Much of our information about the Taj Mahal is unknown.
The Taj Mahal is the tomb of Mamtaz, the wife of Emperor Sahabuddin Muhammad Shahjahan. After which the name is Taj Mahal. Khurram, the third son of Emperor Jahangir, was born in 1592. He grew up to be the jewel in the eyes of grandfather Akbar and father Jahangir. Not to his mother Jagat Gonsai (Bilkis Makani), but to his childless grandmother Rokeya Sultana Begum. Although skilled in warfare, he was interested in many other subjects, such as architecture, gems and handicrafts.
At the age of 15, he was engaged to Arjumand Banu Begum, the granddaughter of Umrah Itimaddaula, the highest official of the court. After waiting for five years for marriage, they got married in 1812 with great pomp and circumstance. After marriage, Arjumand Banu's new name is Mumtaz Mahal. A few years later, after winning the battle of Mebar and the Deccan, Khurram also got the title of 'Shahjahan'. The bond between the two was deep, wherever Shah Jahan went, Mumtaz stayed with him. Mumtaz was even with him when he was in Mebar, Gujarat or Burhanpur for the war. While in Burhanpur, Mumtaz died suddenly in 1731 (that is, just three years after Shahjahan became emperor in 1626) while giving birth to their fourteenth child. The emperor was so devastated that he could not concentrate on the kingdom for a long time. Jahanara, the eldest daughter of sixteen, then took care of her father. Mumtaz was temporarily buried at Ahukhana in Zainabad, some distance from the Shahi fort at Burhanpur. On his return to Agra, Shah Jahan decided to build a tomb for his Begum. From the contemporary accounts, it is known that the work started according to the instructions of the emperor in each case of site selection, appointment of architects and architects, design of the monument, decoration.
Where the river Jamuna takes a major turn from the bottom of the fort to the west, the large garden house of Raja Man Singh Kachhwaha of Amer (Jaipur) became the emperor's favorite. According to the name of Kachhwahad, the name of the area is Kachhpura. The then high-ranking Umrah Raja (later Mirza Raja) Jaisingh Kachwaha wanted to donate the land knowing the attitude of the emperor. But as per the permission of Islam, it is not permissible to build a holy tomb on donated land or snatched land. The document from which this information was obtained is a copy of the original document, transferred from the 'Kapaddwara' archives in Jaipur and is now preserved in the State Archives of Bikaner. There is no mention of whether there was a temple on this land. Apart from that, in the Kachhwaha dynasty, except for the second Sawai Ram Singh (nineteenth century), no one was a worshiper of Shiva, all were worshipers of the mother goddess. A colorful design of the City Palace Museum in Jaipur shows that in 1835, there were a total of 42 houses, gardens or mausoleums of members of the royal family and court emirs on both sides of the river Jamuna. It is also known from two other documents of the 'Kapaddwara' archives that Jaysingh had fulfilled the entire responsibility of excavating marble from Makrana mine in Rajasthan and sending it to Agra.
The name of the architect of the Taj Mahal is not officially mentioned anywhere. During the reign of Yuvraj, many small monuments were built as per the instructions of Shah Jahan and later according to his plan. Munshiana is known for its architecture in the construction of two beautiful allotments on the shores of Anasagar in Ajmer, Shahibaug Palace in Ahmedabad, Dewani-Am, Dewani Khas and Hammam in Shahi Fort in Burhanpur, parts of Lahore Fort. So there is no doubt that the design and construction of the Taj will have a direct impact on his thinking.
The magnificent tombs of the Mughal emperors have been built before, such as Humayun's tomb in Delhi and Akbar's tomb in the center of Agra. But Shahjahan wanted to shape his thinking in a slightly different way. Although the three mausoleums were built right in the middle of the garden, the Taj was built in the northernmost part of the garden, on the banks of the river.
Although it is not officially mentioned who was entrusted with the design of the Taj, we are fairly certain that the chief architect of the Taj was Ustad Ahmad Lahori. Lutfullah Muhandis's Dewan-i-Muhandis states that his father, Ustad Ahmad, had a reputation as an architect, technologist, mathematician and astronomer, and that he was not only the architect of the Taj Mahal, but also of Shahjahanabad and the Red Fort in Delhi. The emperor was satisfied with his work and awarded him the title of ‘Nadir-ul-Asr’ (the best in the world). Ustad Hamid helped Lahori. Mir Abdul Karim, an experienced builder of Jahangir's time, was responsible for the construction according to the design. Jahangir gave him the title of Mamur Khan (Architect Khan). Makramat Khan used to help him. The main structure is made of baked bricks made with special spices, covered with white marble. The main attraction of the monument is its 35 meter high dome. According to some sources, the construction of the dome was entrusted to the Turkish architects Ustad Isha and Ustad Afandi. There are doubts about its authenticity as no written support is available. On the dome, there is a heavy gold-plated copper pin about nine meters long, rising from the middle of an inverted lotus flower. This was done by Kazim Khan, a famous goldsmith of Lahore.
The main reason for the beauty of the Taj is the decoration on the walls and the arches of the high doors on all four sides. At the bottom of the wall are rows of flowering trees with relief work done with great care. It feels so alive that you want to touch it. The flowers look familiar but fine!
