Taj Mahal

Taj Mahal~One Of The New 7 Wonders Of The WorldThe Taj Mahal (Devanagari: ताज महल, Nastaliq: تاج محل) is a mausoleum located in Agra, India. The Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan commissioned it as a mausoleum for his favorite wife, Mumtaz Mahal. Construction began in 1632 and was completed in approximately 1648. Some dispute surrounds the question of who designed the Taj Mahal; it is clear a team of designers and craftsmen were responsible for the design, with Ustad Ahmad Lahauri considered the most likely candidate as the principal designer.

The Taj Mahal (sometimes referred to as the "Taj") is generally considered to be the best example of Mughal architecture, a style that combines elements of Persian, Turkish, Indian and Islamic architectural styles. While the arched white marble mausoleum is the most famous part of the monument, the Taj Mahal is actually an integrated complex of structures. In 1983 the Taj World Heritage list of UNESCO and was called a "jewel of Muslim art in India and one of the world admired masterpieces of the world's heritage."

Origin and inspiration

In 1631 Shah Jahan, emperor during the Mughal's period of greatest prosperity, was griefstricken when his third wife, Mumtaz Mahal, died during the birth of their daughter Gauhara Begum, their fourteenth child. Contemporary court chronicles concerning Shah Jahan's grief form the basis of the love story traditionally held as the inspiration for the Taj Mahal.

Construction of the Taj Mahal was begun soon after Mumtaz's death. The principal mausoleum was completed in 1648, and the surrounding buildings and garden were finished five years later. Visiting Agra in 1663, the French traveller François Bernier wrote the following:

I shall finish this letter with a description of the two wonderful mausoleums which constitute the chief superiority of Agra over Delhi. One was erected by Jehan-guyre [sic] in honor of his father Ekbar; and Chah-Jehan raised the other to the memory of his wife Tage Mehale, that extraordinary and celebrated beauty, of whom her husband was so enamoured it is said that he was constant to her during life, and at her death was so affected as nearly to follow her to the grave.

Influences

The Taj Mahal incorporates and expands on many design traditions, particularly Persian and earlier Mughal architecture. Specific inspiration came from a number of successful Timurid and Mughal buildings. These include the Gur-e Amir (the tomb of Timur, progenitor of the Mughal dynasty, in Samarkand), Humayun's Tomb, Itmad-Ud-Daulah's Tomb (sometimes called the Baby Taj), and Shah Jahan's own Jama Masjid in Delhi. Under his patronage, Mughal building reached new levels of refinement. While previous Mughal building had primarily been constructed of red sandstone, Shah Jahan promoted the use of white marble inlaid with semi-precious stones.

The garden
The complex is set in and around a large charbagh (a formal Mughal garden divided into four parts). Measuring 300 meters × 300 meters, the garden uses raised pathways which divide each quarter of the garden into 16 sunken parterres or flowerbeds. A raised marble water tank at the center of the garden, halfway between the tomb and the gateway, and a linear reflecting pool on the North-South axis reflect the Taj Mahal. Elsewhere the garden is laid out with avenues of trees and fountains.

The charbagh garden is meant to symbolize the four flowing Rivers of Paradise. The raised marble water tank is called al Hawd al-Kawthar, literally meaning and named after the "Tank of Abundance" promised to Muhammad.

The charbagh garden was introduced to India by the first Mughal emperor Babur, a design inspired by Persian gardens. The charbagh is meant to reflect the gardens of Paradise (from the Persian paridaeza — a walled garden). In mystic Islamic texts of the Mughal period, paradise is described as an ideal garden, filled with abundance. Water plays a key role in these descriptions: In Paradise, these text say, four rivers source at a central spring or mountain, and separate the garden into north, west, south and east.

