NCERT Solutions Exploring Society: India and Beyond Chapter 10 Tombs and Mausoleums — DON’T MISS OUT
Book page 115 Updated on2026-09-05
Q1.
Did you notice the six-pointed star on Humayun’s tomb?
Answer
Yes — look again at Fig. 3.42, the closer view of the upper level. Six-pointed stars are worked in white marble against the red sandstone, set in the panels around the great arches and repeated in the parapet. They are inlay, not carving: the shape is cut out of the sandstone and a marble piece of the same shape is fitted in.
The same figure carries a meaning in three traditions.
Tradition
Name
What it stands for
Judaism
The ‘Star of David’
Named after David, a king of the Hebrews mentioned in the Bible
Islam
The ‘Seal of Solomon’
Solomon (Sulaymān), David’s son, is regarded as both a model king and a prophet endowed with divine wisdom
Hinduism
A tantric symbol
The upward-pointing triangle is puruṣha or consciousness, the downward-pointing triangle is prakṛiti or śhakti; together they are the harmony of spirit and matter
Why this figure turns up everywhere: a circle’s radius divides its own circumference into exactly six, so the six-pointed star can be drawn by anyone with a compass and a straight edge.
Why a Mughal tomb is covered in geometry. Islamic decoration generally avoids images of living beings in a religious building, so ornament had to be made from pattern — geometry, floral motifs and calligraphy of verses from the Qur’an. Geometry suited stone inlay perfectly: a pattern built from repeated identical pieces can be cut in a workshop by many hands and assembled on the wall. The chapter makes the same point about temples, where planning ‘involved a good deal of mathematics, especially some advanced geometry’. Two very different traditions, one shared tool.
Did you know? Humayun’s Tomb was commissioned by Humayun’s chief wife, Bega Begum, in 1558 and designed by Persian architects, who brought the aesthetics that became part of the Mughal architectural tradition. The complex also holds the tomb of Dara Shikoh, whom you met in Part 1 of this textbook. Note too the difference between a tomb and a cenotaph: the Jaswant Thada seen in Fig. 3.33 is a memorial to Maharaja Jaswant Singh II and served as the cremation ground of Jodhpur’s royal family — the person remembered is not buried there, so it is not a tomb.