{"id":3261,"date":"2023-12-14T12:14:05","date_gmt":"2023-12-14T12:14:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/websprintersdemo.in\/blogs\/?page_id=3261"},"modified":"2023-12-15T07:34:08","modified_gmt":"2023-12-15T07:34:08","slug":"empress-of-the-taj","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/websprintersdemo.in\/blogs\/empress-of-the-taj\/","title":{"rendered":"Empress Of The Taj"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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EMPRESS OF THE TAJ <\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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In Search of Mumtaz Mahal<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Publisher: Speaking Tiger 2019.<\/h5>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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A captivating record of bygone eras, the novel\u2019s prose is effortless, with no attempt at manufactured airs. OUTLOOK TRAVELLER.<\/p>\n

What is fascinating is that while Murari travelled around these cities almost 40 years ago, his experiences leave you with an uncanny feeling that alternates between \u201cnothing has changed\u201d and \u201cit has been a lifetime\u201d.SCROLL IN.<\/p>\n

OUTLOOK TRAVELLER<\/u>. 10\/8\/19<\/p>\n

A moving search for the woman responsible for one of the world’s greatest monuments<\/p>\n

Nayanika Mukherjee<\/a>
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Set in 1982, this book is a beguiling tribute to the memory of Arjumand Bano\u2014the daughter of a nobleman, better remembered as Mumtaz Mahal in the vaults of history.<\/p>

While travelling through India to research his bestseller (Taj: A Story of Mughal India; 1985), Murari becomes increasingly enamoured by the idea of Arjumand, the fragments of his imagination in a constant tussle of piece together, or pull away. The result is a rich blend of history and travelogue, one that attempts to peel off the protective veneer from the life of the Mughal queen. The author travels across Chennai, Delhi, and Agra for answers, finally halting at Arjumand\u2019s original resting place at Burhanpur.<\/p>

A captivating record of bygone eras, the novel\u2019s prose is effortless, with no attempt at manufactured airs. As a reader, you feel the enthusiasm on Murari\u2019s dust-caked face; you cautiously peer across his shoulder when stalled by a ticket collector, or when he gets stuck in the darkness of forested Jhansi; you are weak-kneed beside his wife, Maureen, during her endearingly faint-hearted encounters with the chaos of India. As an aspiring writer, you note how Murari weaves in comedy, sarcasm and his own personality without diluting the purpose of his tale. Anecdotes from previous travels are offhandedly scattered throughout the text, as are refills of north Indian history\u2014seemingly in excess at the beginning, they make for valuable context in later chapters; a leg-up of sorts, to reach the headspace at which Murari intends to piece together Arjumand. The author\u2019s perspective is (sometimes, obstinately so) of young scribe and muse\u2014while that proves useful in scavenging evidentiary poetry from the driest of relics, it takes restraint to not cross into the intoxication of forced personas. The cup of unbridled adoration does spill a drop or two of clich\u00e9d sentiment about sensuality and femininity, though, but it\u2019s nothing aggressive.<\/p>

Nevertheless, I\u2019m not entirely convinced that Murari succeeds in humanising Arjumand as an arresting individual beyond the jaali-<\/em>cloaked exoticism of an Indian empress. Nevertheless, his unwavering lens for her to persist as the focal point of this tale, no matter the stature of those beside her (\u201cArjumand\u2019s husband, the Emperor Shah Jahan\u201d), salvages the imperfect characterisation.<\/p>

\u00a0<\/p>

Anodya Mishra<\/em><\/a> Scroll In<\/u><\/em><\/p>

Travellers and tourists from around the world visit India every year to savour a view of the iconic Taj Mahal. The white marble mausoleum was commissioned in 1632 by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan. For almost four centuries now, it has been sitting on the banks of Yamuna in Agra, telling the tale of Shah Jahan\u2019s love for his wife Mumtaz.<\/p>

While the world considers it a symbol of a man\u2019s undying love for his wife, it is also perhaps an embodiment of the power an emperor possessed to build one of the greatest monuments ever. However, the story of the woman who lies in this tomb has been lost in the pages of history. Her identity is associated with her death, and any signs of her life before the Taj was known is associated with her husband.<\/p>

Thus, it is her voice that is the subject of Timeri N Murari\u2019s quest in Empress of the Taj: In Search of Mumtaz Mahal<\/em>. Essentially, the book is an account of Murari\u2019s travels around India searching for bits and pieces of information on Mumtaz Mahal, which helped him write his earlier book, Taj: A Story of Mughal India<\/em>, back in 1985.<\/p>

So, Murari, who has spent much of his working life in the UK and America, travels through the hills and plains of India, in both comfortable and harsh conditions, searching for his muse, Arjumand, who is remembered by the world today as empress Mumtaz Mahal. He shuttles between the past and the present, constantly drawing himself back to his protagonist.<\/p>

