The True Story of the Taj Mahal. P.N. Oak presents an interesting set of evidence that reveals a completely different story. As per his claims and reserach, contrary to what visitors are led to believe, the Taj Mahal is not an Islamic mausoleum but an ancient Shiva temple, known as Tejo Mahalaya, which the fifth generation Mughal emperor Shah Jahan commanded from the then Maharaja of Jaipur.
The Taj Mahal, therefore, should be considered a temple palace and not a tomb. It makes a world of difference. You miss the details of its size, grandeur, majesty, and beauty when you reduce it to a mere tomb.
When you are visiting a temple-palace, you will not fail to notice its annexes: ruined walls, mounds, moats, waterfalls, fountains, majestic garden, hundreds of arched verandas, terraces, multi-storey towers, sealed secret chambers, rooms, stables, the trident (Trishul) pinnacle on the dome, and the sacred, esoteric Hindu letter "OM" carved on the outside wall of the sanctum sanctorum, now occupied by cenotaphs.
Detailed proof of this breathtaking discovery can be found in the well-known historian P.N. Oak's celebrated book, Taj Mahal: The True Story. But we have left before you, for now, a comprehensive summary of the points covering hundreds of massive pieces of evidence:
1. The term Taj Mahal itself never occurs in any document or chronicle, even in the time of Aurangzeb.
2. The attempt to explain away Taj Mahal i.e. a crown among residences is, therefore, ridiculous.
3. If the Taj is believed to be a burial site, how can the term 'Mahal', meaning 'mansion', be applicable?
4. The other popular Islamic explanation is that the term Taj Mahal derives from Mumtaz Mahal, the lady who is to be buried there. It can be observed from the outset that the term Taj, which ends in a 'j,' could not have been derived from Mumtaz, which ends in a 'z.'
5. The lady's name was never Mumtaz Mahal but Arjumand Banu Begum alias Mumtaz-ul-Zamani, as mentioned in Shahjahan's official court chronicle, the Badshahnama.
6. Since the term Taj Mahal does not appear in the records of the Mughals, it is absurd to seek any Mughal explanation. Both its components, namely 'Taj' and 'Mahal', are of Sanskrit origin. Mahal in Hindi means a mansion, that is, a grand building. Taj is a popular corruption of the word 'Tej', meaning splendor. In no Muslim country, from Afghanistan to Abyssinia, is any building described as a Mahal.
7. The term Taj Mahal is a corrupted form of the Sanskrit term Tejo Mahalaya, which means a temple of Shiva. Agreshwar Mahadev, the resident God of Agra, was enshrined there.
8. The famous Hindu treatise on architecture, titled Viswakarma Vastushastra, mentions the Tej Linga among the emblems of Shiva Lingas, i.e., Shiva, the Hindu deity. Such a Tej Linga was enshrined in the Taj Mahal; hence the term Taj Mahal, also known as Tejo Mahalaya.
9. Agra, the city where the Taj Mahal is located, is an ancient center of Shiva worship. Throughout the centuries, its devout residents have continued the tradition of worshipping at five Shiva shrines before their last meal each night, especially during the month of Shravan. For the last few centuries, the people of Agra have had to be content with worshipping at only four prominent Shiva temples: Balkeshwar, Prithvinath, Manakameshwar, and Rajarajesh. The fifth Shiva deity worshipped by their ancestors has been lost to history. Apparently, this fifth deity was Agreshwar Mahadev, the great lord of the Taj Mahal of Agra, also known as Tejo Mahalaya.
10. The people who dominate the Agra region are Jats. Their name for Shiva is Tejaji. The Jat special edition of India's Illustrated Weekly (June 28, 1971) mentions that the Jats have Teja Mandirs, i.e., Teja temples. This is because Tej Linga is one of several names for Shiva Lingas mentioned in Hindu architectural texts. From this, it is evident that the Taj Mahal is Tejo Mahalaya, the great abode of Shiva.
11. A Sanskrit inscription also supports the above conclusion. Known as the Bateshwar Inscription, it is currently housed in the Lucknow Museum. It refers to the raising of a "White Crystal Shiva Temple so attractive that Shiva, once enshrined therein, never decided to return to Mount Kailash - his usual residence." This inscription was found within a radius of approximately 36 miles from the Taj Mahal. The inscription is dated 1155 CE. From this, it is clear that the Taj Mahal was built at least 500 years before Shah Jahan.
12. The Shahjahan Court's own chronicle, the Badshahnama, admits (on page 403, Vol. I) that a great mansion of singular splendor, topped with a dome, (imaarat-e-alishan wa gumbaze) was taken from the Maharaja of Jaipur Jaisingh for the burial of Mumtaz.
