TAJ MAHAL

“the Taj Mahal Rises Above The Banks Of The River Like ASolitary Tear Suspended On The Cheek Of Time”

- Rabindranath Tagore

INTRODUCTION • The Taj Mahal of Agra is one of the Seven Wonders of the World, for reasons more than just looking

magnificent. It's the history of Taj Mahal that adds a soul to its magnificence: a soul that is filled withlove, loss, remorse, and love again.

• This man was the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan, who was head-over-heels in love with Mumtaz Mahal,his dear wife. She was a Muslim Persian princess and he was the son of the Mughal Emperor Jahangir andgrandson of Akbar the Great.

• It was in the memory of his beloved wife that Shah Jahan built Taj Mahal ,a magnificent monument as atribute to her.

• The construction of Taj Mahal started in the year 1631. Masons, stonecutters, inlayers, carvers, painters,calligraphers, dome-builders and other artisans were requisitioned from the whole of the empire andalso from Central Asia and Iran, and it took approximately 22 years to build what we see today. whichwas brought in from all over India and central Asia. Taj Mahal was finally completed in the year 1653.

• It was conceived as a replica on earth of the house of the departed in paradise (inspired by a verse bythe imperial goldsmith and poet Bibadal Khan

• It is a perfect blend combining elements from Islamic, Persian, Ottoman, Turkish as wellas Indian architectural styles.

• This theme, common in most Mughal funerary architecture, permeates the entire complex and informsthe detailed design of all the elements.

• A number of secondary principles also inform the design, of which hierarchy is the most dominant. Adeliberate 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. The constantly changing sunlight reflected from the Taj'stranslucent marble is not a happy accident, it had a deliberate metaphoric role associated with thepresence of god as light.

CONCEPTS, SYMBOLISM AND INTERPRETATIONS

Planned Symmetry and Geometric Aerial View

SYMMETRY AND HIERARCHY

• Symmetry and geometric planning played an important role in ordering the complex and reflected atrend towards formal systematisation that was apparent in all of the arts emanating from Jahan'simperial patronage.

• Bilateral symmetry expressed simultaneous ideas of pairing, counterparts and integration, reflectingintellectual and spiritual notions of universal harmony.

• Hierarchical ordering of architecture is commonly used to emphasise particular elements of a design andto create drama. In the Taj Mahal, the hierarchical use of red sandstone and white marble contributesmanifold symbolic significance.

• The plan of the whole complex is in the form of a largerectangular enclosure aligned to the north-southdirection measuring 1900’ X 1000’. The central area isoccupied by a square garden measuring 1000’ side,leaving two oblong rectangles at the north and southends.

• The southern end consists of a system of roads andservice dwellings while the northern end, abutting theJumna River, consists of a raised terrace on which thereare the tomb structure and some subsidiary structures.

MATERIALS AND CALLIGRAPHY

• The Taj Mahal was constructed using materials from all over India and Asia• The buildings are constructed with walls of brick and rubble inner cores faced

with either marble or sandstone locked together with iron dowels andclamps. Some of the walls of the mausoleum are several metres thick.

• The bricks were fired locally and the sandstone was quarried 28 miles(45 km) away near Fatehpur Sikri. The white marble was brought 250 miles(400 km) from quarries belonging to Raja Jai Singh in Makrana, Rajasthan

• The Jasper was sourced from the Punjab and the Jade and crystal fromChina. The turquoise was from Tibet and the Lapis lazuli from Afghanistan,while the sapphire came from Sri Lanka and the carnelian from Arabia. Inall, 28 types of precious and semi-precious stones were inlaid into thewhite marble.

• Jean-Baptiste Tavernier records that the scaffolding and centering for the arches was constructedentirely in brick. Legend says that the emperor offered these scaffolding bricks to anyone who wouldremove them and that at the end of the construction they were removed within a week.

• Modern scholars dispute this and consider it much more likely that the scaffolding was made of bambooand materials were elevated by means of timber ramps.

