What Materials Were Used to Build the Taj Mahal

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Architecture; Geography of Asia

Taj Mahal

The Tāj Mahal ( Hindi: ताज महल; Persian/ Urdu: تاج محال) is a monument located in Agra, India, constructed between 1631 and 1654 by a workforce of 22,000. The Mughal Emperor Shāh Jahān deputed its construction equally a mausoleum for his favourite wife, Arjumand Bano Begum, who is better known as Mumtāz.

The Taj Mahal (sometimes called "the Taj") is more often than not considered the finest case of Mughal architecture, a manner that combines elements of Persian, Indian and Islamic. The Taj Mahal has achieved special note because of the romance of its inspiration. While the white domed marble mausoleum is the nigh familiar part of the monument, the Taj Mahal is really an integrated complex of structures.

Origin and inspiration

Agra (location of Taj Mahal)

Location of the Taj Mahal within India

Shāh Jahān, who commissioned the monument, was a prolific [lover] with effectively limitless resources. He had previously created the gardens and palaces of Shalimar in honour of his wife, Mumtaz. Subsequently her death in childbirth (she had already borne him xiv children) Shah Jahan was reportedly inconsolable; the court chronicler 'Abd al-Hamid Lahawri tells the states that earlier her death the emperor had just twenty white hairs in his beard, merely thereafter many more. The contemporary court chroniclers paid an unusual amount of attention to Mumtaz Mahal'southward expiry and Shah Jahan'due south grief at her demise, and information technology may well be that the traditional "love-story" associated with the construction of the Taj has some basis in fact. The Taj Mahal was begun non long afterwards Mumtaz's death in 1631. The chief mausoleum was completed seventeen years later, and the surrounding buildings and garden v years later on that. Visiting Agra in 1663, the French traveller François Bernier gave the following description of the Taj Mahal and Shah Jahan's motive for building information technology:

I shall cease this alphabetic character with a description of the two wonderful mausoleums which constitute the chief superiority of Agra over Delhi. I was erected past Jehan-guyre [sic] in honor of his father Ekbar; and Chah-Jehan raised the other to the memory of his wife Tage Mehale, that extraordinary and historic beauty, of whom her hubby was so enamoured it is said that he was constant to her during life, and at her death was so affected as nearly to follow her to the grave".

Influences on Taj Mahal design

The Taj Mahal incorporates and expands on many design traditions, especially Hindu, Ottoman, and earlier Mughal architecture.

The overall blueprint derived inspiration from a number of successful Timurid and Mughal buildings. These include the Gur-e Amir (the tomb of Timur, progenitor of the Mughal dynasty, in Samarkand), Humayun's Tomb, Itmad-Ud-Daulah's Tomb (sometimes called the Baby Taj), and his ain Jama Masjid. Under Shah Jahan's patronage, Mughal building reached new levels of refinement; while previous Mughal edifice had primarily been synthetic of red sandstone, Shah Jahan promoted the use of white marble inlaid with semi-precious stones.

Interior of masjid dome, showing inlaid geometric decoration

Hindu craftsmen, particularly sculptors and stonecutters, plied trade throughout Asia during this period, and their work was peculiarly prized by tomb builders. Whilst the stone-cut architecture which characterises much of this structure had piddling influence on the Taj Mahal (carvings are merely one form of the decorative element), other Indian buildings such as the Human being Singh palace in Gwalior were an inspiration for much Mughal palace architecture and the source for the chhatris which can be seen on the Taj Mahal.

Design elements

Consistent repeated pattern elements are employed throughout the complex. These unify the complex with a unmarried aesthetic vocabulary.

Design elements of the Taj Mahal.

Major blueprint features of the tomb are echoed throughout the complex -- both the tomb and the outlying buildings.

• Finial: decorative crowning element of the Taj Mahal domes
• Lotus decoration: delineation of lotus bloom sculpted on tops of domes
• Onion dome: massive outer dome of the tomb (also chosen an amrud or apple dome)
• Drum: cylindrical base of the onion dome, raising information technology from the main building
• Guldasta: decorative spire attached to the edge of supporting walls
• Chattri: a domed and columned kiosk
• Spandrel: upper panels of an archway
• Calligraphy: stylised writing of verses from the Qu'ran framing main arches
• Arch: likewise called pishtaq (Persian word for portal projecting from the facade of a edifice) and
• Dado: decorative sculpted panels lining lower walls

Nigh of the elements can be constitute on the gateway, mosque and jawab also as the mausoleum.

