In John Milton’s “Paradise Lost”, the city of Agra is shown to Adam, after his fall, as a future wonder of the world.

With the Mughal obsession for gardens and majestic buildings, it is no wonder that their cities seemed wonderful.

Agra itself had been developed into a riverfront garden city, with all the important and famous nobles having huge riverfront gardens and mansions. In her book, The Complete Taj Mahal, Ebba Koch names them along with a map. Some of the nobles who had mansions on the riverfront along the side of the Agra Fort were Mahabat Khan, Asaf Khan, Muqim Khan, Dara Shukoh and Man Singh.

When Mumtaz Mahal died and it was decided to bury her in Akbarabad, as Agra was known then, a search for the best place to build her mausoleum was undertaken. Her grieving husband had already decided to make her resting place a veritable paradise itself. A majestic and huge tomb was to be constructed. Since the structure would be very heavy, the architects took the decision to support it on large wooden slabs built over deep wells. This stabilised the sand and acted as augered piles. For this purpose, the position chosen was at a node in the River Yamuna, which seemed the most suitable. This plot of land belonged to Raja Man Singh, Akbar’s general who had marriage ties with the Mughals.

In 1631 AD, when Mumtaz Mahal died, the owner was Raja Jai Singh, Man Singh’s grandson.

Though Shah Jahan or Raja Jai Singh would not have anticipated a day when the property deeds of the Taj Mahal would be checked, thankfully, as the Mughals administration was very bureaucratic, thousands of documents were generated and preserved. Though many have been lost over the years, some still remain.

Given their fondness for recording their deeds and history, some of the Mughal emperors like Babur and Jahangir wrote their own memoirs, and others got official histories written by their court historians. Apart from these, many more contemporary accounts were written, which record every detail of the period. During the reign of Shah Jahan, too, many court histories were written. These were the Padshah Nama of Qazwini, The Padshah Nama of Abdul Hamid Lahori and Muhammad Waris, the Shah Jahan Nama of Muhammad Salih Kanbo.

These contemporary accounts form an important source of information regarding Shah Jahan’s reign, administration, conquests, and his buildings. Many later texts emerged in the 19^th and 20^th century which carried hearsay accounts, and can not be considered factual unless borne out by the ones written during Shah Jahan’s reign or immediately after.

The contemporary texts refer to the mausoleum that was built by him for his beloved wife Mumtaz Mahal as Rauza e Munnavara, or the Illuminated Tomb.

Taj Mahal: The Illumined Tomb by WE Begley and ZA Desai has compiled an anthology of these sources, and it was from this book that I realised how well-documented the building of the mausoleum was. I use these translations to present my arguments that the Taj Mahal was built on the land where Raja Jai Singh had a mansion and that there is no mention of any religious building on that land.

These historians mention that though Raja Jai Singh wanted to give it for free for the noble purpose, the emperor was unwilling, and gave another mansion loftier than the one he had acquired in lieu thereof.

Two books give details and a translation of the royal “farman” giving four “havelis” in lieu of Raja Jai Singh’s haveli. Yes, the word mentioned is “haveli”, or mansion.

Qazwini describes the tract of land on the southern side of Agra that had the qualities needed to be the final resting place of the one whose residence was paradise. Qazwini says it was formerly the word “khana”, or house of Raja Jai Singh.

He also mentions that though the Raja was willing to give it for free, Shah Jahan gave him a lofty house in lieu of it.

Lahori also describes a tract of land south of the city as being suitable for the queen’s resting place, and uses the word “manzil” or mansion of Raja Jai Singh. He also mentions the fact that though Raja Jai Singh was willing to give it for free, Shah Jahan gave a lofty mansion from the crown lands in exchange.

Muhammad Salih Kanbo writes that the emperor acquired a “heaven-like tract of land (sarzamin e bihist-ain)” which was situated on the south side of Agra and belonged to Raja Man Singh. Once again, the word manzil is used.

I found details and translation of the “farman” giving orders for the exchange to Raja Jai Singh in two books. One is Mughal Documents by prof SAI Tirmizi and the other is Begley and Desai’s Taj Mahal: The Illumined Tomb.

While prof Tirmizi gives the bare details, Begley and Desai have translated the “farman” in its entirety and have given all the details of endorsements and scrutiny that were given on the back, which were necessary before it could be admitted in the royal office.

Though the mansion was gifted immediately after the decision to bury Mumtaz Mahal in Agra was taken in 1631, the exchange of the additional/replacement four “havelis” took two years to affect, as the royal “farman” is dated December 28, 1633.

A certified contemporary copy of the “farman” dated 26 Jumada II 1043 AH, sixth regnal year [corresponding to December 28, 1633], is available in the Kapad Dwara collection in Jaipur City palace. The word used in the “farman” too is “haveli” (mansion).

“Be it known through this glorious farman marked by happiness, which has received the honor of issuance and the dignity of proclamation, that the mansions (haveli) detailed in the endorsement, together with their dependencies, which belong to the august crown property, have been offered to that pride of peers and vassal of the monarch of Islam, Raja Jai Singh, and are hereby handed over and transferred to his ownership- in exchange of the mansion (haveli) formerly belonging to Raja Man Singh, which that pride of the grandees willingly and voluntarily donated for the mausoleum of that Queen of the ladies of the world ….. Mumtaz Mahal Begum.” [Translation Begley and Desai]

There are other royal “farmans” addressed to Raja Jai Singh which deal with sending of marble from Makrana mines which were part of Raja Jai Singh’s estates.

