The Taj Mahal

TheTaj Mahal

Established in Agra, a city of moderate importance in modern India, the Taj Mahal is the most beautiful trail left by the Mughal empire. It is a large complex consisting of 3 parts facing south-north that are, respectively, the inner courtyard, which serves as an antechamber between the terrestrial world, symbolized by the city, and the second part are the gardens, An image of the sky in the earth. The third part, to the north, is the most sacred and consists of the famous white mausoleum, a mosque (on the right) and the guest house, a replica of the mosque on the left. The set is surrounded by a high protective wall. The patio and the garden are separated by a door, which is here a large rectangular building, the Darwaza-i rauza. The gardens are perfectly symmetrical. They are cut in 4 by two channels that do not join in the center (there is a fountain, right in the center). The northern part rises by 7 m, accessed by a ladder or a gentle slope, on the sides.

The reasons to build the Taj Mahal
We all know that the Taj Mahal is proof of a husband's love for his wife. It would be the grave that the husband built for his late wife much younger than him, and his magnificence would correspond to the love she gave him. It's a very beautiful story, but wouldn't it be a legend?

Well no The Taj Mahal was built for Mumtaz Mahal, third wife of the 5th Mughal emperor Shah Jahan, who had a great love for him. When he died on June 17, 1631, giving birth to his son number 14, he was buried in Burhanpur, where he died. But this tomb was temporary, it was what Shah Jahan decided who, devastated by pain, decided to build his wife a mausoleum as beautiful as his love for her. He devoted 22 years to this task and partially ruined the treasure of the Mughals, but the case lived up to his expectations. The Taj Mahal was born. So this story is very real.

On the other hand, what is false is the desire to build a second Taj Mahal on the other side of the black river, which would have served as a tomb for the emperor. This is false, archaeological research has shown signs of construction, the Mehtab Bagh ("Garden of the Moon"), but it is not a second Taj Mahal. In addition, it would have been impossible to build, the finances of the Empire had been emptied by this first construction.

Building
The construction of the Taj Mahal took 22 years, from 1631 to 1653. The last 5 years were dedicated to the construction of the gardens, the mausoleum and the other buildings that were completed. It is attributed to Ustad Ahmad Lahauri, but we do not really know the part he took in this work compared to other architects, because it has been shown that there have been several. The buildings were built in red sandstone, a very common stone in northern India. The mausoleum is also in sandstone, but covered with marble, hence its white color. In fact, the builders have played with the contrast between red and white, and in white they have embedded black marble for the inscriptions, which makes it a very successful set.

The construction was done with 20,000 men who alternated on the site. Given the mortality that can be imagined at that time, it means that some artisans have spent their entire professional career on this site. They were helped by 1000 elephants used to transport heavy loads. Of course, the workers used precise material, but construction techniques were not really observed, so today we have no precise ideas about these construction methods.

The decorations
There are three types of decoration in the Taj Mahal: the paintings, which are rare, the bas-reliefs, essentially in marble, but not that, and the hard pietra, which are inlaid with precious or semiprecious stones in mineral plates, essentially marble.

If there is not much to say about the paintings, the bas-reliefs are engraved on large slabs of white marble that have been placed at the bottom of the walls of the mausoleum, but also of the mosque or the pavilion of the guests. Thus, the mausoleum is richly decorated with these bas-reliefs, both inside and outside, under the iwans (these large Persian-style porches). The motifs represented are plants, almost essentially. There are also flowers, but there are no animals and fewer representations of any human being.

The hard pietra is a technique of lapidary embedding, it was invented and popularized by the Florentines in the sixteenth century, they are masters in this art. At the time of the construction of the Taj Mahal Shah Jahan, who built it, called the Florentine artisans to work on the monument, what they did. So these decorations are of Italian origin, actually. There is a great deal of it, in every corner of the mosaic, on all the walls, in the balustrade behind which, in the main hall, are the cenotaphs, even in the cenotaphs themselves. This technique has also been used for inscriptions in black marble on the facades of the mausoleum, but also as a gateway to the gardens. These inscriptions remind the duty of mercy of every good Muslim, so sweet for the access door, but in a more demanding way for the facades of the mausoleum.

Visits
Today it is possible to visit the Taj Mahal, but it is a fairly recent possibility, as it was reserved for the Mughal emperors and their relatives since its construction in the fall of the Mughals. And to all those in charge of the maintenance of gardens, buildings. But in modern times, after the independence of India, the visit was organized. If it is still questionable to find three separate rates (one for Indians, one for citizens of neighboring countries and one for all other Asian and Western tourists), we must recognize that the site is a true paradise. Of peace in which the visitor feels out of time. Proof that the builders have achieved their goals, since 400 years later we came to the same feeling at the beginning, and this despite the flood of tourists who pour every day (except Fridays) on the site.

The Mughals
Who were the Mughals? No, we should not confuse them with the Mongols, this town in northern China from whom Genghis Khan was born, conquering the lands of Central Asia. The Mughals form a dynasty created by Babur in the early sixteenth century on the remains of the Sultanate of Delhi. A descendant of Tamerlane, Babur came from a Turkish manor family. He conquered his father's kingdom, the throne of Ferghana, in front of other suitors, and obtained it. Then, fearing the Uzbeks, he led the army he had trained in the Punjab and finally conquered Kabul, Lahorre and Delhi. His son Humayun continued his work, and in his death a new empire was born, which spread throughout northern India, from the Afghan to Bengal. His successors further expanded the empire, taking land from the south to the sixth generation, the last time he conquered the territory. From there, the other emperors only lost their influence, until the English colonization during which the dynasty ended.