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Taj Mahal History
Taj Mahal is a
mausoleum located in Agra, India that was built by the
 Mughal
emperor Shah Jahan, the grandson of Emperor Akbar, in the
memory of his deceased queen Arjumand Bano Begum, who was more
popularly known as Mumtaz Mahal who was also the niece
of empress Nur Jahan.
Mumtaz Mahal died in 1631, during the birth of her fourteenth
child at Burhanpur. It is a known fact that her mortal remains
were temporarily buried in the Zainabad garden and six months
later, her remains were brought to Agra to be finally
enshrined in the Taj Mahal. Soon after the completion of the
Taj Mahal, Shah Jahan was deposed and put under house arrest
at the near by Agra Fort, by his own son Auragnzeb. It
is said that Shah Jahan spent his last days gazing at the Taj
Mahal. After Shah Jahan's death, Aurangzeb buried him in the
Taj Mahal next to his wife.
The land where the Taj Mahal stands, belonged to the
Kachhwahas of Ajmer (Rajasthan) but was acquired from them in
lieu of four havelis, as testified by a court historian, Abdul
Hamid Lahauri in his book Badshah-Namah and the firmans
. During the construction, a network of wells was laid along
the river. Masons, stonecutters, inlayers, carvers, painters,
calligraphers, dome-builders and all other artisans were
requisitioned from the whole of the empire and from Central
Asia and Iran. The Taj Mahal architecture and designing
exemplify strong traditions of Persian and early Mughal
architecture.
Another fascinating aspect of the construction of the Taj
Mahal was the fact that finest raw materials be it the marble
or the stones, were obtained from distant countries across the
world. The bricks for internal construction were prepared in
the vicinity and the fine white marble used in intricate
veneering was obtained from Makrana in Rajasthan. Twenty eight
types of precious and semi-precious stones were used to embed
into the white marble to create the majestic and beautiful
work of art. The jasper was brought from Punjab; jade and
crystal were from China, the turquoise was from Tibet, the
Lapis lazuli from Afghanistan, while the sapphire came from
Sri Lanka and the carnelian from Arabia. Also, red sandstone
was obtained from the neighbouring mines of Sikri and Dholpur.
It took as many as seventeen years to complete the
construction of the Taj Mahal and the masterpiece was finally
ready in 1648. |