The garden

The circuitous is set in and around a large charbagh (a formal Mughal garden divided into four parts). Measuring 320 chiliad × 300 one thousand, the garden has sunken parterres or flowerbeds, raised pathways, avenues of trees, fountains, h2o courses, and pools that reflect the Taj Mahal.

Each of the four quarters of the garden is divided into 16 flowerbeds by raised pathways. A raised marble water tank at the centre of the garden, halfway between the tomb and the gateway, reflects the Taj Mahal.

The charbagh garden was introduced to Republic of india by the start Mughal emperor Babur, a blueprint inspired past Farsi gardens. The charbagh is meant to reflect the gardens of Paradise (from the Persian paridaeza -- a walled garden). In mystic Islamic texts of the Mughal menstruation, paradise as described as platonic garden, filled with abundance. Water plays a key role in these descriptions: In Paradise, these text say, four rivers source at a central bound or mountain, and separate the garden into n, west, due south and eastward.

Walkways abreast reflecting pool

Virtually Mughal charbaghs are rectangular in form, with a primal tomb or pavilion in the centre of the garden. The Taj Mahal garden is unusual in siting the main chemical element, the tomb, at the end rather than at the center of the garden. Only the existence of the newly discovered Mahtab Bagh or "Moonlight Garden" on the other side of the Yamuna provides a different interpretation -- that the Yamuna itself was incorporated into the garden's pattern, and was meant to exist seen as one of the rivers of Paradise.

The layout of the garden, and its architectural features such every bit its fountains, brick and marble walkways, geometric brick-lined flowerbeds, and so on, are similar to Shalimar's, and suggest that the garden may have been designed by the aforementioned engineer, Ali Mardan.

Early on accounts of the garden describe its profusion of vegetation, including roses, daffodils, and fruit trees in abundance. As the Mughal Empire declined, the tending of the garden declined as well. When the British took over direction of the Taj Mahal, they changed the landscaping to resemble more than the formal lawns of London.

Outlying buildings

Gateway to the Taj Mahal

The Taj Mahal complex is bounded past a crenellated cerise sandstone wall on iii sides. The river-facing side is unwalled. Outside the wall are several boosted mausoleums, including those of many of Shah Jahan'south other wives, and a larger tomb for Mumtaz'southward favourite servant. These structures, composed primarily of red sandstone, are typical of smaller Mughal tombs of the era.

On the inner (garden) side, the wall is fronted by columned arcades, a feature typical of Hindu temples later incorporated into Mughal mosques. The wall is interspersed with domed kiosks (chattris), and small buildings which may accept been viewing areas or watch towers (such as the then-called Music House, now used as a museum).

The main gateway (darwaza) is a monumental construction built primarily of red sandstone. The mode is reminiscent of that of Mughal architecture of before emperors. Its archways mirror the shape of the tomb's archways, and its pishtaq arches comprise the calligraphy that decorates the tomb. It utilises bas-relief and pietra dura (inlaid) decorations with floral motifs. The vaulted ceilings and walls take elaborate geometric designs, like those institute in the other sandstone buildings of the complex.

Interior of jawab

At the far cease of the complex, two grand red sandstone buildings open to the sides of the tomb. Their backs parallel the western and eastern walls.

Taj Mahal mosque or masjid

The two buildings are precise mirror images of each other. The western building is a mosque; its opposite is the jawab or "answer", whose chief purpose was architectural rest (and which may take been used as a guesthouse during Mughal times). The distinctions are that the jawab lacks a mihrab, a niche in a mosque's wall facing Mecca, and the floors of the jawab accept a geometric design, while the mosque floor was laid out the outlines of 569 prayer rugs in black marble.

The mosque'southward basic design is similar to others congenital by Shah Jahan, particularly to his Jama Masjid in Delhi: a long hall surmounted by iii domes. Mughal mosques of this period divide the sanctuary hall into 3 areas: a chief sanctuary with slightly smaller sanctuaries to either side. At the Taj Mahal, each sanctuary opens on to an enormous vaulting dome.

The tomb

Base

Simplified diagram of the Taj Mahal floor plan.

