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Taj Mahal
The Taj Mahal of Agra is one of the Seven Wonders of the World,
for reasons more than just looking magnificent. It's the history of Taj Mahal
that adds a soul to its magnificence: a soul that is filled with love, loss,
remorse, and love again. Because if it was not for love, the world would have
been robbed of a fine example upon which people base their relationships. An
example of how deeply a man loved his wife, that even after she remained but a
memory, he made sure that this memory would never fade away. This man was the
Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan, who was head-over-heels in love with Mumtaz Mahal,
his dear wife. She was a Muslim Persian princess (her name Arjumand Banu Begum
before marriage) and he was the son of the Mughal Emperor Jehangir and grandson
of Akbar the Great. It was at the age of 14 that he met Mumtaz and fell in love
with her. Five years later in the year 1612, they got married.
Mumtaz Mahal, an inseparable companion of Shah Jahan, died in
1631, while giving birth to their 14th child. It was in the memory of his
beloved wife that Shah Jahan built a magnificent monument as a tribute to her,
which we today know as the "Taj Mahal". The construction of Taj Mahal
started in the year 1631. Masons, stonecutters, inlayers, carvers, painters,
calligraphers, dome-builders and other artisans were requisitioned from the
whole of the empire and also from Central Asia and Iran, and it took approximately
22 years to build what we see today. An epitome of love, it made use of the
services of 22,000 laborers and 1,000 elephants. The monument was built
entirely out of white marble, which was brought in from all over India and
central Asia. After an expenditure of approximately 32 million rupees, Taj
Mahal was finally completed in the year 1653.
It was soon after the completion of Taj Mahal that Shah Jahan
was deposed by his own son Aurangzeb and was put under house arrest at nearby
Agra Fort. Shah Jahan, himself also, lies entombed in this mausoleum along with
his wife. Moving further down the history, it was at the end of the 19th
century that British Viceroy Lord Curzon ordered a sweeping restoration
project, which was completed in 1908, as a measure to restore what was lost
during the Indian rebellion of 1857: Taj being blemished by British soldiers
and government officials who also deprived the monument of its immaculate
beauty by chiseling out precious stones and lapis lazuli from its walls. Also,
the British style lawns that we see today adding on to the beauty of Taj were
remodeled around the same time. Despite prevailing controversies, past and
present threats from Indo-Pak war and environmental pollution, this epitome of
love continuous to shine and attract people from all over the world.
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