13. The plaque by the Department of Archaeology outside the Taj Mahal describes the building as a mausoleum built by Shah Jahan for his wife Mumtaz Mahal, over 22 years from 1631 to 1653. That plaque is a prime example of historical ineptitude. First, the plaque cites no authority to support its claim. Second, the lady's name was Mumtaz-ul-Zamani, not Mumtaz Mahal. Third, the 22-year period is taken from some unreliable observation by the French visitor Tavernier, excluding all Muslim accounts, which is absurd.
14. A letter from Prince Aurangzeb to his father, Emperor Shah Jahan, refutes the Tavernier archaeological department's reliance on it. Aurangzeb's letter is recorded in at least two chronicles titled 'Aadaab-e-Alamgiri' and 'CABA-gaarnama'. In these, Aurangzeb records in 1652 AD that the buildings at the supposed burial site of Mumtaz were seven stories high and so old that they were completely ruined, while the dome had developed a crack on the north side. Aurangzeb therefore ordered immediate repairs to the buildings at his own expense while recommending to the emperor that more elaborate repairs be carried out later. This is evidence that during Shah Jahan's reign, the Taj Mahal complex was so old that it required immediate repair.
15. The former Maharaja of Jaipur keeps in his secret personal custody two orders from Shah Jahan dated December 18, 1633 (modern numbers KD 176 and 177) requisitioning the Taj Mahal complex. It was such a blatant usurpation that the then-governor of Jaipur was ashamed to make the documents public.
16. The Rajasthan State Archives in Bikaner preserve three other firmans addressed by Shah Jahan to Jaipur's Ruler Jaisingh, ordering the latest supply of marble from his Makrana quarries and stonecutters. Jaisingh was apparently so enraged by the blatant seizure of the Taj Mahal that he refused to compel Shah Jahan to provide marble for grafting Quranic inscriptions and creating false tombs for the further desecration of the Taj Mahal. Jaisingh viewed Shah Jahan's demand for marble and stonecutters as an added insult to his injury.
17. The three demanding marble firmans were sent to Jaisingh within two years of Mumtaz's death. Shah Jahan actually built the Taj Mahal over a period of 22 years; the marble would have been needed only after 15 or 20 years, not immediately after Mumtaz's death.
18. Moreover, the three signatures make no mention of the Taj Mahal, Mumtaz, or the burial. They also fail to mention the cost and quantity of stone required. This demonstrates that only a negligible amount of marble was needed for some superficial touch-ups and alterations to the Taj Mahal. Conversely, Shah Jahan could never have expected to construct a fabulous Taj Mahal through abject dependence on marble from an uncooperative vassal like Jaisingh.
19. The Taj Mahal is scribbled over with 14 chapters of the Quran, but nowhere is there even the slightest or most remote allusion to the Islamic authorship of Shah Jahan of the Taj. Shah Jahan, the builder, would have said that in many words before he began quoting the Quran.
20. Shah Jahan far from building the marble Taj had only defaced it with the black spelling is mentioned by the creator Amanat Khan Shirazi himself in an inscription on the building.
21. Well-known Western authorities on architecture, such as E.B. Havell, Mrs. Kenoyer, and Sir W.W. Hunter, have stated on record that the Taj Mahal is built in the style of a Hindu temple. Havell points out that the floor plan of the ancient Hindu temple Chandi Seva in Java is identical to that of the Taj Mahal.
22. A central dome with domes at its four corners is a universal feature of Hindu temples.
23. The four pillars on the base, at the corners, are in the Hindu style and made of marble. They were used as lamp towers at night and as watchtowers during the day. These towers serve to demarcate the holy precinct. Hindu wedding altars and the altar for the worship of God Satyanarayan have pillars at the four corners.
24. The octagonal shape of the Taj Mahal holds special significance for Hindus because Hindus have specific names for the eight cardinal directions and celestial guardians assigned to them. The pinnacle points to the heavens, while the foundation represents the underworld. Hindu temples, cities, palaces, and fortresses generally have an octagonal layout or some octagonal features so that, together with the pinnacle and foundation, they encompass the ten cardinal directions in which the king or god has influence, according to Hindu belief.
25. The Taj Mahal has a trident pinnacle atop its dome. A full-scale replica of this trident pinnacle is inlaid in the red sandstone courtyard to the east of the Taj. The central shaft of the trident depicts a Kalash (sacred vessel) holding two folded mango leaves and a coconut. This is a sacred Hindu motif.
Identical pinnacles can be seen on Hindu and Buddhist temples throughout the Himalayan region. Tridents are also displayed against a red lotus background at the apex of the stately marble arched entrances on all four sides of the Taj Mahal. For three centuries, people have affectionately but mistakenly believed that the Taj Mahal's pinnacle represents an Islamic crescent moon and stars, or that it was a lightning rod installed by the British rulers of India.
