1.
That the rampant corruption
was prevalent during the Mogul time and there were large percentage of
unauthorized profits of innumerable middle men thus there was no money to raise
a cenotaph in the ground floor in octagonal chamber by covering them with
costly mosaic stones to match with the palace flooring and barricading the
hundred of rooms, ventilators staircases, doorways, balconies and corridor.
There exist a seven-storey marble Tejo Mahalaya Hindu temple palace complex.
The seven storey massive girth in its lofty gateways and arches necessitates
the removal of stone pitching and as such Badshahnama discloses the expenditure
incurred in scaffolding of these Hindu complexes and in engraving the Koran on
the walls of edifice. The great French merchant visitor tavernier testimony too
fully corroborates the aforesaid conclusion. Let us examine his testimony
introduce in Maharashtreeya Jnyankosh. “Jean Baptiste Tavernier, a French
jeweler, toured India for trade between 1641 and 1668 A.D. His travel account
is mainly devoted to commerce. He used to sojourn at Surat and Agra (while in
India). He visited all parts of India, including Bengal, Gujrat, Punjab,
Madras, Karnatak, etc. He owned a vehicle .He had to spend Rs. 600 for the cart
and pair of bullocks. ‘The bullocks used to cover 40 miles a day for two months
at a stretch. Four days were enough for the journey from Surat to Agra or
Golcunda and the expense used to be between Rs. 40 and Rs.50. The roads were as
good as Roman highways. European traveler’s felt inconvenienced in Hindu
territories for want of meat, which was freely available in Invader dominions.
A good postal system was in vogue. Both the town –folk and the government used
to provide protection against highway robbery’…is the kind of information
Travernier has recorded (in his book titled Travels in India). Not being
learned, he has not recorded much except where wealth and commerce was
concerned.
2.
That the other important piece
of evidence arises from some chance digging conducted in the Garden in front of
the marble edifice early in the year 1973 A.D. It so happened that the
fountains developed some defect .It was therefore thought advisable to inspect
the main pipe that lay imbedded underneath. When the ground was dug to that
level some hollows were noticed going down to another five feet. Therefore the
ground was dug to that depth. And to the utter surprise of all there lay at
that depth another set of fountains hitherto unknown. What appeared more
significant was that those fountains are aligned to the Taj Mahal, decisively
indicating that the present building existed even before Shahjahan. Those
hidden fountains could have been installed neither by Shahjahan not his
successors, the British. Therefore they were of the pre-Shahjahan era. Since
they were aligned to the Taj Mahal building it followed ipso facto that the
building too pre-dated Shahjahan. This piece of evidence too therefore clinches
the issue in favour of our conclusion that Shahjahan only commandeered an
ancient Hindu temple –palace for Mumtaz’s burial.
3.
That
the archaeology officer, who supervised that digging, was Mr. R. S. Verma, a
conservation assistant, who made another
chance discovery. Once while strolling staff-in-hand on the terrace near the
so-called mosque and the circular well on the western flank of the marble
edifice, Mr. Verma detected a hollow
sound coming from below the floor where his staff hit the terrace. He had a
slab covering that spot removed and to his surprise that was an ancient
opening, apparently sealed by Shahjahan, to a flight of about 50 steps reaching
down into a dark corridor. The broad wall under the terrace was apparently
hollow. From this it is clear that the corresponding spot on the eastern
terrace also hides a similar staircase and corridor, at its bottom. And God only
knows how many more such walls, apartments and stories lie sealed, hidden and
unknown to the world. Thus also incidentally points to the sorry state of
research with respect to the Taj Mahal. Nobody seems to have done neither any
archaeological investigation in the grounds of the Taj Mahal nor conducted a
diligent academic study of the whole issue. Apparently extraneous political and
communal considerations have inhibited historians and archeologists from
conducting any meaningful research into the origin of Taj Mahal. Such Academic
cowardice is highly reprehensible.
4.
