|THE DEN|
We have been taught since childhood that the Taj Mahal is an immense mausoleum of white marble and was built in Agra between 1631 and 1648 by order of the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his favorite wife, Mumtaz Mahal. But, wait! is that the real truth? Isn't it Tejo Mahalya?
Hindu right-wing groups and revisionist writers claim that the Taj Mahal was a Hindu temple named the "Tejo Mahalaya". Actually, much of this is coming from a book written by a man named PN Oak. It's called “Taj Mahal: The True Story.” Oak happens to be a historical revisionist from India.
Prof. P.N. Oak believes that the whole world has been duped by the Taj Mahal story. He claims that the Taj Mahal is not Queen Mumtaz Mahal's tomb, but an ancient Hindu temple palace of Lord Shiva worshiped by the Rajputs of Agra city. According to him, the Shiva temple palace had been usurped by Shah Jahan from then Maharaja of Jaipur, Jai Singh. Shah Jahan then remodeled the palace into his wife's memorial.
The explanations in support of this conspiracy theory are as stupid as this theory is, but here it is;
Oak says that the term such as Taj Mahal does not occur in any Mughal court papers or chronicles, even after Shah Jahan's time. Moreover, the term Mahal has never been used for a building in any of the Muslim countries. Furthermore, if we go with the usual explanation of the name being derived from Mumtaz Mahal then that is too illogical since her name was never Mumtaz Mahal but Mumtaz-ul-Zamani.
Another explanation suggests that the European traveler Johan Albert Mandelso visited Agra in 1638, just after seven years of Mumtaz's death, and subsequently described the life of the Agra city in his memoirs but made no reference to the Taj Mahal.
As we all know, many rooms in the Taj Mahal have remained sealed since Shah Jahan's time, and are still inaccessible to the public. Oak asserts they contain a headless statue of Shiva and other objects commonly used for worship rituals in Hindu temples. Nextly, it is also said that Indira Gandhi's government tried to withdraw Oak's book from the bookstores due to the fear of political backlash.
Sounds crazy or believable to you? You may believe whatever you want. But this outrageous theory has definitely no legs to stand. Moreover, this isn't the first time that bizarre conspiracy theories about the Taj Mahal have come up, and it probably will not be the last. What could be sadder than turning the monument of pride into a communal football.
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