Master

iwan and side pishtaqs

The focus of the Taj Mahal is the white marble tomb. Similar most Mughal tombs, the basic elements are Persian in origin: a symmetrical building with an iwan, an arch-shaped doorway, topped past a large dome.

The tomb stands on a square plinth. The base construction is a large, multi-chambered structure. The primary chamber houses the cenotaphs of Shah Jahan and Mumtaz (the actual graves are a level below).

The base is essentially a cube with chamfered edges, roughly 55 metres on each side (run into floor plan, right). On the long sides, a massive pishtaq, or vaulted entrance, frames the iwan, with a like arch-shaped balcony above. These main arches extend above the roof of the building by utilize of an integrated facade.

To either side of the chief curvation, additional pishtaqs are stacked above and beneath. This motif of stacked pishtaqs is replicated on the chamfered corner areas.

The design is completely uniform and consistent on all sides of the edifice. Iv minarets, one at each corner of the plinth, facing the chamfered corners, frame the tomb.

Dome

Base of operations, dome, and minaret

The marble dome that surmounts the tomb is its nigh spectacular characteristic. Its height is well-nigh the same size as the base of the edifice, virtually 35 thousand. Its height is accentuated because it sits on a cylindrical "pulsate" well-nigh seven m high.

Because of its shape, the dome is often chosen an onion dome (also called an amrud or guava dome). The top of the dome is decorated with a lotus design, which serves to accentuate its meridian. The dome is topped past a gilded finial, which mixes traditional Islamic and Hindu decorative elements.

Finial

The dome shape is emphasised by 4 smaller domed chattris (kiosks) placed at its corners. The chattri domes replicate the onion shape of main dome. Their columned bases open through the roof of the tomb, and provide light to the interior. The chattris also are topped by aureate finials.

Alpine decorative spires (guldastas) extend from the edges of the base walls, and provide visual emphasis of the dome height.

The lotus motif is repeated on both the chattris and guldastas.

Finial

The main dome is crowned by a gilded spire or finial.The finial used to be made of gold until the early 1800's, but is at present made of bronze. The finial provides a clear case of the integration of traditional Islamic and Hindu decorative elements. The finial is topped by a crescent moon, a typical Islamic motif, whose horns point heavenward. Because of its placement on the main spire, the horns of the moon and the finial point combine to create a trident shape -- reminiscent of the traditional Hindu symbols of Shiva.

Similarly, the spire is fabricated up of a number of bulbous forms. The central course bears a striking resemblance to a Hindu sacred water vessel (kalash or kumbh)..

Minarets

At the corners of the plinth stand minarets: four large towers each more 40 thousand tall. The minarets once again brandish the Taj Mahal's bones penchant for symmetrical, repeated pattern.

The towers are designed as working minarets, a traditional element of mosques, a place for a muezzin to phone call the Islamic faithful to prayer. Each minaret is effectively divided into three equal parts past two working balconies that ring the tower. At the summit of the tower is a final balcony surmounted by a chattri that mirrors the design of those on the tomb.

The minaret chattris share the aforementioned finishing touches: a lotus design topped by a gold finial. Each of the minarets was constructed slightly out of plumb to the exterior of the plinth, and so that in the event of collapse (a typical occurrence with many such tall constructions of the menstruation) the material would tend to autumn abroad from the tomb.

Ornament

Outside decoration

Calligraphy on large pishtaq

Nearly every surface of the entire complex has been decorated. The exterior decorations of the Taj Mahal are among the finest to exist found in Mughal architecture of whatever period.

Once once more, decoration motifs are repeated throughout the complex. Equally the surface area changes -- a large pishtaq has more expanse than a smaller -- the decorations are refined proportionally.

The decorative elements come up in basically iii categories:

• Calligraphy
• Abstract geometric elements
• Vegetative motifs

Islamic strictures forbade the apply of anthropomorphic forms.

The decorative elements were created in three ways:

• Paint or stucco applied to the wall surface
• Rock inlay
• Carvings

Calligraphy

Herringbone

Throughout the complex passages from the Qur'an are used as decorative elements. The calligraphy is a florid and practically illegible thuluth script, created past the Mughal court's Persian calligrapher, Amanat Khan, who was resident at the Mughal court. He has signed several of the panels.

