Taj Mahal

128 ebba koch EBBA KOCH THE TAJ MAHAL ARCHITECTURE, SYMBOLISM, AND urban fusssequence Much has been written on the Taj Mahal, exactly little has been said ab emerge its c go forthurierure. on that point has been replete(p)ly when whiz reading material of the symbolization of the mausoleum,1 and the urban site of the monument in the metropolis of Agra has been sloshed to enti bank neglected. In brief variety show, this essay presents the of import results of a re cently wipe taboo it offd mo nary(pre zero(prenominal)inal)raph in which I address these issues. 2 The Taj Mahal is the Mughals enceinte office to designion architecture, and, as the con temporary ackat onceledgments reveal, it was conceived as such from the very beginning (? . 1). In the terminology of Shah Jahans early historiographer Muhammad Amin Qazwini, writing in the 1630s And a noodle of game foundation and a mental entailment of great magni? cence was foundeda uniform and suitable to it the eye of the Age has non definen below these nine vaults of the enamel-blue sky, and of anything resembling it the ear of m has non heard in any of the old agesit testament be the masterpiece of the age to exercise, and that which adds to the astonishment of humanity at large. 3 Not still was the monument to be a magni? cent buriyal-omani manoeuver for Mumtaz Mahal, Shah Jahans beloved wife (d. 631), besides in like mannerand this is explicitly pointed stunned by the emperor moths main historiographer Abd al-Hamid Lahawriit was to testify to the power and glory of Shah Jahan (r. 162858) and Mughal district They laid the jut out for a magni? cent building and a dome of high foundation which for its loftiness will until the sidereal day of Resurrection remain a memorial to the sky-reaching ambition of His Majesty, the Sahib Qiran-Thani (Second Lord of the Auspicious Conjunction of the throwets Jupiter and Venus), and its readiness will represent the ? rmnes s of the intentions of its builder. In former(a) words, the Taj Mahal was built with posterity in mind, and we the viewers ar section of its concept. I came to look at the Taj Mahal in the mise en scene of a analyze of the rooks and t curiositys of Shah Jahan that I defy been conducting since 1976 as p device of a larger survey of Mughal architecture. With the assistant of Dr. Yunus Jaffery from Dr. Zakir Hussain College in Delhi,5 I stomach launch from the Persian book of itemss a corpus of thirty-? ve Shahjahani palaces (sing. dawlatkh? na) and tend residences (sing. b? gh), of which twenty- cardinal proved upon ? ld investigating to exist in starting sizes and states of preservation. In the tout supporting players of Moslem architecture, this is the largest extant out seam of palaces built by a unit of measurementaryness patron. Entirely sm dodge bannerd dra extension services of cardinal palaces were prep ard by the Indian architect Richard A. Barrau d, who drew them on the basis of measurements he and I make during extensive ? long time pop off,6 which I on a lower floor oerlyk beca go for many a(prenominal) of these interlockinges be yet or non at all(prenominal) record. Al unitedly, Mughal architecture, standardized the Moslem architecture of India in general, is not well documented.The subterfuge historian cannot rely on measu red ink drawings to the resembling period possible for the better-documented atomic number 18as of Islamic architecture or for Western historical architecture in general. The pi singleering surveys of the archaeologic play along of India from the end of the 19th and the ? rst half of the twentieth centuries include several(prenominal) Mughal sites, unless and a somesuch as the monographs of Edmund W. Smith on Fatehpur Sikri and on Akbars Tomb at Sikandrawere produce. 7 More often than not, when virtuoso wants to cede an exact mean of a building matchless has to go and measure it.On the former(a) hand, while establishing this basic financial backing, the art historian is con waited by all the questions the compensate has developed in the span of its existence, during which the cash advance has moved from titular assessment and outline towards contextual studies. I began my survey of the palaces at Agra and, during the 1980s, spent months in the Red Fort, step and photographing its buildings. From present the Taj Mahal was always in front my look at a distance crossways the river Yamuna, commonly called Jamna (? g. 2), and iodine of these views purgetually became the apprehend fig of my book Mughal computer architecture (1991), in which he taj mahal architecture, symbolism, and urban signi? cance 129 Fig. 1. Agra, Taj Mahal (163243), mausoleum and flanking buildings visualisen from the upper direct of the portal. (Photo Ebba Koch, 1996) I dealt with the Taj Mahal for the ? rst time, albeit unless brie? y. 8 I felt overwhelmed by its p erfection, splendor, and sheer size. break I effected that as a learner I was not wholly in my awe of the famous building. The wide literature on the Taj Mahal comprises surprisingly fewer serious scholarly studies and, as I pointed out at the beginning, on that point is as yet no monograph or advanced(a) analytical treatise dedicated to its architecture. At the homogeneous time I came to realize that many answers to my questions about Shah Jahans palaces and gardens lay in the Taj Mahal as the last-ditch project of his architectural patronage. The ? nal incentive to study it in expand came in 1994, when the editors of the second magnetic variation of the cyclopaedia of Islam asked me to write the article on the building. 10 This started my project of spic-and-spanly documenting and analyzing the spotless mausoleum knotty I am the ? rst Western scholar since India gained independence in 1947 to learn authorized permission for such an under taking, through the ge nerosity of the archaeological Sur- ey of India. With Richard Barraud I have been beat and photographing the buildings of the heterogeneous in intermittent expeditions during the last ten years. 11 The survey has brought me into the remotest corners of the Taj Mahal, and this cozy encounter with the architecture has revealed the contri b arlyion of the unk this instantn movemen who inscribed their mason marks on the perdition pits. 12 I began my analysis by looking at the stainless interlocking of the Taj Mahal and at its urban full point. I could not help noticing that the Taj Mahal invites an approach that coincides with what since the 1970s capacity be termed a deconstructive development. According to Jaques Derrida, the main propagator of this method of disassembling and questioning schematic notions, all Western thought is establish on the idea of pumpsOrigin, Truth, Ideal Form, icy Point, Immovable Mover, Essence, God, and Presencethat guarantee all consequen ce. The problem with these centers is that they attempt to exclude. In doing so they ignore, repress, or perimeteralize former(a)s. 13 all the same those 130 ebba koch Fig. 2. Taj Mahal, mausoleum flanked by mosque ( right-hand(a)) and Mihman caravanseraia ( left hand), peckn across the river Jamna. (Photo Ebba Koch, 1985) ho be tiring of deconstruction will forgather that the idea of center-and-margin illustrates the perception of the Taj too tellingly not to be included in this watchword. Traditionally, the white-hot building of the mausoleum takes the jell of the center in the conception of the beholder, who hardly notices the large thickening at the end of which it stands. Due to the prominence of the grave stress, its surrounding architecture has received very little tendingin other words, it has been marginalized. It so insurems important ? rst to distribute the in herent multifactorial, oddly its subordinate courtyards, which emerge as intrinsic cistro ns of its class.In addition, I have extended the investigation of the milieu of the Taj to its larger environment, to its relationship to the city of Agra. analysis OF THE labyrinthian The mausoleum is set at the Yankee end of the main axis of a vast oblong contended-in colonial that mea- sures 896. 