Searching for saffron at Agra's 10-day annual art-and-craft Taj Mahotsav

The 2018 edition of the Taj Mahotsav, is yet another opportunity to drag the Taj Mahal into controversy

In 1989, a self-proclaimed historian claimed that the Taj Mahal, a Mughal-era mausoleum, was, in fact, a temple dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva. In his book, Taj Mahal: The True Story, Purushottam Nagesh Oak argued that Shah Jahan had seized the “Tejo Mahalaya”, a Shiva temple and a Rajput palace, and converted it into a tomb.

Despite the fact that in 2000, the Supreme Court dismissed his petition that a Hindu king had built India’s biggest tourist attraction, Oak’s theory continues to survive. And resurfaces every now and then, often to find its way into polarising political rhetoric.

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