Taj Mahal was not built by shahjah

Badshahnama (Chronicle of Shah Jahan) proves that Taj Mahal was not built by him

Given picture is a copy of two pages from the Badshahnama, the history of Shah Jahan, the so-called builder of the Taj Mahal. This is from the Government of India’s National Archives, and available from the institutional libraries dealing with the medieval history of India.

This is supposed to have been written by the emperor’s chronicler, the Mullah Abdul Hamid Lahori. It describes the site of the Taj Mahal as being full of majestic and lush gardens just south of the city (Agra). It goes on to say that the palace of Raja Mansingh, which was owned by his grandson Raja Jaisingh, was selected as the place for the burial of the queen Mumtaz. This means, of course, that Shah Jahan never built the Taj Mahal but only acquired it from the previous owner, who was Jaisingh.

English translation of the contents from line 21 of page 402 to line 41 on page 403 of Badshahnama is given below.

“Friday, 15th Jamadiulawal, the sacred dead body of the traveller to the kingdom of holiness Hazrat Mumtazul Zamani, who was temporarily buried, was brought, accompanied by Prince Mohammad Shah, Suja bahadur, Wazir Khan and Satiunnesa Khanam, who knew the pemperament of the deceased intimately and was well versed in view of that Queen of the Queens used to hold, was brought to the capital Akbarabad (Agra) and an order was issued that very day coins be distributed among the beggers and fakirs. The site covered with a majestic garden, to ther south of the great city (of Agra) and amidst which the building known as the palace of Raja Man Singh, at present owned by Raja Jai Singh, grandson of Man Singh, was selected for the burial of the Queen, whose abode is in heaven. Although Raja Jai Singh valued it greatly as his ancestral heritage and property, yet he agreed to part with it gratis for Emperor Shahjahan, still out of sheer scrupulousness and religious sanctity, he (Jai Singh) was granted Sharifabad in exchange of that grand palace (Ali Manzil). After the arrival of the deadbody in that great city (of Agra), next year that illustrious body of the Queen was laid to rest and the officials of the capital, according to royal order, hid the body of that pious lady from the eyes of the world and the palace so majestic (imarat-e-alishan) and capped with a dome (wa gumbaje) was turned into a sky-high lofty mausoleum”.

Many historians try to convince that Shah Jahan purchased a piece of land from Raja Jai Singh and erected Taj Mahal on that land. But the lines 29 and 30 onpage 403 of Vol-I of Badshahnama reads, “Pesh az ein Manzil-e-Rajah Mansingh bud wadari waqt ba Rajah Jaisingh Nabirae taalluq dasht barae madfan e anbahishtmuwattan bar guzeedand .. .” According to experts, the correct translation of the phrase “Manzil-e-Rajah Mansingh bud wadari waqt ba Rajah Jaisingh” is “…the

building known as the palace of Raja Man Singh, at present owned by Raja Jai asingh”. So, it is evident that it cannot be

a transaction of land but of a magnificent palace. In line , further clarification has been made and said that it was a transaction of an imarat-e-alishan (i.e. a gigantic building) and not of land.

Meanwhile, we should notice another important point. It is well known that the two British historians, H M Elliot and J Dowson, have done the great job of

writing history of India, under Muslim rule, starting from the attack on Sindh by Mohammed bin Kasim in the 8th century to the fall of Marathas in the 19th century, a period covering nearly 1200 years. It has been written, based on chronicles of the court chroniclers of the

Muslim rulers only. The work of Elliot and Dowson was published in 8 volumes during 1867 to 1877 and the Volume 7 of their work deals with the reigns of

Shahjahan and Aurangzeb. But it is really astonishing that there is not even a mentioning of Taj Mahal in the said work.

Many Muslim chroniclers have described the times of Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb, e.g.

(1) Badshahnama by Abdul Hamid Lahori,

(2) Wakiyat Jahangiri by Emperor Jahangir,

(3) Shahjahan-nama by Enayet Khan,

(4) Tarikh-i- Mufajjali by Mufajjal Khan,

(5) Mirat-i-Alam by Bakhtyar Khan,

(6) Alamgirnama by Muhammad Qazim and

(7) Mustakhab-ul-Lubab by Kafi Khan.

But in none of above works, there is even mentioning of Taj Mahal, except Badshahnama by Lahori and that too

as a palace of Jai Singh.

While commenting on this point, Dr Yogesh Saxena writes, “The authors should have said, ‘Though we have

presented history of Shahjahan based on his official chronicle Badshahnama, we did not find any reference to Taj Mahal in

it’. They did no such thing. And Historians have kept even this information from us for the last 130 years.” It was

Professor P N Oak, who, for the first time, made the startling discovery that there is mentioning of the building now called Taj Mahal, but as a palace of the Hindu king Jai Singh, in Badshahnama.