The Taj Mahal, symbol of India,
architectural jewel, monument to a grand passion.
The Taj Mahal was built in the 17th century
by Shan Jehan, King of the World,
ruler of India's mighty Mughal Empire.
This great warrior king gave the world an architectural masterpiece
have a kind it'd never seen before.
This is how it came to be made.
It's also the legend of his queen, the beautiful Mumtaz Mahal,
and of their love too perfect to survive.
The choosen one of the palace will have her final resting place
in the world's most beautiful building.
But the magnificent chamber at the Taj Mahal hide the secret
and Shah Jehan will pay a terrible price to complete his life's work
as a turning point in India's history.
Today the Taj Mahal is one of the world greatest tourist attractions.
Every year more than three million people
come to see humanities lovliest building with their own eyes.
But for the Indian Nation
the Taj Mahal is much more than an architectural masterpiece.
This is one of the monuments that makes India what it is.
That gives people their identity, it makes them proud.
This building is the symbol for the whole nation.
The Taj Mahal was built in the most glorious periods of Indian history.
The time of the Moguls with their mighty Empire
and fabulous riches.
Its creator, a man who dedicated his life to a dream,
Great Mogul Shan Jehan.
The building that emerged from his plans
perfectly combines of grace and scale, power and beauty.
The Taj Mahal, Crown of the Palace.
The inner sanctum of the Taj is a tomb
for Mumtaz Mahal, the love of Shan Jehan's life.
In her memory, The Great Mogul created this etternal love poem in stone.
The building of the Taj commence in 1632.
An army of elephants began dragging construction materials
to the Mughal Capital.
This would be the biggest building project of the age.
In a few short years, the shale of Taj Mahal was completed.
Ready to be clad in flawless marble
at colossal expense.
The location of the Taj on the bank of Yamuna river was a special challenge.
Close to water you rally find ground solid enough to build on.
So you have to dig down until you hit hard dry earth.
They came up the brilliant solution to this problem,
one that still used today, in slightly different form. They decided to build a well foundation.
That was a revolutionary idea for those time.
The great Mughal engineer dig deep wells
to below the water table,
then they fill them up with rock and mortar.
On this base, The Master Builders erect stone collumn
linked together by massive arches.
The result, a solid mountain of stone
to support the foundation slab with the building,
protecting the Taj from the currents of the Yamuna River, forever.
The Taj Mahal must always stand as a testament to the eternal power of love.
It will be the legacy of Shah Jehan.
Shah Jehan was the favorite son of the Emperor, the Great Mogul,
raised in a world of wealth and splendid.
In 1607, he granted a rare honor.
on his lunar birthday, his weight in gold and precious stone.
That doesn't mean he's been chosen to become the new Great Mogul.
But there are high hopes for this young prince,
and great dangers too.
His own brothers are his deadliest rivals.
The firstborn Prince does not always become king.
All the rulers sons will fight to claim the throne,
even to the death.
The adulation of the crowds means nothing.
The court chronicles will be our guide to Shah Jahan's life.
to its triumphs and disasters.
The prince is given a child bride,
an arranged marriage for political reasons.
It could have been an empty contract
but this love will last for eternity.
10 years later the prince is 25 years old.
His star shines brighter than ever.
He is fourth the enemies of the Emperor winning victory after victory
as a reward his father gives him the title
Shah Jehan King of the World.
The capital of the Mughal Empire is the great city of Agra in northern India,
the location of the giant Red Fort.
The center imperial power and one of India's mightiest stronghold.
The ruling moguls and their families live in magnificent palaces inside the fort.
Here the women of his Harem see to Shah Jehan every wink.
But his favorite by far is his childhood love Mumtaz Mahal.
Shah Jehan calls her the chosen one of the palace.
From the chronicles we know this royal couple were specially close for those time.
There impression which one gathers is that
this is a strong personal, element of personal love.
That is a bit of romance.
It is usually said
that the concept of love
is a very European concept.
Because in the Eastern World
you have the emotion of love
which is impersonal. Love for the deities,
love for idols, love for father, love for institutions,
love for religion, spiritual love, but not romantic love.
But Shah Jehan's memorial to Mumtaz Mahal
is the world's most exquisite symbol of romantic love.
Every day countless visitors are enthralled by the Taj Mahal,
partly because its mogul architect's
use some remarkable optical tricks.