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Pathhar ka ik bahisht yaheen Aagra mein hai.

It’s not me but the gaze of history that says this

There’s a paradise of stone in Agra for all to witness.”

— Abhishek Shukla

On June 16, 1631, when Mumtaz Mahal left this world for the next, Sa’ida Khan, known as Bebadal Khan, composed the following chronogram which gave the Hijri year of her death- 1040:

“Jaaye-i-Mumtaz Mahal jannat bad (May the abode of Mumtaz Mahal be paradise).”

The abode that he was referring to was heaven, but a grieving husband decided to make her resting place a heaven too.

As Abu Talib Kalim Kashani, Shah Jahan’s poet laureate, wrote:

“Upon her grave – may it be illumined until the Day of Resurrection!

The King of Kings constructed such an edifice

That since Destiny drew the plan of creation

It has not seen such an exalted building.”

(Translation Ebba Koch)

Indeed it was a fit mausoleum for a beloved wife. The best of master architects, calligraphers, embossers, stone carvers, craftsman and masons from Hindustan as well as Iraq, Turkey and Iran were gathered to create one of the wonders of the world. The best of building material, precious and semi-precious stones was gathered.

The style to be used was the one used previously in Humayun’s Tomb in Delhi known as the “Hasht Bihist”.

The Taj Mahal, a painting by Edwin Lord Weeks (Credit: Wikimedia Commons)

Hasht Bihist [eight heavens] is a Persian architectural term which refers to a specific type of floor plan whereby the plan is divided into eight chambers surrounding a domed central room. The allusion is to the eight levels of heaven and this plan was usually used for funerary monuments. These tombs were square or rectangular planned buildings divided into nine sections such that a central domed chamber is surrounded by eight elements.

Since paradise has rivers and gardens, the Mughal tombs are modelled on them too with the “Chahar Bagh” plan. These rivers signify abundance, mercy and blessings of God. All this imagery is supposed to help the soul of the dead man gain forgiveness and entry into paradise.

According to Amal-e-Salih, written by Shah Jahan’s official biographer Muhammad Salih Kanbo, the construction of the tomb began in January 1632. As many as 20,000 workers laboured for 20 years to complete this marble wonder. While contemporary documents call it Rauza e Munawwara [the Iluminated Tomb] or Rauza e Mutahhara [The Pure Tomb] the locals called it Taj Bibi ka Rauza. However, it became famous as Taj Mahal, perhaps an acronym for Mumtaz Mahal.

“Like nightingales we should weep in this garden

For smiles fade too quickly from the face

— Kanbo, Amal-e-Salih (translation Begley and Desai)

What is it about this mausoleum that attracts lakhs of visitors every year and generates around Rs 20 crore-Rs 22 crore as revenue for the state?

I have been visiting the Taj Mahal since I was a child and have never been able to lose that sense of awe as one enters the enormous, monumental southern gateway to find it framed inside. The feminine charm and delicate decoration make the mausoleum look like a white rose in full bloom. Perhaps that was intentional? Very apt calligraphic words inscribed on this gateway invite the reader into paradise.

Indeed it marks the “perfect moment” in the evolution of architecture in the Mughal period, according to famous historian, Percy Brown.

The first thing that strikes the visitor is the lofty, bulbous dome. It is indeed a fit crown for the empress who sleeps within. It was built under the supervision of Ismail Khan Afendi, who specialised in building the double dome, and had been called from Turkey.

After the first rapturous moment one moves in and is drawn by the water courses all built as per the paradisical plan to enhance the beauty of the mausoleum. Today, the pools are just full of water, but earlier there were silver fountains from which the water gushed out singing eulogies and lotus flowers bloomed in the pools.

“Nautch Girls emerging from the Taj Mahal”, by Edwin Lord Weeks (Credit: artnet.com)

The chief architect was Ustad Ahmed Lahauri also given the title of Nadir-e-Asr [the wonder of the Age]. He was also the architect of the Red Fort and Jama Masjid in Delhi.

The breathtaking calligraphy was done by Abdul Haq who was given the title of Amanat Khan. Inlaid jasper on white marble panels, bear verses from the Quran chosen apparently by Amanat Khan himself.

“O Soul, thou art at rest. Return to the Lord at peace with Him, and He at peace with you,” is the verse on the gateway.

If at the gateway the calligraphic verses refer to themes of judgement and paradisical rewards, the ones near the tomb itself talk of impending doomsday.

The plan of the tomb is an irregular octagon known as “Tarah-i-musamman-i-Baghdadi” and supervised by a master mason from Baghdad.

An inlay specialists came from Delhi to work on the monument. He had a plentiful of riches to work his magic as agates were brought from Yemen, cornelians from Arabia, amethyst from Persia, malachite from Russia, the turquoises from upper Tibet, diamonds from Central India, the onyxes from Deccan and garnets from Bundel Khand.

“They have inlaid flowers of stone in the marble

What they lack in smell they make up with colour.”

— Abu Talib Kalim Kashani (translation Ebba Koch)

Marble was brought from Makrana and of such a quality that it could take on the tint and hues of the sky itself. It has a dreamlike quality in the night and looks ethereal in the morning. The evening saw it suffused with blue and pink.

The night of the kartik purnima is a highlight in the tourist calendar. I witnessed it once many years ago and have never forgotten the experience when it indeed looked like a “teardrop” that hung on the face of time.

The rectangular plan of the complex is marked by its symmetry. Four graceful minarets on four corners of the tomb frame the beautiful dome.

