Craftsman of Taj mahal,architecture of Taj Mahal,Design Taj Mahal,Crafts Man of Taj Mahal Agra India

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Craftsman

Taj Mahal, Agra Travel Guide

The Taj was not designed by a single person. The project demanded talent from many quarters.The names of many of the builders who participated in the construction of the Taj in different capacities have come down to us through various sources.

'Puru' from Benarus, Persia (Iran), has been mentioned as the supervising architect in Persian language texts (e.g. see ISBN 964-7483-39-2). The main dome was designed by Ismail Khan of Turkey, considered to be the premier designer of hemispheres and builder of domes of that age.

Qazim Khan, a native of Lahore, cast the solid gold finial that crowned the Turkish master's dome. Chiranjilal, a lapidary from Delhi, was chosen as the chief sculptor and mosaicist.

Amanat Khan from Persian Shiraz, Iran was the chief calligrapher (this fact is attested on the Taj gateway itself, where his name has been inscribed at the end of the inscription). Muhammad Hanif was the supervisor of masons.

Mir Abdul Karim and Mukkarimat Khan of Shiraz handled finances and the management of daily production. The creative team included sculptors from Bukhara, calligraphers from Syria and Persia, inlayers from southern India, stonecutters from Baluchistan, a specialist in building turrets, another who carved only marble flowers - thirty seven men in all formed the creative nucleus. To this core was added a labour force of twenty thousand workers recruited from across northern India.

European sources, particularly during the period of the British Raj, suggested some or all of the Taj was the work of European artisans. There is no reliable scholarly evidence to back up these assertions.

Materials

The Taj Mahal was constructed using materials from all over India and Asia. Over 1,000 elephants were used to transport building materials during the construction. The white marble was brought from Rajasthan, the jasper from Punjab and the jade and crystal from China. The turquoise was from Tibet and the Lapis lazuli from Afghanistan^, while the sapphire came from Sri Lanka and the carnelian from Arabia. In all, 28 types of precious and semi-precious stones were inlaid into the white marble.

Marble work Taj Mahal, Agra Tour Packages

The cusped arches and panel of flowers are missing their inlay, but the vegetal band around the flowers survives (or, perhaps, has been restored; it is not always easy to tell the difference). Also present is a vertical Koranic inscription. Calligraphy is made larger as the writing climbs up the building, so that all the letters appear the same size when seen from the ground. In keeping with the Taj Mahal's function as a funerary monument, Koranic quotations on the building refer to the delights of Paradise to come

Costs of construction
The total cost of the Taj's construction was about 40 million rupees. At that time, 1 gram of gold was sold for about 1.3 rupees. Based on the October 2005 gold price that would translate to more than 500 million US$. (Comparisons based on the value of gold in two different economic eras are often misleading, however).

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