Taj Mahal and it's European Architects

The Taj Mahal which was commissioned by Shahjahan (r.1628-1658), the fifth Mughal Emperor in order to commemorate the death of her beloved queen, Mumtaz Mahal has been surrounded by numerous intriguing surmises. One such concerns its chief architect. European travellers claimed in their accounts a number European architects as its principal architect. Sebastian Manrique In the Travels of Fray Sebastian Manrique 1629-1643: A Translation of the Itenarario de las Missiones Orientales, credits a Venetian named Geronimo Veroneo, 'who had come to this part in a Portuguese ship and died in the City of Laor just before I reached it.' for building the Taj Mahal. He writes, 

...the Emperor summoned him and informed him that he desired to erect a great and sumptuous tomb to his dead wife, and he was required to draw up some designs for this, for the Emperor's inspection. 

The architect Veroneo carried out this order, and within a few days proved the great skill he had in his art by producing several models of the most beautiful architecture. 

He pleased this Ruler in respect of the designs, but, in his barbaric pride and arrogance, His Majesty was displeased with him owing to his low estimates, and it is said that, becoming angry, he told Veroneo to spend three crores of rupees, that is three hundred lakhs, and to inform him when it was expended. This is so large a sum as to overawe one. If, however, as they used to say, the tombs had to be covered with gold plates, as had been done with the funeral urn which already held the remains of this Agarene Empress, such heavy expenditure was not surprising. 

An Italian traveller Niccolao Manucci mentions Veroneo in his account as well. However, he doesn't speak of him as someone involved in the construction of the Taj Mahal. He refers to him as a person who rescued some of the 4,000 Christians in 1633 who were brought from Hugli to Agra. He informs, "There were also a few others-laymen, who held fast to the faith, but were released through the petitions of some persons at Court, chiefly of an Armenian, who was in great favourite [Mirza Zu-l-Qarnain], or through the money paid by a Venetian, my compatriot, called Hieronimo Veroneo, a man ransomed by the Portuguese."

Similarly, Sir Richard Carnac Temple, the editor of The Travels of Peter Mundy in Europe and Asia, 1608-1667, Vol. II expresses his disagreement with the view that the mausoleum was designed by Veroneo because when Peter Mundy, a British factor, was in Agra while the Taj Mahal was being built, he made no mention of Veroneo in his travelogue, despite recording his observations on how it was being built.

It is noteworthy... that, though this building [the Taj] was in course of construction while Mundy was in residence at Agra, and though Vereneo was personally known to him, yet he says nothing of the Italian's connexion with the work. Had Veroneo really been the architect, it is unlikely that so accurate a chronicler as Mundy would have failed to mention the fact. He saw the work going on 'with excessive labour and cost and prosecuted with extraordinary diligence'! The solid gold railing around the tomb [afterwards replaced by a network of marble] was already complete by 1632, and Shah Jahan had founded a suburb to provide a revenue for the upkeep pf the Mausoleum, and had caused 'hills to be made levell because they might not hinder the prospect of it' ". 

One important point to be noted is the fact that Veroneo was not an architect by profession, but a jeweller. In order to build such a magnificent structure, great technical skill is needed.   

As per another theory, the Taj Mahal's architect was a French guy named Austin de Bordeux, who was employed at the court of Shah Jahan for some years and as per the account of Tavernier, he was poisoned while returning from Cochin.

However, the royal records of the Mughals written during the reign of Shah Jahan clearly mention Ustad Ahmand Lahori as the chief architect of the Taj Mahal. Nevertheless, the beauty of the Taj Mahal is such that many of the European travellers found it difficult to believe that it had no European connection.