If there’s a mosque on the western side, its jawab or answer is on the east in the form of a “mehman khana”. The entire width of the tomb is equal to the height, and the height of the central façade is equal to the dome.

The mixture of marble for the tomb and sandstone for the other buildings add to its charm, as the whole seems like a bouquet where the white rose is framed by the red flowers.

The ornamental gardens enhanced the incandescent beauty of the grave, almost as once floral jewellery must have added to the late empress’ charms.

It’s no wonder that this symbol of love and beauty is the most visited monument in India and has been included in the Seven Wonders of the World.

It is a building that could only have been built in India as a culmination of Indo-Islamic architecture and will forever bear witness to it.

As Shah Jahan’s court chronicler, Abdul Hamid Lahauri, wrote, “Verily our monuments will tell of us – long speak with mute eloquence [ba-zabaan e bizabaani].

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When Shah Jahan built the city of Shahjahanabad, Dilli became famous all over the world and attracted many European travellers whose accounts (in English or translated into it) tell us the story of those days. However, we hardly have books in English or Hindi, by those who lived in the city or fort, which describe the life inside the walled city. In 1857, when the British prevailed upon the “rebel sepoys” and captured Delhi after a siege of four months, they put the Mughal emperor on trial and after finding him guilty of sedition exiled him to Burma. Since then we have forgotten about the syncretic society, which flourished prior to 1857, and the interaction of the Mughal emperor with his subjects.

CF Andrews was a Church of England priest, educator, missionary who came to India in 1904 and became great friends with Munshi Zakaullah, an alumnus of Delhi College, a mathematician and social historian. Munshi Zakaullah had seen life inside the Lal Quila and had described it to Andrews.

Andrews in his book, Zakaullah of Delhi, describes the Mughal court and life in Shahjahanabad. He writes, “The intimate residence together side by side in the same city of Musalmans and Hindus had brought about a noticeable amalgamation of customs and usages among the common people…

These older residents, whom I approached, whether Hindus or Musalmans, spoke about this fact with enthusiasm, and contrasted it with the bitterness of modern times.

It was quite common, for instance, in those days, for the two communities to join together in different religious festivals. Hindus would go to a Muslim festival, and Musalmans would go to a Hindu festival. This had become a natural local custom.”

I am putting down translated extracts from two Urdu books that describe that Delhi.

Bazm-e-Aakhir was first published in 1885 and was a commissioned book. Munshi Agha Mirza, manager of Muttaba Armaghan e-Dehli and Akhbar-un Nisa realised that those who had first-hand knowledge of life in the Quila-e-Mualla or Red Fort were either dead or ageing and he should get it recorded. He handed over the task to Munshi Faizuddin, who as a Mughal courtier and attendant of Mirza Ilahi Bakhsh, had spent most of his adult life inside the fort. Munshi Faizuddin describes it thus:

Diwali

Lo! It’s time for the first diya. (literally it means lamp but symbolically it specifies day. Even today we have choti and badi Diwali).

Now, no one will enter or leave the royal apartments. The washerwomen, female gardeners and porters and other female servants will not be allowed to step outside the palace (seraglio). No vegetable will enter the palace. If some lady asks for brinjal, radish, pumpkin or carrot, it has to be brought in peeled for fear that someone may do black magic on the ladies inside.

It’s the third diya (badi or main Diwali) and today the badshah shall be weighed in gold and silver and a huge weighing scale is put up. The Badshah sits on one side and the other is filled with gold and silver equal to his weight. This is distributed among the poor.

One black buffalo, black blanket, mustard oil, satnaja (mixed grains), gold and silver are taken out as the badshah’s sadqa (sacrifice to avoid misfortune) and distributed among the poor people.

Orders are given for the fort to be illuminated. Kheele’n (puffed rice), batashe (candy), candy and mitti ke khilone (sugar toys), sugar cane, lemon and mud houses are distributed from house to house by jasoliniyan (female guards) and female servants.

At night, the mud houses made by the prince and princesses are filled with kheelei’n and batashe and diyas are lit in front of it. The raushan chowki, an ensemble of musical instruments, which included shehnai and drums is played in procession and the naubat (drum) starts playing in the Royal Naubat Khana.

In all four corners of the fort, a sugar cane is fixed and lemons are strung on it.

In the morning, these are distributed among the maidservants.

The rath baan (carriage driver) decorates the bulls with henna on their hooves, gilding on their horns, bells around their necks and gold and silver embroidered and tasseled cloth and parades them before the badshah and is rewarded.

Dilli ka Aakhiri Deedar was written by Syed Wazir Hasan Dehlvi and published in 1934. Syed Dehlvi was the grandson of the famous novelist Deputy Nazir Ahmed and gives an account of the Delhi about which he heard from his elders or read in books. In his own words, as recounted by his grandson Syed Zameer Hasan Dehlvi, in the preface:

These sweet tales of bygone days were sometimes found in books and sometimes heard from the lips of the older generation. My mind became a treasure house of such knowledge and I was able to pen them down.

Now that people are willing to listen to these tales I want to hear these stories in their voice.

So that all the pearls that are lying scattered all over in various books can be threaded into a necklace and made available for readers who are interested in the era which has gone by. So I am collecting eyewitness accounts.

None of us are immortal at least these stories can live.

Just as the good days didn’t last one day the memory of these days will also be erased.

He has shown Delhi’s Ganga Jamuni tehzeeb, its communal amity, colourful festivals and the cordial relations between the inhabitants of the fort and the general public.

