Taj Mahal Architecture Style
Vickiana Sconyers
The Taj Mahal represents the finest and most sophisticated example of Indo-Islamic architecture. Its origins lie in the moving circumstances of its commission and the culture and history of an Islamic Mughal empire's rule of large parts of India. The distraught Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan commissioned the project upon the death of one of his favorite wives Mumtaz Mahal.
A masterpiece of the Mughal chief architect Ahmad ma'mar, it is one of the most famous and recognizable buildings in the world today. While the large, domed marble mausoleum is the most familiar part of the monument, the Taj Mahal is an extensive complex of buildings and gardens that extends over 22.44 hectares (55.5 acres)[note 1][1] and includes subsidiary tombs, waterworks infrastructure, the small town of Taj Ganji to the south and a 'moonlight garden' to the north of the river. Construction of Taj Mahal began in 1632 AD, (1041 AH), on the south bank of the River Yamuna in Agra, and was substantially complete by 1648 AD (1058 AH). The design was conceived as an earthly replica of the house of Mumtaz Mahal in paradise.
In 1607 (AH 1025) the Mughal Prince Khurrum (later to become Shah Jahan) was betrothed to Arjumand Banu Begum, the grand daughter of a Persian noble. She would become the unquestioned love of his life. They were married five years later in 1612. After their wedding celebrations, Khurram "finding her in appearance and character elect among all the women of the time," gave her the title Mumtaz Mahal (Jewel of the Palace).[2]
The intervening years had seen Khurrum take two other wives known as Akbarabadi Mahal and Kandahari Mahal, but according to the official court chronicler Qazwini, the relationship with his other wives "had little more than the status of marriage. The intimacy, deep affection, attention and favour which His Majesty had for the Cradle of Excellence [Mumtaz] lacked by a thousand times what he felt for any other."[2][3][4]
Jahan's eldest daughter, the devoted Jahanara Begum Sahib, gradually brought him out of grief and fulfilled the functions of Mumtaz at court. Immediately after the burial in Burhanpur, Jahan and the imperial court turned their attentions to the planning and design of the mausoleum and funerary garden in Agra.[8]
Agra became a city centered on its waterfront and developed partly eastwards but mostly westwards from the rich estates that lined the banks. The prime sites remained those that had access to the river and the Taj Mahal was built in this context, but uniquely; as a related complex on both banks of the river.
The erection of Mughal tombs to honour the dead was the subject of a theological debate conducted in part, through built architecture over several centuries. For the majority of Muslims, the spiritual power (barakat) of visiting the resting places (ziyarat) of those venerated in Islam, was a force by which greater personal sanctity could be achieved. However, orthodox Islam found tombs problematic because a number of Hadith forbade their construction. As a culture also attempting to accommodate, assimilate and subjugate the majority Hindu populace, opposition also came from local traditions which believed dead bodies and the structures over them were impure. For many Muslims at the time of the Taj's construction, tombs could be considered legitimate providing they did not strive for pomp and were seen as a means to provide a reflection of paradise (Jannah) here on earth.[15]
The ebb and flow of this debate can be seen in the Mughul's dynastic mausoleums stretching back to that of their ancestor Timur. Built in 1403 AD (810 AH) Timur is buried in the Gur-e Amir in Samarkand, under a fluted dome. The tomb employs a traditional Persian iwan as an entrance. The 1528 AD (935 AH) Tomb of Babur in Kabul is much more modest in comparison, with a simple cenotaph exposed to the sky, laid out in the centre of a walled garden.[15]
Humayun's tomb commissioned in 1562 AD, was one of the most direct influences on the Taj Mahal's design and was a response to the Gur-e Amir, borrowing a central dome, geometric symmetrical planning and iwan entrances, but incorporating the more specifically Indian Mughal devices of chhatris, red sandstone face work, and a 'Paradise garden' (Charbagh). Akbar's tomb c.1600 at Sikandra, Agra, retains many of the elements of Humayan's tomb but possesses no dome and reverts to a cenotaph open to the sky. A theme which was carried forward in the Itmad-Ud-Daulah's Tomb also at Agra, built between 1622 and 1628, commissioned by his daughter Nur Jahan. The Tomb of Jahangir at Shahdara (Lahore), begun in 1628 AD (1037 AH), only 4 years before the construction of the Taj and again without a dome, takes the form of a simple plinth with a minaret at each corner.[15]
