Empire: World History - 219. Building The Taj Mahal: Love, Loss, & Splendour (Ep 2)

Episode Date: January 9, 2025

Within days of his beloved wife’s death, Shah Jahan starts designing his grandest architectural project yet to express his love for her. Her mausoleum is to be a domed, symmetrical, bright white building surrounded by aromatic gardens. But the Taj Mahal is not the only beautiful structure the Mughal Emperor commissions. One of the most extravagant examples of his work is the Peacock Throne, a dazzling display of precious gems, including the Koh-i-Noor diamond and the Timur Ruby. And Shah Jahan's architectural vision soon extends beyond Agra. He later leaves the capital, perhaps to escape the grief associated with his wife’s death, and embarks on building the city of Shahjahanabad, otherwise known as Old Delhi.  Listen as William and Anita discuss Shah Jahan’s magnificent architecture… Twitter: @Empirepoduk Email: [e-mail] Goalhangerpodcasts.com Assistant Producers: Anouska Lewis & Becki Hills Producer: Callum Hill Exec Producer: Neil Fearn Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

If you want access to bonus episodes reading lists for every series of Empire, a chat community. Discounts for all the books mentioned in the week's podcasts, add free listening and a weekly newsletter, sign up to Empire Club at www.mpower.com. Hello and welcome to Empire with me, Anita Arnan. And me, William Thrimple. Now, in the last episode, we left you with Shah Jahar grieving the death of the love of his life, Montaz Mahal, who dies tragically during childbirth in June 1631. And you sort of pointed out that he almost turns white overnight, doesn't he?

And loses his eyesight. Newses his eyesight? The famous Ferrell Spectacles? Oh, never say the boy don't learn. Yes, Ferrell spectacles that he's wearing. So, you know, he's been crying. We should explain that the spectacles are as a result of his copious weeping every day. And, you know, members of the court are really worried about him,

that he's sort of losing his marbles somewhat in great. grief. He cancels every appointment. He doesn't appear in public. And this does remind me a little bit actually of Queen Victoria who just says, you know what, when Albert died. It is similar, isn't it? I have nothing to do with the world anymore. I'm sick of this. I've lost the one person who made it all make sense. But then it doesn't take too long. I mean, we're talking within a matter of days that he starts to channel his grief into something solid. And that is the solid thing that we now know as the Taj Mahal. Now, before we go any further, how old were you when you first saw it? I was 18. 18 years old. And what did you think when you first saw it? I remember it very clearly.

In those days, you could do this. I think they don't do it anymore. I went in on a full moon night and travelled down to Agra by the train and got off, dumped my rucksack in a hostel, and then walked to Taj Gunge and just as the sun was setting and walked in to see this extraordinary building in the gloaming, in the dark. There is something about this place that actually is better than any idea that you might have of it. You've seen pictures of it. But it not only lives up, it surpasses. And it never disappoints even if you see it multiple times.

Yeah. Yeah. My experience was very different. I was a lot younger. I was nine when I first saw it. And a family holiday, we went with my uncle. And what I remember most distinctly was him yelling at the family. It was quite crowded saying, only tourist pay for socks.

which is that's like only tourist pay for socks because you've got a bunch of people outside saying you can't go in with shoes and you can't go in barefoot, it's disrespectful, and selling socks to all of the many tourists. You of course were never a tourist, you were always a traveller who'd come to see the TARD and just being completely transfixed with the sock transaction.

But when you walk through this, you know, Sochegedon, as I like to remember it, absolute pandemonium over socks and shoes, you are just absolutely silenced by the scale and the beauty and there is something so magical about approaching and getting closer and closer and it just becomes more beautiful, the intricacy, the inlay, the carvings. And then you hear stories about the way in which the pillars are balanced.

And, you know, there was a story that I think I told you this and you didn't know this before. And so I'll tell it again because it is such a great fact that the pillars around the Taj Mahal, These four enormous giants that stand as guarding sentinels around this absolutely mammoth pearl of a mausoleum. They are designed in such a way that if there's an earthquake, they fall out rather than in. I mean, the geometry of that, the calculation behind that. Oh, and also, you know, we have to mention it is such an iconic building thanks to a love that is lost. And that is, you know, the image of Diana in her violet and pink, her shocking. pink sitting. I was there. What? I was there. Is that why she looked so depressed? No, not at all.