On the contrary, the pinnacle is a marvel of Indian metallurgy; since the pinnacle is made of a non-rusting alloy, it is also perhaps a lightning deflector. The fact that the replica of the pinnacle is located in the eastern courtyard is significant because this direction is of particular importance to Hindus, as it represents the direction in which the sun rises. The pinnacle of the vault has the word Allah carved on it, while the pinnacle depicted on the ground does not.
26. The two buildings facing the Taj Mahal, East and West, are identical in design, size, and shape, yet the eastern building is explained by Islamic tradition as a community center, while the western building is claimed to be a mosque. How could identical buildings serve radically different purposes? This proves that the western building was put into use as a mosque after Shah Jahan confiscated the Taj Mahal. Interestingly, the building described as a mosque has no minaret.
27. The drum house, located a few yards away on the same flank, is an intolerable incongruity for Islam. Its proximity indicates that the western annex was not originally a mosque. Conversely, a drum house is a necessity in a Hindu temple or palace, as Hindu evening and morning rituals begin with the sweet varieties of music.
28. The relief patterns on the exterior marble wall of the Cenotaph chamber feature foliage, a conch shell design, and the Hindu letter 'OM'. The octagonal marble trellises set within the Cenotaph chamber depict pink lotuses on their upper railing. The lotus, OM, and conch shell are sacred motifs associated with Hindu temples and deities.
29. The site occupied by Mumtaz's cenotaph was previously occupied by a Hindu Teja Linga - a stone representation of Shiva. That emblem still lies buried in the cenotaph as far as we know. Surrounding it are three perambulatory passages. One could wander around the marble latticework or through the spacious marble chambers surrounding the cenotaph compartment and opening onto the marble platform. It is also customary for Hindus to have openings along the perambulatory passage, offering a view of the Deity. Such openings exist in the perambulatories of the Taj Mahal.
30. The sanctuary of the sacred site in the Taj Mahal had silver doors and gold railings, just like Hindu temples still do. It also had nets of pearls and gems inlaid in the marble latticework. It was the lure of this wealth that led Shah Jahan to commandeer the Taj Mahal from a helpless vassal, Jaisingh, the then-governor of Jaipur.
31. Peter Mundy, an Englishman who left India within a year or two of learning of Mumtaz's death, had seen a jewel-studded gold railing around Mumtaz's tomb. The Taj Mahal was under construction for 22 years, and such an expensive gold railing would not have been noticed by Peter Mundy a couple of years after Mumtaz's death. Such costly fittings are installed in a building only after the building is ready for use. This indicates that Mumtaz's cenotaph was grafted onto the center of the gold railing. Subsequently, the gold railing, silver gates, pearl nets, gem-filled ornaments, etc., were all taken away to Shah Jahan's treasury. The seizure of the Taj Mahal thus constitutes a high act of Mughal theft, causing a major conflict between Shah Jahan and Jaisingh.
32. On the marble floor of Mumtaz's cenotaph, small mosaic patches can be seen. These patches indicate the points where the supports for the gold handrails were embedded in the floor. They suggest a rectangular enclosure.
33. Above Mumtaz's cenotaph hangs a chain from which a lamp now hangs. Before Shah Jahan captured the chain, it was used to hold a water jug so that water would drip onto Shiva's Linga.
34. Is this earlier Hindu tradition of dripping tears at the Taj Mahal the origin of the Islamic myth of Shah Jahan's love tear falling on Mumtaz's tomb on a full moon winter night?
35. There are many absurdities in the legend of Shah Jahan's tearing. First, Shah Jahan was no saint capable of post-mortem miracles. Second, why would only a single tear fall on the cenotaph every 365 days from a proverbially heartbroken Shah Jahan? Even that tear could be shed by Shah Jahan's spirit entering the chamber through the public entrance to weep his heart out at Mumtaz's tomb himself.
Why would Shah Jahan's ghost have to perform a precarious circus feat of climbing a slippery marble dome that even an agile monkey wouldn't dare attempt and shed a tear once a year from a height of over 200 feet?
The teardrop is said to be a drop of water, either dew or rain, that fell at the stroke of midnight through a small needle-hole opening, struck randomly by a furious mason's hammer. Does this lead to many more absurdities, such as whether the liquid was the secretion of Shah Jahan's ghost, or dew, or rain?
Furthermore, there is no opening in the dome as is claimed or assumed. If there were, rainwater would have seeped in too much and made the interior wet. Moreover, the Taj Mahal has a double dome. The concave dome one sees from the inside ends like an inverted saucepan on the terrace. The dome, seen from the outside, looks like a top hat on the inner dome. Inside, a huge chamber, nearly 83 feet high, has the convex top of the inner dome providing a curious domed floor. Because of this double-domed arrangement, no liquid, including Shah Jahan's supposed tears, could even fall on the Taj. Even if the upper part, the vault, has an opening, any drop, if any, will be stopped by the inner dome. This is a typical instance of how credulous crowds place quick and easy faith in the most absurd concoctions.
