Published in PGurus on Nov, 13, 2023
Recently the Delhi High Court directed the ASI to investigate a plea by Hindu Sena claiming that the Taj Mahal was not built by Shah Jahan. The plea was made to get the correct historical information about the age and construction of the Taj Mahal. This direction by the court generates a renewed interest in the antecedents of the Taj Mahal and a relook at the conflicting claims on its construction.
Stephan Knapp in
his website has produced a list of articles by authors who claimed that the Taj
Mahal was a pre-existing Hindu structure – either a palace or a temple – that
was appropriated by Shah Jahan (reign 1628 to 1658) to house the last remains
of his wife, Mumtaz who died during the delivery of her 14th child.
It was claimed that Shah Jahan employed 20,000 men who worked continuously for
22 years to complete the Taj Mahal. It is said that Mumtaz died in the year
1631, the work to construct the Taj Mahal commenced in 1632 and it got over in
the year 1653. Several details pertaining to the authenticity of this claim and
counterclaims can be read on Stephan Knapp’s website while here I would like to
focus on less discussed or unpublicized issues only.
In any historical
analysis, contemporary literature is accepted as primary evidence. Only two such
texts exist as we know. One is the travelogue of J.B. Tavernier and another is Badshanama, an
official biography written by chroniclers employed by Shah Jahan himself. Tavernier
had written his work in French which was translated into English later. The English
translation claims that he was present in Agra at the time of commencement of
the Taj Mahal and he returned when it got over. It was his assertion that the Taj
Mahal was completed in 22 years with a manpower of 20,000 men.
A reading of his
original version in French however showed that he came to Agra ten years after
the year of commencement of the Taj Mahal and he was not in Agra at the time of
completion. Therefore, whatever he had written was not a firsthand information
but something he wrote by hearsay. Hence, his version cannot be taken as primary
evidence.
The only other
contemporary work was Badshanama which contains vital information on the Taj Mahal.
Of the total of 1600 pages, the information on Mumtaz and the Taj Mahal are
found only in two pages. It says that the palace of Raja Man Singh which was in
the custody of Raja Jai Singh was chosen for burying the late wife of Shah
Jahan. Though Jai Singh was unwilling to part with his ancestral property he relented
without expecting anything in return when the body of Mumtaz arrived. However,
he was compensated with a piece of government land.
Badshanama says
that in the following year the body was buried under the dome. This makes it clear
that there was a pre-existing structure which was used for burial. Here we must
know background information about Raja Jai Singh. He was a subsidiary of Shah
Jahan and fought for him in battles. His grandfather Man Singh whose palace was
asked by Shah Jahan worked as a commander in the army of Akbar. During Akbar’s
reign, Man Singh renovated the Kashi Vishvanatha temple where Gyan Vapi is
located. Later this temple of Bhagawan Vishvanatha was vandalized by Aurangzeb
to build a mosque over it. But the temple was out of reach for the Mughals
during Man Singh’s period.
Now examining the
claims on the Taj Mahal as the palace of Man Singh got from the custody of his
grandson Jai Singh to build the mausoleum for Mumtaz, it can be theorized that
Jai Singh would not have let it into the hands of Shah Jahan if it was a
temple. It is reasonable to assume that it was indeed a mansion which he gave
up.
However, further
developments raise doubts about the nature of the structure used by Shah Jahan.
There are four extant farman-s (orders) issued by Shah Jahan to Jai Singh to
send stone- laborers and cartloads of marble stones from the mines of Makranna. Jai Singh was reluctant to obey, and he delayed the dispatch of
marbles and prevented the manpower from going to Agra to work on the mausoleum.
Why did he do so? He handed over his palace in exchange for land, knowing very
well the purpose for which it was going to be used. Having known that why did
he not cooperate with Shah Jahan in getting the mausoleum finished in the way
he liked?
Suppose the palace was not used for the purpose for which it was bought from him, and instead another site was used for the same purpose, there is scope to say that Raja Jai Singh was upset with the new site used for burying. Suppose the new site was a temple building, captured already by the Mughals, then Raja Jai Singh could have had no say in the way it was used. He would have been helpless. In that context we can understand his reluctance to oblige the farman-s of the Badshah.
