Taj Mahal

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 fatherKing Jahangirin 1627Shah Jahan emerged the victor of a bitter power struggle with his brothersand crowned himself emperor at Agra in 1628.

At his side was Arjumand Banu Begumbetter known as Mumtaz Mahal (“Chosen One of the Palace”)whom he married in 1612 and cherished as the favorite of his three queens.

In 1631Mumtaz Mahal died after giving birth to the couple’s 14th child. The grieving Shah Jahanknown for commissioning a number of impressive structures throughout his reignordered 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 Lahourian Indian of Persian descent who would later be credited with designing the Red Fort at Delhi.

In allmore than 20,000 workers from IndiaPersiaEurope and the Ottoman Empirealong with some 1,000 elephantswere brought in to build the mausoleum complex.

Named the Taj Mahal in honor of Mumtaz Mahalthe mausoleum was constructed of white marble inlaid with semi-precious stones (including jadecrystallapis lazuliamethyst and turquoise) forming intricate designs in a technique known as pietra dura.

Its central dome reaches a height of 240 feet (73 meters) and is surrounded by four smaller domes; four slender towersor minaretsstood at the corners. In accordance with the traditions of Islamverses from the Quran were inscribed in calligraphy on the arched entrances to the mausoleumin addition to numerous other sections of the complex.

Inside the mausoleuman octagonal marble chamber adorned with carvings and semi-precious stones housed the cenotaphor false tombof Mumtaz Mahal. The real sarcophagus containing her actual remains lay belowat 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 wateras 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 goesShah Jahan intended to build a second grand mausoleum across the Yamuna River from the Taj Mahalwhere his own remains would be buried when he died; the two structures were to have been connected by a bridge.

In factAurangzeb (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 Agrawith a view of the majestic resting place he had constructed for his wife; when he died in 1666he was buried next to her.

Under Aurangzeb’s long rule (1658-1707)the Mughal empire reached the height of its strength. Howeverhis militant Muslim policiesincluding the destruction of many Hindu temples and shrinesundermined the enduring strength of the empire and led to its demise by the mid-18th century.

Even as Mughal power crumbledthe Taj Mahal suffered from neglect and disrepair in the two centuries after Shah Jahan’s death. Near the turn of the 19th centuryLord Curzonthen British viceroy of Indiaordered a major restoration of the mausoleum complex as part of a colonial effort to preserve India’s artistic and cultural heritage.

Todaysome 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 façadeand in 1998India’s Supreme Court ordered a number of anti-pollution measures to protect the building from deterioration. Some factories were closedwhile vehicular traffic was banned from the immediate vicinity of the complex.