adminIn the city of Agra in North India, on the banks of the Yamuna, stands a beautiful, majestic building-complex known as the Taj Mahal. It is by far the biggest tourist attraction in India and is considered to be one of the world’s greatest architectural treasures. The almost supernatural beauty of the Taj Mahal transcends culture and history, and tends to have a mesmerising effect on its onlooker.
The Taj Mahal is a seven storied edifice with its plinth at the level of the riverbed. The courtyard in front of the building corresponds to the third story of the edifice. The entire skeleton of the building is made of red-stone, with the top four floors plastered with marble. The marble platform (the fourth floor) on which the entire edifice is standing has four marble minarets at its corners. The marble superstructure is covered with a massive central dome surrounded by four smaller cupolas. The central edifice is flanked by two identical red-stone building; the one on the western side is a mosque, while the other one is a community hall. Facing the main building on the other side is a four storied gateway. Midway between the marble edifice and the gateway are two identical double-storeyed buildings, placed on the either side of the courtyard and are known as the ‘Nagar Khanas’ (drum houses). The whole complex is perfectly symmetrical about the North-South axis, the two halves forming mirror images of each other in its minutest details.
Dr John Murray’s images of the Taj Mahal taken between 1858 and 1862 are recognised as the first photographs of the monument.
It is generally believed by historians that the building was erected as a mausoleum by the 5th generation Mogul Emperor Shah Jahan in the memory of his wife Mumtaz Mahal, and the period of its construction was 1631- 1653 AD. The main designer of the edifice is believed to be Ustad Isa of Iran who along with 20,000 workers and skilled craftsmen from all Asia and even Europe, build the white marble mausoleum over a period of 22 years. Shah Jahan intended to build a black marble mausoleum for himself which could not be materialised due to lack of funds.
This story has been challenged by Late Professor P.N. Oak, author of Taj Mahal: The True Story. He claims that the Taj Mahal is not the tomb of Mumtaz Mahal, but an ancient Hindu temple palace of Lord Shiva (then known as Tejo Mahalaya), worshipped by the Rajputs of Agra city.
In the course of his research, Oak discovered that the Shiva temple palace had been usurped by Shah Jahan from then Maharaja of Jaipur, Jai Singh. Shah Jahan then remodeled the palace into his wife’s memorial. In his own court chronicle, Badshahnama, Shah Jahan admits that an exceptionally beautiful grand mansion in Agra was taken from Jai Singh for Mumtaz’s burial. The ex-Maharaja of Jaipur is said to retain in his secret collection two orders from Shah Jahan for the surrender of the Taj building.
The use of captured temples and mansions as a burial place for dead courtiers and royalty was a common practice among Muslim rulers. For example, Hamayun, Akbar, Etmud-ud-Daula and Safdarjung are all buried in such mansions.
The key points raised by Professor Oak in his research from 1965 are as follows:
[1] Shah Jahan’s own court chronicler Mulla Abdul Hamid Lahori in the Badshahnama (the court chronicle of Shah Jahan) mentions that the body of Mumtaz was removed from Burhanpur where she was originally buried. Quoting Lahori, “the building known as the palace (Manzil) of Raja Mansingh, at present owned by Raja Jaisingh, grandson (of Mansingh), was selected for the burial of the Queen whose abode is in heaven…it is covered with a majestic magnificent lush garden, to the south of that great city…Although Raja Jaisingh valued it greatly as his ancestral heritage and property, yet. He (Raja Jai Singh) has agreed to part with it gratis for the Emperor Shahjahan”. Furthermore, Lahori mentions no architect, and estimates the cost of the work done to be only Rs. 40,00,000 which clearly shows that no new building was erected. Professor Oak argue that had Shah Jahan really been the conceiver of the Taj Mahal, he need not have specially instructed Mulla Abdul Hamid Lahori not to forget mentioning or describing its ‘construction’ in the official chronicles, because the grandeur and majesty of the Taj as the finest achievement of a ruling monarch could never be lost sight of by a paid court chronicler.
Shah Jahan, whose reign was supposed to be a golden period of history, has not left even a scrap of authentic paper about the construction of the Taj Mahal. There are no authentic orders commissioning the Taj, no correspondence for the purchase or acquisition of the so-called site, no design drawings, no bills or receipts and no expense account sheets.
[2] Jean Baptiste Tavernier, a French jeweler, toured India for trade between 1641 and 1668 A.D; his travels are recorded in his booked titled Travels in India. Tavernier’s testimony too establishes that a lofty palace had been obtained, and that it was a world tourist attraction even before Mumtaz’s burial. Tavernier tells us that Shah Jahan could not marshal even timber enough for as much as scaffolding. History suggests that Shah Jahan’s reign was as full of turmoil and warfare as that of most other Muslim rulers of India. He could not therefore, have any wealth, peace, security or inclination to launch on such an ambitious project as the Taj Mahal.
[3] Emperor Shah Jahan’s great great grandfather Babur’s ‘Memoirs’ (his court chronicle) refer to the Taj Mahal 104 years before Mumtaz’s death.
[4] The Encyclopaedia Britannica mentions that the Taj Mahal building complex comprises of guest rooms, guard rooms and stables, this suggests that Taj Mahal is a temple-palace. The pleasure pavilions in the Taj premises could never form part of a tomb. The Taj Mahal has various other annexes outside its outer peripheral red-stone wall, which could only be meant for courtiers and palace staff.
