The Taj Mahal – Agra India

The Taj Mahal

Agra India

Closer Shot, Taj Mahal

Taj Mahal, Agra India

Closer View, Taj Mahal, Agra India

Taj Maham, Agra India

Taj Maham, Agra India

The Taj Mahal (also “the Taj”) is considered the finest example of Mughal architecture, a style that combines elements from Persian, Turkish, Indian, and Islamic architectural styles. In 1983, the Taj Mahal became a UNESCO World Heritage Site and was cited as “the jewel of Muslim art in India and one of the universally admired masterpieces of the world’s heritage.”

When I look at this monumental Cultural and Artistic statement of Ascetic Beauty, I often wondered what happened to Islam, India and the Hindu culture that allowed it’s falling behind the West? Fareed Zakaria, in his excellent book The Post American World (which I will do an entire post on later), points out that in the construction of the dome, an immense ramp of earth was constructed to do this. He did not say if the mass of unskilled laborers that did this were Muslims or Hindu’s but the problem wasn’t the lack of previous knowledge or skill used, but the fact that in Europe of the period, there would have been engineering scaffolding, stone masons, Cranes and not mass conscription of peasant labor. Why build scaffolds and cranes when it’s simpler to use cheap labor? Why bother (efficiency?) just draft the poor peasants and do it that way and is that why they fell behind, no need or desire to use more advanced construction methods when labor is so plentiful and cheap (unproductive/inefficient)? Thomas Hardy’s Jude the Obscure was a stone mason and had enough time and some resources to look around him at the world and fall hopelessly in love with his idealized image of his cousin Sue, the builders of the ramp probably just tried to not keel over dead from their labors, but Jude felt his life was too insignificant and it may have been by Victorian standards. But building an earthen ramp was done by the Ancient civilizations in Egypt, Mesopotamia and Mexico. the dome was harder but still done that way something was wrong that is just now being addressed.

The Romans built a giant ramp up to the Hebrew fortress of Masada, but probably more out of the idea that the Jews were unable burn a earthen ramp more than engineering considerations? I joined the Legions to fight as a trade, not to pile up dirt!!! Shut up Stupidicus and move that wheelbarrow or you’ll be on latrine duty to boot!!!

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