Distortion of Indian History for Muslim Appeasement, Part 6D

Printer-friendly versionSend to friendPDF versionBy Dr Radhasyam Brahmachari                                                             In the previous article, a few evidence were presented that support the claim that the building, now known as Taj Mahal, was originally a Hindu temple. We should now proceed to establish that it was temple of Lord Shiva . [1] A few evidence that Taj Mahal was a Temple of Lord Shiva : The metallic pinnacle on the top of the central dome of the Taj Mahal is a trident or a three-pronged spear, which is the weapon as well as the emblem of Lord Shiva. This is a unique feature for every Shiva temple, big or small, in India . A close up of the dome, with the trident pinnacle, is shown in the figure-1. One should also notice that the upper part of the dome, on which the pinnacle rests, is an inverted lotus and furthermore the design of the dome resembles a peepul leaf. These two aspects undoubtedly show that the building, now called Taj Mahal, was designed by the Hindus. A closer view of the pinnacle, as shown below, reveals that the trident is a specially designed and ornamental one, incorporating some other Hindu symbols. According to experts, the lower portion of the trident has been made like a crescent, which is the ornament of Lord Shiva. A group of historians try to convince that the presence of the crescent establishes the Muslim authorship of the Taj Mahal. But the other name of Lord Shiva is Chandramaulishwar or the deity who uses the crescent as an ornament attached to his clotted hair. This crescent provides the two side prongs of the trident. It is most important to study and analyze the middle prong of the trident. Its main body resembles a water pot (kalash) with mango leaves (amra pallav) which Hindus use during worshipping a deity and a cocoanut on the top of the pot.  It is undoubtedly a part of Hindu ritual and whenever Hindus worship a deity, they place a decorated water pot on the top of which place mango leaves and a cocoanut, as shown in the pinnacle. It is important to notice that the word Allah is inscribed in Arabic alphabet on the water pot. Perhaps, Shah Jahan wanted to remove the pinnacle as it contains Hindu symbols. But it was found that the pinnacle could not be replaced without causing damage to the dome. So he had to abandon his plan to replace the pinnacle and remain satisfied by inscribing the word Allah on it. Figure 3 shows the full scale replica of the pinnacle inlaid on the red stone courtyard of Taj Mahal. Most astonishingly, if any one makes a Google (Image) search for the “pinnacle of Shiva temple”, he will find this inlaid figure of the pinnacle in Taj Mahal. This is very significant and it shows that the Google operators are convinced that Taj Mahal was really a temple of Lord Shiva . This figure shows three more water pots (kalash) below the crescent. The flower called datura-stramonium in English is known as dhotra or dhutra in India . This flower is a must for worshiping Lord Shiva and the figure-4 shows a full grown Dhotra plant bearing dhotra flowers, in the marble work of the Taj Mahal. In the previous article, we have seen how the dhotra leaves were carved out of marble in the design of OM. One finds dhutra flowers in marble carving in several places of the Taj Mahal. This special attention to dhutra leaves and dhutra flowers in marble carving provides strong evidence in favour of the claim that the building called Taj Mahal today, was originally a temple of Lord Shiva .  The Munj Bateswar Edict tells us that the temple of Shiva was extremely beautiful; it was so beautiful that Lord Shiva had forgotten to return to His original abode Kailash after obtaining the temple as Figure 4. The full scale figure of the pinnacle on the dome has been inlaid on the red stone courtyard   Figure 4.  Dhotra flowers in the marble work of the Taj Mahal His dwelling place. There is no doubt that the beauty of Taj Mahal is the only match for the beauty described in the Munj Bateswar Edict. Taj Mahal is a two-storey mausoleum – fake cenotaph on the marble plinth (or the upper floor) of Taj, while real burial and cenotaph on the lower floor beneath the marble plinth. There is no other Muslim mausoleum like this in India . But there two-storey Shiva temple, with one emblem of Shiva (Shiva Linga) on the upper floor and another Shiva emblem on the lower floor such as in Ujjain and elsewhere. This is another evidence that today’s Taj Mahal was originally a Shiva temple, turned into a mausoleum by Shah Jahan. In a Muslim mausoleum, no body circumambulates the cenotaph but there is such a provision in Taj Mahal. But it is the Hindu practice to circumambulate their deity in a temple. So, it is very likely that the devotees of Lord Shiva used to circumambulate the Shiva emblem (or Shiva Linga) in the Taj Mahal, when it was a Shiva temple and the provision for circumambulation in Taj Mahal is an evidence in this regard. Any visitor, after entering the Taj Mahal, observes that there is long chain hanging from the ceiling of the main dome. The staff of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has attached an electric lamp with the chain. The existence of this chain is quite unfit for a mausoleum and it is impossible to explain it considering Taj Mahal as burial. But it very simple to explain it if one accepts that the Taj Mahal was originally a Shiva temple. It is a Hindu ritual to hang a water-pot (kalash), with a minute hole, over emblem of Shiva so that drops of water can trickle down on the emblem. So, it is very likely that when the Taj Mahal was a Shiva temple, a water pot was attached to the chain and drops water used to fall on the emblem of Lord Shiva. The acoustic design of Taj is such that if any one makes a sound inside it, the sound reverberates for a long time. The visitors make various kinds of sound to feel that reverberation. But if one shouts  “Hara Hara Bom Bom”, the reverberation becomes most magnificent and persists for several seconds. This proves that the original acoustic design was particularly made for the said slogan “Hara Hara Bom Bom”, a war cry in the name of Lord Shiva. Scholars believe that English “Hurray” is a corrupt of “Hara Hara”. It is a Hindu practice to call the Shiva emblems of different temples by different names. For example, the Shiva emblem of the temple of Somnath is called the Yotirlinga. Professor P N Oak was convinced that the Shiva emblem of the Taj Mahal was called Tejolinga, and hence the shrine was called Tejo Mahalaya.  