[5] The very name Taj Mahal means a crown palace or a resplendent shrine (Tejo Maha Alaya) and not a tomb. Professor Oak found that the term does not occur in any Mogul court papers or chronicles, even after Shah Jahan’s time. The term ‘Mahal’ has never been used for a building in any of the Muslim countries. ‘The usual explanation that the term Taj Mahal derives from Mumtaz Mahal is illogical in at least two respects. Firstly, her name was never Mumtaz Mahal but Mumtaz-ul-Zamani,’ he writes. ‘Secondly, one cannot omit the first three letters from a woman’s name to derive the remainder as the name for the building.’
[6] If a stupendous monument like the Taj Mahal were specially built for the burial of a consort, there would be a ceremonial burial date and it would not go unrecorded. But not only is the burial date not mentioned but even the approximate period during which Arjumand Banu Begum may have been buried in the Taj Mahal varies from six months to nine years of her death.
[7] History makes no special mention of any out-of-the-way attachment or romance between the two, unlike that of Jahangir (father of Shah Jahan) and Nurjahan. This shows that the story of their love is a concoction seeking to justify the myth about the building of the Taj over her body.
[8] It can be said that Shah Jahan was no patron of art. Had he been one, he would not have had the heart to chop off the hands of those who are said to have toiled to ‘build’ the monument for his wife. An art lover, especially one disconsolate on his wife’s death, would not indulge in an orgy of maiming skilful craftsmen.
[9] There is no record in history that Shah Jahan had any special infatuation for Mumtaz. In fact history records that he used to run after various other women from his own daughter to his maids.
[10] The existence of the landing ghat at the rear suggests a temple-palace, not a tomb.
[11] Even the central marble structure consists of a 23-room marble palace suit which is superfluous for a tomb. Plus the entire Taj building consists of over 1000 rooms along its corridors, in the two basements, on the upper floors and in its numerous towers, which clearly bears out the contention that it was meant to be a temple-palace.
[12] The Taj complex houses a pair of ‘Nagar Khanas’ (drum houses). Drum houses are not only superfluous in a tomb but is a positive misfit because a departed soul needs peace and rest. On the other hand a drum house is a necessary concomitant of a temple-palace because drum beats are used to herald royal arrivals and departures, summoning of the townsfolk for royal announcements and proclamations and announce divine worship time.
[13] The decorative patterns and motifs throughout the Taj Mahal are not only entirely of Indian flora but also of sacred Hindu emblems like the lotus, which were infidel characteristics according to Islamic beliefs and never have allowed any peace to the soul of Mumtaz Mahal.
[14] The galleries, arches, supporting brackets and cupolas are entirely in the Hindu style such as can been seen all over Rajasthan. For example, the decorative and marble work found in the Taj Mahal tallies exactly with that in the Amer (Jaipur) palace built AD 967.
[15] The designers are variously mentioned by Western scholars to be Europeans, and are claimed by Muslims to be Muslims, while the Imperial Library Manuscript contains Hindu names. How could the designers of such a great monument be not recorded?
[16] The Taj Mahal entrance faces south. Had it been a Muslim building it should have faced west.
Aerial view of the Taj Mahal (1944)
[17] According to the old chronicles, Akbar on his early visits to Agra used to stay in Khawaspura and Jaisinghpura area of Agra, which suggests that he stayed in the Taj Mahal as there is no other residence suitable for an Emperor in the area.
[18] An English visitor, Peter Mundy who was in India only for about a year after Mumtaz’s death mentions the Taj Mahal as one of the most spectacular buildings. This could not have been possible as it apparently took 22 years for the Taj Mahal to be constructed.
[19] Professor Marvin Miller of New York took samples from the riverside doorway of the Taj. Carbon dating tests revealed that the door was 300 years older than Shah Jahan.
[20] European traveler Johan Albert Mandelslo, who visited Agra in 1638 (only seven years after Mumtaz’s death), describes the life of the city in his memoirs, but makes no reference to the Taj Mahal being built.
In addition, Professor Oak also pointed out a number of design and architectural inconsistencies that support the belief that the Taj Mahal is a typical Hindu temple rather than a mausoleum.
Many rooms in the Taj Mahal have remained sealed since Shah Jahan’s time, and are still inaccessible to the public. Oak asserts they contain a headless statue of Shiva and other objects commonly used for worship rituals in Hindu temples.
Fearing political backlash, Indira Gandhi’s government tried to have Oak’s book withdrawn from the bookstores, and threatened the Indian publisher of the first edition with dire consequences.
In July 2000, The Indian Supreme court refused to declare Taj Mahal a Hindu shrine. The petition was filed by Professor P.N Oak to declare that Taj Mahal was built by Hindu King Parmar Deva and not Mogul Emperor Shah Jahan. The judges declared the petition as “totally misconceived” and advised him not to file such petitions.
The only way to really validate or discredit Oak’s research is to open the sealed rooms of the Taj Mahal, and allow international experts to investigate processes like radio-carbon dating on various parts of the building.
References:
P.N Oak, ‘The Taj Mahal is a Temple Palace, 1966.
P.S Bhatt and A.L Athawale, ‘The Question of the Taj Mahal’, Itihas Patrika, vol. 5, 1985.
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