The calligraphy is made past jasper inlaid in white marble panels. Some of the work is extremely detailed and delicate (specially that found on the marble cenotaphs in the tomb). College panels are written slightly larger to reduce the skewing result when viewed from below.

Recent scholarship suggests that Amanat Khan chose the passages too. The texts refer to themes of judgment: of doom for nonbelievers, and the promise of Paradise for the faithful. The passages include: Surah 91 (The Dominicus), Surah 112 (The Purity of Faith), Surah 89 (Daybreak), Surah 93 (Morning Light), Surah 95 (The Fig), Surah 94 (The Solace), Surah 36 (Ya Sin), Surah 81 (The Folding Up), Surah 82 (The Cleaving Asunder), Surah 84 (The Rending Asunder), Surah 98 (The Testify), Surah 67 (Dominion), Surah 48 (Victory), Surah 77 (Those Sent Along) and Surah 39 (The Crowds).

Abstruse geometric ornament

Incised painting

Abstruse forms are used especially in the plinth, minarets, gateway, mosque, and jawab, and to a lesser extent on the surfaces of the tomb. The domes and vaults of the sandstone buildings are worked with tracery of incised painting to create elaborate geometric forms. (The incised painting technique is to scratch a channel in the stone, and to and so lay a thick paint or stucco plaster beyond the surface. The paint is and so scraped off the surface of the stone, leaving paint in the incision.)

On almost joining areas, herringbone inlays define the infinite between adjoining elements. White inlays are used in the sandstone buildings, dark or blackness inlays on the white marble of the tomb and minarets. Mortared areas of the marble buildings accept been stained or painted dark, creating geometric patterns of considerable complexity.

Floors and walkways throughout use contrasting tiles or blocks in tessellation patterns.

Vegetative motifs

The lower walls of the tomb are white marble dados that have been sculpted with realistic bas relief depictions of flowers and vines. The marble has been polished to emphasise the exquisite detailing of these carvings. The dado frames and archway spandrels have been decorated with pietra dura inlays of highly stylised, almost geometric vines, flowers and fruits. The inlay stones are yellowish marble, jasper and jade, levelled and polished to the surface of the walls.

Spandrel detail

Interior decoration

The interior sleeping accommodation of the Taj Mahal steps far across traditional decorative elements. One may say without exaggeration that this bedchamber is a work of jewellery.

Screen surrounding cenotaphs

Hither the inlay work is not pietra dura, but lapidary. The inlay material is not marble or jade but precious and semiprecious gemstones. Every decorative element of the tomb'southward exterior has been redefined with jeweler'due south fine art.

The inner bedchamber

The inner sleeping room of the Taj Mahal contains the cenotaphs of Mumtaz and Shah Jahan. It is a masterpiece of creative craftsmanship, virtually without precedent or equal.

The inner sleeping room is an octagon. While the design allows for entry from each face, merely the south (garden facing) door is used.

The interior walls are about 25 thousand high, topped by a "false" interior dome busy with a lord's day motif.

Eight pishtaq arches define the space at footing level. Equally is typical with the outside, each lower pishtaq is crowned past a 2nd pishtaq about midway up the wall. The iv central upper arches class balconies or viewing areas; each balustrade'southward exterior window has an intricate screen or jali cut from marble.

In improver to the lite from the balcony screens, lite enters through roof openings covered by the chattris at the corners of the exterior dome.

Each of the chamber walls has been highly decorated with dado bas relief, intricate lapidary inlay and refined calligraphy panels, reflecting in miniature detail the pattern elements seen throughout the outside of the circuitous.

The jali

The octagonal marble screen or jali which borders the cenotaphs is made from 8 marble panels. Each panel has been carved through with intricate piercework. The remaining surfaces have been inlaid with semiprecious stones in extremely delicate detail, forming twining vines, fruits and flowers.

The cenotaphs

Cenotaphs, interior of the Taj Mahal

Muslim tradition forbids elaborate ornamentation of graves, so the bodies of Mumtaz and Shah Jahan are laid in a relatively plain bedroom below the inner sleeping room of the Taj Mahal. They are cached on a due north-south axis, with faces turned right (west) toward Mecca.

The Taj Mahal has been raised over their cenotaphs (from Greek keno taphas, empty tomb). The cenotaphs mirror precisely the placement of the two graves, and are exact duplicates of the grave stones in the basement below.

