Addendum to the Day 1 “Imprisonment”

After being imprisoned in the hotel room all day, Hasnian (our Agra-Intrepid guide) picked us up & took us to the “Baby Taj” early in the evening. J We were super happy to be released from the cage. J

This was not on our original tour BUT since we couldn’t do anything today, Intrepid took pity on us & wanted to please us.

 “Baby Taj” is named so very appropriately. It’s still VERY impressive with all the intricate Muslim architecture & it’s well-placed location right on the bank of the sister river to the Ganges- The Yamuna. It was the first white marble building built by the Mughals in India.

The “Baby Taj” was built for I-Timad-ud-Daulah, the grandfather to Mumtaz. (The woman whom the Big Taj Mahal was built for) Both of them are mausoleums for the important Muslim-Mughals who emigrated from Iran & therefore had an amazing influence on Indian culture.

 I-Timad-ud-Daulah came as an educated teacher and adviser to Akbar the Great in the late 16^th century (the same time as Elizabeth I was reigning in England). He was so influential to the illiterate & uneducated Akbar that his son, Jahangir, made I-Timad-ud-Daulah the most important man in the country- the Prime Minister. Having made the Indian subcontinent more powerful, more popular, and more important throughout the world- the Baby Taj was built for him when he died in 1622.

It took 6 years and 5,000 people to build. It’s built in traditional Muslim architecture: Marble In-lay Art—where you can’t draw pictures of people or objects, etc.. so they focus on Geometric shapes to express their artistic sides. Each shape was made individually with rare gems (including, but not limited to: Lapus lazuli, sandstone)

  “The Art of Inlay is brought to India by the Mughals in the 17 th century especially in Agra city. Thus, Inlays Art first introduced in India by the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan during his regime, which had become very popular in  architecture as well as in sculpture at that time. They constructed monuments in  white Marble and huge Inlay Art were done on these monuments. From that time, Inlays Art has become a very popular Art in India”

The inside of the mausoleum was also very intricately done. However, when the Mughals fell out of power and India was raided- most of Muslim architecture was defamed—therefore, even though it was very impressive- it was not as it would have been years ago.

 The Ceilings-- REAL Impressive!!!

 Surrounding the main building were gardens and walkways. On each side of the high walls were 4 exactly identical gateway arches that led into the mausoleum garden. There are 4 because of the sense of evenness, stability, & balance.

We saw lotsa monkeys around in the garden, which I thought pretty funny.. at first glance you think, “Man, there’s a lotta wild cats here”… but then you realize, def not cats but monkeys.