An expression of love, a representation of mourning.

Let’s traverse the origins of one of the world’s most fascinating love stories and the architecture that still stands today because of it.

For the love of the Taj Mahal

So, we’ve all seen it, that photo of a Princess sitting alone in front of a massive white building with a massive white dome. The photo of Princess Diana sitting on a bench alone in front of the Taj Mahal is so iconic, because of the compelling love stories behind both objects of the image. While we won’t be going into any kind of depth about Diana, we will be travelling to India to learn about one of the most fascinating buildings in the world.

Built in Agra between 1631 and 1648, the Taj Mahal is instantly recognisable by its striking white marble. The Mughal emperor, Shah Jahan, is the one who commissioned the massive building as a display of the pure love he held for his favourite wife, he had a couple so it’s important to distinguish them.

This love story is one that has stood the test of time. Sir Edwin Arnold, an English poet, wrote these words in reference to it:

Not a piece of architecture, as other buildings are, but the proud passion of an emperor’s love wrought in living stones.

The magnificence of the Taj Mahal is what has allowed it to be included on a pretty exclusive list. As one of the Seven Wonders of the World, it’s the magnificence of the building as well as the story of love and loss that have kept this work of art as a symbol of undying love.

Born in 1592, Shah Jahan went by Prince Khurram before he became emperor. As the son of the fourth Mughal Emperor, Jahangir, and the grandson of Akbar the Great, we can pretty easily figure out he was kind of important.

But it’s in 1607 when our love story begins. As the Prince was walking around doing princely things, he saw, through the crowd of the Meena Bazaar, this girl who was selling silk and glass beads.

For both the Prince and Arjumand Banu Begum, who turned out to be a Muslim Persian Princess, it was love at first sight. He was 14 and she 15, but this shouldn’t put you off because back in the 1600s, they were practically middle aged.

After having a little chat and getting to know each other, the Prince went to his father and told him he’d found the woman he was going to marry, amongst others, because you know, multiple wives.

But it wasn’t all instant, it was another five years, so in 1612, that they would finally be able to get married.

And it was quite a bit later, 1628, when the Prince finally became Emperor and would change his name to Shah Jahan. But as you already probably know, back in the day successions weren’t easy and clearly definable like they are today. Shah Jahan had to fight his brothers, well half-brothers, for the throne, and he was clearly the victor because he was able to place ‘Mughal Emperor’ before his new name.

So Shah Jahan’s been crowned Emperor, and naturally he gives his favourite wife an awesome title, ‘Jewel of the Palace’, and so her name is now changed to Mumtaj Mahal.

The two were inseparable, even going so far as having Mumtaj follow Shah Jahan on military campaigns.

But their happiness wouldn’t last forever. It was in 1631, while giving birth their 14th child, good grief, that Mumtaj died from complications in childbirth.

Understandably, Shah Jahan was absolutely devastated. His favourite wife had died. What was there to do but go into mourning for two years. Supposedly Shah Jahan was so stricken with grief that he emerged after his two years with hair as white as snow. And with the decision to create a magnificent monument to his wife, which supposedly she had made him promise to do on her deathbed.

The name ‘Taj Mahal’ supposedly means ‘Crown Palace’, and it pretty much is. It’s actually the best preserved and probably architecturally the most beautiful tomb in the world.

Shah Jahan even jotted down this little poem when describing the Taj:

Should guilty seek asylum here
Like on pardoned, he become free from sin.
Should a sinner make his way to this mansion,
All his past sins are to be washed away.
The sight of this mansion create sorrowing sighs,
And the sun and the moon shed tears from their eyes.
In this world this edifice has been made,
To display thereby the creator’s glory!

So it’s pretty clear that to Shah Jahan, the Taj Mahal was more than just a tomb for his wife. It was a monument to her, an embodiment of her soul, an extension of her kindness.

The build

When it was time to start the build, Shah Jahan was very precise about absolutely everything. Court historian Muhammad Amin Qazwini even commented:

It will be a masterpiece for ages to come, increasing the amazement of all humanity.

While that turned out to be correct, it actually took him six months just to choose the spot for the thing to be built.

