THE TAJMAHAL

The beautiful Taj Mahal, the epitome of beauty and love, was built by Shah Jahan in memory of his beloved wife, Mumtaz Mahal.

Twenty thousand people worked for seventeen years to make this marble monument. Thirty-seven creative experts came from all over the world.

There are different opinions regarding the monument’s cost. Some estimate tis cost to be 40 million rupees, and others estimate the cost to be 90 million rupees.

The Taj Mahal, the wonder in marble, is a blend of Indian, Persian, Islamic and Turkish architecture.

There are many Hindus in fluencies on the building of the monument too.

The dome is an upside down lotus resting on its petals, and on the ceiling  is the drawing of the sun.

The Hindu influence on the Taj Mahal comes as no surprise as Shah jahan’s mother was a Hindu, the daughter of Udai Singh of Marwara in Rajasthan.

The four minarets of the Taj Mahal are built in such a manner that if they fall, they will fall away from the main building.

The whole monument is made of marble. Semi-precious stones were brought from far away lands for the Taj.

The design and the manner in which the main building is set against the River Yamuna makes it an immensely attractive sight.

The Taj Mhal looks wonderful in the moonlight. Its beauty keeps changing with the changing light of the sun and the moon.

The calligrapher of the Taj was Amanat Khan Shirazi. His name appears at the end of an inscription on one of the gates of the Taj.

It is said that when the person who made the taj Mahal was told by Shah Jahan that his arms would be cut so that he won’t be able to make another such monument, he took Shah Jahan’s permission to go e hit his hammer somewhere on the top, through which it is said that the first drop of monsoon falls on the grave of Shah Jahan.

Later Aurangzeb took Shah Jahan as a prisoner and kept him in that part of the Red Fort from where he could see the Taj Mahal. It was his daughter Jahan Ara who looked after Shah Jahan.

When Shah Jahan’s eyes become very weak, as he grew old, he could see the Taj Mahal reflected in a small glass fixed in the wall of the fort.

It is said that Shah Jahan wanted to make another Taj in black marble, on the opposite side of the Taj Mahal, to enshrine his own remains. He even started building it. But Aurangzeb topped it because by then he had made Shah Jahan a captive.

Shah Jahan was buried in the Taj near the grave of his wife Mumtaz Mahal when he died in 1666 at the ge of seventy-four.

The real graves of Mumtaz Mahal and Shah Jahan are in the basement, but another pair of graves are made in the room above.

Shah Jahan is known for the wonderful buildings and grand monuments he got made.

Shah Jahan moved his capital from Agra to Delhi, and this paved the way for many beautiful and great buildings in Delhi like the Ref Fort and the Jama Masjid.

In Lahore, the Shalimar Gardens, the Moti Masjid (also called the pearl Mosque) and sections of the Lahore Fort were constructed by Shah Jahan.

The lower of architectural beauty gave grand monuments to the succeeding generations.

However, he spent so much on these monuments that he almost exhausted the royal coffers. This was one of the reasons of the slow decline of the Mughal Empire.

The Taj Mahal was his greatest gift. It is considered as one of the modern wonders of the world.