Tuesday, April 12, 2016
The Taj Mahal
Today in class Mrs. Quinet was discussing the Taj Mahal and I thought I would look up some background on this amazing building. So here it goes! The building was commissioned in the year 1632. It took more than 20 years to build the whole complex. It was built of white marble on the bank of the Yamuna river. This amazing structure was built to house the tomb of Shah Jahan's dead wife. The whole complex cost about 32 million rupees, the indian currency, which equals about 52.8 billion rupees today, or about $827 million today. I just thought it was interesting that this amazing building was built such a long time ago.
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OK so funny story about the Taj Mahal: for the longest of times, I thought that the Taj was actually called the Raj Mahal. (I blame being friends with Raj Shah since Pre-K and not ever being properly educated on Indian national monuments. Come to think of it, I don't think in my 14 years at STM that I've actually ever really learned about the Taj Mahal. !!!???) So anyway: I very much appreciate this post because I always knew it was a really old, famous, expensive indian monument. I also knew it was 1/7 wonders of the world. However, I didn't know all the important facts! So thanks ash :-)
This also kind of brings up how al the houses on Methwold's estate are named after European estates owned by the elite. The Taj Mahal, like you said, is 1/7 wonders of the world (and personally much more architecturally interesting than Buckingham palace) is not represented as a name of one of Methwold's estates. Now, I know we have been over how the estates are named so to symbolize British colonialism and the transfer of British power to India's hands, but I feel bring up sends the argument on a home run. The Taj Mahal represents India and its own architectural beauty, but with Methwold, or more largely the British, they completely overlook the beauty of India and use it for their own profit and exploit and run it to the ground. The british idealize their own european traditions and like all other colonizing countries define their way of life as superior.
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