At the time it was all the rage to have a garden tomb, but the Emperor didn’t want to be like everyone else, he wanted something magnificent and memorable for his beloved wife.

The spot that was eventually chosen was the southern bank of the Yamuna River in Agra. And from 1632, we start over 20 years of construction. Bringing in artisans like stonecutters, masons, carvers, painters, calligraphers, and the all important dome-builders from across his Mughal empire, Central Asia and Iran. It’s easy to understand the India, Persian and Islamic influences that can be seen in the architecture of the Taj Mahal.

It’s actually reported that all the labourers brought in for the build totalled 22 000, and about 1000 elephants for, you know, transporting and the heavy lifting.

The white marble that we see was actually brought in from all over India and Central Asia. So it wasn’t just a local project. The whole empire, dare one even say, continent, really got involved.

All this travel, all these experts and all this equipment really added up, with an estimated 32 million rupees being spent on the project as a whole. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves, let’s slow it down a bit and learn about the people that made it happen.

The chief architect for the Taj was a guy who went by Ustad-Ahmad Lahori, he was an Indian of Persian decent, so was pretty versed on using other cultures as influence. The Taj wasn’t his only claim to fame, he’s also credited with designing the Red Fort which can be found over at Delhi.

The Taj Mahal is right on the Yamuna River in Agra, which used to actually be the capital of the Mughal Empire, until that moved to Delhi in 1637.

Abdul Hamid Lahore, a court historian, reckons that networks of wells were created along the river and then filled with stones and other stuff lying around so that the base of the Taj would be a super strong foundation.

To make the Taj stand out, Shah Jahan pushed for the use of white marble, rather than the traditional red sandstone that I suppose was common to the area. And just so you really couldn’t miss it. Shah Jahan then had that white marble inlaid with semi-precious stones in intricate designs, which are known as pietra dura.  

These semi-precious stones are so remarkable and the workmanship so exquisite that is has been said that the Taj had been:

designed by the giants and finished by jewellers.

The white marble was found in Makrana, in Rajasthan and sent east to Agra for the build. And the inlaid stones were really from all over. So we’re looking at Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Jade from China, Turquoise from Tibet, Sapphires from Arabia, the list just goes on.

The build was so big, that the main construction wasn’t completed until 1648. And even after that bits and pieces were added, like the mosque, the main gateway, the guest house, the courtyard and cloisters. So the whole build wasn’t actually properly finished until 1653.

By adding on these extra bits, Shah Jahan made sure that traditional Mughal building practices were incorporated into the Taj, which ultimately meant that no more additions or alterations were allowed. Meaning that nothing more can be added to the Taj.

Considered an amazing architectural feat the building seems to almost have moods depending on the time of day and the way the light and shadows dance and play on the surfaces. And the domes and arches just give it that beautiful balanced aesthetic. It’s tough to look away from the intricacy of the marble relief and stone designs, but once you take a step back you see how the green grass, red path, blue sky and white marble just work amazing well together.

Sir Banister Fletcher, in his book A History of Architecture, commented on the Taj Mahal with:

The interior of the building is dimly lit through pierced marble lattices and contains a virtuoso display of carved marble. Externally the building gains an ethereal quality from its marble facings, which respond with extraordinary subtlety to changing light and weather.

The History

Uttar Pradesh, the land on which the Taj Mahal stands, has an amazing heritage and has pretty much been front and centre throughout ancient times.

As we already know, Agra used to be the capital of the Mughal Empire, in fact it was the capital from the 16th century all the way through to the 18th century. And even now it’s really not that far away from the modern capital of New Delhi, about a 3-4 hour drive.

The First Battle of Panipat in 1526, is supposedly meant to have laid the foundation for the Mughal dynasty in Agra. With Babur’s win, he wasted no time in setting to work and making his capital reflect its new status. He is said to have been the one to put in the first formal Persian gardens on the banks of the Yamuna River just a bit upstream from where the Taj Mahal stands today. When Akbar came along he raised the ramparts of the Agra Fort and Jahangir when to work during his time in power in building more palaces, courts and of course, gardens.

Even though each ruler made their mark on the Indian landscape with amazing palaces, forts and just buildings in general. The Taj Mahal is truly the stand out, even being known as a

symbol of eternal love.

