Taj Mahal: The Timeless Beauty
Taj Mahal, Agra
Image Source: Elin Themer
No building in India has been so often drawn and photographed as this, or more frequently described; but with all this it is almost impossible to convey an idea of it to those who have not seen it, not only because of its extreme delicacy and beauty of material employed in its construction, but from the complexity of its design.
The above-mentioned remark on the Taj Mahal is a significant one by James Fergusson, a nineteenth century Scottish-born architectural historian, in History of Indian and Eastern Architecture. This valuable architectural splendour of the 17th century India is located in the Agra district of Uttar Pradesh. Professor James Richalton (1844-1929), who circumnavigated the world seven times, in his travelogue stresses that people visited Agra primarily to see the Taj Mahal and that when people ask, “Have you been to Agra?” they mean, “Have you seen the Taj?” He regards it as ‘the queen architectural structure of the world’.
Contemporary admirers of the Taj Mahal from faraway lands left interesting details of the effects of witnessing it on them. Francois Bernier, a French doctor and traveller, who travelled to India during the reigns of the Mughal Emperors Shahjahan (r. 1628-1658 CE) and Aurangzeb (r. 1658-1707 CE), in his account appreciates the beauty of the Taj Mahal in the following words, “Nothing offends the eye; on the contrary, it is delighted with every part, and never tired with looking.” The notion of this French physician was shared by Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, a French merchant who remarked that he had not seen anything as “bold and majestic” as this in Europe. The beauty of this monument continued to amuse its onlookers. Later European writers too appreciated this monument. Indeed, the beauty of the Taj Mahal is inexplicable. It is an experience! One must see it, understand it to truly appreciate it. So, if you are planning to visit the monument, here are a few amazing tidbits about the Taj Mahal.
To begin with, Mughal Persian accounts do not mention the mausoleum as the Taj Mahal but as Rauza-i-Munavvara (the Illuminated Tomb) while the contemporary European travellers’ accounts denote the monument by the name Taj Mahal.
‘Prince of Builders’: Shahjahan was the fifth Mughal Emperor. He was a prolific builder. His reign was marked by extensive architectural works in his favourite building material, marble. His reign was an ‘Age of Marble’. While his grandfather, Akbar’s reign (1556-1605) saw many beautiful structures built in red sandstones, Shahjahan’s reign replaced the use of red sandstone by marble in its most refined manner. He is well-known for his architectural buildings such as the Jama Masjid and the magnificent Red Fort at Delhi, the serene Moti Masjid at Agra, etc. and the Taj Mahal is, undoubtedly, his grandest project and it is considered to be the finest of all his architectural undertakings. Therefore, lofty epithets such as ‘Prince of Builders’, ‘Engineer King’ have been associated with him. His father, Jahangir (r. 1605-1627) was too endowed with exquisite aesthetic genius. He was a connoisseur of paintings. His court painter, Ustad Mansur, who was honoured with the title of Nadir-al-Asr (unrivalled of the age), was the earliest painter to illustrate the dodo (in colour) and the Siberian crane.
Mumtaz Mahal was the chief and the favourite queen of Shahjahan. She died at the age of 40 on 17 June 1631 after giving birth to her 14th child, Gauharara Begum at Burhanpur. Post-delivery, she developed some fatal complication. It is here that she was buried first in a pavilion in the garden of Zainabad. When the Taj Mahal was built at Akbarabad (modern-day Agra), it became her final resting place. But before her mausoleum was completed, in 1632 her dead body was brought from Burhanpur to Agra and was temporarily buried on the construction site. Padshahnama, the official royal historical work, commissioned by Shahjahan records:
On the 17th of Jumada I 1041 (11 December 1631), the sacred remains of Her late Majesty the Queen were sent from Burhanpur to the metropolis of Akbarabad, under the care of Prince Muhammad Shah Shuja, who was ordered to distribute at every stage great quantities of victuals and money in charity upon the poor.
The Taj Mahal recounts the saga of love and agony. Right after the death of Mumtaz Mahal, Emperor Shahjahan locked himself in a chamber despite the fact that he was very meticulous about daily kingly duties. He mourned his beloved’s death for days. Padshahnama underlines that when he finally came out of his self-imposed seclusion, his eyesight was weakened because of the excessive weeping and his hair turned white because of his grief. He had to wear glasses to read.
