legends

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India is the only country that declares the message of love to the world through one of the world's 7 wonders. Taj Mahal, the 17th century tomb was built by the Mughal Emperor Sha Jahan is a loving monument for the memory of his late wife Mumtaz Mahal. What makes this world wonder exceptional is nothing other than the feeling out of which it had been originated. The story of Sha Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal is romantic and no other story can be compared with it.

It was a love at first sight for two youngsters. In the year 1607 when Prince Khurram/Shahjahan of the royal Mughal household strolled down Meena Bazaar, accompanied by a string of fawning courtiers, he caught a glimpse of a girl Arjumand/Mumtaz Mahal hawking silk and glass beads. But Shahjahan's stepmother Noorjehan had her own agenda. She wanted Shah Jahan to marry her daughter Ladli Begum from her earlier marriage. Shah Jahan came into open conflict with Empress Noorjehan, but his rebellion against his father Jahangir, in 1622, was unsuccessful. However he came to the throne on his father's death in 1627. Mughal Empire attained its greatest power under his rule. He married the girl of his dreams during a time when Princes never married only for love.

Sha Jahan had three wives and out of them Mumtaz was his real love. She had been the mother of 14 of his 16 children. Mumtaz Mahal possessed great reasoning power and self-respect in her manners. She was Sha Jahan's inseparable companion and counselor until her death. While breathing her last, Mumtaz Mahal took a promise from her beloved to build an edifice in memory of their love. And thus began the work of a monument that continues to attract millions of lovers even today.

Tragically those monument surroundings ultimately became Sha Jahan's prison. His son, Aurangzeb, seized the throne and imprisoned his father for the last eight years of his life. Legend maintains that Shah Jahan spent his final years locked in the Agra Fort, gazing from the Jasmine Tower of his marble palace, down the Yamuna River to the Taj Mahal, the tomb of his beloved wife. Tended by Jahanara, his eldest daughter, Shah Jahan was confined to the fort for eight years. According to legend, when Shah Jahan was on his deathbed, he kept his eyes fixed on the Taj Mahal where his beloved lies. After his death, Shah Jahan was buried there beside his dead queen, Mumtaz Mahal. Their love never separated them in life, miseries and finally in death. Taj Mahal synonymous with Mumtaz Mahal remains the eternal monument for their everlasting love.