Mumtaz's cenotaph is placed at the precise centre of the inner bedroom. On a rectangular marble base nigh 1.5 past 2.5 m is a smaller marble casket. Both base and casket are elaborately inlaid with precious and semiprecious gems. Calligraphic inscriptions on the casket identify and praise Mumtaz. On the chapeau of the casket is a raised rectangular lozenge meant to suggest a writing tablet.

Shah Jahan's cenotaph is beside Mumtaz's to the western side. Information technology is the just asymmetric chemical element in the entire circuitous. His cairn is bigger than his wife's, just reflects the aforementioned elements: A larger casket on slightly taller base of operations, once again decorated with astonishing precision with lapidary and calligraphy which identifies Shah Jahan. On the lid of this casket is a sculpture of a small-scale pen box. (The pen box and writing tablet were traditional Mughal funerary icons decorating men'south and women'southward caskets respectively.)

Details of lapidary

(craftsmanship is all-time seen in enlarged version -- click image to see enlargement)

Curvation of jali, entry to cenotaphs

Delicate piercework

Inlay detail

Inlay particular

Construction

The Taj Mahal was built on a stretch of land to the southward of the walled city of Agra which had belonged to Maharajah Jai Singh: Shah Jahan presented him with a large palace in the centre of Agra in commutation. Construction began with setting foundations for the tomb. An area of roughly three acres was excavated and filled with dirt to reduce seepage from the river. The unabridged site was levelled to a fixed height near l m in a higher place the riverbank. The Taj Mahal is 180 feet tall. The dome itself measures 60 anxiety in diameter and 80 feet high.

View from the Agra Fort.

In the tomb surface area, wells were then dug down to the point that water was encountered. These wells were later filled with rock and rubble, forming the basis for the footings of the tomb. An additional well was built to same depth nearby to provide a visual method to rails h2o level changes over time.

Instead of lashed bamboo, the typical scaffolding method, workmen constructed a colossal brick scaffold that mirrored the inner and outer surfaces of the tomb. The scaffold was and so enormous that foremen estimated information technology would take years to dismantle. Co-ordinate to legend, Shah Jahan decreed that anyone could continue bricks taken from the scaffold, and information technology was dismantled by peasants overnight.

A xv-kilometre tamped-globe ramp was congenital to transport marble and materials from Agra to the structure site. Co-ordinate to contemporary accounts teams of twenty or thirty oxen strained to pull the blocks on specially synthetic wagons.

To heighten the blocks into position required an elaborate post-and-beam pulley system. Teams of mules and oxen provided the lifting power.

The society of structure was

• The plinth
• The tomb
• The four minarets
• The mosque and jawab
• The gateway

The plinth and tomb took roughly 12 years to complete. The remaining parts of the complex took an additional 10 years. (Since the complex was congenital in stages, contemporary historical accounts list different "completion dates"; discrepancies between so-chosen completion dates are probably the result of differing opinions about the definition of "completion". For example, the mausoleum itself was essentially complete past 1643, but work continued on the rest of the complex.)

Water infrastructure

Water for the Taj Mahal was provided through a circuitous infrastructure. Water was drawn from the river past a serial of purs -- an creature-powered rope and saucepan machinery. The water flowed into a large storage tank, where, past xiii additional purs, it was raised to big distribution tank to a higher place the Taj Mahal basis level.

From this distribution tank, water passed into 3 subsidiary tanks, from which information technology was piped to the circuitous. A 0.25 m earthenware piping lies about 1.5 m below the surface, in line with the main walkway; this filled the main pools of the complex. Boosted copper pipes supplied the fountains in the north-south canal. Subsidiary channels were dug to gargle the entire garden.

The fountain pipes were not continued directly to the feed pipes. Instead, a copper pot was provided under each fountain pipe: h2o filled the pots allowing equal pressure in each fountain.

The purs no longer remain, just the other parts of the infrastructure have survived.

Craftsmen

The Taj Mahal was non designed by a single person. The project demanded talent from many quarters.

The names of many of the builders who participated in the construction of the Taj Mahal in different capacities accept come down to us through various sources.

Ustad Isa and Isa Muhammad Effendi, trained by the great Ottoman builder Koca Mimar Sinan Agha are oft credited with a primal part in the architectural design of the complex, but in fact at that place is little show to support this tradition, and the connection with Sinan (who died in 1588) is clearly a fairy-tale.