10 x 300. 84 m (? g. 3), which whole plows out to 1112. 5 x 374 Shahjahani gaz. Of this colonial, the grave garden and its forecourt be plentifuly carry on we measured it as 561. 20 x 300. 84 (300) m, that is, 696 x 374 (373) gaz (? g. 4). 14 The Shahjahani one-dimensional yard, called gaz or zir? , corresponds to about 8182 cm, or 32 inches our ? eld studies have sh declare that it was not an exact unit just now a relative, proportionally delectation one, the aloofness of which could vary slightly, even within one and the same building involved. For the overall length of the Taj labyrinthine, the average gaz ? gure comes to 80. 55 cm. The grave garden consists of twain main components a cross-axial, four-fold gardenin the form of a stainless ch? rb? gh (? g. 3 B)and, towards the river, a raised judiciary on which are rigid the mausoleum and its ? anking buildings (? g. 3 A).In this, the Taj Mahal garden personifys the form of the regular garden of Mughal Agra, the wetfront garden. As I have sh testify elsewhere, this is a speci? c form of the ch? rb? gh developed by the Mughals in re dissociateee to the the taj mahal architecture, symbolism, and urban signi? cance geographic conditions of the Indo-Gangetic plain, and more than speci? cally for the riverfront situation at Agra. Here the water source was not a lively rallyary on a mountain slope, as in the Mughals native Central Asia, but a large, slow-? owing river, from which the desired raceway water had to be brought into the garden by means of water lifts.Accordingly, the Mughals conceived a garden type to take advantage of this waterfront situation the main building was not put in the center of the garden, as in the classical Mughal ch? rb? gh, but quite an on an oblong provide (kurs? ) zip along the riverfront. The garden component was on the landward side of the terrace. This shift towards the riverfront provided the main garden pavilions with the climatic advantages of cartroad water and presented a care justy composed front to viewers on a gravy holder or across the river (? g. 2). From the garden itself, the buildings presented an evenly satisfying backdrop (? . 1). 15 URBAN CONTEXT Mughal Agra consisted of ii bands of such riverfront gardens ocean liner the Jamna, of which only a few run short right remote. The expose to my reconstruction of this riverfront intrigue, which formed the urban context of the Taj, is a image of Agra go out from the 1720s, in the maharaja Sawai Man Singh II M usanceum in the City castling in Jaipur to my knowledge it is the earliest plan of the city (? g. 5). 16 It shows girdy-four garden complexes (including the Agra Fort) along the river and gives their names, which are usually those of their owners, in Devanagari script. 7 Information about these gardens can similarly be pieced together from the Mughal histories and eulogistic verbal descriptions of Agra, in which gardens of members of the purple family and of nobles are occasionally mentioned, e additionally in the context of an violet visit. other source is topographical descriptions of Agra written in Persian by local informants for British administrators later on the British took Agra in 1803. In his Tafr? h al-im? r? t (182526), Sil Chand describes the gardens of Agra by the same names as shoot a line on the Jaipur plan. 8 The main owners of the riverfront gardens of Agra were the emperors Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb, members of their imperial family, and their nobility the amirs and man? abd? rs. Even Mumtaz Mahal had a garden at Agra, which she bequeathed to her daughter Jahanara what is left of this Bagh-i Jahana ra is now known by the debauch name Zahara Bagh and lies federation of the 131 Ram Bagh, sooner Nur Jahans Bagh-i Nur Afshan (? g. 5 3 and 4 ? g. 6). 19 The exhibit indicates that most of these gardens followed the riverfront see, with the main building on a terrace overlooking the river and a ch? rb? gh on the landward side. 0 ANALYSIS OF THE COMPLEX RESUMED The design of the Taj garden thusly introduces an ceremonious Mughal residential garden type into the context of a monumental imperial mausoleum. The waterfront proposal not only contains the shape of the funerary garden of the Taj, it is besides a key element in the cookery of the intact Taj complex. At the theatrical role of it to the federation of the garden is a large rectangle (? g. 3 C) whose of import cheering forms the Taj forecourt, called jilawkh? na by Shah Jahans chroniclers, the of? cially appointed court historian Abd al-Hamid Lahawri and Muhammad Salih Kanbu, who wrote on his own account.Both pr ovide us with approximately identical detailed descriptions of the entire Taj Mahal complex, on the occasion of its of? cial completion on 17 Dhu l-Qada 1052 (February 6, 1643). 21 Both historians are remarkably consistent in their use of architectural foothold I follow their terminology. The jilawkh? na square (? g. 3 11) is enclose on some(prenominal) of its shorter sides by two smaller courtyard enclosures. An open carnival track (? g. 3 12a, 12b) divides these courtyards and provides the main rag to the jilawkh? na and, beyond that, through a monumental admittanceway (? g. 3 9), to the grave garden.The northern pair of courtyards contained the residential accommodate for the tomb attendants, the khaw??? p? ras (? g. 3 10a, 10b). The gray pair contained subsidiary company tomb gardens of lesser wives of Shah Jahan, whose identity is still under debate (? g. 3 13a, 13b). These tomb enclosures echoed the design of the main tomb garden on a smaller scale because they foll owed the diagnostic waterfront scheme of a cross-axial ch? rb? gh unite with an oblong terrace on which stood the tomb structure and its ? anking buildings. (These buildings, with one exception, are no longer bear on. On the outside of the Taj complex are three buildings, two to the wolfram (? g. 3 20, 21) and one to the east the last mentioned represents another subsidiary tomb complex of this type (? g. 3 13c). The waterfront scheme is gum olibanum transferred to a landlocked situation in these elucidation likenesss of the main garden. Not only that, but the waterfront garden is too used as the edict scheme for the entire sub- 132 ebba koch Fig. 3. Site plan of the Taj Mahal with terms understandd from the Persian descriptions by Lahawri and Kanbu of 1643 A. riverfront terrace (kurs? ), B. tomb garden (b? gh), C. omplex