City Monument – Three Edifices, Around Town
Stories of stones.
[Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi]
Monuments are made of stones and stories. Sometimes a series of monuments are threaded together by a single story, such as these three.
Once upon a time there was a king called Akbar. This king had an esteemed courtier called Atgah Khan. This Atgah Khan was killed by a jealous courtier called Adam Khan. This Adam Khan was then executed by an angry Akbar in a particularly sadist way (you might recall seeing Atgah Khan’s murder and Adam Khan’s morbid killing in a continuous four-minute-long sequence in the Hrithik Roshan movie Jodha Akbar). Consequently Adam Khan’s family built a tomb for him, just as Atgah Khan’s tomb was built by his son Mirza Aziz Koka. This Mirza Aziz Koka too has a tomb, and it is very special— it is the world’s first all-marble Mughal tomb. Today, dear reader, you can sight-see all the three tombs in the course of half a day, because they all are here in Delhi (although Akbar didn’t rule from Delhi but from… guess!)
Adam Khan’s tomb
Overlooking the local bus adda, the hilltop monument in Mehrauli is also known as Bhool Bhullaiya, a maze where one may get lost (it surely has to be a legend—impossible to get lost in this tomb!). During lazy afternoons, the monument becomes an extension of the neighbourhood life, crowded with people from the vicinity. Within the octagonal edifice lies Adam Khan’s grave, absurdly narrow.
Atgah Khan’s tomb
The monument in Hazrat Nizamuddin Basti is as lavish as an illustrated coffee-table book, the stone walls sculpted with calligraphies and patterns. The blue and green tiles adorning the arched gateway summon to imagination the Persian gardens of miniature paintings. Inside lies three graves, belonging to Atgah Khan, his wife Jiji Anga, and their eldest son Yusuf Muhammad Khan. This afternoon, the sunlight is trying to enter the dark chamber through the tomb’s stone screens, and mostly failing—see photo.
Mirza Aziz Koka’s tomb
Steps away from Atgah Khan’s tomb, the monument inspired the Diwan-e-Khas of Delhi’s Red Fort. Daylight enters into the large hall through the airy pores of the tomb’s stone screens. The two most decorative of the 10 graves belong to Mirza Aziz Koka and his wife, identity unknown. The building acquired its colloquial name of Chausath Khamba because chausath, or 64, pillars support the 25 domes of its stone ceiling. A bunch of graves lie immediately outside, some of which belong to the wives of Bahadur Shah Zafar, the last Mughal lying buried in Rangoon.