A memento for love.

‘Since the heaven and earth were created, you were made for me and I was made for you and I will not let you go” declared Chang Po to his beloved Meilan (Youtang, 1954, p.73)

“My beloved, the delight of my eyes”, exclaimed Inanna of her beloved Dumuzi in a Sumerian Poem recorded some four hundred years ago (Wolkstein, 1991, p.51)

An anonymous Kwakiutel Indian of southern Alaska recited these words in 1896: “Fires run through my body - the pain of loving you”. (Hamill, 1996)

Then the legend of the love between Prince Salim and a commoner Anarkali. The prince and the girl fall in love. Emperor Akbar deems the romance against royal wishes. The prince rebels and is sentenced to death. Anarkali steps forward and says that she will sacrifice her life instead, but wishes to spend one night with her lover. They have that one night. In the morning, the palace guards take her away and she is sandwiched alive in a brick wall!

Every culture in the world has had its version of Shah Jahan and Mumtaz. In a survey of 166 varied cultures, anthropologists found evidence of romantic love in 147. There were no negative data; in the remaining 19 societies, scholars have simply failed to examine this aspect of life. (The New Psychology of Love, Edited by Robert J. Sternberg and Karin Weis, 1992). India is no exception to this. Layla and Majnu, Satyavan and Savithri, Shiva and Shakthi, Salim and Anarkali and the list is endless. All these pairs have immortalised their love in some form. Shajahan chose to do so by building a cenotaph (Can I call it a cenotaph?) for his wife, who died during childbirth. Taj Mahal is the most beautiful and most precious token of love from a husband to his wife.

Edmond de Goncourt, said “Today I begin to understand what love must be, if it exists. When we are parted, we each feel the lack of the other half of ourselves. We are incomplete like a book in two volumes of which the first has been lost. That is what I imagine love to be: incompleteness in absence”. Shah Jahan must have felt the same way when he lost his wife. Was it to give expression to his love that he built the Taj Mahal? Probably yes.

John Lennon’s view of love; “Love is a promise; love is a souvenir, once given never forgotten, never let it disappear”. Shahjahan could have also thought in a similar way.

“Love is a canvas furnished by Nature and embroidered by imagination”. Voltaire. I entirely agree with Voltaire, looking at the way Taj was conceived and executed by Shah Jahan.

“Love is a great beautifier”. Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888) American author. I must say L M Alcott was spot on! As a tomb, it has no match upon earth, for mortal remains have never been housed in

greater grandeur! Sigmund Freud said “One is very crazy when in love”. Very true again because Shah Jahan is believed to have emptied the treasury of his kingdom for Taj Mahal and spent 22 years in building Taj, neglecting his duties as an emperor!

After practicing for 30 years as a psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud said “The great question that has never been answered, and which I have not yet been able to answer, despite my thirty years of research into the feminine soul, is "What does a woman want?". Perhaps Shah Jahan was also baffled with his Mumtaz! He probably did not know what Mumtaz wanted. Confused thoroughly, did he build Taj Mahal? You never know.

May be the views of Sigmund Freud are a little cynical here, but it is also another way of looking at it.

Someone said,’ I believe that if I should die, and you were to walk near my grave, from the very depths of the earth I would hear your footsteps’. Would Mumtaz have heard the footsteps of Shah Jahan when he walked around Taj?

There are different views and interpretations of Taj Mahal. Whatever said and done the fact cannot be denied that Taj Mahal is indeed India's richest tribute to womanhood.

Now to modern Shah Jahan, Ekambaram.


Who is this guy?

Ekambaram was an ordinary agriculturist in Kelambakkam, Chennai, Southern India. He and his wife were married for over 30 years and were living happily till 2005. His wife Janaki died due to natural causes in 2005. Ekambaram spent 1 million rupees (which was his life’s savings) and built a temple for his wife! (It is in the Kelambakkam main road.)The sanctum sanctorum of this temple has the picture of Janaki and her beloved husband, Ekambaram, prays to it even today in this temple!!! According to Ekambaram, Janaki is still living in this temple! Not many people know about this Ekambaram and his temple of LOVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Shah Jahan and Ekambaram both built a memento for their love. Shah Jahan, was an emperor who had everything in his command. But for Ekambaram only thing that was in his command was his strong love for his wife! That makes the difference!!!!!!!!!