The first view of the monument is framed by the main gate,
as the visitor moves closer the Taj Mahal seems to get smaller.
It seems to grow bigger as you walk away.
The guides here say..
"when you leave you take the Taj with you, in your heart".
An optical trick went into the building of the minarets too.
They lean slightly outwards.
If they were truly vertical they would seem to be leaning inwards.
By leaning away from each other they look perfectly upright.
And that brings another advantage.
in an earthquake the minarets will collapse outwards,
sparing the Taj and it's mighty dome.
The dome is the crowning glory of the Taj Mahal.
The element that makes it so timeless and graceful.
Today we have other options:
we can build giant supporting structures and steel for dome like that.
We have other materials,
they have to solve all their problems in stones.
They laid stone on stone and built up the diamond rings.
The dome rises layer by layer.
The mortar between the stones gives its stability.
The result is self-supporting, with no reinforcing struck or columns.
The weight of the dome is transferred directly downwards
to the massive masonry below.
The Dome is more than 40 meters high
and four meters thick. It is seems to float
over the marble facade. A miracle of stress calculation
still admired by engineers. For over three hundred and fifty years
this dome has been the ultimate expression of mogul architecture.
1621, the Mogul Empire is at a turning point.
The Emperor, Shah Jahan's father is desperately ill.
His son's are gathering in the shadow of the throne.
Ready to fill the vacum of power.
Shah Jehan knows that his moment has come.
Nothing will stop him in his lust for absolute power.
No means a ruled out, not even poison.
When the Great Mogul finally dies Shah Jehan has his rivals eliminated.
Brotherly love means nothing when the prize is so great.
There was a notion of family
and there was a notion of affection.
but this feeling recede into the background.
And then that particular vision of acquiring power for yourself
and to rule the country or Empire as you see fit
becomes the rationale
behind all the violence that is perpetrate.
With his rival gone,
Shah Jehan seizes the throne.
His crowned emperor in 1628,
in the red fort in Agra.
Shah Jehan soon proves himself a wise and moderate ruler.
He guides the empire to even greater prosperity.
Mumtaz Mahal stays in the background,
but she is one the Shah's most important advisors.
This Mogul dynasty seems to have a glorious future.
Perhaps it will be equal the illustrious past.
The moguls are descended from the greatest warlod of them all: Gengis Khan.
That distant ancestors were fierce warrior of the Asian steppes:
the Mongols
A mere 100 years before Shah Jahan's rise to power,
the mogul swept down from the north
onto the plains of India.
Their cannons crushed one Indian city
after another.
By the time of Shah Jehan the moguls controlled most of India.
The first time this great land has been unified
in nearly two thousand years.
The mogul rulers bring their faith with them, Islam.
After Hinduism, Islam soon becomes India's second religion.
But the invaders don't impose it on the people.
They seek a balance between the cultures.
The mogul lords proclaimed religious tolerance.
More than hundred million people
now see business and industry, science and art, flourish.
Artists that court portray their rulers as god-like being.
There are no limits to the great moguls power.
Shah Jehan hold sway of his subjects over life and deaths.
His word is law throughout the empire.
This just ruler leads the country to prosperity and stability.
The court chronicle records that Shah Jehan brings the people
abundant joy and happiness.
And the Shah Jehan mogul rule in India
reaches its dazzling zenith.
But now his greatest legacy the Taj Mahal symbol of the Indian Nation
is under threat.
This is been a high-security zone since 2006,
after bomb threats from terrorists and religious fundamentalists,
it's guarded around the clock.
Access to the mausoleum is tightly controlled.
Filming at the magnificent interior is forbidden.
No one knows how long the Taj will need this kind of protection.
Art historian ever call,
was able to study the Taj before the restrictions came into force.
She is the international experts on the building and its history.
She has also decoded the religious symbolism of the the monument.
Taj Mahal is the architectural embodiment of this life
and the next according to Islamic belief.
The ground plan shows this duality.
The complex is split between the tomb garden with its mosoleum
and a worldly side meant for bazaars and markets.
What's interesting is that the worldly side is
the mirror image of a mausoleum side.
Connecting square with the great main gate
marks the transition to the tomb garden
and opens up the view to the mausoleum.
At the center at the mausoleum is the Holy of Holies.
The most splendid room in the Taj Mahal, the final resting place
of Shah Jehan's bride.
