|
|
TAJ MAHAL
Taj, one of
those world famous monuments, and world famous images, is one of the seven World
Wonders, the Taj Mahal, a marble mecca for love. And although sometimes places
like these tend to get overrated and overvisited, I must say that I was happily
surprised to see such a well kept place, which left a lasting impression on me.
I had always heard stories of having been there before, when I was only two
years old, but apart from the few pictures which were supposed to serve as
testimonies for that fact, my memory definitely did not go back so far in time.
Still, it gave me a strange feeling to visit a place where I rationally knew I
had been before, but which emotionally was entirely new to me.
huge monument to love for his deceased wife Mumtaz Mahal (who actually died
while giving birth), the Taj Mahal was finished in 1653. According to legend,
Shah Jahan's hair turned grey overnight for sorrow of his lost love. It has
obviously been a major task to build the monument. Especially when you come
closer to the Taj, it becomes clear that the building is not just white, but is
very delicately ornamented with precious stones.
Agra, once the
capital of the Mughal Empire during the 16th and early 18th centuries, is one
and a half hours by express train from New Delhi. Tourists from all over the
world visit Agra not to see the ruins of the red sandstone fortress built by the
Mughal emperors but to make a pilgrimage to Taj Mahal, India’s most
famous architectural wonder, in a land where magnificent temples and edificies
abound to remind visitors about the rich civilization of a country that is
slowly but surely lifting itself into an industrialized society.
The postcard picture of Taj Mahal does not adequately convey the legend, the
poetry and the romance that shroud what Rabindranath Tagore calls "a
teardrop on the cheek of time". Taj Mahal means "Crown
Palace" and is in fact the most well preserved and architecturally
beautiful tomb in the world. It is best described by the English poet, Sir Edwin
Arnold, as "Not a piece of architecture, as other buildings are, but the
proud passions of an emperor’s love wrought in living stones." It is
a celebration of woman built in marble and that’s the way to appreciate it.
Taj Mahal stands on the bank of River Yamuna, which otherwise serves as a wide
moat defending the Great Red Fort of Agra, the center of the Mughal emperors
until they moved their capital to Delhi in 1637. It was built by the fifth
Mughal emperor, Shah Jahan in 1631 in memory of his second wife, Mumtaz Mahal, a
Muslim Persian princess. She died while accompanying her husband in Burhanpur in
a campaign to crush a rebellion after giving birth to their 14th child. The
death so crushed the emperor that all his hair and beard were said to have grown
snow white in a few months.
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. He kept the first and second promises. Construction began in 1631
and was completed in 22 years. Twenty thousand people were deployed to work on
it. The material was brought in from all over India and central Asia and it took
a fleet of 1000 elephants to transport it to the site. It was designed by the
Iranian architect Ustad Isa and it is best appreciated when the architecture and
its adornments are linked to the passion that inspired it. It is a "symbol
of eternal love".
The Taj rises on a high red sandstone base topped by a huge white marble terrace on
which rests the famous dome flanked by four tapering minarets. Within the dome
lies the jewel-inlaid cenotaph of the queen. So exquisite is the workmanship
that the Taj has been described as "having been designed by giants and
finished by jewellers". The only asymmetrical object in the Taj is the
casket of the emperor which was built beside the queen’s as an afterthought.
The emperor was deposed by his son and imprisoned in the Great Red Fort for
eight years but was buried in the Taj. During his imprisonment, he had a view of
the Taj.
As a tribute to a beautiful woman and as a monument for enduring love, the Taj
reveals its subtleties when one visits it without being in a hurry. The
rectangular base of Taj is in itself symbolic of the different sides from which
to view a beautiful woman. The main gate is like a veil to a woman’s face
which should be lifted delicately, gently and without haste on the wedding
night. In indian tradition the veil is lifted gently to reveal the beauty of the
bride. As one stands inside the main gate of Taj, his eyes are directed to an
arch which frames the Taj.
The dome is made of white marble, but the tomb is set against the plain across the
river and it is this background that works its magic of colours that, through
their reflection, change the view of the Taj. The colours change at different
hours of the day and during different seasons. Like a jewel, the Taj sparkles in
moonlight when the semi-precious stones inlaid into the white marble on the main
mausoleum catch the glow of the moon. The Taj is pinkish in the morning, milky
white in the evening and golden when the moon shines. These changes, they say,
depict the different moods of woman.
Different people have different views of the Taj but it would be enough
to say that the Taj has a life of its own that leaps out of marble, provided you
understand that it is a monument of love. As an architectural masterpiece,
nothing could be added or substracted from it.
Back to Top Home Proceed on to one of London's glory's. |