Images of the underground chambers of the Taj Mahal released by ASI (Image Courtesy-The Hindu)
The question deserves a proper answer, since the very fact that the 22 rooms have been kept locked by the ASI (which is responsible for the maintenance of the elegant structure), has given rise to all kinds of speculative theories about the rooms hiding a dark secret and the monument being constructed after demolishing the Shiva temple which the writer P.N.Oak (1917–2007) called the Tejo Mahalaya. Whilst Oak’s absurd conclusions can be dismissed on historical grounds, there are sound reasons for the ASI and the GOI’s decision to keep the 22 underground rooms locked.
The art historian Ebba Koch who teaches Mughal art and architecture at the University of Vienna, visited the Taj Mahal on numerous occasions between 1985 and 1996 as part of her research on the monument complex. Her study resulted in her work titled “The complete Taj Mahal and the riverfront gardens of Agra” During her study, she was granted access to the underground rooms by the GOI and the ASI. She has given a firsthand account of what she saw and of the layout of the cellars.
The locked rooms are located in the underground chambers of the mausoleum. These rooms were part of a Tahkhana or an underground chamber for the hot summer months. A gallery in the monument's riverfront terrace consists of a "series of rooms". Ms. Koch found 15 rooms arranged in a line along the riverfront and reached by a narrow corridor.
There were seven larger rooms extended by niches on each side, six squarish rooms and two octagonal rooms. The large rooms originally looked out onto the river through handsome arches. The rooms, she noticed, showed "traces of painted decoration under the whitewash" - there were "netted patterns arranged between concentric circles of stars with a medallion in the centre".
She notes "It must have been a beautiful airy space, which served the emperor, his women and his entourage a cool place of recreation when visiting the tomb. It now has no natural light,"
According to her, such underground galleries are familiar in Mughal architecture. In a Mughal fort in Pakistan's Lahore city, there are a series of such vaulted rooms set into the waterfront. Lahore is a riverfront city located on the eastern bank of the Ravi River which is part of the Indus water system.
Delhi-based historian Rana Safvi, who grew up in the city of Agra, remembers that the underground rooms were open to visitors until a flood in 1978. "Water had entered the monument, some of the underground rooms were silted and there were some cracks. Authorities shut the rooms for the public after that. There's nothing in them," she says. The rooms are opened from time to time to carry out restoration work.
A sepia tinted image of the Taj Mahal and the Yamuna River (Image Courtesy-Getty images)
Being a riverfront monument complex, the architects made sure that water would not enter the basement when the Yamuna River floods its banks annually during the monsoon season between July and September. The first incident of flooding occurred in 1978, when record-breaking floodwaters seeped into the monument and flooded 22 rooms in the basement, leaving behind silt. Following this event, the ASI permanently sealed the basement entry doors to prevent future water damage. High floodwaters touched the outer walls of the complex again in 2010 and 2023, but no water entered the basement structure during these events. We must remember that the basement supports the marble platform on which the monument stands and any water ingress due to river flooding can only weaken the structure and lead to its collapse over a period of time.
Using the conspiracy theory (idols of Hindu deities being hidden in the basement) as a pretext, some groups had moved the Allahabad High Court for a proper investigation into the contents of the rooms. On May 9th, 2022, the ASI published photos of underground cells in the Taj Mahal with recent renovations. In its newsletter, the ASI shared pictures of the maintenance work of underground cells. "Decayed and disintegrated lime plaster was removed and replaced by laying of lime plaster and traditional lime processing before application," it stated. The ASI also shared the January newsletter on its Twitter page.