It was the year 1607. Prince Khurram, son of Emperor Jehangir was strolling thought the Meena Bazaar in the Agra fort. Walking through the market with a plethora of courtiers trying to catch his eye, Price Khurram was already a dashing young man, and he was only 14. Through all the confusion, his sharp eyes caught sight of a beautiful girl in her stall selling glass beads and silk. Her image had been engraved in his mind. Going back to his father, he asked to marry the girl, to which the emperor gave his accent. After all, the girl in the stall,Arjumand Banu, was the daughter of Asaf Khan, the brother of the emperor Jahangir's consort, Noorjahan. Khurram however, for political reasons, had to first marry a Persian princess called Qundari Begum. Khurram and Arjumand's marriage was planned to be five years later in 1612, when Khurram would have been 20 and the bride, 19. This indeed was the start of the most beautiful love story ever. This is the Taj Mahal Story.
Prince Khurram and Arjumand Begum had a marriage fit truly for royalty. The two of them were inseparable. They were not only husband and wife, they were each others best friends, each other's guides, and each other's confidantes. So strong was the bond between them that she went on his conquests too. Following the many conquests that Khurram always won, he came to be known as Shah Jahan, or Ruler of the World. Arjumand came to be known as Mumtaz Mahal, or Chosen One of the Palace. She bore Shah Jahan with 14 children. Not only was she a good wife, Mumtaz Mahal also was a generous person, trying to do as much as she could for the poor and the needy.
Then the unthinkable happened. It was the year 1630. Mumtaz Mahal, when in the Deccan with Shah Jahan, died during childbirth. In her last moments, she asked Shah Jahan to make a monument that would stand testimonial to their love. Shah Jahan, on Mumtaz breathing her last, locked himself up, and emerged a week later, seeming much older than he was as his hair turned white. Such was his heart-brokenness at this event, that his entire kingdom was ordered into mourning for two years.
But this was only the beginning. Shah Jahan had every intention of fulfilling his favorite wife's dying wish. 22 years later, having employed twenty thousand workers, a thousand elephants, and gathering artisans and material from all over Asia, Mumtaz Mahal's final wish had been completed. In 1652, the world was witness to the greatest man-made symbol of love- The Taj Mahal.
Even hundreds of years later, to this day, millions of people throng this monumental structure, in the hope of being witness to the Taj Mahal Story. |
