TAJ MAHAL

1. TAJ MAHAL Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow

2. If there is one monument of romance instantly recognised throughout the world that speaks to all peoples irrespective of colour, nationality or religion it is the Taj Mahal. The Taj Mahal was built by the Mughal emperor, Shah Jahan, to honour his wife the Empress Mumtaz Mahal. It is assumed that 'Taj Mahal' – 'Crown of the palace' – is an abbreviated version of Mumtaz Mahal's name, (itself meaning Exalted One of the Palace). Court histories from Shah Jahan's time simply called it the rauza (tomb) of Mumtaz Mahal. It was completed in 1648, almost twenty years after she died. But the Taj Mahal can be seen not only as a mausoleum for the empress but also as the glorious climax of Mughal architecture in India. Babur, the founder of the dynasty, had come to India with firm ideas about art and architecture from his ancestral home in Central Asia. Samarkand and Bukhara had been the glittering capitals of his ancestors, Taimur and Uleg Beg. His son, Humayun, was exiled to Iran and returned with Safavid architects and artists. Red stone and white marble – the Indian contribution to Islamic architecture – were now blended with traditional Islamic styles and materials. Indeed it was Humayun's own tomb, built in the 1560s in Delhi, which began the trend in Mughal architecture to reflect the glory, splendour and power of the empire through the burial .... • Most travelers call this wonder in India the world's most beautiful building - ever. Some say it's worth a trip half way around the world just to see it. • The Taj Mahal costs in today’s money about US $100 million. It also cost Shah Jahan dearly. Because it acutely drained the treasury, Jahan was dethroned and imprisoned for the last nine years of his life. From his prison quarters, he could poignantly see the wonder where his love lay and where he himself would eventually be. • It is a hybrid of many artistic styles including Hindi, Mogul, Persian and Islamic.

3. Taj acquires a different hue at different time of the day. You might have seen Taj 15 times but when you return back to see it 16th times, you will find it something different from the earlier visit. The Taj at noon, the Taj at sunset, under the full moon, against the setting sun, and against the rising ball of fire, each time the mausoleum acquires a different accent and tells a different story. It was a reminder of the love of a king for his queen Mumtaz Mahal who could inspire such a monument and also of the king himself who could sign his love across the horizon. • Whichever story it tells, there is a certain vulnerability, a softness about Taj Mahal that always touches the visitor. The white structure, actually nothing but a grave and yet so much more, stands unassumingly in spite of the yellowing pollution retaining a certain charm that takes the breath away.

4. The Taj stands on a raised platform. At the entrance there are two sets of stairs, one leading to the real sarcophagus and the other to cenotaph counterparts. Rising on all four sides are minarets and in the center lies the magnificent dome over the central hall. The dome is crucial to Islamic architecture, cosmologically uniting heaven and earth. The square edifice represents the material universe while the dome symbolizes the vault of heaven. The Taj itself is octagonal and the base is said to represent the transitional phase. The finial, the golden needle at the top is indicative of the region of transcendence.On the grave itself 99 names of Allah are inscribed and it is said to have lain inside a gem-encrusted balustrade. On it were placed bowls of jewelry, all of which together could still not match the beauty of the one who lay interred there. Persian carpets and sheets of silver for the door keep the silence in the mausoleum in splendorous solemnity. From the ceiling hung a glittering golden globe with convex mirror. While there were other chandeliers too, this was the most beautiful one and had come from Aleppo and it constantly wove patterns in the room.

5. The Tajmahal or Taj Mahal derives much of its charm from the sprawling garden laid out in the Persian Char Bagh style. The fountains and canals provide a grand reflection of the Tajmahal, accentuating the Paradise imagery. In this death-inspired monument rows of cypresses lead the eye to the tomb in white marble standing at the extreme end of the garden, rather than in the center as at other Mughal tombs.The Tajmahal mausoleum was nearly completed within ten years around 1643. Tavernier claimed to have seen the commencement of work at the Tajmahal- a falsehood. The Tajmahal had started in 1632. It did not take 22 years and twenty thousands men for workers. In fact, Tavernier first arrived in Agra in 1641 when the Taj was nearly finished. Later on the tomb of Satti-ul-Nisa, chief maid of Mumtaz and later on of Jahanara and the mosques built by Sirhindi Begam and Fatehpuri Begam were added to the Tajmahal complex. In 1652, Aurangzeb pointed out the leakage in the dome on the northern side. The garden also was water logged during the rains.

6. It is difficult to view the Taj at noon. The sun strikes the white marble and there is a great dazzle of reflected light. Stand there with averted eyes, looking at everything- the formal gardens, the surrounding walls or red sandstone, the winding river-everything except the monument you have come to see. It is there, of course, very solid and real, perfectly preserved, with every jade, jasper or lapis lazuli playing its part in the overall design and after a while you can shade your eyes and take in a vision of shimmering white marble. The light rises in waves from the paving stones, and the squares of black and white marble create an effect of running water. Insight the chamber it is cool and dark but rather musty. Walk the length of a gallery and turn with some relief to the river scene. The sluggish Yamuna winds past Agra on its way to union with the Ganga. Yamuna emerges from the foothills near Kalsi cold and blue from the melting snows: and then it winds through fields of wheat and sugar-cane and mustard, across the flat plains of Uttar Pradesh, sometimes placid sometimes in flood. Past Delhi where its muddy banks are a patchwork of clothes spread out by the hundreds of washer men who serve the city. Past Mathura, where it is alive with huge turtles: Mathura, a sacred city, whose beginnings are lost in antiquity. And then the river winds its way to Agra, to this spot by the Taj, where parrots flash in the sunshine, kingfishers swoop low over the water and a peacock struts across the lawns surrounding the monument.Taj does not change. Therein lies its beauty. For the effect on the traveler is same today as it was three hundred years ago when Bernier wrote, "Nothing offends the eye…. No part can be found that is not skillfully wrought, or that has not its peculiar beauty."

7. Now more than three centuries have passed and the Taj seen by millions of visitors every year continues to retain a romantic aura about it "so like a fabric of mist and sunbeams…. a silvery bubble… you almost doubt its reality." Some women like Mrs. Sleeman would exclaim" I would die tomorrow to have such another rover me". The Taj Mahal is still "the grand passion of an Emperor's love," as Edwin Arnold wrote, or as Tagore said of the Taj" one solitary tear… on the Cheek of time." The subtle play of light on the white marble dome creates its own moods to which even the hardest cynic ultimately succumbs. Millions and millions of photographs taken fail to capture the quintessence of the Taj Mahal.