Wah Taj....

Taj Mahal

This weekend I visited the eternal symbol of love, Taj Mahal. One of my colleague from France came to India for the first time and its crime to come near Agra and not visit one of the wonders of the world. Although I have been to Taj many times but two things made me re-visit it with him and other colleagues. First for the first time I had a digital camera with me and so I couldn't miss the opportunity to click the beautiful monument myself and secondly the serenity that I feel on entering the Taj compound and viewing the Monument the first time is un-paralleled.

Taj from an angle..

This time since we hired a Guide too for our guest , I thought of noting down the history that our guide shared. And what better place then the blog to note it.

Well I am not good with remembering dates so I will rather put down the story without being too particular about the exact dates.

Mughal emperors ruled India approximately from 14th century to 19th century but predominantly there were only 6 rulers who were quite successful in their regime. One of them was Shah Jahan, who was the 5th among them. Although Akbar the Great was the first true Mughal emperor to rule India but Shah Jahan was the one who gifted India the Taj.

The story goes like this. When Shah Jahan was fighting one of the wars, one of his wife, who was quite beloved to him , Mumtaj Mahal, was pregant with their "14th child".  And despite of her advanced stage of pregnancy she decided to join him at the battle field. So there she developed some complications and died during the delivery. She asked for three last wishes from the emperor which were as follows:

1. You won't marry anyone else.

2. You will take care of all our children.

3. You will create something that will symbolize the pure and true love that we share.

The emperor was heart broken after her death and confined himself to the room mourning. Then he remembered the promise and as a result he built the Masoleum which is the symbol of their true love which we now call the Taj Mahal. Mumtaj Mahal was buried inside this Masoleum and when Shah Jahan died he too was buried along side her. The real tombs are situated inside the basement which is now forbidden for general public to visit. And instead people can see the replica kept at the ground floor.

You can imagine the enormity of the structure by comparing it with the size of human beings seen in the pic.

The building is 72 meter high and has four minarets alongside it.

Some facts about the Taj architecture.

The main building is made of White Marble which is the reason for its remarkable beauty.The building is built on th bank of river Yamuna. It took 22 years to build the building, 17 years for the Masoleum and 5 for the surrounding structures. As much as 20000 artisans and workers were deployed for its construction.

Contrary to popular believe Shah Jahan din't order cutting the hands of the workers instead he prohibited them from moving outside Agra and that too because most of them have become older by the time it has completed. The minarets are little slanted outside so that they don't fall on the main building in case earth quake hits the area. Unlike most Masoleums, in this one the side minarets are smaller in height to the main dome. The initial structure is made of bricks and over them the slabs of marble with all the beautiful art work crafted on them are pasted.

Flower crafted on a single marble slab

The lawn in front is made in Persian style i.e. it has four blocks with fountains seperating the four from each other, As per Persian belief, the heaven is like this with four rivers flowing and intersecting at the center, Also the myth that Shah Jahan built a black marble Taj Mahal too wasn't true and in fact he was building a park on the other side of Yamuna from where the beauty of Taj could be duly appreciated but he couldn't finish it as his rebel son Aurangzeb had him house arrested.

Persian style garden

Bill Clinton, former president of USA very rightly commented on seeing the Taj that "There are only two kinds of people in this world, one who have seen the Taj and other who haven't. And the latter people don't know what they are missing"

If you are from India or are planning to visit India sometime, do make sure to see this remarkable monument and believe me no matter how beautiful you may find it in photographs , its nothing compared to what you see from the naked eye.