Most Mughal charbaghs are rectangular in shape, with a burial or pavilion in the middle of the garden. The Taj Mahal garden is unusual that the most important element, the tomb is situated at the end rather than in the middle of the garden. But the existence of the newly discovered Mahtab Bagh or "Moonlight Garden" on the other side of the Yamuna offers a different interpretation - the Yamuna itself was in the garden design, and was seen as one of the rivers of Paradise.

The layout of the garden, and its architectural features such as its fountains, brick and marble walkways, and geometric brick-lined flowerbeds are similar to Shalimar's, and suggest that the garden may have been designed by the same engineer, Ali Mardan.

Early accounts of the garden describe its profusion of vegetation, including roses, daffodils, and fruit trees in abundance. As the Mughal Empire declined, the tending of the garden declined as well. When the British took over management of the Taj Mahal, they changed the landscaping to resemble the formal lawns of London.

Outlying buildings
The Taj Mahal complex is limited by a crenellated wall of red sandstone on three sides. The river-facing side is unwalled. Outside the wall are several additional mausoleums, including those of Shah Jahan many other women, and greater tomb for Mumtaz's favorite servant. These structures, which are primarily made of red sandstone, which are typical for smaller tombs of the Mughal era.

On the inner side (garden), the wall surface is through the columned hall arcades, a typical feature of Hindu temple later in Mughal mosques. The wall is permeated with domed kiosks (chattris), and small buildings were the ads or watchtowers, such as the so-called House Music, now as a museum.

The main gateway (darwaza) is a monumental structure built primarily of marble. The style is reminiscent of that of Mughal architecture of earlier emperors. Its archways mirror the shape of the tomb's archways, and its pishtaq arches incorporate the calligraphy that decorates the tomb. It utilises bas-relief and pietra dura (inlaid) decorations with floral motifs. The vaulted ceilings and walls have elaborate geometric designs, like those found in the other sandstone buildings of the complex.

At the far end of the complex, two grand red sandstone buildings open to the sides of the tomb. Their backs parallel the western and eastern walls.

The two buildings are precise mirror images of each other. The western building is a mosque; its opposite is the jawab (answer) whose primary purpose was architectural balance (and which may have been used as a guesthouse during Mughal times). The distinctions are that the jawab lacks a mihrab, a niche in a mosque's wall facing Mecca, and the floors of the jawab have a geometric design, while the mosque floor was laid out with the outlines of 569 prayer rugs in black marble.

The mosque's basic design is similar to others built by Shah Jahan, particularly to his Masjid-i-Jahan Numa, or Jama Masjid of Delhi — a long hall surmounted by three domes. Mughal mosques of this period divide the sanctuary hall into three areas: a main sanctuary with slightly smaller sanctuaries to either side. At the Taj Mahal, each sanctuary opens onto an enormous vaulting dome.

The outlying buildings were completed in 1643.

Construction

The Taj Mahal was built on a parcel of land to the south of the walled city of Agra which had belonged to Maharajah Jai Singh: Shah Jahan presented him with a large palace in the centre of Agra in exchange. Construction began with setting the foundations for the tomb. An area of roughly three acres was excavated and filled with dirt to reduce seepage from the river. The entire site was leveled to a fixed height about 50 meters above the riverbank. The Taj Mahal is 55 meters tall. The dome itself measures 18 meters in diameter and 24 meters high.

In the tomb area, wells were then dug to the point that water was encountered. These wells were later filled with stone and rubble, forming the basis for the footings of the tomb. [An additional well was built to same depth nearby to provide a visual method to track water level changes over time.]

Instead of lashed bamboo, the typical scaffolding method, workmen constructed a colossal brick scaffold that mirrored the inner and outer surfaces of the tomb. The scaffold was so enormous that foremen estimated it would take years to dismantle. According to legend, Shah Jahan decreed that anyone could keep bricks taken from the scaffold, and it was dismantled by peasants overnight.

A fifteen-kilometer tamped-earth ramp was built to transport marble and materials to the construction site. According to contemporary accounts teams of twenty or thirty oxen strained to pull the blocks on specially constructed wagons.