36. Even the story of the hammer is a fabrication.
First, it seems no one asks why any Mason should hold a grudge against Shah Jahan when the latter is said to have spent liberally and lavishly on setting up the mausoleum.
Second, even if a Mason did bear a grudge, he would not have been allowed access to the emperor to exchange heated words with him. Even if there were some argument between the two, it would not be between Shah Jahan standing in the garden and the petulant Mason on the perch, slipping like a furious monkey, atop the dome - a perpendicular height of 243 feet or so.
What is more, even the most powerful, angry blow from a Mason's hammer would not make even the slightest dent in the dome because the dome has a 13-foot-thick wall covered with hard marble.
The hammer blow and tear drop stories are a fraudulent Islamic invention based on two facts.
One of these, as we have already observed, is that in Hindu tradition, water dripping from a jar hovered over the Linga of Shiva.
The second is that Shah Jahan was so stingy by nature that he refused to spend even a fraction of his own fortune transforming the captured Taj Mahal into an Islamic mausoleum. His troops used laborers from the city of Agra and its surrounding neighborhoods, at the point of the sword or the crack of the whip. Such forced laborers worked for years removing Hindu idols, grafting Quranic inscriptions, and sealing five of the seven stories of the Taj Mahal. Forced to work for years without wages, the laborers rebelled. A haughty Shah Jahan punished them by amputating their hands.
37. However, the above gruesome detail has been romanticized by the purveyors of the Shah Jahan legend. They want people to believe that Shah Jahan mutilated the workers because he shouldn't build a rival Taj Mahal for someone else. This simplistic, disingenuous version rests on many imponderable details.
First, for anyone to have conceived of a rival Taj Mahal, he would have had to have had a wife as beautiful and infatuating as Mumtaz Mahal is believed to have been.
Second, she must have died after the Taj Mahal was supposed to have been completed by Shah Jahan.
Third, he believed a prospective rival would have convinced him to tear at envy and jealousy.
Fourth, he would have to be as rich as a Mughal emperor and be an equally irresponsible spendthrift with an itch to squander his millions on a fabulous mausoleum. Although all this fantastical absurdity is invoked as reality, an angry Shah Jahan could still nip in the bud the competitive insolence of one of his subjects by a simple imperial fiat forbidding the construction of a rival Taj.
Another absurdity is that while on the one hand it is alleged that Shah Jahan was so gentle-hearted as to weep inconsolably for the death of his wife, it is also alleged in the same breath that he became fiercely tyrannical as soon as the magnificent Mausoleum was completed and ordered the mutilation of the master craftsmen.
Would a sovereign be pleased to reward the master artisans who executed a work of art, or punish them with mutilation for their skill and devotion? Such treachery and deceit, not even attributed to an unwitting snake, is ascribed to Shah Jahan by his distracted admirers.
38. As one ascends the stairs to the basement hall in the Taj Mahal, believed to be the true tomb of Mumtaz Mahal, one can take a close look at the walls on either side of the first landing. The walls are finished with marble slabs of varying sizes. This indicates that ramps or staircases branching off from the first landing, to descend to the other rooms in the basement, were sealed off by Shah Jahan's whimsically dissimilar slabs, which proved practical.
39. Besides these stairs, there are many others that were sealed by Shah Jahan. As one ascends from the reddish-brown courtyard to the marble plinth, one can notice a square marble slab in front. Pressing one's feet on it produces a hollow sound. Knocking on the surrounding slabs does not produce a hollow sound. Apparently, the square slab conceals an entrance leading to a staircase that descends to hidden chambers in the marble basement. Another steep staircase sealed by Shah Jahan was discovered when a stone slab on the terrace beyond the so-called octagonal mosque was removed for investigation after knocks on it produced a hollow sound. This indicates the extent of Shah Jahan's manipulation of the Taj Mahal, and there appears to be much more to see and discover at the Taj Mahal.
40. The Taj Mahal, which originated as a temple palace, has several dry toilets, hidden from the lay visitor, locked away and excluded. Had it been an Islamic mausoleum, it would not have had bathrooms.
41. Between the drum and the mosque, called the house, is an octagonal well with several levels and a flight of stairs leading down to the water level. This is the traditional treasury found in Hindu temple palaces. Treasure chests were usually kept in the lower apartments, while treasury staff had their offices in the upper chambers. The spiral staircase made it difficult for intruders to reach the treasure or escape with it undetected or unpursued. In the event that the site had to be surrendered to an enemy siege, the treasure could be placed in the well to remain hidden from the conqueror and safe from rescue if the site was recaptured. Such an elaborate, multi-level well is superfluous for a simple mausoleum.
