As Taj Mahal is to India… this country's most famous architectural wonder so is the Statue of Liberty to America, the Pyramids to Egypt and the Leaning Tower of Pisa to Italy.

 

Variously defined as 'A materialized vision of loveliness'; 'A poem in stone'; 'A dream in marble'; 'A Noble Tribute to the Grace of Indian womanhood'; 'A Resplendent immortal Tear-drop on the cheek of Time'; 'A monument of Love'; 'A wonder of the world' the Taj Mahal is representative of the glorious Mughal Age and is a unique gift of the medieval period to the people of India.

 

THE TAJ MAHAL, counts among man's proudest creations and is invariably one of the world's acknowledged wonders, represents the culmination of the arts of architecture and decoration which had developed in India during centuries of Muslim rule. Under the Mughals these arts achieved a range and degree of excellence which put their creations at the very pinnacle of Indo-Muslim architecture. The extraordinary creativity of the age covered the whole range of cultural life, nor was it confined to the capital of Agra. Examples of superb Mughal architecture are to be seen throughout northern India. Music and dance enjoyed discriminating patronage, and innumerable works of out-standing school of painting have found their way to the museums of the world. Impressive as all these are, what can be seen today only faintly suggests the grandeur of the Mughal court. The emperors made such a dazzling display of the riches of the orient that the legend of the 'Grand Mughal' spread throughout the known world.

 

Taj Mahal, the 7th Wonder of the World. Shah Jahan - The Mughal Emperor constructed the Taj Mahal on the banks of Yamuna river in the memory of his beloved Queen Mumtaz Mahal, who was buried in it. It is made of pure white marble. It is said that 20000 men took 22 years to complete it. One of the wonders of the world from 1631 A.D. Its unsurpassed beauty, the Taj Mahal is said to be a dream in marble.

The idea of the Taj Mahal originated with Shah Jahan who was deeply aggrieved by the death of his wife, Arjumand Banu Begam, entitled Mumtaz Mahal, daughter of Asif Khan and grand daughter of Mirza Ghiyas Beg. When she married Shahjahan at the age of 14 years, imperial city of Agra was already agog with the stories of her beauty. She was the third wife of Prince Khurram or Shahjahan and the principle one throughout their life. She became Mumtaz Mahal in 1612 after her marriage and remained an inseparable companion of her husband till her death. For the love and affection she showed to her husband, Mumtaz Mahal received highest honor of the land - the royal seal - Mehr Uzaz from Shahjahan, the emperor. According to the legends, stories of her virtue spread all over the Mughal Empire. Arjumand was always close to her husband and she followed him every where even on military campaigns. Shah Jahan was busy dealing with the rebels of Khan-i-Jehan Lodi and was camping at Burhanpur along with his pregnant empress in the year 1630 to suppress the Lodi Empire that was gaining strength at that time. It was there that she delivered her fourteenth child Gauhar-ara-Begam and died on Wednesday 17^th June Ziqad 1040 A.H. (1631 A.D.) She had borne Shah Jahan fourteen children, of whom four sons and three daughters survived. Shah Jahan was deeply aggrieved and wept bitterly. Abdul Hamid Lahauri, the contemporary historian, recorded that prior to this tragedy he didn't have even twenty gray hair in his beard, but after this incident the majority of hair in his beard turned gray. For two years he remained aloof from tasteful dishes, gorgeous robes, music and merriment. According to Lahori he was heard so great he wanted to renounce the throne itself and for an entire week he made no public appearances.

 

Mumtaz's last wish to her husband was, "To build for her an extremely beautiful, wonderful and unique mausoleum, the like of which was not there on the earth." It was thus quite natural that he vowed to erect a sublime mausoleum in her memory in pristine marble that the world would never forget. He sent for a council of experts and asked them to submit designs of the proposed mausoleum. From the several 'naqshas' thus received, one was approved and according to this, a wooden model was prepared:

 

Kagaz naqshaye maqbarah har-ek ustad min avardand, va mindadand chun yake
naqsha pasand Ala Hadrat amad, bamujib an naqsha-e-latifa rauzaye chobi taiyar shud.

 

It was of course, though these wooden models that its perfect and unique proportions were evolved. It is in this way that the idea of the Taj grew.