The other things on her mind, why were you there? I was a young journal. Um, for some reason, because I never wrote for it regularly, but I was there on behalf of the dated telegraph of all papers. Goodness gracious me. Writing a piece on the royal visit. Okay, well, let's put a pin in Shah Jahan, because I want to know more about this. So how orchestrated was that picture? Because much has been said about how powerful that image was and actually how damaging to the royal family to see her alone in front of this great symbol of love. What was all the kerfuffle going on around it? I'm so excited. Tell me. Well, you'll be surprised to hear that it completely passed me by.

Oh, for God's sake. Willie. I was there covering it. And it was just her, I mean, she was on her own because she was on her own. And she just sat on the bench where the photographers asked her to sit. And she did that looking slightly bored for five minutes because, well, they took her picture. It didn't even occur to me that this was an iconic moment of the history of modern Britain. That's hilarious. What I remember from that trip was that because of the security surrounding

her and it, I got to spend three hours in the Taj Mahal without a single tourist. And that was the magical thing that I came away with, the fact that there was no one there. Swai. You are a historian and not a journalist, darling. That's why that is the case. Look, let's get back to Shahjah and his grief, because you've given me nothing of an inside story. Literally. I mean nothing. It wasn't orchestrated in the sense that she wasn't even planning to sit there, as far as one could tell until the photographer said, darling, so, Diana, sit there, Willie, darling.

Yeah, no, sad. Anyway, it's a very sad picture. Sadness sitting in front of sadness. It is true. She needed to be having a great time. I really? She was great. She's fine.

Just spoiling everything now. Okay, let's get back to Shah Jahar. So why? Tell me this. Why did his mind go straight to architecture at the height of his grief and pain? Because it was his great love. and it was how he expressed himself. And this man who was with everyone except Mumtahs, completely reserved and unemotional and formal,

found expression in building. And he's one of history's great builders. He's like Justinian or Louis XIV. He's someone who consciously left his legacy instead. And so when he is widowed, just four years into his reign, this is a woman who has plotted with him to come to the throne. She has supported him when he's formed out with his dad,

when he looks like he's going to be hunted down and killed or exiled. And he's finally won the war of succession. He's got what he wants. And he's just moved with his young family to Burhanpur in the Deccan where he's hoping to have a great military triumph. And completely unexpectedly unscripted,

his whole life stops dead. And so what he decides to do is he's going to move her body from Bohanpur, which is in southern Madhya Pradesh, in the middle of nowhere, really, in modern India. You have to travel for days to get there. And he's going to take it to his new capital, Agra, which he's turning at the same time into a great water-born city. It's going to be a kind of Mughal Venice. And he has been buying up land, the land which the Targes built on was belonging to the Jaipur royal family, and he buys it off them, begins to plan this extraordinary building in his new capital. Remember, Akbar had ruled largely

from Fatipu Sikri, then Lahore. Jahangir had mainly ruled from Lahore and Kashmir, and he's the one that brings the capital back to Agra. And one of his first things is to redesign the Red Fort, and then he sits in the Red Fort and watches this extraordinary morsalium come up. But before we get to that, we should perhaps talk about how Shahjahan consciously uses the arts and architecture and jewels and fine materials for the propaganda of the dynasty. Well, it's a projection of power, because you just don't even have to say a word, anyone claps eyes on these things. And we can't talk about that without first talking about the peacock throne. if ever there was a flex in history, there is no greater flex than the peacock throne.

Commissioned in 1628. We've described it before on this podcast when we, again, I keep referring back to the Coenor because this is the time when the Coenol makes its debut. The throne is like an ice cream kiosk, but an ice cream kiosk, if you have gatling gung every precious stone in the world at it. I mean, it is an extraordinary flex propaganda piece. remember how many jewels were involved in this? It was just thousands and thousands of the highest grade jewels in the treasury. So what he realizes, this is his great insight when he comes to the throne.

In 1628, he commissions this because he arrives at Agra at the imperial treasuries and he just finds vault after vault of the greatest jewel collection that's ever been. And it's just sitting there under lock and key. Sitting in darkness and no one. No one to love it. And his father, Jahangir had initiated this tradition of giving jewels to the emperor at Na'raz. And every ambitious governor and plier and aristocrat who wanted promotion competed to give the best one so that they'd be remembered. And the result was that over the course of the reign of Jahangir, these jewels just accumulated in ever-increasing numbers in the vaults.

