Timing: 10 am to 9 pm. Last entry at 8 pm.
Museum is Closed on Monday & National Holidays
Humayun World Heritage Site Museum, Nizamuddin,
Sunder Nursery, New Delhi, 110013
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Representation of Emperor Humayun’s crown depicted in Late Shahjahan Album, CE 1640s, National Museum of Asian Art.
Humayun became emperor soon after the Mughal rule was established in Hindustan. He introduced a new order based on the principles of astrology to his court and to the kingdom’s administration.
He invented his Crown of Honour or ‘Taj-I-Izzat’ which was made of finest cloth—silk, velvet or satin—adorned with gemstones, and was wrapped around a central conical cap. This was designed by Humayun as an imperial adornment to serve as his crown, the primary emblem of kingship. It was a symbol of the emperor’s personality, prestige, and power.
Humayun called it the Taj-i-Izzat or the Crown of Glory.
The emperor’s head-dress was woven in a single colour which was determined by the colour of the planet governing each day of the week. Humayun himself granted a unique Taj-i-Izzat to each of his courtiers—with two distinct colours—ensuring a sense of equality amongst all men of the court.
Even today, turbans continue to indicate position and are worn as a symbol of honour and pride.
As "chief of his works, as Khwandamir put it, Humayun designed a new headgear, which he called the taj-i 'izzat, literally the crown of glory or power.383 Its description and depictions show that it was not a crown but an enriched variant of the Qalpak, a conical hat with a broad turned-up brim, which is a common type of Central Asian headgear. Humayun embellished it with gem studded aigrettes and a light-colored fabric wrapped around it crosswise to form shapes resembling the Arabic figure for seven, V. Where two of these V-shaped parts were next to each other, they produced the figure of 77, which according to abjad reckoning was the numerical value of the word ‘izz’, meaning honour, power and glory. The numerical value of letters formed an important aspect of the science of letters discussed above. It has been pointed out that Humayun designed his taj-i izzat as his counterpart to the taj-i Haidari, the Safavid headgear that was a distinct symbol of the Sufi brotherhood out of which the Safavid dynasty emerged. It was named after Haider Safavi (1459-1488), the father of Shah Ismail, the founder of the dynasty.384 Humayun had experienced the political significance of the taj-i Haidari when Shah Tahmasp wanted him to wear it at their meeting in 1544. Abu'1 Fazl says that Humayun thought out the taj-i 'izzat in his youth, as a lonely governor of remote Badakhshan, and that when he presented it to his father at Agra, Babur liked it immensely. The Padshah wore the taj-i 'izzat in a single colour of the respective planet of the day, while the courtiers had to wear theirs in two colours, different inside and out. Each of his courtiers was granted a special headgear.
Verse: —
My head has not been dignified with the crown of honour from the King,
I have, therefore, fallen in the lane of baseness and contemptibility.
(This verse by Khwāndamīr shows his disappointment which he felt as was ignored by his sovereign).
Amīr-uẓ-Ẓurfā composed the following chronogram of the date of completion of the perfect crown:
The King of kings, the defender of faith, Humāyūn,
May his wealth increase every moment!
The custom of wearing the crown has among the people
Become, through his inventive power, universal.
Though its name is the Crown of Honour,
Its date is the Crown of Prosperity.
(It is referred to as Crown of Prosperity according to the numerical value of the chronogram of the date of invention being 1532-33 A.D.).
Khwāndamīr’s Qānūn-i-Humāyūnī, see Prashad [1940] 1996: 49-50
| Period | Category | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Source | Replica by Aga Khan Trust for Culture | ||
| Dimensions | Material & Production Techniques |
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Lithograph of fauna seen in Mughal Gardens
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