 

Mumtaz's body was deposited temporarily in the Zainabad garden at Burhanpur. Six months after her death, the body was transferred to Dar-ul Khilafat Akbarabad (Agra), accompanied by Shah Shuja, Sati-un-Nissa Khanam, a close mate of deceased queen and Wazir Khan, the court physician.

 

Lahauri notes that a piece of land (Zamin) was selected for her burial at Agra. It originally belonged to Raja Mansingh and was owned by his grandson Raja Jai Singh. Lahauri explicitly mentions that another plot was given to Jai Singh from the crown lands in exchange for this piece of land on which the Taj stands. A decree (firman) preserved in the archives of the state of Bikaner mentions a gift of four houses by the Lord to his vassal in return for this land where the Taj Mahal was to be built.

 

These four houses were Haveli of Raja Bhagwandas, Haveli of Raja Madhosingh, Haveli of Rupji and Haveli of Chand Singh son of Swarup Singh. Moreover after the pursual of other firman sent by Shah Jahan to Mirza Raja Jai Singh, it would appear that the grand Mughal had asked the Rajput ruler to put a great a number of worker at his disposal, as well as a great quantity of marble obviously intended for the mausoleum.

 

Under expert and efficient supervision, sangtarash, sadakar, pachchikar, munbitkar, kalasa-saaz, tughranivas and other artisans set to work. The grand project took out seventeen years during which more than 20000 workers were constantly employed. Marble, red sandstone and other precious stones were supplied by the vassal states.

The origin of the name "Taj Mahal" is not clear. Court histories from Shah Jehan's reign only call it the rauza (tomb) of Mumtaz Mahal. It is generally believed that "Taj Mahal" (usually translated as either "Crown Palace" or "Crown of the Palace") is an abbreviated version of her name, Mumtaz Mahal.

 

For centuries, the Taj Mahal has inspired poets, painters and musicians to try and capture its elusive magic in word, colour and song. It is one of the most flawless architectural creations of the world. Since the 17^th century, travellers have crossed continents to come and see this ultimate memorial to love, and few have been unmoved by its incomparable beauty.

Taj Mahal stands in the city of Agra, in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, on the banks of the Yamuna River. It was built in the memory of the beautiful Arjumand Bano Begum, who won the heart of a Mughal prince, who died in AH 1040 (AD 1630). Her last wish to her husband was "to build a tomb in her memory such as the world had never seen before". Thus emperor Shah Jahan set about building this fairytale like marvel.

The construction of Taj Mahal was started in AD 1631 and completed at the end of 1648 AD. For seventeen years, twenty thousand workmen are said to be employed on it daily, for their accommodation a small town, named after the deceased empress-'Mumtazabad, now known as Taj Ganj, was built adjacent to it. Amanat Khan Shirazi was the calligrapher of Taj Mahal, his name occurs at the end of an inscription on one of the gates of the Taj. Poet Ghyasuddin had designed the verses on the tombstone, while Ismail Khan Afridi of Turkey was the dome maker. Muhammad Hanif was the superintendent of Masons. The designer of Taj Mahal was Ustad Ahmad Lahauri. The material was brought in from all over India and central Asia and it took a fleet of 1000 elephants to transport it to the site. The central dome is 187 feet high at the centre. Red sandstone was brought from Fatehpur Sikri, Jasper from Punjab, Jade and Crystal from China, Turquoise from Tibet, Lapis Lazuli and Sapphire from Sri Lanka, Coal and Cornelian from Arabia and diamonds from Panna. In all 28 kind of rare, semi precious and precious stones were used for inlay work in the Taj Mahal. The chief building material, the white marble was brought from the quarries of Makrana, in distt. Nagaur, Rajasthan.

 

Construction of the Mausoleum - Taj Mahal

 

The first anniversary urs was held in June 1632 amid royal pomp and show, attended by Shahjahan and Jahanara. The Mughal Emperor was a picture of grief. On the second urs on May 26, 1633, the work on the mausoleum began and 20,000 workers laboured for 17 years to build it. Peter Mundy's eyewitness account relates:

"There is already about her Tomb a rail of gold. The building is begun and goes on with excessive labor and cost, prosecuted with extraordinary diligence. Gold and silver esteemed common Metal, and Marble but as ordinary stones. He intends as some think, to remove all the City hither, causing hills to be made level because they might not hinder the prospect of it, places appointed for streets, shops, etc. Dwellings, commanding Merchants, shopkeepers, Artificers to Inhabit (it) where they begin to repair and called by her name, Tage Gunge 'Taj Ganj".