And what Shahjahan read us is that he can use. this extraordinary wealth of gemstones, the greatest jewel collection ever gathered by any ruler at any time in history, and that he can use it as the ultimate expression of power and majesty, which is the reason that the word mogul to this day is still a synonym for power and glory. When you talk about Donald Trump being a property mogul, that's a reflection of exactly this. I mean, it's not just an opportunity, though, to show off what you've got, you know, sort of bring the bling, as it were. But it is also a reflection of heavenly anointment, because it is meant to evoke the fabled throne of Solomon as well, that this is a man who is

sitting in the middle of the universe, like Solomon, he is a gift from God to the world. There is all this divinity wrapped up in it. And a symbol of justice. Yeah. A symbol of wisdom and justice. And those of you scratching your heads at this point, thinking I can't remember anything in the Bible about the throne of Solomon, are correct, because this is one of those sort of extraordinary bits that's in the Quran and which comes from a Judeo-Christian tradition, but which is preserved in the Quran, not in the Bible. And this was presumably a bit of sort of Middle Eastern oral history

that makes it into the Quranic version. And also into poetry, the Shahnama and stuff. You know, they also talk about it, don't they? And so the Quranic description of the throne of Solomon is used as a model. And he goes first, bizarrely enough, to a French jeweller at the Moguler. court to design it. And we have his name as Augusta Hiria and he was initially put in charge of it. And I think there was also an Englishman with the probable name of Peter Mutton. Peter Mutton was also on hand. But both of those guys seem to have left Mogul service at this point.

Harriet goes to Goa and in the end it's an Iranian poet and calligrapher. goldsmith and jewel master called Saeed Galani, who starts work on this commission of fresh. And he sort of, you know, he wipes the plans and starts on over again, goes back to the Quran, produces an image of the throne of Solomon as described in the Quran, but as decorated in jewels. And it's inaugurated our New Year's Day, Noros, 1635, on the emperor's return from his holidays in Kashmir. I mean, do you know what? That's a seven-year project. But if you see the images of what it is, that is not bad going, because the intricacy, the workmanship that goes into this, to have somewhere to show the very best of the very best jewels in the treasury is really something else. And you've got people who describe it at the time. Who is our best contemporary who talks about this throne?

So we've got quite a lot of descriptions because it's the big thing of the moment. But that is an interesting story in itself. and this is where you and I first came together, because we have a lot of descriptions of various bits of it. By, for example, the official court chronicler, Ahmed Shah Lahori, in the Pachshan Nama, he writes, In the course of many years, valuable gems had come into the imperial jewel house, each one of which might have served as an ear drop for Venus. What a wonderful, wonderful expression that is. Or would adorn the girdle of the sun.

Upon accession, the emperor thought that, in the opinion of far-seeing men, the acquisition of such rare jewels and the keeping of such wonderful brilliance can only render one service, that of adorning the throne of empire. They ought therefore to be put to that use, and beholders might share in the benefit by their splendor, and that his majesty might shine with increasing brilliancy. So he goes on to describe how, in addition to all the jewels already stored in the jewel house, rubies, garnets, diamonds, rich pearls and emeralds to the value of 200 lakh rupees should be brought for the Inspector's Emperor and that they, with some exquisite jewels of great weight, exceeding 50,000 michacles, have been carefully selected and handed over to Beberdal Khan, the superintendent of the Goldsmith's department. I mean, I don't know what a michigal is, but we're talking about heavy carotage here. I mean, we're talking about really big gems that adorn this thing. We should talk about what it looks like.

I mean, I said an ice cream kiosk, and there is a place to sit in the centre, and then there are these enormously bedeweled columns or pillars that go up, and there is a canopy above it. Looking like cypresses, they're green, and they're meant to be jewelled cypresses. And on the top, there are two peacocks set with gems, and between the two peacock trees, a tree set with diamonds, emeralds and pearls. But what is not mentioned at the time, which is now the most important thing really about the whole throne, is that the eye of one of the peacocks is the koinor. And we know this from a later account, when it gets stolen later by the Persians. A hacked to pieces by the Persians, yeah.

After it's stolen and before it's hacked bits, it's described by one of their chroniclers. And he gives this extraordinary description of the eye of the peacock being this diamond. And he names it for the first time, the koenor. the mountain of light. The mountain of light. But you know what? There's another very significant gem, which really bizarrely gets overshadowed by the Coenor,

and that's the Timor Ruby. So now tell us about the Timor Ruby, which is also part of this kiosk of royalty. Yeah, the Timor Ruby is the thing that the mogul writers get excited about. And that's because moguls prefer red stones of light. Remember Sue Strong was talking about this. And it's funny, her husband has written a wonderful paper on this. And while Europeans judge diamonds to be the king of all gemstones, it's rubies and redstones, which the moguls talk about.

