Taj Mahal Architect - Italian Architect
Famous As: 7th Wonder of the world
Taj Mahal Was Built By: Mughal Emperor Shahjahan
Built In The Memory Of: Mumtaz Mahal
The Taj Mahal was designed by an Italian Architect
Some
European scholars held the view that the Taj Mahal was designed by an
Italian - Geronimo Veroneo. This was first suggested by Father Manrique,
an Augustinian Friar, who came to Agra in 1640 A.D. to secure the release
of Father Antony who had been imprisoned by the Mughals. It was in Lahore
that he met Father Joseph de Castro, the executor of Veroneo who died at
Lahore in 1640 A.D., and it was Castro who told him about "the
Venetian by the name Geronimo Veroneo who came in the Portuguese ships and
died in the city of Lahore before he reached it..."
During the reign of Jehangir, a goldsmith named Veroneo did in fact come
to India and, as mentioned by Father Manrique, did die on his way to
Lahore. He lived for a time in Agra, and prospered there. He knew many
influential Europeans throughout the North Indian provinces, and when he
died, he was buried in the Christian cemetery of Padres Santos in Agra.
The theory that Veroneo designed the Taj Mahal is intriguing and still
finds occasional champions, especially in Italy. But the scales of
evidence weigh heavily against it. True there is the testimony of Father
Manrique, but he was no more than a casual tourist who heard that the Taj
had been built by an Italian.
However, nowhere else is mention made of Veroneo's participation in
planning the Taj Mahal. As a matter of fact, there is no record that
Veroneo had any skill other than that of working gold. Other Europeans who
saw the Taj under construction never mentioned his name, and furthermore,
it is difficult to suppose that an artist trained in seventeenth century
Italy, the Italy of Bernini, could build a mausoleum that would typify
Indo-Persian architecture. The Taj Mahal is not an isolated phenomenon,
the creation of a single mastermind but the glorious consummation of a
great epoch of art.
