Taj Mahal, one of the Seven Wonders of the World stands on the bank of River Yamuna in Central India. It was built by the fifth Mughal emperor, Shah Jahan in 1631 in memory of his second wife, Mumtaz Mahal, a Muslim Persian princess who died while accompanying her husband in Burhanpur in a campaign to crush a rebellion after giving birth to their 14th child.
The Taj rises on a high red sandstone base topped by a huge white marble terrace on which rests the famous dome flanked by four tapering minarets. Within the dome lies the jewel-inlaid tomb of the queen. The emperor Shah Jahan was deposed by his son Aurengazeb and imprisoned in the Great Red Fort for eight years but was buried in the Taj.

The Taj Mahal is considered the finest example of Mughal architecture, a style that combines elements from Persian, Indian, and Islamic architectural styles. In 1983, the Taj Mahal became a UNESCO World Heritage Site and was cited as “the jewel of Muslim art in India and one of the universally admired masterpieces of the world’s heritage.”

Building began around 1632 and was completed around 1653, and employed thousands of artisans and craftsmen. The construction of the Taj Mahal was entrusted to a board of architects under imperial supervision including Abd ul-Karim Ma’mur Khan, Makramat Khan, and Ustad Ahmad Lahauri. Lahauri is generally considered to be the principal designer.

When Mumtaz Mahal was still alive, she extracted 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. Twenty thousand people were deployed to work on it. The material was brought in from all over India and central Asia and it took a fleet of 1000 elephants to transport it to the site.

The Taj Mahal incorporates and expands on design traditions of Persian architecture and earlier Mughal architecture. The Taj has a life of its own that leaps out of marble, because it is a monument of love and as an architectural masterpiece, nothing could be added or subtracted from it.

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