Dussehra and Diwali

Dussehra is here and a neelkanth (Indian roller) is let off in front of the badshah. The darogha (superintendent) of the baazkhana (falcon house) brings a falcon and hawk to the darbar and the badshah puts it on his wrist.

In the afternoon, the Hindu nobles offer nazar and after that the badshah comes and sits in the jharokha (balcony of the fort overlooking the Yamuna river) to watch the show put up on the sandy bank.

The people of the walled city also gather to watch the show and disperse after it ends.

The darogha of the royal stables comes with the special horses that have been decorated with gold and silver finery and colourful cloths under the jharokha. The badshah inspects them. Rewards are given to the ones with the best decoration.

The Ramleela is celebrated for nine days and on the tenth there is a Bharat Milap in which every year two brothers – Hindu and Muslim – would embrace each other with love.

Diwali has come and the sounds of drums, musical instruments and raushan chowki are echoing. Stalls with heaps of kheele, batashe, khand (loaf-sugar), mitti ke khilone and pieces sugarcane are set up.

Eunuchs are roaming the streets singing

Challa de de More Tain (Give me a ring O kind sir) and begging at the shops.

Halwais have made all kinds of sweets and their shops are attractively decorated enticing the passersby.

The light from the first diya to the last gives the impression that it’s daylight in the city.

On the third diya (day), the badshah was weighed in gold and silver. One buffalo, a black blanket, mustard oil, satnaja and gold and silver were taken out as the badshah’s sadqa.

The Quila was brightly lit and the Hindus sent trays of food for everyone. All friends set out to wish each other: They roam the city and enjoy the illumination.

The rathban and ghosi (cattlemen) coloured the hooves of their cattle (bulls, buffaloes and cows) with henna.

They were painted in bright colours and their horns were either painted silver or covered with silver foil. In their necks and hooves bells were put. On their backs were beautifully decorated cloths.

They were tinkling as they were taken out and made to dance to the sounds of drums. Everyone rewarded them.

In Dilli ka Akhiri Deedar, there is also a description of what happened after the fall of the Mughal Empire.

The book contains an eyewitness account by Aghai Begum, who was a Mughalani (probably as an attendant to a princess), who had spent her life describes how the festivals were celebrated in the Lal Quila. She speaks to the author of the book in the latter part of the 19th century when the British are in full control of Delhi and indeed India. When asked about celebration of festivals, she is nostalgic about the past and scathing about the present:

Some fair and spectacles still remain but the hearts of the people are not the same. The rich look down on the poor, and I don’t from where communal feelings have entered people’s hearts and there’s a communal divide. The Hindus and Muslims don’t visit each other anymore and at the drop of a hat are ready to fight with and kill each other. Every other day there is a street brawl and if there is a fair or a festival then it is as if the wrath of God has descended on the populace. Everyone is out of control, ready to take offence at the slightest thing and in minutes, stones are thrown, sticks are used for beating each other and in seconds there are scores of bleeding heads. Now the machine guns are out and there is a curfew in the city and jailhouses are filled up. Some are even sentenced to kala paani, some are executed; children are orphaned, women are widowed and families bereft. Instead of festivities, the house is of full of mourning.

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Funeral of Shah Jahān,

18th-century painting

The British Library

On 15th May, 2015 I was visiting the Taj Mahal for perhaps the umpteenth time for I had lived near it as a teenager when I saw a banner. This was something new. It was a banner announcing the 360th urs of Emperor Shah Jahan.

And no wonder for I hear from Sarthak Malhotra who is researching on Taj Mahal that around a decade ago it was restarted.

Sarthak tells me that the chador ceremony starts from the tomb of Hazrat Bukhari a Sufi saint invited by Emperor Shah Jahan to take care of the empresses’grave. Then goes to a few other shrines finally coming to the Taj Mahal.

Ebba koch describes the annual urs held for Mumtaz Mahal Begum by Emperor Shah Jahan, so possibly as long as the Mughal Empire lasted, the urs of both the Emperor & Empress was celebrated & fell in disuse later.

Urs means wedding and is a term associated with the death anniversary of a Sufi for death is the Sufi’s ultimate aim : a union with with God.

I had not known that Emperor Shah Jahan was a Sufi. Later on I read that Kucha Chelan in Delhi was so named because his mureed or chela lived there.

I read in Maulvi Basheeruddin Ahmed’s book Waqiaat e Darul Hukumat Dehli that he was extremely religious and that is why he was the only one who qualified to lay the foundation stone of Jama Masjid in Delhi. He had offered all his prayers on time along with the superogatory prayers ( tahajjud) and kept all fasts.

Entry was free on the day of the urs. The lower chamber where the second set of cenotaph are housed in the Taj Mahal was open and we were allowed to go down. There were offerings of green chador, flowers and money on both the graves.

The bigger one on the left is of Emperor Shah Jahan while the smaller one in the middle is of Mumtaz Mahal Begum.

There was quite a lot of people

When I was a teenager I remember this level was open. Now I believe it’s only opened for the urs of the emperor.

This is about the only sign left that the Rauza e Munawwara was intended as a religious sphere and not a rendezvous for lovers.

This forlorn, forgotten, forsaken baradari is in Burhanpur ‘s ahookhana where Mumtaz Mahal body was kept for 6 months before shifting her to Agra for burial in Taj Mahal.

It’s in the middle of nowhere with horrible roads, surrounded by fields and wilderness.

#MumtazMahal #Burhanpur #Ahookhana #TajMahal

2 APRIL 2017

Rana Safvi

The Hindu

The site where her body lay for six months before being taken to Agra is in ruins

Rabindranath Tagore called the Taj Mahal “a teardrop on the cheek of time”. But spare a thought for the neglected land where the initial tears of a grieving husband and children first fell. It was this trail of tears that led me to the small town of Burhanpur in Madhya Pradesh.

