METICULOUS INQUIRY IS REQUIRED IN FALSEHOOD OF MUSLIMS MONUMENTS

There is thus a valid reason  why Hindus are not in a position to produce any documentary evidence  with regard to the Hindu origin of fort. Even then we maintain that if a systematic archaeological excavation is undertaken inside the fort  and if its dingy cellars and basements are opened and scoured they may still reveal Sanskrit inscriptions  and idols smashed and buried by Muslim occupiers. In fact whatever little and excavation has been made has resulted in the recovery of horse and elepahnt statues. Yet taking things as they stand any court of law will uphold the plea that Hindus have a valid reason for not being able to produce any documentary proof.

The court will then ask the Anglo-Muslim school to produce its documents. That school too has not got even a shred of a document to prove that any one ot more Muslim rulers built or rebuilt the fort. A hazy mention to that effect in a court flatterer’s chronicler is no documentary proof. It is like you or we noting in our diaries that we built the Houses of Parliament in London.

There is no valid reason why Anglo-Muslim school should not be able to produce even a single document pertaining to the Muslim claims to the fort. Had the claims been true such documents should have been available in plenty because when the British deposed the Mogul emperor they preserved and carefully classified all the documents they seized  form the mogul archives. Those records contain hardly anything but letters.

When the Anglo-Muslim school is unable to produce even a single document in support of its claim any law court would draw an a priori adverse inference.  Even then we claim no special advantage form this fundamental weakness in the case of the respondent Anglo-Muslim school. In ordinary life there are very many occasions when documents are not available on either side and yet there is overwhelming circumstantial evidence on the basis of which the court can come to a clear judgement over the rival claims.

Its is such circumstantial evidence which we propose to lay before the bar and bench of learned public opinion:

1.   According to the British historian Keene, Agra fort has been in existence from the pre-Christian era. Ancient Hindu kings like Ashok (3^rd Century B.C.) and Kanishka (1^st Century B.C.) had lived in that fort.

2.   That same fort is again referred to by the Persian poet-historian Salman,in the 11^th century A.D.. Early in that century when the Hindu king  Jaipal ruled over Agra. The fort suffered its first Muslim raid under the invader Mahmud of Ghazni.

3.   Thereafter some chauvinistic Islamic accounts vaguely claim that the Muslim sultan Sikandar Lodi demolished the Hindu fort. That claim has been found to be baseless.

4.   A few years later another vague claim is made by some other  mediaeval Muslim faltterers that sultan Salim Shah Sur either destroyed the Hindu fort or Sikandar Lodi’s fort and built his own fort at exactly the same place or some other place.Even the claim has been found to be fraudulent because no trace is found of the fort that Salim Shah Sur is said to have built. Muslim history is replete with such fraudulent claims, according to the late British historian Sir H.M.Elliot.

5.   The claim that Akbar built the fort is also found to be baseless because while he is said to have demolished the fort in 1565 A.D., a murderer Adham Khan being thrown from the terrace of a palace-apartment inside the fort in 1566 A.D. is emphatic proof that the claim made on behalf of Akbar is as fraudulent as those made on behalf of two other Muslim sultans earlier. In fact it is also pointed out that not a single building of Akbar’s time exists in the fort.

6.   Akbar’s son Jahangir is said to have perhaps built a palace inside the fort here or there demolishing his own father’s palace but even that conjecture is found to be based on mere fancy or on some idle engravings.

7.   Jahangir’s son Shahjahan is said to have demolished 500 buildings inside the fort and erected 500 others. On the very face of it this claim is absurd. No one will merely for fun of it destroy 500 palatial mansions built by one’s father or grandfather. Such demolition itself will occupy a lifetime. Moreover it must also be remembered that Shahjahan is credited with building the fabulous Taj Mahal in Agra, a whole new township of Delhi, also the Red fort in Delhi, The Jama Masjid in Delhi and perhaps many other buildings. Not only are there no court records of any building activity but even inscriptions do not substantiate any building claim. We wish to alert visitors not to be misled by the appearance of Arabic or Persian lettering on mediaeval buildings. All such lettering is mostly of Koranic extracts or the name of Allah. Those inscriptions are seldom temporal. In a few instances where there are temporal inscriptions they usually bear the name of the engraver or of the person buried and some irrelevant matter. For instance nowhere on the Taj Mahal has it been mentioned that the Taj Mahal was built by Shahjahan.We therefore wonder how the whole world had been duped for 300 long years into believing that the Taj Mahal was built by Shahjahan. Similar is the case with Red fort in Agra. No where is it said that Akbar or his son Jahangir or the latter’s son Shahjahan built anything there.

In this connection we also want to alert visitors to mediaeval buildings and students and scholars of history not to believe in translations of Arabic and Persian inscriptions presented readymade to them through earlier books. We have found in very many instances that they have been distorted in translation. For instance on the Taj Mahal the inscriber has carved his name as Amanat Khan Shirazi (an insignificant slave of the emperor Shahjahan). Anglo-Muslim accounts have boosted this inscriber of letters as one of the great wonder architects of the world. Similarly on Fatehpur Sikri where a building is said to have been graced (by his presence) by Salim Chisti it is merrily ascribed to him.

8.We therefore advise all students of history never to take for granted the translation of Muslim inscriptions provided heretofore but get them translated de novo whenever one has to make use of them. The whole question of the translation and interpretation of Muslim inscriptions not only in India but throughout the world must be reopened and gone through thoroughly, for much wishful thinking has gone into presenting them in translations to non-Muslims. In fact it would be very educative to have an encyclopaedia for all Muslim inscriptions and the misleading translations and interpretations they have been subjected to heretofore. As an instance of a great snare in the study of mediaeval history such exposure will be of immense educative value in warning future researchers and students of history.

9.Once the hurdle of a false Muslim claim made on Akbar’s behalf is got over we find  that the fort that we see today in Agra is the same which  was owned by ancient Hindu kings like Ashok and Kanishka .After Akbar there is no serious claim made on behalf of any Muslim ruler as the author of the fort. That means that the fort that we see in Agra city today is the ancient Hindu ochre fort a colour so dear to Hindus. In fact ochre is the colour of Hindu flag- a colour for which and under which they have fought for their national and cultural existence and identity –a colour which has inspired them to great deeds of valour, sacrifice, bravery, chivalry, gallantry and glory. Can that ochre colour be ever owned by Muslims? It goes against all history and tradition.

10. Despite several centuries of Muslim occupation and canards of Muslim authorship all the fort’s Hindu associations are intact. This is something remarkable.

11.      The two thousand year history of the fort that Keene traces turns out to be authentic. The slight hitch and doubt that he encounters gets explained away by his own very intelligent footnote that the incident of a murderer having been flung from the terrace of the palace inside the fort could not be possible if the fort had been destroyed a year earlier.

12.      The lack of any coherence in the dates of starting the forts construction and its completion is proof of the fact that the world has been buffed about the Muslim origin of the fort.

13.      Muslim accounts are unable to explain the name of any apartment, as to who built it ,when was it built ,what for it was built, what its cost was and why it has an Hindu aura about it ? This is because  the fort did not originally belong to the invaders from Arabia ,Iran ,Turkey, Afghanistan, Khazasstan and Uzbekstan. They were mere intruders ,conquereors,usurpers.I

14.      All this discussion should convince the reader that the Red Fort in Agra is of hoary Hindu antiquity and is at least 2200 years old.   

  

The great Kshatriya community pride to defend their faith and the culture of our country against foreign invasions in converting the monuments by the foreign invaders require a sacrifice magnanimity an moral purity in the exposure of the truth to the public and thereby to safeguard their right of freedom of information couched under Article 19(1) (a) is the theme behind the writing this Article .The serene beauty, majesty and grandeur of the Taj Mahal, one of the seventh wonders of the world is not so well known regarding the true story of its origin. The magnificent palace which was built earlier got converted into the Tomb .The changeover has proved a shroud deluding from lay visitors to the researchers and the great historian Sri P.N.Oak, a co-worker of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose. The popular nostalgia of legendary love to get the conversion of every Hindu Palace/Temple due to mythical attachment from fanatic raging fire converting dazzle of leaping flames and blinding smoke should be discouraged into a cool research regarding the origin. This is required to check a different form of terrorism prevalent amongst the crusader of the death to the innocent victim on the psychological level. Let us examine the scared truth about the origin of the monuments.