His Majesty immediately put on white garments; and all the illustrious princes, nobles, and mansabdars, as well as the officers and servants of the palace, dressed themselves in deep mourning. […] After this calamity, he refrained from the practice of listening to music, singing, and wearing fine linen. From continuous weeping, he was forced to use spectacles; and his august beard and moustache which had only a few white hairs in them before, became in a few days because of intense sorrow more than one-third white.
-Padshahnama
Symbol of Love: In loving memory of his departed queen, Shahjahan ordered the construction of a tomb for her. Rabindranath Tagore, a Nobel laureate in literature in 1913, aptly called it ‘a teardrop on the cheek of the time’. He writes, “You knew, Shah Jehan, life and youth, wealth and glory, they all drift away in the current of time. You strove, therefore, to perpetuate only the sorrow of your heart. Kingly power, stern as thunder, may sink into sleep like the glowing embers of the setting sun… Let the splendour of diamond, pearl and ruby vanish like the magic shimmer of the rainbow. Only let this one teardrop, this Taj Mahal, glisten spotlessly bright on the cheek of time, for ever and ever.”
Symbol of Power: An early court historian of Shahjahan remarks that the Mughal Emperor envisioned the monument to be grand and unrivaled from the very beginning. He writes:
And a dome of high foundations and a building of great magnificence was founded—a similar and equal to it the eye of the Age has not seen under these nine vaults of the enamel-blue sky, and of anything resembling it the ear of Time has not heard in any of the past ages… it will be the masterpiece of the days to come, and that which adds to the astonishment of humanity at large.
Abdul Hamid Lahori, another court historian of Shahjahan remarks that the structure was also a testimony to the power and glory of Shahjahan and Mughal rule. In the words of Lahori:
They laid the plan for the magnificent building and a dome of high foundation which for its loftiness will until the Day of Resurrection remains a memorial to the sky-reaching ambition of His Majesty… and its strength will represent the firmness of the intentions of its builder.
The land, on which the mausoleum was erected, was in the possession of the Kachhwaha rulers of Amber (present Jaipur, Rajasthan) since the time of Raja Man Singh (r. 1589-1614). It is to be noted that from the reign of Emperor Akbar, the Kachhwaha Rajput rulers of Amber had a cordial relationship with the Mughals. There were matrimonial alliances between the two which in turn fostered political ties between them. Akbar and Jahangir both had Rajput wives. The mothers of Jahangir and Shahjahan were Rajput princesses. The contemporary Kachhawaha ruler of Shahjahan was “Mirza Raja” Jai Singh I (r. 1621-1667). Shahjahan bought this land from him but it was not until almost two years after the construction of the monument started that the final price of the land was settled. However, Inayat Khan informs that Jai Singh willingly offered the land which was selected as the final resting place of Mumtaz Mahal and Shahjahan in return presented him ‘a splendid mansion out of the official imperial properties’.
The chief architects were Ustad Ahmad Lahauri and Mir Abdul Karim and the calligrapher was Amanat Khan from Shiraz, Iran. Makramat Khan supervised the construction. In the first half of the 19th c., a notion regarding the architect of the Taj by Lt. Col. W. H. Sleeman was put forward as per which it was claimed that Ustad Isa, an assistant architect of the Taj Mahal was none other than Augustin of Bordeaux, a Frenchman. However Sleeman’s proposition proved to be unhistorical. Augustin in his own letters never mentions himself as an architect but as a jeweler at the Mughal court. On 9th March 1632, he was at Chaul (near Bombay) and was on the way to Goa and he died either at Goa or at Cochin, most likely the same year. It was the same year the construction of the Taj began and it took several years to complete the project. A few others claimed that it was built by a Venetian named Hieronimo Veroneo. Such concoctions were the outcomes of the belief prevalent among many Europeans of early 19th c. that people in this part of the world could not be artistically sophisticated. Thus, they attributed many aesthetic elements in Indian architecture to Europeans.
