The Taj Mahal

Travel Date 16th March 2008

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I was fortunate to catch my first glimpses of the fabulous Taj Mahal from the Red Fort on the day I arrived in Agra.








Fortunate because it was hard to believe, as my driver negotiated the squalor of the streets of Agra early the next morning, that anything beautiful could exist in such a place. Even as I approached the gates, first by electric bus in the "pollution-free" zone near the entry, then by foot for the final half-mile, walking down a tawdry, dusty, dirty street to the main entry gates it was hard to accept what lay beyond them. Then I entered the forecourt and finally walked through the main gateway and stopped.









It simply took my breath away.









The Taj Mahal rises from the grime of Agra like the Koh-i-Nur set in a cowpat. Over the past six years I have seen wonderful buildings and architecture, ancient and modern. I’ve seen New York, Paris, London, Vienna, Egypt, Sydney, Istanbul, Prague; many other cities and many other countries all over the world. There is no building to compare with the beauty and symmetry of the Taj Mahal. India’s Poet Laureate, Rabindranath Tagore, who was also Asia’s first Nobel Prize winner, described the Taj Mahal as "a teardrop on the cheek of history".

Nor is there a building to match that beauty with a fairy-tale love story.

Once upon a time in Hindustan there was a young Prince, the fifth son of the Emperor, who met and fell in love with a beautiful young girl who was high-born but not royal. They didn’t marry for five long years, despite their love, because politics and the Emperor required him to marry two other wives first. The lucky Prince was a Mughal and therefore having several wives was not a problem and the beautiful new wife quickly became his principal wife, known as Mumtaz Mahal.

Eventually he became Shah Jehan, "King of the World", and over the next twenty years she helped temper his autocratic rule with mercy and wise advice and also bore him thirteen children. Sadly, when accompanying him on a military campaign she died while giving birth to the fourteeenth.

He was heart-broken and committed to fulfilling a death-bed promise that he would build her a mausoleum more beautiful than any the world had ever seen before.

And he did.

It took over 20,000 artisans over twenty years to achieve it, but I believe he succeeded in her wish.

Unfortunately, after that the story becomes sadder.

Eventually, one of his sons of Mumtaz Mahal usurped him and became his gaoler; he spent his last 8 years imprisoned in the Red Fort in sight of his masterpiece and her grave. Two of his other wives were also laid to rest in the grounds of the Taj Mahal.

Over the centuries the Taj Mahal went through periods of neglect and decay, at one time it was actually put to auction for the value of it’s marble. Thankfully it has survived. It was fully restored in the early 20th Century under the British Viceroy of the time and has since been refurbished several times.

These foot-covers must be used when walking on the actual mausoleum area.

The workmanship in the detail is incredible; these colours are inlays of precious stone in the marble which glow when the light hits them at the right time.









Simply wonderful.

Cheers, Alan

The Red Fort, Agra

Travel Date 15th March 2008
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This was the first of the fort palaces of India that I saw; and what a palace to start with. From it’s origins in the 11th century until it’s peak in the reign of Shah Jehan in the 17th century the Red Fort in Agra was a major power centre in India, and for much of the later period was the main Palace of the Mughal Ruler of the time, making Agra the capital in those periods. Shah Jehan transferred the capital to Delhi, but added many buildings to the Agra fort complex and was the ruler who built the Taj Mahal nearby.











I’ll let the pictures tell the story of the fort; some of the history is detailed on the text pictures. The first thing to impress me was the quality of the architecture and the workmanship in nearly every building. During centuries when European civilisation was groping it’s way towards the light at the end of the dark ages, the artisans, masons and craftsmen of India were building masterpieces. The influences of many cultures appear in India but the predominant influence here was Mughal, conquerors of Mongol stock who had absorbed the culture and the Muslim religion of Persia before coming to rule over India.









Before I saw the Red Fort I had seen the Topkapi of Istanbul and the Alhambra of Granada. The similarities in construction and styles were striking, all have roots in Asia Minor and Arabia.

The most fascinating part of that history, to me, is the story of Shah Jehan. He came to power in 1628 at a time when his Empire was crumbling. Over the years of his reign he used his military prowess to put down rebellions and consolidate and expand the Empire and commenced a vast expansion of building projects, especially in Delhi and Agra.









His lavish spending included the wonderful Peacock Throne, made of gold covered with rare jewels; a century later that same throne was captured by the Persians and became the fabulous throne of the Shah of Iran until his demise in 1979.










But even Emperors can break the bank, and his wars, lavish building projects and other extravagances finally did and he became unpopular with his people as the taxes rose. Then, when he became ill after reigning for nearly thirty years his four sons fought and intrigued until only one successor was left, Aurangzeb, who promptly imprisoned his father here in the Red Fort at Agra and ruled in his place.











The great Emperor Shah Jehan died eight years later, within sight of his beloved wife's tomb in the Taj Mahal. The story goes that Shah Jehan had intended to build a matching mausoleum to the Taj Mahal on the opposite bank of the river in black marble; there is no evidence to support that, but it’s a nice story.




Cheers, Alan