Safdarjung mausoleum
The Safdarjung mausoleum in Delhi (India) is the tomb for Mirza Muqim Abul Mansur Khan (1708-1754), who was born in Persia and emigrated to India in 1722. His uncle and father-in-law made him governor of the fertile region of Avadh ( also Oudh ) in northern India (main places : Faizabad and Lucknow ) inherited and later under the rather weak and insignificant Mughal emperors Muhammad Shah (r. 1719–1748) and Ahmad Shah (r. 1748–1754) the honorary title of Safdarjung and other titles of governor received.
location
The Safdarjung mausoleum is about 1.5 km southwest of the Lodi Gardens with their tombs from the 15th and 16th centuries and about 3 km from the Humayun mausoleum . Safdarjung Airport is about 1 km south , but it is only rarely used (mostly for government purposes).
history
Construction began while Safdarjung was still alive. The year of completion is usually given as the year of his death (1754).
architecture
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At its core, the tomb - like the other buildings in the complex - is made of bricks that were fired on site. The yellowish-red sandstone slabs and the slabs of the marble cladding of the dome, on the other hand, had to be transported from Rajasthan . The entire complex is designed symmetrically, only the somewhat hidden mosque deviates from this arrangement.
Gate construction
The two-storey, white-plastered entrance building and three similar pavilions in the axis cross of the central grave building are designed differently than was previously customary in Mughal architecture: there is no monumental central Iwan arch, no large accompanying galleries and no roof attachments in the form of Chhatris , turrets or a pinnacle wreath . However, the building has u. a. via individual decorative elements such as multi-pass arches and small canopies in the Bengali style .
mosque
About 50 m to the side of the gatehouse is the minaret loose , clad in red and white sandstone slabs, three-domed mosque of the installation in which visitors at certain times of the Koran in Sura prescribed prayers 5.6 ( wudoo ' ) could do. The bulbous domes show a strip-shaped decoration; they close in upturned lotus blossoms with extraordinarily slender spherical sticks (jamur) as tips. The small decorative towers ( guldastas ) on the sides or emphasizing the corners have a square floor plan and are raised by chhatris; they may have evolved in place of minarets, but their original function has been lost.
garden
The four-part, harmoniously designed garden with its evergreen palm trees, flower beds, bushes and lawns has a side length of approx. 280 m and is linked to the gardens in the Persian style ( char-bagh ) of the earlier Mughal graves, but no longer has small water channels, but four large pools with central - but rarely in use - fountains. In contrast to earlier tombs of Mughal architecture , the path to the actual tomb is only slightly raised compared to the garden level - to protect against heavy rain ( monsoons ) - and is not covered with stone slabs.
Grave construction
Exterior construction
The symmetrically designed mausoleum rises on a nearly 5 m high platform ( jagati ) open on all sides by arcades , which is very similar to that of the Humayun mausoleum about 3 km away . The actual grave building, approx. 28 m wide, rests on top of it, the middle part of which is dominated by a high Ivan arch, and two annex buildings with gallery openings are attached to each side . All arches end with multi-pass arches and are surrounded by an Alfiz -like frame made of white sandstone. In the corners of the building four minarets or stair towers - richly decorated and crowned by Chhatri essays - through which the upper floors and the roof platform can be reached. The roof area has a circumferential wreath of decorative battlements, each of which is raised by graceful arcades with small domes in the area above the entrance portals; to the side there are small decorative turrets ( guldastas ). The mausoleum, however, is dominated by a dome - raised and bulged by an unexposed drum - with a cladding of white marble slabs. The dome itself ends in an upturned lotus flower, which in turn is elevated by a ball stick ( jamur ), which nowadays also serves as a lightning rod .
inner space
The walls of the central burial chamber are divided into rectangular fields of various sizes by horizontal and vertical stucco templates, which - although executed in marble - can also be found on the side walls of the entrance portal to the Taj Mahal ; these in turn show large and small - also made of stucco - blind arches, which mostly end with multi-passports. The entire interior has no colored decorative elements in the form of stone inlays or paintings; even the floor consists only of white marble slabs. The dome is relatively richly decorated with plastic stucco ornaments - but also without paintings - and ends with a central rosette.
The white marble cenotaph standing on a platform that rises only slightly above ground level is elaborately worked, but also has no colored stone inlays or inscriptions. The actual graves of Safdarjung and one of his wives are - as usual - below ground level.
meaning
The Safdarjung mausoleum is often rated as the "last light of the Mughal architecture". Subsequent rulers or high state officials were no longer able to afford such an elaborate tomb. The British, with their mercantile ( British East India Company ) and military presence ( British India ), increasingly took control of the - only regional - rulers of India; little by little they absorbed the crumbling Mughal Empire as the “most beautiful jewel in the crown” of the British Empire.
See also
Other important mausoleums of the Mughal period are:
- Humayun Mausoleum , Delhi, India (1562–1570)
- Akbar Mausoleum , Sikandra , India (1605-1613)
- Itimad-ud-Daula Mausoleum , Agra , India (1622–1628)
- Jahangir Mausoleum , Lahore , Pakistan (1627-1637)
- Taj Mahal , Agra, India (1631–1648 / 53)
- Bibi-Ka-Maqbara , Aurangabad , India (1651–1661)
literature
- Ebba Koch: Mughal Architecture - An Outline of Its History and Development (1526–1858) , Prestel-Verlag, Munich 1991.
- Catherine B. Asher: Architecture of Mughal India Oxford University Press, Oxford 1995.
- Hermann Forkl, Johannes Kalter et al. (Ed.): The gardens of Islam . Stuttgart, London 1993.
- Alfred Renz: History and Sites of Islam from Spain to India . Prestel-Verlag, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-7913-0360-0 , p. 728 f.
- AS Bhalla: Royal Tombs of India. 13th to 18th Century . Mapin Publishing 2009, ISBN 978-0-944142-89-9 .
Web links
- Safdarjung tomb
- Safdarjung's Tomb (Engl.)
- Safdarjung's Tomb (Engl.)
- Safdarjung's Tomb (Engl.)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Markus Ritter: Mosques and Madrasa buildings in Iran, 1785-1848. Architecture between recourse and innovation. Brill, Leiden 2006, ISBN 978-90-04-14481-1 , pp. 206 ff.
Coordinates: 28 ° 35 ′ 21 ″ N , 77 ° 12 ′ 38 ″ E