of the forecourt (jilawkh? na), D. complex with cross-shaped (ch? r s? ) bazar and four caravansarys (sar? ? ), 1. mausoleum (rawa), 2. mosque (masjid ), 3. assembly hall (mihm? n kh? na), 4af. wall towers (burj), 5. pool (haw), 6. first temporary burial site of Mumtaz Mahal, 7a, b. garden wall pavilions (im? rat) popularly called Naubat caravansarya (Drum House), 8. double arcaded galleries to the south of the garden (? w? n dar ? w? n), 9. skinnish (darw? za), 10a, b. empennages for tomb attendants (khaw??? p? ra), 11. forecourt (jilawkh? na), 12af. carnival streets (b? z? r), 13ac. ubsidiary tombs (maqbara) all popularly called Saheli Burj (Tower of the effeminate Friend), 14. render (darw? za) 14a. popularly called Fatehpuri Gate, 14b. popularly called Fatehabad Gate, 15. opening (darw? za) popularly called Sirhi Darwaza, 16. caravan the taj mahal architecture, symbolism, and urban signi? cance 133 Fig. 4. syllabus of the preserved complex. (Drawing Richard A. Barraud and Ebba Koch) serai (sar? ? ) known since the eighteenth century as 16a Katra (Market) Omar Khan, 16b. Katra Fulel (Market of Perfumes), 16c. Katra Re sham (Silk Market), 16d. Katra Jogidas, 17. entral square (chawk), 18a, b. west and east render of the bazaar and caravanserai complex, 19. south logic gate of the bazaar and caravanserai complex popularly called Dakhnay Darwaza, 20. outer western sandwich tomb, 21. mosque popularly called Fatehpuri Masjid. (Drawing Richard A. Barraud and Ebba Koch) 134 ebba koch Fig. 5. Plan of Agra, drawn with added numbering after a plan painted on material datable to the 1720s, 294 x 272 cm, in the Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II Museum, City Palace, Jaipur (cat. no. 126) 3. Ram Bagh (Bagh-i Nur Afshan), 4. Zahara Bagh (Bagh-i Jahanara), 9. Tomb of Itimad al-Dawla, 17.Mahtab Bagh, 20. Taj Mahal, 28. Agra Fort. (Drawing Richard A. Barraud and Ebba Koch) sidiary complex of the Taj. In order to understand the complete design, we must turn to contemporary description and look at eighteenth- and 19thcentury plans (compare ? gs. 3 and 7). 22 From these it ferments apparent that south of the jilawkh? n a there was another courtyard complex with a cross-axial arrangement (? g. 3 D). It was formed by open, intersecting bazaar streets (? g. 3 12c, 12d, 12e, 12f), which corresponded to the walkways of the garden, and four squarish sar? ? , that is, caravanserais or inns (? g. 3 16a, 16b, 16c, 16d), taking the place of the four gar- den plots. We chance upon here with a unique and passing original transfer of a ch? rb? gh design onto a complex of functional civic architecture. Hence the con? guration of the angu upstart unit containing the jilawkh? na and the cross-axial unit to its south echoed the waterfront scheme of the Taj garden. The entire complex of the Taj Mahal thus consisted stiffly of two units following the waterfront designthat of the Taj garden, a true waterfront garden, and that of the landlocked strain of the subsidiary units.The tomb garden and the subsidiary complex were the taj mahal architecture, symbolism, and urban signi? cance 135 Fig. 6. Plan of preserve d and reconstructible building substance of the alleged(prenominal) Zahara Bagh, identified as Bagh-i Jahanara (late 1620s to 1630s), Agra. (Drawing Richard A. Barraud and Ebba Koch) connected not only formally but also functionally. The utilitarian unit serviced the funerary unit of the tomb garden. By imperial political program line the upkeep of the tomb was ? nanced by the income generated from the bazaars and caravanserais, in addition to that of thirty villages from the district of Agra. 3 The service unit was the counterpart (qar? na)24 of the tomb complex, necktieed to it by design and function. The two zones, the funerary and the wordly, relate also to the dialectics of the Islamic concept of d? n waduny? , the domains of the unearthly and the material life. 25 Furthermore, the addition to the mausoleum complex of quarters for merchants and fo direct travelers ensured that the whole world should see and admire its magni? cence, in the words of the French jeweler and tra veler Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, who was in Agra in 164041, and again in 1665. 6 Its reception through world travelersjah? n-naward? n or rawandah? 136 ebba koch yi ? lam, as the Mughals called them27thus forms an integral part of the concept of the Taj Mahal. Of this two-part service unit, the southern cross-axial component is the great mystery of the Taj Mahal we do not really know how some(prenominal) of it survives. Hardly anybody who walks through the southern gate of the jilawkh? na (? g. 3 15) and enters the narrow street with the stain inlay workshops realizes that this area, known as the Taj Ganj, was originally part of the Taj complex.Here a obtusely built city quarter has swelled up in which the architecture of Shah Jahan has been inhumed almost entirely today one can make out only fragments of the wings of the original bazaars and caravanserais. The four gates of the primeval square or chawk are preserved (although two only in part) and protected by the Archaeologic al Survey of India (? g. 8). The Taj Ganj is, however, an integral part of the Taj Mahal, an indispensable component of its planning. It has been lost, but there is no interrogative that it should be give back to the Taj by some means.I am planning to do this in the form of an architectural role model that will reconstruct the entire complex of the Taj Mahal, the River Jamna, and the imperial garden called Mahtab Bagh on the reversal side of the river. The model will alter visitors to understand that the Taj is unique not only because of the grandness of the tomb building but also because of the carefully planned creative design, the scale, and the multifunctional complexity of the entire compound. It will also draw concern to the Taj Mahal as a constituent part of the urban scheme of Agra.I envisage placing the model in the new Visitors bosom at the Taj Mahal, in the east and western courtyards of the khaw??? p? ras (? g. 9), today called, respectively, Fatehabad Gate Court and Fatehpuri Gate Court. The Taj Mahal Visitors Center is part of a new go-ahead for the saving and restorationof the Taj Mahal and surrounding areas and a new site visitor management, realized since 2001 in a partnership betwixt the Indian government, represented by the Archaeological Survey of India, and the private sectorthe Indian Hotels Company Ltd. that is, the Tata Group of Hotels. The project is monitored by the Taj Mahal Conservation Collaborative, directed by the conservation architect Rahul Mehrotra and by Amita Baig, and advised by a body of global experts of which I am part. 28 Fig. 7. Plan of the entire Taj Mahal complex with designations of the main buildings in Persian, late eighteenth or early nineteenth century, Museum fur Indische Kunst, Berlin, MIK 10060. the taj mahal architecture, symbolism, and urban signi? cance 137 Fig. 8. Taj Mahal, bazaar and caravanserai complex (fig. D), gate of the central chawk (square) lead to the northeastern caravanserai today called Katra Fulel (fig. 3 16b). The area is now built in and over by the city quarter Taj Ganj in the background can