Taj Mahal: A History From Beginning to Present by Hourly History

Author:Hourly History [History, Hourly]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hourly History
Published: 2018-01-09T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Six

The British Raj in India

“As a pilgrim at the shrine of beauty I have visited them, but as a priest in the temple of duty have I charged myself of their reverent custody and their studious repair.”

—Lord Curzon, speaking about the antiquities of India

Emperor Aurangzeb placed Shah Jahan’s coffin in the Taj Mahal crypt, on the left and thus closer to Mecca, next to Mumtaz Mahal, uniting the lovers after 30 years. A suitably ornamental and larger funerary coffer was placed next to Mumtaz Mahal’s sarcophagus in the main hall—the only discordant note in the otherwise perfectly symmetrical layout. Several testimonies relate that Shah Jahan had intended to build a duplicate Taj Mahal, entirely in black marble, on the other side of the river as his memorial.

The end of the Mughal Empire is marked when Emperor Bahadur Shani, Aurangzeb’s son, died in 1707. The seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were very turbulent times for India, dominated by a series of wars and battles for power between the Maratha Empire created by the great hero Chhatrapati Shivaji, the Deccan, and the Mughals. A Hindu renaissance in India grew steadily during the nineteenth century, promoting a political unity among Hindus that flowered during the life of Mahatma Gandhi. This hindutva or “hinduness” was the socio-political force that founded the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The Taj Mahal did not fare well during these years. It would seem that basic maintenance was neglected from the very beginning as Aurangzeb, who had visited it in 1652 before it was even declared officially complete, was so shocked that he wrote to his father about the matter. The magnificent pearl sheet that had covered Mumtaz Mahal’s sarcophagus had been taken by Amir Husein Ali Khan as what he considered “spoils of war” in 1720, and the two immense silver doors at the entrance of the mausoleum were looted by Suraj Mal who ordered them to be melted down in 1764. It must have been the last command he ever uttered as his death is consistently given as in 1763. There was also some damage done during the violent Indian Rebellion or Mutiny in 1857-1858. From the Indian perspective, this is seen as the First War of Independence, and it occurred during the British Raj or Colonial Era which lasted from 1818 to 1947.

In 1898 the history of the Taj Mahal became inextricably linked with Lord George Curzon. This was the year he forbade anyone visiting the Taj Mahal to remove the semi-precious stones from the structure. The British particularly it seems, had a penchant for picnicking in the gardens and, having brought along a chisel for this purpose, amused themselves by a little souvenir picking after tea.

It must be said that the First Earl of Minto, who had been Governor-General of India between 1807 and 1813, had already established the first Taj Committee when he had investigated the funding of the building. In an effort to improve the amount available for the upkeep, he encouraged selling produce from

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