It took 22 years to build this icon of love and twenty thousand men were employed for the purpose. Its construction began in 1632, the same year when her dead body was brought to Akbarabad, Shahjahan celebrated the urs ceremony of Mumtaz Mahal in order to commemorate her death anniversary and it was a grand celebration. Padshahnama describes the first urs ceremony of the late Queen:
The comptrollers of the royal household accordingly erected gorgeous pavilions in the gardens around her sacred grave, spread magnificent carpets and laid out a lavish array of foods, beverages, condiments, confectionary and fragrant essences—more than can be imagined. All the learned and pious Shaikhs and divines then congregated together and formed a glorious assemblage.
Since then, on the eve of the anniversary of the queen’s death and every Friday, the holy day of the Islamic week, Shahjahan had an exquisite sheet made of pearls placed on her cenotaph. In today’s time, the urs ceremony at Agra takes place annually to commemorate the death anniversary of Shahjahan.
The Taj Mahal was finally completed in 1653. Its height is 68 m (223 feet). It is spread across 42 acres of land. Total expenditure incurred in the construction of the Taj Mahal was 41,848,426 Rupees, 7 Annas and 6 Magpies. Emperor Aurangzeb (r. 1658-1707), one of the sons of Shahjahan was enormously shocked to learn this. He was an expansionist and ceaselessly waged wars to expand the territorial extent of the Mughal empire. He had least interest in art and architecture. He loathed the idea of spending hefty amount of money on the commission of building mausoleums, etc. He considered it a worthless endeavour. However, he looked upon the construction of mosques as an act of piety and so, he built the Moti Masjid (Pearl Mosque) within the Red Fort, Shahjahanabad, Old Delhi and the Badshahi Mosque in Lahore, Pakistan which is the second largest mosque in Pakistan.
The Taj complex consists of the (rauza) mausoleum, the most striking and dominant of all, four minarets at each corner of the platform of the mausoleum, masjid (mosque), Mehman Khana (guest house), Chahar Bagh (garden) and the principal gateway.
Minarets: The Taj Mahal has four circular minarets, capped with pillared cupolas or kiosks which are placed at the four corners of the platform. The Taj Mahal would look barren and less appealing without the minarets. Their placement is in perfect proportion in relation to the main mausoleum. This can be well understood once we take a look at the tomb of Rabi-ud-Daurani (the queen of Aurangzeb) built at Aurangabad where the main structure is dwarfed by the minarets, upsetting the harmony. Whereas the Taj Mahal complex has the minarets detached and none of them are placed closer to the mausoleum. The use of a four-storied marble minaret is also seen in earlier Timurid funeral structures such as the Gur-i-Amir at Samarqand, Uzbekistan and at Jahangir’s tomb at Lahore, Pakistan. The rauza and the minarets are executed in white marble while the other structures in the Taj complex are constructed in red sandstone. The marbles were brought from marble quarries in Makrana which is located in Rajasthan. During the time of Shahjahan, the mines at Makrana were within the domain of Mirza Raja Jai Singh, the Kachhwaha ruler. To transport the marbles to Agra, Jai Singh provided carts which were drawn with the help of bullocks. He also provided stone masons.
Bagh-i-firdaus-a’in (lit. Paradise-like Garden) is a chahar bagh, a Persian style quadrilateral garden layout in the complex. It was included as a replica of the paradise garden mentioned in the Quran. Along the central canal of the chahar bagh grow a row of cypress trees. In Arab and Mughal idioms, a cypress tree symbolizes death and mourning. But the Taj does not have symbols of death alone; it also has motifs symbolizing life i.e., flowering vines. The two are frequently shown together in Mughal art wherein a cypress tree is entwined with a vine of flowers.
Mehtab Bagh (Moonlight Garden): Apart from Bagh-i-firdaus-a’in, Mehtab Bagh is another garden that one can visit while visiting the Taj Mahal complex. The term mehtab means moonlight and bagh is the Persian word for garden. The Great Mughals built beautiful gardens in India. The Mehtab Bagh was the eleventh and the last to be built by them. It was built by Shahjahan on the east banks of the river Yamuna in front of the Taj Mahal. However, it was destroyed due to a flood. It is rebuilt by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI).
