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Taj Mahal
History
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The construction of this marble
masterpiece is credited to the Mughal
emperor Shah Jahan who erected this
mausoleum in memory of his beloved
wife, Arjumarid Bano Begum; popularly
known as Mumtaz Mahal, who died in
A.H. 1040 (A.D. 1630).
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Her last wish to her husband was "to
build a tomb in her memory such as the
world had never seen before". Thus
emperor Shah Jahan set about building
this fairy tale like marvel.
The construction of Taj Mahal was
started in A.D. 1632 and completed at
the ended in 1648 A.D. For seventeen
years, twenty thousand workmen are
said to have been employed on it
daily, for their accommodation a small
town, named after the deceased
empress- 'Mumtazabad', now known as
Taj Ganj, was built adjacent to it.
Amanat Khan Shirazi was the
calligrapher of Taj Mahal, his name
occurs at the end of an inscription on
one of the gates of the Taj. Poet
Ghiyasuddin had designed the verses on
the tombstone, while Ismail Khan
Afridi of Turkey was the dome maker.
Muhammad Hanif was the superintendent
of Masons.
The designer of Taj Mahal was Ustad
Ahmad Lahauri. The material was
brought in from allover India and
central Asia and it took a fleet of
1000 elephants to transport it to the
site. The central dome is 187 ft. high
at the centre.
Red sandstone was brought from
Fatehpur Sikri, Jasper from Punjab,
Jade and Crystal from China, Turquoise
from Tibet, Lapis Lazuli and Sapphire
from Sri Lanka, Coal & Comelian from
Arabia and Diamonds from Panna. In all
28 kind of rare, semi precious and
precious stones were used for inlay
work in the Taj Mahal.
The chief building material, the white
marble was brought from the quarries
of Makrana, in distt. Nagaur,
Rajasthan. Copies of orders (farmans)
issued to Raja Jai Singh, for the
purpose by Shah Jahan, can be seen in
the Taj Museum.
Taj Mahal's outer court, also known as
Jilo Khana, was formerly used both as
a bazar and a caravansarai (Rest
house). On the south-east and
south-west comers are the tombs of
Sirhindi Begum and Satiunnisa Khanum.
The Taj has a jewel-like quality.
The shadow and light play demonstrates
its many moods.
Some feel the Taj is best seen on a
full moon night, others find it
ethereal at dawn while some insist
that it is sensuous at sunset.
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