SCENERY DELHI
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A GUIDED TOUR AROUND THE TAJ MAHAL
Mumtaz Mahal, the wife of Emperor Shah Jahan, died 28 June 1631, while Shah 
Jahan, then in the third year of his reign, was on a military campaign in the 
Deccan (Central India). Mumtaz Mahal was bearing her fourteenth child and was 
accompanying her royal husband as she had done for the eighteen years of 
their married life. Mumtaz died in childbirth with her husband at her side. 
Arjunand Banu Begam was the daughter of Asaf Khan, a prime minister of the 
Mughal Court. She married Prince Khurram on 27 March 1612 and was given the 
title Mumtaz Mahal by her father-in-law, Jahangir. "Mumtaz Mahal" means "The 
chosen one of the palace", while Prince Khurram's title "Shah Jahan" means 
"King of the world". It is reported that during their married life Mumtaz 
Mahal was a close companion and adviser to her husband.
After her death she was buried in a temporary grave in Burhanpur, where they 
were encamped. It is said that the Emperor was so striken with grief that he 
abstained from rich food and wore only the simplest of clothes, and the whole
court went into mourning for several years.
The remains of Mumtaz Mahal were brought to Agra within six months of her 
death and were given another temporary grave at the site where the Taj Mahal 
was later built. Work on the Taj Mahal must have begun soon after the first 
anniversary of Mumtaz Mahal's death in 1632.
The name Taj is derived from Mumtaz with the omission of the first syllable 
(z and j being interchangeable), hence the tomb of Mumtaz Mahal has come to 
be known as the Taj Mahal.

Throughout India there are monuments, tombs and pilgrimage centres that have 
been constructed for the burial of important people and saints. It is 
believed that a visit to such places enables one to share in the richness of 
the spirit of the person buried there. The Taj Mahal may have been conceived 
by Shah Jahan as an Urs, or pilgrimage place. In more recent times, the Taj 
has been eulogised as a monument built in memory of Love, a memorial to years of 
companionship between an emperor and his beautiful Wife. To visit the Taj 
today is to partake in that spirit and sentiment.
During the reign of Shah Jahan and his descendants, the Taj Mahal was open to 
the public only on rare occasions but never to non-Muslims. Apart from the 
annual memorial service for Mumtaz Mahal, the visits to the tomb by the 
nobility were akin to a pilgrimage. Prayers, devotional music and recitation 
of poetry must have filled the air, for it was not a tourist spot but an 
extravagant dream of an emperor to sanctify his wife's memory and his own. 


THE LOCATION
The Taj Mahal was constructed within a large enclosed garden on the banks of 
the Yamuna river, which flows due west to east past it. The Yarouna, or 
Jamuna, is one of five branches that join the sacred river Ganga. It links 
the cities of Delhi and Agra, and emperors like Shah Jahan travelled on it 
in large barges and boats. 
The Mughal emperors had three capitals, Delhi, Agra and Lahore (now in 
Pakistan) of equal importance and fame. It is not surprising that Shah Jahan
chose this site in Agra to build the Taj, for he could see it from the royal
chambers of the Agra fort, which also faces the river. With nothing behind 
the Taj Mahal, but the river flowing below, the building stands against the 
sky, as though in a world all of its own.
The land on which the Taj Mahal stands was once a garden belonging to Raja 
Jai Singh of Amber, a princely state of Rajasthan. It was recorded in the 
farman (decree) of 18 December 1633 that the Emperor Shah Jahan gave the 
Raja of Amber four royal mansions in compensation for the garden.


THE PLAN OF THE TAJ MAHAL COMPLEX
The Taj Mahal was planned as a ranza (tomb) and an urs (pilgrimage centre) 
and hence the complex includes the tomb, garden, bazar and service area, 
enclosed by boundary walls.
The whole Taj complex forms a rectangle aligned north to south measuring 
approximately 580 (579.12) m. long and 305 (304.80) m. broad (17.7 hectares 
in area) (1900 ft by 1000 ft). The northernmost side of the rectangular 
complex is occupied by a square raised platform and the tomb overlooking 
the river. 
There was a riverside entrance used by the Emperor when he came by barge 
from the Agra Fort. In front of the tomb is a square garden which is 
subdivided into four by the water channels to form the charbagh or 
four-portioned garden plan. The tomb garden and subsidiary buildings are 
enclosed by a boundary wall with octagonal pavilions at each corner and 
monumental entrance gateway in the centre of the southern side. In front 
of this gateway is the enclosed forecourt of the Jilau Khana or bazar area, 
servant quarters and service areas.


