Category History

Born into the aristocratic Dutt family in Calcutta, Torulata Dutta was the youngest of three siblings. Toru’s father Govin Chunder Dutt was a noted linguist and a poet, and her cousins and uncles were also accomplished in the literary field. “the Dutt Family Album”, published by Govin in 1870 in London, bears evidence of the family’s literacy prowess.

The family converted to Christianity shortly after Toru’s birth and moved to Europe three years later, when Toru’s brother died. Govin made sure both his daughters were well-educated. They studied at a school in Nice, France, spent time in Paris and Boulogne, Italy, and then moved to England in 1870. Here, they studied music and history.

The girls began to translate French poems into English from an early age and created a companionship through writing. The family moved back to Calcutta in 1873 due to the girls’ poor health. Here, the girls began to write more, finding ways to cope with the stifling atmosphere in Calcutta. Unfortunately, their partnership came to an end in 1874, when Toru’s sister Aru died at the age of 23.

Toru spent the next three years writing a lot of poetry and prose for “The Bengal Magazine” and “The Calcutta Review”. In 1877, at the age of 21, Toru died due to tuberculosis.

Toru’s only work to be published during her lifetime was “A Sheaf Gleaned in French Fields”, a collection of English translations of French poetry. Toru left her first novel “Bianca” unfinished.

Excerpt

Toru was often called the Keats of Indo-English literature for the quality of her writing and meteoric rise to fame.

Sonnet

A sea of foliage girds our garden round,

But not a sea of dull unvaried green,

Sharp contrasts of all colors here are seen;

The light-green graceful tamarinds abound

Amid the mango clumps of green profound,

And palms arise, like pillars gray, between;

And o’er the quiet pools the seemuls lean,

Red – red, and startling like a trumpet’s sound.

But nothing can be lovelier than the ranges

Of bamboos to the eastward, when the moon

Looks through their gaps, and the white lotus changes

Into a cup of silver. One night swoon

Drunken with beauty then, or gaze and gaze

On a primeval Eden, in amaze.

Did you know?

Toru loved the Indian epics “The Ramayana” and “The Mahabharatha”, and often read old Sanskrit classics to gain first-hand knowledge of those stories.

 

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Apart from the main mausoleum, which houses the tombs of Humayun and his wife Haji Behum, there are several tombs that can be found within the Humayun’s Tomb complex. One of the most prominent of these is the tomb and mosque of Isa Khan Niazi, an Afghan noble in Sher Shah Suri’s court of the Suri dynasty. This tomb predates the main one by nearly 20 years. Built during the reign of Islam Shah Suri, son of Sher Shah Suri, this octagonal tomb is placed within an octagonal garden. While it was built for Isa Khan, it later served as a burial place for his entire family.

Barber’s Tomb, also known as Nai-ka-Gumbad, is another popular tomb which lies close to the main mausoleum. The tomb, which dates to 1590-91 CE according to an inscription, is said to belong to Humayun’s royal barber. It stands on a raised platform and can be reached by climbing seven steps.

The Afsarwala tomb complex is another tomb found in the vicinity. The complex comprises a tomb and a mosque. The tomb is believed to belong to a military officer, thereby the name ‘Afsarwala’. The mosque, built between 1560 and 1567, stands on the same raised platform as the tomb.

 

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Built in the 1560s by Persian and Indian craftsmen, Humayun’s garden tomb is an example of the charbhag style. The main tomb is located at the centre of the charbagh – a four-quadrant garden with the four rivers of Quranic paradise represented by waterways. The four quadrants are further divided into smaller squares by pathways, leaving us with 36 squares in all. This 36-square design is typical of later Mughal gardens.

There are two gateways to the Tomb – one on the southern wall and the other on the western wall – each connected to the main walkways in the garden. Today, only the small western gate is operational. At the centre of the eastern and northern walls, one can find a pavilion with 12 doors, and a bathing chamber called Hammam.

The main mausoleum stands on an eight-metre-high, wide terraced platform. The terrace is square in design but chamfered on the edges to appear octagonal. The plinth made with rubble core has 56 cells, housing over 100 gravestones.

The tomb is built of rubble masonry and red sandstone. Marble has been used as a cladding material to provide a degree of thermal insulation and weather resistance. It has also been used for the flooring, door frames, lattice screens/jaalis (a screen made of perforated stone usually in an ornamental pattern), eaves and the main dome. While the mausoleum’s exterior dome is made up of marble, the remaining structure uses red sanstone with white and black marble and yellow sandstone detailing.

Humayun’s Tomb is the first to use the unique combination of red sandstone and white marble. Though heavily inspired by Persian architecture, it also incorporates elements of Indian architecture such as small canopies or chhatris surrounding the central dome.

 

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Nasir-ud-Din Muhammad, popularly known as Humayun, was the second emperor of the Mughal Empire. He succeeded his father Babur to the throne in 1530. Between 1530 and 1540, and 1555-1556, Humayun ruled over what is now Afghanistan, Pakistan, Northern India and Bangladesh.

He lost his kingdom in 1540, and regained it in 1555 with the help of the Safavid dynasty of Persia. This also marked the beginning of the influence of Persian art, architecture, literature and language on the Mughals.

Humayun passed away in January 1556, when he fell down the stairs of hid library and hit his temple on rugged stone edge. He was laid to rest initially at the Purana Qila, also in Delhi, but his Kalanaur in Punjab following in the attack and capture of the Purana Qila by the Hindu emperor Hemu. Humayun was finally buried in a grand way at his tomb, following its completion.

 

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Humayun’s Tomb, situated in Delhi, is the grand mausoleum of the Mughal emperor Humayun. Built in 1570, it is the first garden tomb in the Indian subcontinent. Humayun’s Tomb was commissioned by his wife Haji Begum, and was designed by Mirak Mirza Ghiyath, a Persian architect, and Humayun’s son, Akbar.

Spanning 27 hectares, Humayun’s Tomb is situated in a complex that also houses other monuments such as Nila Gumbad, Isa Khan’s tomb, Bu Halima, Afsarwala tomb complex, Barber’s Tomb, and the Arab Serai, the complex where the craftsmen employed in the construction of Humanyun’s Tomb stayed.

The tomb is called the ‘dormitory of the Mughals’, as over 150 members of the Mughal family have been buried in the cells of the gardens.

Humanyun’s Tomb is known to be the first structure to be built with red sandstone on such a scale.

The monument has been part of the UNESCO World Heritage list since 1993.

 

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