might hear poetry and couplets wafting in the air.

Getting There: As you drive on Mathura Road from Subz Burj roundabout towards Nizamuddin Railway Station, the tomb lies on the left.

https://www.ghumakkar.com/knowing-delhi-khan-i-khanan-tomb-in-nizamuddin/

(first published on the Travel Portal Ghumakkar)

 

Circa Feb 2015

As you rummage through your photos, you realise you had visited the tomb on a foggy morning in Feb 2015 too. Looking at the blueprint pieces of paper (looks like the radioactive sign) pasted on different sections of the tomb, the renovation was about to start around this time. The visit gives a nice midway point of time between 2013 and 2020. Here are a few photos from that visit.

This is what you noted on a FB post:

Looking at the heavy slabs of red sandstone, it seems Khan-i-Khanan Tomb will undergo large scale restoration. You like the tomb’s bare stripped appearance. The walls of the lower levels cells have already been plastered over. Most of the original incised plasterwork is gone. Not happy with the work done so far.

Last chance to go and record the original look before the red slabs cover the facade.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/dhpclub/permalink/939462572760429 

(quite an enlightening conversation)

Khan-i-Khanan Tomb in Feb 2015 

December 2020

The General has New Clothes

धरती की सी रीत है, सीत घाम औ मेह ।
जैसी परे सो सहि रहै, त्‍यों रहीम यह देह॥

You have never seen the Sabz Burz roundabout choked on a Sunday. Entire Delhi seems to have descended here. People are tired of the lockdown and a sunny Sunday offers exciting opportunities. About a km to the south, everything is tranquil at the gates of the newly renovated tomb. Wait a minute - there are some Bongs who apparently can’t get the new ASI site to issue e-tickets trying to talk some sense into the caretaker to let them in. You try too but the site is apparently overloaded with all the folks back at Humayun Tomb trying to buy tickets. ASI has just lifted the 1000 people a session limit this weekend. Now hoping they start opening them up for the lit hours too. Time to get some e-payment app on the phone.

You are entering the premises after about six years. They have opened a new gate on Mathura Road side with parking. Last time you entered from the North gate on the East Nizamuddin colony street. What you see is almost a majestic tomb, glowing in the beautiful sunshine and some of the bluest skies. For a moment, it seems the tomb is cocking a snook in Safdurjungs Tomb’s direction for stealing its stone (both lie on a perfect east-west axis few kms apart). The tomb has lost its emaciated, stripped and defeated look.  The tomb has certainly gained weight and a new dapper wardrobe during the lockdown. The wispy white clouds seem to be celebrating the comeback of Mirza Khan. The exposed rubble walls have brand new sandstone and marble attire. Your feelings are mixed seeing the new Rahim. To you it seemed the earlier avatar poignantly reflected the tragic life of Bairam Khan’s (allegedly killed by Akbar) son, whose own two sons were killed by Jahangir – the vicissitudes of imperial life. 

Aga Khan Foundation (AKTC) along with INTACH has been doing the restoration work for years now in the Nizamuddin area. Humayun Tomb was a colossal project. Later, Sundar Nursery was rejuvenated with its crumbling monuments given new life. Sabz Burj is being worked upon now. While they have done good job on Chaunsath Khamba, you are not sure if they will be able to reclaim several monuments inside the Basti from the usurpers like the probably already disappeared Lal Mahal. INTACH and the Foundation overall, has done a good job with the structure, the grounds and the interpretation. But seeing their recently restored monuments already coming apart in Sundar Nursery, you are really not sure how soon the new plaster and the painting will start unravelling inside the chamber. So here is what you think – their stonework is good however, they are yet to crack the formula of plaster making. 

