No one has ever challenged it except Prof. P.N. Oak, who believes the whole world has been duped. In his book Taj Mahal: The True Story, Oak says, the Taj Mahal is not Queen Mumtaz’s tomb but an ancient Hindu temple, a palace of Lord Shiva (then known as Tejo Mahalaya). In the course of his research Oak discovered that the Shiva temple palace was usurped by Shah Jahan from the then Maharaja of Jaipur, Jai Singh. In his own court chronicle, Badshahnama,Shah Jahan admits that an exceptionally beautiful grand mansion in Agra was taken from Jai Singh for Mumtaz’s burial. The ex-Maharaja of Jaipur still retains, in his secret collection, two orders from Shah Jahan for surrendering the Taj building. Using captured temples and mansions as a burial place for dead courtiers and royal figures was a common practice among Muslim rulers. For example, Humayun, Akbar, Etmud-ud-Daula and Safdarjung are all buried in such mansions.
Oak’s inquiries began with the name of Taj Mahal. He says the term “Mahal” has never been used for a building in any Muslim Countries from Afghanistan to Algeria. “The unusual explanation that the term Taj Mahal derives from Mumtaz Mahal was illogical in at least two respects. First, her name was never Mumtaz Mahal but Mumtaz-ul-Zamani; second, one wouldn’t omit the first three letters “Mum” from a woman’s name to derive the remainder as the name for a building.
[Here, I also note: Mumtaz is pronounced with a 'z' sound at the end, but Taj is pronounced with a distinct 'j' sound. These two sounds are clearly different in Islamic languages].
Hence, Taj Mahal, Oak claims, is a modified version of “Tejo Mahalaya”, or Lord Shiva’s Palace. Oak also says the love story of Mumtaz and Shah Jahan is a fairy tale created by the court of sycophants, blundering historians and sloppy archaeologists. Not a single royal chronicle of Shah Jahan’s time corroborates the love story. Furthermore, Oak cites several documents suggesting that the Taj Mahal predates Shah Jahan’s era.
For example, Prof. Marvin Miller of New York took a few samples from the riverside doorway of the Taj. Carbon dating revealed that the door was 300 years older than Shah Jahan’s era. European traveler Johan Albert Mandelslo, who visited Agra in 1638 (only seven years after Mumtaz’s death), describes the life & palaces in the city of Agra in his memoirs. But he made no reference to the Taj Mahal being built. The writings of Peter Mundy, an English visitor to Agra within a year of Mumtaz’s death, also suggested that the Taj was a noteworthy building. However, he too didn’t mention anything that may seem like the Taj was under construction. In fact, his documentary suggested that the Taj might well be in existence already.
Prof. Oak points out a number of design and architectural inconsistencies that support the belief of the Taj Mahal being a typical Hindu temple rather than a mausoleum. Many rooms in the Taj Mahal have remained sealed since Shah Jahan’s time and are still inaccessible. Oak assertively claims that these sealed rooms contain a headless statue of Lord Shiva and other objects commonly used for worship rituals in Hindu temples. Somehow Shah Jahan could destroy them and hence permanently sealed them.
Fearing political backlash, Indira Gandhi’s government successfully tried to have Prof. Oak’s book withdrawn from the bookstores, and threatened the Indian publisher of the dire consequences such a book might give rise to.
However, Prof. Oak’s claims are also not foolproof. There is only one way to discredit or validate Oak’s research. The current government should open the sealed rooms of the Taj Mahal under U.N. supervision, and let international experts investigate.
