INDIA … THE TAJ … A “NEW” WONDER OF THE WORLD

So we left Sri Lanka and I got my souvenir underwear … size large and they still did not fit. So maybe they are good quality but their sizing seems very odd … the idea was good but the fit was bad …. so donation pile for them.

We are making our way to India from Sri Lanka heading west around the bottom of India and then slightly north where we will dock in Cochin. ( Kochi )

The Taj is one of the “New” Seven Wonders of the World … I didn’t know there are “new wonders” and “old wonders” and then there are “natural wonders.” Seems like a lot of “wondering” to me. So we are going to see the “New Wonder.” The Taj is another ENESCO world heritage site … considered the “jewel of Islamic art” in India and one of the “UNIVERSALLY” admired masterpieces of the world. ( Surprised we can globally agree on something. )

Taj Mahal … Means “Crown Palace” … named for the crown shaped top. It is an ivory-white marble mausoleum laid with some precious stones. Commissioned in 1631 by the 5’th Mughal emperor Shah Jahan. ( Mughal means early Hindu Muslim Empire ). Jahan reigned from 1628 to 1658 and built the tomb for his beloved wife Mumtaz Mahal … she died in 1631 during childbirth and was the “love of his life” … Jahan was paralyzed by grief and, in her honor and in his grief, he commissioned the finest architecture man could build … The Taj Mahal.

Mausoleums were not unheard of prior to this endeavor … but it is the scale and magnitude that make it so unique. The architecture is based on the design traditions of Indo-Islamic and Mughal (Hindu/Muslim) architecture.

View from the mausoleum looking back to the main gate with inlaid patterns in the manicured lawns. ( Greenery was added during the Colonial period under the English influence. ).

The Mausoleum is the only building in white marble … made of thick slabs of marble brought in by 15,000 elephants. The marble was applied over a brick foundation. The tomb is the centerpiece of the 42 acre complex.

It includes a mosque, guest house and formal gardens with three walls along a riverbank.

… all the surrounding buildings, formal gardens and walls were finished in Red Sandstone.

The project took 22 years and was completed in 1653 at a cost of 5 million dollars. ( Today supposedly equivalent to $78M … seems to me it would be quite a bit more. ) The project was overseen by the emperors court architect … along with 20,000 laborers and artisans that came to the city of Agra form all over India.

Marble was brought in from other areas in India as well as precious stones that were delicately cut … every piece of marble was painstakingly chiseled and every stone cut and inlaid by hand … covering all walls of the mosque including the dome.

The Taj is an engineering marvel with interior walls 82’ high. The Mausoleum stands on 6 marble column bases 20’ high … everything is perfectly symmetrical. ( Hard to believe they could pull that off in the 1600’s )

Shah Jahan was later placed here in a tomb alongside Mumtaz … His tomb is the only thing that is not symmetrical since the mausoleum was designed for her … she is in the middle and he is off to the side.

Emperor Shah Jahans’ life ended like a Shakespearian tragedy … He had 4 wife’s … but his true love was Mumtaz, his third wife … when she died at 38 she left him with 14 children .. and of the 14 only 7 survived … 4 boys and 3 girls. ( Not unusual during that time period … but what happens next I would like to believe is far less common. )

The youngest son decided he had “big plans for himself” … he wants to be Emperor ( Protocol is first born ) … as fourth in line he has a problem … so he decides to elevate himself in the peaking order … killing his 2 oldest brothers and blinding the third. The plan works … making him the “successor.” But he still has one more problem … his Father … who is still Emperor. So when his father is having some health issues he appoints himself emperor and when his dads health deteriorates he imprisons him for the rest of his life … another 11 years. When his father died he did agree to bury him next to Mumtaz at the Taj. ( Nice Guy 🤔 ) So moral of this story … Older siblings watch out … you never know what the younger ones might do.

But in the end … Shah Jahans’ painful tragedy would become his legacy … and his legacy would live on for centuries. During his reign the Mughals (Hindu Muslim Empire) turned out to be the peak of their architectural and cultural achievements with the “crowning” glory … THE TAJ MAHAL.

He put the city of Agra on the world map and it has become a “Mecca” for generations of artisans and craftsman who still work their trade by hand today in the same traditions as previous generations. ( So some pretty nice stuff in the city which definitely put a dent in my pocketbook. )

Today the TAJ attract 5 million visitors a year along with numerous foreign leaders and dignitaries and is one of the most photographed landmarks in the world.

NEXT STOP MUMBAI … DAY 129 to 130