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Khan Jahan's Tomb (Bagerhat) stands on a high artificial
mound on the northern bank of the so-called Thakurdighi and
is surrounded by an outer wall of 67.1 m from east to west and 64.7m from
north to south. It is popularly called the dargah complex of khan
jahan. The complex consists of the square tomb building of
Khan Jahan himself; a sarcophagus of Muhammad Tahir, his diwan; a single-domed
mosque and the so-called kitchen. An intermediate wall encircles the tomb
of Khan Jahan and the sarcophagus of his diwan.
The Tomb of Khan Jahan, measuring 13.7m a side externally
and 9.1m internally, is a brick-built square building and
forms the nucleus of the complex. The four exterior angles of
the building are emphasised with solid circular towers.
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Khan Jahan's Tomb, Bagerhat |
The four walls, with a thickness of 2.4m, have stone
casings upto the height of about 0.9m-a technique which was no doubt introduced
with a view to preventing the building from being affected by the ground
moisture so common in the humid climate of south Bengal.
The interior of the building could originally be entered
through four axial archways fitted with stone lintels, but the northern
one is now closed with brick fillings. The large hemispherical brick dome
which covers the entire building is internally carried on squinches springing
from the stone brackets projected out of the walls. The triple cornice
bands, running round the corner towers, are curved in a manner typical
of the Bengali style.
The sarcophagus, beneath which lie the mortal remains
of Khan Jahan, occupies the centre of the floor. It consists of four stepped
terraces diminishing upwards and a top designed in the simple pointed
barrel form. The three upper terraces of stone are covered with pious
expressions in Arabic and Persian, but much of them are now illegible.
The two brick-made lower terraces of the sarcophagus and the entire floor
are enriched with polychrome encaustic tiles of square and hexagonal designs.
Unfortunately, the glazed coatings of many of the tiles have already disappeared
due to constant use by visitors.
An inscription on the tombstone records the death of
Khan Jahan on 27 Zilhajj 863 AH (25 October 1459 AD). Apparently, Khan
Jahan had probably constructed the building before his death.
The building is now well preserved because of a series
of restoration work done to it over the years by India, Pakistan and Bangladesh
Archaeology Departments. In many of its features, such as the square plan,
the Firozian combination of arch and lintel, the curvature of the cornices,
the flanking corner towers divided by moulded bands, and the squinches
for the support of the dome, the building is a reproduction of the eklakhi
mausoleum (early 15th century) at Hazrat pandua.
But unlike the octagonal interior of the Eklakhi building, the present
tomb, for the first time in Bengal, is square both internally and externally.
This practice, from this point onward was to be found to appear repeatedly in almost all single-domed buildings in Bengal. Unlike the usual octagonal corner towers of Bengali monuments, the corner towers of the present tomb as well as that of all buildings ascribed to Khan Jahan are circular. The circular shape of the corner towers, the bare surface of the walls, and the combination of arch and lintel construction are very similar to the Tughlaq architecture of Delhi. Relying on these Tughlaqian elements in Khan Jahani monuments, some scholars have tried to trace their origins back to Delhi. But it is very likely that the immigrant artists, who perhaps came and settled here during firuz shah tughlaq's Bengal expedition and the sack of Delhi by Timur in
1398, introduced these Tughlaqian elements in Bengal architecture.
The Tomb of Muhammad Tahir is just to the west
of Khan Jahan's mausoleum. It is merely a cenotaph formed of three stepped
terraces of stone. One of the inscriptions on the top terrace records
the death of Muhammad Tahir in the month of Zilhajj 863 AH (1459 AD).
Local legends indicate that Muhammed Tahir was a favourite high official
of Khan Jahan. The location of his tomb beside that of Khan Jahan reinforces
this belief.
Mosque The single-domed mosque is the western most building of the complex. It is brick-built, square in plan with three archways in the east and one on each of the north and south sides. The northern and southern archways are now closed. The qibla wall is internally recessed with a semi-circular mihrab corresponding to the central archway in the east. The four corner towers on the exterior angles are circular and the cornices are curved. The hemispherical brick dome that covers the single square room of the building is carried on squinches rising from the stone brackets. In plan and constructional details the mosque seems to be a replica of Khan Jahan's tomb.
It can therefore be conjectured that it was built at the same time as the tomb ie mid-15th century.
The so-called kitchen building, now levelled to
the ground, was in quite well preserved condition when the author visited
the site in the 1970s. At that time the four walls were found intact and
the roof, which was of the chau-chala vaulted type, was in a damaged
condition. There were three arched openings on the west wall and one each
on the north and south walls. The inner side of the eastern wall had several
shelves.
It was a rectangular structure of 12.2m by 8.5m with
circular towers on the exterior angles. What the building was actually
intended for is not known. A local tradition relates that in the last
years of his life Khan Jahan dwelt in the building, where he now lies
buried, and used the adjacent building as his kitchen. About a century
back the building was known to have been used for the same purpose by
two Faqirs, who then looked after the mosque and the tomb. [MA
Bari] |
