Taj Mahal | Definition, Story, Site, History, & Facts | Britannica

History of construction

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The inspiration for the Taj Mahal was a verse by Bibadal Khan, the imperial goldsmith and poet. The vision behind the construction was to make an earthly replica of Mumtaz Mahal’s celestial abode in paradise. The plans for the complex have been attributed to various architects of the period, though the chief architect was probably Ustad Aḥmad Lahawrī, an Indian of Persian descent. The five principal elements of the complex—main gateway, garden, mosque, jawāb (literally “answer”; a building mirroring the mosque), and mausoleum (including its four minarets)—were conceived and designed as a unified entity according to the tenets of Mughal building practice, which allowed no subsequent addition or alteration. Building commenced about 1632. More than 20,000 workers were employed from India, Persia, the Ottoman Empire, and Europe to complete the mausoleum itself by about 1638–39; the adjunct buildings were finished by 1643, and decoration work continued until at least 1647. In total, construction of the 42-acre (17-hectare) complex spanned 22 years.

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The Verse That Inspired the Taj Mahal

“Jaaye-i-Mumtaz Mahal jannat bad” (“May the abode of Mumtaz Mahal be paradise.”)

—Bibadal Khan

A tradition relates that Shah Jahan originally intended to build another mausoleum across the river to house his own remains. That structure was to have been constructed of black marble, and it was to have been connected by a bridge to the Taj Mahal. He was deposed in 1658 by his son Aurangzeb, however, and was imprisoned for the rest of his life in Agra Fort. The theory that Shah Jahan planned the black mausoleum, however, has been dismissed by some historians.