Taj Mahal, considered to be a symbol of love, holds some unsolved mystery put forth by the well know historian Mr. P.N. Oak.
He claims that Taj Mahal is a temple dedicated to Lord Shiva named Tejo Mahalaya.
Oak discovered that the Shiva temple palace had been usurped by Shah Jahan from then Maharaja of Jaipur, Jai Singh. Shah Jahan then remodelled the palace into his wife’s memorial. In his own court chronicle, Badshahnama, Shah Jahan admits that an exceptionally beautiful grand mansion in Agra was taken from Jai Singh for Mumtaz’s burial. The ex-Maharaja of Jaipur is said to retain in his secret collection two orders from Shah Jahan for the surrender of the Taj building.
This theory has been backed by : – Professor Marvin Miller of New York took samples from the riverside doorway of the Taj. Carbon dating tests revealed that the door was 300 years older than Shah Jahan.
– European traveller Johan Albert Mandelslo, who visited Agra in 1638 (only seven years after Mumtaz’s death), describes the life of the city in his memoirs, but makes no reference to the Taj Mahal being built.
– The writings of Peter Mundy, an English visitor to Agra within a year of Mumtaz’s death, also suggest that the Taj was a noteworthy building long well before Shah Jahan’s time.
Many rooms in the Taj Mahal have remained sealed since Shah Jahan’s time, and are still inaccessible to the public. Oak asserts they contain a headless statue of Shiva and other objects commonly used for worship rituals in Hindu temples.