The Tomb of Ataga Khan is a 16th-century mausoleum located in the outer limits of the

Nizamuddin Dargah The Hazrat Nizamuddin Dargah is the dargah and mosque complex of the Sufi saint Nizamuddin Auliya, located in the Nizamuddin West area of Delhi, India. The dargah, or mausoleum, is a Sufi shrine and is visited by thousands of pilgrims every we ...

complex in

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, but spread chiefly to the west, or beyond its Bank (geography ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. Built during the reign of

Mughal Emperor The emperors of the Mughal Empire, who were all members of the Timurid dynasty (House of Babur), ruled the empire from its inception on 21 April 1526 to its dissolution on 21 September 1857. They were supreme monarchs of the Mughal Empire in ...

Akbar Akbar (Jalal-ud-din Muhammad Akbar, – ), popularly known as Akbar the Great, was the third Mughal emperor, who reigned from 1556 to 1605. Akbar succeeded his father, Humayun, under a regent, Bairam Khan, who helped the young emperor expa ...

, it was dedicated to

Ataga Khan Shams ud-Din Ataga Khan (died 16 May 1562) was a prominent figure in the court of the Mughal emperor Akbar. He held important positions in Akbar's court, including that of ''wakil'' (advisor or minister), to which he was appointed in November 1 ...

, an important noble of Akbar's court.

History

Ataga Khan was Mughal Emperor Akbar's prime minister, and husband to Jiji Anga, one of Akbar's

wet nurses A wet nurse is a woman who breastfeeding, breastfeeds and cares for another's child. Wet nurses are employed if the mother dies, if she is unable to nurse the child herself sufficiently or chooses not to do so. Wet-nursed children may be known a ...

. In 1562, he was murdered by

Adham Khan Adham Khan (1531 – 16 May 1562) was a general of Mughal emperor Akbar. He was the younger son of Maham Anga, and thus, was the foster brother of Akbar. In his fourth regnal year, Akbar married him to Javeda Begum, the daughter of Baqi Khan B ...

, a general of Akbar, as a result of jealousy and court intrigue. Adham Khan himself was immediately killed via

defenestration Defenestration (from Neo-Latin ) is the act of throwing someone or something out of a window. The term was coined around the time of an incident in Prague Castle in the year 1618 which became the spark that started the Thirty Years' War. This ...

as punishment on the orders of an enraged Akbar. Subsequently, Akbar ordered the construction of a mausoleum for Ataga Khan. Anthony Welch speculates that Ataga Khan's second son

Mirza Aziz Koka Mirza Aziz Koka ( ), also known as Kokaltash and by his sobriquet Khan-i-Azam (''The Greatest Khan''), was the foster brother of Akbar, who remained one of the leading nobles at the courts of the Mughal emperors Akbar and Jahangir. He was also ...

was more directly responsible for the patronage of the tomb. The tomb's architect was Ustad Khuda Quli, while its calligrapher was Baqi Muhammad from

Bukhara Bukhara ( ) is the List of cities in Uzbekistan, seventh-largest city in Uzbekistan by population, with 280,187 residents . It is the capital of Bukhara Region. People have inhabited the region around Bukhara for at least five millennia, and t ...

. Construction of the tomb began in 1562 and was completed in 1566. In 1905, the colonial government's Archaeology Department reached an agreement with the hereditary guardians of the tomb to split custody, whereby conservation of the site would be directed by archaeologists, and repairs would be financed by the government. In return, public access to the site would be allowed, save the central tomb, and with the exception of the ''

urs Urs (from ''‘Urs'') or Urus (literal meaning wedding), is the death anniversary of a Sufi saint, usually held at the saint's dargah (shrine or tomb). In most Sufi orders such as Naqshbandiyyah, Suhrawardiyya, Chishtiyya, Qadiriyya, etc. ...

'' ceremony, when the site would be closed. This agreement was made through the terms of the Ancient Monuments Preservation Act of 1904.

Architecture

The tomb of Ataga Khan draws from the form of previous Indian tombs. Particularly, it takes after the cube-shaped structure typical of Delhi tombs;{{Cite book , last=Koch , first=Ebba , title=Mughal architecture : an outline of its history and development, 1526-1858 , date=1991 , publisher=Prestel , isbn=3-7913-1070-4 , location=München, Federal Republic of Germany , pages=78 , oclc=26808918 the building is a cube of side length 10 m. The tomb features an outer dome of diameter 4 m, under which is an inner dome. The entrance to the structure is from the south, through a wooden door. Located in the outer limits of the

complex, the site on which the tomb lies is raised compared to that of the ''dargah'' courtyard. The primary building material of the tomb is rough sandstone. This is faced with red sandstone (inlaid with coloured stones) and white marble (featuring carved verses from the

Quran The Quran, also Romanization, romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a Waḥy, revelation directly from God in Islam, God (''Allah, Allāh''). It is organized in 114 chapters (, ) which ...

). This kind of decoration draws from the

Qila-i-Kuhna mosque The Qila-i-Kuhna Mosque (), also known as the Mosque of Sher Shah and the Kila Kohna Masjid, is an Hanafi Sunni, mosque located inside the Purana Qila () of Central Delhi, India. After Sher Shah Suri defeated Humayun, he occupied Purana Qila. ...

. The interior of the tomb was once covered in plaster decoration, which today only exists in fragments. The particular choices made for the Quranic epigraphy on the tomb, as well as the structure's location in the saintly Nizamuddin Dargah, have been argued by scholars to be indicative of the honor and martyrdom status ascribed to Ataga Khan by the Mughals after his death.

References

Ataga_Khan Shams ud-Din Ataga Khan (died 16 May 1562) was a prominent figure in the court of the Mughal emperor Akbar. He held important positions in Akbar's court, including that of ''wakil'' (advisor or minister), to which he was appointed in November 1 ...

Mausoleums in Delhi Monuments of National Importance in Delhi 16th-century establishments in India 16th-century establishments in the Mughal Empire Buildings and structures completed in 1566

History

Architecture

See also

References