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Taj Mahal (Urdu تاج محل - “Crown of Palaces”, English Taj Mahal) is
a mausoleum-mosque located in Agra, India, on the banks of the Jamna
River (architects, probably Ustad-Isa, etc.) It was built by order of
the descendant of Tamerlane, the padishah of the Mughal Empire Shah
Jahan, in memory of his wife Mumtaz Mahal, who died in childbirth of the
fourteenth child. Later, Shah Jahan himself was buried in the mausoleum.
The Taj Mahal (also "Taj") is considered the finest example of
Mughal architecture, which combines elements of Indian, Persian and
Arabic architectural styles. In 1983, the Taj Mahal was named a UNESCO
World Heritage Site: "the pearl of Muslim art in India and one of the
universally recognized masterpieces of world heritage."
While the
mausoleum's white marble dome is its most prominent component, the Taj
Mahal is a structurally integrated complex. The building began to be
built around 1632 and completed in 1653. 20 thousand craftsmen and
craftsmen worked. The direction of the construction of the Taj Mahal was
entrusted to a Council of Architects under imperial control, including
Deshenov-Anu, Makramat Khan and Ustad Ahmad Lahauri. Lakhauri is usually
considered the main author of the project. According to another version,
the most popular among the guides of the Taj Mahal, one of the main
architects was the Turk Isa Mohammed Efendi.
Inside the mausoleum
there are two tombs - the shah and his wife. In fact, their burial place
is located below - strictly under the tombs, underground. The time of
construction refers to approximately 1630-1652. The Taj Mahal is a
five-domed structure 74 m high on a platform, with 4 minarets at the
corners (they are slightly tilted away from the tomb in order not to
damage it in case of destruction), which is adjacent to a garden with
fountains and a pool. The total area of the temple complex is 17
hectares.
The walls are made of polished translucent marble
(brought for construction from the city of Makrana) inlaid with gems.
Turquoise, agate, malachite, carnelian, etc. were used. Marble has such
a feature that in bright daylight it looks white, pink at dawn, and
silvery on a moonlit night.
The building is made of fired brick faced with white
marble. The mausoleum stands on an approximately 5 m high square
substructure. The floor plan of the mausoleum is an irregular octagon,
which is vaulted by an almost 30 m high, bulging outer dome resting on a
drum with a maximum diameter of 26.65 m; This in turn is surrounded by
four small, open, pavilion-like Chhatri structures with small - not
bulging - domes. On the facade below the large central dome there is a
large middle Ivan arch with a niche on the four long sides of the
building, flanked by smaller arches on two levels. The facade is not
completely mirror-symmetrical. The four two-circuit minarets arranged
around the main building are slightly tilted away from the building so
that they do not fall onto the main building in the event of an
earthquake.
Under the inner dome there is an octagonal central
room with the tombs of Mumtaz Mahal and Shah Jahan. There are several
smaller rooms to the right and left of it. A spiral staircase leads to
the roof in all four corner rooms.
The two tombs in the central
octagon are surrounded by an octagonal Jali barrier, the modern walls of
which are made of delicately perforated marble. There are cenotaphs
here; the simpler graves lie in the crypt below. The tomb of Mumtaz
Mahal lies exactly in the middle, in complete harmony with the symmetry
of the space, while the tomb of Shah Jahan, which is only slightly
larger, was added later and therefore stands asymmetrically next to it.
The outer facades and also the tombs inside are decorated with
reliefs and, above all, with multi-colored marble incrustations in the
Pietra dura style of the greatest finesse. There are colorful floral
motifs, such as: B. Lilies and roses, but also inscriptions with
passages from the Koran in black marble on a white background. The
Shah's tomb is decorated only with floral motifs, while that of Mumtaz
Mahal also has Quranic inscriptions because in Islam "a woman who dies
while giving life is considered a martyr". On the sides of her
sarcophagus are the 99 names of God and at the top the inscription: “He
is eternal. He is enough.”, and the following passage from the Koran:
“God is the one who has no god before him. He knows what is hidden and
what is manifest. He is merciful and compassionate.”
The Taj Mahal is surrounded by a wall made of red
sandstone. A gate made of red sandstone is decorated with white marble.
The four corners of the roof support small octagonal, open kiosks with
white marble domes; There is an open passage above the outer and inner
entrances, arched by a row of eleven small white domes. There are 26
domes in total. The gate building is also decorated with quotes from the
Koran.
Between the gate building and the mausoleum there is an
18-hectare garden with an elongated water basin in the center, a
four-part symmetrical Chahar Bagh based on the pattern of the Bagh-e
Wafa near Jalalabad.
The mausoleum on the banks of the river is
flanked on the right and left by two buildings made of red sandstone
with white marble decorations; each of these two buildings has three
white marble domes, lower than the central Taj Mahal. The building to
the west, in the direction of Mecca, is a mosque. The symmetrically
opposite building to the east of the mausoleum was originally a guest
house with the same floor plan.
