Taj Mahal: insanely romantic or just plain insane?

“You know Shah Jahan, life and youth, wealth and glory, they all drift away in the current of time. You strove therefore, to perpetuate only the sorrow of your heart…Let the splendour of diamond, pearl and ruby vanish…Only let this one teardrop, this Taj Mahal, glisten spotlessly bright on the cheek of time, forever and ever."
--Rabindranath Tagore

The Taj Mahal has the distinction of being one of the few places that truly lives up to the all the hype you’ve heard—when you get your first peek through the red sandstone arch that leads into the garden facing the Taj you discover that you forgot to breath as you try to take in the entire monument. But the interesting thing is how differently each of us reacts to the Taj. Some of us are swept away by the romance of it, others think while it is truly a wonder, it was an overly ridiculous use of labor, resources, and wrists (read on). So that brings us to the question—is the Taj Mahal insanely romantic, or just plain insane? Let’s look at the proof:

1. Shah Jahan built the mausoleum in honor of his wife, Mamtaz Mahal, a woman of legendary beauty and compassion, who was said to be so beautiful that even the moon would hide in reverence. She quickly became Shah Jahan’s favorite wife and his trustworthy confidante, in addition to being the love of is life. Mamtaz Mahal died while accompanying Shah Jahan on a war campaign, and asked on her deathbed that he build a monument as a testament to their everlasting love.
Verdict: Romantic
2. After her death, Shah Jahan was inconsolable. He spent a year isolated from the rest of the world, emerging a year later with whitened hair and a resolve to build the monument he had promised to his dead wife.
Verdict: Romantic, albeit slightly insane.
3. Shah Jahan recruited 20,000 workers from all different parts of the world to complete the project, a herd of 1000 elephants to herd all the material, and it took 30 years to do so. Once it was complete, it was one of the greatest architectural and artistic feats of the time. Legend has it that to ensure that such a structure was never built again, Shah Jahan ordered the wrists of all the laborers cut off.
Verdict: Insane
4. While Shah Jahan’s grandfather, Akbar, had been a powerful king who had enriched the kingdom beyond anyone’s imagination, Shah Jahan practically emptied all the coffers to build a monument for his dead wife (which today would cost a whopping $500 million dollars). And the mausoleum served no other purpose than to serve as a monument—an enormous, elaborate structure that he devoted years of his reign to where the only being that was permanently allowed was a woman that was no longer on this earth.
Verdict: Insane, but kind of romantic.

Hmmm…so I think I know what opinion on the matter is, although I leave it to the rest of you to decide. In thinking about it, though, what great work of art was not the result of some form of insanity? I’ve often wondered what will happen in this age of prozac and psychotherapy, when many of the greatest artists of all time were great because they were, by conventional definitions, “insane.” It is on the fringes of sanity where the most beautiful things are possible, because normalcy is, well, boringly uninspired.

We turned out to be lucky with the Taj Mahal—temperatures were supposed to be in the upper-40s, but a beautiful, glorious rain swept the plains and cooled things off. We had spent the earlier part of the day at the ghost city of Fatehpur Sikri, once the capital of the Mughal Empire but abandoned after years of water shortages made life impossible. The wall of the city still stands, and inside are both the ruins of the former city and the beautiful palace for the royal family. Akbar was a true universalist: he had 3 wives, one Muslim, one Hindu, and one Christian. Historians believe this was likely a strategic move to unite a kingdom that was so disparate in its religious beliefs. Having married 3 women of 3 different religious faiths, the architecture of the palatial compound is scattered with influences from many different traditions.

Agra is scattered with many more beautiful mausoleums, forts, and structures. It was as though each emperor was trying to outdo the last by building an even grander even more breathtaking monument to be remembered in history forever as a great ruler. I think Shah Jahan won that contest, but at a price. His son, Aurengzeb, decided his father was indeed insane and imprisoned him until his death. Shah Jahan was unable to keep one of the other promises he made to his wife: that he visit her tomb once a year, on the full moon when she died. When Shah Jahan died, Aurengzeb placed his body next to Mumtaz Mahal’s, not so much to ensure their eternity together as to save having to build another expensive structure. Another legend has it that once a year, on the full moon when Mumtaz died, the stone of Shah Jahan’s tomb leaks tears in eternal mourning for the loss of his wife.
Verdict: Probably not true, but very romantic.

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