Khusrau bagh

The Khusrau-Bagh or Khusro Bagh ( Hindi : ख़ुसरो बाग़, Urdu : خسرو باغ) is a Mughal garden in the Persian style ( char-bagh ) with two intersecting axes in the city of Prayagraj in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh . There are four mausoleums for members of the Mughal court from the first half of the 17th century.

Khusrau-Bagh-Mausoleums

location

The park of the Khusrau-Bagh is located approx. 500 m southwest of the Prayagraj train station at an altitude of approx. 104 m above sea level. d. M. In the meantime, an entire district has been named after her.

history

The Mughal emperor Akbar I (. Reg 1556-1605) had in the late 16th century on - the Hindu holy - the confluence of the Ganges and Yamuna a mighty fortress erected, making the city next to Delhi , Agra , Fatehpur Sikri and Lahore to the most important of the empire's rise. In 1604, the Hindu princess Man Bai (also Sultan Begum ), wife of the designated heir to the throne Jahangir , committed suicide here by swallowing opium because of persistent differences between the prince and their two sons , Prince Khusrau . A memorial building was erected in her honor in the following years.

In 1622, Khusrau , who had been blinded many years earlier , was murdered on behalf of his younger brother Prince Khurram, who later became Mughal Mughal Shah Jahan . He received his own mausoleum next to that of his mother. In 1624/5, Nisar Begum , Khusrau's sister, decided to build a tomb for himself, but no sarcophagus has yet been discovered.

architecture

The core of all buildings is made of brick masonry , which is completely clad with red and yellow sandstone slabs from Rajasthan ; these were mainly transported by ship across the Yamuna. A certain similarity of the buildings with the ones built around 30 to 50 years earlier in Fatehpur Sikri cannot be overlooked.

Sultan Begum Mausoleum (around 1605)

Man Bai Mausoleum

The smallest and most unusual of the three large mausoleums was planned by court artist Aqa Reza : It consists of an approx. 1 m high square base zone with a side length of approx. 20 m, on which the approx. 2 m high substructure of the actual grave room rests. This is significantly richer with corner pillars, window windows, etc. and in turn forms the substructure for a square pavilion ( chhatri ) open on all sides with a multi-tiered and protruding roof in the Bengali style with a ball rod ( jamur ) at the top.

Between the Man-Bai-Mausoleum and the Khusrau-Mausoleum there is a large brick well basin.

Khusrau mausoleum (around 1623)

Khusrau mausoleum

The largest of the three mausoleums rests on a square base plate with a plinth on top. The actual grave building is two-storeyed, the lower part being particularly emphasized by presented columns that are doubled in the four corners; but also the upper part shows corner pillars, which even continue as small turrets above the surrounding battlements . Four corner pavilions with small domes and an octagonal tambour lead over to a double-shell bulged dome, the outer skin of which is plastered white. The end of the dome is formed by upturned lotus blossoms and ball sticks.

Nisar Begum Mausoleum (around 1625)

Inside of the Nisar Begum mausoleum

Nisar Begum mausoleum

Construction of the middle of the three grave monuments began while Sister Khusraus was still alive; it is similar to the recently completed mausoleum of her brother, but is slightly smaller overall, but richer in design. All three levels are square; on the south side a portal leads into the burial chamber located below ground level. The outer walls of the actual mausoleum are decorated with blind windows; The end is formed by a surrounding battlement, which is interrupted by numerous turrets. The corners of the building are accentuated by open pavilions ( chhatris ), the cantilevered roofs of which rest on six pillars each. Here, too, an octagonal tambour forms the substructure for the plastered, slightly bulged dome, which is only weakly visible on the inside due to its two-shell structure. An upturned lotus blossom with a stone vase ( kalasha ) form the top of the structure, the interior of which is painted with varied star motifs.