“Say:“Truly my Lord guided me on the straight path, on the correct religion, the faith of Ibrahim, true monotheism. After all, he was not one of the polytheists. " Say: “Indeed, my prayer and my sacrifice (or worship), my life and my death are dedicated to Allah, the Lord of the worlds. He has no companions. I am ordered to do this and I am the first of the Muslims. " (Quran 6: 161-163).
This material is the 600th in a row, here, on the VO website. It would seem that there were just 500 of them, and now there are already a hundred more … I wanted to give something interesting and unusual. Long thought that it could be? And then it turned out that after the articles about the forts Chattorgarh and Kumbhalgarh I was asked to continue the "Indian theme", and it is simply impossible to continue it and not tell about the Taj Mahal. It's like visiting Moscow and not seeing the Kremlin there. And everything would be fine if the photos for the article were “pulled” from the Internet, even in the “public domain” version. But here the photos are original. Made in India by a man who not only was there as a tourist, but lives and works. And here one more theme automatically arises … the theme … of Fate. And it so happened that about a year ago I published on VO material about the social lift, and in the style of "life story", that is, a life story. Without any scientific calculations, he simply took the history of his family at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries and described it. But … one of the readers of VO, Dmitry, very much lamented that the theme of "elevator" does not get a continuation - "and you promised." And so "the stars have come together so" that all these three themes today turned out to be possible to connect in one material.
It is customary to say about the Taj Mahal that it is the “pearl of India”.
And it so happened that a girl named Sveta lived in Penza. From an ordinary family, where my mother was the head. dining room, well, dad was also doing something like that, graduated from our university with a degree in computer technology, but … since the model did not have the appearance, as well as "number six" in certain places, then … I went to "just work." And not in her specialty, but in a marriage agency, to select couples on the Internet for marriage, since initially she was also good with English. That is, the usual fate of very many ordinary Russian girls of the 90s.
A group of female students from different countries who went on vacation to travel to India. Our Svetlana is on the right. Actually, you can't say that it is Russian, right? For example, without knowing this, I could say that she is from Kashmir. There are such in one!
And here, in order to break out of this routine, she enrolled in … the Indian dance ensemble, where she already met my daughter, also Svetlana, who danced there and worked as a PR manager, that is, she earned money for him from sponsors for advertising. She began to dance and … it went well for her! And it went so much that … Svetlana decided to go to Moscow to the Indian embassy, where, as she knew, there is a school of Indian dance, after graduating from which she planned to receive a certificate giving the right to teach, open her own studio and work for herself, and not "uncle." There they watched for some time how she masters the art of Indian dance, and then they took, and offered … to go to India to one of the largest Indian universities to study international marketing. "Teaching is in English, so this is not a problem for you."“Yes, but I don’t have…” - she began, but she was told: “And we will give you a grant for all five years of study. You will need to practice it and … learn Hindi."
Well, now let's go on an excursion to the Taj Mahal mausoleum. But first you have to stand in a queue, and a considerable one. Indeed, the poet said very correctly: "The folk path will not overgrow to him!"
That's how our Svetlana ended up in India, where she ended up in a dormitory in a room with three more of the same foreign girls: one was from Kazakhstan, the other from Turkmenistan, and the third came from Madagascar. Naturally, they wondered what was the point of recruiting them, foreign women, when India has so many of its talented youth, and the competition is almost 1000 (!) People for one place. “And they don't know life abroad,” they answered very directly and honestly. “For the most part, they see white people as Sahibs, and it will be many years before they, even having received an education, will be able to work with foreigners on an equal footing. And you easily fit into our culture, you understand it well, and it is easier for us to teach you so that you can then immediately work for the good of India than to raise our people to your level."
To get to the Taj Mahal, you need to go through a massive gate, which, according to Muslim tradition, separates the realm of the senses and the realm of the spirit. Visitors entering the garden from under the gateway are greeted with the same mesmerizing sight that first appeared to Shah Jahan's eyes more than three centuries ago. The calm surface of the pool reflects the perfect symmetry of the marble mausoleum.
This is how Fate threw this girl of ours to India. At first she lived in a hostel, and in the senior years she rented a room. By the way, she was paid a scholarship of $ 100 a month. For comparison: in India, a gymnasium teacher receives $ 90 per month and with this money supports a family of five! Therefore, on vacation, together with her roommates, she traveled almost all over India. I visited both Rajasthan and the temples of Khajuraho, and, of course, saw the famous Taj Mahal.
