The Taj Mahal
Taj Mahal, Agra, Republic of India © Dihrad 2004
By Headache
I have a feeling that I am in the most spiritual place in the world, which is full of miracles and danger. It is not you who enjoys or hates India, but rather it is India that might take you up and provide you with inexpressible feelings or…
Before visiting India, one of my friends told me it is said that there are two categories of people. The first consists of those that have seen the Taj Mahal, while the second consists of those who have not.
Now I can say proudly that I belong to the first group. Two days ago I saw the Taj Mahal.
The Taj Mahal (Hindi: ताज महल, Persian & Urdu: تاج محل) is a monument located in Agra in India, constructed between 1631 and 1654 by a workforce of more than twenty thousand. The Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan commissioned its construction as a mausoleum for his favorite wife, Arjumand Banu Begum, who was known as Mumtaz Mahal.
The Taj (as it is often called) is generally considered the finest example of Mughal architecture, a style that combines elements of Hindu and Persian architectures. The Taj has achieved special note because of the romance of its inspiration. While the white domed marble mausoleum is the most familiar part of the monument, the Taj is actually a complex of elements.
We woke up at 6 o’clock in the morning and I was very excited as our car made its way to Agra although that didn’t disturb me from observing all the beauty of India through the the windows.
At this moment, I feel unity with nature.
In Agra, it is very crowded and even before reaching the entrance to the miracle, we were mobbed by people offering us souvenirs and other gifts to buy — especially albums with photos of the Taj Mahal.
They were very tiresome.
There were also guides offering their help, and ours was very proud to tell us the story of the greatest monument to Love. He has worked here for years, like his father and grandfather before him.
I am jealous. He sees the Taj Mahal every minute, every hour, and every
day — from sunrise to sunset.
“The white marble of the Taj is extraordinarily luminescent and even on dull days seems bright. In winter it is worth being there at sunrise. Then the mists that often lie over the river Yamuna lift as the sub rises and casts its golden rays over the pearl white tomb. Beautifully lit in the soft light, the Taj appears to float on air. At sunset, the view from across the river is equally wonderful”.
Footprint India, Matt Barrett & Annie Dare
To India’s Nobel Laureate post, Tagore, the Taj a “tear drop on the face of humanity”, a building to echo the cry “I have not forgotten, I have not forgotten, O beloved” and its mesmerising power is such that
still no one comes away disappointed.
Shah Jahan, fifth of the Great Mughals, was to devoted to his favourite wife, Mumtaz Mahak (Jewel of the Palace) that he could not bear to be parted from her and insisted that she always travel with him, in all states of health. While accompanying him on a military campaign, she died at the age of 39 giving birth to their 14th child.
On her deathbed, it is said that she asked the emperor to show the world how much they loved one another.
The grief-stricken emperor went into mourning for two years. He turned away from the business of running the empire and dedicated himself to architecture, resolving to build his wife the most magnificent memorial on earth. On the right bank of the river Yamuna in full view of his fortress palace, it was to be known as Taj-I-Mahal (The Crown of the Palace).
According to the French traveller Tavnier, work on the Taj commenced in 1632 and tool 22 years to complete, employing a workforce of 20.000. Myths and controversy surround the Taj Mahal. On its competition it is said that the emperor ordered the chief mason’s right hand to be cut off to prevent him from repeating his masterpiece. Another legend suggests that Shah Jahan intended to build a replica for himself in black marble on the other side of the river, connected to the Taj Mahal by a bridge built with alternate blocks of black and white marble.
Footprint India, Matt Barrett & Annie Dare
The Taj Mahal is a miracle, which always will remind people that love may last forever.
Love is all we need…
:-)
Just wanted to point out to everybody that Headache is an Armenian from the Republic currently in India for 2 months in India. Her first post is here.
Anyway, unfortunately I fit into the second category
Comment by Onnik — April 11, 2006 @ 10:38 am
THE TAJ MAHAL (Extract from my book “Pearl and Swine”)
Ridiculous, but I was scared. I trumpeted to all my friends via ICQ and e mail that tomorrow am going to see the Taj Mahal. And now am thinking what if one of the world wonders is just a beautiful edifice? What if I do not get the impression I am expecting to get? Everybody is waiting for a detailed story on Taj Mahal. What if I will disappoint so many people for whom the Taj is entire India?
On the way to the Taj in the bus I am looking out of the bus window. Agra was Mogul India’s capital in 16 century. Moguls always had special feelings to this city; even in huge Delhi there are not as many monuments, temples, parks and forts as in Agra.
We are approaching the Taj. I am trying not to look at it till the last moment in order to see it at once in the whole…
“The world is devided into two parts: those who have seen the Taj Mahal and those who haven’t,” wrote the great traveler Marco Polo. So I also became selected. Trapped in this moment which was eternity. Nothing was before this moment and nothing will be.
