He took Obamas down passages of history
As US President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle Obama strolled around the sprawling Humayun’s Tomb complex, it was archaeologist K.K. Muhammad who guided them through the history of the red sandstone monument on whose architecture the Taj Mahal is said to have been modelled. Mr Muhammad has done this tour for numerous foreign heads of states over the last two decades. Mr Muhammad, superintending archaeologist of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), was there to receive the US first couple as their limousine drove up to the west gate of the World Heritage site complex. He has been a guide to visiting leaders and heads of state when they go for sight-seeing — most famously, for former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf at Taj Mahal in 1999. The first head of state he took on a guided tour was German chancellor Helmut Kohl in 1989-90.
For the US First Couple, he did not have to do much homework. “We know about the monument as it is part of the job,” he said. He began by explaining to the Obamas about the significance of Humayun’s Tomb, pointing out that this was one of three World Heritage sites in New Delhi. According to Mr Muhammad, the monument is also the first time that “gardens have been integrated into the tomb complex”. The US President, dressed in white shirt and black trousers, stood to read a stone plaque at the tomb complex, which had been spruced up for their visit. “He wanted to know how long it took to build this place. Seven years, I told him,” said Mr Muhammad.
Later, when he was leaving Mr Obama mentioned this fact to the reporters, and added on a lighter vein, “If you had to build this in US in seven years, it would be tough. Good contractors.” The ASI official noted how Mr Obama was interested in learning about the strands of different cultures that had resulted in the “melting pot” architectural style of Humayun’s Tomb.
“He wanted to see how the different strands were used in the architecture,” Mr Muhammad said. So, Mr Muhammad pointed out how the dome was an import from Central Asia. Persia was represented through the various arches and India made its presence known through the various decorative motifs and the “kalashs” or pot on the top of the dome. Ms Obama was especially struck by the decorative motifs of lotus flowers embedded in marble on the sandstone structure. “Lotus has no significance left either in Islam or Christianity. This is a specific Indian motif which has been assimilated in the architecture,” said Mr Muhammad.
He also stoked the President’s curiosity when he made the linkage between Dara Shikoh, a Mughal prince buried in the complex, and American transcendental poets like Walt Whitman and Ralph W. Emerson. “He really was interested in the linkage. Dara Shikoh had translated the Sanskrit Upanishands into Persian, which were then translated into Latin by a French Orientals. This inspired a German philosopher’s work, which then further inspired American transcendentalist philosophers,” he said.
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