One of the seven wonders of the world the Taj Mahal is often referred to as “the shrine of love.” Located in India, this spectacular palace was built by emperor of the Mughal dynasty Shah Jehan in honor of his wife Arjumand Banu aka Murmtaj Mahal. In 1607 the emperor met Arjumand Banus while strolling the street of a bazaar. The prince was only twenty and his bride only nineteen. They were married five years later. This union was not a popular one, for it was not usual for an emperor to marry for love rather to have a wife chosen for him. Over the course of almost nineteen years this romance stood the trial and tribulations of royal scrutiny and the fight for the throne. In their nineteen years together the couple would bear fourteen children.Unfortunately, Arumand died while giving birth in 1930. Broken hearted at the news of her death, emperor Shah Jehan ordered the most beautiful mausoleum imaginably be built in her honor. This beautiful tribute to his beloved took over twenty thousand craftsman, masons, sculptors and designers from Persia to complete.

The property consists of the main gateway, garden, rest house, mosque and the mausoleum. The artwork and craftsmanship are exquisite and include inlaid gemstones, calligraphy, marble floors and breathe taking gardens. It took 22 years to build this tribute of love that is the 7th Wonder of the World.

Source: Aparna

This is the kind of story that we would come across after a simple search for Taj Mahal on the world of websites. But there is a story running around on the web that this historical monument could have indeed been built on the ruins of an even more splendid marble temple of Lord Shiva!!

A not so famous Indian historian has written a book in the early 70s about how the whole world could have been duped by the a brilliant superimposition pulled off by the builders & masons of the Shah Jahan era. He even digs into the details of the architecture and how the whole structure shows signs of an ultra-quick cover up in an effort to build a tomb for the dead Queen. He even goes to cite documents discovered in a library that indicate that a certain Tejo Mahalaya has been commandeered from the Maharaja of Jaipur by Shah Jahan.

To add to the readers’ suspicion, the author goes on to write about the traditional, mughal practice of burying their beloved muslim courtiers and royalty (including Humayun, Akbar, Mumtaz, Etmad-ud-Daula and Safdarjang) in captured Hindu mansions and temples.

Despite all that, one cannot take away from the fact that a man loved his wife so much that he went above and beyond the popular expectations of his times to maintain a relationship with her! Their union was not approved of in the social circles of their times since Mumtaj Mahal was an ordinary citizen while Shah Jahan was a prince and a legal heir to the throne after Akbar, the strong sufi emperor of Mughal Indian times, compared with the greats of Ashoka and Alexander !

The relationship stood the test of five years of tribulations and even a fight for the throne that ensued, as depicted by most historians, directly from the troubled relationship between a father and a son that started, according to most, on the day when Shah Jahan came home and told the emperor that he wanted to marry a common woman !

The couple eventually gave birth to forteen children before Mumtaj passed away in 1630. Shah Jahan was devastated when he heard the news. What was probably even more devastating to Shah Jahan was that he was right bang in the middle of a war with ‘Khan Jahan Lodi’ and could not attend to his wife during the hours of her last labor. Returning from this fierce battle that he won, Shah Jahan was elated to know that the labor went fine and the queen wanted to rest for the night in solitude. But the next morning had a different twist waiting for him. In the wee hours of the next morning, he received news that the Queen suffered a relapse and was on the verge of dying ! He refused to celebrate and went into solitude for eight straight days without food or drink. The love of his life was gone without him saying a proper goodbye and the idea that she would never return hurt him deeper than the fact that he cut down four of his own brothers, a few years ago, in his race to the throne !

Once he emerged out of this long 8-day silence, Shah Jahan announced that he wanted to renounce his throne and become a fakir after he oversaw the construction of the most beautiful tomb of all times, built in splendid white marble, in memory of his beloved wife.

Soon after, the construction of the splendid Taj Mahal began but the emperor’s mourning did not end ! In fact, he banned extravagances and indulgances across his entire empire and he, himself, abnegated worldly pleasures to start wearing white robes, a start to a long mourning that would last for the next ten straight years !

Six months after her death, Mumtaj’s body was transferred from her site of death in Burhanpur to the city of Agra where she would be finally put to rest after the construction of the resplendent monument was completed after 22 long winters in 165o’s! Some say that the site of Taj Mahal was once the Royal Meena bazar, a marketplace run by women for women, which was allegedly where Prince Khurram (later emperor Shah Jahan) met Arjumand Mumtaj !

Looking beyond the devil in the details, it is hard to overlook the essence of true love that this monument epitomizes ! Nor does it speak less of the power of a woman to captivate her man in the fragrance of true love !