Onion or Bulbous Dome: Another striking feature of the Taj Mahal is its bulbous dome. The Mughals were renowned for their onion or bulbous domes. They are called so because of the shape which resembles an onion or a bulb. The Taj Mahal is surmounted by a bulbous white dome topped with an inverted lotus finial and a metallic pinnacle. The dome is perfectly balanced and sits impressively on the focal point of the superstructure, flanked by chhatris and pinnacles.
Chhatris: The word 'chhatri' means canopy or umbrella. It is a kiosk or dome-shaped pavilion which is one of the important features of Indo-Islamic architecture. Originally it was built over tombs or cenotaphs. Gradually it came to be used for visual aesthetics. In Rajasthan, many medieval architectural buildings employ the frequent use of chhatris. Its usage is also significantly evident in the construction of the Taj Mahal. Later, during the British colonial rule in India, chhatris became part of Indo-Saracenic architecture too.
(The Khalsa College, established in 1892 and adorned with chhatris, is an example of Indo-Saracenic architecture.)
This royal cenotaph, executed in marble by the imperial order of Maharaja Sardar Singh (1895-1911) in memory of his father Maharaja Jaswant Singh II (1873-1895), is often designated as the ‘Taj Mahal of Marwar’ and it can be seen with a number of small chhatris.
Another unique characteristic associated with the Taj Mahal is that no other Mughal architectural building has as many as Quranic verses as the Taj Mahal. In fact, the structure has twenty-five inscriptions from the Quran, making it the monument with the largest inscriptional programme in the Islamic world. Of the twenty-five Quranic inscriptions, fourteen are suras. A common theme of these holy verses is the reward and punishment—the reward for believers and the punishment for non-believers on the Judgment Day.
Nature and Architecture: The Taj Mahal is not only the world-famous icon of love, but it is also the monument which strikes harmony between nature and architecture as it is here one can see both elements complimenting each other. A garden in the middle of the complex, a hauz (pool) with five water fountains in the centre of the garden, and the impressive floral motifs, carved on the walls of the building as if the flowering vines artistically cling to the walls, present a harmonious effect on its visitors. Its floral motifs which include flowers such as roses, narcissus and tulips in Persianate culture are associated with the flowers of paradise.
The Taj Mahal looks resplendent with its pietra dura work, inlay of semi-precious stones into marble. The technique of pietra dura started from Rome which later attained its full maturity at Florence, the birthplace of Italian Renaissance. In India, it is called parchinkari. And if you visit Agra, do not forget to get this exquisite piece of art history from a local shop there.
Earthquake Proof: Another problem which needed to be solved was to make the mausoleum earthquake resistant. Agra lies in the seismic zone III of India which comes under Moderate Damage Risk Zone. In 1984 the Geodetic and Research Branch of the Survey of India revealed that the four minarets are slightly tilted outwards in order to prevent any damage to the main mausoleum in case any of the pillars fall down due to earthquake. Thus, this feature makes it earthquake proof. The Taj Mahal had resisted a number of earthquakes.
Flood Proof: It endured the great floods of September 1978 when the flood water nearly touched the top of the platform of the monument. Therefore, it is built in such a way that it can withstand such natural disasters.
Black Marble: Shahjahan intended to build an identical structure as his own mausoleum but in black marble on the other side of the Yamuna River. This could not be materialised as Aurangzeb, one of his highly politically ambitious sons with a great military skill, rebelled against his royal father and confined him to the palace from where he would see the Taj Mahal but could not build another.
Shahjahan in this painting of the 19th c., which is in the Salarjung Museum in Hyderabad, is depicted as a grieving old man, looking at the Taj Mahal. The attendant by his side is his eldest and most dedicated child, Princess Jahanara Begam. It was she who stayed with her dethroned father during his ailing years of his life. Her dedication was so supreme and pure that some contemporary foreign travellers mistook her filial affection and sense of duty and inaccurately dubbed the relationship between the father and the daughter as having a licentious relationship.
Inspiration and Influences: It is believed that the Taj Mahal derived inspiration from the tomb of Itimad-ud-daulah who was the father-in-law of Jahangir. However, once it was built, it, in turn, influenced a number of other architectural buildings in the Indian subcontinent and beyond but none surpasses it in its grandeur.