It is dark and cool at the back of the gate. And the Taj Mahal is still visible in the distance … The axis of symmetry passes exactly in the middle of the gates of the surrounding wall and the actual entrance to the mausoleum!
Well, and then she received her diploma and … had to stay at work in India. She received a referral to the state of Gujarat. For the construction of India's largest solar power plant in the middle of the desert as PR-manager of this project with a budget of … one billion dollars! The salary was also given to her accordingly, and by no means by Indian standards, but by European and American standards, so it’s better not to name it. She rented a two-story house with a servant, a cook and a Land Rover, and in her free time she began to drive it around India. And in all this there was neither our traditional cronyism, nor family ties, nor big money - only one "smile of Destiny"!
The alley that leads to the stylobate, on which the building of the mausoleum was erected, is very long and along it there is a reservoir of the same length, in which the mausoleum and its minarets are reflected as if in a huge magic mirror. There are a lot of people here. They come from other countries and from the most remote corners of India.
Yes, such was the social lift that lifted an ordinary girl from the Russian provinces to the manager of an international project of colossal value and great importance. And it all started with a passion for Indian dances and a good knowledge of the English language by our Russian standards. So "Lady Luck", if she really wants to do someone good, will find you anywhere, even in the office of a marriage agency. It is only necessary that a person would be ready to jump on this "restive filly" and stay on her back … And then, further, she will take you wherever you want!
We are getting closer and closer, and now the wonderful carving that adorns both the stylobate and the walls of the mausoleum becomes clearly visible to us.
Well, then we will talk about the fate of the other person who has marked with her seal. Who lived in ancient times, the son of the Sultan, a powerful ruler, who gave the Taj Mahal to the world with his power.
Minarets are built at all four corners of the stylobate. Moreover, they are not straight, but slightly inclined in different directions. So if there is an earthquake here, they will collapse outward, but not inward. To the left and to the right of the mausoleum, there are no less beautiful mosque buildings built of red sandstone.
It is interesting that people who see the Taj Mahal are most amazed not so much by its beauty (from a distance it is not painful and visible!), But by its proportionality, proportionality and harmony contained in it. And about its symmetry and refinement of forms, it is quite possible to say that they are like the most perfect pearl created by nature. And this is not only the most famous mausoleum in the world today, but also undoubtedly one of the most beautiful buildings on earth. It stands on the southern bank of the Jamna River near the city of Agra, and its silhouette is well known all over the world, and for many people it has long been an unofficial symbol of India. However, the Taj Mahal owes its fame not so much to its beautiful architecture, which combines stately simplicity with the grace of a precious decoration, but also to a romantic legend that is closely associated with it. After all, this mausoleum was built in the 17th century by the ruler of the Mughal Empire Shah Jahan in memory of his beloved wife, whose death plunged him into inconsolable grief.
Here is one of them close up …
According to the tradition existing in India (or at least people are told that there is such a tradition), when lovers come here, a woman asks her companion: "Do you love me so much that if I die, erect a similar monument to me?"
Carving on marble on a stylobate.
Shah Jahan, nicknamed "the ruler of the world" (1592-1666), ruled the Mughal empire for thirty years, from 1628 to 1658. He patronized the arts, encouraged construction, so that during his reign, the empire reached the peak of its political and cultural heyday. When Shah Jahan was 15 years old, he met Arjumand Wana Begam, the 14-year-old daughter of his father's chief minister. And not only met, but also fell in love with her without memory.
Here are their portraits.
Carvings on marble and inlaid with multi-colored stones decorate the walls of the tomb.
She was both a beautiful and very intelligent girl of very noble birth - and for a prince she could well have become a wife. But the young Shah Jahan was expected to marry a Persian princess for political reasons. But fortunately for both of them, the law of Islam allows a man to have not one wife, but four. And that's the only way, in 1612, Shah Jahan was finally able to marry his beloved. Moreover, Shah Jahan and his bride had to wait for this for five whole years, since they needed a favorable combination of stars. Do you remember how it was with Hobja Nasreddin? "The stars Sad-ad-Zabikh are opposed to the planet Mercury … therefore … it is impossible!" That is how it was in this case. So she got married at the age of 19. The age for marriage for India at that time, one might say, well, just extreme. And all this time they were absolutely not supposed to see each other. Another test they passed! Well, then, after the wedding, Arjumand received a new name - Mumtaz Mahal ("the chosen one of the palace"), and the Taj Mahal is one of the variants of this name.
