12.  Various records of the cost differ enormously, apparently because they refer to different things.  If all the buildings and the vast value of the materials be included, the highest estimate, namely, four and a half millions of pounds sterling, in round numbers, is not excessive (H.F.A., 1911, p. 415) The figures are recorded with minute accuracy as 411 lakhs, 48,826 rupees, 7 annas, and 6 pies.  A karor (crore) is 100 lakhs, or 10 millions.

13.  The enclosure occupies a space of more than forty-two acres.

14.  This statement, though commonly made, is erroneous.  The building is named the ‘assembly house’ (jama’at khana), or ‘guest-house’ (mihman khana) and was intended as the place for the congregation to assemble before prayers, or on the anniversaries of the deaths of the Emperor Shah Jahan or his consort.  Taj Mahal (Muh.  Latif, Agra, p. 113).  Of course, it also serves as an architectural balance for the mosque.

15.  The gardens of the Taj have been much improved since the author’s time, and are now under the care of a skilled European superintendent, and full of beautiful shrubs and trees.  The author’s measurements of the quadrangle seem to be wrong.  Different figures are given by Moin-ud-din (Hist. of the Taj, p. 29) and Fergusson (ed. 1910, vol. ii, p. 313).  No official survey is available.

16.  The white marble that forms the substance of the building came, Mr. Keene thinks, from Makrana near Jaipur, but according to Mr. Hacket (Records of the Geographical Survey of India, x. 84), from Raiwala in Jaipur, near the Alwar border [note].  The account of these marbles given in the Rajputana Gazetteer, 1st ed. (ii. 127) favours Mr. Keene’s view’ (N.W.P.  Gazetteer, 1st ed., vol. vii, p. 707).  The ornamental stones used for the inlay work in the Taj are lapis lazuli, jasper, heliotrope, Chalcedon agate, chalcedony, cornelian, sarde, plasma (or quartz and chlorite), yellow and striped marble, clay slate, and nephrite, or jade (Dr. Voysey, in Asiatic Researches, vol. xv, p. 429, quoted by V. Bail in Records of the Geological Survey of India, vii. 109).  Moin-ud-din (pp. 27-9) gives a longer list, from the custodians’ Persian account.

17.  There is some exaggeration in this statement.  Shah Jahan’s concern was with his wife’s tomb, and his fortified palaces, more than with ‘the cities’.

18.  Sleeman’s talk about Austin de Bordeaux is wholly based on his misreading of Ustan for Ustad, meaning ‘Master’, in the Persian account, which names Muhammed-i-Isa Afandi (Effendi) as the chief designer.  He had the title of Ustad, and some versions represent Muhammad Sharif, the second draughtsman, as his son.  Muhammad, the son of Isa (’Jesus’), apparently was a Turk.  He had the Turkish title of ‘Effendi’, and the Persian MS. used by Moin-ud-din asserts that he came from Turkey.  The same authority states that Muhammad Sharif was a native of Samarkand.