Taj
Mahal (Palace) of Bhopal was built by Shah Jahan
Begum in (1868 – 1901) the
daughter of Nawab Jehangir Mohammad Khan and Sikandar Jahan Begum of
Bhopal. Taj Mahal is situated near the famous Taj ul Masajid of Bhopal.
Shah Jehan Begum wanted the same glory for herself as Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan. So, she named this palace the ‘Taj Mahal’. Its construction was started in 1871 and was completed in thirteen years in 1874 for a cost of Three million Rupees. Interestingly, in 1949, this palace served as a shelter to thousands of riot victims and migrants of India Pakistan partition from Sindh and Punjab for many years.
The palace has 120 rooms and eight large halls. The large entrance of this six storied building and the main lobby are huge and spacious in order to accommodated horse driven carriages inside the palace. The ‘Sawan Bhado’ pavilion in the main courtyard of the palace is an attempted remake of a similar pavilion in the Shalimar Bagh in Kashmir. Here, artificial nozzles with underground water supply were mounted inside walls for spraying cold water in hot summer afternoons.