And so there's the Timor Ruby, which was once belonged tommo and has an inscription of his on it. But there's also a whole range of other enormous redstones called the Ayn al-Hur, the Eye of the Huri, and the Fakhraj. Well, it's like seeing rock stars performing on the same stage. So anyone who's going to come to the court and see Shah Jahan sitting in the midst of this, we'll have heard and will have read about each one of these gems, pages and pages about them. And here they all are assembled in one place with one man sitting in the middle of all of that. Also, I think the timing of his inauguration where he shows this finished product of the world, 22nd of March 1635, is the eighth anniversary of his accession.

And it's also, it's unusual. And again, dates mean so much to Shah Jahan as we've been. discussed in the last episode, a rare conjunction of two major festivals. So you've got Naroos, which willies talked about, the Persian New Year, but also Iid Ulfidr, which is the end of a month of fasting. So it is a time of enormous celebration where, you know, sort of hungry, thirsty people, finally, there are banquets, there is joy. This is a man who understands his people in many ways. And like, you know, this is when to do it. But also understands how to put on a big dazzle. Right. Yeah, you don't want to bring it out when people are sort of hungry. You bring it out

when people have ended their fasting? And once in a sense, the tragedy of this is that he thinks about creating this throne when he is still King Solomon and Mumtahs is the Queen of Sheba. That's the symbolism that he's drawing on. And this throne is big enough for two. They can both sit there. But by the time, of course, 1835, by the time it's ready. She's been four years dead.

He's had four years of grief. But this is very much a distraction for him. There's poetry which is engraved onto this throne. And you know more about this than I do. Tell us about this poetry and the significance of it. So as well as the jewels, the other great art that the moguls valued above all was calligraphy. To us, Islamic calligraphy is a sort of minor pleasure, obviously, because so people can understand the subtleties of it compared to mogul art,

which is readily accessible to anyone and anyone that hasn't been to the wonderful view. in a show at the moment of mogul painting and calligraphy can see that. But there is calligraphy attached to the throne. And in Cutsi's words, the poet Cutsi, who is the guy that's commissioned to write about it and write the descriptions, hail auspicious throne of the emperor, completed by divine assistance, the day the firmament made it, it first melted the sun's gold. So this is this wonderful golden throne. But he's sitting on. on it now. He's sitting on his own. It's a bicycle made for two and there's only one in the saddle, which is a, you know, that's a really powerful image. We'll take a break here and when we come

back, we'll talk about the other, you know, his grief doesn't end with the construction of the peacock throne. This mausoleum is now under construction too. The thing that he's sort of started designing just days after Mumthazmahal, the love of his life dies. So join us after the break and we will talk about the Taj itself. Welcome back. So we are now heading from the peacock throne to the other great aesthetic wonder built by Shahjahan, which is the great Taj Mahal. And what's strange is that we all come to it today the wrong way. We come to it through, effectively, the back door, which is the land entrance, which is never how people were meant to see it. It was designed very deliberately to be arrived at by boat, because, Shah Jahanah designed Agra as this river city on the Yamuna. The Yamuna was, if you like, the M1 of Mogul India. It connected Delhi with Agra. And all the great nobleman, all the men

who controlled this empire stretching from the middle of India straight up through Pakistan, Afghanistan, to Bangladesh, all the main players at this court had their waterfront gardens and mansions along the Yamuna. And as we said, Shahjan buys the land for the Tajj from the Jaipur family, from a descendant of Man Singh, the great general of Akbar. Who happily sell it to him? Because it's much said about the Mughals, sort of pressuring people to do things. But do we have any indication from any source that this was a happy transaction? I didn't think probably it was something that he was in any position to refuse. You can't say no. Yeah. He can't say no. Did he pay market value? It sounds like a stupid question,

but genuinely did he pay a fair price for the land? He did pay a fair price. We have the receipt and that's still with the Jaipur family, which is an important point. What I think is lost on many accounts of the Taj Mahal, it's romanticised not incorrectly as a monument of love. But what is lost, I think, is that it is designed to be a model and symbol on earth of the heavenly mansion prepared for Mumtaz in paradise. This is a dream, if you like, of what Mumtaz's heavenly palace is going to look like.

So on one hand, it's political propaganda, showing the power and glory and the genius and good taste of Shah Jahan and his dynasty. On the other, it is showing an image of paradise deliberately and consciously. I touched on the mathematics, you know, the sheer extraordinary calculations that go into even thinking that, you know, if these minarets are to fall, they must not fall inwards, they must not crush the great domed structure. And actually, symmetry is the key to the whole of the design here. So, I mean, this is very much a Mughal thing, isn't it, having symmetry and balance in gardens, in buildings.

