Hindu Mahasabha moves court against Shah Jahan’s annual ‘urs’ at Taj Mahal. ASI says no bar on event

Agra civil court accepted ring-wing outfit’s petition, to be heard on 4 March. Hindu Mahasabha claims no religious programmes are allowed inside ASI-protected monuments.

File image of Taj Mahal in Agra | Photo: Suraj Singh Bisht | ThePrint

Agra: Days before the 369th urs of Mughal emperor Shah Jahan at the Taj Mahal in Agra, a right-wing outfit has petitioned the civil court in the city, seeking a ban on the event.

An urs is an event marking the death anniversary of a saint. Shah Jahan’s urs is held annually for three days on the premises of the Taj Mahal, the construction of which the emperor had commissioned. This year’s urs will start Tuesday.

Speaking to ThePrint, Saurabh Sharma, district president of Hindu Mahasabha, which filed the petition Friday, said that no religious programmes are allowed inside Archaeological Survey of India (ASI)-protected monuments, and thus the urs inside the Taj Mahal was “illegal”.

The court has accepted the outfit’s petition and it will be heard on 4 March.

Sharma said “the ASI has confirmed that it has not given any permission in advance to the urs organising committee” and the committee should be “banned from organising any religious function inside the monument”.

He added that the outfit also intends to petition the court for a survey of the Taj Mahal premises on the lines of the surveys ordered at the Kashi Vishwanath Temple-Gyanvapi Mosque complex in Varanasi, and the Shahi Idgah premises adjoining the Sri Krishna Janmabhoomi temple in Uttar Pradesh’s Mathura.

“A demonstration will soon be held at the ASI office in Agra on this matter,” said Sharma.

Syed Ibrahim Zaidi, chairman of the urs organising committee, told ThePrint that the ASI doesn’t need to give a permit and allows the event every year as long as it doesn’t violate any laws. “A couple of days ago, a meeting was held at the ASI office to discuss the arrangements for the urs,” he said.

When ThePrint reached ASI superintendent Raj Kumar Patel, he said that according to the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1958, no permission needed to be given for the urs.

“We only intimate the Taj Mahal staff and Central Industrial Security Force stationed there that the urs would be held. Secondly, according to the Supreme Court, traditional activities such as urs, Eid and Friday namaz have to continue at the Taj Mahal, as always,” he added.

Detailing the history of the event, Zaidi said the tradition of urs being held inside the Taj Mahal dated back to the time of its construction (between 1631 and 1648). Shah Jahan had ordered the mausoleum to be built in memory of his wife Mumtaz Mahal.

“The first urs of Mumtaz Mahal was celebrated 392 years ago on 22 June, 1632. The second urs was celebrated inside the Taj Mahal on 26 May, 1633, by setting up of tents at the construction site of the tomb. Shah Jahan had distributed Rs 1 lakh among the poor at every urs of Mumtaz Mahal for 12 consecutive years,” Zaidi explained, adding that it was a matter of historical record.

Rubbishing the Hindu Mahasabha’s contentions, Agra Tourist Welfare Chamber president Prahalad Agarwal said that Shah Jahan’s urs was a centuries-old tradition and was permitted by the ASI.

“The mahasabha’s claim that the urs is not permitted by the central government is baseless and is only meant to create an unnecessary controversy that can hurt the tourism industry of the city,” he told ThePrint.

‘Urs’ over the centuries

According to Zaidi, Austrian historian Ebba Koch had written in her book The Complete Taj Mahal that Iranian historian Jalal-al-din had given details of the urs, stating that the body of Mumtaz Mahal was brought from Burhanpur, where she had died during childbirth, to Agra in January 1632, the year when the first urs was held.

The first urs was attended by Shah Jahan, Mumtaz’s father Asaf Khan, Iranian ambassador to the Mughal court Muhammad Ali Beg and other dignitaries from across the country. Along with reading verses from the Quran, Shah Jahan read fatiha for Mumtaz. He also distributed Rs 50,000 to the poor and needy. The women of the royal family who participated in the urs also distributed Rs 50,000 to poor women, Zaidi said, quoting from the book.

According to the details in Koch’s book, Zaidi added, the second urs of Mumtaz was celebrated on 26 May, 1633. By then the lower floor of her tomb on the banks of the Yamuna river was ready. As many as 1,000 people from across the country participated in it. In the evening, Shah Jahan and members of the royal family came to the banks of the Yamuna by boat from the Agra Fort. He climbed up the temporary stairs and after reciting the fatiha, donated Rs 1 lakh along with clothes to the poor. The royal family’s goldsmith then made a gold lattice for Rs 6 lakh, which was placed around the tomb. In the year 1643, the gold lattice was replaced by the existing marble lattice.

Till 15 January, 1645, Shah Jahan attended Mumtaz’s urs at the Taj Mahal. After that, he visited the Taj Mahal for the last time in the year 1654. There is no record of him going to the urs or the Taj Mahal after he was imprisoned in the year 1658, said Zaidi.

After the death of the emperor in 1666, an urs to mark the day started being held, which continues till now. The actual tombs of Shah Jahan and Mumtaz in the basement of the Taj Mahal can only be seen during the three-day urs.

Haji Tahir Uddin Tahir, president of the Khuddam-e-Roza committee which is in charge of offerings at the event, said the main tomb mausoleum would be opened Tuesday. After the ‘ghusl’ (ablution) ritual, there will be ‘fatiha’ (prayers) and ‘mushaira’ (poetic symposium). On Wednesday, there will be a sandalpowder ceremony and qawwali. ‘Chadarposhi’ would be held Thursday, in which a 1560-metre colourful chadar symbolising communal harmony would be offered.

(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)