A REGAL TOMB.

Waikato Times, Volume XXX, Issue 2465, 28 April 1888, Page 2 (Supplement)

A REGAL TOMB.

Mumtazsi Maiia.l, or Exalted of the Palace, was playing at cards one day with her husband, the Emperor Shan Jehan, when she asked him what he would do if he survived her. The Emperor fondly promised to build her a tomb that should hand down her name through all the ages, and be the admiration of the world. The Empress died two hours after giving birth to a daughter, on July IS, 1531. Whilst dying she reminded the Emperor of the promised tomb. According toTavernier, 20,000 workmen laboured for 22 years on the edifice. It consists of a central mausoleum, whoso octagonal basis is IS6 feet in diameter, surmounted by a great dome and a pointed spire, crowned by a crescent. Of the two wings, one is a splendid mosque, the other an imitation mosque, to preserve the harmony of the edifice. But no mere description can give an idea of thn complexity and intricacy with which the whole design is worked out. The interior is a marvel of decorative workmanship; the pure white marble walls arc relieved with coloured marble wreaths and scrolls, and there is a lavish display of richly-fretted stone work, and rare inlaid work of agate and jasper and other precious stones, flooded with the soft light that, mellows through a double screou of pierced marble. Beneath the dome are the tombs of the Emperor and his wife, enclosed in .-narble trellis-work. Shah Jehan intended to have united the two with a bridge of fairy-like beauty; but his schemes were cut short by his dethronement by his son Aurungzobe, and his subsequent imprisonment in the paliee of Agra. Dr. Russell records how a lady said of the Taj, ' I cannot criticise, but I can tell you what I have felt. I would die to-morrow to havn such a tomb.' And he adds, ' Holy and profane men, proaers, and practical people, all write of the Taj in the same strain. You cm no more describe it however, than you can describe Constantinople. Here arc some of the utterances of those who have seen it : ' Too pure, too holy, to be the work of human hands ;' ' A poem in marble j' ' Tho sk'h of a broken heart;' ' Poetic marble arraycd'in eternal glory ; ' The inspiration is from heaven, the execution worthy of it;' 'The marble "Queen of Sorrow," which has power to dim every eye.'