Fact of the Taj Mahal
Contributor August 22nd, 2007
An enduring love story
India’s Poet laureate, Rabindranath Tagore, who was Asia’s first Nobel Prize winner, first called the Taj Mahal “a drop of tear on the cheek of history”.
The fact of Taj Mahal is also a tragic and enduring love story, a perfect symmetrical dream in marble which is listed as the Seventh Wonder of the World.
The Taj Mahal has many faces
It is located in the city of Agra, in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, on the banks of the Yamuna River. It is is famous as an enduring monument to love having been built by the fifth Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan as the final resting place for his second wife, Mumtaz Mahal.
The Chosen One
She was the daughter of the Prime Minister at the court of Emperor Jahangir. Shan Jahan first saw her one day when she was attending a Ladies Bazaar in the courtyard of the Palace and, it said, he immediately fell in love with her. In 1612, at the age of 21, they were married and she became Shah Jahan’s beloved consort Mumtaz Mahal “chosen one of the palace”.
Mumtaz accompanied the Emperor on his military campaigns. She was his comrade, his advisor and inspired him to acts of charity and benevolence towards the weak and the needy but even these qualities were diminished by the love that bound her to Shah Jahan. She bore him 14 children.
It was in 1630, while accompanying her husband on a military campaign in Burhanpur she died giving birth to her fourteenth child at the age of 39. It is said that on her deathbed, Mumtaz begged the king to build monument as a memorial to their great love.
The Heartbreak
It is also said that his wife’s death, Shah Jehan so heartbroken, that he locked himself in his private chambers for a month and when he finally emerged his hair had turned white.
Mumtaz’s body was carried from Berhanpur to Agra and she was laid to rest in a temporary crypt. She was moved again and buried in a garden on the banks of the river. The foundation of her mausoleum was laid in 1631. On the completion of the Taj she was buried for a third time in her final resting place nearly 12 years later.
The emperor married twice more, and both these later wives, were buried in small mausoleums in Mumtaz Mahal’s tomb garden.
Deadly Rivalry
Soon after the completion in 1657, Shah Jahan became seriously ill. As he lay dying he watched hostility break out among his four sons. His four children had grown up in an atmosphere of bitter rivalry, even though they were all the sons his beloved wife Mumtaz Mahal. The expectation of their father’s death provoked them into a savage contest for power
Aurangzeb had an acute sense of political realism and a fierce appetite for power. He was the superior in both military talent and administrative skills. He easily outclassed his brothers in the bid for power. After a bitter struggle he was crowned emperor in 1659. He imprisoned his sick and ailing father in the Agra fort. There he remained, confined for eight years under house arrest until his death.
From the balcony of Muasamman Burj tower he could look down on the beautiful monument he had created for his beloved wife.