Amidst the old peepals and the young silk cotton trees in the five acre char bagh of Mah Banu and her husband Abdur Rahim Khan I Khanan’s tomb, sits a couple eating lunch. They come here regularly, says the team who has worked for five years on the conservation of the burial site in Delhi’s Nizamuddin.
Dating back to 1598, during the rule of Akbar, Rahim was one of the navratnas in the court, winning wars with his military training and hearts with his dohas and translated texts — a man who survived despite his father Bairam Khan’s assassination when he was just four.
Meant to be a dedication of a husband to his wife, the tomb ended up housing his own remains too when he died in 1627, though the graves are in a chamber beneath the cenotaphs above, the former not open to the public.
A tomb with a view
“When we start any project, we ask ourselves what the significance of the site is. Here, the significance is that it’s a tomb. The historical and cultural significance is more than the archaeological and architectural significance, so restoring the dignity of the burial place has been very important,” says Ratish Nanda, CEO, Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC) that was responsible for the initiative. The marble and red sandstone clad tomb, along with that of Humayun’s, a stone’s throw away, were inspiration for the Taj Mahal, an insight by British historian and archaeologist Percy Brown, in his book Indian Architecture: The Islamic Period .
Having completed the restoration of Humayun’s Tomb in 2013, the AKTC had planned a larger Nizamuddin Urban Renewal Initiative, involving the conservation and cultural revival of the approximately 60 structures in the area. While the building is owned by the ASI, the funding was provided by the InterGlobe Foundation.
Each section is worked upon during the conservation process
“Without this work this building would not have continued to stand,” says Nanda, adding that it had been quarried of its marble and sandstone over the centuries. There were cracks that ran from the crypt to the dome. “The work has included emergency conservation. We had to strengthen the foundations all across the building to give it structural stability, but also to put back things that had been vandalised or taken away.” Similarly, the corner pillars and 17 arches on each side were also restored, as they too give structural support.
The conservation of the building itself stands at the crossroads of heritage protection and revival of buildings, crafts and local livelihoods, and the need for open-air green urban spaces that provide context to the city, so it doesn’t look like just about any park anywhere in the world.
At any given time, there would be about 100 people on site from an inter-disciplinary team of conservation architects, engineers, landscape architects, and craftspeople. The last category generally originate from where the material comes from, even centuries ago: the red sandstone from Dholpur, the marble from Makrana, both in Rajasthan. There were about 3,000-4,000 craftspeople involved with 1,75,000 days of work undertaken.
Delhi views
“We put some of the marble back on the dome, to stabilise the base and to indicate what the original might have looked like,” says Nanda. A large part of this double dome (an inner and outer structure) is still left uncovered, a reminder of the plunder that we subject our monuments to, over the centuries. This decision, and many others, were put through upto 60 independent peer reviews, with arguments on both sides. “That makes conservation fun,” says Nanda, adding that it’s important no single individual takes a decision on a conservation plan.
If you look at the building closely, the redder sandstone (due to the oxidation) and the duller white marble are from the original. There are many spaces, where there was no evidence of what was, hence left unclad exposing the Delhi quartzite beneath. In the inner vaulted chamber, about 80-85% of the work entailed cleaning the structure of grime, paint build up and cement plaster ‘fortification’ in the 20th century.
“This is routine in buildings across the world. They were well meaning efforts, and it’s only in the late 20th century that it was found that cement is detrimental to heritage buildings, because it starts eating away the original lime plaster. So cement is removed not only because it’s ugly, but also because it’s stronger than the lime,” says Nanda. The flooring a red sandstone, needed to be put back too.
Incensed plaster work in the inner chamber
On some of the arches outside and on the walls and ceiling of the inner chamber is decorative incised plaster work. Two coats of plaster (lime mortar) are applied and intricate patterns carved out on the outer layer before the plaster sets. The symbols used are geometric and floral as well as the swastika and peacock patterns, pointing to his pluralistic nature, says Ujwala Menon, a conservation architect who worked on the project. She says the process of restoration involves extensive documentation of the building, a study of archival records, a stone-by-stone condition assessment, a plan and peer reviews of it, before any construction work begins.
“Conservation is not a recreation or replicating the original, it’s about giving it life,” says Priyanka Singh, who heads the InterGlobe Foundation. She adds that this project — their first of this scale — excited them because it was part of a larger plan, and also because the foundation works in the realm of heritage, livelihood, and environment.
The original structure was built on the banks of what is now called the Barapullah Nullah that historians feel would have been a tributary of the Yamuna. In fact, Rahim was fascinated by water systems, as seen from the water system in Burhanpur he set up. At the Delhi tomb, historians haven’t been able to work out the intricate system unfortunately.
Rahim’s last resting place is significant, because it is symbolic of his many parts: his life as a family man, his pluralistic nature, his interest in science and art. His birthday was commemorated with the tomb’s opening to the public on December 17.
