Sher Mandal, Purana Qila, Delhi

The Sher Mandal is a two-storeyed octagonal tower of red sandstone on an octagonal plinth, crowned by a spacious chhatri on the terrace, at the highest point of the Purana Qila in Delhi near its south-east corner, close to the Qila-i-Kuhna mosque. ¹ The lower storey is closed on all sides; the upper holds a single square room opening onto four alcoves, decorated with coloured stucco and glazed tile in stalactite and geometric designs. ^{4 5}

The spandrels of the upper arches carry sixteen six-pointed stars of inlaid marble on red stone, the intrados of the arches geometric designs inlaid in white marble, and each angle a panel with a twelve-petalled flower round a twelve-pointed star. ⁴ Its granite stairs are extremely steep, narrow and irregular, the rise double the tread or more. ⁴ The octagonal chhatri on the terrace spans 6.25 metres. ⁵

The tower is generally identified as Humayun's library, from whose roof he fell. ⁵ According to Abu al-Fadl, on the evening of Friday 7 Rabi' I 963 (20 January 1556) Humayun went up to the roof of the library, received the homage of the people gathered at the mosque, and sent for the astronomers to watch the rising of Venus; as he began to descend he heard the call to prayer on the second step and sat down out of respect, his foot caught in his robe, his staff slipped and he fell on his head. ² Bada'uni, Nizam al-Din, Firishta and others confirm the account, and the Ottoman admiral Sidi Ali Reis, then at Delhi, records that he fell down several steps at the call to prayer. ^{2 6}

Nath observes that the upper room has no shelves or niches for books, nothing that would justify calling it a library. ⁷ He argues that its position at the top of the fort, with clear sky to the horizon on all sides, and its twelve-pointed stars matching the signs of the zodiac, show it was an astronomical observatory for the astronomy-loving Humayun. ^{8 9 3} He also suggests that the closed lower storey was the first temporary resting place of Humayun's body before its removal to Sirhind and later to his tomb, and was sealed afterwards out of reverence — an inference of his own that the sources do not state. ⁷