25- Who Planned the Taj? 

 By Rev. H. Hosten, S.J. 



The opinion seems to be gaining ground that " the Italian 

 or French origin of the Taj is exploded." When, where, how, 

 and by whom was this result arrived at ? What has been done 

 to disprove that Jerome Veroneo, the Venetian, was the archi- 

 tect ? The question, we insist, is not what workmen were em- 

 ployed on the Taj, but who planned it. 



Let us go back to H. G. Keene 's little Handbook for Visitors 

 to Agra and its neighbourhood (Calcutta, Thacker, 5th Ed., 1888). 

 c ' We learn from Manrique (a Spanish monk of the Augustinian 

 Order, who was at Agra in 1641) that the plans and estimates 

 were prepared by a Venetian, by name Geronimo Verroneo. 

 Verroneo died at Lahore before Manrique 's arrival, and long 

 before the work was completed. The work is then believed to 

 have been made over to a Byzantine Turk." (Cf. p. 23.) 



Keene, then, did not hesitate to accept the Friar's plain 

 statement. " Much fruitless discussion has been waged on this 

 subject [of the origin of the Taj]," he writes (ibid., p. 25) ; 

 1 ' but, the following considerations alone are likely to be of use to 

 the general reader. The notion that the Taj was designed by an 

 Italian is confirmed by Manrique. But, nothing can be less 

 Italian than the general conception of the building with its simple 

 and even stiff contour ; nothing ever more in harmony with the 



Eastern 



as 



The 



tomb of Humayun (A.D. 1556) seems to have been the chief 

 model of the elevation." 



Quite so, and no one- thinks of denying that the Italian 

 copied Indian models. The plan of Humayun 's tomb at Delhi 

 * is in fact," writes James Fergusson, " that adopted at the 

 Taje, but used here without the depth and poetry of that cele- 

 brated building." (Cf. Hist, of Indian and Eastern Archit.. 

 London, 1*76, p. r>76.) 



The conclusion, which Keene endeavours to popularize in 

 his Handbook, had been arrived at by a careful perusal of Frey 

 Manrique's writings. Of this we have sufficient evidence in 



Allen. 1879). There, Keene 

 mentions Manrique in connection with a description of Akbar'* 

 tomb at Sikandra (pp. 106-107) ; he states that Manrh]ue 



fact 



some 



of the priests [?] taken prisonersat Bugli — fact noted by Man' 

 Catrou (p. 121 ; I fail, however, to find the fact recorded by 

 Manrique under Veroneo's name) ; he analyzes part of Manrhjue's 



