The Taj Mahal - A Handful For Labourers?

How far will you go to immortalize the memory of a loved one? Try all you might and ideate all you want but you will never beat Shah Jahan at this.

Shah Jahan was the Emperor of the power Mughal Empire from 1628 to 1658. He gave us one of the modern natural wonders of the world. The Taj Mahal (which means Crown Of The Palace btw) is an ivory-white marble mausoleum on the south bank of the Yamuna river in the Indian city of Agra. It was commissioned in 1632 by him to house the tomb of his favourite wife, Mumtaz Mahal.

It was completed in 1653 and was estimated to cost approximately 32 million rupees back then.
In today's world, this figure would be around a whopping 52.8 billion rupees. This extravagant project employed close to 20,000 artisans under the guidance of a board of architects led by the court architect to the emperor, Ustad Ahmad Lahauri.

However, these artisans were always considered an unfortunate bunch.
Legend has it that Shah Jahan cut of all their hands in a bid to restrict them from replicating the monument elsewhere. Gruesome origins of the copyright.

Some stories even take it a bit further to say that the eyes of those involved in the construction of the Taj Mahal were forcibly taken out of their sockets. Apparently, he didn’t want them to be able to witness anything that is more beautiful than the monument they built.

These tales will give anyone the chills. Especially when you hear it for the first time, standing under the high dome of the Taj Mahal, overlooking the actual graves. The tour guide made it sound as eerie as possible and the trick worked wonders. The crowd drew collective gasps as he dropped subtle details of the story. The story was pretty convincing. But that’s only until you do a little research of your own.

All it takes, is one Google search to find out that this story is actually a myth. Turns out, many historians find this horror story to be false and baseless as no records or evidence has been found supporting it; YET.

Knowing these facts will definitely alter your perception of the Taj Mahal. The stories add another layer of spookiness to the monument which you may or may not enjoy.

I'm a bit too late to say SPOILER ALERT.