That Naturally when chance alien
visitors like Peter Mundy visit such sites undergoing extensive superficial
changes his observing that “the building is begun…. …( and ) is prosecuted with
extraordinary diligence “ is not wrong .He couldn’t visualise that some
generations after him posterity would be bluffed into believing that the Taj
Mahal complex was raised by Shahjahan
himself .Travernier and Peter Mundy could not possibly visualize such a
falsification of history and could not be more explicit. We ourselves visiting
some building as chance visitors wouldn’t be more explicit. For instance if we
were to visit Bombay or London at a time when somebody has acquired somebody
else’s mansion and has enclosed it in massive scaffolding to renovate it for
his own purpose we won’t dare or care to ask him how he acquired the building,
for how much, from whom, what changes he proposed to make, and spend how much
over it .We would simply refer to it as his building. Such inquiries are all
the more impossible when a wide hiatus of language, race, culture authority,
and wealth separates the two. Peter Mundy also fortunately records the object
of the leveling up of the hillocks. The hillocks were removed, he says,
”because they might not hinder the prospect “ of the mausoleum .The very fact
that within a couple of years of Mumtaz’s death the hillocks were leveled to
afford a glimpse of the mausoleum clearly indicates that the Taj building
complex already existed .All that was necessary was to level some of the
hillocks and make the building visible from a distance. In fact the very object
of the ancient Hindu builders of the Taj raising those hillocks seems from
Mundy’s noting, to prevent the tempting Taj to be the target of a malicious
enemy’s attack. Since Shahjahan was converting it into a tomb open to all and
sundry, he no longer had the need to keep it out of the gaze of enmical people.
5. That Waldemar Hansen notes on pages
181-182 of his book (titled “The Peacock Throne”, published by Holt, Rhinehart
and Winston) that “Even as early as 1632 on the first anniversary of Mumtaz
Mahal’s death, the courtyard of the mausoleum in progress had been adorned with
superb tents, with the entire court assembled to pay homage- princes of the
royal blood, grandees and an assemblage of religious scholars including
sheikhs, ulemas and hafizes who knew the whole Koran by heart. Shahjahan had
graced the event with his presence, and as the empress’s father Asaf Khan was
present by imperial request, a great banquet was spread before the then nascent
tomb and guests partook of a variety of foods, sweetmeats, and fruits. Verses
from the Koran filled the air, prayers were offered for the soul of the dead
and a hundred thousand rupees went into charity. In later years on other
anniversary days, Shahjahan attended memorials at the incomplete edifice
whenever in Agra, formally accompanied by Jahanara and the harem .The ladies
always occupied a central platform set up for the occasion, and remained
concealed from the public gaze by kanats, screens of red cloth and velvet.
Noblemen gathered under pitched tents.
6. That the Taj Mahal originated
as a temple -The inscription in Sanskrit has 34 stanzas of which stanzas 25,26
and 34 being relevant to our topic are reproduced as translation. Translated,
these means:”He (King Parmardi Dev or on his behalf his minister Salakshan)
raised a palace which had inside it the idol of Lord Vishnu whose feet the king
used to touch with his (bowed) head.
7. That “Similarly the King also had
constructed this temple,(dedicated) to the God who bears the crescent on His
(fore)head, made of crystal white stone. Consecrated in that (magnificent)
temple the lord (was so pleased that He) never thought of repairing to His
(Himalayan) abode on mount Kailas. The inscription found at Mauja Bateshwar,
near Agra is at present in the Lucknow Museum.It is of the King Paramardi Dev
dated Vikram Samvat 1212, Ashwin (month),5th day of the bright lunar
fortnight. It has in all 34 stanzas which describe the origin of the
Chandratreya (regal) dynasty and its important rulers. The inscription was
found embedded in a mound at Bateshwar .It was later deposited in the Lucknow
Museum by General Cunnigham, where it still is. The two beautiful marble
temples which King Paramardi Dev had raised, one for Lord Vishnu and the other
for Lord Shiva were subsequently desecrated during Invader invasions. Some
clever (farsighted) person has this inscription ,concerning these
temples,buried in a mound. It remained buried for many years until1900 A.D.
when during excavations it was discovered by General Cunnigham. The Shiva
(Chandramauleeshwar) temple is obviuosly the Taj Mahal for the following
reasons:
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