Poet's tomb regains its beauty, history and poetry

No one among the over one lakh people who drive past the magnificently decrepit tomb daily can ignore it. It rudely stares you in the eye, standing next to one of Delhi's busiest roads, close to the World Heritage Humayun Tomb, almost facing the bustling pilgrim centre of Nizamuddin, and on the way to one of Delhi's busiest and noisiest railway stations. Yet when told that it is the Tomb of Khan-i-Khanan, as it is officially known, even history buffs wouldn't give it a second look.

“Khan-i-Khanan who?”, some may ask. If the response is the standard line “a nobleman in Akbar's court”, there the matter ends. Tell them it is the tomb of the son of Bairam Khan, Akbar's uncle who ruled as regent till Akbar grew into majority. A few history buffs might get interested. Tell them it is the tomb of Rahim, one of those three poets who wrote those beautiful dohein (couplets) that we all learnt in school. Almost everyone gets hooked. “Oh, the Rahim among Tulsi, Kabir and Rahim?” would be the response.

(I have tried the trick on several friends whom I have taken on city tours of Delhi. It has always worked.)

Now the Aga Khan Trust is doing just that. They are not only renovating the decrepit tomb and restoring it to its Mughal magnificence, but they are giving it back its history and its poetry, too. As the restoration is going on, they are celebrating the legacy of the great poet with a three-day festival starting March 10, which will showcase the life, works and music of Rahim. The festival will be opened by the great emperor's namesake, the minister of state for external affairs, M.J. Akbar.

Khanzada Mirza Khan Abdul Rahim Khan-i-Khana, better known as Rahim, was one of Akbar's Nine Gems, and a minister in his court. The village of Khan Khana in Nawanshahr, Punjab, where he was born, is named after him. It was Rahim's father Bairam who took charge of the 11-year-old Akbar, then in Gurdaspur, when he heard that Emperor Humayun had died of a staircase accident in Delhi. Bairam promptly got Akbar proclaimed as the heir, and led the army to take on the Hindu chieftain, Hemu, who had seized Delhi. In the second battle of Panipat, the imperial army defeated Hemu's and slew him. Once Akbar came of age, he pensioned off Bairam who left for Mecca. Court rivals pursued him and murdered him when he reached Gujarat. Akbar arranged for Bairam's widow and young son, the future Rahim, to be brought to his court where he rose to be one of the great nobles, a renowned poet and a scholar of faiths, philosophies and languages including Sanskrit. It was Rahim who translated Babar's memoirs Baburnama from Chagatai language to Persian. He wrote two books on astrology, Khet Kautukam and Dwawishd Yogavali.

The tomb was originally built by Rahim himself. Not for him but for his wife Mah Banu. That makes this the first monumental tomb built for a lady in the Mughal times, two generations before Shah Jahan built the best known one for his wife. Later, on his death, Rahim, too, was buried beside his wife, just like Shah Jahan would be in the Taj.

The mausoleum is built in the style of the nearby Humayun's Tomb, which, incidentally, was the first tomb built by a woman for her husband. (Yes, Humayun's wife built it.) Humayun's Tomb has recently been restored and refurbished by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture. Like Humayun's, this tomb, too, stands on an arcaded ground-level platform in the centre of which stands the double-storeyed principal tomb chamber capped by a double dome. As with Humayun’s mausoleum, the rubble masonry structure is clad with red sandstone—though the sandstone has mostly come off over the years.

Ratish Nanda, CEO of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture, says the “tomb was in a ruinous condition with a risk of complete collapse”, till InterGlobe Foundation offered to fund the conservation work by Aga Khan Trust for Culture and the associated cultural programme. “This first-ever corporate sponsorship of conservation at any of India’s national monuments enabled the Archaeological Survey of India and the Aga Khan Trust for Culture to plan the required conservation effort and ensure long term preservation of this significant and prominently located structure,” said Nanda, who had led the conservation work at Humayun’s Tomb.

Not that the tomb had been neglected. The legendary John Marshal had suggested repairs back in the 1920s, and the ASI had repaired it several times. But those were essentially repairs that were possible within the limited budget at their disposal. But for those repairs, the mausoleum would have collapsed by now. “The 1923 underpinning by the ASI, carried out using quartzite rather than sandstone, has no doubt been the only reason the structure has not collapsed and as such will be retained,” says a note prepared by the Aga Khan Foundation.

Even now the ASI is in full picture. “The understanding gained from a yearlong effort led to the writing of a conservation plan,” said Nanda. “The plan was peer reviewed and approved by the ASI director-general.”

First the cracks in the crypt, the first floor and within the dome were repaired by craftsmen using traditional tools and materials like stone and lime mortar. When it was realised that the cracks had been caused due to unequal foundations provided to the building in the 17th century, it called for complex and risky underpinning of the foundations. Portions of the ground-level arcade, which had collapsed, were carefully reconstructed with similar stone. The four metre-tall arcade has also been provided with a stone parapet to ensure safety of visitors.

The job isn't over yet. Conservation works are yet to be undertaken on the dome and the lofty arches of the façade where much of the stone cladding is missing. Nanda expects to complete the work by next year.