This doubt arises
from the numerous evidence cited by researchers like P.N. Oak and Dr. Godbole that
Taj Mahal could have been a temple. Certainly, Jai Singh did not give a temple
for burying the corpse of Mumtaz; he had given only his palace. If there was a
temple, he could be expected to have to protected it or renovated it like his grandfather
who renovated the temple of Bhagawan Vishvanatha. On the other hand, if a
temple was already in the control of the Mughals, he had nothing to do about
it. Perhaps to save the temple from becoming the mausoleum, he might have taken
the difficult decision of giving up his precious ancestral property on the assurance
that it would be used for housing the coffin of Mumtaz.
This looks feasible
given the fact that he was hesitant to give his ancestral property. Only after
the body arrived, he had reluctantly given up without expecting any returns on the assumption
that the temple in the custody of the Mughals would be spared. But within a
year the body was buried under the dome, says Badshahnama. Which dome? Where
was the dome? Was that the dome of Man Singh’s palace or the dome of the
temple?
In the latter case,
there is a strong reason for the way Jai Singh was upset with the plans of Shah
Jahan. He could not be expected to cooperate with him such that it required
four farman-s to be issued by the Badshah – they are the only evidence for the work of marbles done by Shah Jahan.
In support of the
claim that the mausoleum was constructed on a pre-existing temple, let me quote
a research work on the Mughal garden in the south of Taj Mahal, called Char
Bhagh. Square in shape, it occupies a larger area than the Taj Mahal area. It
is crisscrossed by water channels to divide the garden into four equal squares.
At the centre, there is a fountain in existence right from Shah Jahan’s time.
Water for this fountain is fed by an aqueduct from the Yamuna from the western
side of the Taj Mahal and Char Bhagh. The aqueduct stops at the
middle of the western side of the char Bhagh where water is kept in storage
tanks. An earthen pipeline goes 6 feet under the ground from the middle of the western
border to the centre of the Char Bhagh
to feed the fountain.
The fountain was
bordered with marble slabs by Lord Curzon. Tourists and foreign dignitaries who
visit the site used to sit on the marble slab to take snaps because the Taj
Mahal is exactly behind this and can be captured in photographs in its entirety from this
centre.
The Char Bhagh was
analysed by a researcher Dr. Amelia Carolina of Itay, whose findings offered a breakthrough
in understanding what exactly existed in the site. In her paper ‘The Gardens of
Taj Mahal and the Sun’ published in the International Journal of Sciences,
dated Dec 2013, and made public in research Gate, (https://www.researchgate.net/publication/259289314_The_Gardens_of_Taj_Mahal_and_the_Sun
) she checked whether the Char Bhagh is aligned to the solstices. And it was
found to be aligned so!
The Taj is on the south of the river Yamuna and the picture we see of the Taj Mahal is aligned to North – South direction. The entrance of the Taj Mahal is facing west (not Mecca). In the above picture the Char Bhagh region can be seen as a huge square with a central square met by the water lines in four cardinal directions, There are minarets on the four corners of the Char Bhagh.
Dr. Carolina found
that the sun rays are passing through the minarets in the northern corner on the day
of summer solstice and the minarets in the southern corner on the day of winter
solstice. In other words, the Char Bhagh is aligned to the direction of the solstitial
sun. If so, the equinoctial sun will pass exactly above the central fountain.
This is like how the equinoctial sun passes through the centre of the Gopuram of
the Ananta Padmanabha Swamy temple or Triplicane Parthasarathy temple and many
temples of Bharat.
The limits of the
solstices passing through the corners of the Char Bhagh are circled in the
above picture. This alignment could not occur naturally, but measured over a
year and marked. The solstices and the centre where the equinox passes must have
been marked, for what? Did the Mughals ever apply archeoastronomy to determine
the site? Never. Not seen in Bharat.
The centre in this
scheme becomes a vital part because that is where something sacred must have
been consecrated. What was there in the centre originally?
The central alignment
of the Char Bhagh with the equinox also means that the central dome of the Taj
Mahal is aligned with the equinoctial path of the sun because it is exactly
parallel to the center of the Char Bhagh. On the solstices, the sun passes
through the corner minarets of the Taj Mahal too. This was not observed so far because
we are not seeing the Taj Mahal in the east- west direction.
