United States or Argentina ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
And of all the wives of the Mogul Emperors surely this Lady Arjemand, Mumtaz-i-Mahal -the Chosen of the Palace was the most worthy of love. In the tresses of her silk-soft hair his heart was bound, and for none other had he so much as a passing thought since his soul had been submerged in her sweetness. Of her he said, using the words of the poet Faisi,
Such a passionate old story! Such a marvellous love-memorial! Shah Jehan Mumtaz-i-Mahal Grape Garden Golden Pavilion Jasmine Tower. As G.W. Steevens says, there is dizzy-magic in the very names. I am no more capable of describing it than I would have been capable of building it; you must see it for yourself. It alone is worth coming to India to see.
Arjamand had many titles of rank and endearment, but poets like Sir Edwin Arnold preferred to speak of her as Mumtaz-i-Mahal, meaning the "Exalted of the Palace," when extolling the charms of this splendid niece of Nur-Mahal, who likewise had been famed for beauty and charity.
Now it is told that, on a certain night in summer, when the moon is full, a man who lingers by the straight water, where the cypresses stand over their own image, may see a strange marvel may see the Palace of the Taj dissolve like a pearl, and so rise in a mist into the moonlight; and in its place, on her dais of white marble, he shall see the Lady Arjemand, Mumtaz-i-Mahal, the Chosen of the Palace, stand there in the white perfection of beauty, smiling as one who hath attained unto the Peace.
Arjamand Banu Begum was a Persian princess of rare beauty and of great personal charm. She died in giving birth to her eighth child, and through all the years had held the supreme place in Shah Jahan's life; despite the Oriental custom of having other wives, she had won for herself the title of Mumtaz-i-Mahal, "The exalted of the Palace."
Days of pleasure and improvement could be spent in the study of the various parts which have been preserved of this ancient palace. But we pass on a few miles to the Taj Mahal, which, like most of the best buildings of Mohammedan art in North India, is a mausoleum and was erected by Shah Jehan to his favourite wife, Mumtaz-i-Mahal.
And few leave the place without returning to be enthralled once more by a moonlight view of this thing of beauty. And as we enter the mausoleum and stand in the presence of the lovely shrines which it encases, that of Mumtaz-i-Mahal, and that of the emperor himself, the mind is awed and may find expression in Sir Edwin Arnold's poetic fancy,
"Here in the heart of all, With chapels girdled, shut apart by screens, The shrine's self stands, white, delicately white, White as the cheek of Mumtaz-i-Mahal, When Shah Jehan let fall a king's tear there. White as the breast her new babe vainly pressed That ill day in the camp at Burhanpur, The fair shrine stands, guarding two cenotaphs."
You know how Shah Jehan, grandson of Akbar, first Mogul Emperor of Hindustan, loved and married the beautiful Persian Arjmand Banu, called Mumtaz-i-Mahal, and when she died he, in his grief, swore that she should have the loveliest tomb the world ever beheld, and for seventeen years he built the Taj Mahal?
To my eyes it has an unearthly loveliness which I make no effort to pass on to others. The Taj Mahal was built by that inspired friend of architecture, Shah Jahan, as the tomb of the best beloved of his wives, Arjmand Banu, called Mumtaz-i-Mahal or Pride of the Palace. There she lies, and there lies her husband.
Word Of The Day