Taj Mahal: The True Story (book)

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Taj Mahal: The True Story (ISBN 0-9611614-4-2) is a book written by P. N. Oak, the founder-president of the Institute for Rewriting Indian History. The book seeks to prove that the Taj Mahal was originally a Hindu temple whose existence predated the Mughal Empire.

1 Central argument
2 Supporting evidence
3 Criticism
4 References
5 Further reading

[edit] Central argument

The book argues that the Taj Mahal was an older structure that was originally known by different names, including Tejo Mahalaya. As Oak says:

The people who dominate the Agra region are Jats. Their name of Shiva is Tejaji. The Jat special issue of The Illustrated Weekly of India (June 28, 1971) mentions that the Jats have the Teja Mandirs, i.e., Teja Temples. This is because Teja-Linga is among the several names of the Shiva Lingas. From this it is apparent that the Taj-Mahal is Tejo-Mahalaya, The Great Abode of Tej.^[1]

[edit] Supporting evidence

The following points are among the pieces of evidence presented:

Carbon dating of samples of wood taken from the doorway of the Taj Mahal on the side facing the the Jamuna river revealed that the wood pieces were 300 years older than the period of Shah Jahan. The carbon dating is mentioned in a book review, of another book on the Taj, (TAJ MAHAL-THE ILLUMINED TOMB, Wayne Edison Begley and Ziyaud-Din Ahmad Desai) by Professor Marvin H. Mills an architect at Pratt Institute, New York, [[1]] in New York. Doubts that the building could have been planned and built in the reported time span are raised.

Johan Albert Mandelso, a European traveller who visited Agra in 1638, seven years after the death of Mumtaz Mahal, vividly described the life of the city in his memoirs, but makes no reference to the Taj Mahal or any large construction activity going on to build it. If it was an earlier Hindu structure as claimed, the building would have been very noticeable. So his lack of mention of the site is puzzling.

Peter Mundy, an employee of the British East India Company, witnessed the return of Shah Jahan to Agra in a royal procession on June 11, 1632. He wrote of seeing a gold railing (since removed) around Mumtaz's cenotaph in the structure, on the occasion of her 2nd Urs on May 26, 1633. Mumtaz's body had been buried twice before being moved to its final location in the Taj.

A number of panels and the great pinnacle on the tomb holds Hindu symbols of worship like those of Om and Swastika

In the chronicles of Mirza Qazini and Abd al-Hamid Lahori. Lahori writes:

"As there was a tract of land (zamini) of great eminence and pleasantness towards the south of that large city, on which before there was this mansion (manzil) of Raja Man Singh, and which now belongs to his grandson Raja Jai Singh, it was selected for the burial place (madfan) of that tenant of paradise.Mumtaz" (p. 43)

Absence of any records or chronicles pointing to actual construction activity is also quoted. The argument is that if the Taj Mahal really took 22 years to build, there would have been numerous records available related to funds for construction, material purchasing and so forth. No such records are present, even though record keeping of administrative affairs was quite regular in Shah Jahan's period.

[edit] Criticism

In 2000, India's Supreme Court dismissed P.N. Oak's petition to declare that a Hindu king built the Taj Mahal and reprimanded him for bringing the action.^[2]. Oak claimed that origins of the Taj, together with other historic structures in the country currently ascribed to Muslim sultans pre-date Muslim occupation of India and thus, have a Hindu origin.^[3]