Delhi in immortal marble.

[Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi]

Great poet Mirza Ghalib was born in the city of Taj Mahal, that Mughal-era marble monument to romantic love. His karam-bhoomi however was Delhi, where he spent his long life composing poems on pyar-prem-ishq. But here’s the irony. Ghalib did not compose a single ghazal on the lovely Taj. Even so, his grave in Delhi stands beside the world’s first Mughal monument built entirely of marble.

That said, while Delhi is a city crowded with monuments, only a few of them are constructed entirely of marble, though many monuments incorporate it among other materials. The city’s handful of all-marble structures includes the Moti Masjid inside the Red Fort, the Diwan-i-Khas within the same complex, the second Moti Masjid at Zafar Mahal, the tomb of Emperor Muhammad Shah Rangila, the tomb of Princess Jahanara, the tomb of Mirza Ghalib, and the tomb of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad. Among the most visible modern examples is the Lotus Temple, the marble for which was quarried in Greece.

Over the coming weeks, this page will document Delhi’s notable structures built entirely of marble, beginning naturally with the earliest, the one beside Ghalib’s tomb. Chausath Khamba is the first Mughal monument anywhere to have been constructed wholly of marble; the white stone with a greyish tinge was quarried in Makrana, Rajasthan. The monument was raised 400 years ago as a mausoleum for a certain VVIP of the time, and consists of a pillared hall—the symmetrical pattern of which was later adopted for the grander Diwan-i-Aam at the Red Fort.

Despite its significance in the history of Indian architecture, and despite being located near the tourist-heavy Humayun’s Tomb, Chausath Khamba remains one of Delhi’s least-visited monuments. Perhaps because it lies within the urban village of Nizamuddin Basti, its entrance invisible from the surrounding lanes. Built as the tomb of Mirza Aziz Koka, the foster brother of Emperor Akbar, the structure contains ten graves, including those of Koka and his wife. The monument’s name is literal: Chausath, or sixty-four, marble pillars support a flat marble ceiling pinched out into twenty-five marble domes. Much of the marble structure is enclosed by stone screens whose pores freely admit daylight (and Delhi’s smoggy air). This daylight creates magic inside, falling softly across the floor, and over the desolate graves.

Try arriving around 4pm, when the softening light forms a parallel monument of shadow and illumination across the marble floor. At times, the pale golden rays sharply reveal dust motes suspended in the air, lending them the appearance of an otherworldly presence. This afternoon, Fakeer Kashmir Baba is the lone visitor inside the monument (see photo). He is gazing at a marble grave. Or perhaps at the small pool of light collected beside the grave.