A Monument of Love & Despair

You cannot visit India without visiting the Taj Mahal. It is India’s main legacy to world cultural heritage, like Angkor Wat is to Cambodia and Borobodur to Indonesia. Each year millions of local and foreign tourists visit the Taj Mahal, shining like a crown jewel among India’s thousands of architectural marvels.

Thus our group of artists from ASEAN made the early morning (6 a.m.) trip to Agra, three hours away from New Delhi. The town of Agra is unpretentious, almost nonchalant about the priceless, matchless treasure it cradles. Security approaching the monument is tight; tourist buses are parked at a distance and visitors transported to the site by shuttle vans that appear like they might not even make the short trip in one piece.

At the site itself security is even tighter. All bags must be left behind; even cellphones are prohibited. We were told that visitor hours have been shortened to further minimize risk. Thus it is now impossible for visitors to experience the many moods of the Taj Mahal: milky white at dawn, it is said, gold at noon, rosy pink at dusk and a shimmering silver on moonlit nights. Such visions now have to be seen only in poetry.

Very few people are aware that the tale behind the construction of the Taj Mahal is as colorful and as romantic as the monument’s architecture and decoration. The story begins when the Mughal Empire took control of most of India, at about the same time that the Spanish colonizers began building settlements in the Philippines. Founded by Sultan Zahirrudin Mohammad Babur in 1526, the empire flourished during the reign of his grandson Akbar from 1556 to 1605.

The Mughal Empire is noted for its predilection to cultural sophistication, with most of its rulers indulging in or patronizing literature, painting, dance, music and architecture. Soon after Akbar came to power, he built the impregnable Agra Fort from 1565 to 1561 as his citadel. The fort was situated near the center of the township of Agra along the Yamuna River. During his reign and that of his son Jahangir, around 500 palaces that reflected the architectural splendor of the era were said to have been built within the fort.

This propensity for grandeur together with a history of intrigue and drama fit for a telenovela set the stage for the construction of the Taj Mahal. Jahangir, who took over the reign of the Mughal dynasty when his father Akbar died in 1605, bore four sons from his first wife. His second wife Nur Jahan, who bore him no children, was a strong and ambitious woman who practically ruled the kingdom on his behalf. She arranged the marriage of her daughter from her first husband to Jahangir’s youngest son, hoping that by doing so, she would retain control of the empire.

To consolidate her power, she orchestrated the marriage of Prince Khurram, the second son of Jahangir, to the daughter of her brother Asaf Khan. However, upon the death of Jahangir in 1628, Asaf Khan moved swiftly to plot his son-in-law’s ascension to the throne. Outwitting his sister Nur Jahan, he conspired with his son-in-law and eliminated the other rival princes in one of the bloodiest successions in Indian history. The son-in-law was crowned as Shah Jahan (Emperor of the World). He was the builder of the Taj Mahal.

Shah Jahan was madly in love with his wife who was said to possess aristocratic features and, as the court poets then described, "her heavenly beauty was so perfect that the moon hid its face in shame". She was also sensitive, artistic and as well read as her aunt but, unlike her, was more compassionate and humane. She was crowned Mumtaz Mahal, the "chosen one of the palace".

Mumtaz Mahal bore Shah Jahan 14 children in their 19 years of marriage. It was said the she never left his side and even accompanied him in battles. In one of these battles, the emperor was reluctant to bring her because the journey was long and she was pregnant with their 14th child. Adamant to be with him as she had always done, the empress had her way.

In June 1631, while Shah Jahan was out in the battlefield and Mumtaz Mahal waited in the army camp, she heard the child crying in her womb. It was supposed to be a bad omen that foretold of death. The next day she gave birth to a healthy baby girl but was greatly weakened by the labor and delivery. The news was immediately sent to the emperor who rushed back to the camp. As he gazed into her fading eyes, she whispered her dying wish that he take good care of their children.

Shah Jahan’s grief was insurmountable. He did not eat or drink for a week and locked himself inside his room. He ordered a two-year mourning period for the entire kingdom. It was said that a woman who died in childbirth was considered a shaheed (martyr) and her tomb an urs (place of pilgrimage). On the first death anniversary of his wife in 1632, he started planning the construction of the Taj Mahal, as a tomb for Mumtaz Mahal. For the next 22 years, the emperor had only one obsession–to finish construction of the Taj Mahal as an eternal memorial for his beloved. The mausoleum was finally completed in 1648 and the adjoining forecourt and its ancillaries took another five years to finish. Altogether, the Shah employed around 20,000 laborers, engineers and craftsmen from all over the world.

Shah Jahan’s love and devotion to his departed wife are evident all over the monument, now considered one of the greatest wonders of the world. The Taj complex includes a forecourt, a majestic entrance in red sandstone, a charming Mughal garden with canals and a central pool with fountains, the tomb proper and an adjacent mosque on the left with a symmetrical counterpart on the right. Behind the Taj flows the Yamuna River which was diverted from its original course to provide a better visual panorama.

The main structure is often called "a dream in marble" and represents the culmination of the arts of architecture and decoration for which the Mughal empire is famous. The Taj Mahal is noted for its perfect symmetry and proportions, and its rich pietra dura (inlay work on marble). The balance of the structures within the complex, including the gardens, canals and minarets, provides the base from which the onion-shaped dome rises to the sky.

Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of the monument is its pietra dura. On the walls of the structures within the Taj complex are inscriptions in black marble of every alphabet from 19 of the 30 chapters of the Koran. And like delicate embroidery on silk fabric, thousands of blooms (mostly lilies and tulips) and vines made of semi-precious stones are delicately inlaid on the marble walls and ceilings. The visual effect is dizzying, simply breath-taking.

It is said that the walls were originally embellished with diamonds from Golconda, quartz from the Himalayas, turquoise from Tibet, cornelian from Baghdad, jade and crystal from China, coral from the Red Sea, lapiz lazuli from Sri Lanka, and malachite from Russia. All in all, 43 varieties of precious and semi-precious stones were used. So smooth was the workmanship that when finished, a needlepoint passed over the marble found no gaps between the inlay and the marble.

The Shah chose white marble from Makrana in Rajasthan for its fine quality and character. Like a chameleon, the marble structure changes moods with each time of the day. At dawn, it evokes a soft, milky whiteness which transforms into a golden jewel with the noontime sun. At dusk, it metamorphoses into an enchanting pale rose and on a moonlit night, gleams like a gray pearl. It is as if the monument is alive, and continues to breathe life on the undying love of the Shah for his wife, both of whom are buried in the basement beneath the central dome.

But the tragic tale does not end with the completion of the monument. Stories have it that the emperor had intended to build another mausoleum in black marble for himself behind the Taj Mahal across the Yamuna River. But before he could do that, one of his sons, Aurangzeb, fought a bloody war of succession with his brothers while their father was still alive. After killing all of his remaining brothers, he seized the throne and imprisoned his father in an octagonal room in one of the palaces in the Agra Fort. After seven years of gazing at the reflection of the Taj Mahal on a small piece of glass in this room, Shah Jahan died without realizing this dream.

Through three and a half centuries, the story of an emperor’s love for his wife is told and retold because of this singular jewel, one of the world’s best-preserved monuments. Kings and queens, presidents and prime ministers, the famous and the anonymous, rich and poor, peasant and aristocrat have paid homage to that love when they visit the Taj Mahal. And millions more continue to do so, awed by what one man, in the throes of despair, did for love.