And it’s the Taj Mahal which really represents India and Indian culture to the rest of the world.

Even though Shah Jahan’s crowning glory is the Taj Mahal, he didn’t really have the happy ending he thought he would. It wasn’t long after the Taj had been completed and was standing in all its glory when Shah Jahan had a little bit of a domestic.

His son pretty much came over and deposed his father. Clearly they weren’t really that close, because Aurangzeb, that’s his son, went so far as to put Shah Jahan under house arrest, in the aforementioned Agra Fort, so that he would be locked away and yet be so close to the mausoleum of his wife. His son was actually kinda cruel, because he put him in a room with a view of the Taj Mahal, just to rub it in.

Even though Aurangzeb was a pretty crappy son, he turned out to be a pretty good Emperor, it was throughout his surprisingly long rule (49 years) that the Mughal Empire came to the height of its strength.

As strong as Aurangzeb’s Empire was, it also led to its own downfall. Basically, Aurangzeb was a little too harsh on his destruction of Hindu temples and shrines, and this undermined the strength of the empire, pretty much bringing it to a crumble in the mid-18th century.

As the Mughal Empire fell to the ground around it, the Taj Mahal stood tall and proud. But even it could not outrun the ravages of time. The magnificent building fell into disrepair and was properly neglected for a good two centuries.

Throughout the Indian Rebellion of 1857, the Taj had been badly defaced by the invading British. Soldiers and even some government officials would chisel the semi-precious stones off the walls to keep as souvenirs I suppose.

It fell to the British, those poms, to get the thing back up to scratch. Around the end of the 19th century, a Lord Curzon, who turned out to be the British Viceroy of India, decided that a major restoration was in order. And with his massive colonial might made an effort

to preserve India’s artistic and cultural heritage.

But an accurate restoration wasn’t really what happened. Of course the thing had to have an English influence to it. So while the ‘restoration’ was completed in 1908. The Taj sported new British-style gardens and lawns which you can actually still see today.

But something must be said about what the Taj has stood steady through. It’s survived wars, overthrown emperors, threats from modern day wars, and the worst, environmental pollution. And yet, what has become to be known as an ‘epitome of eternal love’ continues to attract people from all over the world.

Maybe not right now. But outside of a pandemic it attracts millions of people.

The layout

The Taj Mahal has so many parts to it, it can be hard to keep them all straight, so I’ll do my best to describe the layout in some kind of orderly fashion.

The uniqueness of the Taj Mahal is in its architectural innovations. The whole idea of the Taj was to have it amazingly symmetrical. Which means that the building has the same width and height, both 55 metres. 

The main part of the Taj Mahal is the tomb, that’s the big white domed building in the centre. Then the four minarets or columns can be seen at the four corners and on either side you’ll also see two red buildings, one a mosque and the other an assembly hall.

So when you pop round for a visit you’ll realise that the tomb of the Taj is actually an octagonal shape, which is weird because the four minarets obviously form a wider square.

Also in their own second, slightly smaller octagon, is the cenotaphs of Mumtaj Mahal and Shah Jahan, they even have lattice screens made out of marble encircling them and keeping all the riffraff out.

Because it was built for her, Mumtaj Mahal’s cenotaph is directly in the centre of the wider tomb, with Shah Jahan’s cenotaph on the west side. Shah Jahan’s cenotaph is said to be the only asymmetrical element in the Taj.

But these cenotaphs don’t actually hold any remains, they’re just for show. The real graves are in a lower tomb chamber, also called a crypt.

So the mosque, in the west, and the guest house, in the east, that you’ll see on either side of the Taj are made from that red sandstone you see in other Mughal palaces as a contrast to the sparkly white in the centre. Although they do feature a little white marble in their portal arches. Both the buildings are exactly the same, and so are symmetrical of each other, which just adds to the symmetry of the place.

If you were to wander around the outside of the Taj, be careful you could get turned around a bit because all the facades are pretty much identical, with each of their central arches being about 33 metres high. And the central dome, at its very top is supposedly a good 73 metres, and of course for symmetry it has four smaller domes surrounding it.