be seen the gate of the Taj Mahal garden, behind it part of the mausoleum, and to the right the Mihman Khana. (Photo Ebba Koch, 1999) THE TAJ AS BUILT ARCHITECTURAL supposition The reconstruction of the original complex of the Taj establishes the determining(prenominal) role of the waterfront garden in its planning.The complex of the Taj Mahal not only explores the potential of the waterfront garden as an exalted funerary and a utilitarian worldly form, it also evidencees canonically the architectural principles of the period. We have no texts to turn to because the Mughals had no written architectural theory, and one wonders to what end they were affected by the ancient Shastric customs duty of building theory. The Sanskrit texts translated in an extensive program under Akbar did not include the dandy Indian genre of art and architectural theory, the shilpa sh ? stras and v? st? sh? tras, respectively theorizing about art was not a Mughal literary preoccupation. True, it was hardly a major theme elsewhere in the Islamic world, but one would have expected the Mughals to become enkindle in the ancient Indian textual tradition of art theory, all the more since, like the Muslim dynasties in India before them, they continued to absorb Indian exquisite conventions into their art and architecture, and even newly bring round them. However, the fact that no texts exist does not mean that architectural theory was rattlebrained from Mughal thinking, especially in the time of Shah Jahan.My investigations have shown that theory was laid quite a little in the architecture itself. As in moving pictureand I have tried to establish this for the historical images illustrating Shah Jahans history, the P? dsh? hn? ma29the dominions buildings and formal gardens register these concepts so consistently that we can derive them from their form itself. The Taj is 138 ebba koch Fig. 9. Taj Mahal, view from the ceiling train of the gate towards southeast onto the khaw??? p? ra (quarter of attendants) now called Fatehabad Gate court of justice (fig. 3 10b) and the subsidiary tomb to the east of the jilawkh? na (fig. 3 13b). Photo Ebba Koch, 1995) built architectural theory, which can be read almost like a literary text once we have mastered the grammar and language of the architectural language. The buildings speak to us with break eloquence (bazab? n b? zab? n? ), as Lahawri puts it. 30 We note here the purest expressageion of a consistent formal systematization characteristic of the entire art of Shah Jahan it represents a distinctive and outstanding percentage speci? c to this period. The principles of Shahjahani architecture, which interact closely with one another, can be identi? ed as follows 1. Geometrical planning. . Symmetry. Favored in circumstance is symmetric balance wheel, for which we even have a term in contempor ary descriptions of buildings, to wit, qar? na,31 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. an Arabic word that expresses the notion of pairing and counterparts but also of integration, thus ? tting conceptually into the ideas of planetary harmony that played a great role in the imperial political orientation of Shah Jahan. In a typical Shahjahani qar? na scheme, two bilaterally symmetricly symmetric attributes, one reverberateing the other, are place on both(prenominal) sides of a central, dominant feature. Hierarchy. This is the overriding principle, which governs all the others.Proportional formulas evince in triadic divisions. Uniformity of shapes, ordered by hierarchical focuss. Sensuous attention to detail. discriminating use of naturalism. Symbolism. the taj mahal architecture, symbolism, and urban signi? cance 139 Fig. 10. Agra Fort, courtyard now called Machchhi Bhawan, originally the Ground Floor Courtyard of the Hall of Private Audiences (Dawlat Khana-i Khass), south wing with stain baldachin for Shah Jahans throne, 1630s (Photo Ebba Koch, 1980) A palace wing of the so-called Machchhi Bhawan (1630s) in the Agra fort illustrates these principles very clearly (? . 10). The wing consists of uniformly shaped arcades with a hierarchical accent in the center, in the form of the emperors stain baldachin. The central feature and the identical arcades on both sides express in a triadic division bilateral consent, or qar? na. The baldachin attains its hierarchical accentuation by the use of nobler materialnamely, white marbleand with selective naturalism it is formed of original baluster columns, interior designated with representationalally sculpted acanthus leaves that also protrude in stucco as thenar of the interior cupola.These elements are shaped with aesthetical attention to detail and are in stark contrast to the plainer arcades of the wings. The organic flora forms of the baldachin symbolize the emperor, whose throne stood below it, as the generator of blossoming and wellbeing. 32 This is underlined by the pot with over? owing leaves out of which grows each of the four columnsa p? r? a ghata or p? r? a kalasha, in Indian architecture an ancient symbol of growth, fecundity, and prosperity (? g. 11). 33 This example is meant to suggest that the same principles govern the entire architecture of Shah Jahan palaces, gardens, mosques, and mausoleums.They are, however, show most grandly and most systematically in the Taj Mahal, whose architecture epitomizes the Shahjahani system. THE PRINCIPLES OF SHAHJAHANI ARCHITECTURE AS EXPRESSED IN THE TAJ MAHAL First, a wise and strict geometry is ensured by the use of control power systemiron systems based on the Shahjahani gaz. Different staffs are used for the garden and the subsidiary one hundred forty ebba koch gate (darw? za) to the garden (? g. 3 9), the forecourt (jilawkh? na) (? g. 3 11) and its southern gate (? g. 3 15), the square (chawk) (? g. 3 17), and the southern gate of th e bazaar and caravanserai complex (? g. 19). These elements are ? anked on both sides by pairs of identical buildings the mosque (masjid) (? g. 3 2) and the assembly hall (mihm? n kh? na) (? g. 3 3), two garden wall pavilions (cim? rat), now called Naubat Khana (? g. 3 7a, 7b), and, to accentuate the corners of the enclosure wall and the terrace step, three pairs of tower pavilions (burj) (? g. 3 4a, 4b, 4c, 4d, 4e, 4f). The elements of the subsidiary unit (? g. 3 C, D) are arranged in the same mirror symmetry. Integrated into the overall qar? na symmetry are centrally planned elements, namely the four-part garden (b? gh) (? g. B), the four-part bazaar-and-caravanserai complex (? g. 3 D), the miniature ch? rb? ghs of the subsidiary tombs (? g. 3 13a, 13b) the mortal buildings of the mausoleum (? g. 3 1) and gate (? g. 3 9) are raised over central plans (compare ? gs. 3 and 4). Each element plays an indispensable part in the piece of writing if just one part were missing, the bal ance of the entire composition would be destroyed. Bilateral symmetry predominate by a central accent has generally been recognized as an ordering principle of the architecture of rulers aiming at dictatorial powera symbol of the reigning force that brings about balance and harmony.For Earl E. Rosenthal, this is show in the palace built into the Alhambra in Granada by Charles V in 1526 as a statement of the Christian Reconquista of Spain, a striking symbol of the strati? cation of aristocratic cabaret under centralized authority. 