             The meticulous inquiry into the matter through the coherent and authentic account .The exposure of the falsehood is always reconcilable with the historical event and thus the burden of proof is always lying upon the individual denying the existing facts. The onus will be shifted upon the authority when inconsistent anomalous and contradictory versions about the origin of Taj Mahal may be scientifically tested upon the yardstick of the truth. Let us begin with Badshahnama, a Shahjahan’s chronicle which discloses that the cost of scaffolding exceeded that of the entire work done regarding Mausoleun. Mr Narul Hasan Siddiqui book that a Hindu Palace was commandeered to bury Mumtaz in which Shahjahan’s fifth generation ancestor Barbar lived in Tejo Mahalaya. All these facts are to be examined through the scientific methods in order to expose the false propaganda that the Mogul invaders have not given any contribution for building the monuments.  We may further examine that the mythical indo Saracen architecture medieval mosques and tombs in India were built or conquered and misused by the invaders the number of such monuments may include Mohammed Ghaus ‘s tomb in Gwalior,Salim Chisti mausoleun in Ftahepur Sikri,Nizzamuddin Kabar in Delhi ,Moinuddin Chisti’s Makbara in Ajmer ,Red fort  Shicundera Etamatudaula  at  Agra, Jama Masjid ,Red fort Delhi, Kutub Minar in Delhi and Sufdarjung. The disputed site of Lord Krishna temple Mathura and Vishwanath Temple at Varanasi may also be examined not only to resolve the controversy but also to curve out the animosity among the citizen in India on the ground of the religion.

  The extract of Badshahnama may be examined after getting them translated form Persian passage in the English rendering. On page number 403 of Badshahnama it is admitted in verse 26 to 33 that Huzurat Mumtazul Zamani whose sacred dead body was buried in Burhanpur in a garden was brought from 600 miles after six months and transported to Agra(Akbarabad). In the south of the great city there was a palace of Raja Maan Singh which was owned by Raja Jay Singh known as Tejo Mahalaya(The temple of Lord Shiva /Teji ji) And this place was selected burial of the Queen for which the great ancestral heritage ,religious sanctity was associated with Raja Jai Singh who was compensated by offering the government land.Thus a palace was converted in a dome, handy readymade Mausoleun.The authority of Badshahnama is the first proof regarding the existence of the temple at the time when Huzurat Mumtazul Zamani was buried. The similar treatment were given to the different Hindu palaces and temples by converting them at as Mausoleun of Akbar at Secundara and Humayun  in Delhi and the Vishnu temple to Kutub Minar by overbearing Muslim fanatic potentate  specially when these monuments were constructed by Hindu Rulers.

One great tragedy of Indian history has been that while Indians remained subdued and gagged under alien domination for over a millenium foreigners who wielded all power in India played great havoc with Indian history merrily destroying or distorting it at will either out of sheer cunning and cussedness or through their colossal ignorance and wanton barbarism.

In that process all mediaeval buildings which came under long Muslim occupation came to be misused as tombs or mosques. And in course of time, thanks to alien chauvinism, court  flattery and fanatic cunning ,all ancient Hindu townships and building got ascribed to Muslim authorship. Thus with astounding historical naivete Ahmedabad was, by its sheer name, assumed to have been founded by Ahmedshah ,Tughlaqabad by Tughlaq Shah and Ferozabad by Ferozshah .

If one is to be guided by such puerile logic and shallow historical scholarship then one will have to conclude that the city of Allahabad in the state of Uttar Pradesh must have been founded by the Muslim God Allah himself. This is with regard to mediaeval townships. But even for mediaeval buildings the same nonchalant, nondescript method is followed. Thus it is blatantly stated that if a building is known as Salimgarh it must have been built by or for Sheikh Salim Chisti (emperor Akbar’s fancied spiritual preceptor ) or Prince Salim (Akbar’s heir apparent)or some other Salim. Likewise if a building is called Jahangiri Mahal it is, by that very token insisted that it must have been built by Prince Salim after ascending the throne as Jahangir. Such superficial derivations and conclusions about authorship make nonsense of all historical research methodology.

During nearly 1100 years of alien rule in India most of her history has been distorted or destroyed. All massive, majestic and alluring historic Hindu constructions in India ,from Kashmir to Cape Comorin ,have got ascribed to alien Muslim invaders such as Turks, Afghans,Iranians ,Arabs, Abyssinians  and Moguls out of sheer usurpation  or conquest. Such misappropriated constructions include forts, palaces, mansions, sera’s, roads, bridges, wells, canals and even road- side mile-pillars. Misuse of a colossal number of Hindu temples, palaces and mansions as tombs and mosque for several centuries has misled many generations of the publics, tourists, students and scholars of history all over the world into believing that those buildings were originally commissioned by the Muslims.

The intelligentsia of Hindusthan has been somewhat slow in assimilating that finding is a measure of the havoc that history causes in the minds of a subject people by making it impervious even to logic and legal proof. While warrior  -patriots like Rana Pratap and the great Chhatrapati Shivaji  spill their purple blood to emancipate the land and its people should it not be the patriotic duty of  historians to spill at least some blue-black ink for an academic re-conquest of occupied buildings falsely ascribed to alien conquerors?

The so called Imambadas in Lucknow for instance are ancient Hindu places which are being merrily ascribed to this or that alien Muslim nawab who subjugated that part of Hindusthan.

There was E.B.Havell,a great architect and one endowed with deep insight. Havell has debunked the claim that the Taj Mahal is the product of any non-Hindu architectural style. In discussing the architecture of the Taj Mahaland the claim of some historians that an Italian named Veroneo may have been its designer, Mr. Kanwar Lal quotes Mr.Havell thus: “So if Veroneo was so deeply versed in Indian craft tradition that he could design a lotus dome after the rules laid down in the Shilpa Shastras ,the dome itself ,built by Asiatic craftsmen would not have been his. The dome of Taj at Agra and the dome of  Ibrahim’s tomb(in Bijapur) both are constructed on the same principles.  They are nearly of the same dimensions, and a fact unnoticed by Fergusson and his followers , the contours of both correspond exactly, except that the lotus crown of the Taj at Agra tapers more finely and the lotus petals at the springing of the dome are inlaid instead of being sculptured. The Taj Mahal is, infact, exactly such a building as one would expect to be created in India …by a group of master builders inheriting the traditions of Buddhist and Hindu buildings. The plan which consists of a central dome chamber surrounded by four small domed chambers, follows the plan of an Indian pancharatna ,or “five jewelled”  temple. Its prototype as have shown elsewhere is found in the Buddhist temple of Chandi Sewa in Java and in the sculptured stupa    shrines of Ajanta. Neither Shahjahan nor his court builders, much less an obscure Italian adventurer can claim the whole merit of its achievements.

How very clear is Mr.Havell in his assertion that the Taj Mahal is built in the ancient Indian, Hindu style and none of Shahjahan’s contemporaries could design or conceive of it. We regret that Mr.Havell was unaware of the admission in Shahjahan’s own official chronicle, The Badshahnama, that the Taj Mahal is an ancient Hindu mansion. Had that confession come to light in his time he would have rejoiced to find his architectural conclusion fully corroborated by history, and he would then have been acknowledged as an authority on Indian architecture far superior to Percy Brown or Fergusson.

Like all other so called Muslim tombs i.e. Hindu buildings used by them first as residences and later as burial places the Taj Mahal too is not a single tomb but an ancient Hindu mansion reduced to an Islamic burial ground. Besides Mumtaz, Shahjahan himself lies buried by her side. But that is not all. There are two other graves in the same precincts.

Mr Kanwar lal (P. 69 The Taj by Kanwar Lal ,ibid.) observes .  “At the other end of the Jilokhana, towards the east there are again two buildings These are the tombs of Satunnisa (Khanam) who was a favourite attendant of Mumtaz Mahal and who was entrusted with the task of looking after the temporary tomb of Mumtaz Mahal at Burhanpur. Similar is the tomb of Sarhandi Begum, another of Shahjahan’s queens. The two structures are built exactly the alike.”

            The Satunnisa Khanam’s tomb consists of a high octagonal plinth, round a central octagonal mortuary chamber. That Taj is based on good authority, but the special assignment to her of this particular tomb has no better foundation than popular belief. That shows that like every other detail about the Taj Mahal legend even the Satunissa  Khanam tomb is a concoction. All such tomb like mounds were erected in usurped Hindu mansions so that Hindus may not reclaim and re use those buildings. The Muslims knew of the Hindu weakness of not disturbing or reclaiming sepulchral sites. So, erecting false oblong grave like mounds was like posting a strong military contingent or planting a scarecrow, which cost practically nothing. It was a simple device a strategic totem to claim Hindu buildings for Islam and it worked admirably.

