The

T A j Mahal





The Taj Mahal

The Taj Mahal meaning "Crown of the Palace" is an ivory-white marble mausoleum on the south bank of the Yamuna river in the Indian city of Agra. It was commissioned in 1632 by the Mughal emperor, Shah Jahan (reigned from 1628 to 1658), to house the tomb of his favourite wife, Mumtaz Mahal. The tomb is the centrepiece of a 17-hectare complex, which includes a mosque and a guest house, and is set in formal gardens bounded on three sides by a crenellated wall.

Construction of the mausoleum was essentially completed in 1643 but work continued on other phases of the project for another 10 years. The Taj Mahal complex is believed to have been completed in its entirety in 1653 at a cost estimated at the time to be around 32 million rupees,

which in 2015 would be approximately 52.8 billion rupees. The construction project employed some 20,000 artisans under the guidance of a board of architects led by the court architect to the emperor, Ustad Ahmad Lahauri.





Shah Jahan

Shah Jahan was a member of the Mughal dynasty that ruled most of northern India from the early 16th to the mid 18th-century. After the death of his father, King Jahangir, in 1627, Shah Jahan emerged the victor of a bitter power struggle with his brothers, and crowned himself emperor at Agra in 1628. At his side was , better known as Mumtaz Mahal (“Chosen One of the Palace”), whom he married in 1612 and cherished as the favorite of his three queens.In 1631, Mumtaz Mahal died after giving birth to the couple’s 14th child. The grieving Shah Jahan, known for commissioning a number of impressive structures throughout his reign, ordered the building of a magnificent mausoleum across the Yamuna River from his own royal palace at Agra. Construction began around 1632 and would continue for the next two decades. The chief architect was probably Ustad Ahmad Lahouri, an Indian of Persian descent who would later be credited with designing the Red Fort at Delhi. In all, more than 20,000 workers from India, Persia, Europe and the Ottoman Empire, along with some 1,000 elephants, were brought in to build the mausoleum complex.

Mumtaz Mahal

Mumtaz Mahal was born Arjumand Banu Begum in Agra to a family of Persian nobility. She was the daughter of Abu'l-Hasan Asaf Khan, a wealthy Persian noble who held high office in the Mughal Empire, and the niece of Empress Nur Jahan, the chief wife of Emperor Jahangir and the power behind the emperor. She was married at the age of 19 on 30 April 1612 to Prince Khurram, later known by his regnal name Shah Jahan, who conferred upon her the title "Mumtaz Mahal". Although betrothed to Shah Jahan since 1607, she ultimately became his second wife in 1612. Mumtaz bore her husband fourteen children, including Jahanara Begum (Shah Jahan's favourite daughter), and the Crown prince Dara Shikoh, the heir-apparent. anointed by his father, who temporarily succeeded him, until deposed by Mumtaz Mahal's sixth child, Aurangzeb, who ultimately succeeded his father as the sixth Mughal emperor in 1658.

Mumtaz Mahal died in 1631 in Burhanpur, Deccan (present-day Madhya Pradesh), during the birth of her fourteenth child, a daughter named Gauhara Begum. Shah Jahan had the Taj Mahal built as a mausoleum for her, which is considered to be a monument of "undying love".

Designed the Taj Mahal

Though the Taj Mahal is considered to be the zenith of Mughal architecture, the identity of its architect remains a mystery, in part perhaps because Shah Jahan seems to have played such an active role in its design. In his obsessive drive for perfection, he may have served as his own artistic director, making the personal overseeing of his artists part of his daily routine.



According to art historian Milo Beach, "This is something we simply have to speculate about. We know Shah Jahan was interested in architecture. We know he was interested in architectural decoration and design. Clearly, he was consulted. He was probably very interested in continually seeing the plans as they developed and commenting on them, and suggesting changes that might be made. The idea that he did any more than that, in terms of the design, is unrealistic. Clearly it's a building that was designed by professional architects who knew what they were doing, not by a prince and an amateur. But an architect was, in a sense, a kind of functionary. Architects and painters never achieved the kind of acclaim that placed them within the ranks of the nobility, for example. They were recognized, but they were never given an enormous amount of importance."