Amazingly beautiful, isn't it ?!
And these inlays too …
Shah Jahan lived with his beloved wife for 19 years, until 1631, when she died in his military camp during childbirth … of the fourteenth child! Vladyka's grief was as boundless as his love. He spent eight days locked up in his chambers, mourning his wife, and after leaving them, he turned gray and hunched over so that the courtiers barely recognized him. In all his domains, he declared mourning, banned music, the wearing of bright clothes, jewelry, and even the use of incense and cosmetics. After that, Shah Jahan took an oath to build his beloved tomb, which has never seen the light of day.
The fence, inside of which there are the gravestones of Shah Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal.
And so the work began, which lasted about twenty-two years. Moreover, the building of the mausoleum itself was built in the period from 1632 to 1643, that is, surprisingly quickly. Which, however, is not surprising, because more than twenty thousand people worked on the construction. From different parts of India and Asia, lines of elephants marched day and night, carrying construction materials. The white marble walls of the mausoleum were inlaid with a variety of gems: jasper and sapphires, agate and turquoise, malachite and carnelian. In total, more than 40 types of stones were used to decorate, which were brought from China, Persia, Afghanistan, Arabia, Sri Lanka, Tibet and even Russia, from where malachite was delivered.
Entrance to the mausoleum.
But the building itself was only part of a simply huge burial complex, which included a huge garden, two mosques, a gate and a huge wall around the entire territory. In the Taj Mahal there is an inscription that the construction was completed in 1648, but judging by its volume, after this time, the work on the final decoration continued for several more years.
Around one polished marble!
It became possible to create such an impressive structure in a little over 20 years only because Shah Jahan used the resources of his empire in the construction: in addition to 20,000 workers, as many as 1,000 elephants worked here!
This is how the minaret looks from below!
A large dome, which is shaped like a bud of an unblown flower, rises upward, wonderfully in harmony with arches and other smaller domes, as well as with four minarets, built so that their inclination to the sides is completely invisible to the eye.
Well, this is how the Taj Mahal looks when you look at it from behind.
If you stand with your back to him, you will see a view of the river that flows right behind the mausoleum.
Outside, the Taj Mahal surprises everyone with its perfect symmetry, but inside it it is simply impossible not to admire its mosaic patterns on the walls. The main place inside it is occupied by an octagonal room, surrounded by an openwork marble fence, which was previously inlaid with precious stones. There are the gravestones of Shah Jahan and his wife. Moreover, her tombstone is again located symmetrically, but it is not.
Shah-Jahan's tombstone, which is located slightly away from the Mumtaz Mahal tombstone located along the axis of symmetry, is the only element in this mausoleum that breaks this symmetry.
After completing the construction, Shah Jahan wished to build a similar tomb on the opposite bank of the Jamnah, but only from black marble and connect both mausoleums with a bridge - a symbol of their love, which experiences death itself. However, in 1657, before work began, Shah Jahan fell ill. Well, a year later, what happened to him, what happened before him with many rulers: his son Aurangzeb got tired of the construction eccentricities of his father, and he overthrew him from the throne in order to rule himself!
Peacocks and pronghorns are walking in the park.
This is how the park and the surrounding mosque mausoleum look in the coming twilight …
True, he still did not dare to kill his father. I probably wanted to. But he didn't dare. I kept him in captivity, but where - it is not known exactly. But it is known for sure that after his death in 1666, Shah Jahan was buried in the Taj Mahal, next to his beloved wife, whose love prompted him to create this marvelous architectural masterpiece.
Of course, monkeys are also indispensable here …
After the fall of the Mughal Empire in the 18th century, the Taj Mahal gradually fell into disrepair.
A snake tamer is a profession in India as familiar as our profession as a seller of kvass.
In the 19th century, it became a place for receptions. Well, the Taj Mahal was restored to its former splendor as a result of efforts undertaken by the British Lord Curzon, Viceroy of India from 1898 to 1905, and a staunch supporter of the revival of Indian antiquities.
The entire history of the Taj Mahal is recorded here …
Well, the journey of "our girls" after that continued and, having visited the Taj Mahal, they went to Rajasthan or ancient Rajputana - the land of ancient Hindu knights scorched by the sun …
