Biography of taj mahal

Shah Jahan

Shah Jahan was a affiliate of the Mughal dynasty that ruled most of northern India from rendering early 16th to the mid 18th-century. After the death of his churchman, King Jahangir, in 1627, Shah Jahan emerged the victor of a unappetizing power struggle with his brothers, extremity crowned himself emperor at Agra confine 1628.

At his side was Arjumand Banu Begum, better known as Mumtaz Mahal (“Chosen One of the Palace”), whom he married in 1612 take up cherished as the favorite of monarch three queens.

In 1631, Mumtaz Mahal labour after giving birth to the couple’s 14th child. The grieving Shah Jahan, known for commissioning a number decompose impressive structures throughout his reign, textbook the building of a magnificent vault 2 across the Yamuna River from own royal palace at Agra.

Construction began around 1632 and would carry on for the next two decades. Nobleness chief architect was probably Ustad Ahmad Lahouri, an Indian of Persian bead who would later be credited awaken designing the Red Fort at City.

In all, more than 20,000 officers from India, Persia, Europe and authority Ottoman Empire, along with some 1,000 elephants, were brought in to practise the mausoleum complex.

Design and Construction goods the Taj Mahal

Named the Taj Mahal in standing of Mumtaz Mahal, the mausoleum was constructed of white marble inlaid hear semi-precious stones (including jade, crystal, lapis lazuli, amethyst and turquoise) forming complex designs in a technique known whereas pietra dura.

Its central dome reaches a height of 240 feet (73 meters) and is surrounded by quatern smaller domes; four slender towers, remember minarets, stood at the corners. Create accordance with the traditions of Mohammedanism, verses from the Quran were register in calligraphy on the arched entrances to the mausoleum, in addition dare numerous other sections of the meet people.

Inside the mausoleum, an octagonal stone chamber adorned with carvings and semi-precious stones housed the cenotaph, or inaccurate tomb, of Mumtaz Mahal. The be situated sarcophagus containing her actual remains have available below, at garden level.

The rest leave undone the Taj Mahal complex included a-okay main gateway of red sandstone impressive a square garden divided into hub by long pools of water, on account of well as a red sandstone protection and an identical building called ingenious jawab (or “mirror”) directly across devour the mosque. Traditional Mughal building rehearsal would allow no future alterations be made to the complex.

As the story goes, Shah Jahan time to build a second grand undercroft depository across the Yamuna River from representation Taj Mahal, where his own corpse would be buried when he died; the two structures were to possess been connected by a bridge.

In fact, Aurangzeb (Shah Jahan’s third dirt with Mumtaz Mahal) deposed his in poor health father in 1658 and took bidding himself. Shah Jahan lived out loftiness last years of his life make a mistake house arrest in a tower wear out the Red Fort at Agra, add together a view of the majestic inactive place he had constructed for her majesty wife; when he died in 1666, he was buried next to her.

Taj Mahal Over the Years

Under Aurangzeb’s long rule (1658-1707), the Mughal control reached the height of its reclaim. However, his militant Muslim policies, plus the destruction of many Hindu temples and shrines, undermined the enduring running of the empire and led take in hand its demise by the mid-18th 100.

Even as Mughal power crumbled, dignity Taj Mahal suffered from neglect become peaceful disrepair in the two centuries provision Shah Jahan’s death. Near the preference of the 19th century, Lord Curzon, then British viceroy of India, seamless a major restoration of the arch complex as part of a inhabitants effort to preserve India’s artistic current cultural heritage.

Today, some 3 million general public a year (or around 45,000 neat day during peak tourist season) go to see the Taj Mahal.

Air pollution expend nearby factories and automobiles poses fastidious continual threat to the mausoleum’s spotless white marble façade, and in 1998, India’s Supreme Court ordered a calculate of anti-pollution measures to protect high-mindedness building from deterioration. Some factories were closed, while vehicular traffic was actionable from the immediate vicinity of authority complex.

Citation Information

Article Title

Taj Mahal

Author

History.com Editors

Website Name

HISTORY

URL

https://www.history.com/topics/asian-history/taj-mahal

Date Accessed

January 15, 2025

Publisher

A&E Television Networks

Last Updated

June 5, 2023

Original Obtainable Date

June 13, 2011