The name Taj Mahal consists of two Arabic terms: tāǧ = “crown”, maḥall = literally “place where something is solved or one solves something” (e.g. a problem, his scarf, his belt, his bundle , hence also “dwelling place, residence.” As a combination of words in Arabic it means “crown of a place”, but in the Persian context it means “crown of the place” (pers.: tāǧ-i maḥall, although colloquially the -i is often omitted, since it does not appear written). a tomb, i.e. something objective, the latter is often referred to in German as “the Taj Mahal”.
The general shape of the complex, including additional buildings, is
rectangular, with a long side of 600 and a short side of 300 m. The
layout of the mausoleum itself resembles the layout of the Humayun
mausoleum built earlier in Delhi according to the project of the Persian
architect (completed in 1654). The five-domed ensemble of the mausoleum
with four minarets at the corners is placed on a square platform with a
side length of 95.4 m, its maximum height approaches 74 m (the height of
the minarets is 41 m). The architecture of the mausoleum combines
Persian, Indian and Central Asian elements. The walls are lined with
polished white marble from Makrana and inlaid with precious and
semi-precious stones (including jasper, turquoise, agate, lapis lazuli,
malachite and carnelian), allowing them to reflect sunlight and
moonlight. From all sides, the Taj Mahal surrounds, and right in front
of the building there is a vast marble pool, in the waters of which, at
a certain angle, the entire structure is reflected.
From the
inside, a corridor runs along the walls of the mausoleum, at each turn
of which there is an octagonal chamber. In the inner hall in the
octagonal burial chamber are the cenotaphs of Mumtaz Mahal and Shah
Jahan (buried in the crypt under the burial chamber). The cenotaphs are
surrounded by a carved marble fence, and an onion dome crowns the
chamber from the outside.
Numerous symbols are hidden in the
architecture and layout of the mausoleum. So, for example, on the gate
through which visitors to the Taj Mahal enter the park complex
surrounding the mausoleum, four final verses from the 89th sura of the
Koran “Dawn” (Al-Fajr) are carved, addressed to the soul of the
righteous:
“O thou soul at rest! Return to your Lord contented
and satisfied! Enter with My servants. Enter My Paradise!"
To the
west of the tomb is a red sandstone mosque; symmetrically to it, on the
eastern side of the mausoleum, there is a guest house (javab). The whole
complex has axial symmetry. The tomb has a central symmetry with respect
to the tomb of Mumtaz Mahal. Only the tomb of Shah Jahan, which was
built there after his death, breaks this symmetry. Along the main axis
of the complex there is a regular garden - charbag, on the territory of
which there are pavilions, canals and fountains. Along the long axis of
the 300 m² garden is a narrow mirrored pool
In the southern part
of the complex there is an enclosed courtyard with four gates, where the
mausoleums of two more wives of Shah Jahan - Akbarabadi-Begum and
Fatehpuri-Begum, as well as outbuildings are located.
Construction of the Taj Mahal began six months after Mumtaz Mahal's
death in 1632 and the building was completed in 1648. Over 20,000
craftsmen from many parts of South and Central Asia and various
architects took part, including Ahmad Lahori and the Persian Abu Fazel
from Badakhshan (now Afghanistan). He fused Persian architecture with
Indian elements to create an outstanding work of Indo-Islamic
architecture. The building materials were brought from India and other
parts of Asia with the help of around 1,000 elephants.
The white
marble came from the Jaipur (Rajasthan) area, black marble from Charkoh,
yellow marble from the banks of the Narbada. 28 different precious and
semi-precious stones were set into the marble: jasper from the Punjab,
carnelian from Baghada, agate from Yemen, crystal from the Empire of
China, lapis lazuli and sapphires from Ceylon, corals from the Red Sea,
garnets from Bundelkhand, diamonds from Panna, Onyx from Persia, blood
jasper (heliotrope) from Fatehpur Sikri, as well as various other stones
such as turquoise.
The French travelers Jean-Baptiste Tavernier
and François Bernier reported that originally in the side rooms of the
central octagonal mausoleum there were mullahs who continuously recited
passages from the Koran. A furnishing of carpets, candlesticks “and
other decorations” were changed from time to time.
The date of
completion is disputed. The historians rely on three pieces of
information:
The court chronicler Abdul Hamid Lahori noted that
construction began six months after the death of Mumtaz Mahal (died June
17, 1631) and that the construction period was twelve years.
Accordingly, the mausoleum would have been completed in 1644.
An
inscription above the main entrance states 1648 as the date of
completion.
a letter from Prince Aurangzeb, son of Shah Jahan, in
1652 said that the Taj Mahal was in need of repair.
The French
traveler Tavernier claimed to have witnessed the beginning and end of
the construction work and gives 1652 as the end of the work.
Recently, cracks have been discovered in the walls of the Taj Mahal.