'Puru' from Benarus, Persia (Islamic republic of iran), has been mentioned supervising builder in Persian language texts (e.g. see ISBN 964-7483-39-2).

The main dome was designed past Ismail Khan from the Ottoman Empire, considered to be the premier designer of hemispheres and architect of domes of that age.

Qazim Khan, a native of Lahore, cast the solid gold finial that crowned the Turkish master'due south dome.

Chiranjilal, a lapidary from Delhi, was chosen every bit the chief sculptor and mosaicist.

Amanat Khan from Western farsi Shiraz, Iran was the principal calligrapher (this fact is attested on the Taj Mahal gateway itself, where his name has been inscribed at the end of the inscription).

Muhammad Hanif was the supervisor of masons.

Mir Abdul Karim and Mukkarimat Khan of Shiraz, Iran handled finances and the direction of daily production.

The creative squad included sculptors from Bukhara, calligraphers from Syrian arab republic and Persia, inlayers from southern Bharat, stonecutters from Baluchistan, a specialist in edifice turrets, another who carved only marble flowers — thirty seven men in all formed the creative nucleus. To this core was added a labour forcefulness of twenty thousand workers recruited from across northern Republic of india.

European commentators, specially during the early catamenia of the British Raj, suggested that some or all of the Taj Mahal was the piece of work of European artisans. Most of these suggestions were purely speculative, but ane dates back to 1640, when a Castilian Friar who visited Agra wrote that Geronimo Veroneo, an Italian charlatan in Shah Jahan's court, was primarily responsible for the design. There is no reliable scholarly show to back up this assertion, nor is Veroneo'southward name mentioned in whatever surviving documents relating to the construction. Eastward.B. Havell, the principal British scholar of Indian art in the later Raj, dismissed this theory as unsupported past any testify, and as inconsistent with the known methods employed by the designers. His conclusions were farther supported by the inquiry of Muhammad Abdullah Chaghtai, who examined carefully the origin of the tradition that the Taj was designed by a European, and ended that information technology was a spurious 19th century invention, based on the misapprehension that "Ustad Isa", so oft credited with the Taj's design, must take been a Christian considering he bore the name "Isa" (Jesus). In fact this is a common Muslim proper noun as well - and furthermore there is no source earlier than the 19th century which mentions an "Ustad Isa" in connexion with the Taj Mahal (even if he existed he cannot, in any case, accept been trained past Sinan, because the latter died in 1588). Chaghtai idea information technology more likely that the chief architect was Ustad Ahmad, the designer of Shahjahanabad, but admitted that this could not be conclusively proved from existing sources.

Materials

The Taj Mahal was constructed using materials from all over India and Asia. Over 1,000 elephants were used to transport edifice materials during the structure. The translucent white marble was brought from Rajasthan, the jasper from Punjab and the jade and crystal from Communist china. The turquoise was from Tibet and the Lapis lazuli from Afghanistan, while the sapphire came from Sri Lanka and the carnelian from Arabia. In all, 28 types of precious and semi-precious stones were inlaid into the white marble.

Costs

The total cost of the Taj Mahal's structure was about 50 meg rupees. At that time, 1 gram of gold was sold for most 1.4 rupees. Based on the October 2005 gold toll that would translate to more than 500 million Usa$. (Comparisons based on the value of golden in two different economical eras are often misleading, all the same).

History

Soon after its completion, Shah Jahan was deposed and put nether business firm arrest at nearby Agra Fort past his son Aurangzeb. Legend has it that he spent the remainder of his days gazing through the window at the Taj Mahal. Upon Shah Jahan's death, Aurangzeb buried him in the Taj Mahal next to his married woman, the only disruption of the otherwise perfect symmetry in the architecture. By the belatedly 19th century parts of the Taj Mahal had fallen desperately into disrepair. During the time of the Indian rebellion of 1857 the Taj Mahal faced defacement by British soldiers, sepoys, and authorities officials who chiseled out precious stones and lapis lazuli from its walls.

At the end of the 19th century British viceroy Lord Curzon ordered a massive restoration projection, completed in 1908. He also commissioned the large lamp in the interior chamber (modelled on 1 hanging in a Cairo mosque when local craftsmen failed to provide adequate designs). It was during this time the garden was remodelled with the more English looking lawns visible today. By the 20th century the Taj Mahal was being better taken care of. In 1942 the government erected a behemoth scaffolding over it in anticipation of an air attack past the German Luftwaffe and later by the Japanese Air Force (encounter photograph). During the India-Pakistan wars of 1965 and 1971 scaffoldings were erected by the government to mislead would-be bomber pilots.

