Living with the Mughals: a legacy that endures despite erasure

21 April 2026 marks five centuries since the decisive Battle of Panipat which led to the founding of the Mughal empire in the Indian subcontinent. Memory, monument and everyday language carry forward a contested inheritance that refuses to fade. “The first thing that Babur does after winning the war is not a massacre or a raid on treasury. He does neither. He reaches Delhi and circumambulates the grave of Sufi saint Nizamuddin Aulia. There, he gets a poem inscribed on the grave of [mystic and Aulia’s disciple] Amir Khusro,” says Ratish Nanda, CEO of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC). It has been just under two years since the Humayun’s Tomb Museum — a sunken structure within the 16th century Humayun’s Tomb complex in the national capital — opened its doors to visitors. Developed by AKTC in partnership with the Archaeological Survey of India, the museum brings alive the story of Babur’s son, Humayun, and the dynasty he helped establish — one that, over 232 years and five months, evolved into the subcontinent we now call India.