History:
Shah Jahan (1592-1668), the Mugal emperor of India in the memory of his beloved wife ordered to built Taj Mahal in 1632 and it took about 20 years ( 1652 ) to entirely complete it. The real name of Shah Jahan is Shahab-ud-din Muhammad Khurram but he was given the title of Shah Jahan after he came into power which means "king of the world" in Persian (Iran) language . AT 1627, his father (Jahangir) fell ill, during those days any sons of king could be the New king of state, but he has to show his bravery and prove himself he is more worthy for the title.
Marriage:
Shah Jahan was married to Queen Arjumand Banu Begam (1593-1631) better known as Mumtaj Mahal when he was 15 and She was 14 years of age. She was nicknamed as Mumtaj Mahal because Mumtaj Mahal in persian language means "the Chosen one of the Palace" and she was first chosen bride for the Palace. Shah Jahan was deeply loved with his chosen one. Although he had 3 wives but he showed deep sympathy and loved Mumtaj Mahal most. It's believed that their love story were as comparable to some popular love story of all time like Romeo and Juliet, Krishna-Radha (Hindu mythology) and Muma-Madan (in Nepali), etc.
Shah Jahan was too a power-monger. The Power of State was greate within him so he slaughered all his brothers and his rivals, and cmae to power at 1628.
Marriage:
Shah Jahan was married to Queen Arjumand Banu Begam (1593-1631) better known as Mumtaj Mahal when he was 15 and She was 14 years of age. She was nicknamed as Mumtaj Mahal because Mumtaj Mahal in persian language means "the Chosen one of the Palace" and she was first chosen bride for the Palace. Shah Jahan was deeply loved with his chosen one. Although he had 3 wives but he showed deep sympathy and loved Mumtaj Mahal most. It's believed that their love story were as comparable to some popular love story of all time like Romeo and Juliet, Krishna-Radha (Hindu mythology) and Muma-Madan (in Nepali), etc.
Reason behind Taj Mahal:
On 17th June, 1631, Mumtaj Mahal died while giving birth to Shah Jahan 14th child. Note that, Shah Jahan altogether had 16 children out of which 14 were form Mumtaj Mahal, which even signifies that Shah Jahan was deeply attached to Mumtaj Mahal rather than his other 2 wives.
It's said that after she died, Shah Jahan locked himself in his chamber and fasted for 8 days and even he heard no music, wear no jewelry and put on no perfume for about 2 years.His physical looks were turning from a youth conqueror to an old man, he could not divert himself from this sorrow. After 6 months of her death, he decided to built a mausoleum ( a impressive building with a tomb or a group of tomb) in a memory of her. He appointed "Ustad Ahmad Lahouri (Iranian)"as a chief architect, he was the famous architect during those period and thought he would be perfect for his grand vision. Remember, Ustad Ahmad Lahouri is also well known for design of Red fort better known as "lal killa".
Engineering behind taj Mahal:
foundations:
The major problem with such mausoleum which are built on bank of riveris the choice of type of foundations. Remember, that the soil on such places are weak and water table would be on shallow depth. So a better precaution should be taken for soil and water, while deciding foundations. For such cases, a skilled person or engineer would definitely recommend deep foundations, so they used the concept of well foundations to withstand soil ,water and weight of superstructure(building weight). How was well foundation built?
well foundation was built with the help of timber trees of larger depth, timber tress were used for casing and the caisson were filled with sand, stone and other locally available materials to provide ample strength to foundations.
steps applied :
step 1 : at first the hole were dug (probably circular in shape). For the case of water table probably piping and manual lifting were done.
step 2: The large timer trees were used for casing. Probably they cut the tress into smaller but considerable sizes and made like a hollow cylindrical tubes and then placed (sunked) one after another to the required depth for casing.
step 3: After casing design, they filled them with sand, stone and other locally available materials to gain enough strength.
Here question arises, how could a wood used for casing would survive this many years in enormous water table.?
According to some experts and research group, it's said that the trees used were ebony trees which would show higher stability when the moisture is above fiber saturation points i.e. 30 % . but it moisture level should not tremendously increase or decrease on it which results swelling and instability.
The spacing between the wells built were very close and over the closely spaced wells, a stronger and giant wooden floor (similar to mat foundation) was laid; which supports the entire super-structure of mausoleum.