But he takes it to another level. Not just Mughal, it's the whole Persianate tradition, which is at the root of Mughal art design and this idea of the Charburg, the four-part garden, is very much there. The four gardens are four rectangles and they're divided by water, usually, these channels of water. So you have this pleasant, cool breeze that will blow across from the water into anyone enjoying these very symmetrical, beautifully planted, scented rectangles of garden. So also paradise, you know, sort of the symmetry and the piece and the assault on all the senses that the paradise might confer upon somebody?

And from the beginning, it dazzles everyone. And there's very little that we don't know about this moment because it's, you know, it's very much the centre of attention from the moment that it's under construction. And we have an account by the writer Casweeney, who says a dome of high foundation and a building of great magnificence was created. The eye of the age has seen nothing like it. under the nine volts of the enamel blue sky, and the ear of time has heard nothing like it in any past age, it will be a masterpiece for ages to come, increasing the amazement of

humanity until the day of resurrection. So everyone knows that they're throwing everything at this, that this is Shahjahan's great monument, not just for his wife, but also for himself. And we know a little about who built it. And there's new details been emerging from one of my favorite places in India. Have you been to Mandu? No, I haven't. You've got a great treat ahead of you. Yeah.

It's in Madhya Pradesh. It's about two stops on the train south of Agra. You go to indoor and then travel across country. And it's this amazing plateau in the middle of jungle territory, wild, wonderful territory. And we know that Shahjahan sent out to find architects and that the architects were then sent out to look at all the other examples which they could draw on when they were planning this. And we have an inscription in Mandu that on the 14th of December 1659, four mogul architects arrived in Mandu in order to research the different tomb traditions found across. across India. So rather like Lachens get sent out before he plans Rushputti Bhavan and is told to go and look at all the monuments of India before he plans the great viceroy's house. So Shahjahan

sends these four Central Asian architects and they leave a little inscription on the 14th of February 1659. They arrive in Mandu and they are strongly influenced by the tomb of Hoshangshah who does the first white marble mausoleum in all of India. And they think this is a wonderful idea and inspired the four men pull out a knife and etch a description onto the doorjam of the tomb. And it reads, the humble beggar Lutfullah, an engineer, along with the son of Ustad Ahmed, architect of Shahjahan, Kwa Jadu Rai, Ustad Shiraam and Ustad Hamid,

came on a pilgrimage to this tomb and wrote a few words to commemorate it. That is the most extraordinary graffiti, isn't it? It's like sort of the equivalent of Kilroy was here. It's the four men who are to build this great monument. I have two questions for you. So one is that, you know, that great sock visit, my first sock visit.

And it's been repeated since then. I heard this from a tour guide. You know, one of those people who just yells at you saying, let me do your tour. I can tell you things like this, which of course my uncle wasn't paying for that either. But he did say, he said, Chargerham very famously cut off the hands of all the craftsmen who build the Taj Mahab so they could

never build anything like it again. And since then, I haven't been able to find anything in the historical record or maybe I just haven't looked in the right places. So does he, does he chop off their hands? No, it doesn't. No. So it's rubbish. That's what I mean. The hand chopping thing is not there, but it is a Chinese whisper that has been carried through and lots of people will be told you. So there are two Chinese whispers and both of them derive originally, or certainly the first recorded instances we have of them are from European travellers, not from authentic mogul sources. Right. I'm glad you brought us onto this. I want to talk about that a bit more in a bit. So I think one is Bernier and the others, Manucci. Oh my God, those of these guys have

been coming up in my research and I very much want to discuss them. But there's two completely four stories. One is that Shahjahan is so pleased with this extraordinary building that after it's finished, he cuts the hands off all the architects. And builders, so that no one, the master builder, so no one can build anything like it on earth again. I mean, everyone's always been very suspicious of this story because it's just improbable. And it sounds like a tall story and it is. But it's only been proved lately to be a false story

by our friend and friend of the show who we've been talking about in the Humayin episode, Ebercoch. Oh, brilliant, Ebok. Who's this wonderful Viennese mogul specialist. And she is the sort of nerdy architectural specialist who slays the demons of myth with her scholarship. And in this case, she did it by sitting in the Taj Mahal, in the dome, over the parapets,

with a notebook and collecting all the mason's marks. Because every mason, after they do a particular length of this building, leaves a little very discreet signature on the stonework, showing that not quite Kilroy was here, but Kilroy built this and wants to be paid for doing this bit of it. and they prove that they've done this particular stretch of the building by leaving the Mason's marks. And Eber spent months going over every inch of the building collecting these Mason's marks. So she takes the marks and she traces who they are?

