Mark Twain called it ‘that soaring bubble of marble.’ For Rudyard Kipling, it was ‘the Ivory Gate through which all good dreams come.’ But for Shah Jahan, the 17th century Mughal Emperor who built the Taj Mahal in Agra, the building was a tribute to the woman he loved.
After the death in 1631 of his favourite wife, Mumtaz Mahal, with whom he had 14 children in 19 years, the Shah resolved to build an earthly representation of paradise. Form the farthest reaches of his empire, he summoned architects, stonemasons, and artisans who laboured for more than two decades on the royal mausoleum.
Because Islamic belief forbids graphic representations of the divide, this vision of eternity is evoked, not stated; it is a tale told in geometry and proportion, symmetry and balance. Clad entirely in white marble the Taj Mahal rises more than 200 feet over a garden with four canals representing the Four Rivers of Paradise, which are said to flow with water, milk, wine and honey.
The walls of the building are inlaid with black stone calligraphy, citing verses from the Koran on the rewards due to the just in the next life. The elegant white dome resembles a giant pearl floating above the building’s four minarets, recalling the Prophet Muhammad’s vision of the throne of God as a pearl surrounded by four pillars.
Taj Mahal – Agra > India’s most famous building was a labour of love by Emperor Shah Jahan