It is sometimes innocently asked by history teachers that if the Taj Mahal had existed centuries before Shahjahan, how is it there are no earlier references to it. There are three answer to the question. Firstly, the Taj Mahal being then the palace and not the monument open for public inspection as it now is, used to be closely guarded. It was accessible only to the elite and then only on invitation or conquest. As such one cannot except the same prolific references to it as a tourist attraction that one comes across in these days of publicity and modern communications. The second answer is that ancient and mediaeval India teemed with mansions, palaces and temples of bewildering and bewitching variety, so much so that being all very spectacular, one could not be distinguished from another by mere description. Despite such very good reasons for not expecting any identifiable details in earlier records of what is at present known as Taj Mahal, luckily, Babur, the founder of the Moghul dynasty in India, who was the great great grandfather of emperor Shahjahan, has left us a disarming and unmistakable description of the Taj Mahal, if only we have the inclination and insight to grasp it. So our third answer to the question why no mention is found in earlier chronicles of the Taj Mahal and other buildings is that though many a time there is a clear mention of such buildings, our senses benumbed by traditional tutoring fail to grasp their significance. Such is the case with the Taj Mahal.

              The rampant corruption was prevalent during the Mogul time and there were large percentage of unauthorized profits of innumerable middle men thus there was no money to raise a cenotaph in the ground floor in octagonal chamber by covering them with costly mosaic stones to match with the palace flooring and barricading the hundred of rooms, ventilators staircases, doorways, balconies and corridor. There exist a seven-storey marble Tejo Mahalaya Hindu temple palace complex. The seven storey massive girth in its lofty gateways and arches necessitates the removal of stone pitching and as such Badshahnama discloses the expenditure incurred in scaffolding of these Hindu complexes and in engraving the Koran on the walls of edifice. The great French merchant visitor Tavernier testimony too fully corroborates the aforesaid conclusion. Let us examine his testimony introduce in Maharashtreeya Jnyankosh. “Jean Baptiste Tavernier, a French jeweller, toured India for trade between 1641 and 1668 A.D. His travel account is mainly devoted to commerce. He used to sojourn at Surat and Agra (while in India). He visited all parts of India, including Bengal , Gujrat ,Punjab, Madras , Karnatak, etc. He owned a vehicle .He had to spend Rs. 600 for the cart and pair of bullocks. ‘The bullocks used to cover 40 miles a day for two months at a stretch. Four days were enough for the journey from Surat to Agra or Golcunda and the expense used to be between Rs. 40 and Rs.50. The roads were as good as Roman highways. European traveler’s felt inconvenienced in Hindu territories for want of meat, which was freely available in Muslim dominions. A good postal system was in vogue. Both the town –folk and the government used to provide protection against highway robbery’…is the kind of information Travernier has recorded (in his book titled Travels in India). Not being learned, he has not recorded much except where wealth and commerce was concerned.

                    The other important piece of evidence arises from some chance digging conducted in the Garden in front of the marble edifice early in the year 1973 A.D.It so happened that the fountains developed some defect .It was therefore thought advisable to inspect the main pipe that lay imbedded underneath. When the ground was dug to that level some hollows were noticed going down to another five feet. Therefore the ground was dug to that depth. And to the utter surprise of all there lay at that depth another set of fountains hitherto unknown. What appeared more significant was that those fountains are aligned to the Taj Mahal, decisively indicating that the present building existed even before Shahjahan. Those hidden fountains could have been installed neither by Shahjahan not his successors, the British. Therefore they were of the pre-Shahjahan era . Since they were aligned to the Taj Mahal building it followed ipso facto that the building too pre-dated Shahjahan. This piece of evidence too therefore clinches the issue in favour of our conclusion that Shahjahan only commandeered an ancient Hindu temple –palace for Mumtaz’s burial.

The archaeology officer who supervised that digging was Mr.R.S.Verma, a conservation assistant. This same official made another chance discovery. Once while strolling staff-in-hand on the terrace near the so-called mosque and the circular well on the western flank of the marble edifice. Mr. Verma detected a hollow sound coming from below the floor where his staff hit the terrace. He had a slab covering that spot removed and to his surprise that was an ancient opening, apparently sealed by Shahjahan, to a flight of about 50 steps reaching down into a dark corridor. The broad wall under the terrace was apparently hollow. From this it is clear that the corresponding spot on the eastern terrace also hides a similar staircase and corridor, at its bottom. And God only knows how many more such walls, apartments and stories lie sealed, hidden and unknown to the world. Thus also incidentally points to the sorry state of research with respect to the Taj Mahal. Nobody seems to have done neither any archaeological investigation in the grounds of the Taj Mahal nor conducted a diligent academic study of the whole issue. Apparently extraneous political and communal considerations have inhibited historians and archeologists from conducting any meaningful research into the origin of Taj Mahal. Such Academic cowardice is highly reprehensible.

               Naturally when chance alien visitors like Peter Mundy visit such sites undergoing extensive superficial changes his observing that “the building is begun….( and ) is prosecuted with extraordinary diligence “ is not wrong .He couldn’t visualise that some generations after him posterity would be bluffed into believing that the Taj Mahal complex  was raised by Shahjahan himself .Travernier and Peter Mundy could not possibly visualize such a falsification of history and could not be more explicit. We ourselves visiting some building as chance visitors wouldn’t be more explicit. For instance if we were to visit Bombay or London at  a time when somebody has acquired somebody else’s mansion and has enclosed it in massive scaffolding to renovate it for his own purpose we won’t dare or care to ask him how he acquired the building ,for how much, from whom ,what changes he  proposed to make ,and spend how much over it .We would simply refer to it as his building. Such inquiries are all the more impossible when a wide hiatus of language, race, culture authority and wealth separates the two.    Peter Mundy also fortunately records the object of the leveling up of the hillocks. The hillocks were removed , he says, ”because they might not hinder the prospect “ of the mausoleum .The very fact that within a couple of  years of Mumtaz’s death the hillocks were leveled to afford a glimpse of the mausoleum clearly indicates that the Taj building complex  already existed .All that was necessary was to level some of the hillocks and make the building visible from a distance. In fact the very object of the ancient Hindu builders of the Taj raising those hillocks seems from Mundy’s noting, to prevent the tempting Taj to be the target of a malicious enemy’s attack. Since Shahjahan was converting it into a tomb open to all and sundry, he no longer had the need to keep it out of the gaze of enmical people.

 Waldemar Hansen notes on pages 181-182 of his book (titled “The Peacock Throne” ,published by Holt ,Rhinehart and Winston ) that “Even as early as 1632 on the first anniversary of Mumtaz Mahal’s death ,the courtyard of the mausoleum in progress had been adorned with superb tents, with the entire court assembled to pay homage- princes of the  royal blood ,grandees and an assemblage of religious scholars including sheikhs, ulemas and hafizes who knew the whole Koran by heart. Shahjahan had graced the event with his presence, and as the empress’s father Asaf Khan was present by imperial request, a great banquet was spread before the then nascent tomb and guests partook of a variety of foods, sweetmeats and fruits. Verses from the Koran filled the air, prayers were offered for the soul of the dead and a hundred thousand rupees went into charity. In later years on other anniversary days, Shahjahan attended memorials at the incomplete edifice whenever in Agra, formally accompanied by Jahanara and the harem .The ladies always occupied a central platform set up for the occasion, and remained concealed from the public gaze by kanats, screens of red cloth and velvet. Noblemen gathered under pitched tents.

 “The Mehtab garden is innundated and looks desolate. Its scenic beauty will reappear only when the floods recede”. That the rear portion of the building complex remains safe is a mystery. The stream keeping away from the rear wall has prevented damage.

“On Saturday too I visited the spot and then I called on the Prince (Dara) who also paid me a return visit. Then taking leave  of all I resumed my journey (to take charge as govrneor of the Deccan) on Sunday and today the 8^th instant I am in the vicinity of Dholpur…”

Thus from Aurangzeb’s noting it is apparent that in 1652 A.D. itself the Taj Mahal building complex had become so ancient that it needed elaborate repairs. So what was carried out in 1652 A.D was not the completion of a new building but the repairs to an old building complex. Had The Taj Mahal been a building completed in 1653 it would not have fallen to the lot of a chance ,lone visitor like Aurangzeb to notice the defects and order repairs in 1652.The defects should have been noticed by the thousands of workmen and hundreds of court supervisors who were supposed to be  building  the Taj Mahal. And since such serious defects had been in fact noticed a year before completion all the tom-tomming  of the  “master –builders” of the Taj is utterly unjustified. The builders of the Taj were no doubt master-craftsmen but they were not Shahajahan’s contemporaries but Hindus of several centuries earlier. Similarly it was not Shahjahan who commissioned the Taj Mahal but some ancient Hindu king . Likewise the Taj did not come into being as an Islamic mausoleum but as Hindu temple –palace.

The builders of the Taj Mahal –ancient secret revealed

  “Tourists come from the world over to see Taj at Agra and all   marvel at the genius of the architects that could plan and   accomplish so lovely a “dream of marble”.

They were commissioned by the Mogul emperor Shahjahan to raise a mausoleum befitting his love for Mumtaz Mahal , his beloved consort ; and they created this Wonder of the world.

“Yet, despite strenuous efforts to discover it , their identity  had remained a mystery ;wild guesses as to their origin being foreign were abroad. Even Bernier (1642 A.D.) notes only a rumour that the architect was killed lest the secret of his art be revealed and a rival to Taj created.

