Replicas of the Taj Mahal have been sprouting since the 17th century, writes K. D. L. Khan

IN 2008, alarmed at the replicas of the Pyramids being built all over the world, the Egyptian Government thought of passing a patent law that would make replicas of pyramids illegal and tantamount to patent violations. But the legal advisers advised the government, that such a law would be applicable to only those replicas which are exact and full-scale.

In India, we are facing a similar problem reference to the Taj Mahal — the ultimate symbol of India. As yet nobody has been able to "make replicas that are exact and full-scale". But in many parts of India, replicas of the Taj Mahal have sprouted since the 17th century and now even outside India, replicas are being planned.

In October 2009, an association of NRIs drew a Rs 92 crore plan to build a replica of the Taj Mahal in the city centre of Auckland in New Zealand.

"What we want is a building that will reflect the grandeur and the rich Indian culture and history, and be the pride of the community here," New Zealand Herald quoted the Association’s chairman Kanu Patel. The replica may include a marble mausoleum, a pool and gold-plated ornaments.

But the very first imitation of the Taj Mahal was done in 1678 by Emperor Aurangzeb (1618-1707). Situated about five km from Aurangabad is Bibi Ka Maqbara, the burial place of Aurangzeb’s first wife, Rabia-ud-Durrani. It is an imitation of the Taj at Agra, termed as the poor man’s Taj Mahal. It is made mostly of sandstone and has plastered walls (a cost cutting measure), and a marble dome. The expert — Ustad Ata-ullah — came from Persia. However, if the delicacy of work is compared, it falls far short of the glory of the Taj at Agra. Below the tomb, lattice works are in marble. However, the lattice work and inlay decorations of flowers and creepers are beautiful. The cost of the Bibi Ka Muqbara was Rs 6 lakh or one-tenth of the Agra Taj Mahal’s cost of Rs 6 million.

Next replica of the Taj Mahal is in the compound of the Chota Imambara (Shia mosque) built in 1837 by the Nawab of Oudh Muhammad Ali Shah. A series of famines in the early 19th century had struck Oudh. That famine broke the backs of lower strata of society and agriculture labours. The Nawab commissioned Chota Imambara under ‘Food for Work’ programme and built a small replica of the Taj Mahal in the compounds of the Imambara.

Well, you do not have to be Emperor Shahjehan or a Nawab to build a Taj Mahal, as Bangalore’s Muniappa has shown. In 1999, 345 years after Shahjehan completed the famous tomb, Bangalore-based Muniappa — an operator in the Indian Telephone industries completed his own Taj Mahal — a memorial to his wife Gouramma who died in 1992 due to a truck accident. An exact replica of the Taj Mahal, it is only 25 feet high standing in an enclosure, 1,600 feet by 2000 feet, near the Vijayanpura burial ground of Bangalore. Its white, bulbous dome, glows in the soft morning light, and its arresting, ornate minarets, slightly shorter in height, shimmer on all four sides. History accords that when Shahjehan built the Taj, it cost him Rs 6 million. Muniappa’s labour of love cost him just Rs 1 million and in the purchasing power of rupee of Shahjehan’s time (Rs 1 of 1640 is worth Rs 500 of today in purchasing power), it would be a plain Rs 2000. Or Shahjehan’s Taj cost 3000 times as Muniappa’s Taj. Muniappa’s unusual love story has evoked international attention. A Swiss architect came to Bangalore recently and stayed for three days to study the building and understand what went into the making of it. However, the real publicity was when BBC documented this modern-day love story and telecast it two years ago. This astonishing memorial has become one of the "must be seen" items of Bangalore — in its location of Ramamurthy Nagar and the road leading to this memorial has been renamed as Taj Mahal Road.

History has repeated itself right in Bangalore in 2001, with a bereaved 86-year-old husband Khaja K Sharif, who has built in six years (2001-07) a replica of the Taj Mahal at a cost of Rs 20 crore for his wife late Begum Fakhr Sultana. It is a celebration of his 52-year-old relationship with Fakhr Sultana. Incidentally, Sultana was the great-granddaughter descendant of the last Mughal emperor, Bahadur Shah Zafar (1775-1862) and as such can claim to be a blood relative of Mumtaz Mahal (1593 - 1631) in whose memory Shahjehan made the Taj Mahal.

Sharif has also reserved space beside wife Begum Fakhr Sultana’s grave where he wishes to be buried. The structure, housed in a 12-acre plot also has a museum that contains antique portraits from the palace of Zafar. The main dome and pillars resembling Mughal architecture were built using Rajasthan marble in an area of 100x100 feet area.

There are also many replicas of the Taj Mahal outside India. Ahsanullah Moni, a film director in Bangladesh, has built an original-size replica of Taj Mahal near Dhaka. The Taj Mahal-lookalike was five years in the making, a fraction of the time it took the 22,000 of artisans to build the real thing. In Moni’s words, he has built a replica of the Taj Mahal so that the poor of his nation can realise their dream of seeing India’s famed monument as very few Bangladeshis can make the trip, because it’s too expensive for them.

Moni first visited original Taj in 1980 and made the trip six more times as he followed his dream to replicate it. He hired specialist architects, sending them to India to measure the dimensions of the real Taj Mahal, and brought six Indian technicians to his building site across the border. Work finally began in 2003 and was completed in January 2009. Moni imported marble and granite from Italy, diamonds from Belgium and used 160 kg of bronze for the dome. "I used the same marble and stone as in the original Taj," Moni claims and adds. "We used machinery, which is why it took less time. Otherwise it would have taken 20 years and 22,000 workers to complete it like the original Taj Mahal."

Before other foreign Taj Mahal lovers start their similar "original size Taj" projects in their countries, India should take a patent on this 350-year-old world marvel. — MF

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