Origins and architecture of the Taj Mahal

So concerned were the imperial family that an honorary uncle wrote to say that "if he continued to abandon himself to his mourning, Mumtaz might think of giving up the joys of Paradise to come back to earth, this place of misery – and he should also consider the children she had left to his care."

The Austrian scholar Ebba Koch compares Shah Jahan to "Majnun, the ultimate lover of Muslim lore, who flees into the desert to pine for his unattainable Layla.

The shift represented the introduction of a new ordered aesthetic – an artistic expression with religious and funerary aspects and as a metaphor for Babur's ability to control the arid Indian plains and hence the country at large.

By the time Jahan ascended to the throne, Agra's population had grown to approximately 700,000 and was, as Abdul Aziz wrote, "a wonder of the age – as much a centre of the arteries of trade both by land and water as a meeting-place of saints, sages and scholars from all Asia.....a veritable lodestar for artistic workmanship, literary talent and spiritual worth".

For the majority of Muslims, the spiritual power (barakat) of visiting the resting places (ziyarat) of those venerated in Islam, was a force by which greater personal sanctity could be achieved.

As a culture also attempting to accommodate, assimilate and subjugate the majority Hindu populace, opposition also came from local traditions which believed dead bodies and the structures over them were impure.

[15] Humayun's tomb commissioned in 1562 AD, was one of the most direct influences on the Taj Mahal's design and was a response to the Gur-e Amir, borrowing a central dome, geometric symmetrical planning and iwan entrances, but incorporating the more specifically Indian Mughal devices of chhatris, red sandstone face work, and a 'Paradise garden' (Charbagh).

The Tomb of Jahangir at Shahdara (Lahore), begun in 1628 AD (1037 AH), only 4 years before the construction of the Taj and again without a dome, takes the form of a simple plinth with a minaret at each corner.

This form was brought to Agra by Babur and by the time of Shah Jahan, gardens of this type, as well as the more traditional charbagh, lined both sides of the Jumna river.

Later developments of the hasht bihisht divided the square at 45-degree angles to create a more radial plan which often also includes chamfered corners; examples of which can be found in Todar Mal's Baradari at Fatehpur Sikri and Humayun's Tomb.

[24] The Taj Mahal complex was conceived as a replica on earth of the house of the departed in paradise (inspired by a verse by the imperial goldsmith and poet, Bibadal Khan).

[26] Symmetry and geometric planning played an important role in ordering the complex and reflected a trend towards formal systematisation that was apparent in all of the arts emanating from Jahan's imperial patronage.

A complex set of implied grids based on the Mughul Gaz unit of measurement provided a flexible means of bringing proportional order to all the elements of the Taj Mahal.

The diagram shows the 'Arsh (Throne of God; the circle with the eight pointed star), pulpits for the righteous (al-Aminun), seven rows of angels, Gabriel (al-Ruh), A'raf (the Barrier), the Hauzu'l-Kausar (Fountain of Abundance; the semi-circle in the center), al-Maqam al-Mahmud (the Praiseworthy Station; where Muhammad will stand to intercede for the faithful), Mizan (the Scale), As-Sirāt (the Bridge), Jahannam (Hell) and Marj al-Jannah (Meadow of Paradise).

[33] The popular view of the Taj Mahal as one of the world's monuments to a great "love story" is borne out by the contemporary accounts and most scholars accept this has a strong basis in fact.

Copplestone writes "Although it is certainly a native Indian production, its architectural success rests on its fundamentally Persian sense of intelligible and undisturbed proportions, applied to clean uncomplicated surfaces.

"[36] A site was chosen on the banks of the Yamuna River on the southern edge of Agra and purchased from Raja Jai Singh[note 3][37] in exchange for four mansions in the city.

[38] In January 1632 AD (1041 AH), Mumtaz's body was moved with great ceremony from Burhanpur to Agra while food, drink and coins were distributed amongst the poor and deserving along the way.

As well as paying for routine maintenance, the waqf financed the expenses for the tomb attendants and the Hafiz, the Quran reciters who would sit day and night in the mausoleum and perform funerary services praying for the eternal soul of Mumtaz Mahal.

Shah Jahan's court histories emphasise his personal involvement in the construction and it is true that, more than any other Mughal emperor, he showed the greatest interest in building, holding daily meetings with his architects and supervisors.

Mir Abd-ul Karim had been the favourite architect of the previous emperor Jahangir and is mentioned as a supervisor,[note 6][48] together with Makramat Khan,[37] of the construction of the Taj Mahal.

The marble has been polished to emphasise the exquisite detailing of the carvings and the dado frames and archway spandrels have been decorated with pietra dura inlays of highly stylised, almost geometric vines, flowers and fruits.

[53] Discrepancies remain in Koch and Barraud's work which they attribute to numbers being rounded fractions, inaccuracies of reporting from third persons and errors in workmanship (most notable in the caravanserais areas further from the tomb itself).

[53] A 2009 paper by Prof R. Balasubramaniam of the Indian Institute of Technology found Barraud's explanation of the dimensional errors and the transition between the 23 and 17 gaz grid at the great gate unconvincing.

Mumtaz's cenotaph sits at the geometric centre of the building; Jahan was buried at a later date by her side to the west – an arrangement seen in other Mughal tombs of the period such as Itmad-Ud-Daulah.

[57] Marble is used exclusively as the base material for increasingly dense, expensive and complex parchin kari floral decoration as one approaches the screen and cenotaphs which are inlaid with semi-precious stones.

The chamber is an abundant evocation of the garden of paradise with representations of flowers, plants and arabesques and the calligraphic inscriptions in both the thuluth and the less formal naskh script,[28] Shah Jahan's cenotaph is beside Mumtaz's to the western side.

His cenotaph is bigger than his wife's, but reflects the same elements: A larger casket on slightly taller base, again decorated with astonishing precision with lapidary and calligraphy which identifies Shah Jahan.

By the end of the 18th century, Thomas Twining noted orange trees and a large plan of the complex suggests beds of various other fruits such as pineapples, pomegranates, bananas, limes and apples.

It has been constantly redeveloped ever since its construction, to the extent that by the 19th century it had become unrecognisable as part of the Taj Mahal and no longer featured on contemporary plans and its architecture was largely obliterated.