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Saman Burj
Musamman Burj also known as the Saman Burj or the Shah-burj, is an octagonal tower standing close to the Shah Jahan's private hall Diwan-e-Khas in Agra Fort. History Musamman Burj was built by Shah Jahan for his beloved wife Mumtaz Mahal. It is said that at first a small marble palace built by Akbar was situated at this site, which was later demolished by Jehangir to erect new buildings. Shah Jahan in his turn chose this site to erect the multi-storied marble tower inlaid with precious stones for Mumtaz Mahal. It was built between 1631 and 1640 and offers exotic views of the famous Taj Mahal. Architecture The Musamman Burj is made of delicate marble lattices with ornamental niches so that the ladies of the court could gaze out unseen. The decoration of the walls is pietra dura. The chamber has a marble dome on top and is surrounded by a verandah with a beautiful carved fountain in the center. The tower looks out over the River Yamuna and is traditionally considered to have ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yamuna
The Yamuna (; ) is the second-largest tributary river of the Ganges by discharge and the longest tributary in India. Originating from the Yamunotri Glacier at a height of about on the southwestern slopes of Bandarpunch peaks of the Lower Himalaya in Uttarakhand, it travels and has a drainage system of , 40.2% of the entire Ganges Basin. It merges with the Ganges at Triveni Sangam, Prayagraj, which is a site of the Kumbh Mela, a Hindu festival held every 12 years. Like the Ganges, the Yamuna is highly venerated in Hinduism and worshipped as the goddess Yamuna. In Hinduism, she is believed to be the daughter of the sun god, Surya, and the sister of Yama, the god of death, and so she is also known as Yami. According to popular Hindu legends, bathing in Yamuna's sacred waters frees one from the torments of death. The river crosses several states such as Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Delhi. It also meets several tributaries along the way, including Ton ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Buildings And Structures Completed In 1640
A building or edifice is an enclosed structure with a roof, walls and windows, usually standing permanently in one place, such as a house or factory. Buildings come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and functions, and have been adapted throughout history for numerous factors, from building materials available, to weather conditions, land prices, ground conditions, specific uses, prestige, and aesthetic reasons. To better understand the concept, see ''Nonbuilding structure'' for contrast. Buildings serve several societal needs – occupancy, primarily as shelter from weather, security, living space, privacy, to store belongings, and to comfortably live and work. A building as a shelter represents a physical separation of the human habitat (a place of comfort and safety) from the ''outside'' (a place that may be harsh and harmful at times). buildings have been objects or canvasses of much artistic expression. In recent years, interest in sustainable planning and building practi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Moti Masjid, Agra
} The Moti Masjid () is a Sunni Friday mosque, situated in the Agra Fort, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, located in Agra, in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India. Built in the 17th-century by Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan, the mosque is made entirely of white marble. The mosque is a Monument of National Importance, administered by the Archaeological Survey of India. History The Agra Fort's modern appearance is largely owed to Shah Jahan, who dismantled several structures within the Agra Fort to add his own in marble. The Moti Masjid was one such structure. The mosque was constructed in the period 1646-1653, which was notably later than all of his other Agra Fort contributions (these were commenced in 1627, his first regnal year, and completed in 1638). The mosque's completion in 1653 was five years after the Mughal residence had shifted to Shahjahanabad. When Shah Jahan visited the mosque upon its completion, he was so impressed with the structure that he returned two years later t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shah Jahani Mahal
The Shah Jahan Mahal is palace in the Agra Fort in northern India. History Palace is situated between the white marble ''Khas Mahal'' and the red stone '' Jahangiri Mahal'' and is set, transitionally, in between these two major residential complexes of two different ages. It is the earliest attempt of the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan to convert an existing redstone building in accordance with his taste. It is his earliest palace in Agra Fort and has a large hall and side rooms, and an octagonal tower on the river side. The skeletal construction of the brick masonry and red stone were all white, stuccoed with a thick plaster and colourfully painted with floral designs. The whole palace once glistened white, like white marble. On its face towards the ''Khas Mahal'' is a white marble dalan, composed of five nine-cusped arches supported on double pillars and protected externally by a Chhajja. Its western bay was closed to house the Ghaznin gate. Babur's baoli Stepwells (also ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Agra