The alignment of
the Char Bhagh shows that there was something sacred in that huge land which
was ultimately destroyed by Shah Jahan. In this context we have another piece
of evidence too by means of a Sanskrit inscription that was supposed to have
been removed from the Char Bhagh by Shah Jahan. Today it is in Lucknow Museum.
Mr. D.J. Kale, an
archaeologist had written the transcript of that inscription (known as
Bateshwar inscription) in Epigraphia Indica. He has written,
“The said Munj
Bateswar Edict was laid by King Paramardidev of the Chandratreya dynasty
on Sukla Panchami in the month of Ashwin, in the year 1212 Vikram Samvat (or A.D.
1156). … King Paramardidev built two magnificent
temples with white marble, one for Lords Vishnu
and the other for Lord Shiva and they were desecrated
later on by the Muslim invaders. Perhaps a farsighted man took the edict to
a safer place at Bateswar and buries it beneath the ground” (https://www.stephen-knapp.com/distorted_history_of_taj_mahal.htm
)
So, there were two
temples, not just one temple at the site of Taj Mahal built by King
Paramardidev in the year 1156 CE. One was for Vishnu and another was for Shiva.
The edict further states,
“He built a marble
temple which is the abode of Lord Vishnu and the King bows down to touch His
feet” (25).
The King has built
another marble temple which has been dedicated to the Lord Who has the moon as
His ornament on His forehead and Who, getting such a beautiful abode, has
forgotten to return to Kailash (26)”
One of them was
completely destroyed and the other was used to house the coffin of Mumtaz.
Paramardidev
belonged to the dynasty which was known for having built the Khajuraho temples
known for exquisite art and architecture. These two temples must have been
exquisite with marble covering. These two temples must have been carefully
aligned with the equinox and solstices. They must have been facing the western
direction and the Murti-s in the east.
They were captured
soon after they were built because Paramadidev was defeated by the the Ghurid
general Qutb ud-Din Aibak around 1202–03 CE. Since then, Agra and the twin temples
must have come under the control of the Muslims. No worship of the deities was
possible since then. As time went by the temples continued to be under the
control of successive Mughal rulers of whom Shash Jahan seemed to have decided
to use it for his own. Probably, Raja
Jai Singh wielded an influence to desist him from using it. In that context,
Shah Jahan might have hoodwinked Jai Singh for an exchange of his ancestral
property. No Rajput King would have liked to part with his precious ancestral
palace. He was not willing, but the hidden intention of Shah Jahan to use the
twin temples could have made him hatch a deal to offer his palace to bury the
queen. But Shah Jahan faltered and used the temple to bury his wife. This
angered Jai Singh who refused to cooperate with him.
This hidden scene
looks plausible given the fact that the site is remarkably demarcated by archeoastronomy
which is not a hallmark of Mughal architecture. Man Singh’s palace must have existed
outside the Taj complex. A weak Jai Singh was duped into ceding his palace to
the cunning Badsha thinking that he was saving the temple. This seems plausible
because Jai Sigh was the grandson of Man Singh who protected Kashi Vishvanatha
temple. Jai Singh would have wished to safeguard these temples too, but alas,
they were already in the custody of the Mughals.
A fresh study of
the archaeo astronomy of Char Bhagh and the Taj Mahal must be done to check the
veracity of my claim. The Bateshwar inscriptions must be studied once again and
the contents be published now because both these go hand in hand in proving
that twin temples existed in the site. It is my understanding that the Char
Bhagh housed the Shiva temple which was
demolished completely. A ground penetrating study can reveal if foundations of
a temple are present underneath.
The Shiva temple
was whitish in colour says the inscription such that Shiva preferred to stay here
than in the snow-white Himalayas. This implies that the temple was covered with
marble. The marbles were used for the other Vishnu temple which was converted into
the mausoleum for Mumtaz. The image of the Sun on the underside of the dome of
the Taj Mahal could mean that it was a temple of Surya Narayana.
The image of the sun on the underside of the central dome of the Taj Mahal.
When Shah Jahan ran
out of enough marbles to cover the Mausoleum, he stripped some from the upper
stories of the Taj Mahal and requisitioned some from Raja Jai Singh which he
refused.
These revelations were spoken by me in PGurus you Tube channel which can be viewed here.
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