From studied awe to sheer ecstacy, people have literally competed to say the most beautiful things about the Taj Mahal. Some have admired its beauty; others have revealed the various activities that took place here. We take a look�

Shah Jahan's own composition in praise of the Tajis found in Badshah Nama: "�The sight of this mansion creates sorrowing sighs / And makes sun and moon shed tears from their eyes / In this world this edifice has been made / to display thereby the Creator's glory."

From the Travels in the Moghul Empire, 1670 by the French traveller Bernier: "The Koran is continually read with apparent devotion by certain Mullahs kept in the Mausoleum for that purpose�It is opened with much ceremony once a year and no Christian is admitted within, lest its sanctity be profaned."

In 1783 the British painter Hodges says of the tomb: "it appears like a perfect pearl on an azure ground. The effect is such I have never experienced from any work of art."

By the time of the British conquest of India, the attitude to the Taj had changed. The beautiful memorial had turned into a pleasure resort; in its gardens, Englishman met their lovers. On its terrace they danced while the mosque and the jawab were rented out to honeymooners!

Writes a then well-known British officer, Colonel Sleeman's wife: "I cannot tell what I think. I do not know how to criticize such a building but I can tell what I feel. I would die tomorrow to have such another over me."

The American novelist, Bayard Taylor, wrote about the Taj: "Did you ever build a castle in the Air? Here is one, brought downto earth and fixed for the wonder of ages".

Lord Curzon, the British Governor-General who is credited to have somewhat saved the Taj from neglect, said in a speech from the terrace of the monument: "If I had never done anything else in India, I have written my name here, and the letters are a living joy."

The poet Rabindranath Tagore has perhaps said it best of all: "You know Shah Jahan, life and youth, wealth and glory, they all drift away in the current of time. You strove therefore, to perpetuate only the sorrow of your heart�Let the splendour of diamond, pearl and ruby vanish�Only let this one teardrop, this Taj Mahal, glisten spotlessly bright on the cheek of time, forever and ever."