European Visitors Accounts

Various documentation and writings by hsitorians conflicting the origins and period details of Taj Mahal

Taverniers: A French jeweller has recorded in his travel memoirs that Shahjahan "purposely buried Mumtaz near the Taz-I-Makan ( i.e. the Taj building) where foreigners used to come (as they do even today) so that the world may admire." He also adds that "the cost of the scaffolding was more than that of the entire work. " The work that Shahjahan commissioned in the Tejomahalaya Shiva temple was plundering all the costly fixtures inside it, uprooting the Shiva idols, planting two cenotaphs in their place on two stories, inscribing the Koran along the arches and walling up six of the seven stories of the Taj. It was this plunder; discretion and sealing of hundreds of rooms which took 22 years.

Peter Mundy: An English visitor to Agra recorded in 1932 (within only a year of Mumtaz's death) that " the places of note in and around Agra included Taj-e-Mahal's Tomb, gardens and bazaars." He therefore confirms Tavernier's noting that the Taj Mahal had been a noteworthy building even before Shahjahan.

De Laet: A Dutch official has listed Mansingh's palace about a mile from Agra fort, as an outstanding building of pre-Shahjahan's time. Shahjahan's court chronicle, The Badshahnama, records Mumtaz's burial in that same Mansingh palace.

Bernier: A contemporary French visitor has noted that non-Muslims were entry to the basement (at the time when Shahjahan requisitioned Mansingh's palace), which contained a dazzling sight. Obviously he was referring to silver doors, gold railings, the gem-studded lattice and strings of pearl hanging over the Shiva idol. Shahjahan commandeered the building to grab all that wealth, making Mumtaz's death a convenient pretext.