March 2013

On the first-floor platform, an informed traveller remarked that the water tank is usually not seen on the first-floor platforms of Mughal tombs. Palaces like in the Red Fort and other contemporary Rajput palaces have fountains and tanks and water channels. You are racking your brains if you have seen this feature in the Deccan and if some architect or Mirza Khan’s posting in Deccan exposed him to this element. Since the Tomb was inaugurated by the Culture and Tourism Minister, today the tank has clean waters fragrant with rose petals. In a few days, it will be filled with gutkha spits and chips packets. 

March 2013

The dome in the chamber has been done up quite nicely. Apparently, the original incised plasterwork has been exposed and painted. The sun streaming through the west iwan doorway now fitted with metal filigree screen throws interesting patterns on the plaster. Pigeons have not yet invaded the chamber and the walls still sparkle for the time-being. Lets wait for the first monsoons - that will be the test of the new restoration.

You come out and stand on the southwest corner as you watch the tomb gleam in the soft winter Delhi sun as the clouds drift creating interesting patterns on the blue sky. Such moments are rare in Delhi. Rahim would be smiling.

Related Posts on this Blog

https://www.ghumakkar.com/knowing-delhi-khan-i-khanan-tomb-in-nizamuddin/

http://justrippingg.blogspot.com/2014/04/tughlaqabad-and-jahanpanah-fourth-city.html

http://justrippingg.blogspot.com/2016/05/ancient-delhi-case-of-vishnu-idol-from.html

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Gone Kannauj

The once great imperial Hindu Capital of Northern India of Harshvardhan, Rashtrakutas and Jaychandra has simply vanished from the historical landscape of the country

You think of Kannauj often. Kannauj, along with Thanesar, was the place to be in the Classical Age just like Delhi was in Medieval Age and later. Alexander Cunningham describes the great city of Kanoj as the Hindu Capital of Northern India for several hundred years. Harshvardhan, (reign 607 – 648 AD) the legendary Emperor ruled from Kannauj and was one of the few Classical Age rulers whose court accounts survive in the form of the beautiful Harsa Charita written by Banabhatta.

Kannauj Scenes - Ruins at Cannouge - An Engraving by Thomas Daniell in 1802

http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/onlineex/apac/other/019xzz000004323u00007000.html

Plate 7 from the third set of Thomas and William Daniells' 'Oriental Scenery.' Kannauj, the ancient city of Kanyakubja, the capital of the Emperor Harshavardhana and later of the Pratihara dynasty, had by the early 15th century become an important Muslim city, part of the Sultanate of Jaunpur. The Jami' Masjid or Congregational Mosque in Kannauj was converted from former Hindu buildings in the period 1400-06 by Sultan Ibraham Shah of Jaunpur. The Daniell print shows the relatively unadorned front of the half ruined prayer hall with its pointed arches and polygonal columns typical of Muslim architecture in India before the arrival of the Mughals, although the richly carved corbels supporting the mostly vanished chajja or heavy eave are typically Hindu. Facing the mosque is part of a tomb.

Hwen Thsang, the great Chinese itinerant pilgrim, remembers Kanoj in 634 AD as surrounded by strong walls and great ditches and washed by Ganga on its east. He notes that Harshvardhan’s empire extended from Kashmir to Assam and from Nepal to Narmada. There is the famous battle at Narmada when the Chalukyan King Pulakeshin II halted Harsh’s southern march. Later the Parmaras, Gurjar-Pratiharas, Chandelas, Rashtrakutas and Palas would wrangle among themselves to wrest control of Kannauj. The story of Rashtrakutas of Manyakheta (Gulbarga in Karnataka) is especially inspiring as a kingdom of south of Vindhyas would come this further up North to control Kannauj. You always wondered why did the kings of those times fought so much. And when the crunch came, the invaders would roll over all these kingdoms in a matter of few decades. So much for all their bravura and all their legends.

