Everybody loves a love story. It doesn’t get much more fairytale than today’s story
Mumtaz was a beautiful intelligent young lady of good lineage. Shah Jahan was the fifth Mogul Emperor. He took Mumtaz to be his second wife of three, but couldn’t care less about the other two, he only had eyes for Mumtaz. They had fourteen children in nineteen years, sadly the birth of the last was too much and Mumtaz died.
It just so happened that Shah Jahan was rich, ranking either number one or two in the world depending on opinion of the time. He built a mausoleum to celebrate the life, and host the remains, of Mumtaz Taj.
It took 22 years from her death in 1631 to it’s formal completion in 1653. It is now, of course, a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Based on what Narendra tells us I calculate the cost today of Taj Mahal to be about $1.44B but other opinions vary between 80% and 90% of my figure: I use gold prices so it’s a messy calculation! Even so, the labour costs are incomparable since a large portion of the 20,000 workers were slaves not staff.
Anyway a drop in the ocean for a rich man who has created a building which has become one of the most photographed and iconic images in the world.
We had talked about going for sunrise, but Narendra tells us the forecast is not good, so we aim for 08:30 arrival. This turns out to be a master stroke as he tells us he has never seen it so quiet in hundreds of visits.
Based on Narendra’s advice we’re hiring a photographer today, at great expense, so we can not only have a good record but also concentrate more on the experience and less on worrying about the best shot.
These official photographers do make a difference, once we got over the initial, and subsequent shocks, we are pleased to get a dump of 244 photos, both of us and stock photos. The latter I’m reluctant to post on my blog for copyright worries, but I may stick some on the Wild West of Facebook since it has no morals these days.
After our photo shoot we then get to walk around the park. We don protective shoe coverings and can access the white marble sections. Eventually we get up to and into the mausoleum itself, although it’s not possible to photograph inside.
Anyway the sarcophagi, yes pleural because Shah Jahan lies beside her, are 30ft below us, and not on show to the public. At public level there’s a small rotunda with replicas.
Appropriately we next visit a stonemasons where the skill of marquetry is practiced in just the same way the Persian craftsman created Taj Mahal.
Then we visit Agra fort, the Mughal palace where Mumtaz and Jahan, generations before (and one after) lived. Built many centuries before it was the Mughal emperors who developed it much as we see today.
There are some beautiful rooms and the sad section where Shah Jahan was imprisoned by his dastardly fourth son for seven years until his death.
After lunch we take a walk in the area of the hotel. It’s very basic but surprisingly has quite a lot of wedding venues.
Next we’re back on the road, heading to Mehtabh Bach, a park on the other side of the river, in order to get an evening view of Taj. I also get to drive a tuk tuk!
Dinner is again quite good and we get to try Kachori Chaat which is lovely. The only downside is the musak – if I hear repeated, mangled versions of Gershwin’s Piano Concierto in F, Jesu Joy of Man’s Desiring and Auld Lang Syne again, that cup o’ kindness is going to get emptied right into the CD player!
