Taj in his blood, he battles death for last marvel

But he’s sure of one thing: he will recreate his own Taj one last time, on black marble.

‘‘The Taj is in my blood. The best work I do is the Taj and this work will be my last,’’ he says. ‘‘After this piece, I will never make a portrait of the Taj again.’’

After that, Wajahuddin, acknowledged to be among the top Pachekari craftsman in Agra, says he won’t have the energy to work anymore.

Staying in the colony behind the World Heritage Site, he has already drawn up his blueprint, capturing minute details of the Taj—from fountains to green patches. The two-dimensional piece will be the biggest he has ever made and will include, for the first time, fountains and the path leading up to the Taj.

‘‘I haven’t seen the Taj for 15 years now, but every little detail is etched in my memory,’’ he says. Unable to move out of his house, he sent his sons Iqbal and Afzal to check on the details a few weeks ago. And he proudly says that he got it all right.

‘‘When I was young, I used to sit with my notebook and sketch the Taj for hours. I wanted to go one more time, but my health’s very bad,’’ he says. Wajahuddin usually works on commissioned works but this time he is making the piece on his own. He also plans to include pictures of Mughal Emperor Shahjehan and the queen for whom he built the Taj, Mumtaz Mahal, in the work. Pointing to the draft, he says, ‘‘He is sitting in the garden and looking at the Taj. I have drawn a pitcher of water and a tumbler so that he doesn’t need to move. He can keep looking at the Taj,’’ he says, ‘‘Once I get the 8×8 piece of black marble, I will start.’’

After completing the piece, he intends to sit back and watch as his sons take over the business. All of them have been trained by him since they were 10. ‘‘The craft has been passed down five generations,’’ says the father of 23 children from three wives, who plans to complete his piece in a year’s time.

This year, the master craftsman completed a 6ftx6ft potrait of the Taj in mother of pearl on a background of black marble. The piece is on sale for Rs 16 lakhs at a private showroom, though Wajahuddin says he will get only a small percentage of the sale money. ‘‘I usually manage to get Rs 10,000 every month and Rs 200 to 300 each for smaller pieces,’’ he says.

So, with 350 years of the Taj being celebrated, does the officialdom plan to felicitate artistes like Wajahuddin? It’s a cryptic one-line answer that doesn’t promise anything: ‘‘They will be included,’’ says Ashok Kumar, divisional commissioner, Agra division.