The Colorado statesman., 1911-06-10


gateway a mile outside OF the
modern city Of Agra, and at
last catches sight of the famous Tai.
by common consent the tomb Of Shah
Jehan's loved wife is the goal and
center Of Indian travelling.
Nor is this to be wondered at; for
after the last word of praise and ap-
probation of the Tai as a building has
been said, there is something more,
something greater about it still. Ihat
which weighs heaviest in our estima-
ton and lives longest in our memories
is that side of it which photographs
cannot give. Surely the dullest OF VS.
itors must be impressed by the mere
fact that the Tai stands, as nothing
else in the world stands, for the great
and lasting devotion of man for
woman. Remember that 1t was erect
ed in eternal honor of woman at
time when women were regarded as
little but the playthings of their own
ers, and by the disciple of faith
which to this day denies to woman
the possession of a soul. The story
of the love of Shah Jehan for Muntaz-
of the worlds history.
Muntazi-Mahal was the daughter OF
Asaf Kahn and was married to Shah
Jehan in 1915, IL years before the sue
cession of her husband to the throne.
Indeed she knew little of the splendors
of Shah Jehan's court, for in 1929 she
died at Burhanpore, the capital of the
Deccan Province, and with her the
light went out of the life Of the most
splendid of all emperors. Crushed
with grief, Shah Jehan determined
that his lost love should have such
a memorial as neither woman nor
man had ever had in the history Of
the world before. So he called to
him one Ustad-Isa, cunning archi-
tect, and bade him prepare as noble
q design as his imagination could fur
nish. We do not know very much
about the actual building of the Tai.
The minarets, which are perhaps the
most criticized details in the struc-
ture, were moved away from the cen
trial building, and stand, instead, at the
-four corners of the marble plateau,
or plinth, on which the Tai is built.
We know from Tavernier that the
cost of the scaffolding was as great as
that of the tomb itself, because there
were at that time no trees near by
from which timber could be obtained
for this purpose. We are told that
Austin de Bordeaux, an absconding
French jeweler, was called in to orna-
iment it's white marble walls with the
famous "pietra dura" work. Tradi-
Ition also has 1t that Verroneo, an
italian, had a hand in the decoration
of the tomb. But of the part that
Shah Jehan himself played in this
colossal enterprise we know nothing.
The emperor stated that, apart from
the materials, to which half of Asia
contributed her marbles, the masons
alone were paid the sum of $3,OOO,OOO
Seventeen years were occupied In the
building The body of Muntazi-Mahal
was then placed under the dome In
the place of honor.
Years afterward, when Shah Jehan
himself, a broken, disappointed and
de1hroned man, came to die as his
own sons prisoner in the fort he had
himself built at Agra, they laid his
body beside that of his loved mistress.
Mot even then did they dare preak
the great tradition of love that the
Tai was built to immortalize. Shah
Jehan's tomb. though larger-as BELTS
an emperor-is placed on one side OF
Muntaz-i-MahaPs central resting place.
These tombs, in accordance with east
ern customs, are not the actual rest
ing places Of the bodies. Muntazl'
Mahal and Shah Jehan lie in the
crypt underneath, where the relative
positions. as already noted, are faith
fully maintained.
Inside, beneath the marble dome,
there Is, around the tombs of the two
lovers, an exquisitely beautiful pierced
marble tre1lis heavily inlaid with pre-
cious stones. The light is admitted
only through double screens OF white
marble trellis-work Of the most beau-