The battle of Panipat laid the foundation of the Mughal dynasty in Agra. The loss of the Afghan Ruler, Sikandar Lodhi became the turning point that piloted the nation’s forays into the world of architectural majesty. Globally renowned as the city of the Taj Mahal, this royal Mughal city has many other monuments too that emphasise the high point of Mughal architecture.
The founder of the Mughal dynasty, Babur, laid out the first formal Persian garden on the banks of the river Yamuna. Akbar raised the towering ramparts of the great Red Fort and within its walls Jahangir built rose-red palaces, courts and gardens.
However, the crowning glory of the city is obviously The Taj,a monument of an imagination turned into a "symbol of eternal love".The Taj represents India to the world embellished by Shah Jahan with marble mosques, palaces and pavilions of gem-inlaid white marble.
In 1631 AD, Shah Jahan, the Emperor during the Mughal Empire's period of greatest prosperity, was grief stricken when his third wife, Mumtaz Mahal died during the birth of their fourtheenth child, Gauhar Ara Begum. The court chronicles of ShahJahan's grief illustrate the love story traditionally held as an inspiration for the Taj Mahal.
The Taj Mahal incorporates and expands on design traditions of Persian architecture and earlier Mughal architecture. Specific inspiration came from successful Timurid and Mughal buildings including; the Gur-e Amir (the tomb of Timur, progenitor of the Mughal dynasty, in Samarkand), Humayun's Tomb and Shah Jahan's own Jama Masjid in Delhi.
While earlier Mughal buildings were primarily constructed of red sandstone, Shah Jahan promoted the use of white marble inlaid with semi-preciou stones and buildings under his patronage reached new levels of refinement.
The Itmad-Ud-Daulah's Tomb (sometimes called the Baby Taj ), that Nur Jahan built for her father, Mirza Ghiyas Beg was the first Mughal structure to be built entirely of marble. This particular monument marks the transition from the red sandstone structures to those in white marble and is believed to be the precursor of the magnificent Taj Mahal. However, the architects evolved this masterpiece from the closest model completed some 60 years before, at Humayun’s Tomb in Delhi, by his wife, Hamida Begum.
According to Koch, who spent a decade digging to the very beginnings of the famous monument and measuring every inch of the vast complex,this was exactly what the building-obsessed emperor had wanted to create: a monument that would be unrivalled in beauty and grandeur for all generations to come." It will," in the words of his court historian Muhammad Amin Qazwini, "be a masterpiece for ages to come, increasing the amazement of all humanity".
"As a historian I was a little sceptical about the love angle," confesses Koch. But his biography, Padshahnama, written by a series of carefully chosen historians, goes into extraordinary detail about the emperor's broken heart, including how his beard turned white overnight and how he shared with his begum not just passion but a meeting of minds as well.
Shah Jahan set about constructing his "masterpiece for ages to come", Koc says, with utmost deliberation. Just the selection of the site, for instance, took him nearly six months. The prevailing fashion in the royal capital Agra was for river front havelis to be turned into garden tombs. But the Taj wasn't going to be just one of the scores of garden tombs. "Shah Jahan knew & nothing makes an impression stronger than sheer size, so he decided to build a complex that was almost a kilometre long," Koch says. "It's the biggest mausoleum if not in the world, at least in Asia."
Twenty thousand people were deployed to work on it. The material was brought in from all over India and central Asia and it took a fleet of 1000 elephants to transport it to the site. According to a court historian Abdul Hamid Lahori, a network of wells was laid down along the river line and was filled with stones and other solid materials in order to lay a strong foundation of this grand mausoleum. The chief architect of Taj was a Persian named Ustad Isha Khan (a well known architect of his time) who was assisted by other architects to make Taj Mahal a profound fusion of Persian, Turkish, Indian and Islamic architecture.
