Why the name ‘Taj-Mahal’?

Question

Probably there is no one who has been duped at least once in a lifetime. But in the matter of Indian and world history the world can be duped in many respects for hundreds of years and still continues to be duped. The worlds famous Taj-Mahal is a glaring instance.

1. The term Taj-Mahal itself never occurs in any Mogul court paper or chronicle even in Aurangzeb's time. The attempt to explain it away as Taj-i-mahal is therefore, ridiculous.

2. The ending "Mahal" is never Muslim because in none of the Muslim countries around the world from Afghanistan to Algeria is there a building known as "Mahal".

3. The unusual explanation of the term Taj-Mahal derives from Mumtaz Mahal, who is buried in it, is illogical in at least two respects viz., firstly her name was never Mumtaj Mahal but Mumtaz-ul-Zamani and secondly one cannot omit the first three letters "Mum" from a woman's name to derive the remainder as the name of the building.

4. Since the lady's name was Mumtaz (ending with 'Z') the name of the building derived from her should have been Taz Mahal, if at all, and not Taj (spelled with a 'J').

5. Several European visitors of Shahjahan's time allude to the building, as Taj-e-Mahal is almost the correct tradition. Contrarily Shahjahan and son Aurangzeb scrupulously avoid using the Sanskrit term and call it just a holy grave.

6. The tomb should be understood to signify NOT A BUILDING but only the grave or cenotaph inside it. This would help people to realise that all dead Muslim courtiers and royalty including Humayun, Akbar, Mumtaz, Etmad-ud-Daula and Safdarjang have been buried in captured Hindu mansions and temples.

7. Moreover, if the Taj is believed to be a burial place, how can the term Mahal, i.e., mansion apply to it?

8. Since the term Taj Mahal does not occur in mogul courts it is absurd to search for any mogul explanation for it. Both its components namely, 'Taj' and' Mahal' are of Sanskrit origin.

Answer 1

First of all I commend you on your research and I personally like the fact you write on the internet, for how else are you to get your message out? Through mass mailings? So the only thing I know is from the www.history.com under Taj Mahal and it gives plenty of knowledge, however these places were in Mesopotamia, China and all that they represent is a Hanging Garden and a oneness in a spiritual way to the Hindu/Buddhist and old Persia.
and Dats all Folks.

Answer 2

Are these not the important questions to be answered too?

Q1. Why does the perimeter wall of the complex have a Medieval, pre-artillery, defence character when artillery (cannons) was already in use in the Mughal invasions of India? [Why does a mausoleum need a protective wall in the first place? For a palace it is understandable.]

Q2. Why are there some twenty rooms below the terrace level on the north side of the Taj facing the Jumna River? Why does a mausoleum need these rooms? A palace could put them to good use. The authors do not even mention their existence.

Q3. What is in the sealed-up rooms on the south side of the long corridor opposite the twenty contiguous rooms? Who filled in the doorway with masonry? Why are scholars not allowed to enter and study whatever objects or decor are within?

Q4. Why does the "mosque" face due west instead of facing Mecca? Certainly, by the seventeenth century there was no problem in orienting a building precisely!

Q5. Why has the Archaeological Survey of India blocked any dating of the Taj by means of Carbon-14 or thermo-luminescence? Any controversy over which century the Taj was built could easily be resolved. [Radiocarbon dating of a piece of wood surreptitiously taken from one of the doors gave 13th century as a possible date. But more data is needed.]

Answer 3

The name Taj comes from Persian, the language of the Mughal court, meaning crown, and Mahal, also Persian, means place, area, or neighborhood. Together, the term Taj Mahal translated into rough English from the original Persian means "Crown Place" or "The Place of the Crown." Some sources suggest that Taj Mahal is a shorter variant of Mumtaz Mahal, the formal court name and title of Arjumand Banu Begum, meaning First Lady of the Palace. As early as 1663, the French traveller François Bernier referred to the place as Tage Mehale.

Answer 4

Good for you.

Plenty of places end up with names that they were never originally accorded. Names can be misheard and misunderstood, but end up as 'the' name because the people who wrote it down had the monopoly on literature at the time, so the way they wrote it was the way everyone read it.

During the period of the British Empire, many place names were written in a variety of ways - at some point, one spelling becomes the standard, whether correctly or incorrectly.

Anyway, I'm not sure what your point is.

Answer 5

In memory of Tage Mehale....

François Bernier gave the following description of the Taj Mahal and Shah Jahan's motive for building it:

I shall finish this letter with a description of the two wonderful mausoleums which constitute the chief superiority of Agra over Delhi. One was erected by Jehan-guyre [sic] in honor of his father Ekbar; and Chah-Jehan raised the other to the memory of his wife Tage Mehale, that extraordinary and celebrated beauty, of whom her husband was so enamoured it is said that he was constant to her during life, and at her death was so affected as nearly to follow her to the grave".[3]

Answer 6

Mugal King Shajehaan buit it in the memory of his lover Mumtaaz in District : Agra, State : Uttar Pradesh ,Country : India ,Continent : Asia. It is one of the seven wonders of the world.

Answer 7

Do you actually have a question? This looks a lot more like oddly zealous soap box rhetoric about the name of a building.

Answer 8

don't listen to Nick L above. just look at some of his questions.
he's in a mission to discredit all the Muslim achievements.
he and many other hindu extrimists are also denying all the good the moghuls broutht to india.
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Sexual immorality is authorised in the Quran?
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What religion of peace?
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Will the power of Islam be diminished now?
Own Goals?
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access to the grave of Mary at Murree in Pakistan?
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Is the Taj Mahal really made by the Moghul King Shah Jahan?
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Where was the world when 200 were killed in Mumbai? So much International response to the killings in Lebanon.
'Never trust the US on Pakistan' How true?
Where was the world when 200 were killed in Mumbai? So much International response to the killings in Lebanon

Answer 9

I know the story behind the building but I dont know why it is so called

Answer 10

WOAH. I didn't realize anyone could write this much. Remember the first rule of the internet: Google is your friend. Research!