The Taj Mahal
The Stunningly Beautiful Taj Mahal
The Nobel Prize winning Indian novelist and poet, Rabindranath Tagore described the Taj Mahal as “one tear-drop…upon the cheek of time.” This gorgeous mausoleum and its surrounding buildings were commissioned by Emperor Shah Jahan as a monument of his love for his third wife Mumtaz Mahal who died during the birth of their fourteenth child. Construction of the Taj Mahal began in 1632, one year after her death.
The Taj Mahal is considered to be the finest example of Mughal architecture, a style that combines elements from Persian, Indian, and Islamic architectural styles. In 1983, the Taj Mahal became a UNESCO World Heritage Site and was cited as “the jewel of Muslim art in India and one of the universally admired masterpieces of the world’s heritage.”
Emperor Shah Jahan himself described the Taj in these words:
Should guilty seek asylum here,
Like one pardoned, he becomes free from sin.
Should a sinner make his way to this mansion,
All his past sins are to be washed away.
The sight of this mansion creates sorrowing sighs;
And the sun and the moon shed tears from their eyes.
In this world this edifice has been made;
To display thereby the creator’s glory.
To reduce the damage wrought by pollution, no smog producing factories or vehicles are permitted anywhere near the vicinity of the Taj Mahal. One has to get to the Taj by cycle rickshaw. The perfectly manicured lawns surrounding the structures are maintained by a bullock-drawn “lawn mower.”
Agra still boasts artisans who claim descendancy from the original workers at the Taj who create beautiful marble inlaid table tops and other painstakingly handcrafted items both in the Mughal style and the Florentine style.
There is much to see in India but if you plan to visit this country of many wonders try to make room in your itinerary to see the Taj Mahal and the nearby Agra Fort where Shah Jahan’s son Aurangzeb placed his father under arrest. Upon his death, Shah Jahan was buried alongside Mumtaz Mahal in a lower chamber of the Taj Mahal.
Taj Mahal, http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Taj_Mahal&oldid=332121040 (last visited Dec. 21, 2009).