Later the Tomars of Delhi also would have their capital in Kannauj according to Cunningham. Mohammd Ghori would first defeat Delhi’s King Prithviraj Chauhan in 1191 and then will march to Kannauj to rout King Jaychandra, who was Prithviraj Chauhan’s father-in-law and had decided not to help Prithviraj. We all have heard the story how the Chauhan King Prithviraj took off with the daughter of the Rathore Jaychandra. This was one of the main reasons why all these kingdoms were demolished one by one in a brief span of time. About 150 years later, Ibn Battuta would describe Kannauj as a small town – the same city which Ferishta describes as being seen by Mahmud Ghazni raising its head to the skies and which in strength and structure might justly boast to have no equal.

Gahadwals, the dynasty whose signs you see in the museums in form of all these bewitching sandstone images in museums, would rule Kannauj later. So, the logic says Kannauj would have at least 800 years worth of temples. But where are they? You have not been to Kannauj and you haven’t seen any Sultanate time photos of monuments there, so what happened?

Gone Kannauj

So, you are still thinking. Everyone co-existed in Kerala peacefully. Temples, churches, mosques, synagogues all were built within metres of each others. No demolitions, nothing. And then came the Portuguese and everything changed. Those idiots were worse than the Delhi Sultanate. But that is another story.

In Spain, Moorish era monuments still survive when Christianity returned. In Iran, pre-Islamic monuments from dynasties like Sasanian still survive. In Turkey, the Byzantine structures still survive even when Ottomans took over. Bamiyan statues and stups survived in Afghanistan.

So, what happened to these Turks and Afghans and Persians when they came to India? Why did they unleash this new brand of total annihilation of cultural symbols? What were they trying to prove? Why couldn’t they have just built their own mosques like it has happened in Kerala in the past centuries. Not only they would demolish but they would boast too in their inscriptions; like the one at Qutb Minar.

Henry Cousens and others were as affected by this practise even as they tried to be objective. He notes: “We know, and they have exultingly recorded the fact, in many of their inscriptions, that the Muhammadans when they first overran the country, made a practise of destroying the chief temple at most places they visited and building their first Jami Masjid upon its site.”

Photo Credit - wallyg - NY Met Museum - early 12th century UP (looks totally like Gahadvala)

Cunningham is equally aghast when he visits Kannauj. He laments, “I am obliged to confess with regret that I have not been able to identify even one solitary site with any certainty; so completely has almost every trace of Hindu occupation been obliterated by Musalmans. Cunningham notices the triangular citadel that occupies the higher ground with few Muslim structures. The only remains of interest are the palace ruins of Rang Mahal, Hindu pillars of Jama Masjid and the Masjid of Makhdum Jahaniya and the Hindu statues in village Singh Bhawani.

The Dina or Jama Masjid was built in 1406 by Jaunpur ruler Ibrahim Shah on a commanding position in the middle of the old fort. Cunningham surmises that simply looking at its position one can be sure that a Hindu Temple of significance existed at the site. The Jonpur rulers in the template of Delhi Sultanate would raise similar mosques from Hindu temples in present Jaunpur (you have not visited Jaunpur yet). Cunningham visited Kannauj first in 1838 and then in 1862. He reports the placing of the pillars in the Jama Masjid was changed; probably done by the Muslim Tehsildar before 1857. The same individual also destroyed all remains of Hindu figures on the walls of the both the masjids. Cunningham is getting angrier – the whole of these made up pillars must have been obtained after the usual cheap Muhammadan manner – by the demolition of some Hindu buildings – either Buddhist or Brahmanical.

Photo credit: 123rf.com

Since the city was visited by Hsieun Tsang so it should have a large number of Buddhist structures. Zilch. Cunningham rues that the Muhammadan spoliation is so complete that there is not a single piece standing to give a faint clue towards identification. There was a great 200 feet high Stupa of Asoka; another Asoka Stupa in the north-west. There were three monasteries and vihara that had a tooth of Buddha. There was another lofty 200 feet high vihara with Buddha Statue. There were two majestic temples, one dedicated to Shiva, and built of blue stones.

