Taj Mahal the True Story by P.N.Oak : part one

Reality views by sm :
Taj Mahal the True Story by P.N.Oak : part one
Tejo Mahalaya : A Rajput Palace
Just Trying to Understand what Oak has proved in his book as this book is not easily available in India ,Just writing down few important points .
A revolutionary work of historical research by P.N. Oak. In this book, the author tries to prove that Taj Mahal was not built by Shah Jahan but usurped by him from Jai Singh, the king of Jaipur and remodeled before burying Mumtas.Oak gives many proofs to prove his theory that Taj is a ancient Indian palace.
It is a pity that the Taj Mahal is believed to have originated
as a sombre tomb in the 17th century when it was perhaps built in the 4th century to serve as a palace. The author says that claims that far from originating as a mediaeval tomb the Taj was built by a powerful Rajput king as his palace in pre-Muslim times.
the Encyclopedia Britannica states that the Taj Mahal building-complex comprises stables and guest and guard rooms.
the Taj Mahal must have originated as Tejo Mahalaya completed in 1155-56
A.D.




A corollary is that buildings in India and West Asia
which have a resemblance to the Taj Mahal are products of the Indian architecture (Shilpashastra). People should look Taj Mahal as a palace and not as a tomb then they will realize the beauty of palace with people just go there, see 2 toms and leave the Taj.
Laymen sometimes ask that if the Taj Mahal existed centuries
before Mumtaz's death in 1630-31, could not the radioactive carbon
- 14 test be applied to determine its age? This is a question for
experts to answer. If they have an infallible method they .would
certainly detect the difference in age of the material used in the
cenotaphs and in most other parts of the Taj Mahal. But for any
such test to be useful its margin of error must be precisely known.
A five to ten years’ margin would not matter very much but if
it extends to several centuries the test would be unsuitable to
verify the accuracy of the conclusion drawn from historical evidence
that the Taj Mahal is a Hindu building commandeered for use as
a Muslim tomb.
A carbon-14 test has actually been carried out by a New York-based
laboratory, around 1974 A.D., on a piece of timber from a broken,
softened doorway plank of the rear, river-side, northeast doorway
of the Taj. It proved that the timber doorway pre. dated Shahjahan
by about 300 years.
Taj Mahal alias Tejomahalaya palace complex has existed centuries before
Shahjahan.
It needs to be realized that Islam originated in Mecca only 1370
years ago. In other lands swept by Islam it is not even that ancient.
the Tajmahal
complex consists of several seven-storied edifices of which only
garden level floors are open to the public while the others are either
sealed with brick and lime by Shahjahan or are kept intriguingly
locked by the Indian Government’s Archaeological Survey of India
(ASI).
Had the ASI been honest to its job it would have dredged
even the water in the seven-storied well to see whether important
articles, idols or inscriptions lie jettisoned there.
The conclusion whether it was Shahjahan who started raising
the Taj Mahal in 1631 A.D. as a sepulcher or it was some Hindu
Maharaja who had built it centuries earlier is not to be considered
as a Hindu-Muslim dispute and therefore to be severely shunned.
It is a question of scientific, academic competence and arriving
at a correct judgment as being able to distinguish between brass
and gold.
Our research has firmly established that the term Taj Mahal
is a popular mispronunciation of the ancient Hindu name
Tejomahalaya.
Yet we feel that more research needs to be done by opening
up the thousands of sealed chambers of the several seven-storied
buildings and other multi -storied edifices (such as the Nagar Khanas )
to probe their hidden contents since they could yield a number
of idols, inscriptions, coins, documents etc.
Shahjahan's court chronicle the Badshanama
acknowledges it as 'Manzil-e-Raja Mansingh' (i. e. Raja Mansingh's
mansion). Thus Raja Mansingh was the last Hindu owner in the
chequered and scarred history of the Taj Mahal.
The author demands that ,
All the locked rooms in all the multi-storied buildings in the Taj Mahal
complex should be open to visitors The ASI should be directed
to open up all the rooms in all the stories of all the buildings
barred by Shahjahan with brick and lime and study the evidence
that may be discovered Free entry on Fridays causing a revenue
loss to the Government should be discontinued because there is
no mosque in the Tejomahalaya premises.
