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AGRA : "CITY OF DIVERSE
CULTURE AND HERITAGE."
 Build me a Taj:
As Mumtaz Mahal lay
dying, she asked four promises from the emperor: first, that he build
the Taj; second, that he should marry again; third, that he be kind to
their children; and fourth, that he visit the tomb on her death
anniversary. He kept the first and second promises. Construction began
in 1631 and was completed in 22 years. Twenty thousand people were
deployed to work on it. The principal architect was the Iranian
architect Istad Usa; it is possible that the Pietra Dura work was
coordinated by an Italian artist.
Taj Mahal, a dream etched in milky white pristine marble is the
peerless monument portraying the beauty of eternal love!
A commemoration of the memory of Shahjahan's beloved wife, Mumtaz.
Taj Mahal is indeed India's rich tribute to womanhood.
Renowned for its aesthetic beauty, this extravagant building of
timeless beauty is the outcome of a unique combination of passion and
architectural exuberance.
Lovers die, but love shall not and death shall have no dominion…
In the year 1607 when a prince of the royal Mughal household strolled down the Meena Bazaar, accompanied by a string of fawning courtiers, he caught a glimpse of a girl hawking silk and glass beads. Five years and a wife later (in those days princes did not marry for love alone) the regal 20-yr-old went to wed his 19-yr-old bride.
It was a fairytale union from the start, one that withstood court intrigues, battles for succession and finally, the grand coronation. And when she died on the 19th year of their marriage, he etched her story in stone. The Taj Mahal is the living symbol of the monumental passion of Shah Jahan and Arjumand Banu. Which other love story has so grand a memorial? The Chosen City Agra was the chosen city of the Mughal emperors during the early years.
 It was here that the founder of the dynasty, Babur, laid out the first formal Persian garden on the banks of the River Yamuna. Here, Akbar, his grandson, raised the towering ramparts of the great Red Fort. Within its walls, Jehangir built rose-red palaces, courts and gardens. Shahjahan embellished it with marbled mosques, palaces and pavilions of gem-inlaid white marble. Agra is globally renown as the city of the Taj Mahal, a monument of love and imagination, that represents India to the world
According to Islamic tradition, a woman who dies in childbirth is a martyr, and her memorial a place of pilgrimage. Two structures face the Taj from either side: a mosque on the west, and its mirror image, a rest house, on the east, perhaps built to provide symmetry and balance for the mosque and to shelter the faithful who would come to pay homage to Mumtaz Mahal.
From afar the Taj appears seamless, but moving closer reveals an intricate harmony of details. Inlaid calligraphy flows with all the freedom of a pen moving across paper.
Jewel-studded walls display exquisitely detailed flowers. "You've got inlay work of flowers about three inches high where they use as many as sixty to seventy pieces of precious gemstones to show the curve of a leaf or the turn of a petal. I mean it's so delicate!" says Shobita.
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