History Of Taj Mahal ( One Of Seven Wonders )

Taj Mahal

     

Taj Mahal was built by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan (1628-1658), grandson of Akbar the great, in the memory of his queen Arjumand Bano Begum, entitled Mumtaz Mahal a Muslim Persian princess. The queen’s real name was Arjumand Banu. In the tradition of the Mughals, important ladies of the royal family were given another name at their marriage or at some other significant event in their lives, and that new name was commonly used by the public.

             

She died while accompanying her husband in Burhanpur in a campaign to crush a rebellion after giving birth to their 14th child. When Mumtaz Mahal was still alive, she extracted four promises from the emperor: first, that he build the Taj; second, that he should marry again; third, that he be kind to their children; and fourth, that he visit the tomb on her death anniversary. But this has not been proven to be true, till date.

    

According to legend, after his wife’s death, Shah Jahan reportedly locked himself in his rooms and refused food for eight days, when the emperor emerged from his seclusion, his black beard visible in many Mughal miniature paintings had turned completely white. For the monument to his wife, Shah Jahan chose a site occupied by sprawling gardens on a bend in the left bank of the Yamuna River. Six months later, her body was transferred to Agra to be finally enshrined in the crypt of the main tomb of the Taj Mahal. The Taj Mahal is the mausoleum of both Mumtaz Mahal and Shah Jahan. 

The Taj Mahal

  The construction of Taj Mahal started in the year 1631 and it took approximately 22 years to build it. It made use of the services of 22,000 labourers and 1,000 elephants for the transportation of the construction materials. The materials used in the Taj Mahal complex are bricks, sandstone and white marble. Brick sizes varied between 18-19 x 11-12.5 x 2.3 cm, a standard size since Akbar's rule. These bricks were baked in kilns on the outskirts of Agra. The sandstone used in the complex has a colour varying from soft red to red with a yellow tint. White marble came from the quarries of Makrana in Rajasthan, approx. 400 kms southeast of Agra. The marble used in the complex was a white one with black and grey streaks.

                    

The greatest technical problem in the construction of the Taj Mahal was its heavy superstructures near the riverfront. This was accomplished using wells cased in wood and filled with rubble and iron, spaced at 3.75 meters on center. Precious and semi-precious stones are used in the decoration of the mausoleum than elsewhere in the complex. These stones include lapis lazuli, sapphire, cornelian, jasper, chrysolite and heliotrope. A strict discipline in colours and decoration is visible in the detailed ornamentation of the Taj Mahal. Floral relief carvings are found on the marble and sandstone walls; these carvings are stylistically related to the pietra dura work, yet are worked according to the material of the building they adorn.

The Taj Mahal architecture is a kind of fusion of Persian, Central Asian and Islamic architecture. Specific design credit is uncertain, and is given by different sources to Istad Usa, Ustad Ahmad Lahori, Isa Muhammad Effendi or Geronimo Veroneo. But construction documents show that its master architect was Istad Usa, the renowned Islamic architect of his time. The documents contain names of those employed and the inventory of construction materials and their origin. And how the entire complex is designed in such a way that the apparent organic unity of the whole does not obscure the individuality of any part, nor does it detract from the prominence of the Taj Mahal proper. It was completed in 1648 at a cost of 32 Million Rupees (more than 750 000 dollars).