That now as such, Mr.Havell in his assertion is very clear that the Taj Mahal is built in the ancient Indian, Hindu style and none of Shahjahan’s contemporaries could design or conceive of it. We regret that Mr. Havell was unaware of the admission in Shahjahan’s own official chronicle, The Badshahnama, that the Taj Mahal is an ancient Hindu mansion. Had that confession come to light in his time he would have rejoiced to find his architectural conclusion fully corroborated by history, and he would then have been acknowledged as an authority on Indian architecture far superior to Percy Brown or Fergusson. 111. That Like all other so called Invader tombs i.e. Hindu buildings used by them first as residences and later as burial places the Taj Mahal too is not a single tomb but an ancient Hindu mansion reduced to an Islamic burial ground. Besides Mumtaz, Shahjahan himself lies buried by her side. But that is not all. There are two other graves in the same precincts. 112. That Mr Kanwar lal (P. 69 The Taj by Kanwar Lal, ibid.) observes. “At the other end of the Jilokhana, towards the east there are again two buildings These are the tombs of Satunnisa (Khanam) who was a favourite attendant of Mumtaz Mahal and who was entrusted with the task of looking after the temporary tomb of Mumtaz Mahal at Burhanpur. Similar is the tomb of Sarhandi Begum, another of Shahjahan’s queens. The two structures are built exactly the alike.” 113. That the Satunnisa Khanam’s tomb consists of a high octagonal plinth, round a central octagonal mortuary chamber. That Taj is based on good authority, but the special assignment to her of this particular tomb has no better foundation than popular belief. That shows that like every other detail about the Taj Mahal legend even the Satunissa Khanam tomb is a concoction. All such tomb like mounds were erected in usurped Hindu mansions so that Hindus may not reclaim and re use those buildings. The Invaders knew of the Hindu weakness of not disturbing or reclaiming sepulchral sites. So, erecting false oblong grave like mounds was like posting a strong military contingent or planting a scarecrow, which cost practically nothing. It was a simple device a strategic totem to claim Hindu buildings for Islam and it worked admirably. 114. That It is sometimes innocently asked by history teachers that if the Taj Mahal had existed centuries before Shahjahan, how is it there are no earlier references to it. There are three answer to the question. Firstly, the Taj Mahal being then the palace and not the monument open for public inspection as it now is, used to be closely guarded. It was accessible only to the elite and then only on invitation or conquest. As such one cannot except the same prolific references to it as a tourist attraction that one comes across in these days of publicity and modern communications. The second answer is that ancient and mediaeval India teemed with mansions, palaces and temples of bewildering and bewitching variety, so much so that being all very spectacular, one could not be distinguished from another by mere description. Despite such very good reasons for not expecting any identifiable details in earlier records of what is at present known as Taj Mahal, luckily, Babur, the founder of the Mogul dynasty in India, who was the great great grandfather of emperor Shahjahan, has left us a disarming and unmistakable description of the Taj Mahal, if only we have the inclination and insight to grasp it. So our third answer to the question why no mention is found in earlier chronicles of the Taj Mahal and other buildings is that though many a time there is a clear mention of such buildings, our senses benumbed by traditional tutoring fail to grasp their significance. Such is the case with the Taj Mahal. 115. That the rampant corruption was prevalent during the Mogul time and there were large percentage of unauthorized profits of innumerable middle men thus there was no money to raise a cenotaph in the ground floor in octagonal chamber by covering them with costly mosaic stones to match with the palace flooring and barricading the hundred of rooms, ventilators staircases, doorways, balconies and corridor. There exist a seven-storey marble Tejo Mahalaya Hindu temple palace complex. The seven storey massive girth in its lofty gateways and arches necessitates the removal of stone pitching and as such Badshahnama discloses the expenditure incurred in scaffolding of these Hindu complexes and in engraving the Koran on the walls of edifice. The great French merchant visitor tavernier testimony too fully corroborates the aforesaid conclusion. Let us examine his testimony introduce in Maharashtreeya Jnyankosh. “Jean Baptiste Tavernier, a French jeweler, toured India for trade between 1641 and 1668 A.D. His travel account is mainly devoted to commerce. He used to sojourn at Surat and Agra (while in India). He visited all parts of India, including Bengal, Gujrat, Punjab, Madras, Karnatak, etc. He owned a vehicle .He had to spend Rs. 600 for the cart and pair of bullocks. ‘The bullocks used to cover 40 miles a day for two months at a stretch. Four days were enough for the journey from Surat to Agra or Golcunda and the expense used to be between Rs. 40 and Rs.50. The roads were as good as Roman highways. European traveler’s felt inconvenienced in Hindu territories for want of meat, which was freely available in Invader dominions. A good postal system was in vogue. Both the town –folk and the government used to provide protection against highway robbery’…is the kind of information Travernier has recorded (in his book titled Travels in India). Not being learned, he has not recorded much except where wealth and commerce was concerned. 116. That the other important piece of evidence arises from some chance digging conducted in the Garden in front of the marble edifice early in the year 1973 A.D. It so happened that the fountains developed some defect .It was therefore thought advisable to inspect the main pipe that lay imbedded underneath. When the ground was dug to that level some hollows were noticed going down to another five feet. Therefore the ground was dug to that depth. And to the utter surprise of all there lay at that depth another set of fountains hitherto unknown. What appeared more significant was that those fountains are aligned to the Taj Mahal, decisively indicating that the present building existed even before Shahjahan. Those hidden fountains could have been installed neither by Shahjahan not his successors, the British. Therefore they were of the pre-Shahjahan era. Since they were aligned to the Taj Mahal building it followed ipso facto that the building too pre-dated Shahjahan. This piece of evidence too therefore clinches the issue in favour of our conclusion that Shahjahan only commandeered an ancient Hindu temple –palace for Mumtaz’s burial. 