- Tomb of Itimad-ud-daulah: There is another significant tomb at Agra i.e., the tomb of Itimad-ud-daulah which is also known as the ‘Baby Taj’ because of the inclusion of some architectural elements of this tomb in the construction of the Taj Mahal. The construction of the tomb was commissioned by Nur Jahan, the chief queen of Emperor Jahangir for her demised father, Mirza Ghiyas Beg who was granted the title of Itimad-ud-Daulah (the pillar of the state) by the emperor. The tomb is credited to be the earliest example of pietra dura in India by Fergusson and others but its use was seen much earlier in the mausoleum in the Ashrafi Mahal at Mandu and in the Chaumukhi Jain temple at Sadri, Pali district of Rajasthan. But certainly, it was the Mughals who mastered the technique.
- Bibi ka Maqbara, the Poor Man’s Taj: Just as Shahjahan built a tomb to express his love for his chief queen, Azam Shah (one of the grandsons of Shahjahan and a son of Aurangzeb) inspired by this magnificent structure, built a tomb after the demise of his mother, Dilras Bano Begum who he loved dearly. Aurangzeb spent the last twenty six years of his reign fighting in the Deccan against the Marathas and the Adil Shahis of Bijapur and the Qutb Shahis of Golkonda. As a prince too, he waged wars in the Deccan. Dilras Bano Begum, his chief queen died in 1657 at Aurangabad, Maharashtra. The Bibi ka Maqbara at Aurangabad is a tomb of Dilras Banu Begum. The tomb is named after her posthumous title, Rabia-ud-daurrani. The chief builder was Ata Ullah, son of Ahmad, one of the architects of the Taj Mahal. Since Aurangzeb was not an advocator of building magnificent monuments from the imperial exchequer, his son could not use a single penny from it. He built it from his own income. It is often regarded as the poor rendition of the Taj. Its disproportionate four minarets fail to stir the same emotions as its original model does. Nevertheless, it is a noteworthy work of art in its own right.
- The architectural plan of the tomb of Safdar Jang at New Delhi is also similar to that of the Taj in many ways. However, in Safadar Jang’s tomb, the minarets do not rise as independent structures as it is the case in the Taj Mahal and it is the only monument that can be considered as the most important historical structure of the late Mughal period.
- Lal Taj Mahal: There is another tomb at Agra which is little known and it is the tomb of Colonel John William Hessing, a Dutch military officer in the Maratha armies. He died in 1803. His wife, Anne in the memory of her dead husband built the Lal (Red) Taj Mahal. It is called so because the building material used for the tomb is red sandstone which was available locally. The tomb is built in a Catholic cemetery and it was Akbar who granted land for this cemetery for the Catholics living at Agra, particularly the Armenians. Akbar, impressed by the Guru’s langar, also gave land to the third Sikh guru, Guru Amar Das. It is here that the famous Harmandir Saheb or Golden Temple is built.
Grandest Mughal Mausoleum: Of all the Mughal princesses and queens’ tombs, this is the only one which is built on such a magnificent scale. Most of the Mughal royal women lay buried in humble tombs such as those of Princess Jahanara in Nizamuddin, Delhi. A few were shifted from its actual place to another due to the technological requirements of the time. The tomb of Zebunnisa (daughter of Aurangzeb) was in the tees hazari (thirty thousand trees) garden but during the British colonial period in 1885 it was moved to the mausoleum of Akbar at Sikandra, Agra so as to pave the way for the construction of the railway tracks at Delhi.
The Taj Mahal is the most photographed monument of India and has been an absorbing theme for photography since the British colonial period in India. Dr. John Murray worked in the Medical Science of the Army of the East India Company, took to photography around 1849 and became a passionate photographer but he was no professional photographer. And yet the photographs he took of the Taj Mahal and of Agra are counted as some of the best ones available to us. Below is the waxed-paper negative of the monument taken by him.