A bit of pub trivia is that the acoustics inside the main dome are so good, that a single note from a flute can reverberate five times.

Optical illusions is one thing the Taj Mahal is well known for. The architects and craftsmen that built the Taj were brilliant masters of using proportions to trick the eye. As you first walk toward the main gate of the Taj, the frames of the gate allow you to only see the main tomb, meaning that the thing just looks absolutely massive. Which to the normal person would naturally mean that the building is really close up. But as you walk through the main gate, the Taj shrinks as the wider world comes into view. How crazy.

And those columns surrounding the tomb, the minarets, so to the normal human eye they look pretty straight, but actually they lean outwards, away from the tomb. According to the architects this provides better aesthetic balance, but also if a pillar is to fall down like, I don’t know, in an earthquake or something, it would fall away from the tomb, preserving the main building itself.

The gardens are set out with classical Mughal lines, so you’ve got long pools, walking paths, fountains and ornamental trees. The gardens are enclosed by the wider walls of the Taj Mahal complex meaning that the approach to the Taj is pretty amazing with the main building being reflected in the garden pools.

It’s supposed that under the direction of Amānat Khan al-Shīrāzī Qur’an verses were inscribed in several sections, including in the entrance arches. To make sure that the casual observer could read the verses, the text size increases depending on its height and distance from the viewer. Kinda like Trajan’s Column where the relief is bigger up the top than it is near the bottom, so you can still see what’s happening from the ground.

The Black Taj

So supposedly once the Taj Mahal had been completed for his wife, it was Shah Jahan’s intention to build a second Taj, the Black Taj, for himself, across the river.

This story can be traced back to Jean-Baptiste Tavernier. He reported in 1665, that Shah Jahan had started work on his own tomb, but once he got dethroned by his son, that obviously put a stop to things. Aurangzeb wasn’t a fan of this ‘Black Taj’ idea and so never even looked into it.

Supposedly the Black Taj would have been made out of black marble, a complete contrast to the white marble of the Taj Mahal, and placed on the opposite side of the river, the two Taj’s would have been connected by a bridge. What a wonderful thought. Connected forever.

But Shah Jahan didn’t even get his wishes met, when he died Aurangzeb was at least good enough to lay his father’s body to rest next to his favourite wife. But it wasn’t the farewell that you would expect for an emperor. His burial was the simplest it could have been.

It’s believed though, that during the 8 years that Shah Jahan was imprisoned he would spend his days just staring at the Taj Mahal, by using a diamond in the wall to get the best view.

Taj Mahal today

If you were to visit the Taj Mahal multiple times on different days, your experience would be different each time, because the way the light plays off the surfaces, the time of day and the weather all play a part in allowing the Taj to show her moods.

The Taj is definitely:

A masterpiece of the art and science of architecture, a representative of an era called The Mughal Period…

Today about 3 million people a year, so that’s about 45 000 a day, come to see the Taj Mahal.

In 1983, the Taj was added to the UNESCO World Heritage site list and is an amazing representation and symbol of India’s history.

Unfortunately that pesky environmental pollution from nearby factories and passing cars continues to pose a threat to that shiny white surface. So much so that in 1998, India’s Supreme Court mandated several anti-pollution measures, like closing factories and banning cars around the grounds, in an effort to protect the Taj from further deterioration.

It was also in 1998 that a restoration and research program was created in an effort to understand how to slow the effect of the deterioration due to the pollution and how to improve pollution levels in general. But as it has been around the world, progress has been slow.

Every now and then, the Taj has been thrust into the political realm. Between 1984 and 2000, night-time viewing was banned out of fear that the Taj would be a target for Sikh militants. And some Hindu nationalist groups have attempted to reduce the importance of the Muslim influence surrounding the Taj, particularly in its design.

These days, you can pop round to the Taj Mahal anytime, day or night. And like I said before, each time you go it will be a different experience. The light changes allow the Taj to throw off different hues. And you know when the full moon comes out once a month? That’s a pretty busy time for the Taj, because people are desperate to see the thing with the full glow of the moon. Reportedly it looks like the Taj is glowing from the inside out.

So if you’re in the area, get onto it. But in a Covid safe way, of course.

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