“But the secret has at long last been found in a manuscript book discovered lately in the library of Mr.Mehmud Khan of Bangalore. The glory of building the Taj belongs definitely to India,to a family of Lahore architect, Ahmad, the father ,and his three sons. The book is in Persian verses in the Persian character, its author being Lathfullah Maaahandis, himself one of the three son architects and it is almost 300 years old, falling within the last years of Shahjahan’s reign.

“ It has been declared to be the only copy in the world, by the well-known authority on these matters , Syed Suleiman Sahib Nadvi,Principal ,Shibly Academy ,Azamgarh.

“The book is in Mahandis’ own handwriting .As is noticed from different verses, the author was a staunch follower of Dara Shikoh , Shahjahan’s eldest son ,and when Aurangzeb finally came to power, after defeating Dara Shikoh, the author and his family suffered. He sent a petition to the emperor but as it was not heeded the family had to retire into seclusion and poverty.

“It seems that the book was very secretly kept by the family in fear of Aurangzeb ,as it contained verses in praise of Dara Shikoh .The subsequent dates and writing on the last page show that the book was brought and kept in the library of the library of the historical personage Nawab Ebrahim Khann  Hazbar Jung ,the famous Mahammedan general nick named  Gardy ,who sided with the Maharatas in the battle of Panipat in 1761 against Ahmed Shah Abdali.The book has been in the family of the present owner  for generations, but it was not noticed until Moulana Syed Suleiman Nadvi ,the well known historian, author and editor of the Moariff (the monthly journal of  the Society of Authors and Shibly Academy, Azamgarh ,U.P.) Discovered it and, on information gleaned from it, read a lengthy Urdu paper on the builders of the Taj in Punjab University.

“In the verses on two pages of the book described in the article, the author praises Shahjahan ,and speaks of his father Ahmed, the ‘Nadar–ul-Asar’ (the unique of the world ),as supreme master craftsman, geometer ,astronomer and prosateur .He was appointed court  architect by Shahjahan’s Ryal Warrant ,and was the builder  of the Taj Mahal at Agra and the Lal Quila (Red Fort) at Delhi. He died in 1649,two years after the Taj was built .The author his son and co-architect of the Taj learnt at his feet.”

Article titled Some Facts About the Taj Mahal by Mohammed Din, published in The illustrated weekly of India dated December 30,1951.The article runs thus:

“When The Taj Mahal was built, the many mechanical aids available today were unheard of; yet the extraordinary ingenuity employed in its construction and the high degree of engineering skill evidenced in its design make the mind pause.

Not less remarkable were the talent and skill of the artisans employed. In translating this fabulous architectural dream into brick and mortar, and area 967 ft. long and 373 ft. wide was excavated to a depth of 44 ft. where sub-soil water was met .The whole excavated area was filled in mass with rubble stone in hydraulic lime to provide a common foundation for the three heavy structures, the Taj Mahal , Jamaet – Khana and one mosque which were to be raised close to one another. About 20,000 men were engaged on this work.

“Over this foundation the plinth of the Taj Mahal , 313 ft. square and 8 ft. high, was built in stone with hydraulic lime mortar  and marble stone casing. The casing was laid after the rubble masonry was raised to its designed height, then the marble facing was set.

“The main engineering problem was to haul up the materials to the required height during the progress of the work. This was done by constructing wooden pillars of square timber posts bundled together and skillfully tied with top levels at different heights, and so spaced as to carry a strong platform 40 ft. wide and a spiral roadway with a slope of 1 in 20, to permit loaded mules and mule carts to run over it, and to hold dumps of materials for construction work. This spiral platform was continuous and ran all round the dome, and remained in position till the work was raised to its designed height of 240 ft. above ground level. Special engineers were engaged to build the scaffolding and platform, and 500 carpenters and 300 blacksmith were employed on this project alone. The total length of the spiral platform was about 4,800 ft. The mortar was hoisted by means of Persian wheels, which were fitted on the spiral platform. These were worked by bullocks and mules.

“The materials for the massive work were brought from many distant places. The marble stone was obtained from Makrana  in Rajputana ,for which about a thousand elephants were engaged. The maximum weight of a block of stone was about 2.5 tons, which is the safe carrying capacity of an elephant. A number of elephants were also engaged to work the pulleys.

“The timber for scaffolding was brought from the Kashmir and Naini Tal areas. About 2000 camels and 1000 bullock carts were employed for carting bricks and light materials to the construction site and about 1000 mules for lifting the materials along the spiral platform.

“The marble stone required for drum and dome was dressed on the ground and then lifted and laid in position by means of pulleys…

“After the main dome and drum work was finished, work on annexes and subsidiary buildings was taken in hand and completed in the same manner.

“There are four minarets at the four corners of the Taj Mahal …

“The river Jumna was half a mile away from the structure. After the building was completed , the river was diverted artificially to flow alongside the Taj to add to the beauty of landscape.

“Contemporary Muslim writers recorded the names of those who designed and constructed the Taj Mahal, and the names and quantities of precious stones used. It appears that Mohammed Isa Afandi, of turkey, was the chief designer and draftsman. Among the other foreigners employed on the construction, there were men from Arabia ,Persia, Syria ,Baghdad and Samarkand and there was at least one Frenchmen, Austin de Bordeaux, a goldsmith.

The precious stones used included 540 pieces of cornelian from Baghdad, 670 turquoises from upper Tibet, 614 malachite’s from Russia ,559 onyxes from Deccan and 625 diamonds from Central India. The construction of Taj Mahal  was begun in 1632 and was not completed till 1650.It is believed to have cost more than a crore and a half of rupees which in terms of the present value of  money ,would be at ten times as much .Two thirds of this were contributed by the State office and one third by third by the State treasury of the province. The allocations of  expenditures on different parts of the structure have been carefully recorded in documents which are still existent.

“Shahjahan, magnificent in his kingship, was equally magnificent in his sorrows. This exquisite memorial of an emperor’s love was built by the sorrowing Shahjahan for his departed spouse. He manifestly designed it to go down in history to a worshipful posterity; three hundred years after, it is still acclaimed as one of the supreme achievements of the architect.

The measurement mentioned could of course always be taken from the erstwhile Hindu Temple palace, which stands before us today as the Taj Mahal, and stuffed into any post-mortem of the construction.

The account of how the edifice was erected is apparently the result of an hind-sight post-mortem carried out by some contemporary architects, as far as they can visualize it .As for the 500 carpenters and 300 blacksmiths and such others employed, we have no special objection because that many would be easily absorbed in erecting even a scaffolding around the massive Hindu Temple palace, which the Taj Mahal is, to convert it into a Muslim tomb.

The following conclusions emerge from what Emperor Shahjahan’s own court chronicler has recorded in the official history of the reign, Badshahnama :

1.The Taj Mahal is a Hindu palace.

2.It has around it a majestic and spacious garden.

3.The huge building complex was obtained in exchange (if at all ) for almost a song, i.e. at best transferring to the owner an open plot of land. This too seems fishy because the location and the size of the plot of land are  not mentioned. Most probably it was just a blatant expropriation effected by turning Jaisingh out of his wealthy ancestral palace. The detail that Jaisingh was compensated by gifting him on open plot of land is obviously a royal Islamic bluff to cover up the fact that Raja Jaisingh was blatantly robbed of his wealthy temple-palace.

4.The Hindu palace had a dome.

5.Mumtaz was buried, so they say, under that dome soon after her exhumed body was brought from Burhanpur to Agra, if at all.

6.The estimated expenditure  (to transform the Hindu Palace into a Muslim tomb ) was Rs.40 lakhs .(the actual expenditure is unknown ).

7.Of the above sum , Rs.5 lakhs was spent on the grave and cenotaph and the balance of Rs 35 lakhs on the scaffolding  and the Koranic engravings.

8.Designer or architects are out of the picture, since the Taj Mahal was never raised by Shahjahan.

9.The Hindu palace was known as Mansingh’s palace during Emperor Shahjahan’s time though it was in the occupation of his grandson Jaisingh.

 The above account being fairly plausible fits with the truth that the Taj Mahal is an ancient Hindu palace commandeered for conversion into a Muslim tomb.

In spite of this fundamental vagueness we would have accepted the duration of the period during which the Taj Mahal was a building if there had been any consensus about it among historians.  Unfortunately, there is none .See how many versions are there:

1.The Maharashtreeya  Jnyankosh quoted  (Pp. 35-36 ,Maharashtreeya Jnyankosh ,ibid,Vol. 15) says that the  “construction commenced in 1631 A.D. and ended in January 1643 A.D.”That gives a period of a little less than 12 years .

