The Mughal Empire : The Taj Mahal by Ashish Nangia

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Architecture of India
The Mughal Empire
The Taj Mahal

Satellite image of Taj and Agra courtesy of SpaceImaging.com

The Taj Mahal is widely acclaimed as the best example of Mughal tomb architecture, and is indeed famous all over the world as one of India’s most enduring architectural symbols. Begun in the fifth year of the reign of Shah Jahan as a monument to his dead wife Mumtaz Mahal, the Taj is located on the banks of the river Yamuna in Agra. Much has been written about the Taj and its ethereal quality. What is clear from the mass of analyses available is that no consensus exists about the symbology that the composition is supposed to represent. Even scholarly writers are susceptible to hyperbole: “Yet, elusive in scale, it is ambiguous in form: the main arcades express the fusion of the five elements of the hasht behisht; the dome and chhattris express their distinction. And the materials – the water of canal and river – as much as the substance on the terrace – takes this incomparable work even further from the realm of rational analysis. In contrast to the red sandstone mosque and guesthouse flanking it, the mausoleum is built of marble of legendary beauty passing through a range of colors from peach to pearl according to the light of the sun, moon or stars.” ¹

In plan the Taj composition offsets the chahar bagh preceding the tomb so the garden is no longer in the exact centre of the composition. Both axes of the garden have broad causeways with water channels flanked by cypress trees, and these meet in a raised water body. The north-south axis, however, leading from the main gate to the tomb, has fountains along the water channel to reinforce its centrality. The main axis then leads on to the superstructure, supported on an arcaded platform, is entirely faced with marble, as is the rest of the tomb. A significant improvement over Humayun’s tomb is that the platform is not high enough to mask the lower part of the superstructure and thus the entire building is visible from the entrance gate.

The Taj Mahal
courtesy Harneet Bhatia

– Continued

1. Tadgell, C. The History of Architecture in India, Viking, New Delhi, 1990.

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