Change In Plans

TRUE OR FALSE? - THE TAJ MAHAL IS ACTUALLY VERY TINY

Greetings from Agra, home of three UNESCO World Heritage Sites.  This short post is about our morning at  the Taj Mahal.

It is hard to say anything original about the beauty and grandeur of the Taj Mahal.  We came with very high expectations, and they were exceeded wildly.  The Taj Mahal  is such an iconic visual image that viewing it from a distance was too familiar to feel special.

As we walked through the spectacular red sandstone gates, we started to appreciate the genius of the architecture much more: nearly absolute symmetry along two axes, many tricks of the eye to frame and enhance the underlying beauty.  It really is an architectural masterpiece.

Once we got close to, and inside, the Taj Mahal itself we were able to appreciate the much-vaunted craftsmanship.  The decorative stone work is all chiseled out of marble, and inlaid with semi-precious stones.  The ornateness (ornatity? ornatitude?) is like nothing else we have seen anywhere, and really can not be appreciated from a distance.  It almost makes the Moroccan tilework we admired so much look simple and prefabricated by comparison.

There is nothing that I can add to the torrent of descriptive words and superlatives written about the Taj Mahal since it was completed in 1653.  More eloquent versions of the above two paragraphs could be found in any guidebook.  What might be more interesting is a series of observation-based true/false responses to prejudicial statements and questions we would have gotten from movies, TV, books, anecdotes.

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Although the Taj Mahal itself is beautiful, the surrounding area is very dirty and rundown?  There is an open sewer running right past the grounds? - FALSE.  The grounds and the surrounding area are clean and well maintained by any standard. There is a “zero emissions zone” of golf carts and battery-powered tuk tuks for a few hundred meters outside the main gates (not sure it makes any difference, but it is a symbolic gesture).  The Yamuna River could use more water, but does not smell or appear particularly polluted.  The rest of Agra seemed no better or worse than the other small cities we have seen in India.

The Taj Mahal perfectly symmetrical along two axes?  - ALMOST TRUE.  In the entire colossal structure, the only asymmetry is the placement of Shah Jahan’s tomb just alongside his wife’s tomb (which is exactly at the center).  This seems OK, since he built it as a monument to her, and this small asymmetry in death is almost poetic.  To my totally untrained eye, everything else, down to smallest details, is symmetrical.  Cool.

Did Shah Jahan, the Mughal Emperor, get deposed, and die as a prisoner in Agra Fort? - TRUE.  Shah Jahan’s son, Aurangzeb, was a nasty piece of work.  Aurangzeb had his brothers murdered, overthrew and imprisoned his father, and then ruled the Mughal Empire with staggering incompetence.  Shah Jahan was locked in Agra Fort, but his son gave him a window with a view of the Taj Mahal.  The legend is that Shah Jahan cried so much that he ruined his eyes in six months, but that his daughter brought him a big diamond to correct his vision, so he could still see his wife’s grave.

Did Shah Jahan promise his wife on her deathbed to build the Taj Mahal? - TRUE.  Mumtaz Mahal (whose name meant “beauty of the palace”) was Shah Jahan’s third and favorite wife.  She died while giving birth to their fourteenth child.  Before she died, she asked her husband to promise three things: (1) never marry anyone else; (2) take good care of the children; (3) build a monument to their love.  He never married again, and he definitely built the monument.  Of the 14 children, only Aurangzeb and two unmarried daughters outlived Shah Jahan, so it is hard to say that he fulfilled promise #2.  Not really his fault, though.

Was there a plan to build a matching “black Taj Mahal” across the river? - TRUE.  It was supposed to be his own mausoleum, with a bridge between the two buildings, “so their soul could meet over the river at night.” Shah Jahan had started work on the foundation when his son overthrew him.

After the Taj Mahal was completed, to prevent the workers from making anything else so beautiful, were they killed, or blinded, or have their hands cut off? - FALSE.  Apparently they were paid a lot of money, but were free to do what they wanted.  The Shiraz family, which did a lot of the detailed stone inlay work, is now several-thousand strong in Agra, and making beautiful marble tables, vases, etc.

Aren’t the crowds unbelievably bad at the Taj Mahal? - FALSE. This is peak season, and it wasn’t bad at all.  Average for the year is 15,000 visitors per day, and peak (like yesterday) is about 25,000.  The space is so vast that it didn’t seem crowded at all, certainly not crowded relative to the streets of old Agra a few miles away.

Do the four minarets lean like the Tower of Pisa? - TRUE. The Turkish architect designed the minarets to lean away from the Taj Mahal, so that if they ever fell, they would not damage the main building.  This either shows incredible foresight and planning, or a real lack of confidence in the construction.  My guess is the former.  The towers lean out visibly, but have been standing for over 350 years.

Thank you for playing Taj Mahal trivia.  It is really something worth seeing live and in person.  

Today we drive back t Delhi, and fly to Kochin, way down in the South of India.  Sadly, today we also say goodbye to our great guide and friend, Indrajit.  Zola and Tallulah may choose to stay with him, and go look for tigers for the next few months.

GREETINGS FROM THE TAJ MAHAL