And she then not only traces who they are and who built what bit of it, but the fact that the same Mason's marks then appear 10 years later on Shahjahabad at the Red Fort. So they can't bloody have the hands chopped off. This is such a pervasive nonsense of a story, but it is brilliant. But it's not the only bit of nonsense. The other bit of nonsense, which is also, I think, in Manucci, is that we only have half the project and that the other half is going to be a black marble targe, which is going to be built opposite. And that has also been proved to be nonsense because recently another friend of the show

and a friend of ours, George Michelle, who's a wonderful archaeologist and art historian, along with the Archaeological Survey of India and the World Monuments Fund, have dug the site opposite the targe, where the black targe, if it had ever been planned, would have been. And what Eber Koch and George Michel have between them worked out, along with the ASI, is that there was never any plan to build a black targe, because the moonlight garden, Matabag, was built opposite the targe at the same time as the primary place to view the monument from. Right. And that the whole scheme centres around where you should look at it from.

So he's thought of everything? It has a garden full of fountains and it is specifically planted with night plants. So they will be fragrant while you watch it? So you can watch it at night, listening to music. in the cool of the evening under the light of the moon. The Gardens of Paradise, where every sense is assorted by beauty. I want to talk a little bit about something that is less beautiful, and that's Nicola Manucci. Can we just talk about him for a minute?

Because there is a lot of wafting nonsense that comes from Manucci. So Manucci was a Venetian writer. He was a self-taught physician, so this is the kind of person that you don't want to go and see. He was a conman who pretended to be a physician, yeah. Exactly. There were a lot of them floating around India. There was a homeopath who was sort of treating Ranjit Singh or not. So, you've got a lot of these Europeans who come with their snake oil saying,

I can make that grow back. Anyways, but Manucci is considered to be a very useful firsthand source here in Europe for the Mughal rule because he's up close and personal to it. But he does waft these stories. I mean, one of the stories I remember chatting to you just yesterday saying, you know, Manucci is really unkind about Shah Jahan, the love for his wife, because he does paint a picture. of Shahjahar going completely manhole after his wife dies.

And that doesn't really fit with what I understood to be grief and pining and sort of drifting away. It's complete nonsense. And it's the beginning of those sort of orientalist fantasies. Europeans arriving in India, hearing exactly that the moguls have harrims of 2,000 women and sort of doing sort of, you know, porno imaginings of what's going on. And, as I tell you, one of the extraordinary things about the moguls is that they are extraordinarily exurious. We have these whole succession of men who, despite having access to every woman in South Asia and Iran and Central Asia, actually fall in love and are very good husbands. And this continues through to Shah Jahan's son, Dara Shuka, who we're going to be talking about in the next episode.

So Manucci arrives at very young in Mughal India. He is, I think, 17 or 18. He's a Venetian. he's looking to make money and as you say he successfully passes himself off as a doctor, which he has no training in at all. And according to him and many Indian historians doubt the veracity of this, he gets into the Mughal apartments and puts his hand through grills and various harring women rub their breasts against his hand and this sort of story. Whether or not that's true, he seems to have been at a slightly later period an artilleryman because the Mughals had great opinion about European artillerymen being better than them. And anyone that says that they know how to run a cannon is immediately welcomed into the

mogul forces, whether they're competent or not. So Mnucci goes around and why we are so lucky to have him, despite his unreliability, is that he writes voluminously about all sorts of things which no one else mentions. He writes four volumes in the translated English edition. But apparently, I have a friend called Gianni Dubini, who's done a PhD on Manucci, and who is himself a Venetian and has studied the original Manucci manuscript, which survives in the great library opposite San Marco. Apparently, half of the Manucci writings are not translated or published at all, that they're just sitting there in this manuscript waiting a final scholarly edition. He gives an entire story of his outward journey from Venice through Iran and on his way out and on his way back. And there's various points where because he becomes very fluent in Persian, he's of great use to all sorts of people.

He settles in the young city of Madras, Madras de Patnam, which has just been founded by the East Indy Company at the end of his life. And he at one point is sent out when the noireb of the kinetic surrounds Madras and the ruler. points out to the East Indy Company that they haven't paid their taxes for 10 years and could they cough up or else he'll besiege the city and destroy it. And the East Indy Company doesn't send an army out. It sends Nicola Manucci. Right. And Manucci just walks out the gates and he says, look here, you can do all these terrible things and we can't stop you. We're certainly not militarily powerful enough to resist you. But the East Indie Company will boycott your regime and we will found a new factory in Bengal and all your neighbours will become richer

