IMMORTAL MARBLE

Can there be a marble monument to rival the Taj Mahal – that too in Agra? Well, there is one, and it’s been under construction for the past century! I’m referring, of course, to the Radhasoami Memorial in Dayalbagh, Agra. This 110 ft high marble memorial is a tribute to Shiv Dayal Sahib, founder of the Radha Soami Satsang movement in 1861 and is a combination of temple, gurdwara, vihara and mosque.

I was also unaware of this memorial until my husband told me about it. At first I refused to believe him. “A structure made of marble, the craftsmanship of which is comparable to the Taj Mahal? Impossible!” I said. Curiosity eventually got the better of me and we decided to check it out.

As we approached the building, its colonnaded structure did not strike us as being very impressive or unusual, unlike the Taj Mahal, whose beauty enraptured us at first sight. But when we took a closer look, we had to admit it gave Taj a run for its artistry and craftsmanship.

As we climbed the numerous steps to the entrance, we saw huge blocks of marble all around; evidently construction was still going on full swing. Bamboo poles propped up workmen and their equipment all around the building. Everyone was either diligently chipping away at marble masonry or carving intricate designs on them. To our right we could hear machinery doing some heavy-duty cutting of enormous marble chunks that were festooned all over the site. We thought we’d have a dekko of them later and headed first for the building under construction for a closer look.

Starting from the entrance to the inner walls, the whole building was an amalgam of carving and intricate pietra-dura inlay work on marble. The entrance was a good example of both, with the word ‘Radhasoami’ prominently car ved out in Hindi and the initials ‘RS’ in English, while the archway had beautiful inlay in red and green.

As we made our way to the foyer, we were surrounded by pillars each topped by carvings. From swaying palms and fruit-bearing trees to roses posies, each pillar had carvings of trees or flowers so intricate that each leaf, fruit and branch was clearly defined. Every inch of space from the ceiling to the floor displayed India’s great crafts tradition. We walked all round the building and stared at all the nooks and crannies, examining each piece of inlay work. Then, we doffed our shoes and went to the basement, to the actual tomb of Shiv Dayal Sahib. It was a somber place, with none of the architectural extravagance of the rest of the complex. We spied a picture of a building that looked rather like the one we were standing in and we were told that’s what the memorial would look like after completion. The picture was of a four-storey structure and so far only one floor had been put up. It’s anyone’s guess when the building would be completed, but it’s estimated that the tab will be over Rs10 million!

Going back to see the marble cutting machines at work in progress, we saw chunks being neatly carved into oblongs as a continuous spray of water kept the blade cool. Rock drills were also there, to make holes in the stone to facilitate their being carved into slabs. The sheer manual labour required — even in this age of convenience — was humbling. We learnt another astonishing fact: all the workers were devotees of the Radhasoami Satsang! Some 500 of them stayed near the memorial to work day in and day out to complete their founder's dream. That’s what I ‘d call devotion. Outside the complex were many shops selling marble artefacts, from statues to plates and boxes with inlay work.

Upon seeing Dayalbagh we were bewildered, to say the least. The intricate work, the magnitude of the project, and above all the selfless, nameless devotion of those involved was truly overwhelming. Shahjehan took a lifetime to love and then build a memorial to that love; we cannot even hazard a guess about how many lifetimes it will take to complete the Radhasoami Memorial. But every minute of that process will be worth watching, as I realised at Dayalbagh.