On the banks of the Yamuna River, near the old Mughal capital of Agra, stands India’s most celebrated monument. With its white marble dome, cupolas, minarets, and exquisite mosaics, the Taj Mahal has rightly earned its place as one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World. Its fame owes as much to the romance of its origins as it does to the beauty of its architecture.
Arjumand Banu Begum, more commonly known as Mumtaz Begum was the wife of the fifth Mughal emperor, Shah Jahan, who died while giving birth to their 14th child, Gauhara Begum in 1631. According to legend, the emperor was so distraught that to express his eternal love, he pledged to build the most beautiful tomb in the world.
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Coming up: The Taj Mahal - Monument of Love or Power?
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On the banks of the Yamuna River, near the old Mughal capital of Agra, stands India’s most celebrated monument. With its white marble dome, cupolas, minarets, and exquisite mosaics, the Taj Mahal has rightly earned its place as one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World. Its fame owes as much to the romance of its origins as it does to the beauty of its architecture.
Arjumand Banu Begum, more commonly known as Mumtaz Begum was the wife of the fifth Mughal emperor, Shah Jahan, who died while giving birth to their 14th child, Gauhara Begum in 1631. According to legend, the emperor was so distraught that to express his eternal love, he pledged to build the most beautiful tomb in the world. He commissioned Ustad Isa Shirazi, to design the building, and the following year work began on the construction of the tomb. To ensure that no other monument would ever be built to surpass the magnificent Taj, when it was completed Shah Jahan cut off the architect’s head, as well as the hands of the craftsmen.
The entire monument — consisting of Mumtaz Mahal’s tomb, two mosques, four minarets, a gateway, and ancillary buildings — was conceived as a single, harmonious unit. Rising to a height of nearly 250 feet, the mausoleum towers magnificently over the river. Covering 42 acres, the landscaped gardens, with splendid water channels and fountains, reflect the Mughal vision of paradise on earth.
The entire complex is said to have taken 22 years to complete, using a labour force of 20,000. Stone-masons, goldsmiths, sculptors, and calligraphers embellished every surface, inside and out. As many as 43 types of precious stone, including jade, crystal, topaz, sapphires, and diamonds, were used to create elaborate designs. Silver candlesticks, gold lamps, and the finest Persian carpets filled the interior, and a solid gold balustrade was erected around the sarcophagus.
After the collapse of the Mughal Empire in 1857, marauders plundered the tomb, taking silver, gold, and jewels. The monument, however, has remained intact, standing for centuries as a symbol of spiritual purity and love. But contemporary accounts paint an altogether different picture.
According to European travelers in India in the 17 century, Shah Jahan was a man whose excessive vanity was matched only by his lust for power. Far from being a faithful husband, he is reputed to have had an insatiable sexual appetite: it is even claimed that he committed incest with his eldest daughter. His ruthless pursuit of the throne is said to have led him to murder his elder brothers and five other male relatives.
Most of Shah Jahan’s life was spent fighting. His beautiful wife, Mumtaz Mahal, who accompanied him on his military campaigns, appears to have been as bloodthirsty as her husband. Fanatical in her hatred of Christianity, it was she who urged Shah Jahan to raze the Portuguese colony at Hooghly on the northeast coast of India. The inscription on her sarcophagus reads, “Lord defend us from the tribe of unbelievers.”
Throughout his reign, Shah Jahan was obsessed with power. He commissioned many buildings during his lifetime, and the Taj Mahal, with all its riches, can be seen as yet another way to display the glory of his empire. The very purity and perfection of its design perhaps hints at a supreme conceit: the desire to rival God. The romantic myth that has intrigued travelers for centuries may mask the true purpose of the Taj Mahal: to immortalise the most powerful of Mughal emperors, Shah Jahan.
Source: Strange Stories, Amazing Facts II (pages 127-128) by Reader’s Digest. Will provide the respective buy links to it on Amazon India and Amazon USA.
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