To make it most gorgeous architectural piece, as many as 28 precious and semi-precious stones were used in the ornamentation with their best combination. But the thing, dominantly used in ornamentation was the famous snow white marble that was found in Makrana (Rajasthan). Other semi-precious stones were brought from distant region of India, Ceylon and Afghanistan; from Punjab, jade and crystal from China, turquoise from Tibet, lapis lazuli & sapphire from Arabia and diamonds from Panna. Red sand stones of different tints that constitute the base were requisitioned from neighboring quarries of Sikri, Dholpur etc.
“having been designed by the giants and finished by jewelers“.
Emperor Shah Jahan himself described the Taj in these words:
Should guilty seek asylum here,
Like one pardoned, he becomes free from sin.
Should a sinner make his way to this mansion,
All his past sins are to be washed away.
The sight of this mansion creates sorrowing sighs,
And the sun and the moon shed tears from their eyes.
In this world this edifice has been made,
To display thereby the creator's glory!
At the end of the 19th century, British viceroy Lord Curzon ordered a massive restoration project, which was completed in 1908. He also commissioned the large lamp in the interior chamber, modeled after one in a Cairo mosque. During this time the garden was remodeled with British-style lawns that are still in place today.
Mumtaz Mahal
| Reign | 1628-1658 |
|---|---|
| Full name | Arjumand Banu Begum |
| Born | April,1593 |
| Birthplace | Agra |
| Died | 17 June 1631 |
| Place of death | Burhanpur |
| Buried | Taj Mahal |
| Consort to | Shah Jahan |
| Offspring |
|
| Dynasty | Mughal |
| Father | Abdul Hasan Asaf Khan, a Persian noble. |
| Religious Beliefs | Islam |
Arjumand Banu Begum, popularly known as Mumtāz Mahal (April, 1593 - 17 June 1631) meaning "beloved ornament of the palace" was an Empress of India during the Mughal Dynasty. Her father was the brother of Empress Nur Jahan (who subsequently became the wife of the emperor Jahangir). She was religiously a Shi'a Muslim.
Betrothed to Prince Khurram in 1607 AD at the age of 14 years, she was married five years later on 10 May 1612, a date selected by the court astrologers as most conducive to ensuring a happy marriage to Prince Khurram, who later ascended the Peacock Throne of India as the fifth Mughal Emperor and populary known as Shah Jahan I. She was his third wife, and became his favorite.
After their wedding celebrations, Khurram "finding her in appearance and character elect among all the women of the time", gave her the title 'Mumtaz Mahal' Begum (Chosen One of the Palace). The intervening years had seen Khurrum take two other wives.
Mumtaz Mahal had a very deep and loving marriage with Shah Jahan. Even during her lifetime, poets would extol her beauty, gracefulness and compassion. Mumtaz Mahal was Shah Jahan's trusted companion, travelling with him all over the Mughal Empire.
His trust in her was so great that he even gave her his imperial seal, the Muhr Uzah. Mumtaz was portrayed as the perfect wife with no aspirations to political power.
She also enjoyed watching elephant and combat fights performed for the court. It was quite common for women of noble birth to commission architecture in the Mughal Empire. Mumtaz devoted some time to a riverside garden in Agra and it may have been her affection for this garden that prompted the eventual form of her monument.
Shah Jahan
| Reign | 1628-1658 |
|---|---|
| Full name | Shahab-ud-din Muhammad Shah Jahan, also spelled Shah Jehan, Shahjehan |
| Born | 5 January 1592 |
| Birthplace | Lahore |
| Died | 22 January 1666 (aged 74) |
| Place of death | Agra |
| Buried | Taj Mahal |
| Predecessor | Jahangir |
| Successor | Aurangazeb |
| Wives | Akbarabadi Mahal, Kandahari Mahal, Mumtaz Mahal, Hasina Begum Sahiba, Muti Begum Sahiba, Qudsia Begum Sahiba, Fatehpuri Mahal, Sahiba, Sarhindi Begum Sahiba, Shrimati Manbhavathi Baiji Lal Sahiba |
| Offspring | Jahanara Begum, Dara Shukoh, Shah Shuja, Roshanara Begum, Aurangzeb, Murad Baksh, Gauhara Begum [Many more died at birth or at an early age] |
| Dynasty | Mughal |
| Father | Jahangir |
| Mother | Princess Manmati |
| Religious Beliefs | Islam |
SHAHAB UDDIN MUHAMMAD SHAH JAHAN I (full title: Al-Sultan al-'Azam wal Khaqan al-Mukarram, Abu'l-Muzaffar Shahab ud-din Muhammad, Sahib-i-Qiran-i-Sani, Shah Jahan I Padshah Ghazi Zillu'llah [Firdaus-Ashiyani]) ruled India from 1628 until 1658.
