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Journalism of Courage
A trailer for the upcoming film The TAJ Story was released on Thursday (October 16), showing actor Paresh Rawal in the role of a tourist guide who seeks to uncover supposed mysteries related to India’s most famous monument.
Even as it has come under some criticism for casting doubts about well-established history, it is noteworthy that claims about the Taj are not new. In May 2022, the Allahabad High Court dismissed a petition seeking a “facts finding committee to study and publish the real History of Taj Mahal” and a “direction…to open the sealed doors (approx. 22 rooms) inside the Taj Mahal to rest to the controversy”.
A Bench comprising Justices Subhash Vidyarthi and Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya had then said “such issues…should be left to be debated amongst the academicians, scholars and historians”. They added that the prayers were “non-justiciable”. Here is what to know.
No secret history
Built in Agra between 1632 and 1648 on the orders of the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his wife Mumtaz Mahal, the Taj Mahal has become a symbol of India itself. On its official website, UNESCO calls it “the jewel of Muslim art in India and one of the universally admired masterpieces of the world’s heritage.”
It is the burial place of both the king and the queen. UNESCO notes, “The tomb is further raised on a square platform… The top of the platform is reached through a lateral flight of steps provided in the centre of the southern side.
The ground plan of the Taj Mahal is in perfect balance of composition, the octagonal tomb chamber in the centre, encompassed by the portal halls and the four corner rooms. The plan is repeated on the upper floor. The exterior of the tomb is square in plan, with chamfered corners. The large double storied domed chamber, which houses the cenotaphs of Mumtaz Mahal and Shah Jahan, is a perfect octagon in plan.”
The so-called “22 rooms” in the basement of the Taj Mahal are not exactly rooms, but rather a long arched corridor along which doors were fixed so the space could be utilised better, sources in the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), who have seen the basement area on several occasions, said. The sources said that the ASI staff at the Taj clean the area weekly or fortnightly, and “There is nothing on the walls there.”
A retired ASI official who did not want to be identified said the area is not of tourist interest, and is therefore kept locked to prevent unnecessary movement of people at the protected UNESCO World Heritage Site that draws upto one lakh daily visitors.
“There is no secret history in the basement, it is for security reasons only that the area is kept out of bounds for visitors,” the official said.
The noted archaeologist K K Muhammed, who retired in 2012 as the ASI’s Regional Director (North), previously told The Indian Express that he had seen no religious motifs inside the basement rooms of the Taj. Such rooms, he said, are not uncommon in other Mughal-era structures of a similar nature — in Agra, and in New Delhi at Humayun’s Tomb and Safdarjung’s Tomb.
“The ASI maintains all these basement rooms. The walls are bare, there are no motifs; it’s just a structural element to raise the plinth on which the main mausoleum and the minarets stand,” Muhammed said.
An official from the ASI’s Agra Circle said, “For a structure of this size, once the foundation is done, arches are created to lift the platform and spread the load uniformly. Surveys are conducted from time to time by going to the basement to test the strength of the Taj Mahal.”
Claims have also been made over many years — and repeatedly rejected by historians, ASI officials, and courts, including the Supreme Court — that the Taj is really a Hindu temple, and idols of gods and goddesses may be hidden in its basement. These claims have been heavily insinuated in The TAJ Story’s trailer as well. We detailed these claims and the history in an earlier explainer here.
Muhammed said the Taj was first mentioned in the Badshahnama, the official chronicle of Mughal emperor Shah Jahan’s reign, and that its architectural features are such that it could not have been built even 50 years before the time that is historically assigned to it, given the way Mughal architecture evolved. “It takes the double-dome, inlays, and jaalis from various Mughal structures that existed at the time it was commissioned,” he said.