Author says that in ancient times this palace was a Shiva temple then in a period of time it became the palace .
So many concocted accounts of the mythical Shahjahan
authorship of the Taj Mahal have been afloat for the last 350 years
that one wonders how they never aroused anybody's suspicion.
Thus we have scholar after scholar of Indian history from almost
every part of the world rapturously recounting to us how the cost
of the Taj Mahal could be anything between four to ninety million
rupees, the designer could be anybody from a Turk, Persian or
Italian to a Frenchman, the period of construction could be anywhere
between 10 and 22 years, and Mumtaz, the so-called Lady of the
Taj Mahal, could have been buried in its basement or upper floor
at any time from six months to nine years after her death. These
are only a few absurdities, anomalies and inconsistencies of the
Taj Mahal story. There are many more which we propose to expose
in the following pages.
Before believing in the "fabulous mausoleum" theory, two
questions may be asked. Firstly, where are the historical records
describing Shahjahan's romantic attachment to Mumtaz - one of
his 5,000 consorts, prior to her death ? Secondly, how many palaces
did Shahjahan build for his sweetheart Mumtaz while she was alive
before he built one over her dead body ?
Histories are silent on both these points. The answer to the
first is that there are no accounts of the Shahjahan Mumtaz romance
because there never was any. That so called romantic attachment
was a graft to justify the mythical creation of the Taj Mahal as
a wonder tomb. The answer to the second question is that Shahjahan
did not build any palace for Mumtaz alive or dead.
Every Moghul monarch had at least 5,000 consorts in his harem and many more at his
command outside. He had hardly the time or the heart to idolize
only one of his several thousand consorts. The author has in his book states,takes help from following old books .
P. 3 The History of India as Told by its Own Historians. Vol.
VII, The Posthumous Papers of the late Sir H. M. Elliot, K.C.B. edited
by Professor John Dowson, M.R.A.S., published by Kitab Mahal (Private)
Ltd. 56-A Zero Road, Allahabad.
2. Persian text of Mulla Abdul Hamid's Badshahnama, in two volumes,
published by the Asiatic Society of Bengal in the Bibliotheca Indies series.
I obtained the photostat from the copy in the National Archives, Government
of India, in December 1966. Copies of that publication are available in
all important institutional libraries throughout the world, dealing with Indian
mediaeval history. Following are the just few lines which I am here reproducing it .
During the journey countless coins be distributed among the
fakirs and needy, The site covered with a majestic magnificent lush garden, to the south of that great city and Amidst which (garden) the building known as the palace
(Manzil) of Raja Mansingh, at present owned by Raja Jaisingh, Grandson (of Mansingh), was selected for the burial of the Queen whose abode is in heaven Although Raja Jaisingh valued it greatly as his ancestral heritage and property, yet. he would have been agreeable to part with it gratis for the Emperor Shahjahan . (Still) out of sheer scrupulousness so essential in matters of bereavement and religious sanctity (thinking it improper to take his palace gratis) . In exchange of that (aali Manzil) grand palace, he (Jaisingh) was granted a piece of government land.

Emperor Shahjahan's wife Arjumand Banu died in Burhanpur
somewhere between 1629 and 1632 A.D. Her body was buried in
a garden there but is said to have been exhumed after about six
months and transported to Agra. Even this single detail should
have been enough to alert discerning and thoughtful people that
Shahjahan must have come by a handy ready-made mausoleum.
Why else would he disturb and remove a body well laid to rest
and have it carried to Agra, 600 miles away! He wouldn't want
it to be transferred from one open grave to another without some
purpose. Even a commoner's body is not so trifled with, let alone
that of a queen and believed to be a very 'beloved' one at that.
Moreover if Shahjahan had really commisioned the Taj Mahal he
should have raised it at Burhanpur where Mumtaz was already buried.
Such careful checking at every stage, so essential for accurate
historical research has been lacking in the field of Indian history.
