THE STORY OF THE TAJ MAHAL

Evening Star, Issue 22086, 20 July 1935, Page 2

THE STORY OF THE TAJ MAHAL

[Written for the, ‘ Evening Star.’]

One night, on the deck of a troopship bound for India, I talked to; a soldier who had many years’ service ;in that fascinating country. He described India with all its bea.uty and ughneSs, then he .finished by saying, _ “ There is one thing in India that will disappoint you, and that is the Taj.” Many writers have endeavoured by the aid of their pens»to convey to people a picture' of this magnificent monument. Visitors to India rapturously describe its beauty, Indian writers delight in telling us of the height of this, the countries from which the material came, or the cost of building that. The Taj, with its majestic dignity., forbids description; it is an impertinence to attempt it. ■ The first occasion upon which I saw it was in the brilliance of midday. It was difficult to realise that one was "not dreaming but really alive. Seen at even this first visit it was not so much the Taj itself that interested me as the reason why. it should have been built. Everyone knows vaguely that some by-gone ruler erected it to commemorate the woman whom he loved, . but the Taj means more than that. In the seventeenth century the Mogul Empire was at the zenith of its power and glory. India was flourishing both in its own limits and in its political relationships. It was then the real Orient which we love to picture, the East which we read ot in fairy tales. The Moguls enjoyed all the luxury that unbounded wealth, innumerable slaves, and crowded harems could afford. Into this life of conquest and oppression, .of dazzling wealth and abject poverty, in |he year 1628 came Shah Jahan, the fifth emperor. Apparently anyone less fitted to be the ruler of this magnificent empire could scarcely 'be imagined. Shah Jahan, in his youth, was bo dull and serious that his father advised him to drink in order that he might add a _ little judicious levity to his scanty virtues. Yet later Shah Jahan became the ruler whose reign was the most popular to all the Moguls. The East has scarcely ever been noted for the high status it accorded its women, and the Moguls were no exception. The unfortunate were menials, were. beasts of burden or worse, the more fortunate were regarded as playthings. Bedecked with as much jewellery as their bodies could carry these latter spent their lives in harems, competing for the smile of a polygamous husband. High and low had one deprivation in common; they were denied the right to drink. The Taj stands to perpetuate the memory of the anachronism of her day, the woman who dared to have some intelShah Jahan married Mumtaz Mahal when she was 18. It is all the more remarkable that she should have been such a woman, for she was born into and brought up in the Mogul Empire. From the very beginning she began to change the dullard who was her husband. She was with him unceasingly, at home to give advice, in matters of State to direct, and even went to, battle with him, unable to bear separation. . ~ So it was that in the reign of Shah Jahan the Empire was noted for its courtesy to strangers, its clemency to offenders, and, chief of all, for its toleration shown to all religions. _ lor 18 years Mumtaz assisted her husband to rule the Mogul Empire, then died giving birth to her last child. .On her deathbed the queen extracted two promises from Shah Jahan—one that he should never marry again, and the other that he would erect something beautiful over -ier grave.' The first it was easy for him to keep, for Shah Jahan ceased, on. the death of his wife, to take any interest in affairs around him. All joy in life had gone, for him, and he was apparently another king who never smiled again. ~ The Taj Mahal is the answer to the second promise. To follow the story I went to the Agra Fort. It is built beside the Jumna River, as is the la], between them being a park of most beautiful trees. One can look across the park from- the fort and see the graceful dome and the four minarets. This was the night that Shah Jahan beheld for the latter years of his life. When the Emperor ceased to be mtereated in the affairs of State his four sons were only too anxious to relieve him of the burden. The timehonoured survival of the fittest left one Aurangzeh as the Mogul s next ruler. Apparently the Royal mother had been unable to inculcate the charitable attitude as far as her sons were concerned, for Anrangzeb immediately took steps to prevent any opposition from his father should his grief become healed. He imprisoned Shah Jahan in the Jasmine Tower ot the Agra fort. . , I climbed the tower with my guide and saw the view of the Taj which Shah Jahan used to gaze upon until his death. In the wall of the tower is a small piece of polished green jade about the size of a sixpence. The guide hoisted me up, and there m the jade I saw a perfect miniature Taj, as per- ■ feet as the full-sized view. It was the wish of Shah Jahan that a second monument like the Taj should b© erected for himself. To the parsimony of Anrangzeb the Taj owes its unrivalled beauty,_ for the new Emperor was something of a financier. So the body of the old ruler was uncerimonously rowed down the river and placed beside that of Mumtaz in her , mausoleum,.

' The thrift of his son, however, gave Shah; Jahan- a, ■ fitting burial. In life he and his wife were always together; so are they in death. ,