42. Tavernier, a French merchant who happened to visit India during Shah Jahan's reign, noted in his memoirs that Shah Jahan "deliberately" buried Mumtaz in "the Taj-i-Macan" (i.e., the Taj Mahal) so that the world could admire the burial site, and even foreigners who come to see the Taj Mahal instead of Tavernier, as they do now, are now visiting. Those who are misled into believing that the Taj Mahal is not mentioned before Mumtaz's death may notice Tavernier's reference.
43. Shah Jahan truly built the Taj Mahal as a magnificent mausoleum; history would have recorded a specific date on which she was ceremoniously buried there. No such date is ever mentioned. This crucial missing detail decisively exposes the falsity of the Shah Jahan legend.
44. Even the year of Mumtaz's death is unknown. Various speculations point to 1629, 1630, 1631, or 1632. Had she deserved a fabulous burial, as is claimed, the date of her death would not have been a matter of speculation. In a harem filled with 5,000 women, it was difficult to keep track of death dates. Apparently, Mumtaz's passing was such an insignificant event that it didn't warrant any special notice. What would happen if they then built a Taj Mahal for her burial?
45. Stories of Shah Jahan's exclusive infatuation with Mumtaz are fabrications. They have no basis in history, nor has any book been written about their imaginary love story. These stories were invented as a later thought to make Shah Jahan's authorship of the Taj Mahal seem plausible.
46. The cost of the Taj Mahal is not recorded in Shah Jahan's court documents because Shah Jahan never built the Taj Mahal. For this reason, wild estimates of the cost by naive writers have ranged from 4 million to 91.7 million rupees.
47. Likewise, the construction period has been conjectured to be anywhere between 10 and 22 years. There would have been no scope for such conjectures had the construction of buildings been recorded in the court documents.
48. The designer of the Taj Mahal is also mentioned variously as Essa Effendy, a Persian or Turkish Ahmed Mehendis or a Frehncman, Austin de Bordeaux or Geronimo Veroneo, an Italian or Shahjahan himself.
49. Twenty thousand workers were supposed to have worked for 22 years during Shah Jahan's reign on the construction of the Taj Mahal. Had this been true, there should be available in Shah Jahan's court documents piles of work gather rolls, daily expense sheets, invoices and receipts for ordered materials, and work orders. No, there isn't even a scrap of paper of the sort.
50. It is, therefore, the court of flatterers, fiction writers, and senile poets who are responsible for the world's scheming in the belief in Shahjahan's mythical authorship of the Taj Mahal.
51. Descriptions of the garden during Shah Jahan's time at the Taj Mahal mention Jai, Jui, Champa, Maulashree, Harshringar, and Bel. All of these are plants whose flowers or leaves are used in the worship of Hindu deities. Bel leaves are used exclusively in the worship of Shiva. A cemetery is planted with shade trees because the idea of using the fruit or flowers of plants in a cemetery is abhorrent to human conscience. The presence of Bel and other flowering plants in the Taj Mahal garden is proof that it was a Shiva temple before Shah Jahan's conquest.
52. Hindu temples are often built on riverbanks and sea beaches. The Taj Mahal is one such example, built on the banks of the Yamuna River, an ideal location for a Shiva temple.
53. The Prophet Muhammad has commanded that the burial place of a Muslim should be discreet and not marked by even a single gravestone. In flagrant violation of this, the Taj Mahal has a tomb in the basement and another in the first-floor chamber, both ascribed to Mumtaz. These two cenotaphs were in fact erected by Shah Jahan to entomb the two-tiered Shiva Lingas that were enshrined in the Taj Mahal. It is customary for Hindus to install two Shiva Lingas, one above the other in two tiers, as can be seen at the Mahankaleshwar temple in Ujjain and the Somnath temple erected by the queen in Somnath Pattan.
54. The Taj Mahal has identical entrance arches on all four sides. This is a typical Hindu style known as Chaturmukhi, meaning four-sided building.
55. The Taj Mahal has a reverberating dome. Such a dome is absurd for a tomb that should guarantee peace and silence. On the contrary, reverberating domes are a necessity in Hindu temples because they create an ecstatic roar by multiplying and amplifying the sound of bells, drums, and pipes that accompany the worship of Hindu deities.
56. The dome of the Taj Mahal bears a lotus cap. Original Islamic domes have a bald cap; this is exemplified by the domes of the Pakistani Embassy in Chanakyapuri, New Delhi, and the domes in Pakistan's recently constructed capital, Islamabad.
57. The entrance to the Taj Mahal faces south. An Islamic building should have faced west.
58. A widespread misunderstanding has led to the building being mistaken for a tomb. Invading Islam resulted in grave markers being placed on captured buildings in all the countries they invaded; therefore, from now on, people must learn not to confuse the building with the grave markers that are grafted onto conquered buildings. This is also true of the Taj Mahal.