Its most contempo threats came from environmental pollution on the banks of the Yamuna River including acid rain occurring due to the Mathura oil refinery (something opposed past Supreme Court of Republic of india directives).

Every bit of 1983 the Taj Mahal was designated a UNESCO Globe Heritage Site. Today it is a major tourist destination.

Recently the Taj Mahal was claimed to exist Sunni Wakf property, on the grounds that it is the grave of a woman whose married man Emperor Shah Jahan was a Sunni. The Indian government has dismissed claims by the Muslim trust to administrate the property, saying their claims are baseless and the Taj Mahal is Indian national property.

The poet Tagore, a Nobel laureate, called Taj Mahal "a drib of tear on the cheek of history".

Visiting

The Taj Mahal is often described as one of the seven wonders of the modernistic world. Millions of tourists have visited the site - more than 3 million in 2004, co-ordinate to the BBC - making it one of the most popular international attractions in India.

Legends and theories

Origins of the proper name

The proper name Taj comes from Persian, the language of the Mughal court, significant crown, and Mahal, as well Persian, means place, expanse, or neighbourhood. Together, the term Taj Mahal translated into rough English from the original Persian ways "Crown Place" or "The Place of the Crown." Some sources propose that Taj Mahal is a shorter variant of Mumtaz Mahal, the formal court name and title of Arjumand Banu Begum, meaning First Lady of the Palace. Equally early every bit 1663, the French traveller François Bernier referred to the place every bit Tage Mehale.

The "Black Taj"

A longstanding popular tradition holds that an identical mausoleum circuitous was originally supposed to be built on the other side of the river, in black marble instead of white, for Shah Jahan himself. The story suggests that Shah Jahan was overthrown by his son Aurangzeb before the black version could be built. Ruins of dark marble plant across the river are, the story suggests, the unfinished base of this "Blackness Taj".

Recent scholarship disputes this theory, and throws some interesting calorie-free on the blueprint of the Taj Mahal. All other major Mughal tombs were sited in gardens that class a cross, with the tomb at the intersection of the vertical and horizontal pieces. The Taj Mahal gardens, past contrast, course a groovy 'T', with the tomb at the centre of the crosspiece. But the outline of the ruins on the other river bank would extend the blueprint of the Taj Mahal gardens to form a cross of proportions typical of other Mughal tombs. Farther, the marble in the ruins opposite the Taj Mahal, while dark from staining, were originally white. In addition, an octagonal pool in these ruins would have reflected the Taj Mahal. Scholars take called these ruins the Mahtab Bagh or "Moonlight Garden".

Scholars now believe that the reflection of the Taj Mahal in this puddle is in fact what was meant when people referred to the 'black taj'.

Shah Jahan's asymmetric tomb

Shah Jehan'due south cenotaph, kickoff from centre. Shah Jahan was interred at the tomb eight years after its completion.

Aurangzeb had Shah Jahan's tomb and cenotaph placed in the Taj Mahal rather than building him a divide mausoleum such as other emperors had. He thus destroyed the symmetry of the Taj Mahal design. A variation on the Blackness Taj legend suggests that Aurangzeb's decision was made from malice or parsimony. In Itmad-Ud-Daulah'due south Tomb nonetheless, which was a major influence on the Taj Mahal pattern, Aurangzeb'southward grandparents were interred in a similar asymmetric fashion. Note: principal sleeping accommodation contains cenotaphs (fake tombs); the actual tombs, configured identically, are in the crypt below.

Mutilation of the craftsmen

A seemingly endless number of stories draw, oft in horrific item, deaths, dismemberments and mutilations which Shah Jahan inflicted on diverse craftsmen associated with the tomb. No evidence for these legends exists, and no respected authority finds them credible.

