New Delhi, Feb 5 (PTI) Former Pakistani president Parvez Musharraf was so impressed with the architectural wonder of the Taj Mahal that the first question he asked on seeing the monument was “who designed it”, recalled noted archaeologist K K Muhammed.
Muhammed was the superintending archaeologist of the Agra circle in the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) in 2001 when Musharraf visited India for the Agra Summit with the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
Musharraf, 79, died in Dubai on Sunday after battling an incurable disease.
“He fell in love with the Taj Mahal the moment he looked at it and the first question he asked me was ‘who designed it’,” Muhammed told PTI on Sunday, recalling his nearly hour-long tour of the iconic monument with the Pakistani General.
“He might have expected me to say Shah Jahan, but I told him that the designer (of Taj Mahal) was Ustad Ahmed Lahori, who belonged to Lahore in Pakistan,” he said.
Muhammed was assigned the official tour guide to Musharraf to apprise him of the beauty and uniqueness of the ‘monument of love’.
Musharraf narrated his impression of the Taj Mahal in his book ‘In the Line of Fire: A Memoir’, published on September 25, 2006. It reads, “Agra is the site of the Taj Mahal, the famous Mughal monument to love, one of the wonders of the world because of its perfect symmetry and ethereal beauty.” PTI JP IJT
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