The monuments of love – 1 (The untold history of Taj Mahal)

Whenever we talk of the epitome of love, Taj Mahal comes to one’s mind immediately. In fact the monument has become the face of Indian tourism on world map. Any foreign tourist coming to visit India has Taj Mahal in his/her visit list without exception. Before we go to much grander souvenirs of love India has in the next blog post, let’s see whether it is justified to call the Taj Mahal, a monument of love.

Taj Mahal was about everything but love. Let’s start with basic wikipedia search. Wikipedia page on Mumtaz Mahal  mentions that even though it was a love affair between Shah Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal, during the intervening period of engagement (when she was 14) and marriage (at 19) Shah Jahan had married his first wife, Princess Kandahari Begum in 1609 and in 1617, after marrying Mumtaz, took a third wife, Izz-un-Nissa Begum. Shah Jahan used to follow the insecure Mughal tradition of not leaving their wives alone even during war campaigns. They had fourteen children together (eight sons and six daughters), seven of whom died at birth or at a very young age. Mumtaz Mahal died from while giving birth to her fourteenth child after a 30 hour prolonged labor. Much has been told and heard about the above facts.

Now, coming to the monument, let’s see some of the facts our friend True Indology @TIinExile has for us:

This letter from East India Company(VOC) says 74 Lakh people died in famine caused by Mughal invasion and destruction of crops in Gujarat, Malwa, Deccan(1630-32).

When India was facing one of its biggest famines, Shah Jahan began making Taj Mahal in the same year at 4.18 crores pic.twitter.com/lHvYTAASfp

— True Indology (@TIinExile) February 24, 2020

Taj Mahal is symbol of love?

Ha ha ha!

Here is your lover boy Shah Jahan with concubines (read sεx slaves) in his Harem!

This painting was commissioned AFTER the death of his "beloved wife Mumtaz Mahal for whom he built Taj Mahal".

Notice the sadness in his face! Ha ha ha https://t.co/YHx69M9fNj pic.twitter.com/saPhOQwhFO

— True Indology (@TIinExile) March 1, 2020

1632. The year Shahjahan built Taj Mahal. The same year he ordered for destruction of all Hindu Temples.

One Rajput decided to fight back.Hid himself in bushes, pounced on Mughal army and killed a few. He was hunted down and his body hanged upside down from a tree #ThanksMughals pic.twitter.com/1DTIQnJAvA

— True Indology (@TIinExile) November 20, 2019

The major take aways from the very detailed above post:

“What was the cost of building Taj Mahal?”- “7.4 million deaths”.

The monetary cost of building Taj Mahal, was 41.8 million (4.18 crore) rupees in 1631. Those days, the average income of a single family of peasants was approximately equal to One Dam per day. A Dam was a copper coin and 40 Dams was equal to a single rupee(1). A single rupee fetched 280 kilograms of rice.

Shah Jahan brought one of the deadliest famine in the world history in 1631 upon the country by invading and completely ravaging Malwa and Deccan to reassert his authority. The soul shuddering details of the famine can be found in the embedded FB post.

So let’s think about it once more.

Is this the kind of love we want to promise to our near and dear ones?