THE ARCHITECT OF THE TAJ MAHAL
The Emperor Shah Jahan gathered hundreds of master builders and craftsmen 
from India and West Asia, both Hindu and Muslim, to build the Taj Mahal. 
There were many who aspired to be acclaimed as the chief architect of 
the Taj. Amongst them are Geronimo Veroneo, the Venetian goldsmith, the Turk 
Ustad Isa, and Ustad Ahmad Lahori.
From literary and inscriptional evidence it is appared that various master 
craftsmen were assigned specific work such as designing the dome, garden,
inlay, calligraphy and mason work. They worked as a team, following the model
and master plan approved by the Emperor.
Over 20,000 workers were involved in the building activity and temporary 
settlements were made for them. Indian craftsmen had over ten generations of 
training in the building of Islamic architecture and had perfected every 
detail. The closest model for the Taj Mahal had been completed some sixty 
years before, at Humayun's Tomb in Delhi (also incuded in the scenery). 
Therefore the Taj Mahal is a perfect synthesis of Hindu and Muslim art 
and expression.


THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE TAJ MAHAL
It would be impossible to calculate the cost of building the Taj. Some 
attempts have been made. The Badshah Nama of Abdul Hamid Lahori mentions a 
figure of Rs.50 lakhs. In 1836 Sleeman was told it cost Rs.3,17,48,028 
$83,174,802 at that time. A local guidebook has priced the priceless Taj 
at 430 million pounds. 
It is difficult to estimtate how much expenditure was involved, as some 
materials were presented, others were brought from the Empire and different 
parts of the world. Craftsmen were paid, there may have been many labourers 
and others who were not.
In the Tarikh-i-Taj Mahal we are told that the white marble was brought from 
Makrana, in Rajasthan, the yellow marble from Central India, crystal from 
China, lapis lazuli from Sri Lanka, jasper from Punjab, onyx from Persia,
turquoise from Tibet, coral and mother of pearl from the Indian Ocean.
According to Jean Baptiste Tavernier, a French traveller of that period, to 
build the Taj Mahal a huge brick scaf fold was constructed all around with 
ramparts on which elephants and oxen hauled the materials. 
The entire Taj Mahal took over twenty years to complete. Work began in 1632 
and by 1643 the Taj Mahal was ready for the formal annual memorial ceremony, 
but work on subsidiary parts of the complex were not finished before 1653.


THE GARDEN
When Shah Jahan built the Taj the garden was full of trees, a mixture of an 
orchard along with cypress and palm trees and flowers. The flowers were not
what you see today, but species of narcissus, iris, tulip and rose. Since it
must have been much quieter and greener there would have been more birds and 
butterflies. It was conceived as the Garden of Eden or Bagh-i-Adam with 
trees, flowers and water flowing in the channels. Today the garden has a 
few trees, a lawn and regimented flowerbeds not of Mughal but of 
nineteenth-century British origin. The formal garden today follows the 
charbagh or four-portioned garden plan. The central water channel has an 
elevated pool in the centre called Haus-i-Kausar. In this axial water channel 
the reflection of the Taj Mahal can be seen in its perfect symmetrical 
proportions. From the central pool the water channels flow in four 
directions, dividing the garden area into four.
At the ends of the channel that divides the garden into half, on the east and
west side, are the Naubat Khannas or music halls, where classical music was
played on Thursdays and Urs or pilgrimage days.
The water for the channels was hauled up from the river behind the Taj Mahal, 
the inclination and level of the garden being designed to keep the water 
constantly flowing. It is suggested that visitors walk around the garden 
because every view and angle of the Taj Mahal is worth seeing. There are 
benches to sit on and the lawns, to encourage you to do just that.


