TAJ MAHAL- ‘SYMBOL OF LOVE’

Taj Mahal is the symbol of purest love built by Shah Jahan in the memory of his late wife Mumtaz Mahal. The Taj Mahal is an ivory-white marble tomb on southern bank of river Yamuna in the city Agara in Uttar Pradesh, India. Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan commissioned to build the Mahal in 1632. It is a big tomb of 17 hectare or 42 acres which has a guest house, mosque and gardens surrounded around the complex. It took almost eleven years to complete the construction of the Taj Mahal. Even after the construction it took ten more years to improvise it and to design it.

The beauty of this wonderful architecture attracts the eye of many tourists. Taj Mahal is also one of the wonders of the world.Even in 2007, it was the winner of the seven wonders of the world. Approximately seven to eight million tourists visit Taj Mahal every year to see its glory. Shah Jahan commissioned to build Taj Mahal in the memory of his loving wife Mumtaz Mahal who died giving birth to her fourteenth child. Taj Mahal has combined designs of Mughal architecture and Persian culture. The tomb is the central focus of the entire complex of the Taj Mahal. It is a large, white marble structure standing on a square plinth and consists of a symmetrical building with an iwan (an arch-shaped doorway) topped by a large dome and finial. Like most Mughal tombs, the basic elements are Persian in origin. The base structure is a large multi-chambered cube with chamfered corners forming an unequal eight-sided structure that is approximately 55 metres (180 ft) on each of the four long sides. Each side of the iwan is framed with a huge pishtaq or vaulted archway with two similarly shaped arched balconies stacked on either side. This motif of stacked pishtaqs is replicated on the chamfered corner areas, making the design completely symmetrical on all sides of the building. Four minarets frame the tomb, one at each corner of the plinth facing the chamfered corners. The main chamber houses the false sarcophagi of Mumtaz Mahal and Shah Jahan; the actual graves are at a lower level.

Ever since its construction, the building has been the source of an admiration transcending culture and geography, and so personal and emotional responses have consistently eclipsed scholastic appraisals of the monument. A longstanding myth holds that Shah Jahan planned a tomb to be built in black marble as a Black Taj Mahal across the Yamuna river.The idea originates from fanciful writings of Jean Baptiste Tavernier, a European traveller who visited Agra in 1665. It was suggested that his son Aurangzeb overthrew Shah Jahan before it could be built. Ruins of blackened marble across the river in Moonlight Garden, Mahtab Bagh, seemed to support this legend. However, excavations carried out in the 1990s found that they were discoloured white stones that had turned black.

The Taj Mahal was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983 for being “the jewel of Muslim art in India and one of the universally admired masterpieces of the world’s heritage”. It is regarded by many as the best example of Mughal architecture  and a symbol of India’s rich history.