Son builds £500,000 replica of Taj Mahal in memory of mother

An Indian rice merchant spent over £500,000 to create a white marble replica of the Taj Mahal in memory of his mother- alone.< /p>

Amrudin Sheikh Daud, 49, said he built the 12-meter mausoleum to repay the dedication of his mother, Jailani Bivi in ​​Ammayappa, who raised him through hardships.

“ We loved each other to the extreme. Her death left us heartbroken. She sacrificed her life for us and my brother and I decided to build a memorial to her,” Mr. Dowd told The Telegraph.

During the two years of construction, engineers and a local architect were hired to design a building faithfully replicating the original Taj Mahal using the finest white marble sourced from Rajasthan. The finished copy is 12 meters high on a platform 1.2 meters high, and the four minarets reach a height of 14 meters each. The width of his mausoleum is almost 33 meters.

Inside the memorial, standing on a vast area of ​​five acres in the village of Thiruvaru district in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu, is a portrait and grave of Jailani Bivi. .

The mother «sacrificed her life» for the sake of the family

Mr Dawood was 14 and his mother 36 when he lost his father, who was the family's breadwinner and was in the sanitation business. The financial strain on the family led the bank to auction off their mortgaged home in Madurai City.

Mr. Daoud's mother dedicated her life to six children, including her adopted son, Abdul Qadeer.

“She told me don't worry, we'll build a better house. She did not remarry and sacrificed her life to take care of us,” said Mr. Daoud.

Heartbroken by the loss of their home, they moved to the capital city of Chennai to start their business over again, only to be pushed again. on the brink of bankruptcy.

Amrudin Sheikh Daoud and his mother, Jailani Bibi, who died in 2020. a helping hand to the less fortunate, giving food to the poor once every two weeks

“She was a principled woman, a noble soul. There was no darkness in her heart,” he said.

Mr. Dowd said he wanted to immortalize his mother’s love and show it to the world, adding: “I wanted to show the public the love that existed between our mother and her children. It couldn't be done by building a hospital or a school.”

The monument echoes the story of the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan, who built the original Taj Mahal as a mausoleum for his beloved wife, Mumtaz Mahal. The Mahal died in childbirth, leaving Shah Jahan a devastated loss.

In 1653, Shah Jahan built the Taj Mahal, an architectural wonder located in Agra in the state of Uttar Pradesh in northern India, to symbolize their love .< /p>