Taj Mahal: The symbol of love....
Trip Start
Jul 28, 2009
1
57
121
Trip End
Aug 10, 2010
Where I stayed
Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India
Friday, January 8, 2010
A couple of buses passed by us packed with people. We decided we would have to deal with the full buses and just get on it. However, the bus didn’t stop, it slowed down a little bit and we had to run and jump on, talk about hanging on! Im so glad that we only had 1 small backpack otherwise we never would have made it on. We had to stand up the first hour of the trip and then people started to get off the bus so we finally got some seats. It took us 3 hours to get to Agra and it cost us only $2! Of course, this was the local bus but it was the only one that we could take from the small village. I didn’t mind because I like a new challenge in traveling.
The next day, we got up early in hopes of catching the sunrise at the Taj Mahal. Unfortunately, it was still foggy. Once we got inside and walked to the entrance, it was one beautiful sight! This has got to be the MOST beautiful building I have ever seen. In order to go around and inside the Taj Mahal building, you had to put on plastic covers on your shoes. The tomb inside was smaller than what it looked like on the outside and per Islamic customs, the graves are to be plain, no lavish decorations. So it was nothing like the outside of the tomb. There are also many other beautifully symmetric buildings surrounding the Taj Mahal that took 10 years to complete after the Taj Mahal was finished.
The story goes that Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan built this in memory of his 3rd wife, Mumtaz Mahal, who died giving birth to their 14th child. He started building it in 1632 and finished 1648. It is said that his son overthrew Shah Jahan and jailed his father shortly after it was built. We were also told that Shah Jahan cut off the hands and mutilated some of the architects and builders so they could not build another building like it ever again.
Emperor Shah Jahan himself described the Taj in these words:
Should guilty seek asylum here,
Like one pardoned, he becomes free from sin.
Should a sinner make his way to this mansion,
All his past sins are to be washed away.
The sight of this mansion creates sorrowing sighs;
And the sun and the moon shed tears from their eyes.
In this world this edifice has been made;
To display thereby the creator's glory.