It has often been suggested that a European architect was responsible for building the Taj, but this is contradicted by the existence of the monuments previously constructed in India. "First of all, I can't imagine that there was one architect for the Taj Mahal or for any of these buildings," adds Beach. "I mean, it had to have been a team effort for such an enormous undertaking. Second of all, a building like the Taj grows out of the earlier artistic traditions in India, and in Iran as well, traditions that a European architect would know virtually nothing about. So I think it's extremely unlikely – there's certainly is no historical evidence whatsoever – that there was a European architect."



Several designers and architects – thirty seven men in all – are mentioned by name in the official Mughal histories, and it is probable that they would have worked together to form the creative team that shaped the Taj Mahal:



Ismail Afandi (a.k.a. Ismail Khan) who had worked for the great Ottomans in Turkey as a designer and builder of domes;

Qazim Khan, a goldsmith from Lahore who cast the gold finial that crowns the dome;

Chiranji Lal, a lapidary from Delhi chosen as the chief mosaicist;

Amanat Khan from Shiraz, the master calligrapher whose signature is inscribed on the Taj gateway;

Mohammed Hanif, Multan and Quandhar, master masons from Delhi; and

Mukrimat Khan and Mir Abdul Karim from Shiraz, chief supervisors and administrators.



Ustad Ahmad (a.k.a. Isa Khan), an architect in the court of Shah Jahan from Lahore, is most often credited as the chief architect (or plan drawer) of the Taj Mahal, based on a seventeenth century manuscript which claims that Ustad Ahmad was the architect of both the Taj Mahal and the Red Fort at Delhi.

Taj Mahal Garden

Sir Banister Fletcher put it well in his History of Architecture: 'The Mausoleum of the Taj Mahal at Agra stands in a formally laid-out walled garden entered through a pavilion on the main axis. The tomb, raised on a terrace and first seen reflected in the central canal, is entirely sheathed in marble, but the mosque and counter-mosque on the transverse axis are built in red sandstone. The four minarets, set symmetrically about the tomb, are scaled down to heighten the effect of the dominant, slightly bulbous dome. The mosques, built only to balance the composition are set sufficiently far away to do no more than frame the mausoleum. In essence, the whole riverside platform is a mosque courtyard with a tomb at its centre. The great entrance gate with its domed central chamber, set at the end of the long watercourse, would in any other setting be monumental in its own right.' It is the most perfect chahar bagh plan in existence. Edward Lear wrote: This perfect and most lovely building infinitely surpassed all I had expected, principally on account of its size, and its colour. It is quite impossible to imagine a more beautiful or wonderful sightï¾… What a garden!... the great centre of the picture being ever the vast glittering ivory-white Taj Mahal, and the accompaniment and contrast of the dark green of the cypresses, with the rich yellow green trees of all sorts! And then the effect of the innumerable flights of bright green parrots flitting across like live emeralds.

Night Taj Mahal

What is a celebration by the day, of Agra ‘s tourist rush, of native pride and of all the tales of love and history it is spun about and keeps guarded in its walls which escape occasionally to leave its visitors in awe, is a secret by night, only to become its most sparkling, unreal, and glowing white.

WHEN: Viewing the Taj Mahal at night is available on five days on a month, including a full moon night and two nights before and after the full moon. All these aspects, the dates and the timings for the night viewing of the Taj are decided by the Archaeological Survey of India. Viewing the Taj Mahal at night takes place between 8:30pm to 12:30am in 8 batches of about 50 people for about 30 minutes each. Hence, only 400 people are allowed on a single night.

