Taj Mahal’s ownership: A brief history of the land acquisition

The Taj Mahal is one of the world’s most famous structures. This domed white marble monument sits on a raised platform at the northern end of a four-quartered garden, echoing the gardens of paradise. Interestingly, the word “Taj Mahal” is not found in Mughal chronicles, but it is used by contemporary Europeans (of that period) in India, suggesting that this was the tomb’s popular name (Asher, 1992, Architecture of Mughal India in New Cambridge History of India, p. 210). It was known by the following names in Mughal records: Rauza-i munauwara (the illumined tomb), Rauza-i muqqadas (the holy tomb) and Rauza-i mutahhara (the pure tomb). These terms suggest that the mausoleum was designed as a clean and holy structure, an earthly replica of Mumtaz’s dwelling in Paradise, a heavenly garden building inside a heavenly garden (Koch, 2006, The Complete Taj Mahal and the Riverfront Gardens of Agra, p. 152).

Asher (1992) writes: “Mumtaz Mahal died shortly after delivering her fourteenth child in 1631. The Mughal court was then residing in Burhanpur. Her remains were temporarily buried by the grief-stricken emperor (Shah Jahan) in a spacious garden known as Zainabad on the bank of the river Tapti. Six months later her body was transported to Agra, where it was interred in land chosen for the mausoleum.” This land chosen for Taj Mahal was the residence, belonging to the Mirza-Raja Jai Singh (Kachhwaha Rajput of Amber), situated on high ground just around the elbow of the Yamuna. The Jai Singh’s residence was described as a “splendid domed edifice” in Padshahnama of Abdul Hamid Lahori (Nicoll, 2018, Shah Jahan: The Rise and Fall of the Mughal Emperor). Qazwini’s Padshahnama also states that Jai Singh donated a “tract of land” for Taj Mahal, where formerly was the “house” (khana) of his grandfather Raja Man Singh (Begley & Desai, 1989, Taj Mahal: The illumined tomb, p. 41). Thus, it is evident from primary Mughal sources that the Kachhwahas possessed the property on which Shah Jahan planned to build the Taj Mahal. The property had previously belonged to Man Singh and had been passed down to his grandson, Jai Singh.

Regarding the nature of transaction details of this property between Shah Jahan and Jai Singh, Nicoll (2018) states: “Contemporary accounts insist that Jai Singh was willing to cede it to the monarch as a gesture of loyal commiseration… But documentary evidence indicating that the raja (Jai Singh) subsequently and deliberately sought to impede the construction process – perhaps even to sabotage it – suggests that he may have been reluctant to part with a riverfront residence in a fashionable suburb of the capital.” Asher (1992) also hints towards the reluctance of Jai Singh and mentions: “Although contemporary chronicles indicate Jai Singh’s willing cooperation in this exchange, extant farmans indicate that the final price was not settled until almost two years after the mausoleum’s commencement. Jai Singh’s further cooperation was insured by imperial orders issued between 1632 and 1637 demanding that he provide stone masons and carts to transport marble from the mines at Makrana to Agra where both the Taj Mahal and Shah Jahan’s additions to the Agra fort were constructed concurrently.” In exchange for the desirable riverbank location for Taj Mahal, Shah Jahan arranged for four villa residences to be given to Jai Singh. Shah Jahan was not able to issue the deed finalising the land transaction until December 28, 1633, by which time work on the site had already begun, thus, retrospectively validating the property acquisition (Nicoll, 2018).

Begley & Desai (1989) also noted an interesting fact that “out of the hundreds of official Mughal documents that must once have existed pertaining to the construction of the Taj Mahal–ranging from daily pay slips for vast numbers of workmen to royal farmans issued periodically by Shah Jahan–only four farmans survive,” and all four of them are addressed to Raja Jai Singh.

Dated 28 December 1633, the purpose of this important royal farman of Shah Jahan was to bestow on Jai Singh the title to four pieces of property in Akbarabad (Agra)–referred to as “estates” or “mansions” (haveli)–in exchange for the haveli, formerly belonging to his grandfather Raja Man Singh, which Jai Singh had voluntarily donated for the construction of the tomb of Mumtaz Mahal (Taj Mahal). The four crown properties, or havelis, offered to Jai Singh are listed by the names of their presumed former owners: 1) Raja Bhagwandas; 2) Madho Singh; 3) Rupsi Bairagi; and 4) Chand Singh, son of Suraj Singh (Begley & Desai, 1989, p. 169). 

Thus, all the foregoing discussion affirms that the property deal between Shah Jahan and Jai Singh was ultimately completed as corroborated by multiple sources like royal Mughal farmans, the Padshahnama of Lahori, Qazwini, and others. Unfortunately, the ‘right-wing’ has misled people about this property transfer in order to disseminate false information about the Taj Mahal. People’s curiosity has been heightened by recent political initiatives to spread the notion that the Taj was once a Hindu temple dedicated to Shiva. This false notion was first popularised by PN Oak, and it has been regularly used by the ‘Right-wing’ to misrepresent history. On the one hand, demands are being made to rectify history, while on the other, the people and groups in power are hellbent on falsifying history to appease their vote bank. This rewrite of history is also obvious in the Right-wing’s desire to distribute upper-castes’ inheritance and ancestors among ‘other backward castes’, without any historical basis or justification. If this distortion persists, the day will come when fringe elements will convert our country’s calm into a battleground for communal war. It’s about time that the primacy of the concept of “Satyamev Jayate” (Truth alone prevails) is re-established.