Delhi is famously littered with historic monuments, many of them tombs, giving our capital its reputation as one vast funerary landscape. Although Humayun’s tomb, a World Heritage Site, hogs the limelight, many of Delhi’s lesser known tombs are interesting studies too, always rich in history and often reflecting the personality of who lies buried inside.

Facing the grand ruins of the Tughlakabad Fort in south Delhi stands the equally imposing edifice of Ghias-ud-din Tughlak’s tomb. The structure is enclosed within high stone walls and itself looks like a fortress. As the renowned James Fergusson wrote in The Illustrated Handbook of Architecture in 1855, “when that stern old warrior, Togluck Shah (sic) (1321), built himself a tomb, (it was) not in a garden as was usually the case, but in a strongly fortified citadel in the middle of an artificial lake. The sloping walls and almost Egyptian solidity of the mausoleum, combined with the bold and massive towers of the fortifications that surround it, form a picture of a warrior’s tomb unrivalled anywhere…” Originally, the brooding monument stood within a vast reservoir and was connected with the Tughlakabad fort by a causeway which today is pierced by the Mehrauli-Badarpur Road.

Inside the enclosure, a massive red sandstone gateway atop a short flight of steps leads the visitor into the little citadel where the tomb is enclosed. It houses the graves of Ghias-ud-din Tughlak, his wife, and his son and successor, the infamous, capital-shifting Muhammad bin Tughlak. The red sandstone walls have an unyielding severity about them. Strangely, the tomb has no inscriptions at all, and the only concessions to ornamentation are the few geometric patterns and the delicately carved lotus-bud fringes on the doorways to the tomb. One concurs with Fergusson: this is indeed a warrior’s tomb. The loose-fitting marble slabs on the dome have their own story: apparently, they were stripped off after the 1857 war and ordered to be sold but were later replaced.
Compared to Tughlak’s, the tombs in the beautiful Lodi Garden are almost effeminate. The garden was once the royal burial ground for the Lodi and Sayyid dynasties, which followed the Tughlak dynasty. In 1936, the British relocated the village of Khairpur, which had sprung up around the monuments, and landscaped the area, naming it Lady Willingdon Park. Today, Lodi Garden is extremely popular among health conscious Delhiites who love exercising with the dramatic backdrop of 500 year-old-buildings. 

The oldest tomb here is Muhammad Shah Sayyid’s (1434-44), a charming, octagonal building perched on a little mound. The tomb chamber has some beautiful, vividly coloured stucco plasterwork. The lovely arched verandah that surrounds the central chamber, the sloping buttresses, the graceful dome and the many chatris that dot the roof give the building an almost cheerful countenance. Indeed, Muhammad Shah himself is said to have been a somewhat lazy ruler, interested only in pleasure! But perhaps the air of gaiety is because of the children who flit in and out of the tomb’s many entrances and love rolling down the grassy mound of the mausoleum.

A stone’s throw away is the aptly named Bara Gumbad (Big Dome), which Alexander Cunningham, founder of the Archaeological Survey of India, deemed as “one of the finest buildings amongst the ruins of Delhi.” What appears to be a double-storeyed structure from the outside is actually only a huge chamber with a high ceiling.

Ornamentation both outside and inside is minimal, limited to the use of pink sandstone to add colour to the grey-brown quartzite used here. There is no sign of any graves here so that some, including Cunningham, surmised it may not be a tomb at all, but a gateway for the beautiful mosque abutting it. Interestingly, Cunningham ‘discovered’ this building and its mosque only in 1865 when he says, “it was used as a cow-house, and was completely begrimed with smoke and dirt and cow-dung both inside and outside.” Just opposite lies the Shish Gumbad, Persian for ‘glass dome’, named for the coloured glazed tiles that once decorated it. Traces of the blue tiles that once covered much of the facade still remain, providing a glimpse of when the Shish Gumbad lived up to its name, when it probably contrasted pleasantly with the stolid solidity of the Bara Gumbad.

About 250m away is the final resting place of Sikandar Lodi, an energetic ruler who zealously expanded his territories but also a kind and generous ruler.

Built in 1518, his is also an octagonal tomb, like Muhammad Shah’s, with a similar arched verandah and beautiful glazed tiles and painted stucco work inside, though the chatris on the roof no longer exist. But Sikandar’s sepulchre is set in a quiet garden enclosed by niched battlements resembling a fortress, a setting that gives the tomb a dignified serenity.

Like the other buildings in Lodi Garden, much of its attraction derives from its setting – sprawling greens, stately trees, and only the babble of birds for company.

If peace and solitude are what you seek, however, go to the oldest Muslim mausoleum in Delhi; only some tombs in Kutch in Gujarat are older. Sultan Garhi, built in 1231, is where Iltumish buried his eldest and favourite son, Prince Nassir-ud-din Muhammad. Like the structures in the Qutb Minar complex, Sultan Garhi was built using materials from earlier Hindu constructions. A marble yoni-patta (base slab of a linga) can be seen reused in the floor of the prayer chamber. The narrow flight of stairs that leads into the subterranean crypt is supported by pillars removed from an earlier temple. Perhaps in keeping with the turbulent times, the tomb has turrets, domed bastions and archways that give it the air of a fortress from the outside. But inside, it is strangely peaceful.

The best time to visit is early morning or late evening when the slanting rays of the sun burnish the brownish-yellow sandstone to a golden hue. This is also when stray worshippers, both Hindu and Muslim, distribute sugary items offered at the tomb, which is considered a dargah. Sultan Garhi is surrounded by ruins of tombs, madrasas and other structures: amateur archaeologists like me could potter around here for hours blissfully.

But for a tomb with a most unusual history, check out Muhammad Quli Khan’s in Mehrauli. Quli Khan was a general and foster brother of Akbar. An ornate, double-storeyed octagonal building, his tomb’s exterior has some pretty stucco work and glazed tiles and also a good view of the Qutb.

What makes it unusual is that the tomb was done up as a European residence and was used as a summer retreat by the quirky Theophilus Metcalfe, last British Resident at the Mughal Court. Apparently, living quarters were on the ground floor while the chamber containing the grave functioned as his dining room!