35 Third, triadic divisions bound together in proportional formulas determine the shape of plans, elevations, and architectural ornament of the Taj. A leitmotif is the tripartite composition consisting of a dominant feature in the center ? anked by two identical elements the con? uration relates in turn to pecking order as well as to qar? na symmetry (? gs. 1 and 12). Fourth is the hierarchical judge of material, forms, and seeming down to the minut est ornamental detail. contingent striking is hierarchical use of color the only building in the whole complex faced entirely with white marble is the mausoleum. All the subsidiary structures of the Taj complex are faced with red sandstone special features such as domes may be clad in white marble (? gs. 1, 2, 12). This hierarchic use of white marble and red sandstone is typical of impe- Fig. 11.Marble baluster column of the baldachin of Shah Jahans throne, topped with an acanthus capital and growing out of a pot with overflowing acanthus leaves, the Indian pur? a ghata. (Photo Ebba Koch, 1979) complexes, and even individual buildings have their own grid. The unit of the garden and the riverfront terrace is based on a grid with a 23-gaz module, and the unit of the jilawkh? na and bazaar and caravanserai complex on a 17-gaz module. In the planning of the mausoleum a 7-gaz module is used and in that of the gate a 3-gaz module. 34 Second, there is perfect symmetrical planning with emp hasis on bilateral symmetry (qar? a) along a central axis on which are situated the main features. The main axis running north-south is represented by the garden distribution channel and the bazaar street in its extension. On it are set the dominant features the mausoleum (rawa) (? g. 3 1), the pool (haw) (? g. 3 5), the the taj mahal architecture, symbolism, and urban signi? cance 141 Fig. 12. Taj Mahal, Mihman Khana (Photo Ebba Koch, 1996) rial Mughal architecture, but here it is explored with unparalleled sophistication. It represents the clearest link to pre-Islamic Indian Shastric concepts and expresses social strati? cation.The Mughals roundd here an architectural praxis that already had been adoptive by the early sultans of Delhi and that conforms to older Indian concepts laid down in the Shastric literature. The Vishnudharmottara, an exacting digest composed in Kashmir in about the eighth century, recommended white-colored stone for brahman buildings and red for those of the Kshatriyas, the warrior caste36 White, it would seem, is remote to red as the purity of the brahmin is opposed to the ruling power of the Kshatriya. The synthesis of the two colors had an auspicious connotation. 7 By using white and red in their buildings, the Mughals represented themselves in the terms of the two highest trains of the Indian social system architecturally speaking, they were the new Brahmins and the new Kshatryas of the age. Until Aurangzeb, the Mughal emperors were concern to de? ne themselves as rulers in Indian as well as Muslim terms the historian Abd al-Qadir Badauni (d. 1004/159596), who was an orthodox Muslim and wrote a history of Akbar on his own account, criticized the emperor for letting himself be address as an incarnation like Rama, Krishna, and other in? del kings. 38 Fifth is the amity of shapes, ordered by hierarchical accents for instance, only one type of columnar realizethe Shahjahani columnis used in the entire complex. It has a mult ifaceted shaft, a muqarnas capital, and a base formed of multicusped-arched panels39 and is always combine with a multicusped arch. The proportions and details of the columns may vary according to their position in the complex. In the galleries on both sides of the gate (? g. 3 8a, 8b) they form monumental arcades (? g. 13, and cf. ?g. 10) on the roof level of the mausoleum similar arcades on a smaller scale are set in the back sides of the p? ht? qs (portals), and Shahjahani half-columns 142 ebba koch Fig. 13. Taj Mahal, galleries south of garden on both sides of the gate (fig. 3 18), Shahjahani column with faceted shaft, muqarnas capital, and base formed of four multicusped panels, each enriched with a flowering plant in relief. (Photo Ebba Koch, 1995) Fig. 14. Taj Mahal, roof level, pillar with paired Shahjahani half-columns of roof chhatr? (kiosk), behind the back side of the p? sht? q (porch) with gallery formed of Shahjahani columns and multicusped arches. (Photo Ebba Koch, 1 996) ?ank the pillars of the four marble chhatr? (kiosks) surrounding the main dome (? g. 14). This symmetry is true of the entire architectural dictionary and its thread it applies to the paneling of the walls with shallow multicusped niches and cartouches, and to the handling of vaults. One type of decorative cladding is used for the main vaults and the half vaults of the mausoleum and gate (? gs. 15, 16)a profits developed from points arranged in coaxal circles, which Shah Jahans authors depict as q? lib k? r? , or mold work, because in the original sticking plaster form of the vault the pattern was utilise by means of molds (? g. 15).The design was transferred into marble in the central dome and half vaults of the p? sht? qs of the mausoleum (? g. 16). Sixth, the principle of esthetical attention to detail is expressed most exemplarily in the ? owers of the mausoleum provide and in the exquisite pietra dura mater (literally, hard stone gemstone inlay) palm of the cen otaphs of Mumtaz Mahal and Shah Jahan and the screen that surrounds them (? gs. 17, 18, 20, 21). Seventh, in the Taj the selective use of naturalism emphasizes hierarchy. The most naturalistic decor calculates in the chief building of the entire complex, the mausoleum (? s. 17, 18, 20, 21). Eighth, the sophisticated symbolism in the architec- the taj mahal architecture, symbolism, and urban signi? cance 143 Fig. 15. Taj Mahal, garden gate, half vault of the southern p? sht? q showing plaster approach with q? lib k? r? , that is, a network forming kite-shaped compartments developed from stars arranged in concentric tiers. (Photo Ebba Koch, 1996) Fig. 16. Taj Mahal, mausoleum, central dome with q? lib k? r? in marble relief. (Photo Ebba Koch, 1996) 144 ebba koch brought to its ultimate monumentalized design thus it was raised to a level above the sphere of mortals.The concept of the eschatological beau monde also governs the elaborate program of the inscriptions, designed by Amana t Khan Shirazi. Z. A. Desai and Wayne Begley have shown that transportations of the Quran selected for the inscriptions focus on themes of the start Judgment, divine mercy, the reward of the faithful, and Paradise (? g. 19). 42 Such themes are entirely ? tting for the mausoleum in their evocation of the abode on the watch for Mumtaz in Paradise. Begley, however, uses the evidence for another, less close-at-hand reading and sees in the Taj Mahal an architectural realization of an Islamic cosmogonical schemenamely, the oncept of the pot of God on the Day of Judgment, as envisaged and recorded in a diagram by the thirteenth-century Spanish mystic Ibn al-Arabi in his Fut??? t al-Makkiyya (1238). 