2.The encyclopaedia   Britannica (P. 758, Encyclopaedia Britannica ,1964 Ed.,Vol. 21) says “the building was commenced in 1632.More than 20,000 workmen were employed daily to complete the mausoleum building itself by 1643,although the whole Taj complex took 22 years to complete .Unlike the first encyclopaedia ,the latter gives us two separate periods :one of 10 to 11 years and the other of 22 years. About this latter period of 22 years we would also like to know why the mausoleum needed a building complex containing stables and guard and guest rooms was Mumtaz still supposed to go riding, casting away the burqa and escorted by large cavalry contingents? Was she also expected to receive guests?

3.Tavernier’s account runs completely counter to all Muslim versions, which form the basis of the encyclopedic accounts quoted above. The Encyclopaedia Britannica  account is actually as amalgam of the Tavernier and Muslim accounts  in as much as it borrows the figure  of 20,000.workmen and 22 years from Tavernier while deftly weaving in it the 11or 12 year period fancied in Muslim accounts.

Tavernier  (PP.109-111, Travels in India, ibid.) says he witnessed the commencement and accomplishment of this  great work on which they expended 22 years during which 20,000 men worked incessantly .The cost of it has been enormous. The scaffolding alone cost more than the entire work…”

Even presuming that Tavernier arrived in Agra in 1641, and the work began soon after his arrival there, it should have lasted from 1641 to 1663.But Shahjahan was deposed and imprisoned by his son Aurangzeb in 1658 .How then could the work of the Mumtaz mausoleum proceed until 1663,i.e. five years after his losing control of state affairs ? And if, in fact, It did, what are we to make some Muslim accounts, which claim that the work had ended in 1643? Then again, is the problem of the commencement of the construction still remains hanging in air.

4.Mr.Mohammed Din’s article (The Illustrated weekly of India dated Dec 30,1951.)  asserts “the construction of the Taj Mahal was begun in 1632 and was not completed till 1650”.Mr.Mohammed Din seems to be sure only of the date when the building commenced .If we take  1632 as the year of commenced then what are we to make of Tavernier’s assertion that work started in his presence ?

5.Yet another version estimates the Taj Mahal to have been under construction for 17 years .This is from Mr.Arora’s book (P. 10 City of Taj  by R.C.Arora ,printed at the Hiberninan Press,15 Portuguese Church Street ,Calcutta). He says “Shahjahan commenced building the Taj in 1631,the fourth year his accession .The splendid mausoleum was completed in 1648.

It is not even certain that Mumtaz died in 1630.Even assuming that she died in 1630 she perhaps died towards the close of that year. In such a case is it possible for the emperor to make a decision to build a dreamland monument, have a huge amount sanctioned for it, broadcast his scheme to distant lands, have artists prepare plans have them sent to Shahjahan, from among which, we are told ,he selected one ,have a wooden model constructed ,the necessary workmen collected, the bewildering variety of material ordered and construction begun all by 1630? 

6. A like version is also found in The Columbia Lippincott Gazetteer(P. 19 ,Vol II). It states: “the beautiful Taj Mahal (built 1630-1648) probably the most noted mausoleum in the world.. etc .etc. All the arguments repeated above apply to this Gazetteer version too, namely, that since we are not even sure whether Mumtaz died in 1630, how could calling for mausoleum plans, selecting one, ordering the building material etc. all be done just in one year?

Since bricks (and timber) are generally bought and used soon after being marketed (and are not stored for generations like diamonds, bullion and ornaments) thermoluminescence is very helpful in determining the age of a brick-structure fairly accurately. The carbon – C14 test is applicable to anything, which had been part of a living organism such as piece of bone or timber. A living tree continues to breathe in carbon di oxide while alive.But once it is dead the breathing in stops and the dead piece continues to lose its carbon di oxide (including C14) content at a known rate.

The report published in the Itihas Patrika (a quarterly journal,Vol 4 No. 4 dated 31 December 1984,THANA)is produced hereunder….

Sample 1

“Wood piece from door at North (east) end of Taj Mahal at beach level fronting on Jumna River.

“Age 1359+ - 89 A.D. Thus there is a 67% probability that the age of the sample lies between 1448 and 1270 A.D.

                                                                    Submitted by Evan T.Williams

                                                                       Professor of chemistry

                                                                      City University of New York,

                                                                        Brooklyn College,

                                                                        Brooklyn,N.Y.,11210

          The Taj Mahal originated as a temple -The inscription in Sanskrit has 34 stanzas of which stanzas 25,26 and 34 being relevant to our topic are reproduced as translation. Translated, these means :”He (King Parmardi Dev or on his behalf  his minister Salakshan ) raised a palace which had inside it the idol of Lord Vishnu whose feet the king used to touch with his (bowed ) head.

“Similarly the King also had constructed this temple,(dedicated) to the God who bears the crescent on His (fore)head, made of crystal white stone. Consecrated in that (magnificent) temple the lord (was so pleased that He) never thought of repairing to His (Himalayan ) abode on mount Kailas. The inscription found at Mauja Bateshwar,near Agra is at present in the Lucknow Museum.It is of the King Paramardi Dev dated Vikram Samvat 1212,Ashwin(month),5^th day of the bright lunar fortnight. It has in all 34 stanzas which describe the origin of the Chandratreya (regal) dynasty and its important rulers. The inscription was found embedded in a mound at   Bateshwar .It was later deposited in the Lucknow Museum by General Cunnigham, where it still is.The two beautiful marble temples which King Paramardi Dev had raised, one for Lord Vishnu and the other for Lord Shiva were subsequently desecrated during Muslim invasions .Some clever(farsighted)person has this inscription ,concerning these temples,buried in a mound. It remained buried for many years until1900 A.D. when during excavations it was discovered by General Cunnigham. The Shiva (Chandramauleeshwar) temple is obviuosly the Taj Mahal for the following reasons:

1.It is of crystal white marble as mentioned in the inscription .

2.Its pinnacle and entrance arches bear the trident (trishul) which is an exclusive emblem of Chandramauleeshwar.

3.The edifice is said to have been of such captivating beauty that the Lord (Shiva) Chandramauleeshwar never again thought of returning to his Himalayan abode of Kailas.

4.The Taj Mahal garden included plants and tress all sacred to Hindus. Among them is the Bel and Harshringar ,the leaves and flowers of which are considered a necessity  for the worship of lord Shiva.

5.The central Chamber of the Taj Mahal which is now believed to  contain the cenotaphs of emperor Shahjahan and his wife Arjumand Banu Begum has around it ten quadrangular chambers providing a perambulatory passage for devotees as is the Hindu custom.

6.As the devotee passes through each of those rooms, ventilators provide him a view of the centre of the octagonal central chamber where the emblem of Lord Chandramauleeshwar was consecrated.

7. The high dome of the Taj Mahal central chamber with its reverberative effect provided the proper gimmick to produce the ecstatic din that accompanies  the worship   of Lord Shiva when he is supposed to perform the cosmic(Tandava Nritya) dance amidst the blowing of conches, beating of drums and tolling of bells.

8.The high dome is also a common feature of Shiva temples to enable the hanging of a pitcher for water to drip over the emblem of Lord Shiva. The chain which held the pitcher still remains suspended from the centre of the dome.

9.Silver doors and gold railings mentioned as fixtures of the Taj Mahal are a common feature of Hindu temples surviving even to our own day .Had the gold railing, fancied to have been provided for Mumtaz’s tomb, been subsequently removed one should have seen holes in the mosaic flooring for the props which supported the railing. There are no such holes. That means that it was Shahjahan who removed the gold railing of the ancient Hindu Shiva temple and carried it away to the treasury, before using the location of the Hindu idol to graft an Islamic cenotaph. Visitors may also notice there an ancient Hindu colour sketch of eight directional pointers,16 cobras,32 tridents and 64 lotus buds all Hindu motifs in multiples of eight That design is sketched in the concave domed ceiling of the octagonal central chamber, which anyone standing close to Mumtaz’s cenotaph may look up and see.

10.Guides at the Taj Mahal still mention a tradition of a drop of rainwater dropping from the high dome top on the cenotaph within. This obviously is a remnant of the past memories of the water dripping on the emblem of Lord Shiva from the pitcher.

11.Tavernier mentions the six courts in the Taj Mahal building complex where a bazar used to be held.It is common knowledge that in Hindu tradition bazars and fairs are invariably held around temples which constitute the focal points of Hindu life.

12.The trident(trishul) which  is Lord Shiva’s exclusive weapon is also inlaid at the apex of the Taj Mahal’s marble entrance arches on all four sides It is in red and white lines exactly as some Hindus   wear in colour on their foreheads. Its being installed there at the apex of the entrance arches clearly proves that it is an unmistakable Shiva temple.