To raise the blocks into position required an elaborate post-and-beam pulley system. Teams of mules and oxen provided the lifting power.

The order of construction was

* The plinth
* The tomb
* The four minarets
* The mosque and jawab
* The gateway

The plinth and tomb took roughly 12 years to complete. The remaining parts of the complex took an additional 10 years. (Since the complex was built in stages, contemporary historical accounts list different "completion dates"; discrepancies between so-called completion dates are probably the result of differing opinions about the definition of "completion". For example, the mausoleum itself was essentially complete by 1643, but work continued on the rest of the complex.)

Water infrastructure

Water for the Taj Mahal was provided through a complex infrastructure. Water was drawn from the river by a series of purs -- an animal-powered rope and bucket mechanism. The water flowed into a large storage tank, where, by thirteen additional purs, it was raised to large distribution tank above the Taj Mahal ground level.

From this distribution tank, water passed into three subsidiary tanks, from which it was piped to the complex. A 0.25 meter earthenware pipe lies about 1.5 meters below the surface, in line with the main walkway; this filled the main pools of the complex. Additional copper pipes supplied the fountains in the north-south canal. Subsidiary channels were dug to irrigate the entire garden.

The fountain pipes were not connected directly to the feed pipes. Instead, a copper pot was provided under each fountain pipe: water filled the pots allowing equal pressure in each fountain.

The purs no longer remain, but the other parts of the infrastructure have survived.

Craftsmen

The Taj Mahal was not designed by a single person. The project demanded talent from many people.

The names of many of the builders who participated in the construction of the Taj Mahal in different capacities have come down through various sources.

* The Persian or Turkish architect, Ustad Isa and Isa Muhammad Effendi, trained by the Ottoman architect Koca Mimar Sinan Agha are frequently credited with a key role in the architectural design of the complex, but in fact there is little evidence to support this tradition.

* 'Puru' from Benarus, Persia (Iran), has been mentioned as a supervising architect in Persian language texts (e.g. see ISBN 964-7483-39-2).

* The main dome was designed by Ismail Khan from the Ottoman Empire,[18] considered to be the premier designer of hemispheres and builder of domes of that age.

* Qazim Khan, a native of Lahore, cast the solid gold finial that crowned the Turkish master's dome.

* Chiranjilal, a lapidary from Delhi, was chosen as the chief sculptor and mosaicist.

* Amanat Khan from Persian Shiraz, Iran was the chief calligrapher (this fact is attested on the Taj Mahal gateway itself, where his name has been inscribed at the end of the inscription).

* Muhammad Hanif was the supervisor of masons.

* Mir Abdul Karim and Mukkarimat Khan of Shiraz, Iran handled finances and the management of daily production.

The creative team included sculptors from Bukhara, calligraphers from Syria and Persia, inlayers from southern India, stonecutters from Baluchistan, a specialist in building turrets, another who carved only marble flowers — thirty-seven men in all formed the creative nucleus. To this core was added a labour force of twenty thousand workers recruited from across northern India.

Particularly during the British Raj, some commentators suggested that the Taj Mahal was the work of European artisans. As early as 1640, a Spanish friar who visited Agra wrote that Geronimo Veroneo, an Italian adventurer in Shah Jahan's court, was primarily responsible for the design. There is no reliable evidence to back up such assertions. E.B. Havell, the principal British scholar of Indian art in the later Raj, dismissed this theory as inconsistent with the methods employed by the designers. His conclusions were further supported by the research of Muhammad Abdullah Chaghtai, who concluded that some of these theories may have been based on the misapprehension that "Ustad Isa", so often credited with the Taj's design, must have been a Christian because he bore the name "Isa" (Jesus). In fact this is a common Muslim name as well. Furthermore there is no source earlier than the 19th century which mentions an "Ustad Isa" in connection with the Taj Mahal . Chaghtai thought it more likely that the chief architect was Ustad Ahmad, the designer of Shahjahanabad, but admitted that this could not be conclusively proved from existing sources.

