The Governor-general has sold the beautiful piece of architecture, called the Mootee Musjid, at Agra, for 125,000 rupees (about £12,500), and it is now being pulled down! The taj has also been offered for sale! but the price required has not been obtained. Two lacs, however, have been offered for it. Should the taj be pulled down, it is rumoured that disturbances may take place amongst the natives.
When the Welsh adventurer Fanny Parkes read a report in the Calcutta John Bull in 1831 that the Taj was to be put for sale, she was livid:
By what authority does the Governor-general offer the taj for sale? Has he any right to molest the dead? To sell the tomb raised over an empress, which from its extraordinary beauty is the wonder of the world?
Then, as now, Fanny understood that certain things have no price. The report added that two lakh rupees had been offered for the Taj – a princely sum, then, but not one that can be taken seriously. For, the rumours of the Taj Mahal’s sale have been greatly exaggerated. They played on the fears and discontent of a military and civilian population that was increasingly disliking the then Governor General, William Bentinck.
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