13.A full length design of the entire  trident pinnacle as it towers above the dome, has been inlaid in the red stone yard to the right of the Taj Mahal as we stand facing the marble edifice. This again proves its Hindu origin since it has been a tradition in Hindu architecture to inscribe the basic scale used in the construction of every building ,somewhere in the premises. In the case of Taj Mahal the length of its trident pinnacle may be the basic scale used in raising the Shiva temple.

14.The ‘Taj Mahal itself is far from Persian .It is a corrupt from of the Sanskrit term “Tejo  Maha Alaya meaning Resplendent Shrine “It was known as resplendent shrine  because it reflects a dazzling sheen in sunlight and moonlight. That name also attaches to it because Lord Shiva’s third eye is said to emit a jet of lustre i.e. teja.The tarditional conjecture that the term Taj Mahal derives from the name of Mumtaz Mahal porves baseless on closer scrutiny.

15. Apparently Akbar did not dispossess the Jaipur royal family of the Taj Mahal because the Jaipur family was his strongest Hindu ally and its scion ,Bhagwandas and Mansingh were his most trusted generals. They were also in laws of the Mogul rulers.That after Humayun’s defeat the Taj Mahal passed into the hands of the Jaipur royal family is apparent from Emperor Sahhajahan’s chronicle which admits having commandeered The Taj Mahal from Jai Singh ,the then head of the Jaipur royal family.

16.Besides the trident pinnacle, there are other Hindu symbols in the Taj namely the conch, the lotus and the sacred Hindu chant “OM” in Devanagiri character.

Visitors to the Taj may notice the letter “om” woven in bold relief in embossed flower –designs on the interior marble walls. As one stands poised at the top of the stairs leading to the basement (to se what they call the ‘real graves’ ) one may see on the walls around the upper marble cenotaph chamber ,at chest level, the esoteric sacred Hindu letter ‘om’ woven into embossed marble flower pattern. Pink lotus patterns on the border of the grilled panels that enclose the cenotaph may also be noticed.

A peacock Throne could never have been ordered by fanatic mediaeval Muslim rulers surrounded by even more fanatic maulvis. Throughout their millennium long rule in India their one penchant was to break images not to make them.

The peacock Throne could only be a piece of Hindu Palace furniture because traditionally a Hindu throne must have the effigy of some bird or animal known for its splendor or valour. In Hindu terminology the very term for a throne is a “Lion Seat (Simhasan).”

Hardly had the project begun, than we are told that by 1635 Shahjahan  had amassed such a plethora of gems and bullion, within seven years of his accession that he did not know what to do with them. He therefore had a fabulous Peacock Throne ordered.

According to Shahjahan’s court   chronicler (PP. 45-46,ibid.),it appears that the peacock Throne was “three yards long, two and a half yards broad, yards high and set with jewels worth 86 lakh rupees. The canopy had 12 emerald columns. On top of each pillar  were two peacocks thick –set with rubies ,diamonds, emeralds and pearls. The throne cost ten million rupees”.

“The marble screen enclosing an octagonal area in the centre of the cenotaph chamber was, according to the Badshahnama placed here in 1642 by Shahjahan …According, however ,to competent  authority  the screen was placed here by Aurangzeb after he laid his father’s remains there.

“The basement rooms are centrally situated  as a line of 14 rooms along the face of the Great Basement, under its terrace; and each of them is connected by a doorway with as inner lobby running east and west along their entire length. From each end of the lobby a staircase ascends to the terrace of the Great Basement ,where its entrance closed by red sandstone slabs, lay unsuspected until discovered a few years ago, the clue  being given by a small window overlooking the river in each of the two easternmost rooms. The rooms, once  frescoed and otherwise decorated being  now in darkness and  infested by bats , cannot be explored without a torch or lamp. Whether they originally opened on to a ghat and gave admittance to the Taj from the river; or being provided with windows, were used as  cool resorts during the heat of the day, cannot now be decided”.

In the Agra Fort gallery, facing the Taj, is a tiny glass piece embedded in the wall to mirror the Taj Mahal. Originators of the Taj legend have conveniently annexed the device to add to the mesmeric effect of the myth. Embedding tiny, round  glass reflectors by their thousands in arched recesses of palaces  and in women’s dresses is a very common  and widespread Rajput practice. Such glass reflectors can still be seen fixed in numerous ancient palaces in Rajasthan, and continue to be used for decoration in Rajput women’s dresses. Saracenic architecture, if there be any such,should rather believe in “purdah “ i.e. shrouding or hiding and would never think of glass reflectors.Mirror –pieces decorated the royal apartments in Agra fort because it was a Hindu fort.Moreoever Shahjahan was never permitted access during interment to that part of the fort which overlooks the Taj. It is, therefore absurd to argue that during detention he consoled himself by catching glimpses of the Taj in the tiny glass piece. A further absurdity and inconsistency is ; would an old monarch, bent with age, stand up all the time to strain his bedimmed vision, and peer into a tiny glass piece with his back  to the Taj  to catch a fleeting,  reflected glimpse of the Taj when he could as well have a clear ,full, straight  and direct view of it seated comfortably facing the monument? And would not such a stance give him a pain in the neck? This is yet another instance of how students of history ,archaeologists and lay visitors have never bothered or cared to take stock of the loose bits of the Taj legend, and tried to rearrange them to find out whether they add up to at least a coherent and cogent account, even if fictitious.

In addition  to its sculptural splendor, the Taj is also believed to have had gem studded marble screens, gold railing and silver doors. Readers can well add up to the cost of all these. It will amount to a fabulous, astronomical sum. Perhaps even all the Mogul emperors together could not have invested that  much on a single monument.

Had  the Taj been an original tomb, Shahjahan would never have allowed Indian flora to form the dominant feature of  the tapestry design inside the mausoleum of his wife. It is idle to argue that because the workmen employed on the Taj happened to be Hindus their motifs got incorporated in the Taj design. It must be remembered that it is the person who pays the piper that calls the tune. Moreover when it is a question of the peace of departed soul, symbols and motifs of a detested religion would never have been allowed to be incorporated in the ornamental patterns of the Taj. In fact  the whole idea of having such a luxurious tomb built and having decorative patterns made inside it is frowned upon in Islamic religion and tradition. But Shahjahan had no alternative  but to put up with them since he had taken over a ready made “heathen” monument.

We have   cited five direct proofs  to establish  that the Taj is an ancient Hindu palace.These are:

1.Shahjahan’s own court chronicler Mulla Abdul Hamid’s admission.

2.Mr.Nurul Hasan Siddiqui’s book, The City of Taj, reiterates the same position.

3.Tavernier’s testimony too establishes that a lofty palace had been obtained, and that it was a world tourist attraction even before Mumtaz’s burial.

4.Emperor Shahjahan’s great great grandfather Babur’s Memoirs refer to the Taj Mahal 104 years before Mumtaz’s death whose tomb the Taj is supposed to be.

5.The Encyclopaedia Britannica has been quoted to show that the Taj Mahal building complex comprises guest rooms, guard rooms and stables. These are all adjuncts of a temple palace but never of a tomb.

In addition  to the above we have ,in the foregoing pages,advanced many other proofs as follows:

6.The very name Taj Mahal means a crown palace or a resplendent shrine (Tejo Maha Alaya) and not a tomb .

7.Shahjahan’s reign was as full of turmoil and warfare as that of most other Muslim rulers of India. He could not therefore, have any wealth, peace, security or inclination to launch on such an ambitious project as the Taj Mahal.

8.Shahjahan’s lechery and profligacy ruled out any special attachment to Mumtaz, whose mausoleum the Taj has been misrepresented to be.

9.Shahjahan was cruel, hard hearted and stingy ;as such he could never have the artist’s soft heart  and a liberal patron’s generosity to lavish wealth on a building to house a corpse.

10. Mulla Abdul Hamid Lahori, the court chronicler, mentions no architect and estimates the cost  of the work done to be only Rs 40,00,000 which clearly shows that no new building was erected.

11.Shahjahan, whose reign was supposed to be a golden period  of history, has not left even a scrap of authentic paper about the construction of Taj Mahal. There are no authentic orders commissioning the Taj ,no correspondence  for the purchase or acquisition of the so-called site ,no design drawings no bills or receipts and no expense account sheets Some of those usually produced or referred to have already been proved to be forgeries.

12.Had Shahjahan really been the conceiver of the Taj Mahal, he need not have specially instructed Mulla Abdul Hamid Lahori not to forget mentioning or describing its ‘construction’ in the official chronicles, because the grandeur and majesty of the Taj as the finest achievement of a ruling monarch could never be lost sight of by a paid court chronicler.

13.That Shahajahan could not even in his wildest dreams conceive undertaking such a gorgeous project is apparent  from the fact that even the Muslim accounts tell us that he made the workers toil on meagre  rations without giving them any cash payment. Tavernier tells us that Shahjahan could not marshal even timber enough for as much as scaffolding. Some accounts have also pointed out that Shahjahan made Rajas and Maharajas pay a large part of the “cost”. So even the additions and alterations required in converting a Hindu palace to the semblance of a Muslim tomb were made by compelling labourers to toil for a mere meagre food allocation and by imposing levies on subservient chieftains.

