Taj Mahal

The very mention of the Taj Mahal, today perhaps the most famous symbol of India, conjures up notions of romance, architectural perfection, and opulence. Completed in 1643 at the command of the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan (r. 1628–1658), this tomb complex was made for his beloved wife Mumtaz Mahal. It was intended to represent the queen's home in the gardens of paradise. It has been argued that the fame of the Taj Mahal is largely a creation of Western enthusiasm. The monument faded from Mughal histories after the death of Shah Jahan. It was praised however, by European travelers to India in the mid-1600s, before it had even been completed. By the end of the 1700s the Taj Mahal had become the principal tourist attraction for Westerners in India. European artists painted it repeatedly from the 1780s onward and, after the onset of photography, images such as this one were available for sale at commercial studios of both Indian and foreign photographers. Three-dimensional models of the building in alabaster and wood were shipped as exhibits to Britain before 1850, and its image even adorned dinnerware produced in England. The words of British photographer Samuel Bourne (active in India 1863–1870) reflect the technical challenges that this monument posed to photographers: . . . for, despite the difficulties of successfully developing a white object, lit up by brilliant sunshine, and surrounded by dark cypress trees, a subject like this is worth any amount of trouble, and going any distance to secure. So I left this dreamlike, though solid, object behind me, with the conviction that I had seen another of those things which are a "joy forever."