43 Why then, as Maria Eva Subtelny has pointed out, 44 is the famous Throne verse (Quran 2255) extolling Gods majesty45 absent from the inscriptional program of the Taj Mahal? Begleys interpretation ignores not only that, but also the use of an established Agra garden plan for the layout of tural program expresses, as I have suggested, the concept of the mausoleum as earthly realization of the mansion of Mumtaz in the garden of Paradise.This is clearly formulated by Lahawri in the of? cial history of the emperors reign the exalted mausoleum, which imitates the gardens of Rizwan the guardian of Paradise, and which gives an seal of Paradise (literally, the holy enclosures) (rawa-i muall? ki az riy? -i Riw? n hik? yat kard wa az ha?? irrat al- quds nish? n dahad). 40 Mughal eulogistical references have a complexity of their own while they may represent a purely literary convention, they can also have a direct guardianship on the work of architecture or art that they praise.In order to arrive at their meaning, the metaphors used in such eulogies thus have to be carefully evaluated against the evidence brought forth by formal analysis. 41 In the Taj Mahal, every aspect of the architecture supports the concept of the paradisiacal mansion. It is expressed in the overall pl anning of the entire complex. The waterfront garden, a typical residential garden form of Agra, was realized in ideal forms and Fig. 17. Taj Mahal, p? sht? q of mausoleum, marble dados with rows of naturalistic flowers representing heavenly flowerbeds. (Photo Ebba Koch, 1978) he taj mahal architecture, symbolism, and urban signi? cance 145 Fig. 18. Taj Mahal, p? sht? q of the mausoleum, dado flowers of mixed botanical species, detail. (Photo Ebba Koch, 1978) the mausoleum. 46 He also disregards another highly applicable aspect, that is, the ? oral bay wreath that forms an integral part of the building. In a direct conjure up to our senses, the concept of the paradisiacal garden house is expressed in the delicate ? owers that bulge out on the dados, at the eye level of the beholder. They are carved in esthetical detail and represent naturalistic but not necessarily identi? ble botanical species47 that convert the lower walls of the mausoleum into ever-blooming paradisiacal ? ow erbeds (? gs. 17, 18). The naturalistic decoration culminates in the interior, in the central ensemble of the cenotaphs of Mumtaz and Shah Jahan and the screen that surrounds them. These are covered with salient ? owers and plants ornament with semi-precious stones, in commesso (composition) di pietre dure the Mughals called the technique singe? n k? r? (literally driven-in work) (? g. 20). The poet Abu Talib Kalim tells us that the painterly effects that could be obtained with dry out? k? r? made it possible to create the desired naturalistic ? owers, permanent and thus superior images of their counterparts in nature On each stone a hundred colors, paintings, and ornaments Have become apparent through the chisels blade. Fig. 19. Taj Mahal, interior of the central hall, south arch. ending of the inscription of Quran 395354, with the colophon of the calligrapher, reading Finished with His Gods help written by the humble faqir Amanat Khan al-Shirazi, in the year one thousand and xl viii Hijri 163839, and the twelfth of His Majestys auspicious accession. (Photo Ebba Koch, 2001) 146 ebba koch Fig. 20. empty tombs of Mumtaz Mahal (1632) and Shah Jahan (1666) in the main tomb hall. (Photo Ebba Koch, 1981) Fig. 21. Cenotaph of Shah Jahan in the lower tomb chamber (crypt). Detail of poppies and yellow flowers set in cartouches, inlaid with semi-precious stones in pietra dura/parch? n k? r? technique. (Photo Ebba Koch, 2002) the taj mahal architecture, symbolism, and urban signi? cance The chisel has become the pen of Mani48 create so many pictures upon the translucent marble (? b-i marmar). .Pictures become manifest from every stone In its mirror behold the image of a flower garden. They have inlaid flowers of stone in the marble What they neediness in smell they make up with color. Those red and yellow flowers that dispel the centerfields grief, are completely out of carnelian and amber. . When of such stones the surface of a tomb is made, The deceased will want to custody the flower pictures to her heart. 49 147 and to provide a lasting memorial to his fame. Strict formal principles served to express within each work of art and each building the hierarchy and timeless order of Shahjahani rule.With their roaring stir to our senses, the seductive aesthetics make the heart the more persuasive. It is the fusion of the intellectual and the sensuous that has made the Taj Mahal such a successful monument up to the present day. Lastly, the close connection between form and meaning in Shahjahani art makes it a methodological exemplar of general art-historical relevance it reminds us that formal analysis should not be in opposition to a contextual approach but rather a starting point for art as history.Institute fur Kunstgeschichte University of Vienna NOTES Authors note A visiting fellowship from the Aga Khan course for Islamic architecture at Harvard University in autumn 2002 enabled me to work on the manuscript of Taj Mahal, and to present my ? ndings in a lecture in the Aga Khan Program Lecture series on Nov. 14, 2003, which forms the basis of this article. I give thanks Gulru Necipoqlu, David Roxburgh, Jeffery Spurr, Andras Riedlmayer, and Sunil Sharma for their spare-time activity in my research and their help during my gentle in Cambridge.For supporting my project of the documentation and analysis of the Taj Mahal, I wish to thank the Jubilaumsfonds der Osterreichischen Nationalbank, the Bundesministerium fur Unterricht und Kulturelle Angelegenheiten, Austria, and Mr. E. Alkazi. 1. W. E. Begley, The Myth of the Taj Mahal and a juvenile guess of its Symbolic Meaning, The fine art publicize 61 (1979) 7 37. Begleys interpretation of the building as a replica of the Throne of God became widely known, likely because of its eccentricity and also because there was no proposed preference it even made its way into the popular travel guide literature see Lonely Planet India, 8th ed. Hawthorne Victoria, Australia, 1999), 392. 2. The smash Taj Mahal and the Riverfront Gardens of Agra (London Thames and Hudson, forthcoming 2006). 3. Mu? ammad Am? n Qazw? n? , P? dsh? hn? ma, British subroutine library Asia, Paci? c, and Africa Collections (henceforth BL APAC), Or. 173, fol. 234b (librarians refoliation 235b), my transformation cf. the translation of this passage in W. E. Begley and Z. A. Desai, Taj Mahal The Illumined Tomb An Anthology of Seventeenth-Century Mughal and European Documentary Sources (Cambridge, MA Aga Khan Program for Islamic architecture and Seattle University of Washington Press, ca. 989), 42. 4. Abd al-Yam? d L? hawr? , The B? dsh? hn? mah (Persian text), ed. M. Kab? r al-D? n A? mad and M. Abd al-Ra?? m (Calcutta Asian Society of Bengal, 186572) vol. 1, pt. 1, 403, my trans. cf. the trans. of this passage in Begley and Desai, Taj Mahal The Illumined Tomb, 43. 