Akbar mausoleum

The Akbar mausoleum is the tomb of Jalāludin Mohammed, called Akbar (1542-1605), the third and most important ruler of the Mughal dynasty who ruled from 1561 and was called Akbar ("The Great") during his lifetime . It is the largest tomb in India in terms of area.

Akbar Mausoleum, Sikandra. The grave building has neither framing minarets nor a central dome; instead, there are clear echoes of the palace architecture of the Mughal period.

location

The tomb is located about 10 km northwest of Agra near the former village of Sikandra within an extensive park at a height of about 170 m ; the river Yamuna flows about 1 km northeast of the mausoleum. About 1 km to the southwest is the tomb of Mariam uz-Zamani (1542–1622), Akbar's Hindu wife and mother of Jahangir .

history

The construction of the huge grave complex was started during Akbar's lifetime, who was probably still involved in the planning and construction of the gate. The unusual multi-storey design of the actual tomb could also be attributed to Akbar. However, the monument was not finally completed until 1613 under his son and successor Jahangir.

architecture

Gate building with rich decor and four minaret attachments, which are visually divided by surrounding balconies

Gate construction

The front facade of the gate building, which looks monumental from a distance, is almost completely covered with inscriptions, but also with geometric and floral decorative elements made of red sandstone, white marble and gray-blue slate (arched gusset). In essential parts (central ivan arch with lateral galleries, crenellated crown and attached pavilions ( chhatris )) it follows the concept of the gate construction of the mosque in Fatehpur Sikri ( Buland Darwasa ), which was still completed during Akbar's lifetime . The marble minaret attachments in the corners were also designed as little turrets ( guldastas ), but here they form dominant and widely visible elements, are divided by balcony walkways and take the place of the chhatris, which are now at their top . Similar minaret attachments ("jewelry minarets") can already be found in Persian mosque gate buildings from the 14th century ( Yazd and others) or as free-standing minarets in the complex of the Gur-Emir mausoleum ( Samarkand ) from the 15th century. A few years before construction began on the Akbar mausoleum, they appear at the Charminar in Hyderabad (1591/92).

Akbar's cenotaph and lattice window ( jalis ) with - potentially infinite - geometric motifs (smaller hexagons or larger, overlapping octagons, which in turn are composed of central squares and elongated hexagons)

Grave construction

The unusual five-storey grave monument - erected without a dominant central dome and thus clearly detaching itself from all models - stands on a square base with a side length of approx. 105 m. The three middle levels are open on all sides, rest only on slender columns or pillars and are reminiscent of the airy architecture of the Panch Mahal in Fatehpur Sikri, the new one commissioned by Akbar around 1570 but abandoned a few years later Ruler's residence. The upper top, made of white marble and completely enclosed by richly ornamented lattice barriers ( jalis ) and uncovered, in which there is a cenotaph , is more reminiscent of a palace. Small pavilions ( chhatris ) or elongated chaparkats , whose white marble domes stand out clearly from the otherwise used red sandstone from Rajasthan, are distributed over the entire structure . The tomb consists of a main room with low annex buildings that are architecturally and optically linked to the central structure in a completely different way than was the case with the Humayun mausoleum .

The ornamentation of the slightly protruding portal framing ( pishtaq ) with its dominant ivan arch repeats the geometric motifs and arabesques already used in the portal of the gateway. Otherwise, the entire facade of the ground floor is undecorated and just plastered in red. The interior of the main room with another marble cenotaph of Akbar and smaller mock graves of two of the ruler's daughters (the actual graves are below the ground) is richly decorated with star mosaics (floor) as well as inscription bands and floral paintings on stucco (walls and dome ceiling). The marble lattice windows ( jalis ) contain - as is customary in Islamic art in India - potentially infinite geometric motifs.

park

The mausoleum is located in the center of an extensive (approx. 690 × 690 meters), four-part garden with watercourses, trees, meadows and flower beds in the Persian style ( Char-Bagh ) , in which there are also gazelles , monkeys ( Hanuman langurs ) and peacocks and chipmunks live - all in all an allusion to the paradise promised by the Koran . A passage from the gate inscription reads: “These are the gardens of Eden. Come in and live forever. "

meaning

Akbar's mausoleum is located between the tomb of his father Humayun in Delhi and the tomb of Itimad-ud-Daula (Agra) or the Taj Mahal , where his grandson Shah Jahan is also buried.

The comparison of the gateways of the Akbar mausoleum and the Humayun mausoleum shows that the incrustations of red sandstone, white marble and gray-blue slate are decidedly finely divided and occupy much larger areas. The four slender minarets of the gateway, clad in white marble, are considered to be important precursors to the minarets of the Taj Mahal .

In contrast to all previous and most of the later tombs in India, Akbar's mausoleum also contains elements of contemporary palace architecture; Whether this corresponds to a wish of Akbar or an idea of his son Jahangir or even of the unknown architect is not known. In any case, the huge building with its garden can not only be understood as a grave monument, but also refers to a spacious - appropriate to the ruler - residence in the afterlife.

literature

Catherine B. Asher: Architecture of Mughal India (= The New Cambridge History of India. 1, 4). Reprinted edition. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge et al. 2003, ISBN 0-521-26728-5 .
Ajit S. Bhalla: Royal Tombs of India. 13th to 18th Century. Mapin Publishing et al., Ahmedabad 2009, ISBN 978-0-944142-89-9 .
Hermann Forkl, Johannes Kalter, Thomas Leisten, Margareta Pavaloi (eds.): The gardens of Islam. Edition H. Mayer, Stuttgart et al. 1993.
Bamber Gascoigne: The Mughals. Splendor and greatness of Mohammedan princes in India. Special edition. Prisma-Verlag, Gütersloh 1987, ISBN 978-3-570-09930-8 .
Markus Hattstein, Peter Delius (Ed.): Islam. Art and architecture. Könemann, Cologne 2000, ISBN 3-89508-846-3 , p. 477.
Ebba Koch : Mughal Architecture. An Outline of Its History and Development (1526-1858). Prestel, Munich 1991, ISBN 3-7913-1070-4 .

Web links

Commons : Akbar Mausoleum - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

↑ Sikandra - Map with altitude information

27.220472222222 77.950472222222Coordinates: 27 ° 13 ′ 14 ″ N , 77 ° 57 ′ 2 ″ E

[1] Sikandra - Map with altitude information