itself, built by Asiatic craftsmen, would not have been his.[1]
The building of the Taj commenced soon after Mumtāz Mahall's death in childbirth in 1631, and lasted nearly twenty-two years. Ibrāhim II, the Shiah Sultan of Bijāpūr, had died five years before its commencement, and the splendid mausoleum which he had raised to the memory of his favourite daughter, Zohra Sultāna, and his wife, Tāj Sultāna, was probably still under construction when Shah Jahān was afflicted by the loss of his beloved Mumtāz Mahall. Ibrahim's Tāj Mahall must have been then the latest wonder of the Musalman world, and certainly it was keenly discussed by Shah Jahān and his builders. The dome of the Tāj at Agra is the best proof of that, for it might have been built by the same mason who built the dome of Ibrāhim's tomb.[2] Both are constructed on the same principles: they are of nearly the same dimensions,[3] and—a fact unnoticed by Fergusson and his followers—the contours of both correspond exactly, except that the lotus crown of the Tāj at Agra tapers more finely and the lotus petals at the springing of the dome are inlaid, instead of
- ↑ A more detailed discussion of the subject is given in Indian Architecture, by the Author, chapter ii.
- ↑ Bijāpūr became tributary to Shah Jahān in 1636. Skilled craftsmanship was a form of tribute always so highly prized by Musalman sovereigns that Shah Jahān is not likely to have neglected this opportunity of obtaining the builders he wanted. The dome of the Tāj is nearer to that of Ibrāhim's tomb than it is to Humāyūn's or the Khan Khānān's tomb at Delhi, which Mr. K. A. C. Creswell, from its close resemblance in plan and general arrangement, takes to be the model of the Tāj (Indian Antiquary, July 1915). Both the Tāj and the Bijāpūr domes have the Indian Mahāpadma, or lotus crown, which is never found in Persian or Arabian domes. The plan of the Tāj is also of Indian origin.
- ↑ The Bijāpūr dome is 57 feet in diameter, the Agra dome 58 feet.