Marble floral decoration

Marble floral decoration

MATERIALS AND CALLIGRAPHY• The Taj Mahal always welcomes each of its visitors with an

inscription, written in beautiful handwriting, on the great gate that reads "O Soul, thou art at rest. Return to the Lord at peace with Him, and He at peace with you."

Taj Mahal Calligraphy Example

Taj Mahal door construction

Art Work inside Taj Mahal

Flowers in marble

Calligraphy By –“Abdul Haq”

• The calligraphy of the Taj Mahal mainly consists of the verses and passages from the holy book of Quran. It was done by inlaying jasper the white marble panels.

THE ENTRANCE AND GATEWAY• The site is flanked to the north and south by two oblong smaller rises in the southern gate of a

sandstone which gives entry to the complex and some auxiliary buildings of uncertain purpose; in thenorth, parallel to the river Yamuna, is rose the mausoleum.

• Main Gateway Referred to as Darwaza-i-Rauza or "gate of the mausoleum" by the architect UstadAhmad Lahauri himself, the main gateway to Taj Mahal is indeed a worthy counterpart to themausoleum in every sense of the phrase

• Adorned with Hindu motifs, the Taj gateway is a tall niche doorway in the shape of an ogival arch thatrises till the mid-height of the structure. With a vertical symmetry, the main gateway of Taj Mahalstands bordered with Arabic calligraphy of verses from the Quran, made up of black stone.

• In the Muslim world, these doors also had a strong symbolism as they represented the entrance toparadise, from the metaphysical point of view, were considered the transition point between theoutside world of the senses and the inner world of the spirit.

THE GARDENS• Out of the total area of 580 meter by 300 meter of the Taj complex, these gardens

alone cover an area of 300 meter by 300 meter distance and are based ongeometric arrangements of nature. No attempt was made to give them a "natural"look

• With an area of 6.9 hectares, was projected as representing the earthly paradise,in the style of Persian gardens introduced in India by Babur, the first Mughalemperor.

• Originally contained a multitude of exotic flowers and trees, everything in them available geometricand perfectly symmetrical: gardeners worked with the conscious effort to translate to heavenlyperfection earthly terms, following a series of formulas well known. Thus, the four, number sacred inIslam and was the basis of the entire design.

• In the Mughal architecture, water is used both for ritual ablution to cool and humidify theenvironment, a wise combination of religious significance to the practical need.

THE INTERIOR• The central chamber of the Taj Mahal has a decoration that

goes beyond traditional techniques. Here the material used forthe fouling is not as marble or jade, but precious and semiprecious gems. Each element of the decorative exterior hasbeen redefined through jewellery.

• The shape of the room but is Octagonal and the design lets youenter by either side, only the southern gate in the direction ofthe garden is used regularly. The interior walls are about 25meters in height, which was built on a false dome solar interioris decorated with motifs. Eight pointed arches define the spaceat ground level.

• Each of these window balconies carries an intricate marble screen draft, or Jali. In addition to the light coming from the balconies, the lighting is complemented by the incoming chattris in every corner of the outer dome.

• Muslim tradition forbids elaborate decoration of the graves, sothat the bodies of Mumtaz and Shah Jahan rest on a relativelysimple camera beneath the main hall of the Taj Mahal

BIRBAL'S HOUSE• The building known an Birbal’s house is a two storeyed structure, complex in its arrangements and

elaborate in its architectural ornamentation.

• The ground storey is made up of four rooms and two porches, while the upper storey is made up of

two rooms and open terraces enclosed by screens.

• The upper rooms are roofed by cupolas while the porches have pyramidal roofs, all of which are

constructed on a modified form of the double dome in order to keep the interior cool.

• The chief attraction is the treatment of the exterior, particularly the rich character of the eave

brackets.

• Such bracket supports are common in most of the secular structures in Fatehpur Sikri, but they haveemployed most liberally and designed and executed most elaborately in Birbal’s House.

Ground floor And First Floor Plan Front View

BIRBAL'S HOUSE

Main Entrance

Brackets

Bracket Details

Bracket

Rear View

Wall Patterns

BIRBAL'S HOUSE WALL CARVINGS