Related
Translate
Get RNB via RSS
 |
RNB's RSS feed What is this? |
Get RNB via Email
 |
 Subscribe by Email What is this? |
Follow: Twitter
Most Popular
This Week:
- Guyana’s Jonestown suicide site gets plaque
- Scientology practices ‘putting people at risk’
- Recession: Muslim schools in UK under threat of closure
- Australian senator tells Parliament of widespread criminal conduct within the Church of Scientology
- When a child dies, faith is no defense
- Israel Charges Extremist With Attempted Murder Of Messianic Family
- World’s oldest ocean-going passenger ship, ministry ship Doulos, to stop sailing
- Scientology’s feet held to the fire in Australia: Struggle between a church and the state
- 1-year prison term for man who participated in cyber attack on Church of Scientology Web sites
- Australian police take up complaints about Scientology
Row over Taj Mahal ownership
June 25, 2005
Correspondents in New Delhi, India
www.theaustralian.news.com.au
More articles on this topic: IndiaA descendant of India’s Mughal emperors has staked a claim to ownership of the world’s most famous monument to love, the Taj Mahal, amid a row between Hindus and Muslims over its custody, a report said today.
Prince Yaqub Habeebuddin Tucy, whose family traces its lineage to the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan who built the white marble tomb, staked the claim saying he wanted “to protect the monument from falling into the wrong hands”, the Asian Age newspaper said.
The magnificent 17th-century Taj Mahal built by the emperor as a tomb for his beloved queen, Mumtaz Mahal, is owned and managed by the Archaeological Survey of India as a national monument.
However, the Muslim community’s Sunni Waqf Board recently claimed ownership of the monument, saying since it housed Muslim graves, the Taj belonged to it.
The structure in Agra in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh contains the tombs of Shah Jahan and his queen along with other tombs.
After the Muslims laid claim to the monument, a hardline Hindu outfit, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad or World Hindu Council said the Taj Mahal’s builders constructed it after demolishing a Hindu temple dedicated to Shiva, one of the most important gods in the Hindu pantheon.
The Hindu group said the monument should be declared a temple and added that the key to the mystery lay in a sealed basement in the Taj that it said contained the “pillars and artefact of a temple”.
“What I am interested in is this: If at all the custodianship of the Taj Mahal has to be transferred, it must go to the rightful descendant” of Emperor Shah Jahan, the prince said.
Even though members of India’s royal families were formally stripped of their titles in the early 1970s, many still use them.
What You Can Do From Here
|
Read More Articles On These Topics
 Share, Blog About, Bookmark, or Email This Article
Subscribe
Read Another Article
 Previous entry: Sainthood bid opens for John Paul Next entry: Cult man charged with kidnapping
RNB Homepage with latest headlinesFind Related Information
Find Related Books
|
Share This Article
To share this page simply copy and paste one of these URL's:
