In the city of Agra, India, the architects of the Mughal Empire have such a masterpiece that today the whole world recognizes it as Taj Mahal. This 42-acre-wide, far-reaching tomb, where beautiful gardens have been decorated inside, while many clouds of grief and sadness are still hovering over it.
This beautiful building, which was built about 400 years ago, used to be the largest and most magnificent building of its time, while today it is also considered the 7th wonder of the world. 20,000 workers worked day and night to build this magnificent structure, and that too not for one or two years, but for 22 years. If we estimate its price in today’s time, then this priceless tomb of Sang-e-Marmar is surprisingly more expensive than $1 billion, i.e. more than 7.5 billion rupees.
Because in this building, the Mughal architects left many signs of their art, which even the world’s top engineers still praise to this day. This building was designed in such a way that when it is seen from behind the main gate, it looks quite big, but as soon as it is moved towards the main gate, its size automatically becomes smaller. This was not the first trick that the Mughal architects used to confuse the mind.
All four minarets around it were not erected completely straight, but these minarets are slightly bent outward. Because if they were erected straight, then when viewed from a distance, they look bent inward, as you can see in these mosques. There was also another reason to bend these minarets outward, and that was that even if these minarets fell in the form of a dangerous earthquake, they would not fall outward and cause damage to the Taj Mahal.
But what was the matter that the people who built it could not tolerate even a scratch on it? What were the secrets of the Taj Mahal that were tried to hide 400 years ago? And when there was no concrete or steel in that era, then how was this magnificent tomb and the 40-meter-high dome on it built?
This matter started in 1607 when the Mughal Empire used to hold in this region of India and Pakistan. On this day, the youngest son of the Mughal emperor, Shahabuddin Muhammad Khurram was 15 years old and a grand party was held in the Agra Fort for his celebration.
Khurram was the most beloved to the Mughal emperor, which is why on his birthday, he was weighed with diamonds and gold. That is, the more the weight of Prince Khurram, the more the treasure was named after him. But on this birthday, something else was going to happen.
The Mughal emperor married Prince Khurram to his lawyer’s daughter, who is known as Mumtaz Mahal. Mumtaz and Khurram fell in love with each other on the first day itself. And at that time, no one knew that this love was going to last forever.
For the next ten years, the prince fought many wars and achieved great success in them. For this reason, the emperor was happy and gave him the title of Shah Jahan, which means the king of the world. Shah Jahan had a total of six wives who lived in the Agra Fort.
Of these six, Shah Jahan loved Mumtaz the most and this was the reason that most of his time passed with Mumtaz Mahal. Time was passing quickly and four years later, that is, in 1621, the Mughal emperor suddenly passed away. Shah Jahan, who had already become particularly famous in the Mughal Empire and who was also the beloved son of the emperor.
In 1628, that is, seven years after his father’s death, he took over the throne of the emperor. The entire Mughal Empire was very happy with its new emperor. This was the period when the Mughal Empire was at its peak.
That is, along with the whole of India and Pakistan, the Mughal Empire ruled many parts of Afghanistan. Shah Jahan himself made all the decisions, while Mumtaz Mahal stayed behind and gave advice to Shah Jahan. But no one knew that these joys were about to turn into mourning.
It had only been a year since he took over the throne that once again the Mughal Empire had to face enemies. The war continued for the next two years and Shah Jahan was also very successful in this war. But Shah Jahan was celebrating this success when he was informed of a sad news.
Mumtaz Mahal, who was giving birth to Shah Jahan’s 14th child, was in bad shape and passed away on June 17, 1631, even though he did not want to. The celebration of the entire Mughal Empire turned into mourning. This news, which had fallen on Shah Jahan like fire, it ended his world.
Shah Jahan’s first love and his dearest wife Mumtaz Mahal had passed away from this world. It is said that the shadow of this grief had pushed Shah Jahan into the dark. For the next eight days, he did not eat anything and for the next two years he did not listen to music or put on perfume.
Mumtaz Mahal had one last wish before dying. She wanted her grave to be made in the most beautiful cemetery in the world. To fulfill this task and Mumtaz Mahal’s last wish, Shah Jahan decided to dedicate all his wealth and life.
Six months after the passing of Mumtaz, that is, the construction of the Taj Mahal was started in 1632. More than 20,000 laborers, stone carvers and carvers were gathered from the entire empire. The armies of the armies were called to Agra at the behest of Shah Jahan.
Because Mumtaz’s grave was located next to the Yamuna River, it was quite difficult to make the most beautiful building in the world at this place. The ground on the banks of the river is very soft and if excavation work was done here, then the flow of water could have damaged the foundation of the Taj Mahal. To deal with this problem, the Mughal engineers first started digging many wells in the ground here.
The laborers kept digging these wells until they could not see dry land. These wells were filled with stones and gravel and then large columns of stones were placed on top of it. To carry out all this work, a large army of elephants was also used along with the laborers.
This trick of the Mughal engineers had worked and now such a strong foundation was ready which was standing on soft ground as well. After the foundation, it was now time for such a building design that no one had seen before. A design that broke all previous records.
Shah Jahan took the idea of the Taj Mahal design from his father and grandfather’s tombs. The idea of the minarets was taken from the father’s tomb, the idea of the building core was taken from the grandfather’s tomb and the idea of the dome was taken from his uncle’s tomb. And when all these were combined, a magnificent and magnificent design emerged.
Millions of bricks were baked on the spot to make the structure of the building. All this was not so easy and a lot of money was being spent on it. Every passing day, the royal treasury was emptying rapidly.
But Shah Jahan did not care about anything, he just had to complete this work at any cost. It is said that so many people were employed in the construction of the Taj Mahal that due to them, the food and drink in the surrounding areas was over. To meet the demands of 20,000 laborers and workers, Shah Jahan had ordered grains from all the surrounding areas.
After many years of hard work, the structure of the building was complete and now it was time to decorate it with marble. This marble was to be ordered from Rajasthan, 400 km away from Agra, because the Makrana marble here is considered the finest marble in the world to date. Shah Jahan had reserved the entire Makrana marble for the Taj Mahal, that is, until the demand of the Taj Mahal could not be met, no one was allowed to buy this marble.
With the help of 1000 elephants, thousands of tons of heavy marble were ordered from Agra, Rajasthan. This beautiful dome of the Taj Mahal is so big that it can only be estimated by looking at it with the eyes. These days, such domes can be easily built on a steel structure, but 400 years ago, to build a dome 40 meters high, they only had the support of stones.
The stress calculation done by the Mughal engineers to build this dome, even today’s engineers praise it a lot. For the finishing of the Taj Mahal, it had to be decorated with Petra Dura or Parchinkari. Petra Dura is a kind of artist who carves precious stones into the marble.
The marble is carved very skillfully and finely according to the shape of the precious stone, and then the stone is glued to it. The glue used on the Taj Mahal was not ordinary glue. After a lot of research and laboratory tests, it was found that this glue, Shira, lemon juice and marble powder were mixed and made.
The same glue is still used for the renovation of the Taj Mahal. One of the special things about the Taj Mahal is that it changes its color four times a day. Before sunrise, it gives a completely black shade.
After sunrise, it gives a light yellow and pink shade. In the afternoon, you get to see a new aspect of the beauty of the Taj Mahal. Like pearls shining in the blue sky.
And at the time of sunset, this whole building looks golden. After 22 years, the construction of the Taj Mahal was completed in 1654. Shah Jahan had succeeded in making the world’s most beautiful tomb in memory of his wife.
Shah Jahan named this magnificent building in memory of his beloved wife. From Mumtaz Mahal, it was named Taj Mahal. Every year, Shah Jahan used to go to the Taj Mahal through the Yamuna River.
This was such an entrance to the Taj Mahal that was made only for the royal family. An interesting painting was done on the walls of this entrance, which was probably done only for the royal eyes. Shah Jahan’s most expensive project was completed.
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