And the present name Taj Mahal is simply a corrupt of Tejo Mahalya. And the name of the queen Arjumand Banu was changed to Mamataj Mahal, only to establish a parity between the name of the queen and the name of the building. The fact is ridiculous in the sense that, if a building is erected to commemorate a person, the name of the monument follows the name of the monument. But in the case of Taj Mahal, the name of the person has been altered to fit the name of the monument. Many may argue that the other name of queen Arjumand Banu was Mamataz-ul-Jamani and that was the reason for naming her mausoleum Taj Mahal. It is nice, but in that case the name of her mausoleum should have been Mamataz Mahal. So, question naturally arises – Why ‘Mama’ of ‘Mamataz’ had been deleted? And why it is not Taz Mahal but Taj Mahal? There is only one reply to these question – The word Taj Mahal had been coined from Tejo Mahalaya, not from Mamataz-ul-Jamani. Professor Oak also believed that, another name of the Shiva emblem of Taj Mahal was Agreswar Mahadev, or the Lord of the city of Agra .   There are so many other buildings in the Taj Complex which is quite unlikely for a mausoleum. On the contrary, it can be compared with large temple complexes like those in Puri, Madurai , Tirupati and so on. In fact, when Taj was a temple of Lord Shiva , the other buildings were used for several other purposes. Some buildings as rest house for the pilgrims, some as servant quarters, and some as guest houses, some as stables and cow-sheds, some as office of the administrative officers and so on. Apart from all these buildings, there are many other underground rooms. There are 22 underground rooms on the rear side of the Taj Mahal, facing the River Jamuna. Even a preliminary investigation leads one to discover another storey below the lower storey, where lie the actual burials of Shah Jahan and his queen Arjumand Banu and their real cenotaphs. This storey contains so many other rooms and a long corridor links the 22 rooms facing the River Jamuna. Many of these rooms and apartments are now sealed by raising brick walls. Many believe that other vital evidence are hidden in these sealed apartments.   From 1959 to 1962, the renowned archaeologist Dr S R Rao was the Superintendent of the Agra Division of the Archaeological Survey of India and during his tenure, a crack was detected in the wall of an underground apartment. While inspecting the crack, the ASI staff discovered many Hindu symbols and Hindu idols dumped inside the room. The matter was readily hushed up and, by the instigation of the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, the room was sealed by raising brick wall (Figure 6). Some of the rooms were sealed by Shah Jahan himself to conceal the Hindu history of Taj Mahal  Many believe that in these sealed rooms many valuable evidence such as Sanskrit inscriptions, Hindu idols, the desecrated Shiva Linga, Hindu scriptures and temple equipments are concealed. Beside these rooms sealed by Shah Jahan, there are many such rooms sealed by the Government of India just to keep the Hindu identity of Taj Mahal secret, according to its pokicy of Muslim appeasement.   Before the advent of the Muslim invaders, when today’s Taj Mahal was a Shiva temple, there was an extremely valuable railing made of gold decorated with costly gems and jewels, surrounding the emblem of Lord Shiva. Later on, Shah Jahan misappropriated it and replaced the same with a marble railing, which one observes today. Historian R C Majumdar, regarding this older and valuable railing, says, “The marble railing around the cenotaphs is said to be a later replacement, the original having been one gold set with jewels.” [2] rcm bvb vii 795] According to R C Majumdar, the designer of the garden inside the Taj Complex was a Hindu and his name was Ranmal [3]. [rcm bvb vii 797] The question naturally arises – While the entire Taj Complex is said to have been designed by Ustad Isa, or Abdul Karim, why a Hindu Ranmal was entrusted to design the garden? This is also an outcome of wild conjecture, and that too for want of authentic records. In this context, it should be mentioned that in the said garden there are some plants, like Dutra Stramonium, Harshringar and Marmelos fruit (figures 9, 10 and 11), which are very dear to Lord Shiva. It is another evidence to prove that the building, now known as Taj Mahal, was originally a Shiva temple.     In 1973, Mr Marvin Mills, a Professor in the Department of Archaeology at the Pratt School in New York , USA , took a sample of wood from an worn out door of one of the 22 rooms shown in Figure 5. He then handed over the sample to Dr Ivans Williams, the director of Radio Carbon Laboratory of the Brooklyn College , to conduct a Carbon-14 test for determining the antiquity of the sample. The result of the test showed that the said piece of wood was of from 1320 to 1398 AD. Or in other words, that sample of wood was older by nearly 300 years than the times of Shah Jahan. This provides a scientific evidence that Taj Mahal was not authored by Shah Jahan. (To be continued)   References: [1] Most of the information of this article have been collected from TAJ MAHAL: The True Story       by Prof P N Oak, Published by A Ghosh, [2]  R.C. Majumdar (General Editor), The History and Culture of the Indian People, Bharatiya Vidya           Bhavan   (in 12 volumes), Mumbai (1996) VII, 795. . [3] R.C. Majumdar, ibid, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan (1996), VII, 797.                                     ****************************