Taj Mahal - Essay Example

3. What is the history, design, and purpose of the Taj Mahal? How is it an architectural wonder of the world?

If there is one topic that spans the ages and cultures, it is love, particularly that between a man and a woman.  Poems, songs, plays – who does not know of Romeo and Juliet? – abound on this subject, but few architectural structures have been specifically devoted to romantic love.  The Taj Mahal is one such structure, the architectural equivalent of Shakespeare’s immortal play.

The PBS website on the Taj Mahal gives a sentimental introduction to it by recounting the love between Shah Jahan, the “King of the World” and his beautiful bride, Mumtaz Mahal, “Chosen one of the Palace,” who is said, “The moon hid its face in shame before her.” The two were inseparable, so it was not unusual that she accompanied him to subdue a rebellion even if she was in the ninth month of her pregnancy. During the birth of their fourteenth child, the queen suffered complications, but it is said that just before she died she made her husband promise that he would build a mausoleum for her, one of outstanding beauty not before seen.

It is said of the queen that she was a kind and wonderful woman who helped hundreds of women in distress (Wijesinha, 2010), so her death was deeply mourned by the nation.  Six months after her death, Shah Jahan, still grieving, built her mausoleum across the Jamuna River, near the royal palace.  It was the Taj Mahal, made of white marble and described as delicately ethereal, pearly pink during the dawn, and opalescent in the moonlight.  As a work of art, the structure evoked harmony, grace, and purity. 

The Taj Mahal is the finest example of Mughal architecture which is a combination of Persian, Ottoman Turkish, and Indian architectural styles (Hasan, 1994; Du Temple, 2003).  The tomb is a perfectly symmetrical building with an iwan or arch-shaped doorway, framed by a large pishtaq and topped by a huge marble dome and finial.  The base structure is a multi-chambered cube with chamfered corners forming an unequal octagon.  Four minarets stand at the four corners surrounding the tomb.

The Taj Mahal is an architectural wonder of the world because of is one of the world’s most beautiful buildings.  It is a “poem in marble” which is stunning if viewed under a full moon (Wijesinha, 2010); however, it is renowned not only because of its resplendent and intricate beauty but because it is a monument to a deep and undying love by a king for his beautiful and well-loved queen.  Even after four and a half centuries, is still today India’s most popular tourist site.

The cyber journey I chose to take was to view the video about Mehndi, India’s ancient body art. Mehndi is traditionally the use of an extract of henna leaves, a natural dye of brown or red, to draw intricate patterns of flowers, leaves, or other designs on the hands and feet, and sometimes other parts of the body.  It is used to adorn brides on their wedding day because it is believed that the Mehndi provides a spell for fertility. Its wearer hopes to receive fulfillment because of it. However, it could also be used to cure certain diseases and for religious reasons such as to fend off negative energy, according to Indian customs.  The application of mehndi is not restricted to any particular class, as it is used by all regardless of the caste system of India, which accounts for its wide popularity.  Traditional and deeply symbolic in Indian culture, having been the custom for 5,000 years, the intricate patterns of the Mehndi are so timeless and beautiful that today they are a popular modern body adornment of the young in many countries of the world. 

Reading the answer (on who Krishna is and how he is represented), one is struck by how the imagery of Krishna is both ancient and contemporary.  The pastoral image of Krishna, as a music-playing herdsman, is so down to earth and mundane that one can imagine Krishna to be any of the simple folk presently tending their animals in the Indian grazing lands.  Even the idea that Krishna often romances the women folk is so very much the picture of common mortal men who, even to this day, ogle the pretty maidens in the town square.

While reading the commentary, one is struck by the candor and ease with which Indian poetry depicts sexual love.  It is starkly different from the Western morality that frowns at open and explicit descriptions of physical affection. The Judeo-Christian persuasion, or at least our modern perception of it, treats the desires of the flesh as lust and designates it as one of the deadly sins. However, if one were to look closely at the Bible, there are passages in the Psalms that depict in frank but poetic passages, sexual attraction, much in the same manner as the passages in this Indian poem.  In the Indian culture, fertility, and procreation are a blessing, and the sexual union that makes this possible is, literally, an act of the gods.

Although belief in Krishna and the other personages of Vishnu are millennia old, its vivid images are timeless and appeal to the senses of the common man even to this day.