Mumtaz Mahal, the chosen one of the palace,
lead a luxurious life in the woman apartments of the Red Fort.
Poets admire her grace and charm.
Even the moon they say, hides from her beauty in shame.
The first lady at the empire is fabulously wealthy.
She has huge resources.
She was the highest recipient of..
money in the entire Harem being those chief queen
or the most beloved queen of the Emperor.
Because payments in the harem were graded.
We have very interesting accounts of
graded payments, from very huge amount to a very small amount.
And on top of this there were gifts,
very very exquisite expensive gifts, on various occasions.
The riches of The Mogul dynasty are legendary.
Both men and women wear jewelry.
For the men its a sign of nobility
and they give precious jewels to their favorites in the harem.
Its endless supply of gems makes India the treasure house of the world.
In the Mogul Empire, the Indian art of jewelry reaches its peak.
Precious stones, decorate statues, furniture weapons and fabrics.
Even today works by mogul craftsman command the highest prices.
The same is true India's textiles.
Cotton has been woven here for more than 4000 years.
This is still a vital industry in India.
Under the mogul, India became the world's leading exporter
of precious fabrics.
The rulers, The Great Mogul and his family
cashed in on the trade.
Shah Jehan has a special duty to his dynasty
to produce heirs.
His wives in the harem gave him children
but as the chronicles tell us
once they've done their duty
these women are his wives in name only.
Shah Jehan harem may once have been a love nest.
Soon it comes to resemble a nursery.
The harem is not an informal entirely in formal space.
It's a space with a certain protocol. It is a space with a certain hierarchy.
It is a space with the whole set of rules and regulations.
With the Empire at peace there's plenty of leisure time to fill.
The moguls enjoyment of alcohol and opium is legendary.
Shah Jehan and Mumtaz Mahal are together every possible moment.
As the chronicles we called,
the mutual affection and harmony between the two,
had reached the degree never seen between a husband and a wife,
among the classes of rulers, or among the other people.
The imperial chronicle describes their life that court.
Intimacy deep affection
attention and favour which his Majesty had for the chosen one of the palace
exceeded by a thousand times what he felt for any other.
For Shah Jehan the happiness of Mumtaz Mahal is paramount.
If you look at the wardrobe of the Emperor.
If you look at his private chambers.
If you look at the shelf which displays all the perfumes,
oinments, oil, and a whole range of aphrodisiacs,
then you would perhaps know that
there is a lot of interest to develop
into good lovers, to aqcuire emotions
or to release emotions in a way that would revitalized them
or rejuvenate them.
Her husband's love is shared and returned by Mumtaz Mahal
from the depths of her soul.
And always, that lady love the age was the companion,
close confidante, associate, and intimate friend
of that successful ruler in hardship and comfort,
joy and grief, when traveling or in residence.
Fortune smiles on the King of the World.
But not for long.
There is unrest in the empire.
In 1629, reports reach Agra of another uprising.
A distant provinces rebelled against the Empire again.
This means war.
Shah Jehan mobilizes his army.
He will crush opposition with brute force.
Day after day, week after week,
the Mogul army blazes a trail across the Indian plains.
Nearly two years of force marches follow for Shah Jahan soldiers.
But nothing will tell Mumtaz Mahal from her husband's side.
The moguls are forced to leave their capital again and again,
to crush rebellions in the Deccan region.
The campaign seems to have no end.
The great mogul still puts his faith in his cannons
The latest super weapons imported from the Turkish Empire.
His soldiers hold all over the mountains and across the roughest terrain,
shattering City wall,
wiping out the rebels.
But his string of victories is interrupted by tragedy.
In the midst of the campaign Mumtaz Mahal falls pregnant with the Emperor's child.
But there are complications at the birth.
For once the king is powerless.
As his bride weakens the great mogul can do nothing but pray.
The court chronicle recorded the sad events.
On the 17th of June 1631,
the unfortunate demise of Her Majesty The Queen
took place shortly after her confinement,
and made the whole world a house of mourning.
Mumtaz Mahal dies after the birth of her 14th child.
Shah Jehan world has come to an end.
They say: the Emperor fasted for eight days locked in his chambers.
For two years he heard no music
or no jewelry or perfume.
His hair and beard had done grey,
he looked older,
much much older than what he looked, when he went into
confinement a stature to mourning.
So surely this must have
had of deep impact on him.
