A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day c18.96

c18.96

The statements of cost recorded by writers in Persian vary enormously. The *Bādshāh nāmah* gives ₨. 50,00,000 (50 lakhs) as the cost of the mausoleum itself. The highest estimate of the cost of the whole amounts to the huge sum of ₨. 411,48,826 : 7 : 6 (411 lakhs, 48 thousand, 826 rupees, seven annas, six pies), as stated with curious minuteness, equivalent, at the rate of 2*s.* 3*d.* to the rupee, in round numbers to four and a half million pounds sterling. Intermediate estimates put the expense at three millions sterling, said to have been about the sum which Shahjahān resolved to spend. If the full value of materials be included, the highest figure is not excessive, and may be considered as approximately correct. Tavernier notes that the expense was increased enormously by the necessity of using brick scaffolding and centring. Such lavish expenditure on a single monument and its adjuncts is not likely to be repeated anywhere in the world. Shāhjahān planned for himself a mausoleum of equal magnificence to be erected on the opposite side of the river and united with the Tāj by a marble bridge, but his family troubles prevented the realization of this gigantic conception, and so he sleeps beside the 'Lady of the Tāj'. 'They were lovely and pleasant in their lives and in their death they were not divided.'¹