Taj Mahal

tazh ma-hal', a celebrated mausoleum. It was built in the early part of the seventeenth century by the Mogul emperor, Shah Jahan, for himself and his favorite wife. It stands in the midst of a beautiful garden, an orderly wilderness of vegetation half a mile square, outside the city walls of Agra, India. The richness of the green foliage partly conceals and yet heightens the beauty of the mausoleum. The structure proper stands on a platform of white marble 313 feet square and 18 feet high. A tapering cylindrical minaret 133 feet high ornaments each corner of the platform. The mausoleum itself is 186 feet square. The corners are cut off, giving the building a somewhat octagonal form. The outside walls contain two tiers of arches shaped like the keel of a boat. There are four great portals, one at the middle of each side. The center of the structure is crowned by a pointed, bulbous dome, fifty-eight feet in diameter, surrounded by four eight-sided kiosks. The tip of the central dome is about 210 feet above the pavement.

The interior comprises four domed chambers, one in each corner; also a large octagonal chamber in the center, surrounded by an arcade. The five chambers are connected by corridors. Light enters the building through marble screens. The emperor and the empress rest in the central chamber. The immediate spot is surrounded by an octagonal screen of remarkable lacelike openwork in alabaster. The entire interior is decorated richly. Many passages from the Koran are written on the walls in precious stones. An immense amount of lapis lazuli is used. Flowers and arabesques in mosaic are composed of jasper, bloodstone, jade, onyx, and agate. All in all, the building is considered the most exquisite in existence. It is called the "gem of buildings,--a glimpse of Paradise." One writer said it was built by a giant and finished by a jeweler. Kipling, looking at the building from the window of a train, called it "an opal tinted cloud on the horizon." Later, having viewed it closely, he wrote, "Let those who scoff at overmuch enthusiasm look at the Taj Mahal and thenceforward be dumb. Each must view it for himself with his own eyes, working out his own interpretation of the sight." Another writer has said, "Words are worthless in describing a building which is absolutely faultless."

One curious acoustic property is related by travelers. A harsh word uttered in the interior is echoed harshly and ceases suddenly; but a woman's voice, as of one singing gently, echoes many, many times with wonderful sweetness and dies away like "the notes of a flying wood dove in a forest."

Invading hordes abused the mausoleum, looting it of precious stones. The English redcoats, too, pried off many a piece of mosaic to be sent home to England as a souvenir. Of late, the British government has undertaken the restoration of the building. The diamonds, rubies, and emeralds of old have been replaced by bits of colored glass.

Twenty thousand workmen are said to have been engaged in the building of the Taj, extending through a period of twenty-two years. Even though labor in India be reckoned at a few cents a day, the cost of obtaining material and erecting the building has been estimated variously at from $20,000,000 to $50,000,000.

See Architecture; India; Mausoleum