Before she died, legend says, Mumtaz Mahal made a wish
for a mausoleum more sublime than any the world would seem.
This will be Shah Jehan's task for the rest of his life,
to erect the world's most beautiful building, in her memory.
The Taj Mahal stands in a long tradition a fabulous memorials in India.
Shah Jehan's predecessors had constructed many gorgeous mausoleums.
The Taj Mahal combines the very best elements
of the memorials to Shah Jehan's forefathers.
The tomb his, own father provides. The model for the minarets,
his great-grandfather's mausoleum had four corner turret
surrounding the central core.
The four mighty portals are inspired by his grandfather's tomb.
And Shah Jehan took the form of the Great Dome
from the memorial to a famous ancestor.
Different models United in perfect harmony.
No other mausoleum may come close to the Taj Mahal, in scale beauty and grace.
This monument must be nothing less than a paradise here on earth.
Symbolism carved in stone and marble,
a heavenly memorial to the Queen of the World.
Or as a poet described it: "a teardrop on the cheek of time".
In 1632, just six months after Mumtaz Mahal death,
work begins on the Taj Mahal.
It will be the greatest building project of the age.
Some say that over 20,000 workers slay down the building.
A court chronicler captures the scene:
And from all sides of the Imperial territories
were assembled troops after troops of skilled men.
Stonecutters, inlayers, and those who do carving in relief,
each one an expert in his craft,
will began work together with the other labourers.
Millions of bricks are baked on the spot for the shale of the building.
The Taj rises at record speed.
But progress comes at a price.
Day by day this gigantic construction
is draining the imperial treasury.
But nothing matters to the great mogul.
No expenses spared for this lavish project.
Nothing must hold up the building work,
even if the people suffer terribly for the Emperor's devotion.
Shah Jehan created an artificial famine.
when he diverted the supply of grain
toward Agra,
when it was meant for a different place.
The regular supply of grain was diverted to feed a huge population
of artisants, craftsmen, laborers,
merchants, officials, servants.
Such monuments cannot be built by a few individuals.
Today no one remembers the ordeal of the people,
only the sublime result.
The color scheme of the Taj Mahal is deeply symbolic.
The worldly elements and other buildings
are all clad in red sandstone.
White is reserved for the mausoleum.
This is to be a building of enlightenment.
An earthly representation of the heavenly house where Mumtaz will live for eternity.
The pure white stands for the spirituality and faith of the person buried here.
The white marble for the Taj Mahal comes from quarries at Makrana in Rajasthan,
still in use today.
Makrana marble is already famous in Shah Jehan's time.
Hard, yet easy to work, its prized for its fine detail and high polish.
The Great Mogul has reserved Makrana marble for Imperial buildings.
The marble slabs are carried more than 400 kilometers to the side of the Taj Mahal.
Construction consumes colossal amounts of this fabulous stone.
With the skeleton of the building complete,
the bricks disappear forever beneath the pure white facade.
It's this smooth glowing stone
that gives the Taj Mahal its unique impact.
Of course it's this white marble that gives it its beauty,
its lightness that sense of floating.
These a means of expression available to an architect,
just as words are used by poet.
Right beside the marble edifice the gardens begin.
The garden is the heart of the Taj Mahal.
Its an earthly picture of the Paradise of the Quran.
Two paths divide the terrain into four squares.
The channels along the paths
represent the rivers of Paradise in the Quran.
Where the channels meets there's a pool.
This is symbolic of the celestial pool where the faithfull quench their thirst.
when they arrive in Paradise.
Trough to mogul tradition,
the mausoleum and garden form an indivisible unity.
And the interior the mausoleum itself
is modeled after the 8 paradises of the Quran.
8 chambers surround the central space beneath the dome.
Mumtaz Mahal coffin lies here.
Before long, it attracted pilgrims from far and wide.
Even today the graves have deeply pious Muslims attract thousands of pilgrims.
The flowers on the graves recall the Prophet Muhammad.
As he ascended into heaven each drop of perspiration turned into a rose.
The faithful pray to the departed asking for their divine intervention.
Indian Muslims are drawn to the sumptuous memorials of the Mughal rulers
in the same way.
Orthodox Islam has no time for the worship of saints.
But here in India it's widely seen.
The moguls brought Islam to the subcontinent.
But they didn't interpret the Koran rigidly.
For a long time in India,
Islam was linked to policies of tolerance and openness.
