Taj Mahal
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History
Soon after its completion, Shah Jahan was deposed and put under house arrest at nearby Agra Fort by his son Aurangzeb. Legend has it that he spent the remainder of his days gazing through the window at the Taj Mahal. Upon Shah Jahan's death, Aurangzeb buried him in the Taj Mahal next to his wife, the only disruption of the otherwise perfect symmetry in the architecture. By the late 19th century parts of the Taj Mahal had fallen badly into disrepair. During the time of the Indian rebellion of 1857 the Taj Mahal faced defacement by British soldiers and government officials who chiseled out precious stones and lapis lazuli from its walls.
At the end of the 19th century British viceroy Lord Curzon ordered a massive restoration project, completed in 1908. He also commissioned the large lamp in the interior chamber (modelled on one hanging in a Cairo mosque when local craftsmen failed to provide adequate designs). It was during this time the garden was remodelled with the more English looking lawns visible today. By the 20th century the Taj Mahal was being better taken care of. In 1942 the government erected a behemoth scaffolding over it in anticipation of an air attack by the German Luftwaffe and later by the Japanese Air Force (see photo). During the India-Pakistan wars of 1965 and 1971 scaffoldings were erected by the government to mislead would-be bomber pilots.
Its most recent threats came from environmental pollution on the banks of the Yamuna River including acid rain occurring due to the Mathura oil refinery (something opposed by Supreme Court of India directives).
As of 1983 the Taj Mahal was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Today it is a major tourist destination.
Recently the Taj Mahal was claimed to be Sunni Wakf property, on the grounds that it is the grave of a woman whose husband Emperor Shah Jahan was a Sunni. The Indian government has dismissed claims by the Muslim trust to administer the property, saying their claims are baseless and the Taj Mahal is Indian national property.
The poet Tagore, a Nobel laureate, called Taj Mahal “a drop of tear on the cheek of history”.
Visiting
The Taj Mahal is often described as one of the seven wonders of the modern world. Millions of tourists have visited the site - more than three million in 2004, according to the BBC - making it one of the most popular international attractions in India.
Legends and theories
Origins of the name
The name Taj comes from Persian, the language of the Mughal court, meaning crown, and Mahal, also Persian, means place, area, or neighborhood. Together, the term Taj Mahal translated into rough English from the original Persian means “Crown Place” or “The Place of the Crown.” Some sources suggest that Taj Mahal is a shorter variant of Mumtaz Mahal, the formal court name and title of Arjumand Banu Begum, meaning First Lady of the Palace. As early as 1663, the French traveller François Bernier referred to the place as Tage Mehale.
The “Black Taj”
A longstanding popular tradition holds that an identical mausoleum complex was originally supposed to be built on the other side of the river, in black marble instead of white, for Shah Jahan himself. The story suggests that Shah Jahan was overthrown by his son Aurangzeb before the black version could be built. Ruins of dark marble found across the river are, the story suggests, the unfinished base of this “Black Taj”.
Recent scholarship disputes this theory, and throws some interesting light on the design of the Taj Mahal. All other major Mughal tombs were sited in gardens that form a cross, with the tomb at the intersection of the vertical and horizontal pieces. The Taj Mahal gardens, by contrast, form a great 'T', with the tomb at the centre of the crosspiece. But the outline of the ruins on the other river bank would extend the design of the Taj Mahal gardens to form a cross of proportions typical of other Mughal tombs. Further, the marble in the ruins opposite the Taj Mahal, while dark from staining, were originally white. In addition, an octagonal pool in these ruins would have reflected the Taj Mahal. Scholars have called these ruins the Mahtab Bagh or “Moonlight Garden”.
Scholars now believe that the reflection of the Taj Mahal in this pool is in fact what was meant when people referred to the 'black taj'.
Shah Jahan's asymmetric tomb
Aurangzeb had Shah Jahan's tomb and cenotaph placed in the Taj Mahal rather than building him a separate mausoleum such as other emperors had. He thus “destroyed” the symmetry of the Taj Mahal design, although careful inspection shows several non-symetric doorways, etc, in the original construction. A variation on the Black Taj legend suggests that Aurangzeb's decision was made from malice or parsimony. In Itmad-Ud-Daulah's Tomb however, which was a major influence on the Taj Mahal design, Aurangzeb's grandparents were interred in a similar asymmetric fashion. Note: main chamber contains cenotaphs (false tombs); the actual tombs, configured identically, are in the crypt below.
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