The concept of the paradise garden (charbagh) was brought from Persia by the Mughals as a form of Timurid garden. They were the first architectural expression the new empire made in the Indian sub-continent, and fulfilled diverse functions with strong symbolic meanings. The symbolism of these gardens is derived from mystic Islamic texts describing paradise as a garden filled with abundant trees, flowers and plants, with water playing a key role: In Paradise four rivers source at a central spring or mountain. In their ideal form they were laid out as a square subdivided into four equal parts. These rivers are often represented in the charbagh as shallow canals which separate the garden by flowing towards the cardinal points. The canals represent the promise of water, milk, wine and honey.[16] The centre of the garden, at the intersection of the divisions is highly symbolically charged and is where, in the ideal form, a pavilion, pool or tomb would be situated. The tombs of Humayun, Akbar and Jahangir, the previous Mughal emperors, follow this pattern. The cross axial garden also finds independent precedents within South Asia dating from the 5th century where the royal gardens of Sigiriya in Sri Lanka were laid out in a similar way.[17]
For the tomb of Jahan's late wife though, where the mausoleum is sited at the edge of the garden, there is a debate amongst scholars regarding why the traditional charbagh form has not been used. Ebba Koch suggests a variant of the charbagh was employed; that of the more secular waterfront garden found in Agra, adapted for a religious purpose. Such gardens were developed by the Mughuls for the specific conditions of the Indian plains where slow flowing rivers provide the water source, the water is raised from the river by animal-driven devices known as purs and stored in cisterns. A linear terrace is set close to the riverbank with low-level rooms set below the main building opening on to the river. Both ends of the terrace were emphasised with towers. This form was brought to Agra by Babur and by the time of Shah Jahan, gardens of this type, as well as the more traditional charbagh, lined both sides of the Jumna river. The riverside terrace was designed to enhance the views of Agra for the imperial elite who would travel in and around the city by river. Other scholars suggest another explanation for the eccentric siting of the mausoleum. If the Midnight Garden to the north of the river Jumna is considered an integral part of the complex, then the mausoleum can be interpreted as being in the centre of a garden divided by a real river and thus can be considered more in the tradition of the pure charbagh.[18][19]
The favoured form of both Mughal garden pavilions and mausolea (seen as a funerary form of pavilion) was the hasht bihisht which translates from Persian as 'eight paradises'. These were a square or rectangular planned buildings with a central domed chamber surrounded by eight elements. Later developments of the hasht bihisht divided the square at 45-degree angles to create a more radial plan which often also includes chamfered corners; examples of which can be found in Todar Mal's Baradari at Fatehpur Sikri and Humayun's Tomb. Each element of the plan is reflected in the elevations with iwans and with the corner rooms expressed through smaller arched niches. Often such structures are topped with chhatris (small pillared pavilions) at each corner. The eight divisions and frequent octagonal forms of such structures represent the eight levels of paradise for Muslims. The paradigm however was not confined solely to Islamic antecedents. The Chinese magic square was employed for numerous purposes including crop rotation and also finds a Muslim expression in the wafq of their mathematicians. Ninefold schemes find particular resonance in the Indian mandalas, the cosmic maps of Hinduism and Buddhism.[20]
Minarets did not become a common feature of Mughal architecture until the 17th century, particularly under the patronage of Shah Jahan. A few precedents exist in the 20 years before the construction of the Taj in the Tomb of Akbar and the Tomb of Jahangir. Their increasing use was influenced by developments elsewhere in the Islamic world, particularly in Ottoman and Timurid architecture and is seen as suggestive of an increasing religious orthodoxy of the Mughal dynasty.[23]
Under the reign of Shah Jahan, the symbolic content of Mughal architecture reached a peak.[24] The Taj Mahal complex was conceived as a replica on earth of the house of the departed in paradise (inspired by a verse by the imperial goldsmith and poet, Bibadal Khan).[note 2][8] This theme, common in most Mughal funerary architecture, permeates the entire complex and informs the detailed design of all the elements.[25] A number of secondary principles also inform the design, of which hierarchy is the most dominant. A deliberate interplay is established between the building's elements, its surface decoration, materials, geometric planning and its acoustics. This interplay extends from what can be experienced directly with the senses, into religious, intellectual, mathematical and poetic ideas.[25] The constantly changing sunlight reflected from the Taj's translucent marble is not a happy accident, it had a deliberate metaphoric role associated with the presence of god as light.[26]
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