"A Tear on the Face of Eternity"

Across all our many monuments and tributes it is strange that so few are dedicated to so fundamental a human trait as love. Perhaps we suffer to capture the delicacy of the emotion in concrete and stone? The ethereal beauty of the Taj Mahal provides a source of redemption, for the grief of a lone man inspired the world's greatest monument to love.

Shah Jehan and Mumtaz Mahal

Nearly 400 years ago, Emperor Shah Jehan, a mogul lord in India met and married Arjuman Banu Begam. In a time of marriages for political reasons and convenience this was a marriage of love and the short and bittersweet story of their lives bears testament to this truth.

A bride at 19 years old, Arjuman Begam soon became inseparable from her husband. She followed him wherever he went and soon became known as Mumtaz Mahal which means "Chosen of the Palace". Together the Emperor and his chosen wife traveled the empire and even when he went to war she was never far from his side. Theirs was not a marriage destined for time though and while on campaign with her husband in 1629 she died in childbirth. So stricken was the Emperor that he, along with his entire court, went into mourning for two years. It is rumored that for a year the Emperor secluded himself away from the world and would not communicate with anyone. When he emerged his hair had turned white and his back had bent to the shape of an old man.

Labor of Love

While the dead queen was laid to rest in a nearby garden the empire labored for 20 years to build a fitting tomb for their beloved of the palace. The building was of a scale that was unknown in those times with a labor force of over 20,000 men and the finest artisans from all over the world. Built with marble and inlaid with precious stones the mausoleum was built on the banks of the Yamuna River within clear sight of the Emperors fort in Agra. When Shah Jehan eventually died he was laid to rest next to his beloved Mumtaz Mahal in the center of his greatest creation.

There are more beautiful buildings in the world, there are more majestic monuments to humanities achievements, we have achieved greater feats of engineering but can there be a more timeless reminder of the power of love?