Taj Mahal: A lotus from the darkness

by Amal HEWAVISSENTI

The breathtaking beautiful dome of Taj Mahal augustly towering skyward takes one back to the world of unfailing love, hatred, depravity and vandalism that once landed India into an upheaval during the Moghul empire. This non-pareil monument of eternal love was masterminded by Sha Jahan an emperor of the Moghul dynasty in loving memory of his 'favourite queen Mumtaz Mahal was died prematurely. Mentally paralysed by the untimely death of his cherished wife, the emperor was firmly bent on erecting the greatest wonder of India, on the bank of river Jumna, in response to a pledge he had made to the queen at her deathbed.

The structure

Sha Jahan's reign is generally thought to be the golden era of the Moghul empire. It is believed that the royal coffers were full to the brim with priceless wealth and incredibly charming edifices and mini palaces were raised in the cities of Lahore, Delhi and Agra. Contrary to popular practice of using simple red sand stones during the regime of Akbar, Sha Jahan used gem studded white marble for the walls of building. Under the supervision of Sha Jahan, this architectural marvel was being erected just after the traumatic death of his famous empress, in 1632 and it went on uncompleted till 1647 with about 20,000 labourers working on it daily. Popular records surrounding Taj Mahal prove that the Turkish architect assigned to design the building was "Ustad Alsa" who came from Constantinople. However, the concept, layout, and exceptional additions all belong to the oriental style. This majestic building complex, encompassed by an elegant wall, is a combination of buildings with two identical mosques on either side to create aesthetic balance. The visitor sees in the middle, a huge mausoleum built purely of white marble which has primarily been designed as a lotus rising over grandly designed gardens filled with ponds, spouts and flowers. It is in this mausoleum that the emperor Sha Jahan and empress Mumtaz Mahal are in eternal sleep, side by side. One can clearly see the beautiful, ripple-distorted reflection of Taj Mahal in the ponds and show glimpses of it to be about to fly skyward.

There is concrete proof to show that opals, rubies, blue sapphires and other precious stones were imported from other countries to decorate the building which features exquisitely carved designs on quartz, capturing the visitor. However, the most attractive palace of the complex is often viewed to be "Pearl Mosque" which has been created purely out of white marble and been studded with many varieties of precious stones.

Young emperor Sha Jahan

Quite contrary to his ancestral convention of religion - Hinduism, Sha Jahan strictly adopted Islam and Islamic culture as his queen Mumtaz, an ardent Islamic, had had a lasting impact on his personal ideology. It is generally accepted that Sha Jahan had deliberately destroyed or at least, damaged virtually all the Christian churches and Hindu kovils within his empire once he rose to power. Young Sha Jahan had a tendency for vandalism and depravity inherent in him which ran counter to his subsequent sobriety and composed nature which simply came up on account of bereavement from his "real partner" Mumtaz. If we are to count on Burnnier, a traveller, he once brutally attacked the town of Hugely which was surrounded by a moat using a large body of troops (150,000). In the course of the attack which lasted three months, they removed the water from the moat. Sank a ship on which were 2,000 women and children in flight, and took about 4,000 people to Agra as prisoners of war. Here more people died of fever and famine. After indescribable torture, some of the prisoners of war, were forcibly converted to Islam and some others were made to be trampled to death by elephants. Burnnier further records that the child captives became tragic victims at the hands of soldiers, while some others became servants in the royal palace. Any other group of people who underwent a greater level of or at least similar torture have not been heard of in recent history.

Jahangir's death virtually left the throne for"Bhurum" (Sha Jahan) the successor who married princess Mumtaz, who was the daughter of Azaap Khan. History reports how a royal conspiracy was in action to overthrow Sha Jahan, but Azaap Khan brought Sha Jahan back from Deccan to declare him the legal emperor. Sha Jahan's younger brother "Sharier" was proved to be the chief conspirator, so Sha Jahan brutally blinded him after imprisonment and destroyed all who were pivotal in the plot to oust the legal emperor.

His passion for queen

His matchless love for Mumtaz was totally amazing - a love which ran counter to the conventional emotional relationship between a king and a queen. Out of the 16 princes born to Sha Jahan, 14 princes were born of Mumtaz who was lucky enough to attract the infallible love and affection from the emperor undivided. Although the Moghul princes were amply blessed with the privilege of polygamy, Sha Jahan was ever immutable in his move to reject remarriage.

Tragic enough, Mumtaz died on delivering a baby. In this way Sha Jahan fell prey to an utter frustration and he is said to have locked himself up in a dark room whereby his hair had absolutely turned grey. During his prolonged ordeal in the dark room a royal lady (Thuldaazi) had tried to approach the reclusive emperor but the grief stricken lover is quoted to have said "go you lady! away! In the dead of night, you try to plague me - fatigue me with your carnal urges. My life is long gone. Now I see no difference between life and death. I feel pity on you. You can't be Mumtaz! Never. This door I'll open after seven days. Do leave me alone".

Ruthless successor

The abrupt, severe melancholia which came over Sha Jahan on the death of Mumtaz explicitly shows how far he loved her and how much emotionally dependent he was on his love for her. During the early years of his ascendancy to the throne, he took his wife wherever he went, spent ample time in the royal gardens together and focused his 'indivisible love and affection on her. It is said that the emperor was highly impressed by the exceptional poetic genius of Mumtaz who wrote fragments of poetry on love during their stay in the gardens.

However, as a clear offshoot of a heavy blanket of depression, Sha Jahan fell sick and a greater level of political instability pervaded in the empire as battle of succession among his sons ensued. The emperor had established his favourite son Darashiko in Punjab as the regent but his youngest son Auranzib with inborn depravity and brutality rose against him to capture the throne.

With the final collapse of emperor Sha Jahan as a sick person, there arose a lethal conflict between Auranzib and Darashiko, for the "imperial throne". That was a conflict between mutually and noticeably contrastive brothers namely Darashiko who was considered to be generous, polite, sympathetic and charismatic and Auranzib who was absolutely marked with ruthless manipulation, craft and unconditional depravity. The pivotal battle between the two forces finally left Auranzib victorious who came to Agra and appropriated all the wealth in the coffers. Moreover, the new emperor employed every type of plans to capture his brother and finally assigned a slave called Nazaar the task of bringing Darashiko's head back to Auranzib's palace, Nazaar beheaded Darashiko after a long chase and Auranzib ordered it to be put in to a bowl of water. It is said that Auranzib washed his face with bloody water of the bowl and ordered the head to be buried in the jungle saying "Take this horribly wretched thing out of my sight".

Provocated by this inhuman slaughter, people around the palace stoned Nazaar to death labelling him to be a traitor.

Imperial tragedy

Thus Auranzib adopted a dictatorial attitude within the empire and despicably ruined virtually every force that stood on his way thwarting his imperial intentions. Auranzib's barbarism was made public when he derived immense pleasure on watching minor criminals being torn to pieces on trampling by elephants and people being skinned alive.

Later on he had developed a penchant for liquor and once he ordered a marksman to be put to capital punishment just because he had missed the target in shooting.

Next Auranzib directed his ill will towards his old fragile father (Sha Jahan). Thus Sha Jahan was imprisoned in the "Red Fort" from where he could look at the matchless monument of Taj Mahal from a small window. He was nursed by his loving daughter "Jahanara" until he breathed his last in the Red Fort with his eyes fixed on Taj Mahal.