14. If a stupendous monument like the Taj Mahal were specially built for the burial of a consort there would be a ceremonial burial date and it would not go unrecorded. But not only  is the burial date  not mentioned but even the approximate period during which Arjumand Banu Begum may  have been  buried in the Taj Mahal varies from six months to nine years of her death.

15. Mumtaz was married to Shahjahan when the latter was 21 years old. Royal children in his times used to be married much before their teens. This shows that Arjumand Banu was Shahjahan’s umpteenth wife. There was thus no reason why she should have been buried in a special monument.

16. Having been a commoner by birth Arjumand Banu was not entitled to a special monument

17.History makes no special mention of any out of the way attachment or romance between the two, unlike that of Jahangir and Nurjahan. This shows that the story of their love is a concoction seeking to justify the myth about the building of the taj over her body.

18. Shahjahan was no patron of art. Had he been one, he would not have had the heart to chop off the hands  of those who are said to have toiled to ‘build’ the monument for his wife. An art lover especially one disconsolate on his wife’s death,would not indulge in an orgy of maiming skilful craftsman. But the maiming story is apparently true because made to toil mercilessly on meagre rations on a palace usurped from its erstwhile Hindu master, the infuriated workmen broke out in revolt.

19.There is no record in history that Shahjahan had any special infatuation for Mumtaz. In fact history records that he used to run after various other women from his own daughter to his maids.

20.The existence of the landing ghat at the rear suggests a temple palace, not a tomb.

21.Even the central marble structure consists of a 23-room marble palace suit which is superfluous for a tomb.

22.The plan tallies with ancient Hindu architectural design and specifications.

23.The entire Taj building consists of over 1000 rooms along its corridor, in two basements, on the upper floors and in its numerous towers, which clearly bears out the contention that it was meant to be a temple palace.

24. The many annexes, guard and guest rooms etc. prove that it is a temple palace. The pleasure pavilions in the Taj premises could never form part of a tomb but only of a palace.

25.The Taj complex houses a pair of Nakkar Khanas, i.e. drum houses. Drum houses 

are not only superfluous in a tomb but it is a positive misfit because a departed soul needs peace and rest. On the other hand a drum house is a necessary concomitant of a temple-palace because drum beats are used to  herald royal arrivals and departures summoning  of the townsfolk for royal announcements and proclamations and announce divine worship time.

26.The Taj building complex also contains cowpen which used to be part of all Hindu royal and temple premises.

27.The Sanskrit words “Kalas” and “pranchi” (fenced off open spaces around the dome and other structures) would never have been in the Taj premises had it originated as a Muslim tomb.

28.The decorative patterns and motifs throughout the Taj Mahal are not only entirely of Indian flora but also of sacred Hindu emblems like the lotus, which infidel characteristics, according to Islamic beliefs would never allow any peace to the soul of the Muslim lady, if any, lying buried beneath.

29. The galleries, arches, supporting brackets and cupolas are entirely in the Hindu style  such as can be seen all over Rajasthan.

30. Like every other suspicious aspect of Taj, its period of construction is variously stated  to be 10,12,13,17 or 22 years, which again proves that the traditional story is a concotion.

31.Even Tavernier’s testimony that he saw the commencement and the end of this work, while weakening the traditional case, strengthens ours.

32. The reports that Shahjahan levied large amounts on rajas and Maharajas and that the so called (tampering) work dragged on over 10,12,13,17,or even 22 years are all very true details. Since Shahjahan was too shrewd and hard headed to spend anything out of his own treasury and would lose no opportunity of taxing and persecuting the local people, he made political capital even out of the death of his own wife.

33.The designers are variously mentioned by Western scholars to be Europeans, and are claimed by Muslims to be Muslims, while the Imperial Library Manuscript contains Hindu names.

34.The Taj Mahal had a grand garden. A graveyard never boasts of luscious fruits and fragrant flower trees, since the idea of enjoying fruit and flowers of a graveyard orchard

is revolting.

35.The trees, moreover were those bearing Sanskrit names and select sacred plants at that ,like Ketaki, Jai, Jui, Champa, Maulashree, Harshringar and Bel.

36.The designer of Taj is unknown.

37.Far from causing him any expenditure, the Taj proved to be a veritable gold mine for Shahjahan. While Arjumand Banu was buried in a stripped, cold,stone temple palace, the building was robbed of all its costly trappings which were removed to Sahjahan’s treasury.

38. The Taj palace is located in the twin township of Jaisinghpura and Khawaspura which are Rajput words, not Muslim.”Pura” in Sanskrit signifies a busy locality and not an open plot of land as is sometimes claimed.

39.The Taj Mahal entrance faces south. Had it been a Muslim building it should have faced west.

40.Its decorative and marble work tallies exactly with  that in the Amer(Jaipur) palace built circa 967.

41.The Taj temple palace has various other annexes outside its outer peripheral redstone wall, meant for courtiers and palace staff.

42. Akbar on his early visits to Agra used to stay in Khawaspura and Jaisinghpura, which clearly shows that he stayed in the Taj .

43.Bernier,another foreign visitor to Shahjahan’s court, tells us that  the nether chambers had a rare magnificence and no non-muslim was allowed entry to them.That shows the hush-hush secrecy  maintained about them.

44.Even the term Taj Mahal  doesn’t figure in any Mogul court records.

45.An English visitor, Peter Mundy who was in India only for about a year after Mumtaz’s death mentions the Taj Mahal as one of the most spectacular buildings. Thus Shahjahan’s sacrilege of the Hindu Taj temple-palace by misusing it as an Islamic graveyard ought to be rectified by removing Arjumand Banu’s remains,if they really are in the Taj Mahal, to her original grave, still  existing in Burhanpur. The garden pavilion of an Hindu mansion in Burhanpur(about 600 miles south west of Agra) where Mumtaz was buried  in1631 A.D. after her death in her 14^th delivery during 18 years of married life. Shahjahan Mumtaz had encamped in the adjoining Hindu palace during a north south journey when Mumtaz died.The ground plan of the orthodox Vedic octagonal Tejomahalaya shrine in Agra where Mumtaz’s exumed body is supposed to have been interred again. Why this sacrilege? An aerial  view. The white marble Tejomahalaya framed by four towers at its plinth-corners on the south bank of the sacred Yamuna river. Two identical red stone buildings(each with three marble domes) facing the marble edifice from the east and west were meant to be reception pavilions for royal or religious congregations. The central marble building and the flanking red stone buildings are all seven storied with octagonal features,which is a Vedic specialty.Seven storied octagonal buildings are mentioned even in Ramayanic description of Ayodhya. A meticulous count will reveal 33 arches in the marble plinth seen in front in between the two towers on the left and the right. Since the marble platform is a square the breadth too has 33 arches consequently the marble plinth itself encloses 33x 33=1089 rooms That is the ground floor. Above it on either side of the lofty entrance arch may be seen vaulted arches on two levels one above the other, which constitutes two more stories in marble. The  outer western gateway leading  to the spacious parking area for visitors’ vehicles lined by arcaded red stone verandahs with rooms for shopkeepers selling their wares. The entire parking area is lined by such shopping arcades which Tavernier describes as bazar of six courts.The western gateway has assumed importance in modern times because the main bus depot and railway stations of the populous, bustling Agra city lies in that direction. In olden days it was the elevated gateway at the left which used,to be the main entrance of the Tejganj alias Tajganj township.The Tejomahalaya shopping arcade has had at its outer eastern and western corners, flanking the Shree gate, two other subsidiary sentinel-temples. This octagonal pavilion with a white dome in the south west corner bearing the inverted lotus cap and straight Vedic pinnacle pitcher shaft is one of them. But alas, since Shahjahan’s time the sacred sanctum has an Islamic cenotaph attributed to an harem-maid Satunnisa Khanam. But since no name is inscribed on it that seems to be an inspired canard explaining away the desecration of the Hindu shrine.

The interior of the multi-storied vaulted entrance gate leading first to the rectangular garden and then to the wonder marble edifice at the far end. The temple palace management staff used to work on both floors on various assigned duties. The carved decorative red stone bunting around the interior and exterior of this gateway, about knee-high from the floor, if minutely observed turns out to be an ingenious running chain of three-in-one Ganesh images, two in profile on the flanks and one with a frontal facing in the middle. The marble Taj Mahal has identical vaulted lofty archways in all the four directions. Their temple décor was chiseled away and Koranic extracts were improvised to fill the cavities. Close look at the marble stone frames around the vertical and horizontal Koranic passages to notice the patches of dissimilar shapes and tints of marble used. Cobras lined up above a string of inlaid temple bells pattern form the upper border of the Taj Mahal. Both cobras and bells have sacred associations in Vedic spiritual lore.