117. That the archaeology officer, who supervised that digging, was Mr. R. S. Verma, a conservation assistant, who made another chance discovery. Once while strolling staff-in-hand on the terrace near the so-called mosque and the circular well on the western flank of the marble edifice, Mr. Verma detected a hollow sound coming from below the floor where his staff hit the terrace. He had a slab covering that spot removed and to his surprise that was an ancient opening, apparently sealed by Shahjahan, to a flight of about 50 steps reaching down into a dark corridor. The broad wall under the terrace was apparently hollow. From this it is clear that the corresponding spot on the eastern terrace also hides a similar staircase and corridor, at its bottom. And God only knows how many more such walls, apartments and stories lie sealed, hidden and unknown to the world. Thus also incidentally points to the sorry state of research with respect to the Taj Mahal. Nobody seems to have done neither any archaeological investigation in the grounds of the Taj Mahal nor conducted a diligent academic study of the whole issue. Apparently extraneous political and communal considerations have inhibited historians and archeologists from conducting any meaningful research into the origin of Taj Mahal. Such Academic cowardice is highly reprehensible. 118. That Naturally when chance alien visitors like Peter Mundy visit such sites undergoing extensive superficial changes his observing that “the building is begun…. …( and ) is prosecuted with extraordinary diligence “ is not wrong .He couldn’t visualise that some generations after him posterity would be bluffed into believing that the Taj Mahal complex was raised by Shahjahan himself .Travernier and Peter Mundy could not possibly visualize such a falsification of history and could not be more explicit. We ourselves visiting some building as chance visitors wouldn’t be more explicit. For instance if we were to visit Bombay or London at a time when somebody has acquired somebody else’s mansion and has enclosed it in massive scaffolding to renovate it for his own purpose we won’t dare or care to ask him how he acquired the building, for how much, from whom, what changes he proposed to make, and spend how much over it .We would simply refer to it as his building. Such inquiries are all the more impossible when a wide hiatus of language, race, culture authority, and wealth separates the two. Peter Mundy also fortunately records the object of the leveling up of the hillocks. The hillocks were removed, he says, ”because they might not hinder the prospect “ of the mausoleum .The very fact that within a couple of years of Mumtaz’s death the hillocks were leveled to afford a glimpse of the mausoleum clearly indicates that the Taj building complex already existed .All that was necessary was to level some of the hillocks and make the building visible from a distance. In fact the very object of the ancient Hindu builders of the Taj raising those hillocks seems from Mundy’s noting, to prevent the tempting Taj to be the target of a malicious enemy’s attack. Since Shahjahan was converting it into a tomb open to all and sundry, he no longer had the need to keep it out of the gaze of enmical people. 119. That Waldemar Hansen notes on pages 181-182 of his book (titled “The Peacock Throne”, published by Holt, Rhinehart and Winston) that “Even as early as 1632 on the first anniversary of Mumtaz Mahal’s death, the courtyard of the mausoleum in progress had been adorned with superb tents, with the entire court assembled to pay homage- princes of the royal blood, grandees and an assemblage of religious scholars including sheikhs, ulemas and hafizes who knew the whole Koran by heart. Shahjahan had graced the event with his presence, and as the empress’s father Asaf Khan was present by imperial request, a great banquet was spread before the then nascent tomb and guests partook of a variety of foods, sweetmeats, and fruits. Verses from the Koran filled the air, prayers were offered for the soul of the dead and a hundred thousand rupees went into charity. In later years on other anniversary days, Shahjahan attended memorials at the incomplete edifice whenever in Agra, formally accompanied by Jahanara and the harem .The ladies always occupied a central platform set up for the occasion, and remained concealed from the public gaze by kanats, screens of red cloth and velvet. Noblemen gathered under pitched tents. 120. That the Taj Mahal originated as a temple -The inscription in Sanskrit has 34 stanzas of which stanzas 25,26 and 34 being relevant to our topic are reproduced as translation. Translated, these means:”He (King Parmardi Dev or on his behalf his minister Salakshan) raised a palace which had inside it the idol of Lord Vishnu whose feet the king used to touch with his (bowed) head. 121. That “Similarly the King also had constructed this temple,(dedicated) to the God who bears the crescent on His (fore)head, made of crystal white stone. Consecrated in that (magnificent) temple the lord (was so pleased that He) never thought of repairing to His (Himalayan) abode on mount Kailas. The inscription found at Mauja Bateshwar, near Agra is at present in the Lucknow Museum.It is of the King Paramardi Dev dated Vikram Samvat 1212, Ashwin (month),5th day of the bright lunar fortnight. It has in all 34 stanzas which describe the origin of the Chandratreya (regal) dynasty and its important rulers. The inscription was found embedded in a mound at Bateshwar .It was later deposited in the Lucknow Museum by General Cunnigham, where it still is. The two beautiful marble temples which King Paramardi Dev had raised, one for Lord Vishnu and the other for Lord Shiva were subsequently desecrated during Invader invasions. Some clever (farsighted) person has this inscription ,concerning these temples,buried in a mound. It remained buried for many years until1900 A.D. when during excavations it was discovered by General Cunnigham. The Shiva (Chandramauleeshwar) temple is obviuosly the Taj Mahal for the following reasons:
Posted on: Wed, 24 Jul 2013 20:31:59 +0000
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