Stolen items

Legends abound apropos items originally attached to the Taj Mahal which were stolen. Some original items take been removed over time, merely many are mere legends only. These legends include:

• Aureate leaf, supposed to accept covered all or part of the dome.
• A golden railing supposed to have circled the cenotaphs (suggested perhaps by a temporary enamel railing that was replaced afterward completion of the marble jali)
• Diamonds supposedly inlaid in the cenotaphs
• A blanket woven of pearls supposedly covering Mumtaz'south cenotaph

Numerous items from the Taj Mahal have gone missing however; these include the following

• An archway door of carved jasper
• Gold foliage that adorned the bandage atomic number 26 joints of the jali screen around the cenotaphs
• Numerous rich carpets that covered the interior of the tomb
• Enamelled lamps from the interior of the tomb

British plan to demolish the Taj Mahal

There is an often-repeated story that Lord William Bentinck, governor of Bharat in the 1830s, planned to annihilate the Taj Mahal and auction off the marble. In some versions of the tale, the demolition crew were set to begin their work but were stopped only because Bentinck was unable to make the scheme financially viable. There is no contemporary bear witness for this story, which may have emerged in the late nineteenth century when Bentinck was being criticised for his penny-pinching Utilitarianism, and when Lord Curzon was emphasising earlier neglect of the monument, and presenting himself every bit a saviour of Indian antiquities. According to Bentinck'due south biographer John Rosselli, the story arose from Bentinck's fund-raising sale of discarded marble from Agra Fort and of the metallic from a famous simply obsolete Agra cannon.

Was the Taj Mahal originally a temple or a palace?

P.Northward. Oak, President of The Institute for Rewriting Indian History, has repeatedly asserted that the Taj Mahal was a Hindu temple of the god Shiva, usurped and remodeled by Shah Jahan. The temple'due south

Oak also claims that the tombs of Humayun, Akbar and Itmiad-u-Dallah — equally well as the Vatican in Rome, the Kaaba in Mecca, Stonehenge and "all celebrated buildings" in Republic of india — were also Hindu temples or palaces.

The Taj is only a typical illustration of how all historic buildings and townships from Kashmir to Cape Comorin though of Hindu origin have been ascribed to this or that Muslim ruler or courtier.

He further says that if Taj Mahal was not a Shiva temple, that information technology might then take been the palace of a Rajput king. In whatsoever case (he says), the Taj Mahal was Hindu in origin, stolen by Shah Jahan and adapted every bit a tomb — although Oak also claims that Mumtaz is not buried at that place.

Oak further states that the numerous eyewitness accounts of Taj Mahal construction, and Shah Jahan's structure orders and voluminous fiscal records, are elaborate frauds meant to hide its Hindu origin.

His many provocative assertions have gained a lot of pop interest and fabricated Oak a well-known media figure.

He has sued to suspension open the cenotaphs, and to tear downwards brick walls in the lower plinth: In these "faux tombs" and "sealed apartments", Oak says Shivalingams or other temple items were subconscious by Shah Jahan.

According to Oak, the Indian regime'south refusal to allow him unfettered access amounts to a conspiracy confronting Hinduism.

Oak's assertions are not accepted by legitimate scholars. Merely these stories are widely believed and publicized by some contemporary Hindutva (Hindu nationalist) activists.

In 2000 Bharat's Supreme Court dismissed Oak'southward petition to declare that a Hindu king built the Taj Mahal and reprimanded him for bringing the action. In 2005 a similar petition was dismissed by the Allahabad High Court. This case was brought by Amar Nath Mishra, a social worker and preacher who claims that the Taj Mahal was built past the Hindu Male monarch Parmar Dev in 1196.

More information about alternate theories of origin

• The Question of the Taj Mahal by Bhat, P.South.; Athawale, A.L. (1985). Itihas Patrika, vol.5.
• Taj Mahal: The True Story by P.N. Oak ISBN 0-9611614-iv-2
• Was the Taj Mahal a Vedic Temple? The Photographic Evidence! Stephen Knapp.
• "An Architect Looks at the Taj Mahal Legend" by Marvin Mills.
• The Letter of Aurangzeb ordering repairs to the Taj Mahal in the yr only before it is said to have been completed.
• The Badshahnama is the history written past the Emperor's ain chronicler. Knapp argues that this proves that Shah Jahan had caused the Taj Mahal from the previous owner, Jai Singh, grandson of Raja Mansingh, later selecting this site for the burial of Queen Mumtaz.

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Source: https://www.cs.mcgill.ca/~rwest/wikispeedia/wpcd/wp/t/Taj_Mahal.htm

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