Taj Mahal survives foibles of humanity
By B. GAUTAM
Special to The Japan Times
MADRAS, India -- Sadly, India continues to let its heritage and history decay. For
example, recently when a scholar from the country's prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru
University in New Delhi asked India's National Archives, also in the same city, for a
document, the request was not entertained. The scholar was told that the document was
"too brittle."
More than a third of the Archives' treasures are in various stages of degeneration. It
may not be long before invaluable records, some from the Mughal Period -- including
those pertaining to the East India Co., which traded in and then ruled India before
the British Crown took over in the mid-1800s -- are lost forever.
The more visible part of India's past is treated as shabbily and with as much
contempt. Take, for example, the fascinating ruins of Hampi (in the modern southern
Indian state of Karnataka), the capital city of the renowned Vijayanagar Empire in the
1400s and 1500s. Declared a World Heritage Site by the United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization, the ruins were misused by the local
administration, which built two bridges across the historic area. UNESCO threatened to
delist Hampi.
The manner in which India's best known icon, the Taj Mahal, has been treated is sheer
sacrilege. It is situated close to New Delhi in the city of Agra.
The Taj's renown caught on very early. Some of the first European visitors grew
ecstatic when they saw this marble dream. French traveler Francois Bernier, who
visited Agra during Aurangazeb's reign in 1670, said "this piece of work is far more
important than the pyramids of Egypt."
In 1789, painter Thomas Daniell called the Taj Mahal "a spectacle of the highest
celebrity."
Lord Curzon loved it, spent time and money to repair and beautify the Taj's
surroundings, and declared "if I had never done anything else in India, I have written
my name here, and the letters are a living joy."
Rabindranath Tagore wanted only this "one teardrop (Taj)" to "glisten spotlessly
bright on the cheek of time, forever and ever."
The monument of love that the Mughal king, Shah Jahan, built for his beloved queen,
Mumtaz, has stood for more than 3 1/2 centuries amid contention and controversy as
well as glory. By the latter part of the 20th century, this white tomb had been
ravaged by pollution from a railway switching yard with steam engines, an oil
refinery, two thermal plants, 2,300-odd foundries and glass factories, plus thousands
of vehicles whose spewed fumes are said to have contaminated the Taj beyond remedy.
However, most of these pollutants have been removed, largely at the insistence and
perseverance of Supreme Court lawyer M.C. Mehta, who fought a relentless battle to
save this symbol.
Yet there still seems to be an itch to spoil this magnificence in marble. Areas around
the Taj are an eyesore as beautification schemes remain on paper.
What takes the cake was a plan in 2003 -- which was executed to some extent -- by the
local government to establish an amusement complex next to the Taj Mahal. It was only
when UNESCO threatened to remove the Taj from the list of World Heritage Sites that
New Delhi stepped in to save the structure from such a peril.
Now there is another dispute over the date of Taj's completion. Some historians put it
at 1654; others say it was 1643 or early 1644. Abdul Hamid Lahori -- who wrote the
"Padshahnama" and who was Shah Jahan's official chronicler -- wrote that the Taj was
completed 12 years after the first brick was laid, sometime in early 1632, roughly six
months after Mumtaz died on June 17, 1631, in Burhanpur. Adding to the confusion, an
inscription at the main gate of the Taj says the edifice was completed in 1648.
The local government has begun celebrating 350 years of the Taj, and modern experts
are not amused. One of them, a famous historian and archaeologist, said: "I do not
know what system of counting they subscribe to. Set aside the written records of the
Mughal Period, if the Archaeological Survey of India (which takes care of the Taj) had
consulted its own publications, it would have realized that the Taj is older than 350
years."
Ultimately, one would suppose, the date is not important. What is important is the
care that the Taj must get. Sadly, it has been suffering.
Shah Jahan must have suffered even more. He hired the best architects of the day and
meticulously planned the tomb for his favorite wife so that it would last for
posterity. Conservationists agree that despite 2 million annual visitors the Taj has
remained structurally intact. Even its underground chambers are amazingly dry.
Such is the strength of the edifice. This is what probably saved the Taj for us today.
The cash-strapped British Viceroy Lord William Bentinck auctioned away the tomb for
its marble. But the businessman who bought it found it impossible to break the
mausoleum down to cart away the stones!
The Taj has survived despite administrations' blinkered policies. Since the polluting
factories were moved out of Agra, the city has been dying economically. Experts aver
that the operations should have been encouraged to use safer fuels. With the Taj
closing at sunset, hotels are doing poor business, for most tourists prefer to make
day trips. As one observer put it, must we make a tomb of the city to preserve a
mausoleum?
B. Gautam writes for a leading Indian newspaper.
The Japan Times: Oct. 11, 2004
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