Read the following passage
carefully and answer the questions:
The Taj Mahal
has become one of the world’s best known monuments. This domed white marble
structure is situated on a high plinth at the southern end of four-quartered
garden, evoking the gardens of paradise, enclosed within walls measuring 305 by
549 meters. Outside the walls, in an area known as Mumtazabad, were living
quarters for attendants, market, serials and other structures built by local
merchants and nobles. The tomb complex and the other imperial structures of
Mumtazabad were maintained by the income of thirty villages given specifically
for the tomb’s support. The name Taj Mahal is unknown in Mughal chronicles, but
it is used by contemporary Europeans in India, suggesting that this was the
tomb’s popular name. in contemporary texis, it is generally called simply the
illuminated Tomb (Rauza-i-Munavvara).
Mumtaz Mahal
died shortly after delivering her fourteenth child in 1631. The Mughal court
was then residing in Buhanpur. Her remains were temporarily buried by the grief
stricken emperor in a spacious garden known as Zainabad on the bank of the
river Tapti. Six months later her body was transported to Agra, where it was
interred in land chosen for the mausoleum. This land, situated south of the
Mughal city on the bank of the Jamuna, had belonged to the Kachwaha rajas since
the time of Raja Man Singh and was purchased from the then current raja, Jai
Singh. Although contemporary chronicles indicate Jai Singh’s willing
cooperation in this exchange, extantfarmans (imperial commands) indicate that the final
price was not settled until almost two years after the mausoleum’s
commencement. Jai Singh’s further cooperation was insured by imperial orders
issued between 1632 and 1637 demanding that the provide stone masons and carts
to transport marble from the mines at Makrana, within his “ancestral domain”,
to Agra where both the Taj Mahal and Shah Jahan’s additions to the Agra fort
were constructed concurrently.
Work on the
mausoleum was commenced early in 1632. Inscriptional evidence indicates much of
the tomb was completed by 1636. By 1643, when Shah Jahan most lavishly
celebrated the ‘Urs ceremony for Mumtaz Mahal’, the entire complex was
virtually complete.
1. Marble stone
used for the construction of te Taj Mahal was brought from te ancestral domain
of Raja Jai Singh. The name of the place where mines of marble is
(A) Burhanpur
(B) Makrana
(C) Amber
(D) Jaipur
2. The popular
name Taj Mahal was given by
(A) Shah
Jahan
(B) Tourists
(C) Public
(D) European
travellers
3. Point out
the true statement from the following:
(A) Marble was not used for the
construction of the Taj Mahal.
(B) Red sand
stone is non-visible in the Taj Mahal complex.
(C) The Taj
Mahal is surrounded by a four-quatered garden known as Chahr Bagh.
(D) The Taj
Mahal was constructed to celebrate the “Urs ceremony for Mumtaz Mahal”.
4. In the
contemporary texts the Taj Mahal is known
(A) Mumtazabad
(B) Mumtaz Mahal
(C) Zainabad
(D)
Rauza-i-Munavvara
5. The
Construction of the Taj Mahal was completed between the period
(A) 1632-1636
A.D.
(B) 1630-1643
A.D.
(C) 1632-1643
A.D.
(D) 1636-1643
A.D.
6. The
documents indicating the ownership of land, where the Taj Mahal was built,
known as
(A) Farman
(B) Sale Deed
(C)
Sale-Purchase Deed
(D) None of the
above
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