The search for Arjumand takes him on a tour around the Mughal capitals of Delhi and Agra, the Rajputana territories of Udaipur, Ajmer, and Jaipur and finally, towards the last leg of his journey, Murari visits Burhanpur, Arjumand\u2019s initial resting place. The book doesn\u2019t attempt to stick to one theme and explores a mosaic instead. Travelling as he was in the 1980s, Murari uses both memory and immediacy to write of his journey and, in the process, provide a glimpse of modern India more than three decades ago. His troubles with the Indian Railways, encounter with riots, conversations with unemployed youth, accounts of nepotism and politics, and his love for the grandiosity of royals, are all intermingle here.<\/p>

Ghosts of the past<\/strong><\/p>

\u201cHistory, as I am to gradually discover as I excavate a shard of our past, is either gossip fashioned into fact, or worse, outright distortion…\u201d<\/p>

Unlike many historians (and like some novelists), Murari has a romantic take on history. He writes in a Herodotean style \u2013 one which looks at history as an art \u2013 rather than the scientific Thucydidean one. With Arjumand being the focus of Murari\u2019s research, it is no surprise that history is viewed romantically. But does he take this approach just for the purposes of writing this book? Or is it simply easier to view the past through the lenses of nostalgia, romance, and beauty?<\/p>

Travelling around Delhi towards the beginning of his journey, Murari gives his readers a history lesson. Describing the changing landscape of Delhi from a mud settlement to a thriving capital, Murari writes, \u201cNo one knows when mud turned to brick and when the name changed but here Delhis lie on Delhis\u201d. This refers to the seven historical cities of Delhi, which are today divided into administrative districts of the same city.<\/p>

What is fascinating is that while Murari travelled around these cities almost 40 years ago, his experiences leave you with an uncanny feeling that alternates between \u201cnothing has changed\u201d and \u201cit has been a lifetime\u201d. One is bound to travel through space and time and get muddled somewhere in this transition while reading this account because, on the one hand, Murari travels in the 1980s while reminiscing the 1600s, and on the other hand, we are reading this account almost forty years later, in the 21st century.<\/p>

Murari\u2019s own observation about the past is worth noting. He writes, \u201cThe past, not only here but everywhere in the world, comes down to us in fragments, bits of a puzzle we piece together\u201d. Here, Arjumand is the puzzle that has taken over his mind, and he is trying to search for fragments of her and put them together. He feels her ghostly presence everywhere he travels and \u201cwith the romantic imagination of a novelist\u201d, he attempts to set up a narrative around the purpose of her presence in each of the places he visits.<\/p>

On approaching their guest house in Mandu, which lies amidst the ruins of another forgotten empire, Murari \u201cimagines himself ensconced in those rooms sitting on the balcony and listening to the ghostly music and laughter\u201d. However, his perception of reality is far removed from the actual surroundings \u2013 his wife and his sister aren\u2019t too keen on dining with ghosts and sleeping in rooms infested by mice and prefer to spend the night in a place away from the ruins.<\/p>

Living and dying a nomad<\/h3>

\u201cBriefly, in death as in life, she led a nomadic existence but then as the marble sarcophagus settled down with her, eternity claimed her forever…\u201d<\/p>

Murari travels through India, his homeland, in search of Arjumand, an empress who was travelling around the same places hundreds of years ago. Arjumand came from the family of a Persian nobleman who had yet travelled all the way from Persia to the Mughal Empire in search of a better life. She had married into the royal Mughal family, who traced their lineage to the nomadic tribe of Mongols.<\/p>

Thus, Arjumand\u2019s life, by birth and by marriage, was supposed to be a nomadic one; but was her death to be nomadic too? She died in Burhanpur, far from her native land of Persia. There her body rested for a few years, before being transferred to another temporary tomb in Agra, and finally being buried in Taj Mahal.<\/p>

Arjumand\u2019s nomadic existence reminds Murari of his own life. He writes, \u201cWhat better proof of our nomadic existence than my mother\u2019s death in Lahore, 2000 kilometers from our ancestral home in Madras.\u201d Paralleling Arjumand\u2019s life with his own, Murari seems to be searching for his own self and for stories from his past through this journey. There is constant banter between him and his sister throughout the journey as they try to locate their collective memories in their individual ones.<\/p>

Being the child of a government employee, Murari had had a fair share of moving around, leaving him with fragments of memories from everywhere and a feeling of uncertainty about home. However, during one of his journeys, his wife Maureen is engulfed with a sense of foreignness while traveling in India. At that instance, a realisation dawns upon him when he writes, \u201cIndia can never frighten me. I suppose that is the definition, for me, of home\u201d.<\/p>

Murari\u2019s search for Arjumand ends with Burhanpur. As they near Burhanpur, Murari has second thoughts about visiting the her first grave. He considers letting Burhanpur remain a \u201cfigment of his imagination and a figment of India\u2019s memory, long forgotten on the banks of Tapti\u201d.<\/p>

However, after his initial apprehensions, when he is finally standing at the tomb with the sun setting, there is a deep sense of closure in the reader\u2019s mind. Murari\u2019s \u201cprivate pilgrimage\u201d comes to an end. He makes one final journey the next day, early in the morning, to look at the grave a second time, this time all by himself. \u201cThe grave begins another day of solitude on earth, protecting nothing, marking nothing but memory\u201d.<\/p>