Taj Mahal: Enduringmonumenttolove

Prominent artists serenaded the TAJ MAHAL under a moonlit night as India kicked off marathon celebrations to mark the 350th anniversary of the architectural wonder built by a Mughal emperor in memory of his dead wife.

Indian musical icons Gulam Ali Khan and Hariharan toasted the 17th-century monument to love with songs and Mughal music from a fort overlooking the Taj Mahal as diplomats from several countries including rival Pakistan applauded.

"Let this monument of love become a symbol of brotherhood between India and Pakistan as well as between countries who are now in war," said Mulayam Singh Yadav, provincial chief of northern Uttar Pradesh state where the Taj Mahal is located. "But brothers do fight, so please carry back this message of love from the Taj Mahal," Yadav told Pakistan high commissioner Aziz Ahmed Khan.

Nuclear rivals India and Pakistan have fought three wars since their independence in 1947 and a historic summit collapsed five years ago in this very city over disputed Kashmir, the subject of two of their bloody conflicts.

India’s Supreme Court, meanwhile, dealt a stunning blow to the celebrations, refusing to lift a 20-year ban on night-viewing of the Taj Mahal which India’s travel industry says is necessary to increase tourism in Agra.

"There is definitely a threat of theft and damage to the monument in the night and the court cannot pass orders permitting night viewing of the Taj Mahal without satisfying all concerned from all possible angles," a three-judge bench said in New Delhi.

Earlier, organizers in Agra freed flocks of pigeons to kick off Taj Mahal’s six-month birthday bash on the banks of the Yamuna River where the glittering white onion-domed mausoleum, India’s most enduring tourist symbol, sits.

Women in saris daubed foreheads of Western tourists with color and wreathed them with marigold garlands at the airport, rail and bus stations as they arrived in the city. "This is our ancient custom of hospitality," said chief organiser D. K. Burman.

Buildings along the main road to the monument were painted a rosy pink, a favorite hue of the Mughals who ruled India for three centuries, and welcome arches greeted tourists.

But elsewhere, civic workers driving bulldozers and roadrollers fought a losing battle to ready the congested city of 1.2 million people, 200 kilometers south of New Delhi, for the event.

Despite frantic efforts, mounds of garbage remained and roads were full of potholes.

The Taj Mahal with four slender minarets was built by the heartbroken Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his second wife, Empress Mumtaz Mahal, who died in childbirth.

Some 20,000 workers toiled for years to build the monument in an age of opulence when the dynasty mined precious gems to fund construction of grand projects.

Shah Jahan’s reign from 1628 to 1659 is widely regarded as the golden era in the three centuries of Mughal rule of Afghanistan and undivided India.

The festivities come amid controversy among Indian historians about the actual year of the 350th anniversary.

While the state government of Uttar Pradesh, home to the Taj, says it got its dates right, Indian historians say the festivities are up to a decade too late. The debate has been ignited by contemporary accounts and inscriptions at the site.

"Shah Jahan’s official chronicler Abdul Hamid Lahori writes ... construction began six months after Empress Mumtaz Mahal’s death which was on June 17, 1631," said historian Ramesh Chand Sharma who taught Mughal history for 40 years at Agra’s St. John’s College.

This would mean the Taj was ready by the end of 1643 or early 1644, so the Taj’s 350th anniversary actually occurred a decade ago around 1994, he said.

Some 2.2 million Indians and 800,000 foreigners visited the Taj Mahal last year, far more than any other tourist site in India.

Some 2.75 million foreign tourists came to India in 2003, a national record but only half the figure of tiny Singapore. India has launched an aggressive advertising campaign to boost tourism.