59. The Taj Mahal is a seven-story building. Prince Aurang-zeb also mentions this in his letter to Shah Jahan. The marble building comprises four stories, including the solitary, high circular hall within the dome and the solitary chamber in the basement. In between are two floors containing 12 to 15 palatial rooms. elow the marble plinths, the structure reaches down to the river at the rear, where two stories of red stone are visible from the riverbank. The seventh floor must be below ground level (river level), as every ancient Hindu building had subterranean levels.
60. Immediately below the marble plinths on the river side are 22 red stone rooms with all their fans walled up by Shah Jahan. he rooms made uninhabitably dark by Shah Jahan are kept locked by the Department of Archaeology. The lay visitor is kept in the dark about them. The 22 rooms still bear ancient Hindu paintings on their walls and ceilings. Inside is a long corridor almost 300 feet long. There are two doorways at either end of the corridor. But those doorways are curiously sealed with crumbling brick and lime.
61. Apparently, the gates originally sealed by Shah Jahan have since been unsealed and walled up again several times. In 1934, a Delhi resident peeped inside an opening at the top of the gate. To his dismay, he saw a vast inner hall. It contained many statues huddled around a central, decapitated image of Shiva. It is possible that Sanskrit inscriptions are also there. The seven floors of the Taj Mahal need to be unsealed and cleaned to determine what evidence it might conceal in the form of Hindu images, Sanskrit inscriptions, scriptures, coins, and artifacts.
62. Apart from the Hindu images hidden in the sealed histories, it is learned that Hindu images are also buried in the massive walls of the Taj Mahal. Between 1959 and 1962, when Mr. S.R. Rao was the Archaeological Superintendent of Agra, he happened to notice a long, deep, and wide crack in the wall of the central octagonal chamber of the Taj. When a section of the wall was removed for study, two or three marble images popped out of the crack. The matter was hushed up, and the images were taken from where they had been embedded at the behest of Shah Jahan. Its walls and sealing chambers still conceal the Hindu idols that were enshrined there before Shah Jahan's conquest of the Taj Mahal.
63. Apparently, the Taj Mahal, a temple-palace, seems to have had a turbulent history. The Taj was perhaps desecrated and looted by every Muslim invader from Mohammad Ghazni onward, but passing into Hindu hands, the sanctity of the Taj Mahal as a temple of Shiva continued to be revived after each Muslim attack. Shah Jahan was the last Muslim to desecrate the Taj Mahal, also known as the Tejo Mahalaya.
64. Vincent Smith records in his book entitled "Akbar the Great Mogul" that "Babur's turbulent life came to an end in his garden palace at Agra" in 1630. That palace was none other than the Taj Mahal.
65. Babur Gulbadan Begum's daughter, in her chronicle entitled Humayun Nama, refers to the Taj Mahal of the house mysticism.
66. Babur refers to the Taj Mahal in his memoirs as a palace of Ibrahim Lodi containing a central octagonal chamber and columns on all four sides. All these historical references allude to the Taj Mahal 100 years before Shah Jahan.
67. The Taj Mahal compound extends for several hundred yards in all directions. Across the river are ruins of the annexes, the bathing ghats, and a ferry pier. Outside, the Victoria Gardens, covered with vines, is a long spur of the outer wall, ending in an octagonal tower of red sandstone. Such extensive grounds, all magnificently made up, are a superfluity for a tomb.
68. The Taj Mahal was built specifically to bury Mumtaz Mahal; it should not have been obstructed by other tombs. However, the Taj Mahal itself contains several other tombs, less so in its eastern and southern pavilions.
69. On the south flank, on either side of the Tajganj gate, a queen named Sarhandi Begum and a maidservant named Satunnisa Khanum are buried in identical pavilions. Such a parity burial can only be justified if the queen has been demoted or promoted to a maidservant. But since Shah Jahan had commissioned (not built) the Taj Mahal, he indiscriminately reduced it to a general Muslim burial ground, as was the custom of all his Islamic predecessors, and buried a queen in one empty pavilion and a maidservant in an identical one.
70. Shah Jahan was married to several other women before and after Mumtaz. She, therefore, did not deserve any special consideration in having a magnificent mausoleum built for her.
71. Mumtaz was also a commoner by birth and so she does not qualify for a fairyland burial.
72. Mumtaz died in Burhanpur, which is about six hundred miles from Agra. His tomb is intact. Therefore, the cenotaphs in two stories of the Taj Mahal, in his name, appear to be forgeries concealing the emblems of Shiva.
73. Shah Jahan appears to have staged Mumtaz's burial in Agra to create a pretext for surrounding the Temple Palace with his fierce and fanatical Islamic troops and seizing all its costly furnishings for his treasury. This is corroborated by the vague note in the official chronicle, the Badshahnama, which states that Mumtaz's (exhumed) body was brought to Agra from Burhanpur and buried "next year." An official chronicle does not use a nebulous term unless it is to conceal something.
