Weekly Photo Challenge - Kiss "The King Who Built The Taj"

The Taj Festival is currently underway and the Valentine’s day has just passed by. The theme for the weekly photo challenge this week is ‘kiss’. What better way to celebrate this spirit of love than with a post dedicated to the monument of eternal love – The Taj mahal

As the old king’s time drew near

What did he think about?

His many conquests and unchallenged might

Wars, victories, moments of pride

Or did he spend his time in deep thought

About the son who he had brought

To this world

The one whose heart

Didn’t shed a tear

When his own brothers he speared

Did he think in anguish

About the time

His favorite’s head was brought to him

On a bejewelled tray

Did he like a father bemoan

Not only the three sons he lost

But also the one who lived

The one, the world called, terribly wicked

Because as any parent knows

What one reaps is what one sowed

Or in his last time

Did he smile

Thinking of the treasured time

He spent with his precious queen

The girl he loved with all his heart

Since the day he sighted her at the ‘haat’

Was he scared

This fearless king

Of what impending death would bring?

Or did he welcome it with open arms

Taking comfort in the fact

That by shedding his body

He’d be free

to  be

re-united with his soul

Did he look forward

To rest his tired limbs

In the majestic  mausoleum he built

The unparalleled Taj

Or

Did he wonder

At the irony

That he who created the mecca of love

Breathed his last

Imprisoned in hate’s custody

Taj at night

Taj mahal photograph courtesy wikepedia

 

Taj Mahal is the most famous and most precious architectural heritage of India. It is standing majestically on the banks of river Yamuna in Agra city of Uttar Pradesh, India. This monument is in white marble and is among the Seven Wonders of the World. On a recent visit to Agra – The city of Taj. We devoted a day to exploring the monument that the Indian classical poet Rabindranath Tagore described as a “tear on the face of eternity” . While the Taj enthralled me what captivated me equally if not more was the tale of Shah Jahan.

The Mughal king who built the Taj Mahal in the memory of his wife Mumtaz Mahal. Mumtaz was Shaah Jahan’s third wife. A persian princess, who he had sighted while roaming in the bazaars of Agra. It was a remarkable tale of romance that lasted  a lifetime. When Mumtaz Mahal died while delivering their fourteenth child, Shah Jahan promised to build her the richest memorial  in the world.  It is said that Shah Jahan was so heartbroken after her death that he ordered the court into mourning for two years. Sometime after her death, Shah Jahan undertook the task of erecting the world’s most beautiful monument in the memory of his beloved. It took 22 years and the labor of 22,000 workers to construct the monument.This magnificent monument came to be known as “Taj Mahal” and now counts amongst the Seven Wonders of the World. Later Shah Jahan was overthrown by his own son Aurangazeb and imprisoned in the Red Fort within sight of the Taj Mahal. Aurangazeb killed his three brothers including Shah jahan’s favored, Dara Shikoh, and was forced to spend the last eight years of his life in prison till his death in 1666. When Shah Jahan died in 1666, his body was placed in a tomb next to the tomb of Mumtaz Mahal.

While soaking in the majesty of Taj, my eyes kept wandering to the silhouette of the Red Fort. And my mind to the man behind this remarkable story. What did the imprisoned Shah Jahan  see from those windows? What did he think about? What did he feel, as his own death approached. Did he have any regrets? Or was he just happy to be ‘free’ again? 

Related articles

• Taj Mahal (remainagirl.com)