5. I thank Dr. S. M. Yunus Jaffery for his proceed assistance in reading and translating Mughal source material . On both cenotaphs of Shah Jahan, which were placed adjacent to those of Mumtaz after his death in 1666, the decoration with paradisiacal ? owers was given preference even over inscriptions.Inscriptions had decorated the sarcophagus-like element of both cenotaphs of Mumtaz, the one in the lower and the other in the upper tomb chamber, and full ? owering plants appear only on the programme of her upper cenotaph. But both of Shah Jahans cenotaphs are covered all over with ? owers (? gs. 20, 21) the only epigraphy appears in the form of a brief historical epitaph at the south end of each cenotaph. The weight given to ? oral decoration is in tune, on the one hand, with the overall concept of the mausoleum as paradisiacal garden house, but the exclusively ? oral decoration of the emperors cenotaphs makes a more speci? statement, relating, even after his death, to the use of ? ora in his court settings to express imperial propaganda. The court poets and writers tell us that Shah Jahan was the run of the ? ower garden of justice and generosity,50 the renewer (mujaddid) under whose rule Hindustan has become the blush garden of the earth, and his reignhas become the spring season of the age in which the days and nights are young. 51 CONCLUSION From our investigations, the reign of Shah Jahan emerges as a time when the ocular arts were most consistently and systematically explored as a means of promulgating imperial ideology.The written texts and the arts were seen as as necessary means to represent the ruler and his state for a wider public 148 6. ebba koch My ? eld research provides the material for a forever expanding archive, which today comprises several hundred architectural drawings prepared mainly by Richard A. Barraud and ca. 50,000 photographs interpreted by myself. E. W. Smith, The Moghul Architecture of Fathpur-Sikri, Archaeological Survey of India new violet Series (henceforth ASINIS) 18, 4 vols. (189498, repr.Delhi Caxton Publications, 1985) ide m, Akbars Tomb, Sikandarah near Agra, expound and Illustrated, ASINIS 35 (Allahabad Superintendent Government Press, linked Provinces, 1909). In the second Indian edition (New Delhi Oxford University Press, 2002), 98101. The most useful studies are Muhammad Abdulla Chaghtai, Le Tadj Mahal dAgra (Brussels, 1938) R. A. Jairazbhoy, The Taj Mahal in the place setting of East and West A prove in Comparative Method, journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 24 (1961) 5988 Dieter Brandenburg, Der Taj Mahal in Agra (Berlin, 1969) R.Nath, The endless Taj Mahal (Bombay, 1972) and Lisa Golombek, From Tamerlane to the Taj Mahal, in Islamic prowess and Architecture In Honor of Katharina Otto-Dorn, ed. A. Daneshvari, Islamic maneuver and Architecture, 1 (Malibu, 1981), 4350. Muhammad Moin-ud-din, The history of the Taj (Agra, 1905), recorded for the ? rst time the inscriptions of the Taj his pioneering effort was superseded by Begley and Desai, Taj Mahal The Illumined Tomb. For sha rp photographs by Jean Nou, see Amina Okada and M. C.Joshi, Taj Mahal (New York, London, and capital of France Abbeville Press, 1993) unfortunately the illustrations are only partially identi? ed. For further literature on the Taj Mahal, see Ebba Koch, T? dj Ma? all, encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd ed. (henceforth EI2) (Leiden Brill, 19602004), vol. 10, 5860, and idem, Complete Taj Mahal. Koch, T? dj Ma? all, ? g. 4 presents my new overall plan of the complex for the ? rst time. A brief assessment based on this survey is idem, The Taj Mahal, in The cardinal architectural Wonders of Our World, ed. Neil Parkyn (London Thames and Hudson, 2002), 5761.We measured the buildings with metal and ductile tapes and with a laser measuring agent called Disto Basic, made by Leica. Based on our survey, Richard Barraud did the scale drawings by hand I took the photographs with a Nikon FS Photomic. All plans and photographs illustrating this article are part of this survey. A selection is produce in Koch, Taj Mahal, 60. Jaques Derrida, Structure, Sign, and Play, Writing and Difference, trans. A. Bass (Chicago, 1978). The width of the complex at the southern, jilawkh? na, end measures 300. 84 m at the riverfront it is 300 m. This is explained by Richard A.Barraud in his pioneering study The Modular provision of the Taj Mahal, based on our measurements and illustrated with three drawings, in Koch, Complete Taj Mahal. Barraud refutes Begleys assumption that the planning of the Taj can be reconstructed by putting a decimal grid over the whole complex and explaining away the features that do not ? t into it. chequer Begley and Desai, Taj Mahal The Illumined Tomb, ? gs. 1315, and W. E. Begley, The Garden of the Taj Mahal A theme Study of Mughal Architectural Planning and Symbolism, in Mughal Gardens Sources, Places, Representations, and Prospects, ed. J. L. Wescoat, Jr. and J.WolschkeBulmahn (Washington, DC, 1996). In earlier publications I have given differing measurements of the complex. In Koch, T? dj Ma? all, 58, a typo occurred in the rendering of the gaz equivalents of the preserved part, which are indicated as 690 x 313 gaz instead of 696 x 374 gaz. In my essay in Seventy Architectural Wonders, 61, the overall length of the complex is given as 897. 3 x 300 m, because we took it from the outer face of the southmost gate, which projects 1. 20 m from the enclosure wall. From this comes the overall length of 1114 gaz cited in Koch, T? dj Ma? all, 58, which differs from the one given here as 1112. gaz. Ebba Koch, The Mughal Waterfront Garden, in Gardens in the Time of the Great Muslim Empires Theory and Design, Supplements to Muqarnas, 7, ed. Attilio Petruccioli (Leiden, New York, and Cologne Brill, 1997), 14060, repr. in Ebba Koch, Mughal prowess and lofty Ideology (New Delhi Oxford University Press, 2001), 183202. Cat. no. 126. The plan is painted on cloth and measures 294 x 272 cm. I have studied it since the mid-1980s and discussed it in several publications see Ebba Koch, The Zahara Bagh (Bagh-i Jahanara) at Agra, environmental Design 2 (1986) 30 37 idem, The Mughal Waterfront Garden in M.C. Beach, Ebba Koch, and Wheeler Thackston, major power of the World The Padshahnama An Imperial Mughal Manuscript from the purplish Library, Windsor Castle (London Azimuth Editions and Washington, DC Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, 1997), cat. no. 29, 18587 and cat. no. 45, 20910, ? g. 132. I thank Dr. B. M. Jawalia, Keeper of Manuscripts, for assisting me in reading the inscriptions of the plan in July 1985 and Feb. 1986, and Dr. A? ok Kumar Das, then Director of the Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II Museum, Jaipur, for the permission to study and to publish it. As no. 45 on the line drawing of ? g. I have added a further complex, which represents the Chhatri of Jaswant Singh (d. probably 1678), a healthy funerary complex that does not appear on the Jaipur map. L? lah S? l Chand, Tafr? h al-im? r? t, compiled for mob Stephen Lushington, Acting Collector and Magistrate of Agra, 182526, BL APAC, Pers. Or. 6371. I have used the copy prepared in 183637 for James Davidson, Sessions Judge, Agra, BL APAC, Pers. ms. 2450. Koch, Zahara Bagh (Bagh-i Jahanara). For a full discussion of the Agra riverfront scheme, see Koch, Taj Mahal, chap. 1. L? hawr? , B? dsh? hn? ma, vol. 2, 32231 and Mu? ammad O? li?Kanb? , Amal-i O? li? , 3 vols. (Lahore, 196772) vol. 2, 315 20 both trans. Begley and Desai in Taj Mahal The Illumined Tomb, 6582. On Mughal historiography, see the new study by Stephan Conermann, Historiographie als Sinnstiftung Indopersische Geschichtsschreibung wahrend der Mogulzeit (9321118/ 15161707) (Wiesbaden Reichert Verlag, 2002), 422 (on L? hawr? ) and 125, 39596, and passim (on Kanb? ). In his painstaking assessment, Conermann regrettably does not consider art and architecture as sources of history, as I have pleaded for in the creation to Mughal Art and Imperial Ideology, xxiiixxvii.The ? rst go out plan of the entire complex is by the British landscape artists Thomas and William Daniell, who had it prepared in Agra in 1789 and published in their Two Views of the Taje Mahel at the City of Agra in Hindostan Taken in 1789 (London, 1801). A similar plan, but painted on cloth, is in the 7. 