Two days of rain in Agra has damaged all the monuments including Taj Mahal, Agra Fort, Fatehpur Sikri. Due to continuous rain in Taj Mahal, leakage was seen in the main dome of Shah Jahan Mumtaz’s tomb. The wooden sleepers in Khas Mahal in Agra Fort got damp. The special thing is that both the roofs are double domes. ASI officials conducted an investigation on Friday.
Dr. Rajkumar Patel, Superintendent Archaeologist of Archaeological Survey of India, arrived with Senior Conservation Assistant Prince Vajpayee and a team of engineers. They saw the place where water drops had fallen on the main dome and tried to find out the reason for the leakage. The main dome of Taj Mahal is a double dome. There is a good system of water drainage on the upper roof, but due to continuous rain, water came on the lower roof as well and drops fell near the tomb. When the rain stopped on Friday, this leakage also stopped.
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Senior conservation assistant Kalandar Bind at Agra Fort inspected the monuments including Musamman Burj, Diwan-e-Aam, Moti Masjid, Khas Mahal. Here, dampness was found in Khas Mahal.
The first leak happened in 1652
There are many stories about the main dome of the world’s seventh wonder Taj Mahal leaking and water drops falling, but it was first noticed in the year 1652. Then Prince Aurangzeb visited the Taj Mahal and wrote a letter to Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in December 1652 reporting that water drips from two places on the north side of the dome of the mausoleum during rain.
The four arched gates, the galleries of the second floor, the four small domes, the four northern verandahs and the seven arched underground chambers have also become damp. Aurangzeb had written in his letter that the roof of the main dome had leaked last year too, but it has been repaired. Water used to leak from the domes of the mosque and the guest house. They have been made watertight.
Repairs were made several times during British rule
During the British period, repair works were carried out in the Taj in 1872 under the supervision of Executive Engineer J.W. Alexander. Problems caused due to water leakage were also resolved. After this, in 1924, the wall of Bagh Khan-e-Alam collapsed. The wall that collapsed on 7 October 1924 was repaired the same year. In 1928, the Shahi Mosque of the Taj Mahal leaked, which was made watertight. In 1941, work was done to stop leakage on the main dome. The underground chambers of the Taj were damaged in the flood of 1978, after which the underground chambers along with the dome were repaired.