Materials

The Taj Mahal was constructed using materials from all over India and Asia. Over 1,000 elephants were used to transport building materials during the construction. The translucent white marble was brought from Rajasthan, the jasper from Punjab, jade and crystal from China. The turquoise was from Tibet and the Lapis lazuli from Afghanistan, while the sapphire came from Sri Lanka and the carnelian from Arabia. In all, twenty eight types of precious and semi-precious stones were inlaid into the white marble.

Costs

Estimates of the cost of the construction of the Taj Mahal vary due to the difficulties of estimating construction costs across time. The total cost of the Taj Mahal's construction has been estimated to be about 32 million rupees. However, when considering the labor costs and the time period that it took, and the difference in economic eras, it is, to many, considered priceless.

History

Soon after the Taj Mahal's completion, Shah Jahan was deposed and put under house arrest at nearby Agra Fort by his son Aurangzeb. Legend has it that he spent the remainder of his days gazing through the window at the Taj Mahal. Upon Shah Jahan's death, Aurangzeb buried him in the Taj Mahal next to his wife, the only disruption of the otherwise perfect symmetry in the architecture. By the late 19th century parts of the Taj Mahal had fallen badly into disrepair. During the time of the Indian rebellion of 1857 the Taj Mahal faced defacement by British soldiers and government officials who chiseled out precious stones and lapis lazuli from its walls.

At the end of the 19th Century British viceroy Lord Curzon ordered a massive restoration project in the year 1908. He also has the great lamp in the interior chamber (modelled on a hanging in a mosque in Cairo, where local artisans not sufficient taste patterns). It was during this time, the garden was redesigned, with the British search lawns today.

Until 20 Century was the Taj Mahal, take better account. In 1942 the government built on a scaffolding in the expectation that an air attack by the German air force and later by the Japanese Air Force. During the India-Pakistan wars of 1965 and 1971 were scaffolding erected by the government to deceive would-be bomber pilots.

Its most recent threats came from environmental pollution on the banks of the Yamuna River including acid rain occurring due to the Mathura oil refinery (something opposed by Supreme Court of India directives).

In 1983 the Taj Mahal was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Tourism

Since its construction the Taj Mahal has attracted numerous visitors. Indeed the small town to the South of the Taj known as the Taj Ganji or Mumtazabad was originally constructed with purpose built caravanserais, bazaars and markets to serve the needs of visitors and workmen.

Today, the Taj Mahal attracts 2 to 3 million visitors every year of whom 200,000 come from overseas, making it the most popular tourist attraction in India. Most tourists visit during the cooler months of October, November and February. Polluting traffic is not allowed near the complex and tourist must either walk from the carparks or catch an electric bus. The Khawasspuras are currently being restored for use as a new visitors centre.

Lists of recommended travel destinations often feature the Taj Mahal, which also appears in several listings of seven wonders of the modern world -- including the recently announced New Seven Wonders of the World, a controversial poll which claimed to record a 100 million votes.

Some video from Metacafe about Taj Mahal :



Taj Mahal from Space


Taj Mahal, India
Taj Mahal segment from "The Intrepid Berkeley Explorer Passes Through India and Nepal". To enjoy all of this film, plus over 30 more free, non-commercial, streaming trav... More»el videos from every continent, plus still pictures, please click on the IntrepBerkExplorer link below, and then on the direct link to my geocities Video Page that follows; or ask a search engine for: Intrepid Berkeley Explorer.


Taj Mahal - No 1
Taj Mahal, Number One in the world. We proud. Afterall love always win and being No. 1.


Beautiful World Wonder Taj Mahal, Agra, India
The Taj Mahal is a mausoleum located in Agra, India. The Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan commissioned it as a mausoleum for his favourite wife, Mumtaz Mahal. Construction began... More» in 1632 and was completed in 1648. Some dispute surrounds the question of who designed the Taj.