74. A pertinent consideration is that a Shah Jahan who did not build any palaces for Mumtaz while she was alive and kicking would not build a fabulous mausoleum for a corpse that was no longer kicking or clicking.
75. Another factor is that Mumtaz died within two to three years of becoming Emperor Shah Jahan. Could he have amassed so much superfluous wealth in such a short time that he could squander it on a magnificent mausoleum?
76. While Shah Jahan's special attachment to Mumtaz is not recorded in the history of his amorous relationships with many other ladies, from servants to mannequins, such as his own daughter Jahanara, finds special mention in accounts of Shah Jahan's reign. Did Shah Jahan shower his hard-earned wealth on Mumtaz's corpse?
77. Shah Jahan was a stingy, usurious monarch. He came to the throne by murdering all his rivals. He was not, therefore, the caring spendthrift he was meant to be.
78. A Shah Jahan, heartbroken by Mumtaz's death, is suddenly credited with the will to build the Taj Mahal. This is a psychological incongruity. Grief is a debilitating emotion.
79. A lovestruck Shah Jahan is said to have built the Taj Mahal over the dead Mumtaz Mahal, but carnal, physical, sexual love is again a debilitating emotion. A womanizer is ipso facto incapable of any constructive activity. When carnal love becomes uncontrollable, the person murders someone or commits suicide. He cannot build a Taj Mahal. A building like the Taj Mahal invariably originates from an emotion such as devotion to God, mother and country, or power and glory.
80. In early 1973, excavation in the garden in front of the Taj Mahal revealed another set of fountains nearly six feet below the existing ones. This demonstrated two things. First, that the underground fountains there predated Shah Jahan and replaced the surface fountains. And second, since the fountains are aligned with the entrance to that building, it is also of pre-Shah Jahan origin. Apparently, the garden and its fountains had sunk due to annual monsoon flooding and centuries of neglect during Islamic rule.
81. The stately rooms on the upper floor of the Taj Mahal were stripped of their marble mosaic by Shah Jahan to obtain matching marble for raising false tomb stones within the Taj Mahal complex in several locations. In contrast to the wealthy, who sought out rooms with earthen floors finished in marble, the dismantling of the marble mosaic covering the lower half of the walls and floors of the upper-floor rooms left them bare, robbed. Since no visitors were allowed entry to the upper floor, this plundering by Shah Jahan has remained a closely guarded secret. There is no reason why Shah Jahan's loot of marble from the upper floor should continue to be hidden from the public even two hundred years after the end of the tycoon's rule.
82. Bernier, that a French traveler recorded that no non-Muslims were allowed entry into the secret chambers beneath the Taj Mahal because there were some dazzling, expensive furnishings there. Those installed by Shah Jahan must have been displayed to the public as a matter of pride. But since it was Hindu wealth that Shah Jahan commanded, he dared not to display it to others lest it lead to attempts at repossession.
83. The approach to the Taj Mahal is dotted with mounds of earth excavated from foundation trenches. These mounds served as the outer defenses of the Taj Mahal complex. Raising these mounds of foundation earth is a common Hindu practice of ancient origin. Nearby Bharatpur offers a graphic parallel. Peter Mundy has recorded that Shah Jahan employed thousands of workers on some of the mounds. This is graphic evidence of the Taj Mahal existing before Shah Jahan.
84. Tavernier, the French traveler, noted that Shah Jahan could not obtain wood to erect scaffolding (to inscribe the Quran at various heights). Shah Jahan therefore had to erect scaffolding of bricks. As a result, "the cost of the scaffolding was more than all the labor," says Tavernier. This is clear proof that Shah Jahan did not build the Taj Mahal but only inscribed the Quran.
85. The gates with spikes in the different arches in the Taj enclosure and the moat that is preserved on the eastern flank are unnecessary defensive devices of a mausoleum.
86. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, the Taj Mahal building complex consists of rooms, guardrooms, and stables. These are irrelevant for a mausoleum.
87. At the rear, on the riverbank, are a Hindu cremation ground, a Shiva temple, and ancient bathing ghats. Shah Jahan, having built the Taj Mahal, would have destroyed these Hindu features.
88. The story that Shah Jahan wanted to build a black marble Taj Mahal across the river is another motivated myth. The ruins that dot the other side of the river are those of Hindu structures demolished during Muslim invasions, not the foundation of another Taj Mahal. One would hardly think that Shah Jahan, who didn't build the white marble Taj Mahal, would build a black marble one. He was so avaricious that he forced laborers to work for free on the superficial alterations necessary to convert a Hindu temple into a Muslim tomb.
89. The marble that Shah Jahan used to inscribe Quranic verses on the Taj Mahal is a pale shade of white, while the rest of the Taj Mahal is constructed of marble with a rich yellow tint. This disparity is evidence that the Quranic extracts are superimposed.
