A Taj Mahal Sunday
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"In the distance and in the smog we can now see a familiar but faint silhouette, white against white. This is the Taj Mahal"
It is early on Sunday morning in New Delhi, the plan is to drive south to visit Agra and the Taj Mahal. The drive should take about four hours, so there is time to do the round trip in a day.
This is one of an occasional story about some of India’s most significant buildings as we place these buildings in their geographic or social context. India has many great buildings and here isa chance to explore at least some of them.
It is early on Sunday morning in New Delhi, the plan is to drive south to visit Agra and the Taj Mahal. The drive should take about four hours, so there is time to do the round trip in a day. The usually strangling traffic of Delhi seems strangely missing so early on Sunday morning. We make good progress, soon we are heading out of the city. The city behind us we cross the border out of Haryana and enter Uttar Pradesh.
We are on the National Highway now with its toll booths and resulting traffic jams.
On each side of the highway the farmland stretches away to the horizon. Scattered through this landscape is a forest of brick kiln chimneys, each with its long tail of black smoke. The usual Indian smog now turns into something far more problematic.
It is now impossible to see more than a few metres. Each car and lorry has it lights flashing, we all move forward in the murk, it is just possible to make out the faint flashing lights of the vehicle ahead. This is India and the cars are closely packed together but happily slower now. One car races by, engine roaring, in a mad rush towards death. We hope no one is stupid enough to hit us from behind.
After an hour or so we emerge from the smog, first we can see a few metres of the road ahead, then at last the landscape opens up again to view.
Dangers behind us, we make Agra as planned. We have travelled about 200 kilometres.
We drive along the Yamuna River, Agra, once the capital of Hindustan, is built on its banks. In the distance and in the smog we can now see a familiar but faint silhouette, white against white. This is the Taj Mahal.
Agra has a number of world famous buildings, important enough to be World Heritage listed. The Taj Mahal is the most famous of these and for good reason. This is a masterpiece of Mughal architecture.
The Taj Mahal was built from love and from sadness, the reasons that this is such a beautiful building, by the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan in memory and as a tomb for his second wife Mumtaz Mahal. The Empress had died after the birth of a daughter.
Construction commenced in 1631 and was completed over the next 17 years.
The Taj Mahal building is an octagonal with a dome (Taj) with four minarets which stand at the four corners of the main building’s raised platform. The Taj Mahal is set within a garden which is enclosed by walls and gateways. Other buildings also occupy the site. These include a Mosque and a guesthouse.
Inside the Taj Mahal and under the dome is the cenotaph of Mumtaz Mahal.
Serendipity, the Taj Mahal was designed and built so precisely and exquisitely because many skilled artisans, builders, sculptors, craftsmen of various types, calligraphers, engineers and architects had been trained during this period and had gained experience from other projects of significance. The Emperor Shah Jahan also understood art and architecture extremely well and his passion for his now dead wife in conjunction with a highly skilled workforce created the circumstances that meant the Taj Mahal could be built.
The Emperor was obsessed with perfection and the symmetry he had discovered as he viewed other great buildings of his empire.
The Taj Mahal embodies and extends the design traditions of the region, particularly Persian, Islamic, Hindu and Mughal architecture. Buildings that influenced the design of the Taj Mahal include Itmad-Ud-Daulah’s Tomb (Agra) and Humayun’s Tomb (Delhi).
Instead of constructing the building from red sandstone, which was commonly the practice, the Taj Mahal was built from white marble which was inlaid with semi-precious stones. In a display of luminosity the white marble of the Taj Mahal reflects the sunlight at different times of day, an every changing display of shade and colour. At night the moon also dances on its white marble surface. This play with light and marble is one reason why this is such a beautiful building.
Many thousands of builders and other craftsmen were needed to construct the buildings. The construction of the main building was highly complex, particularly given the huge slabs and weight of the marble used in its construction.
Blocks of marble weighing more than a ton had to be carried up the dome without damaging any of the marble already in place in the building. This was done by constructing a spiral roadway from wood riding up around the mausoleum on which the heavy marble could be delivered by donkeys and mules, camels and elephants were also used in the buildings construction.
This roadway was an engineering feat requiring 500 carpenters and 300 blacksmiths to build it.
The inner structure of the Taj Mahal is built from brick. The ornamentation of the Taj Mahal is composed of calligraphy, abstract geometric designs and floral motifs.
The court historian Muhammad Salih Kambo described the Taj Mahal’s ornamentation:
“In all the mausoleum, both inside and out, skillful engravers have employed fine art, and a variety of coloured stones and valuable gems, the delineation of whose property and praise cannot be comprehended in the sea of language”.
The sarcophagi of the Empress and Emperor lay within a screen of marble in the middle the Cenotaph chamber.
Legend has it that Shah Jahan wanted his own tomb constructed from black marble, the ‘black Taj Mahal’ was to be built on the opposite bank of the Yamuna River.
As for Shah Jahan, Aurangzeb, the Emperor’s third son, declared his father incompetent to rule and placed him under house arrest in Agra Fort. He died after eight years of confinement and was interred with Mumtaz Mahal in the Taj Mahal.
After an inspiring day we start the journey back to Delhi, eventually we leave the traffic jams of Agra behind, on the open road the smog remains but is only a faint memory of the morning's choking and polluted air.