On arrival in Agra, Mumtaz's body was buried underneath the
dome of Mansingh's palatial mansion under royal command, says
the Badshahnama. the Badshahnama clearly
asserts that it was Jaisingh who was given land while Shahjahan
got Mansingh's garden palace in exchange. This is one more detail
proving how the entire Shahjahan legend of the Taj Mahal is wholly
fictitious from beginning to end.
The Mumtaz burial story is so confusing ,gives so many different views that
One doubts that and says that Taj Mahal is a ancient Indian palace.
the exchange itself sounds a mere
myth because the location and dimensions of the plot of land given
to Jaisingh are not mentioned.
The palace had a sky-high dome underneath which, the author
of the Badshanama tells us, Mumtaz's body was hidden (i.e. buried)
from the eyes of the world by the officials of the realm at Shahjahan's
command. Such command again was unnecessary unless Mumtaz
had to be buried in somebody else's property. The use of the word
' 'command" is thus significant. We shall show that 104 years earlier
Emperor Babur also refers to this domed palace.
The Badshahnama clearly tells us that the Hindu
palace taken over for Mumtaz's burial had a dome. Incidentally
the edifice is also described as a "sky-high" mansion, though
those adjectives have been also interlinked with Shahjahan's courage
and valour.
Shahjahan's own court-chronicler admits the Taj Mahal to be a domed Hindu palace
commandeered for queen Mumtaz's burial.
"Jean Baptiste Tavernier, a French jeweler, toured India for
trade between 1641 and 1668 A. D. His travel account is mainly
devoted to commerce. He used to sojourn at Surat and Agra.
Mumtaz had died sometime between
1629 and 1632. Tavernier arrived in India nearly 11 years after
Mumtaz's demise.
according to Tavernier no work was undertaken concerning Mumtaz's tomb at least for 11 years after her death. Muslim and Tavernier's versions. Some of the former say that the Taj Mahal was complete by 1643 while Tavernier tells us that
the work concerning the mausoleum was not even begun by at
least 1641.
Shahjahan had been deposed and
incarcerated by his son Emperor Aurangzeb in 1658. Tavernier also
notes that the work took 22 years to complete. That means that
even if the work began in 1641 it ended only in 1663. This was
impossible since Shahjahan was no longer on the throne after 1658.
From olden times Muslim kings a tradition can be found is that they took readymade palaces and converted them to tomb or converted to Islamic buildings .
We would also like to draw the reader's attention to Tavernier's
words, "Shahjahan purposely made the tomb near the Tasimacan
(which had six large courts) where all foreigners come, so that
the whole world should see and admire it." The word Tasimacan
is Taz-i-macan, i.e. royal residence, which is synonymous with
Taj Mahal. That is to say, the Hindu palace was known as Tasimacan
alias Taj Mahal even before Mumtaz's burial, according to Tavernier.
Tavernier's remark that Shahjahan had to use bricks even to
a support arch is of special significance. It means that the "arches"
existed already. It may be noted that Koranic engravings on the
Taj Mahal are made around the arches. When the original stone
slabs were removed by Shahjahan and were substituted by other
slabs with the Muslim lettering, the arches so tampered with had
to be supported with bricks. So this part of Tavernier's observation
also proves that the Taj Mahal with its arched entrances existed
even before Mumtaz's death.
British Scholar Keene states that Tavernier could
be in India only sometime between the years 1651-1655.
Tavernier's noting makes out four specific points, namely :
1. That Shahjahan purposely buried Mumtaz near a bazaar known
as Tasimacan (i.e. Taj Mahal). 2. That he could not get any timber
for the scaffolding. 3. That the cost of the scaffolding was more
than that of the entire work. 4. That 20,000 laborers worked
incessantly for 22 years.
Of the above the first three points clearly imply that Shahjahan
took over a ready Taj Mahal for Mumtaz's burial. The fourth point
on which traditional historians have banked does not make any
sense when it is considered that a Tavernier staying in India only
for four years (1651-1655) cannot assert that the work which began
and ended in his presence lasted for 22 years.
This shows that Tanvir is not reliable .
Tanvirs statements support Mr.Oak statements as well as what we read in our history books .So he is not reliable.

Continued :