And the Shah Jehan, that tolerance and openness
reaches far beyond India's borders.
The Great Mogul decrees that visitors from the outside world
will be made welcome in his empire.
He knows there is much to gain from the exchange.
So travelers from East and West
are regularly seen at Shah Jehan's court.
Europeans can easily be spotted by their exotic head gear.
Both sides benefit from this transcontinental contact.
The europeans are drawn by the precious fabrics spices and gemstones.
European merchants pay with silver and bring new ideas to the Mughal Empire.
The Taj Mahal itself demonstrates the links between India and Europe.
Sumptuous stone flowers adorn the filigree marble latticework
and cover the entire interior of the Taj Mahal.
Techniques and motifs coming from distant Europe.
These mosaics have semi-precious stones
are called "pietra dura".
In "pietra dura", for instance,
one doesn't know where "petra dura" came directly from Europe
or came wire some intermediate zone,
but nevertheless it was something which really tickled
the imagination of Shah Jehan.
And he used it
in a way interesting way,
in which the building really looks like a treasure chest.
"Pietra dura" is Italian for hard stone.
in the Renaissance, these precious inlays decorated palaces.
This craft to stone cutting travel from Italy to India,
where it experienced the new heyday.
In the "pietra dura" workshops of India,
the techniques haven't changed in hundreds of the years.
Many families have been doing this for 17 or 18 generations.
These are the direct descendants of the craftsman who worked on the Taj Mahal.
"Pietra dura" is a tough craft to master.
The mosaics are made of tiny colored stones
set into marble.
A craftsman cuts hundreds of stones for a single mosaic,
each shaped and positioned with perfect precision.
He needs just as much skill to carve the flower shapes into the marble,
creating the setting for the precious stones.
After the final delicate corrections,
a special glue sets the stones in the recesses.
Painting in stone is one of the glories of Indian craftsmanship.
But no chronicles recall the names of the artists
who decorated the Taj Mahal.
One thing we tend to forget is the hard labors sweat
suffering of artisan and ordinary craftsman.
Nobody knows anything about them.
So the monument is a testimony as much
to their existence and the skill which they possessed,
as it is of Shah Jehan's aesthetic embellishment.
Through their work the man who made the Taj Mahal live on.
The Taj Mahal is finished.
It is taken twelve years.
In spite of difficulties and obstacles,
Shah Jehan has accomplished his dream.
The chosen one of the palace rests in a shrine worthy of her name.
A building more sublime than any conceived or carved by human hand.
On the anniversaries of her death,
Shah Jehan visits Mumtaz Mahal tomb.
The King of the World travels the Yamuna river
to the shrine of the Taj Mahal,
to remember his great love.
The Taj Mahal conceals a final mystery.
The coffin seen in the mausoleum, is only a cenotaph,
an empty monument.
Mumtaz Mahal lies in the secret marble chamber below.
There she rests undisturbed.
After finishing the Taj Mahal,
Shah Jehan rules these lands for 20 more years.
But his reign will see an inglorious end.
His costly projects and extravagant lifestyle
have brought the empire to the age of ruin.
In 1658, the King of the World is toppled from the throne,
deposed by his and Mumtaz own son,
to save the Empire from his extravagance.
Shah Jehan, absolute ruler, Great Mogul for 30 years,
is a prisoner.
He's held captive in the Red Fort, he will never leave it again.
In the evening, a servant reads him stories of the heroic deeds of his youth.
Epics of bravery and power, struggle and triumph.
a long long time ago.
In Shah Jehan's decades intelligent ruled,
the Mogul Empire reached its peak.
No one succeeded in challenging his infinite power.
But the mightiest, have furthest to fall.
Just one comfort remains to Shah Jehan.
in the distance from his prison window,
He can see the gleaming monument of his beloved.
He cannot forget his passion for the chosen one of the palace.
Their happiness was mortal. Their love was for eternity.
Mumtaz Mahal's tomb has carved its place in history.
Shah Jehan will also find his last resting place here.
In 1666, at the age of 74, Shah Jehan dies.
His chronicle ends with the words:
The king of the world has died.
The body was taken by river
to the magnificent tomb of the late Queen Mumtaz Mahal.
Shah Jehan is reunited with his Chosen One of the Palace.
Their legacy will make them immortal.
The most perfect building in the world.
Subs by: And Subscene