No structural feature marks India in bold on the world map as much as the Taj Mahal. I had a chance to witness first hand the awe that surrounds a person who sees it for the first time. Also, it gave me a chance to learn more about the history of the spectacle. Although there are theories about it being an ancient Hindu temple, but I have no choice but to believe what was written in my school history books, which says that this marvel was created by Shah Jahan in 1652. This supposedly is the reason for having 16 gardens and 52 fountains in the area surrounding the Taj. So, this visionary called Shah Jahan built this spectacle in loving memory of his wife, the wife whom he loved so much that they had 14 kids together...and that too in a span of 19 years. Not surprisingly, the cause of death of Mumtaz was reported as child birth. He had promised his wife at the time of death that he will not marry again, and that he will build something in her rememberance. Even Mumtaz wouldn't have imagined what the world was about to see!
It took a whopping four crore rupees ( I dont know if the currency at that time was rupee, but this is the quoted figure) to build the Taj, which must be hell lot of money considering the inflation ;-). Architects were hired from Turkey and 20,000 labourers worked for 22 years to build it. Shah Jahan wanted to build a Black Taj Mahal for himself on the other side of Yamuna river, but was stopped by his son Aurangzeb...people wouldnt like it if Manmohan Singh decides to erect a building for himself by Govt money tomorrow....such was the case there too!
The feature that struk me most about the Taj was its symmetry. It looks exactly the same from all sides, to such an amazing precision that I am reasonably sure that you'll need a least-count of millimeters to find any irregularity. If I draw a straight line from the center of Mumtaz's grave, it will pass exactly through the center of Taj's gate, the entrance gate and the outermost gate of the compound too! On the gates of the Taj, the holy Quran is written...and its not inscribed there or painted ...black, green and red color stones have been embedded in white marble to write the whole Quran. The words on the bottom are written smaller in size compared to the ones on the top, in a proportion that everything appears the same size when read from the ground.
Although it is said that the whiteness of the marble has faded over the years because of pollution and ageing, it still looks as graceful to me as in any of its pics. In a moonlit sky, it shines, and it shines bright...so much so that the Indian Govt decided to cover it up in a Black cloth during the 1971 war to avoid damage by Paki aircrafts ( which were quite ineffective anyway)
I was struck by the beauty of Taj more than anything I have seen till date. There was a poll recently about naming the seven wonders of the world. I am pretty sure that there is no competition to great wall of China and Taj Mahal there....when Govinda can feature in top ten for stars of the millenium...I think, Indians and Chinese can beat anyone when it comes to polls. However, I believe for any class of judges, it will be right there at the top...Taj may not be visible from outer-space, but when seen from the earth, it doesn't get much better than this!
