9.
When Mumtaz Mahal died in 1631 while giving birth to her fourteenth child, her husband, the great Moghul Emperor Shah Jahan, was overwhelmed with grief. In order to pay homage to his beloved wife, he began the construction of a magnificent tomb made of white marble. It was built at Agra, on the banks of the Yamuna River. This ‘Tomb of Light’ is now known as the Taj Mahal and it is one of the wonders of the world."Tagore has written about the Taj Mahal, Only let this one teardrop, the Taj Mahal, glisten spotlessly bright on the cheek of time for ever and ever. O King! You sought to charm time with the magic of beauty and weave a garland that would bind formless death with deathless form!"
In most of his poems and songs, Rabindranath Tagore extolled Bengal to the skies and said that the rest of India should follow in the footsteps of Bengal. But when it came to Shivaji, Tagore urged Bengalis to follow Shivaji’s example. Shivaji’s motto, his sacrifice, his courage and his self-giving all received the utmost praise from Tagore. Tagore wrote an immortal poem on the great festival of Shivaji. It is a very long poem. In it, he says,
Maratha sathe
Aji be Bangali
Ek kantha
Bala jayatu Shivaji
O Bengalis, go and follow the Marathis.
Follow them and sing with them in unison
The victory of Shivaji!
This was Tagore’s immortal poem.27
RTM 111,5. Sri Chinmoy, Shivaji, New York: Agni Press, 1997, p. 37; and previously unpublished comments on December 16th, 2003. English translation by Sri Chinmoy.↩
Sri Chinmoy, Rabindranath Tagore: the moon of Bengal’s Heart, Agni Press, 2011
