Agra Sights - Taj Mahal

This has forever been on my list and I was feeling this sense of missing out - that I had not yet seen the Taj Mahal despite being in India and despite having traveled to Delhi so many times. At least on five previous visits I planned and failed until it finally happened this time - a day trip to see the Taj - four hours to Agra from Delhi, see the Taj and perhaps the Agra Fort and head back five hours. Bhasker's driver Suresh was available with his car and off we went at 6 in the morning hoping to reach Agra by ten It took an hour before we passed Noida and hit the Delhi-Agra Expressway and then zoomed on except for a small break for breakfast (paratha and makkan). On the way to Agra I used this link Anjali sent me called getyourguide.com where you can book your official guides because I did not want to waste time searching for and haggling with guides. The site charged some 800 bucks per head and I signed in both of us. A quick call back from the guide Shahnawaz who deputed Arman Akhthar to guide us gave me confidence that my money was not lost in the internet scam world. Arman told us where to pick him up. We were there at 10 am sharp. He was a handsome hero type fellow who told me he wanted to pursue cricket but his Dad would not let him.

First sight - Taj Mahal

Anyway, I had not bought tickets for the Taj Mahal so Arman made me book them online on an ASI site to avoid the queues. We parked someplace near the Taj, took a gold buggy type thing for a kilometer or so, and got off near the East Gate which is the place where all tourists enter from and walked through lines designated for Foreigners and Indians and some other type of classes, did security and walked through. Once inside we passed through a massive sandstone gate and suddenly to my right was this breathtaking sight - the Taj Mahal looming over the wall to my right. We were in an enclosure where there were four gates - the East Gate where we entered from and three others. The massive, ornate North gate is the one through which we enter to see the Taj. But just that glimpse of the white marble dome was enough to send my blood racing. No wonder 50 lakh visitors visit it every year.

Through the North Gate

Through the doorway of the North Gate we could glimpse the Taj Mahal again and once again it was such a teaser. Once inside the gate we got a proper look at it, unveiled, and well, there were hundreds of people along with us and none of us could not take our eyes off it. Arman took us along the left side of the garden after explaining that the two structures on either side of the Taj were a mosque  which is used for prayer now also (Taj is shut on Fridays for prayers) and the similar structure on the right being a guest house. In the middle, standing in shimmering white marble in all its glory, in perfect symmetry, the Taj Mahal where Emperor Shahjahan, the fifth  Mughal Emperor, and his beloved wife Mumtaz Mahal are buried. 

The Taj Mahal is an ivory white mausoleum built during 1631-1653 period by Shahjahan in memory of his beloved wife Mumtaz Mahal (who incidentally was born in Agra). It is now regarded as one of the seven new wonders of the world, Mumtaz Mahal was the wife that Shahjahan loved dearly and had fourteen children including Dara Shikoh, Aurnagzeb, Jahanara and Roshanara. She died while giving birth to her 14th child in Burhanpur in Madhya Pradesh and was later brought here and buried. Shahjahan wanted to be buried next to her after his death and the mausoleum only has those two tombs and none else. Mumtaz was the niece of Nur Jahan, wife of Jahangir, and was known to patronise scholars, poets and such and go to the battlefront with her husband. So much did Shahjahan love her that he was inconsolable and went into a year long mourning after which he emerged a broken man with a bent back and hair that turned white. 

He commissioned the mausoleum in a 17 acre area with a mosque and a guest house as a cost of what was then 320 lakh rupees and what would now be 52.9 billion rupees. Led by the architect Ustad Ahmad Lahori, who also designed the Red Fort in Delhi, 20000 workers and artisans worked on it with extreme precision, creating beautiful inlay work in the marble with semi precious and precious stones. Of the controversies around it such as the story that the workers and artisans were mutilated to prevent them for recreating anything like it, or that there was evidence that it was a temple built by Hindu Kings, they say there is no evidence.    

We walked along the side path, past the mosque and came to the Taj mausoleum area. Oh, by the way, tickets are for just viewing the Taj and for viewing the inside of the mausoleum. Once we step into the Taj area we are required to wear shoe covers so as not to damage the marble (much like what we wear in ICU's). These we can buy outside and come in all shapes and sizes and qualities. 

A closer glimpse of the fine work

Anyway, we went in, saw the tombs (or replicas of the tombs which were on display at the place where we were). The fine inlay work of designs in perfect symmetry, of semi precious stones of different colours (apparently the precious stones have been extracted by various forces), the floral patterns everywhere, the fine jaali work. I touched the marble, felt that part of the history and wondered and what made this possible. And then we stepped out, went to the backside of the Taj towards the Yamuna, saw the Mehtab gardens across the Yamuna, the ramparts of the Agra fort some 2 kms away to the left, the tall minarets that rose skyward and as Arman said, were tilted slightly towards the outside so that even if they fall they will fall away from the Taj and not on it! Such was the planning and thinking. Anyway they don't look like they will fall anytime soon.

We walked around the Taj, saw the guest house from far, watched people click pictures, pose for reels, husbands indulging wives, boyfriends indulging girlfriends and so on. Then down below where Arman decided to click pictures and not very good angles though. I find that there are guides who are good at photography and those who are not. 

The guest house to the right of the Taj

We walked to the place in the centre where most people take pictures from, obviously crowded at this time which was near noon, found some space and clicked a couple. And off we went towards the exit and I could not resist taking pictures until I left. If it looked like this at this time of the day I can only imagine how it must be at sunrise or sunset or in the moonlight or at night or from the Mehtab garden. Hopefully another time when we can visit the Fatehpur Sikri, Sikandra, Akbar's tomb. Itma Ud Dawlah's tomb and other stuff I missed (including a proper Mughlai meal).

Truly, a work of beauty, in that it captures your gaze and does not let go if it, not just lives up to its great expectations but exceeds it, makes you want more of it, makes you want to come back, makes you feel like its been fully worth it. What else does a work of beauty need to qualify as one of the greatest. And that's just the structure. There's a beautiful story behind it as well rooted in love.

Taj Mahal - check.