When Khan Jahan Lodi rebelled against the Mughal empire, little did he know of its impact on the life of the emperor and eventually India. Shah Jahan moved to Burhanpur to quell the revolt, and as was her norm, Mumtaz Mahal, though pregnant with her fourteenth child, went with him.

She stayed in the Badshahi Qila, which had been built by the Faruqi rulers of Khandesh, who had ruled Burhanpur from the 14th to 16th century. Akbar’s army occupied Burhanpur in 1599 and it became the Mughal capital of Khandesh. Akbar’s son Daniyal was made the Subedar of the new province. The shikaar-loving, pleasure-seeking prince built an Aahukhana, or deer park, opposite the Badshahi Qila in the village of Zainabad on the banks of the river Tapti.

When Shah Jahan was the governor of the Deccan, he added various buildings within the Badshahi Qila, including a once-gorgeous and now deteriorating hammam, for his wife’s relaxation. The hammam is beautifully painted and one of the fading frescoes has a building which looks remarkably like the Taj Mahal. It was in this palace that Mumtaz Mahal died on the night of June 16-17, 1631, after giving birth to Gauhar Ara Begum.

In the middle of nowhere

Shah Jahan had least expected this complication and was inconsolable when his beloved wife left for the next world. Mumtaz Mahal was laid to rest in the Aahukhana. A week later, Shah Jahan came to the Aahukhana and recited the fateha for his wife’s soul and wept over her grave. As long as he stayed in Burhanpur, he came every Friday to recite the fateha.

Locals tell me that Shah Jahan had initially decided to build a grand mausoleum for Mumtaz Mahal on the banks of Tapti, but due to difficulties in transporting marble from Markana, and the composition of the soil which had termites, he selected Agra. One local heritage enthusiast even told me that the image of the mausoleum would not fall on the Tapti, so the idea was abandoned. Unfortunately, logistics stole Burhanpur’s place in history and bestowed it on Agra.

Whatever the reasons for building the Rauza-e-Munawwara (the original name of the Taj Mahal) in Agra, the Aahukhana beckoned me. It seemed like I was in the minority, though, with only a few heritage-lovers, who are fighting to preserve their city’s heritage, for company.

The Aahukhana, where Mumtaz Mahal’s body lay for six months before being transported to Agra, lies in the middle of nowhere with a dirt track leading to it.

The baradari, which by consensus is the original resting place, is within an enclosed compound. Its boundary wall and iron gates are worse for wear, with the walls breaking up in quite a number of places. There is wild overgrown grass and a dirty dry tank, which was once a source of delight to visitors to the garden. The pleasure palace built in front of it is now a place which brings displeasure: it is dirty, dank, smelly and covered with graffiti.

The baradari has long since lost its roof. Its beautiful columns sag under the burden of sorrow. They have been roughly propped up by bricks to prevent further destruction. It is a picture of desolation.

Bemoaning the state of heritage

I was taken by my guides to another ruinous building a little further away from the baradari complex that was also part of the original Aahukhana. It has a small tank and mosque. The guides told me that this was the site where Mumtaz Mahal was given her ritual funeral bath.

Burhanpur heritage enthusiasts claim this is the actual grave. I could not meet Shahzada Asif, a resident who is said to have identified this place and who observes Mumtaz Mahal’s urs, or death anniversary, every year on June 7 in this place, but Hoshang Havaldar, a local hotel owner and heritage enthusiast, told me about it. I stayed in his hotel and we spent the evenings bemoaning the state of Burhanpur’s deteriorating heritage.

This building has no boundary wall and cotton farming is being done on its grounds. A rusted, decrepit board with barely distinguishable letters outside it proclaims in Hindi that this is Begum Mumtaz Mahal ki Qabr.

On December 1, 1631, Mumtaz Mahal’s body was taken out of the baradari and sent in ceremony to Agra accompanied by her son Shah Shuja, her lady-in-waiting Satti-un-Nisa, and Hakim Alimuddin Wazir Khan. They arrived in Agra 20 days later.

There are many theories of how her body was embalmed. Some say it was kept in a sealed lead-and-copper coffin filled with natural embalming herbs as per Unani techniques. Since the coffin was never opened, one doesn’t know the state of decomposition or preservation of the queen’s body.

But whatever state she may be sleeping in her grave in Taj Mahal, I am sure her soul cries at the wilderness and neglect of her original resting place in Burhanpur.

https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/columns/in-neglected-burhanpur-where-mumtaz-mahal-once-rested/article17759131.ece

Opinion: 30th September 2018

The Hindu

Imagining the Mahtab Bagh as it was supposed to be

The most visited monument in India is the Taj Mahal in Agra. Guides and locals tell you stories of Mughal emperor Shah Jahan’s love for his wife, Mumtaz Mahal, when they walk you up to the main chamber housing the cenotaphs of the emperor and his wife. As they walk you towards the back of the monument, where the Yamuna flows, they point across the bank and tell you in hushed tones that this was where Shah Jahan dreamed of a mausoleum in black marble for himself, but he was imprisoned by his son Aurangzeb before he could build it. French traveller Jean-Baptiste Tavernier was the first to mention the story of a black Taj Mahal, and it caught the popular imagination in later centuries. However, archaeological excavations have found no evidence of any foundation on which such an edifice could have been built.

