Looking along the fort's exterior wall towards Jahangiri Mahal
Looking towards the Khas Mahal and Mussaman Burj
Taj Mahal from Shahjahani Mahal
When his son usurped the throne and imprisoned him in the octagonal tower of the Mussaman Burj, he could still look out at the Taj Mahal.
The Khas Mahal (1637) and the Musamman Burj were built of white marble.
Khas Mahal
Of the two flanking pavilions built for Shah Jahan’s two daughters Jahanara and Roshanara, one was of white stuccoed red sandstone, the other of marble.
One of two pavilions flanking the Khas Mahal
The Khas Mahal is of classic Mogul design with five arches in front and three on each side.
Archway of Khas Mahal
It has an elaborately carved cornice,
Exterior Cornice of Khas Mahal
numerous niches,
and exquisite paintings with stone inlay.
- Ceiling painting
The Mussaman Burj, originally built of red stone by Akbar, was rebuilt by Shah Jahan in white marble. The signboard describes it as being “profusely ornamented” with “exquisitely inlaid designs.”
- Stone inlay
The deep blue flowers are lapis lazuli.
- Flowers of Lapis Lazuli, not paint
In the Diwan-i Khas (or Hall of Private Audiences), the emperor sat on his Peacock Throne of solid gold inlaid with precious and semiprecious stone to meet with courtiers and foreign envoys. The throne was made from over 2,200 lb of gold and studded with 440 lb of precious stones including diamonds, emeralds and rubies. Moved to the Red Fort in Delhi when Shah Jahan moved the capital there, it was looted by Iranian Nadir Shah in 1739 and later destroyed.
The building itself was a masterpiece of stone carving and inlay.
- Entrance to Diwan-i Khas
- Elaborately carved capital of Diwan-i Khas
The lines and flowers on the column are all stone inlay.
In the Diwan-i Am or Hall of Public Audiences, the emperor listened to petitioners and conducted other public business.
- Diwan-i Am or Hall of Public Audience
Built by Shah Jehan (1628-35), the pillared hall measures 208 x 76 feet. It has 9 broad, semi-circular, 9-cusped engrailed arches on the facade and 3 arches on each side, supported on grand double-columns.
- Diwan-i Am
It is 3 aisles deep and is composed of 40 symbolic pillar sites, making 27 auspicious astronomical bays. Built of red sandstone, it has been white shell-plastered.
Hall of Public AudienceAs you can see, it was Shah Jahan who completed the conversion of a servicable red sandstone fort into a white marble palace fit for an emperor just one year before Louis XIV was born and more than a generation before the Baroque took hold in Europe. With no gold or jewels left to help the visitor experience the opulence of the palace as it was in its prime, one must do as Ernest Havell suggested:
When the afterglow fills the sky, burnishes the gilded roofs, and turns the marble to rose-colour, imagination may re-people these lovely pavilions with fair Indian women–revel in the feast of colour in saris, brocades, and carpets; in the gold, azure, and crimson of the painted ceilings; and listen to the water splashing in the fountains and gurgling over the carved water-shoots– a scene of voluptuous beauty such as the world has rarely known since the wealth and elegance of Rome filled the palaces and villas of Pompei.