TAJMAHAL

THE STORY BEHIND THE TAJ

To India's Nobel Laureate poet Tagore the Taj Mahal was a "tear drop on the face of humanity", a building to echo the cry I have not forgotten, I have not forgotten, O beloved" and its mesmerising power is such that still no one comes away disappointed.

The Taj Mahal is an enduring monument to love, with a continually fulfilling beauty. Shah Jahan, fifth of the Great Mughals, was devoted to his favourite wife who was given the title, Mumtaz Mahal (Jewel of the Palace). Since he could not bear to be parted from her, he insisted that she travel with him wherever he went, in all states of health. While accompanying him on a military campaign she died at the age of 39 giving birth to their fourteenth child. On her deathbed it is said that she asked him to show the world how much they loved one another.

The grief-stricken emperor, it is believed, turned grey overnight, and went into mourning for two years. He turned away from the business of running the empire which he had inherited only four years earlier, and become more involved with his other great love, architecture, resolving to build his wife the most magnificent memorial on earth. On the right bank of the river Yamuna in full view from his fortress palace it was to be known as the Taj-I-Mahal (The Crown of the Palace).

According to the French traveller Tavernier, the Taj complex took 22 years to build and employed a workforce of 20,00. The red sandstone used was available locally but the white marble was quarried at Makrana in Rajasthan, and transported 300 km by a fleet of 1,000 elephants. Semi-precious stones for the inlay came from far and wide: red carnelian form Baghdad, red, yellow and brown jasper from the Punjab, green jade and crystal from China, blue lapis lazuli from Afghanistan and Ceylon, turquoise from Tibet, golden chrysolite from Egypt, amethyst from Persia, many-coloured agates from the Yemen, dark green malachite from Russia, diamonds from Golconda in Central India and mother-of-peal from the Indian Ocean. A 3.2 km ramp was used to lift material up to the level of the dome and because of the river bank site and the sheer weight of the building, boreholes were filled with metal coins and fragments to provide suitable foundations. There is a saying of the Prophet that describes the throne of God as a dome of white pearl supported by four pillars. The resemblance of the exquisite double dome of the Taj to a huge pearl is not coincidental.

Myths and controversy surround masterpieces and the Taj Mahal is no exception . On its completion it is said that the Emperor ordered the chief mason's right hand to be cut off to prevent him from repeating this masterpiece. Another legend suggests that Shah Jahan intended to build a replica for himself in black marble on the other side of the river and that the two were to be connected by a bridge built with alternate blocks of black and white marble. Yet another suggests that the architects responsible for designing this superb mausoleum could not have been Indian but that they must have come from Turkey or Persia, or even Europe (especially because of the pietra dura work on the tomb). There is little historical evidence for these assertions. No one knows who drew the plans but in Agra's Taj the traditions of Indian Hindu and Persian Muslim architecture were fused into a completely distinct and perfect art form.

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