The Taj Mahal has left its legacy, today the regions stonemasons still retain the skills and craftsmanship of the past and continue to supply intricate inlaid stonework for buildings around the world.
This is one of an occasional story about some of India’s most significant buildings as we place these buildings in their geographic or social context. India has many great buildings and here isa chance to explore at least some of them.
It is early on Sunday morning in New Delhi, the plan is to drive south to visit Agra and the Taj Mahal. The drive should take about four hours, so there is time to do the round trip in a day. The usually strangling traffic of Delhi seems strangely missing so early on Sunday morning. We make good progress, soon we are heading out of the city. The city behind us we cross the border out of Haryana and enter Uttar Pradesh.
We are on the National Highway now with its toll booths and resulting traffic jams.
On each side of the highway the farmland stretches away to the horizon. Scattered through this landscape is a forest of brick kiln chimneys, each with its long tail of black smoke. The usual Indian smog now turns into something far more problematic.
It is now impossible to see more than a few metres. Each car and lorry has it lights flashing, we all move forward in the murk, it is just possible to make out the faint flashing lights of the vehicle ahead. This is India and the cars are closely packed together but happily slower now. One car races by, engine roaring, in a mad rush towards death. We hope no one is stupid enough to hit us from behind.
After an hour or so we emerge from the smog, first we can see a few metres of the road ahead, then at last the landscape opens up again to view.
Dangers behind us, we make Agra as planned. We have travelled about 200 kilometres.
We drive along the Yamuna River, Agra, once the capital of Hindustan, is built on its banks. In the distance and in the smog we can now see a familiar but faint silhouette, white against white. This is the Taj Mahal.
Agra has a number of world famous buildings, important enough to be World Heritage listed. The Taj Mahal is the most famous of these and for good reason. This is a masterpiece of Mughal architecture.
The Taj Mahal was built from love and from sadness, the reasons that this is such a beautiful building, by the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan in memory and as a tomb for his second wife Mumtaz Mahal. The Empress had died after the birth of a daughter.
Construction commenced in 1631 and was completed over the next 17 years.
The Taj Mahal building is an octagonal with a dome (Taj) with four minarets which stand at the four corners of the main building’s raised platform. The Taj Mahal is set within a garden which is enclosed by walls and gateways. Other buildings also occupy the site. These include a Mosque and a guesthouse.
Inside the Taj Mahal and under the dome is the cenotaph of Mumtaz Mahal.
Serendipity, the Taj Mahal was designed and built so precisely and exquisitely because many skilled artisans, builders, sculptors, craftsmen of various types, calligraphers, engineers and architects had been trained during this period and had gained experience from other projects of significance. The Emperor Shah Jahan also understood art and architecture extremely well and his passion for his now dead wife in conjunction with a highly skilled workforce created the circumstances that meant the Taj Mahal could be built.
The Emperor was obsessed with perfection and the symmetry he had discovered as he viewed other great buildings of his empire.
The Taj Mahal embodies and extends the design traditions of the region, particularly Persian, Islamic, Hindu and Mughal architecture. Buildings that influenced the design of the Taj Mahal include Itmad-Ud-Daulah’s Tomb (Agra) and Humayun’s Tomb (Delhi).
Instead of constructing the building from red sandstone, which was commonly the practice, the Taj Mahal was built from white marble which was inlaid with semi-precious stones. In a display of luminosity the white marble of the Taj Mahal reflects the sunlight at different times of day, an every changing display of shade and colour. At night the moon also dances on its white marble surface. This play with light and marble is one reason why this is such a beautiful building.
Many thousands of builders and other craftsmen were needed to construct the buildings. The construction of the main building was highly complex, particularly given the huge slabs and weight of the marble used in its construction.
Blocks of marble weighing more than a ton had to be carried up the dome without damaging any of the marble already in place in the building. This was done by constructing a spiral roadway from wood riding up around the mausoleum on which the heavy marble could be delivered by donkeys and mules, camels and elephants were also used in the buildings construction.
This roadway was an engineering feat requiring 500 carpenters and 300 blacksmiths to build it.
The inner structure of the Taj Mahal is built from brick. The ornamentation of the Taj Mahal is composed of calligraphy, abstract geometric designs and floral motifs.
The court historian Muhammad Salih Kambo described the Taj Mahal’s ornamentation:
“In all the mausoleum, both inside and out, skillful engravers have employed fine art, and a variety of coloured stones and valuable gems, the delineation of whose property and praise cannot be comprehended in the sea of language”.
The sarcophagi of the Empress and Emperor lay within a screen of marble in the middle the Cenotaph chamber.
Legend has it that Shah Jahan wanted his own tomb constructed from black marble, the ‘black Taj Mahal’ was to be built on the opposite bank of the Yamuna River.
As for Shah Jahan, Aurangzeb, the Emperor’s third son, declared his father incompetent to rule and placed him under house arrest in Agra Fort. He died after eight years of confinement and was interred with Mumtaz Mahal in the Taj Mahal.
After an inspiring day we start the journey back to Delhi, eventually we leave the traffic jams of Agra behind, on the open road the smog remains but is only a faint memory of the morning's choking and polluted air.
The Taj Mahal has left its legacy, today the regions stonemasons still retain the skills and craftsmanship of the past and continue to supply intricate inlaid stonework for buildings around the world.
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