Agra :

The 359th annual Urs of Mughal emperor Shah Jahan will begin at the Taj Mahal from May 25 to 27 and entry will be free for visitors during the three-day celebrations.

“There would be free entry to the monument from 2pm until sunset on May 25 and 26, and on May 27 no entree fee will be charged throughout the day,” N K Pathak, chief superintending archaeologist, ASI, Agra zone said here today.

Khudddam-e-Rauza Committee, the traditional caretaker of the Taj, would put a 735-meter-long chadar on the cenotaph of Shah Jahan, he said.

Committee president Tahiruddin Tahir said that the length of the chadar to be placed on the tomb had been increased by 70-metres from the 635-meters length of last year.

Besides, a chadar made of 359 garlands would also be offered by the Shahi mosque Fatehpuri to mark the Urs on May 27, Saeed Khan, the mutawalli of the mosque said.

During the Urs, prince Yakub Habeebuddin Tusi of Hyderabad, who claims to be the great grandson of the last Mughal emperor, Bahadur Shah Zafar, makes an annual pilgrimage to the monument and offers prayers there.

Shahjahan was the fifth Mughal emperor who ruled the empire for 30 years from 1628 to 1658 before he was deposed by his son Aurangzeb. He died in 1666.

He had erected the Taj Mahal in memory of his beloved wife Mumtaz Mahal.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Lucknow / PTI / May 22nd, 2014