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 MumtazMahal, 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 (approx US $68000), 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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