The history of Taj Mahal dates
back to the Mughal Era in India between 16th & 19th. The construction of
this masterpiece is credited to the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan, who erected
this mausoleum in the memory of his beloved mistress, Arjumand Bano Begum,
popularly known as Mumtaz Mahal, who died in 1630 AD.
Mumtaz Mahal's last wish to her husband was "to build a tomb in
her memory such as the world had never seen before". Thus emperor Shah
Jahan set about building this fairytale like marvel. Mumtaz Mahal died,
after delivering her fourteenth child "Gauharar". While Mumtaz was
on her deathbed Shahjahan had promised her, never to remarry and to build
the richest mausoleum over her grave. The body was temporarily buried in the
Zainabadi Garden in Burhanpur and in six months time removed to Agra. He
decided to build the mausoleum in a plot on the riverside. The work on the
tomb started with thousands of artisans and labourers.
Shahjahan requested Raja Jai Singh to immediately and constantly
supply the Makrana marble for the tomb. To carry huge marble slabs to the
top, an inclined two and a half mile long road ramp was built. The
construction materials were brought in from all over India and central Asia
and it took a fleet of 1000 elephants to transport it to the construction
site. The central dome of the tomb is 187 feet high at the centre. Red
sandstone was brought from Fatehpur Sikri, Jasper from Punjab, Jade and
Crystal from China, Turquoise from Tibet, Lapis Lazuli and Sapphire from Sri
Lanka, Coal and Cornelian from Arabia and diamonds from Panna. In all 28
kind of semi precious and precious stones were used for inlay work in the
Taj Mahal. The main building material, the white marble was brought from the
quarries of Makrana, in distt. Nagaur, Rajasthan. In almost six years the
main edifice of the tomb was complete.
