The taj mahal needs no introduction. It is well-entrenched in the popular imagination as a symbol of love, the monument built by Emperor Shahjehan for his wife, Mumtaz Mahal. Its image, as a symbol for India, is easily recognizable, and it has given its name to possibly the largest number of restaurants in the world purveying what is supposed to be Indian cuisine.

The origins of the Taj are the stuff out of which legendary movies are made. The emperor’s wife dies in childbirth and, in grief, he builds a monument to her. His son decides that he wants to be emperor, kills his brothers and shuts up the ex-emperor across the river from his wife’s tomb, where he lives out his days. The script is true, but the story is a little more complex.

Historians Diana and Michael Preston have given their book the subtitle The Story Of The Taj Mahal. Presumably, we will learn how the Taj was conceived, designed, and built. We will see what it symbolically represents, the ways in which its builders managed to create a building so unique in style, that we can call it only Indian. We learn about this, all right — in a single chapter.

A book ostensibly about the Taj is actually nothing but a history of the Mughal Empire, from Babur’s invasion to the diminution of the empire to the environs of Delhi. Why, then, say that it is a book about the Taj alone? The story of Shahjehan’s predecessors and descendants should have taken up only a couple of pages. That they take up 90 per cent of the book displays a rather skewered perspective on the part of the Prestons. While the Taj should be stage front, it is actually just below the stage lights.

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