the new. And it's the same argument that's the Amazon uses today, and deciding to pay tax in Ireland or not pay tax on Ireland rather than anywhere else. So, I mean, that's a brilliant pen portrait of Manucci. But when you have somebody, like as a historian of many decades standing, at what point do you start calling bullshit on everything if there is bullshit on much? So, you know, with Manucci who's peddling these stories about Shahjahar being actually, I mean, he paints him as like a drunk, womanizing, useless sod after his woman. wife dies. Well, I think people, what they tend to do is that they distinguish between the things Manucci clearly was involved in and knew about and things which he clearly can't possibly have

known about, such as Sharjahan's sex life, you know, any more than we can judge on the outskirts of Bucking Palace, what's going on in Bucking Palace today. We can speculate and tabloid newspapers will do, but Manucci clearly is a good source for other things, such as we're going to have in the next episode the great battle of succession between Shahjahun's children. And that is, something that Manucci is actually a very useful source for. There is another person. We just mention him because he may come up again in the next episode with Supriya Gandhi. But another sort of travelling dodgy doctor, at this time, not Italian or Venetian, but French. This is Francois Bernier, who also travels in the mogul empire.

And do we also call bullshit on what he says, or do we say actually on this period he's pretty good? So again, we're kind of skeptical, but because he provides evidence which no one else has, we do rather like hearing what he has to say. And what we should also say is that Manucci plagiarises Bernier. He gets a copy at some point of Bernier's manuscript. And there are all sorts of passages which are just reduced. I love Bernier. He's so French. Although he's 17th century and I'm suspicious in general of national stereotypes, he just comes across as sort of brilliantly French. He's proud and arrogant. He's a gourmet and an eshete. He's obviously an admirer of female beauty, but he's also a terrific scandalmonger. So a lot of these naughty stories that Manucci tells start off

with Bernier. And there are these lovely comparisons of Mughal India in 17th century France. He says that the Yamuna compares favourably with Lois, which is the opposite of the case today, where the Lois is a bit cleaner than the poor Yamuna. He thinks that adultery is easier in Paris than it is in Delhi. In France, it only excites merriment, but in this part of the world, there are few instances where it is not followed by some dreadful and tragical catastrophe. Can I commend you on your restraint? Because you started Cluso and then gave it up very, very quickly in that question. Can I say, I think you made the right decision with that reading.

Well, I'm going to go back to Cluzo, because there's then a wonderful passage, when he compares Indian Nan with good Parisian baguettes. Right. And he says, Bakers are very numerous, but their ovens are unlike our own and very defective. The bread, therefore, is neither well-made nor properly baked, although that sold in the fort is tolerably good. In its composition, the bakers are not sparing of fresh butter, milk and eggs, but though it be raised and has a burnt taste, it is too much like cake. It is never to be

compared with the pan de goness and other delicious varieties to be met with in Paris. And Empire would like to apologise to all our French listeners, wherever they may be listening from around the world. We in no way endorse or support that last quotation. One last thing about Bernie, if I'm allowed, just I know I'm going over time. But the one thing that Bernier says is far more wonderful than is given credit for is Mughal architecture. And he sort of apologises to his French readers. He says, I have sometimes been astonished to hear of the contemptuous manner. Stop taking it in French.

I can't concentrate on what you're saying. Do it again. Do it proper. Go on. I have sometimes been astonished to hear the contemptuous manner in which Europeans of the Indies speak of Mughal architecture, he writes. I grant that this building is not constructed according to those rules of architecture which we seem to think ought to be implicitly followed, yet I can find no fault that offends the taste. I'm satisfied that even in Paris, a church erected after the model of this temple would be admired, where it only for its singular style of architecture and extraordinary appearance. But what terrifies him is when he goes to the Taj.

And he, too, like you and I, just thinks it's the most wonderful building ever. And then he begins to worry that he's been so long in India, he's lost his sense of taste. And he says, the longer I stay in India, I'm worried that I'm losing my Parisian sensibilities. The last time I saw Taj Mahal's mausoleum, I was in the company of a French merchant, who, like myself, thought that this extraordinary fabric could not be sufficiently admired. I did not venture to express my opinion, fearing that my taste might have become corrupted by my long residence in the Indies. But since my companion had recently come from France, it was quite a relief to hear him say that he had seen nothing in Europe quite so bold and majestic. See, that's a lovely way of writing. That is a lovely. I just had to check myself to make sure I hadn't gone completely native.

And then my mate who's just arrived said, no, no, you're right. It's lovely. One thing I wanted to stay. No, I'm not leaving Bernie at all because he does write about Jahanara, who, you know, we adore Jihannaara, the one member of the family no one wants to kill. The daughter, the favourite daughter. And she's 16 at the time, and she kind of shifts into place and takes the place of her mother in being the most authoritative female in the court. But she is also counsellor, support, and, you know, just everything to her dad, who's crumbling and falling. And Bernie writes about this. Shahjahar reposed unbounded confidence in his favorite child, he writes.

