Since time immemorial, the Taj Mahal has been defined as the ultimate symbol of love. The tragic, sweeping story of Shah Jahan and Mumtaz continues to set an example for couples worldwide. But what if the Taj is not just about human romance, but also a monument of faith, carefully designed to guide you on a spiritual journey?
This was the premise of “Reading the Taj Mahal Beyond Marble“, a lecture hosted by Hyderabad’s Salar Jung Museum in collaboration with Delhi Art Gallery on July 8. The talk delivered by author and scholar Fr Dr Michael D Calabria accompanied “The Mute Eloquence of the Taj Mahal: Ba-zaban-e Be-zabani,” an exhibition curated by renowned historian Rana Safvi.
Drawing from years of research for his book The Language of the Taj Mahal: Islam, Prayer and the Religion of Shah Jahan, Dr Calabria invited the audience to slow down and experience the monument through an entirely different lens.
The journey begins before the marble
“Often when I am at the Taj, I see tourists running through the gate. They just want to see the tomb,” he observed. “But the people who designed the complex wanted you to stop at the gateway.”
The reason, he explained, lies above the gateway itself, where the chapter Al-Fajr (The Dawn) from the Quran is inscribed. So, regardless of what time visitors arrive, their journey at the Taj Mahal symbolically begins at dawn.
For Dr Calabria, the chapter marks not just the start of a new day but the beginning of a journey beyond death. Its closing verses invite the faithful to, “Return to your Lord, well pleased with Him and well pleasing to Him. So join My servants and enter My Garden.”
Rather than rushing through the entrance, he urged visitors to pause, absorb the words and begin the experience as the monument’s creators intended.
Taj Mahal is meant to be read
According to Dr Calabria, the Quranic inscriptions across the Taj Mahal were never intended as ornamentation. Instead, they were carefully selected and arranged to create a narrative that unfolds according to the visitor’s movement through the monument. Visitors encounter 14 complete Surahs across the complex, from the monumental gateway and the mausoleum to the mosque, not in the order they appear in the Quran, but in the sequence they were meant to be read as one journeys through the Taj Mahal. In total, there are 22 separate Quranic passages inlaid into the marble and stone surfaces throughout the monument.
“The Taj is not only a work of funerary architecture,” he said. “To visit the Taj Mahal is to make a pilgrimage from the darkness of death in this world to the dawn of new light in the next. We are invited into the lives and the deaths of Mumtaz Mahal and Shah Jahan, as historical figures in this journey. But the Taj Mahal is not merely a historical artefact. It is a monument of Shah Jahan’s faith and of living that faith.”
He pointed to the inscription of the chapter Ya-Sin in the main mausoleum, whose concluding verse, “To Him you will all be returned,” echoes the invitation to “return” first encountered in chapter Al-Fajr at the gateway. In his reading, this recurring idea of return ties the entire monument together, guiding visitors physically through its spaces while inviting them to reflect on life, death and what lies beyond.
“The sacred text that greets us speaks to us as they have spoken to every visitor for more than 380 years. These texts question us. They challenge us. They exhort us, they remind us, and they may at times even frighten us. But they also inspire, reassure, and comfort us,” he said.
The carefully chosen inscriptions also offer a glimpse into Shah Jahan’s state of mind following Mumtaz Mahal’s death in 1631.
Inside the central chamber, visitors encounter the chapter Al-Mulk (The Sovereignty), which affirms God’s dominion over life and death. He suggested that its placement was deeply significant for an emperor struggling to make sense of personal tragedy.
He also drew attention to the chapter Al-Fath (The Victory), whose message transforms disappointment into hope and promises paradise to those who persevere with patience and faith. The chapter may have offered similar consolation to Shah Jahan as he mourned the loss of Mumtaz.
Rather than seeing the inscriptions as isolated verses, Dr Calabria argued that they reveal a deeply personal dimension of the monument. Together, they suggest that the Taj Mahal was also Shah Jahan’s attempt to understand grief through faith.
Bringing this narrative to life was the Persian-born calligrapher Abd al-Haq Shirazi, better known as Amanat Khan, who spent nearly eight years working on the Taj Mahal. He painstakingly chiselled every letter into the marble after the 50-foot facade had already been constructed, with the calligraphy flowing seamlessly across the joints of multiple marble slabs. “Many people think it’s painted onto the stone. Every black mark that we see is inlaid into the wall,” Dr Calabria explained.
A monument that still speaks
By the end of the evening, Dr Calabria did not replace the Taj Mahal’s reputation as a symbol of love. Instead, he expanded it.
That idea then continues in The Mute Eloquence of the Taj Mahal- Ba-zaban-e Be-zabani exhibition that is currently on display at the Salar Jung Museum in Hyderabad. Curated by Rana Safvi, the exhibition brings together more than 200 Company School paintings, photographs, postcards and archival works. It invites visitors to see the Taj as a monument that “speaks” through its architecture, calligraphy, gardens, floral motifs, and centuries of artistic interpretations.
The exhibition is on display until October 4, 2026 and is open daily from 10 am to 6 pm, except on Fridays.
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