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Mughal history in India brims with legendary love stories and the most famous among these is arguably the one between Shah Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal. Mumtaz Mahal – The muse behind Taj Mahal that was built in her memory got married to Shah Jahan in the year 1612, when the groom was twenty and the bride nineteen years of age. Mumtaz Mahal’s maiden name was Arjumand Banu. She was Asaf Khan’s daughter, who in turn was the brother of Noorjahan, Emperor Jahangir’s wife. Tajmahal-tours.com serves as your one-stop guide when it comes to furnishing usable inputs on Mumtaz Mahal – The muse behind Taj Mahal.
Historical records on the Shah Jahan’s muse, Mumtaz Mahal is quite flimsy. Whatever references of Mumtaz Mahal are available has to do either with her unparalleled beauty or her grace and elegance. Unlike Noorjahan, Mumtaz Mahal was known to be compassionate, generous and coy. Even during her lifetime, the poets would heap generous amount of praises on her. Shah Jahan had first met Mumtaz Mahal at a shop in the Meena Bazaar. It was love at first sight. Within a couple of days, Shah Jahan expressed his desire to marry Arjumand Banu and Jahangir’s consent was easy to procure. However it was not before five years that Shah Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal got married.
Shah Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal were deeply in love with each other. They were literally inseparable. She was the favorite queen of the Emperor and enjoyed certain special privileges due to that. She even accompanied the Emperor on his innumerable campaigns. She bore Shah Jahan fourteen children, of whom seven died during infancy. Mumtaz Mahal died during childbirth and her death came as a shock to Shah Jahan who never quite recovered from it till the time he lived. Before breathing her last, Mumtaz Mahal had elicited a promise from the Emperor to build a monument in her memory- a monument, the like of which, the world had never seen before. Shah Jahan’s promise took the shape of Taj Mahal that stands as the time-defying symbol of the undying love of an emperor for his beloved.

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