90. Although some imaginative historians have attempted to impose a fictitious name on history as the designer of the Taj Mahal, others, even more imaginative, have credited Shah Jahan himself with such high architectural and artistic talent that he could easily have conceived and planned the Taj Mahal. Such people betray a gross ignorance of history, as Shah Jahan was a cruel tyrant, a great womanizer, and an addict to drugs and alcohol.
91. All the fanciful accounts about Shah Jahan commissioning the Taj Mahal are confused. Some claim that Shah Jahan ordered building drawings from all over the world and chose one from among them. Others claim that a man next door was commissioned to design a mausoleum and his design was approved. Had either of these versions been true, Shah Jahan's court documents should have contained thousands of drawings of the Taj Mahal, but there isn't a single one. This is further proof that Shah Jahan did not commission the Taj Mahal.
92. The Taj Mahal is surrounded by enormous ruined mansions that indicate that great battles have been waged around the Taj several times.
93. In the southeast corner of the Taj garden is an old royal stable. Tejo Mahalaya temple cows used to be kept there. A stable is an incongruity in an Islamic tomb.
94. On the western flank of the Taj Mahal are several stately red stone annexes. These are superfluous for a mausoleum.
95. The Taj Mahal complex comprises 400 to 500 rooms. Residential accommodation on such a grand scale is unthinkable in a mausoleum.
96. The massive protective wall surrounding the Tajganj township also encompasses the Taj Mahal temple complex. This is a clear indication that the Tejo Mahalaya temple-palace was an integral part of the township. A street in that township leads directly to the Taj Mahal. The Tajganj Gate is aligned in a perfect straight line with the stone gate of the octagonal red garden and the majestic marble entrance arch of the Taj Mahal. Besides being central to the Taj Mahal complex, the Tajganj Gate is also set on a pedestal. The western gate, through which visitors enter the Taj Mahal complex these days, is comparatively smaller. It has become the main entrance for most visitors today because the train and bus stations are located on that side.
97. The Taj Mahal has pleasure pavilions that a tomb would never have.
98. A small glass mirror in a gallery of the Red Fort in Agra reflects the Taj Mahal. Shah Jahan is said to have spent the last eight years of his life as a prisoner in that gallery, peering at the Taj Mahal's reflection and sighing in the name of Mumtaz. This myth is a mixture of many falsehoods. First, the ancient Shah Jahan was imprisoned by his son Aurangzeb in a basement level of the fort, not on a fashionable, open upper floor. Second, that piece of glass was fixed in 1930 by Insha Allah Khan, a laborer in the Department of Archaeology, simply to illustrate to visitors how in ancient times the entire floor used to dazzle with small pieces of mirror that reflected the Tejo Mahalaya temple a thousand times. Third, a decrepit Shah Jahan, with aching joints and cataracts in his eyes, shouldn't spend his days craned his neck at an awkward angle to peer into a tiny piece of glass with squinty eyes when he could simply turn his round face around and have a full, unobstructed view of the Taj Mahal. But the general public is gullible enough to swallow all such absurd prattle from cunning, unscrupulous guides.
99. The fact that the Taj Mahal's dome has hundreds of iron rings protruding from its exterior is a rarely observed feature. These are made to hold the Hindu earth oil for the lamps used to illuminate the temple.
100. Those who place implicit faith in Shah Jahan's authorship of the Taj Mahal have imagined Shah Jahan and Mumtaz as a romantic, soft-hearted Romeo and Juliet-like couple. But contemporary accounts of Shah Jahan as a hard-hearted ruler who was constantly goaded into acts of tyranny and cruelty by Mumtaz.
101. School and university history books perpetuate the myth that Shah Jahan's reign was a golden age of peace and abundance, and that he commissioned many buildings. This is pure fabrication. Shah Jahan did not commission even a single building. Shah Jahan had to participate in 48 military campaigns during a reign of almost 30 years, proving that his was not an era of peace and abundance.
102. Inside the dome, above the cenotaph of Mumtaz, there is a representation of the sun in gold. Hindu warriors trace their origin to the sun. In an Islamic mausoleum, the sun is redundant.
103. The Muslim guardians of the tombs at the Taj Mahal used to possess a document they inscribed as "Tarikh-i-Taj Mahal." Historian H.G. Keene has called it "a document of dubious authenticity." Keene was remarkably correct, since we have seen that Shah Jahan was not the creator of the Taj Mahal. Any document that credits Shah Jahan with the Taj Mahal must be an outright forgery. Even the forged document is reported to have since been smuggled out to Pakistan.
The Taj Mahal is just one typical illustration of how all the historic buildings and towns from Kashmir to Cape Comorin, though of Hindu origin, have been attributed to this or that Muslim ruler or courtier. It is hoped that people around the world who study Indian history will be awakened by this new discovery and reconsider their long-held beliefs.
Those interested in delving deeper into the above and many other revolutionary refutations can read other research books by the author.
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