Place of another
Taj Mahal in black marble
It's
Reality
The
Story of a Second Taj
The legend has it,
that Shah Jehan decided to construct another Taj Mahal in black marble
on the other side
of the river Yamuna and to connect the two by a bridge. This structure
was
intended to be his
own tomb. It has been recorded by Tavernier : "Shah Jehan began to
build his own tomb on
the other side of
the river but the war with his sons interrupted
his plan and Aurangzeb
who reigns at present is not disposed to complete it". Later gazetteers
and
guide books mention
this story almost invariably. The irregular position of the cenotaph of
Shah
Jehan as compared
to that of Mumtaz Mahal which occupies the exact centre of the hall is
enough proof into itself..
The Mehtab Burj
and the wall adjoining it opposite the Taj Mahal are
generally said to
be the grim remains of the proposed plan.
Many scholars, however,
believe that this idea belongs to fiction rather than history. The traces
which are identified
as the foundations of the second Taj are actually the enclosing wall of
a garden
founded by Baber.
The irregular position of Shah Jehan's cenotaph in comparison to Mumtaz
Mahal's, is similar
to that at the tomb of Itmad-ud-Daulah, and thus should not be of any striking
significance. Besides,
according to Islamic law, bodies are buried with their faces towards Mecca
and legs towards
the south, and the husband is placed on the right hand side of his wife.
The
interpretation that
the cenotaph of Shah Jehan was not meant to be placed here appears to be
superfluous.
Till today it is
not known who really designed Taj, but as the rumours say it may
have been designed
by an Italian Architect.
Some European scholars
held the view that the Taj was designed by an Italian - Geronimo Veroneo.
This was first suggested
by Father Manrique, an Augustinian Friar, who came to Agra in 1640 A.D.
to secure the release
of Father Antony who had been imprisoned by the Mughals. It was in Lahore
that he met Father
Joseph de Castro, the executor of Veroneo who died at Lahore in 1640 A.D.,
and it was Castro
who told him about "the Venetian by the name Geronimo Veroneo who came
in
the Portuguese ships
and died in the city of Lahore before he reached it..."
During the reign
of Jehangir, a goldsmith named Veroneo did in fact come to India and, as
mentioned
by Father Manrique,
did die on his way to Lahore. He lived for a time in Agra, and prospered
there.
He knew many influential
Europeans throughout the North Indian provinces, and when he died, he
was buried in the
Christian cemetery of Padres Santos in Agra.
The theory that Veroneo
designed the Taj is intriguing and still finds occasional champions, especially
in Italy. But the
scales of evidence weigh heavily against it. True there is the testimony
of Father
Manrique, but he
was no more than a casual tourist who heard that the Taj had been built
by an
Italian. However,
nowhere else is there mentioned that Veroneo participated in planning the
Taj
Mahal. As a matter
of fact, there is no record that Veroneo had any skill other than that
of working on
gold. Other Europeans
who saw the Taj under construction never mentioned his name, and
furthermore, it
is difficult to suppose that an artist trained in seventeenth century Italy,
the Italy of
Bernini, could build
a mausoleum that would typify Indo-Persian architecture. The Taj is not
an
isolated phenomenon,
the creation of a single mastermind but the glorious consummation of a
great
epoch of art.
The Basement Chambers
and a probable Third Grave
Two staircases on
the northern side of the red sandstone plinth of the Taj lead below into
the
basement chambers
which are seventeen in number and have been laid out in a line on the riverside
of a narrow through-corridor.
The rooms and corridor are of acurate construction in brick and
plaster, with stucco
and painting ornamentation, distributed aesthetically on the soffits. At
the
extreme points on
both sides there are doors sunk in the northern wall. They were blocked
up
permanently and
securely with thick masonry at some unknown date, undoubtedly for some
well
calculated purpose.
As may be surmised, the set on the northern side could have been repeated
on
the sides below
the marble structure, with a rotating corridor, chambers and probably a
crypt in the
centre - all being
interconnected.
This crypt would
have contained the third and the real set of graves. The custom of providing
cenotaphs or replicas
had been followed by the Turks and the Mughals alike as we meet with this
practice at the
tomb of Iltutmish at Delhi and at the tombs of Saqid Khan and Akbar at
Agra. The
tomb of Akbar has
three tombstones, one on the grave and two as cenotaphs. The tomb of
Itmad-ud-Dauhlah
and Chini-ka-Rauza too had three tombstones each. The lowest of the former
was contained in
a crypt which was originally accessible from the riverside and has now
been
completely blocked
up. These examples indicate that the Mughals liked to provide three tombstones
in a mausoleum.
At the Taj, the third is traditionally claimed to exist. It is only in
these underground
vaults that the
third set could have been placed. The doors in the basement corridor no
doubt exist
and must have originally
given entry to some underground arrangement of chambers and corridors.
Though they are
now permanently blocked, their existence lends weight to the legendary
version.
The Taj Mahal was
a Rajput Palace!!
A group of Hindu
fundamentalists which seeks to deny any positive role of Muslims in India
dispute
the claim that the
Taj Mahal was built by Shah Jehan. Instead, as outlined in the book The
Taj
Mahal Was a Rajput
Palace, fourth century Hindu rulers are given credit for its erection.
The claim
is without serious
merit, but it has acquired something of a following in India.
The Taj is sinking!!
The architect of
the Taj Mahal aimed at giving maximum strength and stability to the tomb
and
worked out the minute
details with utmost precision : the weight of the entire structure is uniformly
distributed, extraordinarily
massive piers and vaults were constructed to support this heavy load.,
the
very best quality
of bonding material helped combat the disrupted tensile stress etc. However,
in
spite of all these
precautions and care, dangerous cracks and leakages developed in the substructure
just four years
after its completion. Aurangzeb in his letter to Shah Jehan in 1652 mentions
these
cracks. Some defects
were discovered about the same time in the dome. Though thorough repairs
were undertaken,
the nature of the cracks was not discovered. The cracks were again noticed
to
have developed to
dangerous proportions in 1810. As a result an Advisory Committee on the
restoration and
conservation of the monument was set up and a survey with reference to
the damage
was undertaken.
Distance
Calculator in India
Some very important
facts came out of this survey. It was discovered that the plinth of the
mausoleum on the
northern side (or the riverside) is lower than on the south by 3.5cms.
Cracks were
not noticed on the
exterior wall, but they were definitely present on the second storey vaults
of the
marble structure
and, on a much larger scale, in the underground vaults below the northern
side. The
long series of cracks
in the underground vaults may be due to the crushing of lime on account
of the
excessive weight,
or as seems more probable, this may be due to the sinking of the whole
structure
towards the riverside!!
