I awoke at sunrise to see the “Crown Palace.” I didn’t dare get up any later lest I be forced to queue in unbearable heat. What I forgot about however, is that Agra at dawn is Planet of the Apes – literally. I almost wasn’t able to get out of my hotel gardens due to the gates swarming with monkeys. I kept my eyes on the path ahead of me and walked through as they perched on the wall and raced about the sloping tree branches above.
I can handle being asked to move so someone can take a few selfies, but being asked to do so every 10 seconds so that people could take dozens upon dozens of photos with dozens of different poses was too much. People were entering the gardens of the Taj Mahal with their own personal photographers. Photographers who would take on the job of clearing anyone who was in the way of their client to make sure they got the perfect shot… or rather, the perfect 12 shots. Obviously if you go to see the Taj Mahal you want to get a photo of yourself there. I certainly did. But there’s getting a photo and then there’s spending 20 minutes using the place as your own personal catwalk. I mean…. there’s a woman buried in there you know.
The body of Mumtaz Mahal and her husband Shah Jehan lie within these marble walls. Parents of the notorious Aurangzeb. If Aurangzeb hadn’t deposed his father and locked him away in Agra’s fort, it could well be that a second “Crown Palace” may have been built across the river from the first. (Though there is no concrete evidence for this). There could have been two Taj Mahals… What a tragedy for Instagram that the second, supposedly black Taj Mahal was never built.
Apart from the stone coffins, the interior of the Taj Mahal is very bare. Grand for sure, but bare. A long time ago those white marble walls were inlaid with hundreds of precious stones, lapis-lazuli, diamonds and a hoard of other gems. But the British saw an end to that in 1857 when they trashed the Monument to Love and chiselled out the stones. If you want to gaze upon some Indian jewels you’d be better off going to the Tower of London…
Oh well, at least the British didn’t get round to dismantling the Taj Mahal and selling off the marble as they planned to and very almost did in 1830… let’s be thankful for that…
…there’s also claims the British planned to blow up the Taj Mahal with dynamite but I can’t find any evidence for that one.
Queuing to get into the Taj Mahal, I saw many photographs of how it used to look before it became a ginormous tourist attraction. The gardens of the Taj Mahal were once studded with verdant trees. And there were photographs of the Crown Palace swamped in rich forest. These photographs of the Taj made it look less resplendent for sure, but a lot more secretive and mystical. I wish I could have visited it back then… way before mass tourism when the gardens were studded with verdant trees and the only picture I could have taken was with my mind’s eye.
I wish I could have travelled India back then…
