Akbar's tomb

• 1. Introduction

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  Akbar's tomb stands in Sikandra, a suburb of Agra, on 119 acres of grounds that once held the remains of one of the most consequential rulers the subcontinent has ever known. The third Mughal emperor reigned from 1556 to 1605, expanded an empire across much of India, and tripled the size and wealth of his kingdom. Yet what happened to his burial place in 1688 raises a question that haunts the whole story: what does it mean when a tomb is ransacked, its occupant's bones burned, and the structure itself stripped of gold, jewels, silver, and carpets? This documentary follows Akbar's tomb from its construction through its desecration, its restoration under a Victorian viceroy, and the design choices that quietly influenced the architecture of the Taj Mahal itself.

• 2. The Emperor and His Era

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  Akbar succeeded his father Humayun under a regent named Bairam Khan, who helped the young emperor consolidate Mughal power across the Indian subcontinent. As his reign lengthened, Akbar enlarged the empire through military, political, cultural, and economic means. His economy tripled in size and wealth, and the commercial expansion that followed opened space for greater patronage of an Indo-Persian cultural tradition. His courts at Delhi, Agra, and Fatehpur Sikri drew holy men of many faiths alongside poets, architects, and artisans, and those cities became recognized centers of art, letters, and learning. On the 3rd of October 1605, Akbar fell ill from dysentery. He is believed to have died on the 26th of October 1605, and the work of commemorating him fell immediately to his son.

• 3. Building the Mausoleum

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  Jahangir planned and oversaw the construction of his father's tomb between 1605 and 1613. The project cost 1,500,000 rupees and took three or four years to complete, a substantial investment that reflected both filial duty and imperial prestige. The building material of choice was a deep red sandstone, enriched with features in white marble, a combination that gave the structure its visual identity. The tomb building itself takes the form of a four-tiered pyramid, topped by a marble pavilion that holds a false tomb; the actual burial chamber, following the practice of other mausoleums of the period, is in the basement. The south gate is the largest of four gateways and serves as the normal point of entry. It features four white marble chhatri-topped minarets that are similar to those of the Taj Mahal and, notably, pre-date them.

• 4. Ornament and Influence

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  Decorated inlaid panels of red sandstone, white marble, and black slate adorn both the tomb itself and the main gatehouse. The panel designs are geometric, floral, and calligraphic, and they anticipate the more complex and subtle designs later incorporated in Itmad-ud-Daulah's tomb. The tomb is surrounded by a walled enclosure 105 metres square, and the first floor has cloisters on four sides with arches. A hall on that floor holds the tombstone of Akbar alongside the tombstones of two of his daughters, Shakr-un-Nissa Begum and Aram Banu Begum. The magnificence of the main gateway draws on the Buland Darwaza as its inspiration; the roof of the gateway carries four kiosks. About one kilometre from the tomb lies the Tomb of Mariam-uz-Zamani, Akbar's favourite wife, who laid a large garden around her husband's tomb after his death. She was buried there in May 1623, becoming the only wife of Akbar buried close to him.

• 5. The Jat Raid of 1688

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  On the 28th of March 1688, during the reign of Aurangzeb, Jats rose in rebellion under the leadership of Raja Ram Jat. The target they chose was Akbar's tomb. The raiders plundered the gold, jewels, silver, and carpets, and the grave itself was opened; the late emperor's bones were burned. Mughal prestige suffered a direct blow from the attack, which was all the more damaging because it succeeded. A previous attempt in 1685 had failed, and this successful raid escalated the conflict between the Mughals and the Jats. The desecration was not incidental violence; it was a deliberate act against a symbol of Mughal power, and it left the mausoleum largely stripped of the wealth and sacred character it had held for more than eighty years.

• 6. Curzon's Restoration

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  George Curzon, serving as Viceroy of India, directed extensive repairs and restoration of Akbar's mausoleum, work that was completed in 1905. He discussed the project in connection with the passage of the Ancient Monuments Preservation Act in 1904, describing it as "an offering of reverence to the past and a gift of recovered beauty to the future". The restoration coincided with a broader effort to preserve historical buildings across Agra. One consequence observed by historians is that this preservation project may have reduced veneration of the mausoleum by pilgrims and people living nearby, transforming the site from an active place of devotion into something closer to a protected monument. The original grounds had once included an open baradari, a pleasure pavilion built during the reign of Sikander Lodi in 1495; that structure had already been converted into a mausoleum for Mariam-uz-Zamani by Jahangir centuries before Curzon arrived.