@ Alkazi Collection of Photography (ACP)
Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA) Exhibition, New Delhi
Another aspect that makes the Taj Mahal a very intriguing subject-matter for a photographer is the interplay between its background and building material. While the garden has been laid out in front of the mausoleum, the background of the Taj Mahal has been provided for by the sky. The monument is always seen with the sky as a backdrop which keeps changing. As the hues of the sky reflect on its white marble surface, the colour and texture of the structure often change, presenting itself to its onlookers in a myriad of tints and moods. Therefore, this structure effectively establishes an intriguing relationship to its landscape. One can never see the Taj Mahal alone but always in relation to the ever-changing sky in the background.
For all its magnificent and unique features and the historical and cultural importance it holds, the Taj Mahal was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983. In the 17th c. Francois Bernier opined that the Taj Mahal deserved to be regarded as one of the wonders of the world and now it is counted among the Seven Wonders of the Modern World. Ebba Koch, Austrian art historian regards the Taj Mahal as ‘the Mughals’ great contribution to world architecture’.
Marble Cancer: However, the architects and workers of the 17th c. in the Mughal period through their engineering skills provided it with several unique features, making it one of the marvels of the world but in the present time, this UNESCO World Heritage Site needs more attention. Owing to air pollution, it has been turning yellow. The Mathura Oil Refinery which is located about 50 km away from the Taj Mahal is a significant source of air pollutants like sulphur dioxide (SO2), causing acid rain and causing damage to it. This is called marble cancer.
Nevertheless, the Taj Mahal is more than just a marble monument—it is a symbol of the strength of love that never fades, the magnificence of Mughal architecture, and the diversity of Indian culture. The Taj Mahal presents itself as a timeless masterpiece, beckoning us to contemplate the beauty that surpasses generations and borders. One cannot help but sense the echoes of history, the whispers of a love tale, and the immense impact this architectural treasure has had on the collective imagination of the world. With all of its grandeur, the Taj Mahal continues to be a representation of timeless beauty, a work of poetry carved into stone that enthralls both minds and hearts.
Notes:
Padshahnama is not one single piece of literary work but it comprises of illustrated as well as unillustrated manuscripts (Shahjahannama), written during the reign of Shahjahan and it is of immense historical importance in unravelling various facets concerning his reign. These manuscripts were written by Shahjahan’s court historians such as Muhammad Amin, Abdul Hamid Lahori, Muhammad Waris and Inayat Khan.
References:
Ebba Koch, Mughal Architecture, An Outline of its History and Development (1526-1858), Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 2002.
Ebba Koch, The Complete Taj Mahal and the Riverfront Gardens of Agra, London, 2006.
Ebba Koch, The Taj Mahal: Architecture, Symbolism, and Urban Significance, Muqarnas, Vol. 22, pp. 128-149, Brill, 2005. https://www.jstor.org/stable/25482427
Francois Bernier, Travels in the Mogul Empire, 1656-68, transl. Irving Brock, New Delhi, 1891.
Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, Travels in India, 2 vols., tr. V. Ball., ed. William Crooke, Low Price Publications, New Delhi, rep. 2007.
Niccolao Manucci, Storia Do Mogor, 4 vols, tr. W. Irvine, New Delhi, 1907, rep. 1981.
Catherine Asher, The New Cambridge History of India, Architecture of Mughal India, Cambridge University Press, Cambridhe, 1995 (first South Asian Edition).
R. Nath, History of Mughal Architecture (The Age of Architectural Aestheticism, Shah Jehan, 1628-1658 A.D.), Vol IV—Part 1, Abhinav Publications, Delhi, 2005.
R. Nath, Some Aspects of Mughal Architecture, Abhinav Publications, New Delhi, 1976.
Laura E. Parodi, ‘Solomon, the Messenger and the Throne Themes from a Mughal Tomb’, East and West, Vol. 51, No. 1/ 2 (June 2001), Instituto Italiano per l’Africa e l’Oriente (IsIAO).
Sebastian Manrique, Travels of Fray Sebastian Manrique 1629-1643, 2 vols., tr. C. Ekford Luard, Oxford, 1927.
Milo Cleveland Beach & Ebba Koch, King of the World, The Padshahnama, An Imperial Mughal Manuscript from the Royal Library, Wheeler M. Thackston trans., Windsor Castle, Azimuth Editions, Sackler Gallery, London, 1997.
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