As well described by Kuraishi, the tomb proper is built entirely of Chunar sandstone and consists of the main chamber, 31’ square internally and 34’8” square externally, surrounded by a verandah, 11’8” wide, all around, the whole building standing on a low platform, 2’4” in height and 58’ square.

The high ceilings of stone in the verandahs bear exquisite carved panels with floral and geometrical patterns and calligraphic devices containing the Quranic verses. At the corners of the verandahs are open-sided rooms, with small domed cupolas above them, each resting on twelve pillars.

The roof of the main chamber is supported on four lofty stone pillars on each side, with thin stone-built curtain walls in between them, adorned with horizontal mouldings and rows of niches and arches, fitted with stone screens or jails. The pillar-bracket-lintel method of support is used in the construction and continued upwards upto the base of the dome, by changing the square of the ground-plan, first to octagon and then gradually to a circle, so as to form the base of the dome above.

There are two inscriptions on this building including one indicating the date of death of Hazrat Makhdum Shah Daulat of Maner, whose remains lie buried in this building.

The grave of Shah Daulat is in the centre of the chamber, while that of Ibrahim Khan, the builder of the tomb is in the middle of the western gallery of the enclosure and has an inscription in Persian couplets, recording its completion in A.H. 1028 (A.D. 1619) by Ibrahim Khan, the builder of the main tomb. Hafiz Shamsuddin Ahmad, mentions the tomb as “a fine specimen of Indo-Saracenic, or, what may more particularly termed, Moghal style.”

To be continued....