Workers: Around 20000 - 22000 workers are estimated to be used for the construction of this mausoleum.
Time: It took around 20 years (1632-1652) to built taj Mahal.
Colour: The color of Taj Mahal is mostly white and some red. For white color, they used white marbles from quarries Atma Khurana in Rajasthan well known as Makrana Marbles. Reason behind white and red color are :
Economy:
Shah Jahan spent more than 32 millions rupees (now more than 55 billions dollar) during those days just to built this structure. He also diverted food grains which need to supplied to other places to the working arena to feed the workers.
Octagonal chamber:
There is an octagonal chamber inside the buildings where the body of Mumtaz Mahal was graved. Later after the death of Shah Jahan he grave was kept nearer to her.
Optical Illusion:
When viewed from the front gate of Taj Mahal, the structure appears as big when we move far away from front gate and vice- versa.
Link with Europe:
A hard-stone and it's art called as "pietra-dora" was used for the interior designs decorations of Taj Mahal. Pietra-Dora is believed to be imported from European countries.
"There is a myth that Shah Jahan cut the hands of all the workers involved during construction of Taj Mahal so that one such monuments like TAJ_MAHAL would be built again."
In 1658, Shah Jahan was prisoned by his own son Aurangzeb and was kept in Red Fort as a prisoner
and Shah Jahan dies at 1666 while he was in prison...................
Thank you for reading......
Share and Care...............
Engineering behind taj Mahal:
foundations:
The major problem with such mausoleum which are built on bank of riveris the choice of type of foundations. Remember, that the soil on such places are weak and water table would be on shallow depth. So a better precaution should be taken for soil and water, while deciding foundations. For such cases, a skilled person or engineer would definitely recommend deep foundations, so they used the concept of well foundations to withstand soil ,water and weight of superstructure(building weight). How was well foundation built?
well foundation was built with the help of timber trees of larger depth, timber tress were used for casing and the caisson were filled with sand, stone and other locally available materials to provide ample strength to foundations.
steps applied :
step 1 : at first the hole were dug (probably circular in shape). For the case of water table probably piping and manual lifting were done.
step 2: The large timer trees were used for casing. Probably they cut the tress into smaller but considerable sizes and made like a hollow cylindrical tubes and then placed (sunked) one after another to the required depth for casing.
step 3: After casing design, they filled them with sand, stone and other locally available materials to gain enough strength.
Here question arises, how could a wood used for casing would survive this many years in enormous water table.?
According to some experts and research group, it's said that the trees used were ebony trees which would show higher stability when the moisture is above fiber saturation points i.e. 30 % . but it moisture level should not tremendously increase or decrease on it which results swelling and instability.
The spacing between the wells built were very close and over the closely spaced wells, a stronger and giant wooden floor (similar to mat foundation) was laid; which supports the entire super-structure of mausoleum.
Workers: Around 20000 - 22000 workers are estimated to be used for the construction of this mausoleum.
Time: It took around 20 years (1632-1652) to built taj Mahal.
Colour: The color of Taj Mahal is mostly white and some red. For white color, they used white marbles from quarries Atma Khurana in Rajasthan well known as Makrana Marbles. Reason behind white and red color are :
- White color is for symbol of love and spiritual eternity to maintain a spiritual love between Shah Jahan and his dead wife.
- White and Red are two favorite color of Shah Jahan.
Economy:
Shah Jahan spent more than 32 millions rupees (now more than 55 billions dollar) during those days just to built this structure. He also diverted food grains which need to supplied to other places to the working arena to feed the workers.
Octagonal chamber:
There is an octagonal chamber inside the buildings where the body of Mumtaz Mahal was graved. Later after the death of Shah Jahan he grave was kept nearer to her.
Optical Illusion:
When viewed from the front gate of Taj Mahal, the structure appears as big when we move far away from front gate and vice- versa.
Link with Europe:
A hard-stone and it's art called as "pietra-dora" was used for the interior designs decorations of Taj Mahal. Pietra-Dora is believed to be imported from European countries.
"There is a myth that Shah Jahan cut the hands of all the workers involved during construction of Taj Mahal so that one such monuments like TAJ_MAHAL would be built again."
In 1658, Shah Jahan was prisoned by his own son Aurangzeb and was kept in Red Fort as a prisoner
and Shah Jahan dies at 1666 while he was in prison...................
Thank you for reading......
Share and Care...............
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