FROM ‘KHURRAM’ TO SHAH JAHAN: The blue-eyed of the Mughal Royals, the young ‘Khurram’ impressed his father the Emperor Jahangir with his intense military successes of 1617 against the Lodi in the Deccan, which effectively secured the southern border of the empire.The grateful father rewarded him with the prestigious title 'Shah Jahan Bahadur ', which implicitly sealed his inheritance. The name Shah Jahan comes from Persian meaning "King of the World."
His early years saw him receive a cultured, broad education and distinguish himself in the martial arts and as a commander of his father's armies in numerous campaigns, where he became responsible for most of the territorial gains of his father's reign. Khurrum also demonstrated a precocious talent for building, impressing his father at the age of 16 when he built his own quarters within Babur's Kabul fort and redesigned several buildings within Agra fort.
He was the fifth Mughal ruler after Babur, Humayun, Akbar, and Jahangir. While young, he was a favourite of Akbar. Like Akbar, he was eager to expand his empire. Even while very young, he could be pointed out to be the successor to the Mughal throne after the death of Jahangir. He succeeded to the throne upon his father's death in 1627. He is considered to be one of the greatest Mughals and his reign has been called the Golden Age of Mughals.
Shah Jahan erected many splendid monuments, the most famous of which is the Taj Mahal at Agra. The Pearl Mosque at Agra, the palace and great mosque at Delhi. The celebrated Peacock Throne, said to be worth millions of dollars by modern estimates. He was the founder of Shahjahanabad, now known as 'Old Delhi'. Other creations of Shah Jahan also include the Diwan-i-Am and Diwan-i-Khas within the Red Fort in Delhi.
Facts
To the last category belong the oldest tales of the Taj. Here the most widely known is the story of the second Taj, the 'Black Taj', which Shah Jahan intended to build in black marble opposite the present mausoleum, on the site of the Mahtab Bagh. It goes back to Jean-Baptiste Tavernier who, when at Agra in 1665 AD, reported that 'Shahjahan began to built his own tomb on the other side of the river, but the war with his sons interrupted his plan, and Aurangzeb, who reigns at present, is not disposed to complete it. Shah Jahan was put under house arrest by his own son and successor by force, Aurangzeb. The latter did not agree with his father on most issues and was particularly opposed to him building a black Taj as his own mausoleum.
Upon Shah Jahan's death, Aurangzeb made the body of the Emperor, who got the body of his beloved Mumtaz in a golden casket from Burhanpur to Agra, carried in a boat by only two men and buried him in the Taj, next to his wife in probably the simplest manner.
Shah Jahan, the Emperor, who fulfilled the wishes of his beloved, could not find fulfilment of his own wish to build a Black Taj to express his mourning for the beloved Queen Mumtaz Mahal even after his death. That was the serenity in the purity of love.
Legend has it that during his eight years long ailment and imprisonment, Shah Jahan used to intensly view The Taj lying on the bed through a diamond fixed in the wall in front at a particular angle, WOW!!!
As a tribute to a woman of exotic beauty and as a monument of a love story, which is keeping us engrossed even when we are reading through these pages here, truely an ever-lasting romance of a love not ended as yet, the Taj reveals its subtleties to its Beholder! Come!! Be Thy One!!!
