Adham Khan's Tomb is the 16th-century tomb of

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 the

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 ...

. He was the younger son of

Maham Anga Maham Anga (died 25 June 1562) was the foster mother and chief wet nurse of the Mughal emperor Akbar. She was the political adviser of the teenage emperor and the de facto regent of the Mughal Empire from 1560 to 1562. Biography Maham Anga w ...

, Akbar's

wet nurse 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 ...

thus also his foster brother. Out of jealousy and court intrigue, in May 1562 Adham Khan murdered Akbar's favourite general Ataga Khan, in the courtyard of the ''Diwan-e-Aam'' (the hall of audience), in

Agra Fort The Agra Fort (''Qila Agra'') is a historical Mughal fort in the city of Agra, also known as Agra's Red Fort. Mughal emperor Humayun was crowned at this fort in 1530. It was later renovated by the Mughal emperor Akbar from 1565 and the presen ...

. An enraged Akbar immediately ordered Adham's execution by

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 ...

from the ramparts of the

. The tomb was built in 1562, and lies to the South-West of the

Qutub Minar The Qutb Minar, also spelled Qutub Minar and Qutab Minar, is a minaret and victory tower comprising the Qutb complex, which lies at the site of Delhi's oldest fortified city, Lal Kot, founded by the Tomar Rajputs. It is a UNESCO World Heritage ...

Mehrauli Mehrauli is a neighbourhood in South Delhi, Delhi, India. It represents a constituency in the legislative assembly of Delhi. The area is close to Gurugram and next to Vasant Kunj. History Mehrauli is one of the seven medieval cities that ...

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 ...

, immediately before one reaches the town of Mehrauli. it is now a protected monument by

Archaeological Survey of India The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) is an Indian government agency that is responsible for archaeological research and the conservation and preservation of cultural historical monuments in the country. It was founded in 1861 by Alexander ...

. The tomb is opposite Mehrauli bus terminus and many passengers use it as a place to wait.

Architecture

It lies on the walls of

Lal Kot Qila Rai Pithora or Lal Kot ( lit. "Rai Pithora's Fort") is a fortified complex in present-day Delhi, which includes the Qutb Minar complex. It was constructed in the reign of Rajput Tomar ruler Anangpal Tomar between c. 1052 - c.1060 CE. It is ...

and rising from a terrace enclosed by an octagonal wall provided with low towers at the corners. It consists of a domed octagonal chamber in the

Lodi dynasty The Lodi dynasty was an Afghan royal family that ruled Sultanate of Delhi from 1451 to 1526. It was the fifth and final dynasty of the Delhi Sultanate, and was founded by Bahlul Lodi when he replaced the Sayyid dynasty. Bahlul Lodi Followin ...

and

Sayyid dynasty The Sayyid dynasty was the fourth dynasty of the Delhi Sultanate, with four rulers ruling from 1414 to 1451 for 37 years.See: * M. Reza Pirbha, Reconsidering Islam in a South Asian Context, , Brill * The Islamic frontier in the east: Expansion ...

style of early 14th century. It has a verandah on each side pierced by three openings. It is known popularly as Bul-bulaiyan (a Labyrinth or Maze), for a visitor often loses his way amidst the several passages in the thickness of its walls.

History

, son of

, a wet nurse of

, was a nobleman and general in Akbar's army. In 1561, he fell out with Ataga Khan, Akbar's Prime Minister and husband of Jiji Anga, another of Akbar's wet nurses, and killed him, whereupon he was thrown down from the ramparts of

twice, by the order of the emperor

and died. His mother after fortieth day of mourning also died out of grief, and both were buried in this tomb believed to be commissioned and built by Akbar, in a conspicuous octagonal design not seen in any Mughal building of that era; a design perhaps designated to the traitors, as it was the common design and features visible in the tombs of the previous

Sur dynasty The Sur Empire was an empire ruled by the Afghan (ethnonym), Afghan-origin Sur dynasty in North India, northern India for nearly 16 or 18 years, between 1538/1540 and 1556, with Sasaram (in modern-day Bihar) serving as its capital. It was fou ...

, and also the

now within the present

Lodi Gardens Lodi Gardens is a city park situated in New Delhi. Spread over , it contains Muhammad Shah IV, Muhammad Shah's tomb, the tomb of Sikandar Lodi, the Shisha Gumbad and the Bara Gumbad. These monuments date from the late Delhi Sultanate, during the ...

(Delhi), which the Mughals considered traitors. In the 1830s, a British officer named Blake, of the Bengal Civil Service, converted this tomb into his residential apartment and removed the graves to make way for his dining hall. Though the officer died soon, it continued to be used as a rest house for many years by the British, and at one point even as a police station and a post office. The tomb was vacated and later restored by the orders of

Lord Curzon George Nathaniel Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston (11 January 1859 – 20 March 1925), known as Lord Curzon (), was a British statesman, Conservative Party (UK), Conservative politician, explorer and writer who served as Viceroy of India ...

, and the grave of

has since been restored to the site, and lies right below the central dome, though that of his mother

never was.All About Delhi
''Delhi, the Capital of India'', by Anon. Asian Educational Services, 1997. .

References

External links

Adam Khan's Tomb

Images of Adham Khan's Tomb

Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA), New Delhi is a premier government-funded arts organization in India. It is an autonomous institute under the Ministry of Culture. History The Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts was ...

( IGNCA)
Adham Khan's Tomb
wikimapia.
The tomb of Adham Khan near the Qutb Minar in Sir Thomas Metcalfe's Diary, 1843
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170812191140/http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/onlineex/apac/addorimss/t/019addor0005475u00078vrb.html , date=12 August 2017

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. Based in London, it is one of the largest libraries in the world, with an estimated collection of between 170 and 200 million items from multiple countries. As a legal deposit li ...

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 ...

Buildings and structures completed in 1561 Mehrauli Domes in India Mausoleums in Delhi Mazes 1561 establishments in India Buildings on the Indian Archaeological Register Monuments of National Importance in Delhi

Architecture

History

Further reading

References

External links