“  Only let this one teardrop ,this Taj Mahal glisten spotlessly bright on the cheek of time,  forever and ever ”. so said Rabindranath Tagore of the greatest monument ever built to love.

 The  Taj Mahal was built by Shah Jahan in memory of beloved wife Mumtaz Mahal who died while giving birth to their 14th child . There was a true love story. They first met when he was 14 years and she was 15 and a smitten Shah Jahan informed his father, the Emperor Jahangir, that he would marry no one else.  Known in those days as Arjumand Bano Begam, she was a Muslim persian princess of stunning beauty. Shah Jahan or Prince Khurram as he was known before he ascended the Throne, had to wait 5 years before he could marry Arjumand Bano Begum and she became his third wife. The two however, were inseperable and she even travelled with him on war campaigns . It was Shah Jahan who Re named her Mumtaz Mahal which means ‘The chosen One’.

 Legend as it that a dying Mumtaz Mahal made Shahjahan promise to build a beautiful monument in her memory.   truth of this is not known but it is a fact that a grief- stricken Shahjahan held the court in mourning for 2 years after her death and then announce plans to build a Mausoleum for his wife, the likes of which had never been seen before .

The Taj Mahal style is a fusion of Persian, Central Asian and Islamic architecture .work began in 1631 and was completed 22 years later in 1653 .The cost of construction was Rs. 32 crores and estimated 20,000 people worked on it over 1000 elephants where employed to carry construction materials.

 Records maintained during the construction reveals a list of people who masterminded the Taj. The least read like a who's who of that era's Architects and craftsmen.  while there are varying theories on the master architect of the Taj, it is recorded that the main dome was designed by Ismail Khan ,the premier designer of hemispheres and builder of dooms of the Ottoman Empire.  Qazim khan of Lahore cast the solid gold final that crowns the Doom.chiranjilal ,a lapidarist from Delhi was a chief sculptor and mosaicist. In all the Core Team of creative people number 37 including a person who carved only marble flowers. Expert craftsman came from Delhi qannauj, Lahore, Multan and South India. Renowned Muslim craftsman from Baghdad, shiraz and Bukhara worth on many specialised task .

while previous Mughal rulers in India had built in red sandstone, Shah Jahan influenced by timurid and Mughal buildings elsewhere,adopted the use of white marble inlaid with precious and semi precious stones. As many as 28 different varieties of semi-precious and precious stones were used to adorn the Taj with exquisite inlay work.  The transulent white marble was brought from Rajasthan, Jasper from Punjab, Jade and crystal from China Turquoise from Tibet ,lapis lazuli from Afghanistan ,Sapphire from Sri Lanka and carnelian  from Arabia.  In all ,the white marble was inlaid with 28 types of precious and semi precious stones.

 The Taj Mahal is a complex with five major sections :Darwaza (the main gateway) , bageecha (the Gardens ), masjid (the mosque) and Naqqar Khana( the rest house), and Rauza (the main Mausoleum). Each component of the complex is a Marvel of beauty in itself.

             Thanks for Reading😊

                                     ~Rekha