Even more than the several other monuments in Delhi, Shamsuddin Muhammad Atgah Khan’s tomb in Nizamuddin, is a picture of decay and neglect.
Despite being a neighbour of the famed Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya, Atgah Khan’s tomb has been hemmed in and encroached upon by numerous shanties. It is, as with most monuments, run over by scribbles, and even its inside is home to several homeless in the area.
Atgah Khan was no ordinary figure as demonstrated by the finesse of architecture and decoration it bears. Khan-e-Kalan Shamsu’d-Din Muh-ammad Khan Atgah Khan was a soldier in Humayun’s army and saved him from drowning in the Ganges during the famous battle with Sher Shah Suri in Billgram. As reward, Humayun took him into his personal service and his wife became one of young Akbar’s wet nurse. She was called foster-mother (An-agah) and her husband Shamsuddin was designated foster-father (Atgah). He also rece- ived the title of Khan and his own son became Akbar’s foster or milk-brother (Kokah).
Khan held important positions in the court, including that of wakil (advisor or minister) to which he was appointed in November 1561, much to displeasure of another wet nurse Maham Anga, whose son Adham Khan, eventually murdered him in 1562. Akbar was furious at this and ordered Adham Khan to be thrown down the rampart of the fort, and when he survived the first fall, he was thrown a second time and killed.After the death of Ataga Khan, Akbar decided to have a grand tomb built for him.
Khan’s own son, Mirza Aziz Koka oversaw this. Its architect was Ustab Khuda Quli and calligrapher Baqi Muhammad from Bukhara, who added Quranic verses on the white marble slabs, inlaid on the red sandstone exterior walls, which were suitably chosen reflecting his mode of death, considered a martyrdom by Mughal historian, Abul Fazal. An inscription on the southern door of the tomb mentions that it was finished in 974 AH (1566–67).
The current status of this tomb is a disrespect to the might of this man who once advised and guided the greatest Mughal emperor in India Akbar.