The emperor’s vision

I have also heard this story many times. Though I never believed it, I didn’t realise the importance of that piece of land across the Yamuna, known as Mahtab Bagh, till a friend, Roshna Kapadia, gifted me The Moonlit Garden: New Discoveries at the Taj Mahal, edited by Elizabeth B. Moynihan. This book describes the India-U.S. project undertaken by the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery at the Smithsonian Institution, of which Moynihan was a key member, along with the Archaeological Survey of India. The researchers concluded that the Bagh’s proportions are similar to the Taj, and it is also aligned with the monument, which means that Shah Jahan had built it as a part of the main tomb complex.

Soon after the Taj Mahal was ready, Shah Jahan moved to the new city of Shahjahanabad in present-day Delhi, and possibly did not visit Agra for some years. Aurangzeb, who did visit Agra in 1652, said in a letter, which is quoted by Moynihan, that the dome of the mausoleum had developed a leak and needed repair. He got it repaired. He also said that though the octagonal pool and pavilions of the Mahtab Bagh were in good shape, the garden was inundated and had to be restored. This establishes the connection between the two parts separated by the river. The Bagh’s position on the lower bank of the Yamuna made it prone to flooding. It was lost in the sands of time till it was discovered in the 1990s.

On a recent trip to Agra, I read a few more books on the Bagh. A discussion with a PhD student from Cambridge University, Sarthak Malhotra, whose MPhil thesis was on the Taj Mahal, led me to another wonderful resource: Taj Mahal: Multiple Narratives, by Amita Baig and Rahul Mehrotra. It was while reading this book that the entire picture unfolded before my eyes, and I was able to reimagine the Mahtab Bagh as it was supposed to be.

The first tomb to be built on the Persian charbagh plan of paradisiacal tombs was Humayun’s Tomb in Delhi. According to that plan, the tomb is placed squarely in the centre of the charbagh. The Taj Mahal, also modelled on the same theme, is at an edge of the garden. It is only when we understand the emperor’s grand vision that we understand the reason for its position: this vision had a river flowing in the charbagh over the illusory streams that flow from the main gate of the Taj and are in complete alignment with Mahtab Bagh’s water channels

Looking at the Taj’s reflection

Most tourists don’t visit Mahtab Bagh as it is a relatively long drive from the Taj and they don’t realise its importance. This is where the grief-stricken emperor came by boat from his palace and sat in the now-destroyed pavilions to look at the reflection of the teardrop in the octagonal pool.

The pool was discovered in 1993 under two or three meters of sand. When it was full, the reflection of the Taj would fall in it, in perfect symmetry. The beautiful garden, which was once home to many trees, has been redone and is a shadow of its former self. But the reflection of the Taj Mahal in the river, and in the pool if you visit during the monsoon, makes you forget everything else. As the pool was dry, I sat on the edge of the low wall that forms a boundary on the riverbank, to watch the sunset. As the sun came down and flooded the white marble beauty on the other side of the river with every imaginable hue, I could empathise with the emperor who would have sat in quiet contemplation of his lost love.

( this photo taken in a small puddle of water in the octagonal tank)

At first glance the name seems an improbable name till you realise that Chini here isn’t sugar but glazed tiles which were imported from China.

It is the tomb of Allama Afzal Khan Mullah, a scholar and poet who was the Prime Minister of the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan. It  was built in 1635. 

The facade of the monument was also known for one of finest examples of glazed tile work. Now one can only see it in patches.

When we hired an auto driver to take us there he said, ” Saheb wahan kuchh nahin hai.” ( saheb there’s nothing to see there). He must have thought we were crazy to go there instead of the exquisite Tomb of Itmad -up Daulah. But I had visited it on earlier trips and somehow always missed this.

Situated on the Riverside it’s got an enviable location. I don’t know how much land it occupied earlier but now there’s a narrow road which goes through a small mohalla and ends at its gate.

It’s very dark inside but once your eyes get used to it very beautiful. Beautiful floral and geometric designs brighten it up and the inside hasn’t fared as badly as the outside.

There are two pretty 3 storeyed octagonal Towers near it, one adjoining it’s boundary and the other a little far away. The one near it is in ruins and used as a lavatory from the smells and mess.

There are two pretty 3 storeyed octagonal Towers near it. One is built in its wall while the other is a little further down the river. 

These seem to be buildings associated with the ghat.

There was another tomb like structure on the left but in another compound and we didn’t visit it. 

Be zat e ousefat e kard e gar ast
Ke khod penham o fazaish ashkar ast
(In her personality she has all the qualities of the Creator
She herself concealed but her bounties revealed)
— Mirza Mohammed Ali Jauhar

April 2 marks the birth anniversary of a princess who had everything and yet nothing. She was the eldest child of Shah Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal and was born in Ajmer in 1614.

She was the Sahibat al-Zamani (Lady of the Age) and Padshah Begum (Lady Emperor), or Begum Sahib (princess of princesses), yet that had come to her because of her mother Mumtaz Mahal’s death.

She was the closest companion of her father, Shah Jahan, but that coveted position was because her brother Aurangzeb Alamgir had put him under house arrest.

She had been a close friend, supporter of her brother Dara Shukoh and fellow disciple of Mullah Shah Badakhshi, who initiated her into the Qadiriya Sufi, but Aurangzeb had put him to death.

The princess who was said to be the epitome of everything maidenly was revered and maligned by European writers.

