In the Capital, a new Mughal icon

When work started on the Humayunrsquos tomb museum back in 2015 few people involved would have imagined it would take as long as it has The museum was supposed to be ready in 30 months instead it has taken almost a decade ldquoIt wasnrsquot easyrdquo says Ratish Nanda CEO of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture who were in charge of the project ldquoWe were taking a real risk building a museum unlike any the country had seen before Some 30 companies collaborated on the process Still only a small percentage of the research we did is on display yetrdquoIconic edifices bear the imprint of time Much like the structure it has come up adjacent to the museum has witnessed political churn a city on edge and the scourge of a generational pandemic On the other side it is the latest pearl adorning Delhirsquos syncretic pluralistic crown1 An illustrated mural of the Humayunrsquos Tomb world heritage site Nizamuddin Basti and Sunder NurseryOf the many bustling roads in the Nizamuddin area one quietly leads towards the new sunken museum It now forms the connecting tissue between Sunder Nursery and the second Mughal emperorrsquos tomb Inside the relatively modest structure originally called an interpretation centre a couple of rampsmdashmuch like the cityrsquos baolis or stepwellsmdashdescend into the basement Itrsquos like entering a sacred chalice where the rustling noise of the streets dissolves into the stunned silence of a colossal space Stunned because nothing prepares you for the scale and grandeur that the undergroundmdashsome six metres below the surfacemdashunleashesThe exhibit is divided into five galleries featuring audiovisual contraptions actual scale structures miniature models gigantic illustrations artefacts and an immersive theatrical corner The principal gallery is of course dedicated to the man whose resting place can be found just across the road ldquoItrsquos a truly modern museumrdquo Nanda says ldquoAnd given the arearsquos rich history therersquos so much to say and show that the museum demanded the collaboration of many disciplinesrdquo2 The dargah complex and a scaled model showing its evolution from 14th to 19th centurySome 500 artisans have worked on recreating replica of tomb ceilingsmdashincluding that of the Nila Gumbadmdashat actual scale But Nanda maintains that reengineering artefacts regardless of scale was probably the easier bit Building the museum was the actual challenge Other than the fact that Nizamuddin is an incredibly busy area it also hosts a significant floating population of tourists and visitors The tomb museum represents a unique effort to bridge experience and learning witnessing and seeing To which effect the physiological experience of studying the exhibition and absorbing its spatial awareness is an event in itself ldquoThe intent of the landscape design is to illustrate and interpret the rich traditions of design and planting associated with gardens of the Mughal periodrdquo Yogesh Kapoor of Shaheer Associates who were responsible for the landscape design says Kapoor explains how even the margins of the museum space have been accorded the care of history Every instance you look away from an installation your gaze falls on runnels of water silently filtering through a carefully designed cascade on the outside Itrsquos being submerged in history and sieved through it all at once3 Modern renditions of Khusraorsquos qawwali who is also the inventor of table and the sitarPart of what makes the museum exhibit unique despite familiar reappearances of artefactsmdashpages from the famed Baburnama for examplemdashis the personalisation of Mughal history Beyond the labels of conquest and bravado territory and treachery the Mughals also practised art science and uniquely endearing social rituals Beyond emperors and their challengers were poets astronomers and sufi saints Some of them make the cut in what is by no means an exhaustive account of history Humayunrsquos travels across Asia and beyond ndash some 34000 kilometresmdashare contextualised through objects and influences he collected along the way A section dedicated to Dara ShikohmdashShah Jahanrsquos eldest son mdashbreathes life into his unorthodoxy and interest in Upanishads which he translated with the help of carefully preserved scripts Poet and Sufi saint Amir Khusraursquos Qawwali is both a textual and audio visual experience with performances from the closeby dargah playing over a giant console The sultanatersquos exploration of astrology astronomy and the sciences lend the exhibition character Enough to make history malleable so it sports shades as opposed to ungainly edgesTo condense it all into meaning however the visual design must act as a vessel Itrsquos what makes the museum startling informative yet rarely overbearing as a visual experience ldquoWe had to maintain the sanctity of the site the heritage of the place this was going to be set inrdquo Siddhartha Chaturvedi who has led the exhibition design says Each wall he explains acts as a monolithic drawing board to assimilate elements objects and build stories around them One of the largest murals takes up an entire wall and illustrates in granular awestriking detail the visual map of the Nizamuddin area ldquoWe had to create one of the largest murals I have ever worked on at home during the pandemic Thatrsquos the kind of adventure this has beenrdquo Chaturvedi adds4 An astrolabe a celestial sphere and a helmetmdashall symbols of Humayunrsquos travels beliefs and life The museum has a number of new artefacts on display including possibly for the first time currency charting the entirety of the Mughal dynasty Currency Nanda complains isnrsquot given ldquothe artistic merit it shouldrdquo To contrast that sort of fine detail the restored 18foottall finial from the tomb anchors the centre of the principle gallery Every square foot of grandeur is matched by equally intricate specimens of design research and expression So much can still and probably will be said For now though a rich colourful history exerts in the relative silence of the underground an absorbing homage to majestyHumayun wearing green on Friday Sculpture by Jill WatsonThe plan going forward is to add more galleries interactive libraries and maybe even a cafeacute or two to spruce up the economics Nanda explains that museums rarely breakeven but with the right mix of creativity intrigue and collaboration from around the world this one should do so in a couple of years ldquoA year later I can promise you the museum will be grander livelier and denser in the amount of detail on displayrdquo he says It would be a big ask given what has already taken a decade But Nizamuddin wasnrsquot built in a day It was built over decades with culture streaming through the veins of Mughal tradition Tradition that Nanda believes needs to be understood ldquothrough stories rather than just objectsrdquo Itrsquos the one promise Humayunrsquos tomb museum undeniably delivers on 6 metresdepth at which the museum is located