The Taj Mahal Architecture of Islam-Sign of Love
The Taj Mahal of Agra is one of the Seven Wonders of the World, for reasons more than just looking magnificent. It's the history of Taj Mahal that adds a soul to its magnificence: a soul that is filled with love, loss, remorse, and love again. Because if it was not for love, the world would have been robbed of a fine example upon which people base their relationships. An example of how deeply a man loved his wife, that even after she remained but a memory, he made sure that this memory would never fade away. This man was the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan, who was head-over-heels in love with Mumtaz Mahal, his dear wife. She was a Muslim Persian princess (her name Arjumand Banu Begum before marriage) and he was the son of the Mughal Emperor Jehangir and grandson of Akbar the Great. It was at the age of 14 that he met Mumtaz and fell in love with her. Five years later in the year 1612, they got married.
Mumtaz Mahal, an inseparable companion of Shah Jahan, died in 1631, while giving birth to their 14th child. It was in the memory of his beloved wife that Shah Jahan built a magnificent monument as a tribute to her, which we today know as the "Taj Mahal". The construction of Taj Mahal started in the year 1631. Masons, stonecutters, inlayers, carvers, painters, calligraphers, dome-builders and other artisans were requisitioned from the whole of the empire and also from Central Asia and Iran, and it took approximately 22 years to build what we see today. An epitome of love, it made use of the services of 22,000 laborers and 1,000 elephants. The monument was built entirely out of white marble, which was brought in from all over India and central Asia. After an expenditure of approximately 32 million rupees (approx US $68000), Taj Mahal was finally completed in the year 1653.
It was soon after the completion of Taj Mahal that Shah Jahan was deposed by his own son Aurangzeb and was put under house arrest at nearby Agra Fort. Shah Jahan, himself also, lies entombed in this mausoleum along with his wife. Moving further down the history, it was at the end of the 19th century that British Viceroy Lord Curzon ordered a sweeping restoration project, which was completed in 1908, as a measure to restore what was lost during the Indian rebellion of 1857: Taj being blemished by British soldiers and government officials who also deprived the monument of its immaculate beauty by chiseling out precious stones and lapis lazuli from its walls. Also, the British style lawns that we see today adding on to the beauty of Taj were remodeled around the same time. Despite prevailing controversies, past and present threats from Indo-Pak war and environmental pollution, this epitome of love continuous to shine and attract people from all over the world.
Design and Construction of the Taj Mahal
Named the Taj Mahal in honor of Mumtaz Mahal, the mausoleum was constructed of white marble inlaid with semi-precious stones (including jade, crystal, lapis lazuli, amethyst and turquoise) forming intricate designs in a technique known as pietra dura. Its central dome reached a height of 240 feet (73 meters) and was surrounded by four smaller domes; four slender towers, or minarets, stood at the corners. In accordance with Islamic tradition, verses from the Quran were inscribed in calligraphy on the arched entrances to the mausoleum, in addition to numerous other sections of the complex. Inside the mausoleum, an octagonal marble chamber adorned with carvings and semi-precious stones housed the cenotaph, or false tomb, of Mumtaz Mahal. The real sarcophagus containing her actual remains lay below, at garden level.
The rest of the Taj Mahal complex included a main gateway of red sandstone and a square garden divided into quarters by long pools of water, as well as a red sandstone mosque and an identical building called a jawab (or "mirror") directly across from the mosque. Traditional Mughal building practice would allow no future alterations to be made to the complex. As the story goes, Shah Jahan intended to build a second grand mausoleum across the Yamuna River from the Taj Mahal, where his own remains would be buried when he died; the two structures were to have been connected by a bridge. In fact, Aurangzeb (Shah Jahan's third son with Mumtaz Mahal) deposed his ailing father in 1658 and took power himself. Shah Jahan lived out the last years of his life under house arrest in a tower of the Red Fort at Agra, with a view of the majestic resting place he had constructed for his wife; when he died in 1666, he was buried next to her.