François Bernier (a French traveller to the Mughal empire), relying on bazaar gossip, had gone to the extent of hinting at incest between Jahanara and her father but Bernier was on the side of Aurangzeb and both sides were levelling charges at each other. Niccolao Manucci, the only European to have actual access to the Mughal harem, soundly repudiated this and said it was ‘founded entirely on the talk of low people.’

Also read: ‘The Mughals were struggling financially after Shah Jahan’

She was a paragon of virtues: well-educated, well-versed in statecraft, even-tempered, beautiful. However, though there were many proposals of marriage, none worked out some because she overturned the proposals, some because of the exigencies of royal protocol.

Dara had promised her that when he became the emperor he would grant her permission to marry whomever she wanted. But he never became the emperor. Aurangzeb did and she went into voluntary house arrest with her father.

Her word could change fortunes of people and who was sought by foreign emissaries to put in a good word for them.

In 1654, Raja Prithvichand of Srinagar in Garhwal sought the pardon of Shah Jahan through the offices of Jahanara.

She also intervened on his request for Abdullah Qutb Shah and gained him a pardon from Shah Jahan.

Yet, when she was a mediator between her bothers in the war of succession, she failed to have an impact. She admonished Aurangzeb for fighting against his eldest brother and advised him to observe the path of loyalty and obedience but it was of no avail. However, it does show her importance in the court.

She even visited Aurangzeb on June 10, 1658, to try and bring about a reconciliation of the two brothers but again it was unsuccessful.

Her alleged role when Maratha king Shivaji, who had become a major force in the Deccan, paid a visit to Agra in 1666 left a permanent mark on India.

During his father’s lifetime, as he was imprisoned in Agra fort, Aurangzeb did not visit Agra. It was only after Shah Jahan’s death on January 22, 1666, that he decided to hold court in Agra. Mirza Raja Jai Singh had persuaded the Maratha chief to visit the Mughal court and had given him hopes of high rewards.

May 12 was also Aurangzeb’s 50th lunar birthday and it was the date settled for his first darbar in Agra. Sir Jadunath Sarkar writes in his book Shivaji and His times that Shivaji was to reach on May 11 so that he could attend the birthday celebrations. However, he got delayed and reached on the 12th to find that his reception was not as per his expectations.

To compound that, Shivaji went straight to the court without being familiarised with court etiquette. The reception in Diwan-e-Aam was over and Aurangzeb had moved to Diwan-e-Khas. He paid perfunctory notice to the gifts of 1,000 gold coins and Rs 7,000 that Shivaji presented as nazrana (tribute). He was made to stand in the third row with the panj-hazari (5,000) mansabdars (minor landlords). This annoyed the Maratha chief who turned his back and walked out of the darbar.

Here power politics came to play and the faction that opposed Jai Singh urged the emperor to punish Shivaji for his ‘insolence’ in overturning court etiquette.

Shivaji had earlier raided the port of Surat whose custom revenue went to Jahanara and, according to Nausheen Jaffery in her book Jahanara Begum, the princess too vehemently opposed lenient treatment towards the Maratha king.

This combined with the other voices led Aurangzeb to imprison Shivaji and the rest is history!

Her power was such that, unlike the other royal princesses, she was allowed to live in her own palace, outside the confines of the Agra fort; yet she spent many years in house arrest along with her father.

I suppose it is in keeping with the rest of her life that the beautiful Chandni Chowk that she had built as a Moonlit Street is today a warren of shops, hanging wires, colliding crowds, conniving pickpockets and careering cars and rickshaws. There is only ugly commerce and no beauty left there.

The famous Begum Bagh (now Gandhi Maidan) and sarai are no more.

The British razed the sarai, which Bernier compared to the Palace Royale of Paris, to the ground after the first war of independence of 1857.

She laid a number of beautiful gardens in Delhi, Kabul, Agra, Ambala, Kashmir and Surat, many of them called Sahibabad after her title.

She patronised scholars, artists and poets and wrote herself. Her works include two biographies of Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti and her spiritual mentor, Mulla Shah Badakshi. She was also a proficient poet and calligrapher, yet her most famous verse is the one on her tombstone.

She was very active in trading activities and owned a number of ships. One of her ships was called Shaibi after her own title and took passengers to Mecca for Hajj.

It says much for her stature that after Shah Jahan’s death, when she returned to Delhi, she was once again made the chief lady of the court by Aurangzeb and accorded every respect.

Jahanara was possessed of enormous wealth, given to her by her father from her mother’s properties but she could not dispose of it as per her own will. She built a tomb for herself in the dargah of Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya and endowed its khadims (caretakers) with property worth Rs 3 crore. But after her Aurangzeb Alamgir only gave property worth Rs 1 crore and said that only 1/3rd of one’s property can be willed away by a person as per law.

Her tomb is a simple yet elegant marble enclosure with a tombstone that includes her own verse:

Huwal Hayyul Al Qayyum
Baghair subza na poshad kase mazar mara
Ki qabr posh ghariban hamin gayah bas-ast
Al faqeera, Al faaniya Jahanara mureed
Khajgaana Chist, Bint e Shah Jahan
Badshah Ghazi Anar Allah Barhana
1052 AH (1681 AD).

(He is the Living, the Sustaining
There cannot be any other curtain of my tomb except the humble covering of grass.
Grass alone is sufficient to cover the grave of a poor person, as I am
Disciple of the Khwaja Moin-ud-Din Chishti,
Daughter of Shah Jahan the Conqueror
May Allah illuminate his proof.)

Today the tomb of one of the most powerful princesses of the Mughal empire is used as a place for keeping mentally ill ladies by their guardians, often by force.

Translations by Nausheen Jaffery.

