In discussing the architecture of the Taj Mahal and the claim of some historians that an Italian named Geronimo Veroneo may have been
its designer E. B. Havell says, "If Veroneo was so deeply versed in Indian craft tradition that he could design a lotus dome after the rules
laid down in the ‘Shilpashashtra’s dome itself built by Asiatic craftsman could not have been his. The dome of the Taj at Agra is infact
exactly such a building as one could expect to be created in India… by a group of master - builders inheriting the tradition of Buddhist
and Hindu buildings. The plan which consists of a central domed chamber surrounded by four small domed chambers follows the plan of an
Indian Panchratna or “five jeweled” temple. Its prototype is found in the Buddhist temple of Chandi Sewa in Java… and in the sculptured
stupa shrines or Ajanta. Neither Shah Jahan nor his court builders much less an obscure Italian adventurer can claim the whole merit of
its achievement".
While laymen have been illogically and ignorantly assuming that the Taj Mahal is an Islamic type building, renowned architects like the
late E. B. Havell and well known archeologist like Mr. B. L. Dhama (a retired officer A.S.I.) state very positively that the Taj Mahal is an out and out Temple Palace complex built according to the orthodox and classic Hindu Style. The dome itself and the
inverted lotus cap over it are very ancient forms of pure Indian / Hindu architecture dealt with in the Indian Shilpa shastra which originates in untraceable antiquity.
It is a pity that presuming not only the Taj Mahal but all the mediaeval buildings to be genuinely Muslim but built in Hindu style. Western
histories (observers/writers have conjured up a whole theory of Indo Saracenic architecture and injected it under official pressure into texts
books of history architecture and civil engineering. It is this in this untenable theory which has rapturously described the Taj Mahal as the
very flower and consummation of the Indo Saracenic style of architecture a dream in marble a poem in stone etc.)
Any community claiming, architectural skill must have its own architectural texts hereditary mason families and units of measurements basic treatises describing structural forms and strengths of materials used in construction.
Muslims have none of these.
Anybody who brings his own arch and dome would infact
bring the entire under structure with it too because the dome and the arch pre-suppose a certain under structure and a special building style entirely
their own the foundation upwards.
In order to justify the mythical theory they also asserted that Muslim invaders who ordered medieval monuments only laid down specifications leaving
it to the sweet will of Hindu laborers to cram the design with their ornate patterns and motifs. It is conveniently forgotten that this is almost impossible
firstly because Hindu motifs, ornamentation and images were anathema for Muslims and would never permit these in specially ordered buildings. Secondly an architect
has to give the workmen a design completed to the last detail. Allowing individual workman to fill in details of design and pattern according to their own whims and
fancies is just not done. There are thousands of laborers and craftsmen working an a building if the details were left is them the whole project will end-up in
nothing but chaos and confusion. Thus it is just impracticable. And one must not forget that it is the man who pays the piper who calls the tune. The British rulers
of India got their churches built with the help of Hindu and Muslim laborers and craftsmen and yet their churches do not contain a single motif of Islam of Hinduism,
the myth of Indo Saracenic architecture theory is rooted in the misplaced belief that the Taj Mahal and other monuments were built by this or that Muslim ruler. The Myth
was invented by western scholars (?) Unable to explain why allegedly Muslim monuments followed an entirely Hindu plan and design.