A black Taj from Lucknow artist

City-based Artist Iftikhar Nadeem Khan is building a black Taj Mahal, a replica of the white Taj, though of a smaller size.

The new building would be 2.5 x 2.5 metres in size and would seek to present the grandeur and magnificence of the white Taj, the 17th century monument of love, built by Mughal Emperor Shahjahan.

The black Taj project would entail a total cost of about Rs 80 lakh and would to be completed by the end of the current year, Khan told reporters.

His work would be exhibited by the Uttar Pradesh tourism department as part of the closing function of the "Taj Mahotsav" in Agra. According to Khan, Shahjahan had planned to build the black marble on the bank of the river Yamuna, opposite the white Taj as his own mausoleum.

Khan's romance with the Taj Mahal began at an early age when he built a model of the monument, which won him a state government award in 1985, making him the youngest artist in the state to receive the accolade.

"Once I became convinced that the black Taj was indeed a historical fact, I knew what had to be done. The whole world had to be told about the black Taj and the best way to do that was to actually make a smaller version of the monument," he said.

The first black Taj built by Khan in the early 1994 was in a 3 feet x 3 feet configuration that won him the coveted President's award in 1996.

The present black Taj project began in 2002 and Khan chose ebony wood as an ideal substitute for black marble, saying it was the hardest and heaviest wood, which sinked when thrown in water. "After polishing, it is very difficult to differentiate between ebony wood and black marble," he claimed. "In place of red sandstone I have used padauk, a redwood," Khan said.