Agra ( ) is a city on the banks of the Yamuna river in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, about south-east of the national capital Delhi and 330 km west of the state capital Lucknow. With a population of roughly 1.6 million, Agra is the fourth-most populous city in Uttar Pradesh and List of cities in India by population, twenty-third most populous city in India. Agra's notable historical period began during Sikandar Khan Lodi's reign, but the golden age of the city began with the Mughals in the early 16th century. Agra was the foremost city of the Indian subcontinent and the capital of the Mughal Empire under Mughal emperors Babur, Humayun, Akbar, Jahangir and Shah Jahan. Under Mughal rule, Agra became a centre for learning, arts, commerce, and religion, and saw the construction of the Agra Fort, Sikandra, Agra, Sikandra and Agra's most prized monument, the Taj Mahal, constructed between 1632 and 1648 by Shah Jahan in remembrance of his wife Mumtaz Mahal. With the decline ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aurangzeb
Alamgir I (Muhi al-Din Muhammad; 3 November 1618 – 3 March 1707), commonly known by the title Aurangzeb, also called Aurangzeb the Conqueror, was the sixth Mughal emperors, Mughal emperor, reigning from 1658 until his death in 1707, becoming the second longest-ruling emperor of Hindustan (48 years and 7 months). Under his reign, the Mughal Empire reached its greatest extent, with territory spanning nearly the entirety of the Indian subcontinent. Aurangzeb and the Mughals belonged to a branch of the Timurid dynasty. He held administrative and military posts under his father Shah Jahan () and gained recognition as an accomplished military commander. Aurangzeb served as the viceroy of the Viceroy of the Deccan, Deccan in 1636–1637 and the governor of Gujarat under Mughal Empire, Gujarat in 1645–1647. He jointly administered the provinces of Subah of Multan, Multan and Sind State, Sindh in 1648–1652 and continued expeditions into the neighboring Safavid Iran, Safavid ter ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jahanara Begum
Jahanara Begum (23 March 1614 – 16 September 1681) was a princess of the Mughal Empire. She was the second and the eldest surviving child of Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal. After Mumtaz Mahal's untimely death in 1631, the 17-year-old Jahanara was entrusted with the charge of the royal seal and conferred the title of '' Padshah Begum'' (First lady) of the Mughal Empire, even though her father had three surviving wives. She was Shah Jahan's favorite daughter and wielded major political influence during her father's reign, and has been described as "the most powerful woman in the empire" at the time. Jahanara was an ardent partisan of her brother, Dara Shikoh, and supported him as her father's chosen successor. During the war of succession which took place after Shah Jahan's illness in 1657, Jahanara sided with the heir-apparent Dara and joined her father in Agra Fort, where he had been placed under house arrest by Aurangzeb. When Aurangzeb ascended to the throne ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pietra Dura
''Pietra dura'' (), ''pietre dure'' () or intarsia lapidary ( see below), called ''parchin kari'' or ''parchinkari'' () in the Indian subcontinent, is a term for the inlay technique of using cut and fitted, highly polished colored stones to create images. It is considered a decorative art. The stonework, after the work is assembled loosely, is glued stone-by-stone to a substrate after having previously been "sliced and cut in different shape sections, and then assembled together so precisely that the contact between each section was practically invisible". Stability was achieved by grooving the undersides of the stones so that they interlocked, rather like a jigsaw puzzle, with everything held tautly in place by an encircling 'frame'. Many different colored stones, particularly marbles, were used, along with semiprecious, and even precious stones. It first appeared in Rome in the 16th century, reaching its full maturity in Florence. ''Pietra dura'' items are generally crafted ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Taj Mahal
The Taj Mahal ( ; ; ) is an ivory-white marble mausoleum on the right bank of the river Yamuna in Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India. It was commissioned in 1631 by the fifth Mughal Empire, Mughal emperor, Shah Jahan () to house the tomb of his beloved wife, Mumtaz Mahal; it also houses the tomb of Shah Jahan himself. The tomb is the centrepiece of a complex, which includes a mosque and a guest house, and is set in formal gardens bounded on three sides by a crenellated wall. Construction of the mausoleum was completed in 1648, but work continued on other phases of the project for another five years. The first ceremony held at the mausoleum was an observance by Shah Jahan, on 6 February 1643, of the 12th anniversary of the death of Mumtaz Mahal. The Taj Mahal complex is believed to have been completed in its entirety in 1653 at a cost estimated at the time to be around 32 million, which in 2015 would be approximately 52.8 billion (827 million). The building complex incorporates ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jehangir
Nur-ud-din Muhammad Salim (31 August 1569 – 28 October 1627), known by his imperial name Jahangir (; ), was List of emperors of the Mughal Empire, Emperor of Hindustan from 1605 until his death in 1627, and the fourth Mughal emperors, Mughal Emperor. Born as Prince Salim, he was the third and only surviving son of Emperor Akbar and his chief empress, Mariam-uz-Zamani. Akbar's quest for a successor took him to visit the Hazrat Ishaan and Salim Chishti, List of Sufi saints, Sufi saints who prophesied the birth of three sons. Jahangir's birth in Fatehpur Sikri was seen as a fulfillment of Chishti's blessings, and he was named after him. His parents’ early life was marked by personal tragedy, including the death of his full twin brothers in infancy, which led to a sense of grief in his family. His early education was comprehensive, covering various subjects including Persian language, Persian, Hindustani language, Hindustani, and military tactics. Jahangir's upbringing was heav ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