The Taj Mahal Over the Years
Under Aurangzeb's long rule (1658-1707), the Mughal empire reached the height of its strength. However, his militant Muslim policies, including the destruction of many Hindu temples and shrines, undermined the enduring strength of the empire and led to its demise by the mid-18th century. Even as Mughal power crumbled, the Taj Mahal suffered from neglect and disrepair in the two centuries after Shah Jahan's death. Near the turn of the 19th century, Lord Curzon, then British viceroy of India, ordered a major restoration of the mausoleum complex as part of a colonial effort to preserve India's artistic and cultural heritage.
Today, some 3 million people a year (or around 45,000 a day during peak tourist
season) visit the Taj Mahal. Air pollution from nearby factories and
automobiles poses a continual threat to the mausoleum's gleaming white marble
façade, and in 1998, India's Supreme Court ordered a number of anti-pollution
measures to protect the building from deterioration. Some factories were
closed, while vehicular traffic was banned from the immediate vicinity of the
complex.
Interior decoration
The interior chamber of the Taj Mahal steps far beyond
traditional decorative elements. Here, the inlay work is not pietra dura, but a lapidary of
precious and semiprecious gemstones. The inner chamber is an octagon with the design
allowing for entry from each face, although only the door facing the garden to
the south is used.
The interior walls are about 25 metres (82 ft) high and
are topped by a "false" interior dome decorated with a sun motif.
Eight pishtaq arches define the space at ground level and, as with the
exterior, each lower pishtaq is crowned by a second pishtaq about midway up the
wall. The four central upper arches form balconies or viewing areas, and each
balcony's exterior window has an intricate screen or jali cut from
marble. In addition to the light from the balcony screens, light enters through
roof openings covered by chattris at the corners. Each chamber wall has been
highly decorated with dado bas-relief, intricate lapidary inlay and refined
calligraphy panels, reflecting in miniature detail the design elements seen
throughout the exterior of the complex.
The octagonal marble screen or jali which borders
the cenotaphs is made from eight marble panels which have been carved through
with intricate pierce work. The remaining surfaces have been inlaid in
extremely delicate detail with semi-precious stones forming twining vines,
fruits and flowers.
Muslim tradition forbids elaborate decoration of graves.
Hence, the bodies of Mumtaz and Shah Jahan were put in a relatively plain crypt
beneath the inner chamber with their faces turned right and towards Mecca. Mumtaz
Mahal's cenotaph is
placed at the precise center of the inner chamber on a rectangular marble base
of 1.5 metres (4 ft 11 in) by 2.5 metres
(8 ft 2 in).
Both the base and casket are
elaborately inlaid with precious and semiprecious gems. Calligraphic
inscriptions on the casket identify and praise Mumtaz. On the lid 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, and is the only visible
asymmetric element in the entire complex. His cenotaph is bigger than his
wife's, but reflects the same elements: a larger casket on a slightly taller
base, again decorated with astonishing precision with lapidary and calligraphy
that identifies him. On the lid of this casket is a traditional sculpture of a
small pen box.
The pen box and writing tablet were traditional Mughal
funerary icons decorating the caskets of men and women respectively. The Ninety Nine Names of God are
found as calligraphic inscriptions on the sides of the actual tomb of Mumtaz
Mahal, in the crypt including "O Noble, O Magnificent, O Majestic, O
Unique, O Eternal, O Glorious... ". The tomb of Shah Jahan bears a
calligraphic inscription that reads; "He traveled from this world to the
banquet-hall of Eternity on the night of the twenty-sixth of the month of Rajab, in the year
1076 Hijri."
The calligraphy on the Great Gate reads
"O Soul, thou art at rest. Return to the Lord at peace with Him, and He at peace with you."
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The calligraphy was created by a calligrapher named Abd
ul-Haq, in 1609. Shah Jahan conferred the title of "Amanat Khan" upon
him as a reward for his "dazzling virtuosity". Near
the lines from the Qur'an at the base of the interior dome is the inscription,
"Written by the insignificant being, Amanat Khan Shirazi." Much
of the calligraphy is composed of florid thuluth script,
made of jasper or
black marble, inlaid
in white marble panels. Higher panels are written in slightly larger script to
reduce the skewing effect when viewed from below. The calligraphy found on the
marble cenotaphs in
the tomb is particularly detailed and delicate.
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