8. 9. 15. 16. 17. 10. 18. 11. 19. 20. 21. 12 . 13. 14. 22. the taj mahal architecture, symbolism, and urban signi? cance Museum of the Taj Mahal (acc. no. 22), in the pavilion set in the western wall of the garden another plan of this type, 280 x 85 cm, is in the Museum fur Indische Kunst, Berlin, no. I 10 060.It has been published in Pratapaditya Pal, Janice Leoshko, Joseph M. Dye III, and Stephen Markel, Romance of the Taj Mahal, expounding catalogue (London Thames and Hudson and Los Angeles Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1989), 55, ? g. 41. The plans differ in the areas of the jil? wkhana and the caravansarais. L? hawr? , B? dsh? hn? ma, vol. 2, 32930 Kanb? , Amal-i O? li? , vol. 2 , 31920. See also Begley and Desai, Taj Mahal The Illumined Tomb, 75, 81. For the term, see below. For d? n wa-duny? , see L. Gardet, D? n, EI2, vol. 2, 29396, in peculiar(prenominal) 295. Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, Travels in India, 2 vols. English trans. V. Ball, 2nd ed. ed. William Crooke (London Oxford University Press, 1925 repr. New Delhi oriental Books Reprint Corporation, 1977), vol. 1, p. 90. See, e. g. , L? hawr? , B? dsh? hn? ma, vol. 1, pt. 1, 155. The aims of the venture have been laid down in Taj Mahal Agra Site Management Plan, brought out by the Taj Mahal Conservation Collaborative together with the Archaeological Survey of India (March 2003) for my mission statement, delivered on Sept. 28, 2001, at the end of the ? rst advisors meeting on the conservation of the Taj Mahal (Sept. 2528, 2001), see 56 for the model, see 6667 and 70, ? g. 12.Ebba Koch, The Principles of Shah-Jahani Painting, in Beach, Koch, and Thackston, King of the World, 13143 repr. in Ebba Koch, Mug hal Art and Imperial Ideology, 13062. L? hawr? , B? dsh? hn? ma, vol. 1, pt. 1, 149. See, e. g. , L? hawr? , B? dsh? hn? ma, vol. 2, 327 with regard to the Taj Mahal, namely, the placement of the Mihman Khana and mosque to both sides of the mausoleum. This concept of rulership is explained in more detail below. On the adoption of the p? r? a ghata in Mughal architecture, see R. Nath, History of ornamental Art in Mughal Architecture (Delhi, Varanasi, and Patna Motilal Banarsidass, 1976), 6 10.Barraud, Modular Planning of the Taj Mahal, in Koch, Complete Taj Mahal. E. E. Rosenthal, The Palace of Charles V in Granada (Princeton Princeton University Press, 1985), 24950. See Priyabala Shah, trans. , Shri Vishnudharmottara, a Text of antediluvian Indian Arts (Ahmedabad The New run Book Co. , n. d. 1990), 268, 271. Brenda E. F. Beck, Colour and Heat in South Indian Ritual, Man The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, n. s. , 4 55372 the quoted passage is on 559. Beck investig ates the use of the two colors, red and white, in South Indian ritual her ? ndings tally with the recommendations of the Vishnudharmotara. Abd al-Q? dir Bad? ? n? , Muntakhab al-Taw? r? kh, English trans. (vol. 2) W. H. Lowe, 2nd ed. (Bengal Asiatic Society, 1924 repr. Delhi Idarah-i-Adabiyat-i-Delli, 1973), 336. For Akbar representing himself on Indian terms, see Ebba Koch, The 149 39. 40. 41. 23. 24. 25. 26. 42. 27. 28. 43. 44. 45. 46. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 47. 34. 35. 36. 48. 49. 37. 50. 38. 51. gifted and Artistic Climate at Akbars Court, in John Seyller, The Adventures of Hamza A depository of Early Mughal Painting (London Azimuth Editions and Washington, DC Smithsonian Institution, 2002), 1831.Koch, Mughal Architecture, 93. L? hawr? , B? dsh? hn? ma, vol. 2, 323 trans. E. Koch cf. trans. of Begley and Desai in Taj Mahal The Illumined Tomb, 66. E. Koch, invention to Mughal Art and Imperial Ideology, xxiiixxiv see also idem, Diwan-i Amm and Chihil Sutun The Audience Halls of Sh ah Jahan, Muqarnas 11 (1994) 14365, in particular 14952, repr. in Mughal Art and Imperial Ideology, 22954, in particular 24243. For a compilation and translation of the inscriptions, see Begley and Desai, Taj Mahal The Illumined Tomb, 195244 for a discussion of their meaning, see W. E.Begley, Amanat Khan and the Calligraphy on the Taj Mahal, Kunst des Orients 12 (197879) 539 W. E. Begley, The Myth of the Taj Mahal and a New Theory of Its Symbolic Meaning, The Art Bulletin 61 (1979) 737. Begley, Myth of the Taj Mahal, in particular 2527. Personal communication, Toronto, Dec. 5, 2002. For the frequent use of the Throne Verse in epigraphical programs, see E. D. Cruikshank Dodd, The Image of the Word Notes on the phantasmal Iconography of Islam, Berytus 18 (1969) 3561, 59 S. S. Blair, Islamic Inscriptions (New York New York University Press, 1998), 69, 198, 214.I pointed this out in Mughal Architecture, 99 and in The Mughal Waterfront Garden, 14344, repr. in Mughal Art and Imperial Ide ology, 196 but I could not convince Laura Parodi, The Distilled Essence of the Timurid Spirit Some Observations on the Taj Mahal, East and West 50, 14 (Dec. 2000) 53542, in particular 539, where she considered my interpretation of the ideal paradisiacal garden for the deceased as reductive and preferred Begleys Throne of God hypothesis. I have come back to the issue in the introduction to Mughal Art and Imperial Ideology, xxiv.Both Begley and Parodi overlook the fact that, however spectacular their realization, the themes of Shahjahani art were conventional, as be? tting a ruler plan to classical equilibrium. Robert Skelton ? rst drew attention to the ambivalence of these ? oral creations in A Decorative Motif in Mughal Art, in Aspects of Indian Art Papers Presented in a Symposium at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Oct. 1970, ed. Pratapaditya Pal (Leiden E. J. Brill, 1972), 14752. The founder of the Manicheans, and in Persian lore the ultimate painter. Ab? ?? lib Kal? , P? d sh? hn? ma, Persian ms. , BL APAC, Ethe 1570, fol. 164a margin my translation differs somewhat from that of Begley and Desai, Taj Mahal The Illumined Tomb, 83. I thank Sunil Sharma for his advice. Bah? r-i gulist? n-i adl u karam Y? jj? Mu? ammad J? n Quds? , Zafarn? ma-i Sh? h Jah? n, BL APAC, Persian ms. Ethe 1552, fol. 129a. Kanb? , Amal-i O? li? , vol. 3, 24 see also Ebba Koch, Mughal Palace Gardens from Babur to Shah Jahan (15261648), Muqarnas 14 (1997) 14365, quotes on 159 repr. in Mughal Art and Imperial Ideology, 20328, quotes on 227.