Tejo Mahalaya

* Tejo Mahalaya *

21 points from a well known book entitled "The Taj Mahal is a Temple Palace"

1. The term Taj Mahal itself never occurs in any Mogul court paper or chronicle even in Aurangzeb's time.

2. The attempt to explain it away as Taj-i-Mahal i.e. a crown among residences is, therefore, ridiculous.

3. Moreover, if the Taj is believed to be a burial place how can the term 'Mahal' i.e. 'mansion', apply to it?

4. The other popular Islamic explanation is that the term 'Taj Mahal' derives from 'Mumtaz Mahal'--the lady who is supposed to be buried in it. This explanation is itself full of absurdities as we shall presently see. It may be noted at the outset that the term 'Taj' which ends in a 'j', could not have been derived from Mumtaz ending in a'z'.

5. Moreover, the lady's name was never Mumtaz Mahal but Arjum and Banu Begum alias Mum taz-ul-Zamani , as mentioned in Shahjahan's official court chronicle, the Badshahnama.

6. Since the term Taj Mahal does not at all occur in Mogul records it is absurd to search for any Mogul explanation for it. Both its components namely 'Taj' and 'Mahal' are of Sanskritic origin. Mahal in Hindu parlance signifies a mansion i.e. a grand edifice. Taj is the popular corruption of the word 'Tej' meaning splendour. In no Muslim country from Afghanistan to Abyssinia, is any edifice described as Mahal.

7. The term Taj Mahal is a corrupt form of the Sanskrit term 'Tejo Mahalaya' signifying a Shiva temple. Agreshwar Mahadev i.e. the Lord God of Agra was consecrated in it.

8. The famous Hindu treatise on architecture, titled Viswakarma Vastushastra mentions the 'Tej Linga' amongst Shiva Lingas i.e. stone emblems of Lord Shiva, the Hindu deity. Such a Teja Linga was consecrated in the Taj Mahal hence the term Taj Mahal alias Tejo Mahalaya.

9. Agra city, in which the Taj Mahal is located, is an ardent centre of Shiva worship. Its orthodox residents have through the ages continued the tradition of worshipping at five Shiva shrines before taking the last meal every night especially during the month of Shravan. During the last few centuries residents of Agra had to be content with worshipping at only four prominent Shiva temples viz. Balkeshwar, Prithvinath, Manakameshwar and Rajarajeshwar. They had lost track of the fifth Shiva deity which their forefathers worshipped. Apparently the fifth was Agreshwar Mahadev i.e. the Lord Great God of Agra consecrated in the Tejo-Mahalaya alias Taj Mahal.

10. The people who dominate the Agra region are Jats. Their name for Shiva is Tejaji. The Jat special issue of the Illustrated Weekly of India (June 28, 1971) mentions that the Jats have Teja Mandirs i.e. Teja temples. This is because Teja Linga is one among several names of Shiva Lingas mentioned in Hindu architectural texts. From this it is apparent that the Taj Mahal is Tejo Mahalaya, the Great Abode of Tej'.

11. A Sanskrit inscription too supports the above conclusion. Known as the Bateshwar inscription it is currently preserved in the Lucknow museum. It refers to the raising of a "Crystal white Shiva temple so alluring that Lord Shiva once enshrined in it decided never to return to Mount Kailas--his usual abode". This inscription was found within a radius of about 36 miles from the Taj Mahal. The inscription is dated 1155 A.D. From this it is clear that the Taj Mahal was built at least 500 years before Shahjahan.

12. Shahjahan's own court chronicle, the Badshahnama admits (on page 403, Vol. 1) that a grand mansion of unique splendour, capped with a dome, (imaarat-e-alishan wa gumbaze) was taken from the Jaipur Maharaja Jaisingh for Mumtaz's burial.

13. The plaque put up by the archaeology department outside the Taj Mahal describes the edifice as a mausoleum built by Shahjahan for his wife Mumtaz Mahal, over 22 years from 1631 to 1653. That plaque is a specimen of historical bungling. Firstly, the plaque cites no authority for its claim. Secondly, the lady's name was Mumtez-ul-Zamani and not Mumtaz Mahal. Thirdly, the period of 22 years is taken from some mumbo jumbo noting by an unreliable French visitor Tavernier, to the exclusion of all Muslim versions, which is an absurdity.

14. Prince Aurangzab's letter to his father, emperor Shahjahan, belies the archaeological department's reliance on Tavernier. Aurangzeb's letter is recorded in at least two chronicles titled 'Aadaab-e-Alamgiri' and 'Yaadgaarnama'. In that Aurangzeb records in 1652 A.D. itself that the buildings in the fancied burial place of Mumtaz, were seven-storied and were so old that they were all leaking, while the dome had developed a crack on the northern 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 proof that during Shahjahan's reign itself the Taj complex was so old as to
need immediate repairs.

15. The ex-Maharaja of Jaipur retains in his secret personal custody two orders from Shahjahan dated December 18, 1633 (bearing modern numbers K.D. 176 and 177) requisitioning the Taj building complex. That was so blatant a usurpation that the then ruler of Jaipur was ashamed to make the documents public.

16. The Rajasthan State Archives at Bikaner preserves three other firmans addressed by Shahjahan to Jaipur's ruler Jaisingh ordering the latter to supply marble from his Makrana quarries, and stone cutters. Jaisingh was apparently so enraged at the blatant seizure of the Taj Mahal that he refused to oblige Shahjahan by providing marble for grafting Koranic engravings and false tombs for further desecration of the Taj Mahal. Jaisingh looked upon Shahjahan's demand for marble and stone cutters, as an insult added to injury.

17. The three firmans demanding marble were sent to Jaisingh within about two years of Mumtaz's death. Had Shahjahan really built the Taj Mahal over a period of 22 years the marble would have been needed only after 15 or 30 years and not immediately after Mumtaz's death.

18. Moreover, the three firmans mention neither the Taj Mahal, nor Mumtaz, nor the burial. The cost and the quantity of stone required also are not mentioned. This proves that an insignificant quantity of marble was needed just for some superficial tinkering and tampering with the Taj Mahal. Even otherwise Shahjahan could ever hope to build a fabulous Taj Mahal by abject dependence for marble on a non-cooperative vassal like Jaisingh.

19. The Taj Mahal is scrawled over with 14 chapters of the Koran but nowhere is there even the slightest or remotest allusion in that Islamic overwriting to Shahjahan's authorship of the Taj. Had Shahjahan been the builder he would have said so in so many words before beginning to quote the Koran.

20. That Shahjahan far from building the marble Taj only disfigured it with black lettering is mentioned by the inscriber Amanat Khan Shirazi himself in an inscription on the building.

21. Well known western authorities on architecture like E. B. Havell, Mrs. Kenoyer and Sir W. W. Hunter have gone on record to say that the Taj Mahal is built in the Hindu temple style. Havell points out that the ground plan of the ancient Hindu Chandi Seva temple in Java is identical with that of the Taj.