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The Taj Mahal was built during the Mughal Period, under Shah Jahan who
ruled from 1628-1650. The myth goes that it was built for love when his
favorite wife, Muntaz Mahal died in 1631. It then became the quintessential
monument to romanticism from Queen Victoria to former President Roosevelt.
To really understand the Taj Mahal one must understand that two notions
of the Koran are expressed very specifically in the landscape. The first
is the depiction of the Day of Judgement - Allah on his thrown, entering
into paradise. The Taj Mahal it self is built in the shape of Shah Jahan’s
thrown. Shah Jahan saw himself merged with Allah, because he used his
own thrown in the depiction of the Day of Judgement. Shah Jahan imagined
himself as the perfect human and with his appreciation for culture and
art he wanted to create a monument that would embody his power and kingship.
The Taj Mahal was an extension of himself. The second aspect of the Koran
expressed was in the landscape’s exact rendition of what Mohammed
saw on his visit to paradise. The inscriptions written on the Taj Mahal
are very detailed descriptions of paradise specifically described in the
Koran. The gardens in front of the Taj Mahal refer to the entrance to
paradise. They are not the formal decorative gardens that the West describes
them as.
To understand the Taj Mahal one must also understand how the British depicted
the Taj Mahal through many Company paintings. They rendered the Taj Mahal
with clean edges, without the gardens, without the context of the environment
surrounding it. They emphasized its whiteness. It was sanitized to better
fit the ideal moment to love. If it was the ideal monument of love, how
did the Europeans feel about the couple it represented?
Shah Jahan and his relationship with his wife Muntaz are also important
in understanding the Taj Mahal. Shah Jahan was married to Muntaz Mahal
for 19 years and for the last three he was King. Shah Jahan’s wife,
Muntaz was a very intelligent and capable woman. She was the mother of
14 children and was idealized, almost like Mother Mary by many. But according
to Portuguese clergy she was vindictive and evil, and was responsible
for several clergy’ deaths. Therefore according to them, her death
was Gods revenge. Muntaz was also one of Shah Jahan’s many wives.
This concept challenged the Europeans. In fact, since the Europeans personally
knew Shah Jahan and Muntaz, the first question to be asked is with these
facts how does their relationship become the ideal symbol of love? The
Europeans dealt with this conflict by rewriting Indian history, removing
what didn’t fit with their values and by "exoticizing"
what they didn’t understand.
Even though Muntaz was Shah Jahan’s favorite wife, many questions
remain. Would the Taj Mahal have been built anyway even if Muntaz hadn’t
died? Was the Taj Mahal sanitized and removed from its context? Is its
meaning Indian at all? Is the true meaning of the Taj Mahal what Shah
Jahan thought? What the British thought? Or are there many truths to this
highly complicated monument?
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