Taj Mahal at night, visitors are required to reach half an hour before their schedule time at the Shilpagram complex. They aren’t allowed inside the monument at night, and can view the taj mahal only from a bit of a distance. All belongings and luggage have to be deposited at a security counter before the night viewing starts. Video cameras are not allowed inside the monument during the night viewing. While visiting theat night, visitors are required to reach half an hour before their schedule time at the Shilpagram complex. They aren’t allowed inside the monument at night, and can view theonly from a bit of a distance. All belongings and luggage have to be deposited at a security counter before the night viewing starts. Video cameras are not allowed inside the monument during the night viewing.

Attractions Near Taj Mahal

The city of Agra, being the capital of Mughal Empire for a long time, had witnessed construction of numerous buildings on an elaborate scale. In fact, apart from the Taj Mahal, Agra boasts of a number of monuments and places to visit that are quite magnificent in their own right and are worth visiting. So, if you are planning to visit Agra the next time you are holidaying, don't forget to spare a couple of days, for the city has a lot more to offer than the splendid Taj. Include these places in your itinerary and immerse yourself completely in the epical Mughal era gone by. Given below is further information on the popular attractions near Taj Mahal at Agra.

Tourist Places Near Taj Mahal

Agra Fort / Map

One of the famous tourist places near Taj Mahal, India, is the Agra Fort. Situated near Taj Mahal, it was constructed by the Emperor Akbar in the year 1565. However, numerous additions were carried on in this fort, till the time of Shah Jahan. A beautiful example of Mughal architecture made up of entirely of red sandstone, it is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site.



The tomb of Akbar, situated at Sikandra, is the last resting place of the Mughal Emperor, Akbar the Great and is only 13 km from the Agra Fort. The architectural style of this tomb is quite different from almost all the other tombs of the Mughals. This pyramidal tomb was completed by Akbar's son Jahangir in the year 1613 and has the 99 names of Allah inscribed on it.





Fatehpur Sikri / Map





The deserted city of Fatehpur Sikri is situated near Agra. Constructed by Mughal Emperor Akbar, it was completed in the year 1584. Located 35 Km from Agra, it is one-of-its-kind city and is counted amongst the most majestic cities of the Mughal Empire. It's also one of three UNESCO World Heritage Sites situated in Agra, other two being Taj Mahal and Agra Fort.





Noor Jahan, the wife of Jahangir, got the Itmad-ud-Daulah's tomb constructed in between 1622 and 1628 AD. It was constructed in the memory of her father Ghiyas-ud-Din Beg. Located on the left bank of river Yamuna, the tomb is an opulent structure and is considered to be an antecedent of the Taj Mahal because of its intricate carvings and inlay work.





Mankameshwar Temple

About 2.5 km from Taj Mahal and less than 1 km away from Agra Fort is located one of the four ancient temples dedicated to Lord Shiva that stand on each corner of the Agra city. It is surrounded by the markets of the Mughal era gone by.

Ram Bagh / Map

Build by Babur in 1528, Ram Bagh is the oldest Mughal garden in India. Located on the banks of river Yamuna, less than 3 km away from Taj Mahal, it was designed so that the wind from the river coupled with greenery would help maintain cool during the peak summer days. The original name of this garden was Aram Bagh or the Garden of Relaxation.

Swami Bagh Samadhi / M ap

Swami Bagh Samadhi, the construction of which started more than a century ago in 1904, continues till date. It is often touted as the next Taj Mahal, as a colorful combination of marbles and carvings in stone that are believed to be not seen anywhere in India. The monument holds the ashes of Huzur Swamiji Maharaj or Sri Shiv Dayal Singh Seth.





The holy city of Vrindavan, situated near Agra, is one of the most revered pilgrimages in India of the Hindus. The city is very closely associated with Lord Krishna and is said to house as many as 4,000 temples, dedicated to Him.







Other Attractions

Other popular nearby attractions include Jama Masjid, built for Shah Jahan's daughter; Guru ka Tal, a holy place of worship for Sikhs; Chini Ka Rauza, dedicated to Prime Minister of Shah Jahan; Mariam's Tomb, wife of Mughal Emperor Akbar the Great; Mehtab Bagh, a moonlit garden; and Keetham Lake.