THE MOSQUE AND MIHMAN KHANA
On the western side of the Taj Mahal is the mosque, and on the eastern side 
a jawab, or answer" (a building built with no religious importance but to 
provide aesthetic symmetry to the mosque).
As you enter from the gateway and look ahead, to the north, you will see the 
garden, beyond which is the tomb building in the centre and two detached 
subsidiary buildings of red sandstone and marble on either side. On the 
western side is a mosque and on the opposite side is the Mihman Khana, a 
building constructed to provide symmetrical balance or jawab (answer) to 
the mosque, but with no religious import. Both these buildings have three 
domes, of which the central one is the largest, and faced with marble. 
The inlay work on white marble, the painted ceiling and wall panels of 
the mosyue and jawab complement the Taj Mahal.


THE TAJ MAHAL
The tomb or mausoleum is perhaps the most beautiful in the world. Its beauty 
lies in the architectural simplicity, the perfect balance and proportion of 
the structure. The uniqueness of the building is that it has been constructed 
in pure white marble. The monotony of the building faced entirely with white
marble is enlivened by highlights of inlay and calligraphy in other coloured
stones. 
The gentle white of the building gives it a quality of weightlessness. 
It is the excellent crystalline chararter of the marble that captures the 
subtle changes of Nature's moods and the play of sun and moonlight. 
The tomb building has a very simple plan. It is raised on a square terrace 
platform 5.486 m high and 95 m square, with four minarets approximately 42 m 
high. Inside, the building has one large octagonal room which houses the 
tombs of Mumtaz Mahal and the Emperor Shah Jahan.
Above the room is a large domed roof. Around the octagonal tomb room is a 
passage consisting of small rectangular rooms, and this plan is repeated 
on the floor above. Yet this simple layout of rooms, the harmony of 
proportions and delicate decorations took generations of experimentation 
to perfect. There is a symmetry and balance in the mathematical proportions 
of the building.
The terrace platform is 95 m square, the tomb is 57 m square with the right 
angle chamfered to form an eight-sided structure. The eight faces of the 
building are like facets on a gemstone, catching the light in all directions. 
The height of the building rises to approximately 75 m with the large bulbous 
dome of a height of 25 m and a diameter of 18 m. Therefore the width of the 
building is almost equal to its height" and the facade in the centre has the 
same height as the dome.
The dome, a brilliant architectural achievement, is raised on a large 
truncated drum, so that the form and volume is never lost, from whichever
angle you view the building. The shape of the dome is Persian or more 
correctly Central Asian in origin but had been experimented with in India 
in other buildings. The dome emerges from its drum base with a border of 
inlay design and culminates with an inverted lotus design. Above this is a 
tapering Kalasa or water pot with the crescent moon on the top. This finial 
was originally sheathed in pure gold, which was removed by British troops 
in the nineteenth century. Below the dome and in line with the drum are 
placed four cupolas with domed roofs that are of a different shape to the 
central one. The apex of the dome to the two corners of the central facade 
forms a perfect triangle. 
The dome of the Taj Mahal is a double dome, so termed because it has been 
constructed with two shells, the inner one forming the roof of the central 
tomb room and the outer shell visible from the exterior. The double dome 
was an architectural innovation to correct visual distortion of the interior 
and exterior appearance of the dome.


If you carefully look at the other side of Yamuna river, you will notice that
another building was planned and even started there. That was to be the copy
of the Taj Mahal made for Shah Jahan. He did not wish to be buried in the Taj
but wanted his own tomb, made exactly simmilar to the Taj but of black marble
instead of white. 
The construction begun, but when Shah Jahan was captured by his own son 
Aurangzeb, the construction has stopped forever.
You can still see the basic plack marble plateau of the never built second 
Taj. Shah Jahan had spent long years in "virtual house arrest" in Agra fort, 
(untill his death in 1666). 
There is a famous "balcony" in Agra fort, from where Shah Jahan was said to 
be continuosly looking at the Taj and thinking of his beloved wife Mumtaz.
35 years after the death of Mumtaz, Shah Jahan was buried in the Taj, besides
his wife and hence the great Shah Jahan became the only and single
"assimetric object" in the Taj Mahal, as his cenotaph was placed beside his
wife's.
Shah Jahan has gone down in history as a great builder and an enormously
wealthy emperor. Not only did he built the Taj Mahal, but he converted the
sandstone palaces of Agra Fort into marble. He built the Delhi Fort (also
called the Red Fort) and the Jama Masjid in Delhi, which can also be seen in 
the Delhi scenery.

Written by Dr. Andras Kozma
(c) 1995 Andras Kozma, Lago
