Building
Details of Taj Mahal
Chief Builders
Despite
several controversies that claim that the Taj Mahal was designed by an Italian
Geronimo Veroneo, or a French silversmith Austin de Bordeaux, the first real
evidence of the architect's identity emerged in the 1930s when a seventeenth
century manuscript called the Diwan-i-Muhandis was found to mention the Taj
Mahal. This manuscript contains a collection of several poems written by Luft
Allah, including several verses in which he describes his father, Ustad Ahmad
from Lahore, as the architect of the Taj Mahal and the Red Fort at Delhi. Ahmad
was a Persian engineer-astrologer.
Luft Allah also states that Shah Jehan conferred upon his father the title "Nadir
al-Asr" (the Wonder of the Age); unfortunately court histories do not corroborate
this claim. Other sources record that Ustad Ahmad was one of the architects
of the Red Fort. Further evidence has been found of other large projects undertaken
by Ustad Ahmad, strengthening the plausibility of his son's claim. It is interesting
to note that Ustad Ahmad had a number of aliases : Ustad Khan Effendi, Ustad
Mohammed, Isa Khan, Isa Effendi and a number of permutations of the name - fictional
amalgam of Muslim sounding names, most likely the invention of latter-day British
guidebook writers.
It must be emphasised that the design of the Taj Mahal cannot be ascribed to
any single master-mind. The Taj is the culmination of an evolutionary process.
It is the perfected stage in the development of Mughal architecture. The names
of many of the builders who participated in the construction of the Taj in different
capacities have come down to us through Persian sources. A project as ambitious
as the tomb of Mumtaz Mahal demanded talent from many quarters. From turkey
came Ismail Khan a designer of hemispheres and the a builder of domes. Qazim
Khan, a native of Lahore travelled to Agra to cast the solid gold finial that
crowned the Turkish master's dome.
Chiranjilal, a local lapidary from Delhi was chosen as the chief sculptor and
mosaicist. Amanat Khan from Shiraz was the chief calligrapher, and this fact
is attested on the Taj gateway where his name has been inscribed at the end
of the inscription. Muhammad Hanif was the Supervisor of masons, while Mir Abdul
Karim and Mukkarimat Khan of Shiraz handled finances and the management of daily
production. Sculptors from Bukhara, calligraphers from Syria and Persia, inlayers
from South India, stonecutters from Baluchistan, a man who specialised in building
turrets, another who carved only marble flowers - thirty seven men in all formed
the creative nucleus, and to this core was added a labour force of twenty thousand
workers recruited from across North India.
Material Used
Along
with the labourers flocking to Agra, materials for construction also began arriving
: principally red sandstone from local quarries and marble dug from the hills
of far-off Makrana, slightly southwest of Jaipur in Rajasthan. Although the
treasury was well filled, such prodigious quantities of rare stuffs were required
that caravans travelled to all corners of the empire and beyond in search of
precious materials. From Chinese Turkestan in Central Asia came Nephrite jade
and crystal; from Tibet, turquoise; from upper Burma, yellow amber; from Badakhshan
in the high mountains of northeastern Afghanistan, lapis lazuli; from Egypt,
chrysolite; from the Indian Ocean, rare shells, coral, and mother-of-pearl.
Topazes, onyxes, garnets, sapphires, bloodstone, forty three types of gems in
all - ranging in depth from Himalayan quartz to Golconda diamonds - were ultimately
to be used in embellishing the Taj Mahal.
In order to transport the marble, a ten mile long ramp of tamped earth was built
through Agra, and on it trudged an unending parade of elephants and bullock
carts dragging blocks of marble to the building site. Once the marble reached
the Taj, it was hoisted into place by means of an elaborate post-and-beam pulley
manned by teams of mules and masses of workers tugging and hauling.
The first buildings to be constructed were the tomb proper and the two mosques
that flank it; then came the four minarets; finally the gateway and auxiliary
buildings were erected. All were built as integral parts of a single unit, carefully
planned to harmonise, for a law of Islam decrees that once a tomb is completed
nothing can be added to it and absolutely nothing can ever be taken away from
it.
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