The ultimate Mughal souvnier.

[Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi]

Behold this marble throne. Preserved inside a glass case at the Humayun World Heritage Site Museum in Delhi, it was once the stately seat of Bahadur Shah Zafar. As the last Mughal sovereign, the poet-king is likely to have sat on this throne while reflecting on the dissolution of his 300-year-old dynasty. The throne is, in fact, less ostentatious than the throne-like sofas found in the drawing rooms of Delhi’s wealthy today. Yet it is far more elegant. The armrests are supported on latticework, and faint flecks of colour cling to the marble like the last glimmers of extinguished stars. The fragile-seeming relic assumes truly epic proportions as the viewer connects it to the legend of a collapsed empire whose layered legacy continues to resonate in our republic.

The Mughals spanned over 18 rulers. Their kissa-kahani began 500 years ago in 1526, when Babur defeated Delhi Sultan Ibrahim Lodi in a field 80 kilometres from Delhi. Soon after, Babur entered the city and visited the shrine of the mystic Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya. At that time, nobody would have guessed that this pilgrimage would recur across generations of Mughals, binding them to the city’s sacred, grave-dotted topography.

Truth be told, Delhi surpasses the dynasty’s other great centres, Agra and Lahore. Shahjahan may have built the immortal Taj in Agra, but his creation of Old Delhi throbs more with real life. For Delhi’s pre-eminence in Mughal India, we must first credit Babur’s son, Humayun, who established his capital, Dinpanah—today’s Purana Qila—near the shrine of Hazrat Nizamuddin. His son Akbar later built Humayun’s mausoleum close to the same shrine.

Over time, Humayun’s Tomb came to be known as the “dormitory of the Mughals.” This 16th-century complex contains 160 graves of kings, princes, and princesses, representing a broad cross-section of the dynasty. Seven Mughal emperors are buried here: Humayun, Azam Shah, Jahandar Shah, Farrukhsiyar, Rafi ud-Darajat, Rafi ud-Daulah, and Alamgir II. It was here, at Humayun’s Tomb, that Bahadur Shah Zafar took refuge after the collapse of the 1857 uprising against the British. He was captured at this very site, marking the end of the Mughal Empire.

The aforementioned museum, which houses Zafar’s throne, is across the road from Humayun’s Tomb. In the lead-up to its inauguration two years ago, a significant moment was the installation of the throne, personally overseen by museum curator Ratish Nanda—see photo. A conservation architect, Nanda had earlier helped restore the garden around the first Mughal emperor’s tomb in Kabul.

As for the last Mughal, the unfortunate Zafar had intended to be buried in Delhi, but the British exiled him to distant Rangoon, where he was finally laid to rest. As a consolation, his ill-fated throne may be seen as a symbolic substitute for his Delhi tomb. Indeed, as the tomb of his dynasty itself.