 

This fabulous gold railing made of 40,000 tolas of gold and encrusted with precious gems and diamonds, enclosed the grave lying under magnificent golden constellation of orbs and lamps.

 

The most skilled architects, inlay craftsmen, calligraphers, stone-carvers and masons came from all across Indian and lands as distant as Persia and Turkey. The master mason was from Baghdab, an expert in building the double dome from Persia, and an inlay specialist from Delhi.

Yemen sent agates, the corals came from Arabia, the garnets from Bundelkhand, onyx and amethyst from Persia. Mumtaz Mahal's final resting-place was ornamented like a queen's jewel-box.

 

 

Wonder of the World

To people the world over, the Taj Mahal, mausoleum of Mughal Emperor shah Jana's chief wife, Mumtaz Mahal, is synonymous with India. Its curving, gently swelling dome and the square base upon which its rests so lightly is a familiar image from hundreds of brochures and travel books. The Taj is undoubtedly one of the most spectacular buildings of the world. Renowned for its architectural magnificence and aesthetic beauty, it counts among man's proudest creations and is invariably included in the list of the world's foremost wonders. As a tomb, it has no match upon earth, for mortal remains have never been housed in greater grandeur.

Every man who loves his wife wish to see the Taj Mahal once in his life.

 

 

Agra, the Chosen City

Approach to the Taj: The walled complex is approached from the south through a red sandstone forecourt, Chowk-i Jilo Khana, whose wide paths, flanked by arched kiosks, run to high gates in the east and west. The original entrance, a massive arched gateway topped with delicate domes and adorned with Koranic verses, stands at the northern edge of Chowk-i Jilo Khana, directly aligned with the Taj, but shielding it from the view of those who wait outside. Today's entrance, complete with security checks, is through a narrow archway in the southern wall to the right of the gate.

 

Garden Mausoleum

The mighty marble tomb stands at the end of superb gardens designed in the charbagh style so fashionable among Mughal, Arabic and Persian architect. Dissected into four quadrants by waterways, they evoke the Islamic image of the Gardens of Paradise, where rivers flow with water, milk, wine and honey. The "rivers" converge at a marble tank in the centre that corresponds to al-Kawthar, the celestial pool of abundance mentioned in the Koran. Today only the watercourse running from north to south is full, and its precise, glassy reflection of the Taj is a favourite photographic image.

 

The Structure

Essentially square in shape, with peaked arches cut into its sides, the Taj Mahal surmounts a square marble platform marked at each corner by a high minaret. Topped with a huge central dome, it rises for over 55m, its height accentuated by a crowning brass spire, itself almost 17m high. On approach, the tomb looms ever larger and grander, but not until you are close do you appreciate both its awesome magnitude and the extraordinarily fine detail of relief carving, highlighted by floral patterns of precious stones. Carved vases of flowers including roses, tulips and narcissi, rise subtly out of the marble base, a pattern repeated more colourfully and inlaid with precious stones around the four great arched recesses (pishtaqs) on each side.

 

The Tomb

The south face of the tomb is the main entrance to the interior: a high, echoing octagonal chamber flushed with pallid light reflected by yellowing marble surfaces. A marble screen, cut so finely that it seems almost translucent, and decorated with precious stones, scatters dappled light over the cenotaph of Mumtaz Mahal in the centre of the tomb, and that of Shah Jahan next to it. Inlaid stones on the marble tombs are the finest in Agra; attendants gladly illuminate the decorations with torches. The 99 names of Allah adorn the top of Mumtaz's tomb, and set into Shah Jahan's is a pen box, the hallmark of a male ruler. These cenotaphs, in accordance with Mughal tradition, are only representations of the real coffins, which lie in the same positions in an unadorned and humid crypt below that's heavy with the scent of heady incense and rose petals.

 

On the head of the illuminated sepulchre of Mumtaz Mahal is inscribed a passage from Koran:

"GOD is HE beside whom there is no god. He knoweth what is concealed and what is manifest. He is merciful and compassionate."

 

On the head of the illuminated sepulchre of Shah Jahan is inscribed a passage from Koran:

"The sacred sepulchre of the Most Exalted Majesty, Dweller of Paradise, the Second Lord of Constellation, the King Shah Jahan, may his mausoleum ever flourish, 1706 Hijri."