The Taj Mahal of Agra is one of the Seven
Wonders of the World, for reasons more
than just looking magnificent. It's the
history of Taj Mahal that adds a soul to its
magnificence: a soul that is filled with
love, loss, remorse, and love again.
Because if it was not for love, the world
would have been robbed of a fine example
upon which people base their
relationships. An example of how deeply a
man loved his wife, that even after she
remained but a memory, he made sure
that this memory would never fade away.
This man was the Mughal Emperor Shah
Jahan, who was head-over-heels in love
with Mumtaz Mahal, his dear wife. She
was a Muslim Persian princess (her name
Arjumand Banu Begum before marriage)
and he was the son of the Mughal
Emperor Jehangir and grandson of Akbar
the Great. It was at the age of 14 that he
met Mumtaz and fell in love with her. Five
years later in the year 1612, they got
married.
Mumtaz Mahal, an inseparable companion
of Shah Jahan, died in 1631, while giving
birth to their 14th child. It was in the
memory of his beloved wife that Shah
Jahan built a magnificent monument as a
tribute to her, which we today know as the
"Taj Mahal". The construction of Taj Mahal
started in the year 1631. Masons,
stonecutters, inlayers, carvers, painters,
calligraphers, dome-builders and other
artisans were requisitioned from the whole
of the empire and also from Central Asia
and Iran, and it took approximately 22
years to build what we see today. An
epitome of love, it made use of the
services of 22,000 laborers and 1,000
elephants. The monument was built
entirely out of white marble, which was
brought in from all over India and central
Asia. After an expenditure of
approximately 32 million rupees, Taj
Mahal was finally completed in the year
It was soon after the completion of Taj
Mahal that Shah Jahan was deposed by
his own son Aurangzeb and was put under
house arrest at nearby Agra Fort. Shah
Jahan, himself also, lies entombed in this
mausoleum along with his wife. Moving
further down the history, it was at the end
of the 19th century that British Viceroy
Lord Curzon ordered a sweeping
restoration project, which was completed
in 1908, as a measure to restore what was
lost during the Indian rebellion of 1857:
Taj being blemished by British soldiers and
government officials who also deprived the
monument of its immaculate beauty by
chiseling out precious stones and lapis
lazuli from its walls. Also, the British style
lawns that we see today adding on to the
beauty of Taj were remodeled around the
same time. Despite prevailing
controversies, past and present threats
from Indo-Pak war and environmental
pollution, this epitome of love continuous
to shine and attract people from all over
the world.