The Story Of Taj Mahal– The Monument Of Love

TAJ MAHAL, the pride of India stands at the heart of the country. The great emperor, Shah Jahan had build this cenotaph to make his love eternal , which gives an instance as a symbol of love. Behind the monument of love there exists a story which is not a fairy tale as expectedbut a traumatising reality.

This is a story of the great emperor, Shah Jahan and the most beautiful, Mumtaz Mahal. Shah Jahan, the son of Jahangir and the fourth Mughal emperor of INDIA, was the grandson of “Akbar the great”. On the other hand Mumtaz Mahal was the daughter of a Persian noble man Abu’l-Hasan Asaf Khan. Mumtaz Mahal was very talented and cultured lady. She had a very neat-handed in Arabic and Persian languages in which she can even compose poems.

In the year 1607, once Shah Jahan was strolling down the Meena Bazar, where he caught a glance to a girl, who was hawking silk and glass beads. The girl was undoubtedly the most pretty, Mumtaz Mahal. It was the love at first sight. Shah Jahan was the husband of three wives but his love was reserved for one and only, Mumtaz. She was Shah Jahan’s second wife with whom he could only consult each and everything about both private matters as well as the external affairs of the state and as a trustable adviser. Mumtaz was the perfect co-ordinator for the then Mughal Emperor. Even throughout his earlier military campaigns he fetched his beloved. Shah Jahan even gave special treatment and care to her that no other empress was ever given before.

In their nineteen years of marriage, they had eight sons and six daughters. But unfortunately seven of the children took their last breathe at the time of their birth or in a very early age. When Mumtaz was giving birth to their fourteenth child, she experienced tremendous labour pain, resultant to death. At that time of heartbreaking sorrow,her body was temporarily buried at Burhanpur in a walled pleasure garden known as Zainabad. Shah Jahan committed a promise, “not to do any further marriage” to Mumtaz when she was about to leave her last breath. After her death, Mughal emperor became inconsolable and sometimes he thought to build a monument in the memory of his beloved. Hence, Burhanpur was never determined by him as his wife’s final resting spot. Then the aftermath, Shah Jahan transported her body to Agra, on the banks of the Yamuna river. At first her body was interred in a small building while he started the plan to design and construct a beautiful mausoleum for his beautiful wife. It took 22 years, the toil of 22000 labours and the consistent will power to built his better half’s memory. This mausoleum is non other than the TAJ MAHAL.

TAJ MAHAL is not just a magnificent monument but this is an architecture that symbolizes love. Every stones of this fills with love, loss and remorse. This is an example of how deeply a man, a great emperor on the other hand can love his wife even after she remained but a memory. He wanted not to fade away her memory at any round the clock. And he made what he dreams.

After his death the placement of his grave was done on one side of Mumtaz’s grave which is in the centre though Shah Jahan had not intended to entomb another person in the TAJ MAHAL. Hence, this concludes the greatest and evergreen love stories in the Indian History.