d in words. It marks a great man's love for a
woman--Arjamand Banu Begum, his wife. Shah Jahan was a Mohammedan despot
who led a magnificent life, and had other wives; but in his eyes the
peer of her sex was Arjamand. When she died in giving birth to a child,
he declared he would rear to her memory a mausoleum so perfect that it
would make men marvel for all time. And this he accomplished. More
poetry and prose have been written about the Taj, with more allusions to
it as a symbol of love, than of any other creation marking human
affection--and the secret probably lies in the fact that all the world
loves a lover.

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.

Shah Jahan ruled from 1628 to 1658, and had been on the throne only two
years when death took from him his adored Arjamand. Then came the
resolve to erect to her memory a monument that might measure his love
and grief. Since Akbar's time, the best architects, artists, and skilled
workmen of India, Persia, and Arabia had been attracted to Agra and
neighboring Delhi. All were summoned to Shah Jahan's court, and the
resources of his empire placed at their disposal. The Taj,
consequently, was not the creation of a single master mind, but the
consummation of a great art epoch. Its construction was commenced four
years after Arjamand's demise.

The bereft emperor had appointed a council of great architects of India
to guide the work. Drawings of celebrated structures of the world,
especially those in Moslem lands, were studied. More than one European
was attracted to the Mogul court, and it is believed that Geronimo
Verroneo, who had journeyed from Italy, laid several plans before Shah
Jahan. There are records at Agra showing that certain suggestions of the
Italian were adopted, but it is common belief that the general design
was the recommendation of a Turkish or Persian architect named Ustad
Isa.

In keeping with an old Tartar custom, a garden was chosen as the site of
the tomb--a garden planted with flowers and fragrant shrubs, emblems of
life, and solemn cypresses, emblems of death and eternity. In Mogul days
such a garden was maintained as a pleasure ground during the owner's
lifetime, and used for his interment when dead.

"A