               The gateway at which entry tickets are issued, is decorated both inside and out, at the knee level with a bunting depicting such ingeneous three-in-one Ganesh caricatures; two in profile on the flanks enclosing a frontal one in the middle. The arches in the marble plinth and the rectangular ventilator above each one of them,(allowing light and air to the 1089 chambers inside the plinth)may be minutely observed to have been sealed with marble slabs.

The seven arches at the bottom enclose the stairs, which lead to the top of the marble plinth symmetrically from the right and left.The Nandi(Lord Shiva ‘s Bull ) occupied the spot where the person clad in white robes is seen standing facing the entrance, before it was uprooted at Shahjahan’s orders. That spot was patched up later with inferior reddish slabs. There is trident shaped designs in inlay filigree at the two upper corners of the entrance and the trident shaped red lotus bud at the apex of the arch.

The Koranic stones fixed vertically and horizontally along such lofty arches on all four sides were improvised to fill up gaping cavities left after digging out idols of Vedic deities and Sanskrit extracts. We arrive at the above conclusion because (1) a close inspection of the marble frames enclosing the Koranic extracts reveal patches of marble of different shapes and tints (2) The Koranic extracts are random, haphazard out of sequence and incomplete (3) On hot days with the visitor’s feet burning on the marble  plinth a fierce sun beating down on the head and the eyes burning with intense sunlight radiated by the white  marble sheen even a devout Muslim knowing Arabic won’t have the heart or even the steady head or patience to crane and strain his eyes and neck alternately vertically and horizontally to make any head or tail of that message of Allah. A close-up of the upper part of a minaret. The galleries rest on snake-shape brackets, which is a distinct Hindu architectural trait. Mumtaz’s tomb in the crypt (basement). The pavement patched up with marble slabs of varying sizes and tints indicating that the Shivling here has either been replaced by the cenotaph or is covered up by it.

After one enters the lofty arch from the marble platform one steps onto spacious halls which form a perambulatory passage all around the central octagonal sanctum. That sanctum too has entrances on all four sides. But only the south entrance has been  kept open since Shahjahan’s time.

All these outer and inner entrances had silver doors which are common to all renowned Hindu(Vedic) shrines. Those were uprooted and ranged on the outer marble plinth before being spirited away to Shahjahan’s Mogul treasury. European visitors to the shrine around 1631 A.D. noticing the uprooted costly fixtures such as silver doors ranged on the marble platform misunderstood them to have been ordered by Shahjahan to be used in the building.Contrarily the thousands of labourers rounded up from the by lanes of Agra city under threats of dire consequences were forced to toil gratis to uproot all the costly fixtures such as the gem studded gold railings(around the Shivaling),silver doors, precious stones stuffed in the marble lattices and the golden pitcher dripping water on the Shivlinga, and transport them to the mogul treasury. Notice the framed decorative panels to the left and right of the doorway. They depict embossed OM shaped Dhatura flowers and conchshell- type foliage. The panel at the left has the sacred conchshell design. The right side panel depicts a plant with flowers shaped like the sacred Vedic chant (OM).

Mumtaz’s cenotaph in the foreground and subsequent Shahjahan’s cenotaph besides it in the upper marble octagonal chamber. Notice that both the cenotaphs are highly decorated with inlay work.

Neither Shahjahan nor Mumtaz could have been buried here because this chamber is on the 4^th floor above the river surface. Corpses are invariably buried in mother-earth and never on stone floors. Consequently  this so-called Mumtaz’s cenotaph in this central octagonal chamber  either covers the sacred Hindu ( Vedic ) Shivling itself  or the sacred spot from which the Shivling was uprooted.Shahjahan and Mumtaz must be fake. Why should there be even one pair of fake cenotaph? And since one pair  of cenotaphs is fake the crucial question is which is the fake one. The one in the lower chamber or upper  chamber? Or does each floor contain one fake and the genuine cenotaph alternating between Shahjahan and Mumtaz?

Science  have been so somnolent for the last 350 and odd years as to allow the preposterous Shahjahan and Mumtaz  legend, stained with carnal love  to pass muster in spite of being riddled with a myriad loopholes disclosed .Around the hook  (from which hangs the chain) is a sketch in concentric circles. In the smallest innermost circle are arrows symbolizing the eight surface directions. Around it is another circle of 16 serpents looking down on the Shivling underneath. Around it is a wider circle of 32 tridents. Surrounding it is a bigger circle depicting 64 lotus buds. Even this mathematical progression of multiples  of 8 i.e. 8x2=16x2=32x2=64 is of esoteric Vedic significance and has no relation with Islam.The preponderating significance of 8 in Vedic tradition may be judged from terms such as Ashtapailu, Ashtavadhani, Ashtaputra, Ashtadhatu, Ashtang  Ayurved, Mangalashtak and Sastang namaskar.

                The octagonal lattice around the cenotaph of Mumtaz (which has replaced or covered the sacred Shivling) has in its upper border a total of 108 pitchers, some rotund and striped and some oblong like vases. The rotund striped pitcher is seen bathing the Shivaling underneath with a stream of milk. The decorative flora on the vase and other parts of the Taj Mahal alias Tejomahalaya is all native to India. Such decoration in the orange, Vedic colour behooves a Hindu temple or palace but never a somber Islamic sepulchre.

                A close-up of the gilded pinnacle rising from the inverted lotus cap of the marble dome .The pinnacle is known as Kalash in Vedic parlance because of the stack of pitchers which constitute it. The curvy shaft seen in the upper portion represents the crescent on Lord Shiva’s forehead. Above it is an oblong pitcher, two mango leaves curving on either side with a coconut balanced on top. Such a coconut –topped pitcher represents divinity in Vedic tradition.

          The three domes of the so called mosque are a misfit in Islam. Since Islam has only one Allah and one prophet for whom is the third dome? Moreover the qibla (i.e. the prayer niche) is not aligned to the Kaba in Mecca as it should be in a genuine mosque. Also when there are three qiblas instead of one they couldn’t all be aligned to the Kaba at the same time. And since the twin buildings on the eastern flank is a non-mosque it automatically follows that its counterpart to the west is also a non-mosque. Only buildings with the same function and purpose can have an identical design.

                 There is staircase and another symmetrical one at the other end lead down to the storey beneath the marble platform Tow such staircases (one each at the eastern and western ends) behind the marble plinth take one to the nether chambers. Visitors may go to the back of the marble plinth  at the eastern or western end and descend down the staircase because it is open to sky. But at the foot the archaeology department has set up an iron grill door which it keeps locked. Yet one may peep inside from the iron grill in the upper part of the door. Shahjahan had sealed even these two staircases. It was the British who opened them. But from Shahjahan’s time the stories below and above the marble ground floor have been barred to visitors. We are still following Mogul dictates and Muslim secrecy though long free from Mogul Islamic rule.

One of the 22 locked rooms in the secret storey beneath the marble platform of the Taj Mahal, which the archaeological  Survey of India keeps conspiratorially locked to hoodwink the public. Therefore the public must pressurized the government to open all locked and sealed chambers in all monuments including the Taj.

Strips of ancient Hindu paint are seen on the wall flanking the doorway. The niches above had paintings of Hindu gods, obviously rubbed off by Muslim desecrators.

One of the 22 riverside rooms in a secret storey of the Taj Mahal unknown to the public. Shahjahan far from building the shining marble Taj wantonly disfigured it. Here he has crudely walled  up a doorway. Such imperial Mogul vandalism lies hidden from the public. This room is in the red stone storey immediately below the marble platform. Indian history has been turned topsy turvy in lauding destroyers as great builders. Therefore Shahjahan should be referred to not as the creator of Taj but as a plunderer of its costly fixtures and disfigurer of the sublime, serene beauty of the holy Tejomahalaya.

Many such doorways of chambers in secret stories underneath the Taj Mahal have been sealed with brick and lime. Concealed inside could be valuable evidence such as Sanskrit inscriptions, Hindu idols, the original Hindu model of Taj, the desecrated Shiva Linga, Hindu scriptures and temple equipment .The Government is deliberately refraining from opening hundreds of such sealed chambers. Inside the Taj Mahal for fear of enraging Muslims and exposing the incompetence of historians worldwide.

        

           There was the traditional treasury well of the Hindu temple palace. Treasure chests used to be stacked in the lower stories. Accountants, cashiers and treasurers sat in the upper stories. On being besieged if the building had to be surrendered to the enemy the treasure chests used to be pushed into the water for salvage later after recapture. For real research, water should be pumped out of this well to reveal the evidence that lies at the bottom. This well is inside a tower near the so called mosque to the west of the marble Taj. Had the Taj been a mausoleum this octagonal multi storied well would have been superfluous.