Tombs and mausoleums

Whether people build tombs depends on what they do with the dead.

In Islam and Christianity, the dead are buried. So mausoleums, grand buildings over a tomb or a group of tombs, were built for important rulers, royal families and famous holy men (mystics).

Mausoleums were also political statements: they showed off the greatness of a dynasty.

In Buddhism, Jainism and Hinduism, the dead are usually cremated (burned). That is why there are no tombs of rulers of these faiths in ancient India. The cenotaphs of Rajasthan and central India only mark the place where a king was cremated.

Mausoleums were built with strict symmetry: one side matches the other, and the gardens around match too. They also used arches, floral designs, latticework and calligraphy of Qur'an verses.

Humayun's Tomb in Delhi was ordered in 1558 by Humayun's chief wife, Bega Begum. It was designed by Persian architects, and their Persian style became part of the Mughal tradition. Several Mughals are buried there, including Dara Shikoh.

Look for the six-pointed star on Humayun's Tomb. The same shape appears in several faiths:

• in Judaism, the 'Star of David';
• in Islam, the 'Seal of Solomon';
• in Hindu tantric symbols, the meeting of puruṣha (consciousness, the upward triangle) and prakṛiti or śhakti (the downward triangle): spirit and matter in harmony.

Shah Jahan built the Taj Mahal in Agra in the mid-17th century, as the tomb of his queen Mumtaz Mahal.

It brings together styles from three cultures:

• Persian: the charbagh garden (a garden divided into four parts) and the large arched doorways;
• Arabic: calligraphy from the Qur'an and geometric patterns;
• Indian: chhatrīs, lotus designs, and marble screens with cut-out patterns.

Craftsmen set coloured semi-precious stones into the marble to make flowers. And the white marble seems to change colour as the sunlight moves through the day.

In the 1970s, people noticed a yellowish stain on the marble. It came from air pollution by local industries burning coal and other fuels.

After an expert committee made its suggestions and a PIL (public interest case) went to the Supreme Court, industrial pollution was banned in the area in the mid-1990s.