The Taj Mahal of Agra is one of the Seven Wonders of the World, for
reasons more than just looking magnificent. It's the history of Taj
Mahal that adds a soul to its magnificence: a soul that is filled with
love, loss, remorse, and love again. Because if it was not for love, the
world would have been robbed of a fine example upon which people base
their relationships. An example of how deeply a man loved his wife, that
even after she remained but a memory, he made sure that this memory
would never fade away. This man was the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan, who
was head-over-heels in love with Mumtaz Mahal, his dear wife. She was a
Muslim Persian princess (her name Arjumand Banu Begum before marriage)
and he was the son of the Mughal Emperor Jehangir and grandson of Akbar
the Great. It was at the age of 14 that he met Mumtaz and fell in love
with her. Five years later in the year 1612, they got married.
Mumtaz Mahal, an inseparable companion of Shah Jahan, died in 1631,
while giving birth to their 14th child. It was in the memory of his
beloved wife that Shah Jahan built a magnificent monument as a tribute
to her, which we today know as the "Taj Mahal". The construction of Taj
Mahal started in the year 1631. Masons, stonecutters, inlayers,
carvers, painters, calligraphers, dome-builders and other artisans were
requisitioned from the whole of the empire and also from Central Asia
and Iran, and it took approximately 22 years to build what we see today.
An epitome of love, it made use of the services of 22,000 laborers and
1,000 elephants. The monument was built entirely out of white marble,
which was brought in from all over India and central Asia. After an
expenditure of approximately 32 million rupees (approx US $68000), Taj
Mahal was finally completed in the year 1653.
It was soon after the completion of Taj Mahal that Shah Jahan was
deposed by his own son Aurangzeb and was put under house arrest at
nearby Agra Fort. Shah Jahan, himself also, lies entombed in this
mausoleum along with his wife. Moving further down the history, it was
at the end of the 19th century that British Viceroy Lord Curzon ordered a
sweeping restoration project, which was completed in 1908, as a measure
to restore what was lost during the Indian rebellion of 1857: Taj being
blemished by British soldiers and government officials who also
deprived the monument of its immaculate beauty by chiseling out precious
stones and lapis lazuli from its walls. Also, the British style lawns
that we see today adding on to the beauty of Taj were remodeled around
the same time. Despite prevailing controversies, past and present
threats from Indo-Pak war and environmental pollution, this epitome of
love continuous to shine and attract people from all over the world.
Taj Mahal Myths
 Taj Mahal means the’ Place of the Crown’ because; Taj means “Crown” and Mahal means “place”. There are several myths about Taj Mahal. According to one of the myths, the construction is sinking and it is known that in spite of all the precautions, cracks were discovered in it just 4 years after its completion and that it was tilting towards the riverside. According to another myth a number of items such as diamonds, a gold leaf which covered the part of the dome, a pearl blanket etc that were originally a part of the Taj were stolen. It is also told that Shah Jahan got the hands of his sculptors and architects cut off so that they would never be able to build a monument as magnificent and beautiful as the Taj again and he even got their eyes pulled out so that they would never be able to witness anything bigger and more beautiful than the monument that they had built during their lifetime. |
source : various sources
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