According to scientists, the appearance of cracks may be due to the
shallowing of the Jamna River flowing nearby. The disappearance of the
river will lead to a change in the structure of the soil and the
subsidence of the mausoleum, and perhaps even to its destruction. It
also began to lose its legendary whiteness due to polluted air. Despite
the expanding park area around the Taj Mahal and the closure of a number
of particularly dirty industries in Agra, the mausoleum is still turning
yellow. It has to be cleaned regularly with a special white clay.
The 10,400 km² area around the Taj Mahal, known as the Taj Trapezium
Zone (TTZ), which includes two other UNESCO World Heritage Sites, Agra
Fort and Fatehpur Sikri, has been subject to special restrictions to
protect these historical monuments from pollution. Businesses in this
zone, in particular, are prohibited from using coal and coke: they must
switch to using natural gas or be transferred outside the zone.
Tourism
Every day, the Taj Mahal is visited by tens of thousands of
people, due to tourists, the "Indian pearl" brings a lot of money to the
country's treasury. The Taj Mahal is visited by 3 to 5 million visitors
a year, more than 200,000 of them from abroad. Most tourists come during
the cool months of the year - October, November and February. The
movement of vehicles with internal combustion engines near the complex
is prohibited, so tourists approach the parking lot on foot, or they can
take an electric bus. The Havasspuras (northern courtyard) is currently
being restored to be used as a new visitor center. In a small town to
the south, known as Taj Ganji or Mumtazabad, caravanserais, bazaars and
markets were built to meet the needs of visitors and workers. The Taj
Mahal also appears on several lists as one of the seven wonders of the
world today, including a 2007 list of the New Seven Wonders of the World
(after polling more than 100 million votes).
The expositions are
open from 6 am to 7 pm on weekdays, with the exception of Fridays, when
the complex is open for prayer in the mosque from 12 pm to 2 pm. The
complex is open for night viewing on the day of the full moon, as well
as two days before and after the full moon, excluding Friday and the
month of Ramadan.
For security reasons, only water in transparent
bottles, small video cameras, cameras, mobile phones and small handbags
can be brought inside the Taj Mahal complex.
From the very beginning, the Taj Mahal became a source of admiration,
bypassing all cultural and geographical barriers, and the emotional
response that the building found in many hearts surpassed the dry
statistical assessment of the structure.
The most enduring myth
regarding the Taj Mahal says that Shah Jahan planned to build another
mausoleum, this time from black marble, just opposite the Taj Mahal,
across the river. This myth comes from the somewhat fantastic writings
of Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, a European traveler who visited Agra in
1665. It has been suggested that Shah Jahan did not have time to build a
black marble mausoleum because he was overthrown by his son, Aurangzeb.
The black marble ruins on the opposite side of the river in the Garden
of the Moon seemed to reinforce this legend. However, excavations in the
1990s revealed that the "black marble" stones were actually blackened
white marble. A more solid base for the source of the myth about the
black mausoleum was laid by archaeologists in 2006, when they
reconstructed part of the pond in the Lunar Garden. It was found that
the black reflection of the Taj Mahal in the water of the pond is
clearly visible, which once again confirmed Shah Jahan's obsession with
symmetry and justified the location of the pond itself.
There is
no evidence to support the legend, often told in gory detail, that many
of the architects and craftsmen involved in the construction were
brutally murdered and dismembered by Shah Jahan's orders. There are
stories that many builders signed a special agreement under which they
pledged never to build anything like the Taj Mahal. Similar fables exist
regarding many well-known structures.
There is also no evidence
that Lord William Bentinck, Governor General of India in the 1830s,
planned to destroy the Taj Mahal and auction off its marble. Bentinck's
biographer John Rosselli says that the story originated from an actual
case of Bentinck's sale of marble from the structures of the Agra Fort.
Since the 1980s, the theory of the Indian historian Purushottam
Nagesh Oak, according to which the Taj Mahal was mainly built before
Shah Jahan, has gained some popularity. Oak gives 1155 as the date of
construction, and Salakshan, the first minister of Raja Parmar Dev, as
the builder. According to this theory, initially the complex or part of
it functioned as a temple of Shiva, and Shah Jahan only adapted it to
his needs, making minor changes. Nevertheless, academic historians
consider Oak's theory to be insufficiently substantiated. In the 2000s,
Indian courts considered and rejected a number of lawsuits demanding
archaeological research in the basement of the complex and recognition
of it as a Hindu temple. Other theories about the identity of the
architect attribute the honor of creating the mausoleum to Europeans.
Thus, the 17th-century Portuguese Augustinian monk Fra Sebastien
Manrique (port. Sebastien Manrique) attributed the honor of creating the
Taj Mahal to the Venetian jeweler Geronimo Veroneo. This theory gained
popularity at the end of the 19th century after it was mentioned in his
Guide to Agra by the British historian G. J. Keane. Another European who
was considered for some time as a possible author of the Taj Mahal was
the French jeweler Austen (or Augustin) from Bordeaux. His work at Shah
Jahan (without connection with the Taj Mahal) is mentioned by a
contemporary of the construction, Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, and the
builder of the mausoleum (as well as the palaces of Agra and Delhi)
named him in 1844 by Briton William Slimane.