Amazing Facts About Taz Mahal

Amazing Facts About Taz Mahal

Taj Mahal is the mausoleum built by ShahJahan to commemorate his second wife Mumtaz Mahal.


The Taj is situated on a raised platform at the southern end of a four-quartered garden. 


The locality in which Taj Mahal is situated in the Agra city is known as Mumtazabad after the queen Mumtaz Mahal. 


Taj complex has been designed on grid pattern. 

Beginning from north, the first composition is a red sand-stone forecourt known as chowk-i iilo khana in chronicles.It was intended for the royal retinue. 


Next is a 30 m high red sand-stone gateway through which one enters the garden complex on which the main building Taj Mahal is located. 


Through the gate entry is made to a four-part garden divided into quadrangles by waterways.They meet in the centre in a large tank. The model of this garden is the mythical garden of paradise.  . 


The northern end of this garden has the Taj Mahal. Western plank of Taj is a mosque in red sand stone and the eastern flank is its replica. 


In the centre of the platform is Taj Mahal with each corner having  one four-storied marble minaret. 


Taj is planned on the pattern of Humayun's Tomb. It is Timurid in  style. 


The exterior is white marble with a sparing use of inlay work in coloured stones. 


Qurantic verses in black calligraphy are inlaid on the marble surface. 

The main mausoleum is octagonal and contains, in the centre,the grave of Mumtaz Mahal.Shahjahan's grave is by the side of the central grave. 


Originally the graves were surrounded by a gold screen designed by Shahjahan's goldsmith Bebadal Khan. Later, for fear of theft or loot, it was replaced by Shah Jahan with a carved and latticed marble screen. 


The decorative device envisaged for Taj Mahal gives a prominent place to the play of light on the marble surface of the structure. 


On the lower portions of the srmcture there are carved-floral  panels. 


Above these panels are a series of floral motifs in inlaia coloured stones. Main flowers depicted there are narcissus, roses and tulips. 


These are the flowers which have been used in Parsian mystic poetry to describe the features of the beloved. 


The carvings and inlaid patterns have been designed in such manner as to give prominence to the white marble surface, rather than overshadowing it. 


The architect of the Taj Mahal was Ustad Ahmad (C.1570-1649) a native of Lahore who was awarded the title of Nadir-ul Asr (Wonder of the Age) by Shah Jahan.


The calligrapher was Amanat Khan. But this was his title. His name was Abdal Haqq and he was a native of Shiran. His elder brother was Mulla Shukr Allah, better known Afzal Khan. 


Amanat Khan was appointed calligrapher of Taj Mahal in the middle of 1632. 

His calligraphic designs were transferred onto the surface of Taj Mahal sometimes around the end of 1633 or beginning of 1634. 


His signature may be seen at two places in the calligraphic bands on Taj Mahal. 


There are three other extant inscriptions bearing Amanat Khan's signature viz., Gateway of Sikandara, Madrasa Shahi Mosque in Agra city, and Sari Amanat Khan near Lahore.


Taj Mahal defies the most usual plan of Mughal mausoleums of locating the dead in the centre of a square garden. 


Taj stands at the end of a rectangular garden. 


The garden is a massive land measuring 540 metres by 300 metres. 


A canal runs in the centre of the garden -knorth-south and divides it into two  halves. 


These halves are further divided into guardrants by the canal branching in east-west direction. 


The garden once had beautiful trees lined along the canals. 


The quadrants have today been decorated with trees which express a sense of serenity befitting the nature of mansoleum. 


Near the western end of the colonnade adjoining the entrance gate there is a small museum having  interesting exhibits on Taj Mahal.


Taj Mahal  has given  birth  to more  anecdotal stories  than  any  other monument  in  India. Such stories do not  obviously become part of the repertoire of  history. Yet they possess a spicy effect and may be used as fables. We have listed for you some of the more common anecdotes and have tried to account for their genesis. 

i)  Taj Mahal was built over a period  of twenty two  years.Local guides,obviosly ill informed would invariably cite the-existence of 22 small domidal chhatris atop the entrance gate to the Taj complex as signifying the years consumed in its construction. You must, however, know that there is no truth in this statement as Taj took only 11 years to complete (1632-1643). Probably the legend of 22 years originated from a statement to the same effect by Tavernier. Later the ingenuity of  local guides made them discover 22 of domical structures atop the gate. 

ii)  After the completion of Taj Mahal, Shah Jahan ordered that, the hands of the masons who  had worked on it be severed so that they would not be able to repeat another construction of similar beauty. There is, however, no historical evidence to suggest even the remotest possibility of such an act. 


iii)  Mumtaz Mahal wished at the time of her death that her memory be perpetuated in the form of an edifice of unparralleled beauty. The fact,however,is that the adific was entirely Shah Jahan's conception.Mumtaz's death wish as recorded in  history was that her children and her mother be looked after by the Emperor. 


iv)  Shah Jahan began  to  build hk  own tomb on  the other  side of  the river Yamuna but the  project was  interrupted  due  to  the  war  of  succession.There is however, no mention of such a project in history. Probably the story ;of a duplicate building got circulated from Tavernier's  similar remark.