Building Details of Taj Mahal Chief
Builders 
Despite
several controversies that claim that the Taj Mahal was designed by an Italian
Geronimo Veroneo, or a French silversmith Austin de Bordeaux, the first real evidence
of the architect's identity emerged in the 1930s when a seventeenth century manuscript
called the Diwan-i-Muhandis was found to mention the Taj Mahal. This manuscript
contains a collection of several poems written by Luft Allah, including several
verses in which he describes his father, Ustad Ahmad from Lahore, as the architect
of the Taj Mahal and the Red Fort at Delhi. Ahmad was a Persian engineer-astrologer.
Luft Allah also states that Shah Jehan conferred upon his father the
title "Nadir al-Asr" (the Wonder of the Age); unfortunately court histories
do not corroborate this claim. Other sources record that Ustad Ahmad was one of
the architects of the Red Fort. Further evidence has been found of other large
projects undertaken by Ustad Ahmad, strengthening the plausibility of his son's
claim. It is interesting to note that Ustad Ahmad had a number of aliases : Ustad
Khan Effendi, Ustad Mohammed, Isa Khan, Isa Effendi and a number of permutations
of the name - fictional amalgam of Muslim sounding names, most likely the invention
of latter-day British guidebook writers.
It must be emphasised that
the design of the Taj Mahal cannot be ascribed to any single master-mind. The
Taj is the culmination of an evolutionary process. It is the perfected stage in
the development of Mughal architecture. The names of many of the builders who
participated in the construction of the Taj in different capacities have come
down to us through Persian sources. A project as ambitious as the tomb of Mumtaz
Mahal demanded talent from many quarters. From turkey came Ismail Khan a designer
of hemispheres and the a builder of domes. Qazim Khan, a native of Lahore travelled
to Agra to cast the solid gold finial that crowned the Turkish master's dome.
Chiranjilal, a local lapidary from Delhi was chosen as the chief sculptor
and mosaicist. Amanat Khan from Shiraz was the chief calligrapher, and this fact
is attested on the Taj gateway where his name has been inscribed at the end of
the inscription. Muhammad Hanif was the Supervisor of masons, while Mir Abdul
Karim and Mukkarimat Khan of Shiraz handled finances and the management of daily
production. Sculptors from Bukhara, calligraphers from Syria and Persia, inlayers
from South India, stonecutters from Baluchistan, a man who specialised in building
turrets, another who carved only marble flowers - thirty seven men in all formed
the creative nucleus, and to this core was added a labour force of twenty thousand
workers recruited from across North India.
Material Used Along with the labourers flocking to Agra, materials
for construction also began arriving : principally red sandstone from local quarries
and marble dug from the hills of far-off Makrana, slightly southwest of Jaipur
in Rajasthan. Although the treasury was well filled, such prodigious quantities
of rare stuffs were required that caravans travelled to all corners of the empire
and beyond in search of precious materials. From Chinese Turkestan in Central
Asia came Nephrite jade and crystal; from Tibet, turquoise; from upper Burma,
yellow amber; from Badakhshan in the high mountains of northeastern Afghanistan,
lapis lazuli; from Egypt, chrysolite; from the Indian Ocean, rare shells, coral,
and mother-of-pearl. Topazes, onyxes, garnets, sapphires, bloodstone, forty three
types of gems in all - ranging in depth from Himalayan quartz to Golconda diamonds
- were ultimately to be used in embellishing the Taj Mahal.
In order
to transport the marble, a ten mile long ramp of tamped earth was built through
Agra, and on it trudged an unending parade of elephants and bullock carts dragging
blocks of marble to the building site. Once the marble reached the Taj, it was
hoisted into place by means of an elaborate post-and-beam pulley manned by teams
of mules and masses of workers tugging and hauling.
The first buildings
to be constructed were the tomb proper and the two mosques that flank it; then
came the four minarets; finally the gateway and auxiliary buildings were erected.
All were built as integral parts of a single unit, carefully planned to harmonise,
for a law of Islam decrees that once a tomb is completed nothing can be added
to it and absolutely nothing can ever be taken away from it.