Taj tere liye ik mazhar-e-ulfat hi sahii
Tujh ko is vaadi-e-rangee’n se aqeedat hii sahii

Meri mehboob kahin aur milaa kar mujh se!

The Taj may be a symbol of love for you

You may have faith in this beautiful monument

My Beloved, please meet me elsewhere

Even Sahir Ludhianvi when denouncing the Taj Mahal, was very clear in his mind that he was rejecting it, not because it was not a symbol of love, but because it was not the symbol of a common man’s love. It symbolized the love of an Emperor only.

No one has ever questioned the emotions of Shah Jahan or his love for Mumtaz Mahal.

Khurram (the title Shah Jahan was given to him in 1617 by Jahangir) was the son of Jahangir and Jagat Gosain from the royal house of Jodhpur, also known as Jodh Bai. He inherited his mother’s Rajput features. He was fluent in Turki , the court language Persian and Hindavi which was spoken in North India.

Prince Khurram was betrothed to Arjumand Banu, daughter of Asaf Khan a Persian noble in 1607 and married to her in 1612.

Khurram gave her the title of Mumtaz Mahal Begum ( the Chosen One of the Palace) as in the words of Qazwini the writer of Padshahnama, a contemporary chronicle, he was so delighted with his new wife and found her in character and appearance Mumtaz amongst all the women of the time. .

Mohamamed Amin Qazwini further writes in his Padshahnama that the

“The intimacy, deep affection, attention and favor which His Majesty had for the Cradle of Excellence [another title of Mumtaz] exceeded by a thousand times what he felt for any other. And always that Lady of the Age was the companion, close confidante, associate and intimate friend of that successful ruler, in hardship and comfort, joy and grief, when travelling or in residence…. The mutual affection and harmony between the two had reached a degree never seen between a husband and wife among the classes of rulers (sultans), or among the other people. And this was not merely out of sexual passion (hawa-yi-nafs): the excellent qualities, pleasing habits, outward and inward virtues, and physical and spiritual compatibility on both sides caused great love and affection, and extreme affinity and familiarity.”(Translation Ebba Koch, The Complete Taj Mahal)

She accompanied him everywhere and it was in Burhanpur during the birth of her fourteenth child that she died in 1631.

The Emperor’s grief knew no bounds. I am indebted to Prof Yunus Jaffery from whom I am learning Persian for pointing out contemporary references to this extreme state of mourning that Shah Jahan had fallen into.

The Emperor wore white clothes while mourning for his wife and the rest of the court had to too.

His court historians record his passionate love for his wife and his inconsolable state after her death. Qazwini even records that he even considered abdicating his throne and becoming a religious recluse such was his sense of loss after Mumtaz Mahal Mahal.

He gave up wearing coloured clothes, jewelry hearing music or using perfume. His hair turned white, he wept so much he needed spectacles. (Prof Jaffery told me he was probably one of the first to wear spectacles, which had just been introduced in India by the Portugese). The day Wednesday and month of Zil Qada in which she died was observed as a month of mourning for years.

Prof Jaffery also told me of a letter which he found and reference to that is given by Ebba Koch in which, Qasim Khan ‘Manija’, husband of Mumtaz Mahal’s aunt, remonstrated with him. Manija said that if Shah Jahan mourned with this intensity, Mumtaz Mahal may have to give up the joy of Heaven to come back to earth, the place of misery. He added that Shah jahan should also remember the children she had left in his care.

Shah Jahan had already resolved to make the most perfect memorial to his dead wife inspired by words of Bilbadal Khan, “May the abode of Mumtaz Mahal be Paradise.”

Her body was taken out of its temporary grave in Burhanpur in Dec, 1631 itself and brought to Agra.

The foundation of the masoleum is on logs of sal wood sunk in wells fed by the waters of the Yamuna and all the chronicles record that the land found most suitable for this heavy and magnificent masoleum was found to be the palce of Man Singh, which was in the possession of his grandson, Jai Singh. It was called Aali Haveli (Lofty Mansion). Though Jai Singh was willing to give it as a present the Emperor bought it in lieu of 4 other havelis in Agra. (The translation of the farman of transfer of possession is given in Taj Mahal: The Illumined Tomb: An Anthology of Seventeenth-Century Mughal and European Documentary Sources by W. E. Begley, Z. A. Desai 1989, pp 168-71.)

An Emperor so passionately mourning his wife would not build the Rauza e Munawwara (illuminated Tomb) or Rauza e Mutahhara (The Pure Tomb) as the mausoleum was officially called, on confiscated land as namaz is forbidden on it. That’s why his insistence on not accepting the land as a present and giving 4 havelis in exchange.

Bernier called it Tage Mahal and the British used the Term Taj Mahal as an acronym for Mumtaz Mahal.

There is great emphasis on Shah Jahan’s personal involvement in the building of the masoleum. The identitiy of the architect are not mentioned according to Ebba Koch that led to ‘fanciful speculation’. She adds that that ‘In the 19^th century, local informants of the British fabricated the story of an architect from Turkey named, “Ustad Isa’. So obviously it follows that all the tales of cutting off his hands etc were more tales of the fertile British informants and recievers of the information!

The two names mentioned in conenction are Ustad Ahmed Lahauri and Makramat Khan.

It was officially completed in 1643 and was meant for eternity.

Upon her grave-may it be illumined until the Day of Judgement

The King of Kings constructed such an edifice

That since Destiny drew the plan of Creation

It has not seen such an exalted building

Abu Talib Kalim, Padshahnama 1630-40

(tr Ebba Koch)