I am trembling all over. Yes, the Taj is amazingly beautiful but that is not the point. So what is it that makes the Taj so special? I cannot explain it in words. To talk about the Taj is the same as to describe love in words. Impossible.
I slowly moved to the Taj. Almost 350 years old, it was so magnificent and so ephemeral at the time. And indifferent. People were born and died, towns were destroyed and new towns were built, wars began and rulers changed. And the Taj was standing there indifferent to the history which repeated so many times.
I took my eyes away from Taj and suddenly an unseen power forced me to look back. It is amazing, the Taj makes you to look only at itself.
It was afternoon. The sun was very up as if did not dare to come close to the wonder. The Taj Mahal reflected in the pond in front of it. The Taj Mahal is absolutely symmetric. The snow white marble walls are covered with the black inscriptions from Koran. The Indians told me before the doors and the walls of the mausoleum were incrusted with precious stones which are now all taken away by robbers and later by the government.
I took off my sandals in front of the Taj where was a huge amount of the shoes and went in. The cenotaph of Shah Jahan was the only thing that would destroy the symmetry of the cemetery.
It is not allowed to take pictures inside. Before it was not allowed outside either, the reason was it destroys the energetic aura of that sacred place.
Now the tourists were clicking incessantly. I sat on the marble ground outside. Foreigners were walking around the Taj in white shirts and shorts with stagnant smiles. Indians were sitting on the ground in colorful saris and dhotis. They were looking at the people without any emotions as only Indians can.
The guides were narrating the touchy love story of Shah Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal to their groups. Any Indian kid knows that story.
Shah Jahan fell in love with a beautiful shop girl, Arjumand Banu and married her. They were unseparable. Arjumand, who got the name Mumtaz Mahal (treasure of the palace) was not only very beautiful but kind and intelligent and followed her husband everywhere. She died while delivering their 14-th child. When she was dying she made the emperor swear he would build the most beautiful edifice in the world as a symbol of their eternal life.
Shah Jahan kept his promise. According to the legend the Taj Mahal (palace crown) had been built within 22 years by more than 20 000 workers at the sacred river Yamuna. The workers’ hands afterwards were cut off so that they could never build second Taj Mahal.
When his son Jahangir threw him down the Shah asked just for one thing, to put him in the place where the Taj Mahal would be visible. Shah Jahan ended his days in Agra Fort in 2 kilometers away from Taj looking at his lovely Mumtaz’s grave…
On the way back to Delhi I was thinking about the Taj again and again. Suddenly… I think I understood the mystics of the Taj Mahal. I understood why so many people who have seen the Taj once want to come back here more and more. The Taj is so lonely that takes parts of the people who felt its loneliness. And one will always wish to go back for his/her part.
I am back to Delhi and hurry up to see my friend, who studies in the same institute with me. “Aroon, the Taj is amazing, amazing, amazing… And the story behind it”…
“I do not believe that sweet love story”, he interrupts me.
And he gives me the following link
http://www.hindunet.org/hindu_history/modern/taj_oak.html
I am not 100% sure the story it is true. But suddenly I caught myself on that I never wrote TOMB or MASOLUEM about the Taj. More over while being there in Agra I remember I told the Indian friend accompanying me:
“It is too spiritual to be a grave.”
Comment by LoonyMoony — April 11, 2006 @ 11:23 am
Just to clarify, Loony Moony is another Armenian who’s been to India. She even decided to get married there and has written a book in Russian on the time she spent in the country. The above comment is an excerpt from an English translation of part of it.
Anyway, Loony Moony would make a great blogger and is already proving herself as an excellent feature story writer in Armenia. She’s probably one of the few Armenian journalists that can actually write anything interesting.
And yes, she is a loony.
Totally.
;-)
Comment by Onnik — April 11, 2006 @ 11:47 am
And I will have to accept with Onnik she is totally loonie
Hope she comes up with a blog soon.
Cheers,
NY?
Comment by Nanyaar? — April 11, 2006 @ 7:34 pm
Will I be labeled a nationalist if I mention the fact that the Mumtaz Mahal.’s maiden name was HEghine?
Comment by Blogian — April 11, 2006 @ 9:55 pm
Blogian, not at all, although I can’t find any reference to that in the Wiki section on her. Can you post a link to anything online?
Anyway, it is interesting to see the connection between Indians and Armenians in the past and also the present. There’s a page on Armenians in India here.
Comment by Onnik — April 12, 2006 @ 1:03 am
Dear Blogian Mumtaz Mahal’s name was Arjumand Banu and although we Armenians like to find Armenian roots in everybody she had nothing to do with Armenians:)
Comment by LoonyMoony — April 12, 2006 @ 11:34 am
I am currently researching the presence of Armenian merchants in India, Tibet and China, and I have came across to Mahal’s Armenian roots many times. I promise to post some information later. Nothing to be proud of, but still interesting to know.
Comment by Blogian — April 12, 2006 @ 8:30 pm
Iagree with everyone!
Comment by maria — September 1, 2008 @ 6:51 pm