She watched over his safety and so cautiously observant that no dish was permitted to appear upon the royal table which hadn't been prepared under her superintendents. He does also, he says there's incest in this relationship. So let me read what he says. He said it would have been unjust to deny the king the privilege of gathering fruit from the tree he himself had planted. So he's basically saying that Sharjahan is having a sexual relationship with his daughter? And it's a hundred percent wrong because we've got, you know, innumerable letters

between the two of them and there's not the slightest incand, nor was there at the time except with this guy. So why is he doing this? I mean, it's the worst thing you can say. I think, again, it's just the way that Europeans are brought up to kind of think about oriental despots. They do these terrible things in the minds of the travellers at this time and these rumours spread. But one of the great things about this period is we have a huge amount of documentation. And Jahanara is actually rather a saint. She's this kind of incredibly reconcilatory figure, bringing all the warring men and this family constantly together. And she writes wonderful poetry, and she looks after her dad in old age.

She's an admirable character. It is just, you know... What's a scandal-mongering gossip of the worst grade. Now, look, we've talked about the Taj Mahal, which is the mausoleum to Jahanah's mother. Shah Jahan's wife, but what is he, is he going to find his final place of rest next to his wife or he's got something else in mind? There's another place for him, isn't there? Well, we don't know and we don't have any record of him making plans either to put himself in this tomb or not. What is clear is that Mumtaz is put in the centre under the dome as if it's

only her mausoleum. And when eventually he is laid to rest next to her, he's buried off centre in this building where everything is symmetrical. The one thing which is asymmetrical is his grave, which is just sort of appended awkwardly next to his wife. Because there was talk that Sharjahannabad was where he was going to be laid to rest. And I mean, tell us about Sharjah Annabird. So Sharjahabad may well have been where he planned to bury himself because all the evidence is that the Taj Mahal was specifically planned for Mumtaz. In inscriptions, in the layout, there is no sign that he thought he was going to end up there himself. And yes, I mean, he presumed that he would have many years to live and plan something for himself somewhere else.

But Shah Jahanabad is ostensibly Delhi, what we call Delhi. Shahjahabad is what we call old Delhi today, the walled city to the north of the British New Delhi. This is Shahjahan's last great major building project. years after he's built the Taj Mahal, he plans a new capital. He decides to leave Agra, partly perhaps because of memories of Mumtaz and her tomb and not wanting to spend his life looking onto her tomb and having to remember. Or maybe just because he was this sort of manic builder who wanted to build a new city. And there are wonderful descriptions of him setting out to build a last great capital. just like Akbar had done at Fadipar Secri, he is the first mogul to really see Delhi as a capital.

Babu had hardly gone there, Akbar was nearly assassinated there and stays away from it. Jahangir is between Agra and Lahore. And it's Shah Jahan who moves the capital of the Mughal Empire back to Delhi, the ancestral centre. It's been the centre ever since the Muslims arrived in 1192 and conquered the city of Delhi. It's been the center of political action in North India. And in 1648, he begins this project of creating a new imperial capital. So, as with everything to do with Shah Jahan, there's a lot of consulting of astrologers and looking at the moments of the heavens.

And at the precise moment on April, the 18th, 1648, deemed to be most auspicious by the astrologers, Shah Jahan lands at the Quajakizagate of the River Yamuna just below what will be known for future posterity as the Red Fort. And he made, quote, his ceremonial entry into the splendid palaces of the fort. After inspecting the various buildings and edifices, he took his seat at the jeweled throne of the Hall of Public Audience, where he held a public levy, while loud beating of the royal drums, made glad sounds of rejoicing, Earl through the universe. And of course, this building is still to this day where Indian prime ministers address their people every Independence Day. And this year, Prime Minister Modi made his speech from the Red Fort, although this is a prime minister who has almost built his career on

attacking the moguls as a period of what he calls a thousand years of slavery. He still can't get away from this tradition of speaking, making the great annual address from the steps of the Red Fort? Well, look, we're sort of coming to the end of our time here, but join us next time when we talk about, you know, a man that we've presented to you, who is in the midst of building up his absolute authority through architectural grandeur. He's, you know, built a whole city, old Delhi from the ground up Shahjahanaban. He looks as though nothing can touch him. He is impregnable, but he is about to become very vulnerable indeed. Join us next time. Until then, it's goodbye from me, Anita Arnan.

Like a goodbye from me, William Duremberg.