There would have been scores of more temples; you are pretty sure.

Cannoge (Kannauj) on the river Ganges

http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/onlineex/apac/other/019xzz000004324u00012000.html

Plate 12 from the fourth set of Thomas and William Daniell's 'Oriental Scenery,' which they called 'Twenty-four Landscapes.' The views progress northwards from the far south at Cape Comorin to Srinagar in Garhwal in the Himalaya mountains. Kannauj was an important centre under Harsha, the most powerful ruler of Northern India in the early 7th century, and it later became the capital of the Pratihara dynasty. Looking at the ruined tombs in the distance the artists lamented that '...It is impossible to look at these miserable remnants of the great city of Cannoge without the most melancholy sensations, and the strongest conviction of the instability of man's proudest works.'

http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/onlineex/apac/other/019wdz000000755u00000000.html

Pen-and-ink drawing of the mosque at Kannauj by an unknown artist between 1780 and 1820. Inscribed on the front in ink is: 'Mosque in Canouj.'

Kannauj is an ancient city in Uttar Pradesh, formerly situated on the banks of the Ganga River but now several kilometres to its south. It was the capital of a great Aryan kingdom which peaked in the 6th century and was later sacked by the Turkish ruler, Mahmud of Ghazni, in 1018. In 1540 it was the scene of the Mughal ruler Humayun’s (1508-1556) crushing defeat by Sher Shah. The Jami Masjid or congregational mosque at Kannauj was converted from a Hindu temple by Ibrahim Shah of Jaunpur in the early 15th century.

You have a theory. As opposed to say, Ajmer, Mehrauli, Mandu where the Delhi Sultanate demolished the temples to build mosques using the pillars, in Kannauj Ghazni paid a prior visit to the city, ransacking the city and scooting away in 1016 AD. In the intervening period, the temple parts would have been pilfered away. Some would have been used in the later Gahadwal period who would have built newer temples. And then Ghori came. Large scale ransacking would have taken place. But why didn’t they build their Ghurid hypostyle mosques in Kannauj? The answer is that the city was simply abandoned. The local Sultanate capital was moved to Badaun, 160 kms northwest to Kannauj.

The Daniells apparently saw the Jami Masjid built by the Jaunpur rulers much later. Is it still there? Just like Mathura, Kannauj apparently too has an overflowing museum with images that would have survived and some that keep popping up from the fields around the city. And yes, the Jami Masjid with a tomb still exists.

Some Questions: Why Kannauj did not become a place of prominence like Mandu or Chanderi in the Delhi Sultanate Days and why Kannauj is not popular subject of discourse today?

Next Step: Visit Kannauj, and Badaun and Jaunpur and whole lot of places in Uttar Pradesh; a state that you have not explored at all considering it is just next door.

References:

Four Reports Made During the Years 1863-65 by Alexander Cunningham, Volume I, Page 279

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kannauj

https://www.britannica.com/place/Kannauj

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rashtrakuta_dynasty

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chalukya_dynasty

http://myuttarpradesh.net/kannauj/

http://uttarpradesh.gov.in/en/destination/kannauj/32003400

https://www.dnaindia.com/analysis/column-what-happened-to-jaichand-of-kannauj-2475931

https://www.123rf.com/photo_8550174_52-pillars-mosque-in-kannauj-india-a-famous-city-for-perfume.html

Kannauj - The Scent of Ittar

https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/economy/the-lingering-scent-of-kannauj-52184

https://www.sahapedia.org/art-aromas-ittar-industry-kannauj

Govt Museum in Kannauj

https://kannauj.nic.in/tourist-place/museum/

History of Kannauj

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2aDlWtCVt0

Related Posts on this Blog

http://justrippingg.blogspot.com/2016/05/ancient-delhi-case-of-vishnu-idol-from.html

https://justrippingg.blogspot.com/2019/02/bijamandal-gone-temple.html

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