From the Indian Gallery collection
Water color painting on Card Sheet

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On June 17, 1631 Mumtaz Mahal died, after delivering her fourteenth child "Gauharar". Shahjahan stood dazed, unable to comprehend the situation. She had died leaving all her children, mother, and relations to his care. But he had promised her never to remarry and to build the grandest mausoleum over her grave. Her body received a temporary burial in the Zainabadi Garden in Burhanpur and in six months time removed to Agra. Shahjahan had already acquired from Raja Jai Singh a plot of land on the riverside. Here was to be built the Taj Mahal. Work on the tomb started in a frenzy with thousands of artisans and laborers toiling ceaselessly.

Shahjahan issued farmans to Raja Jai Singh ordering immediate and constant supply of the Makrana marble for the tomb. The mausoleum rose higher with every sunset. In nearly six years time the main edifice of the tomb was complete. And above this inner dome, which is radiant like the heart of angels, has been raised another heaven-touching, a guava-shaped (amrudi shakl) dome…crowning this dome of heavenly rank, the circumference of whose outer girth is 110 yards high flittering like the sun with its summit rising to a total height of 107 yards above the (level of the) ground." In those days the cost of the Taj worked out to 50 lakhs and the annual revenue of 30 villages was earmarked for the regular maintenance of the mausoleum.