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P.N.Oak is infamous for his revisionist theories about Indian History, which have gained wide support among staunch nationalists.And the most upvoted answer to this question is also based on the “facts” mentioned by P.N.Oak in his book Tajmahal : The True Story.But I don’t understand how someone can even think that a Shiva temple would look like this—[WARNING : Extremely lengthy answer ahead. But you can skip to the TL;DR.]There are many claims that P.N.Oak makes in his book, and provides “evidences” which are not too difficult to debunk.An article titled Reclaim Temples and kick out the fraud in a website called Agniveer (which describes itself as a “Leading site for real Hinduism, untold history, genuine human rights, honest social change, fight against terror, and sincere humanism”) has a compilation of Oak’s “evidences”.It states :Why is the name Mahal added to Mumtaz Mahal, where “Mahal” means “Mansion” in Hindi and “Mahail” in Arabic means “place”? Her actual names recorded in muslim sources is Mumtaz-ul Zamani or Aliya Begum. So where did ‘Mahal’ come from?The answer can be found on Page 212 of The Travels of Peter Mundy in Europe and Asia.Peter Mundy who visited Agra between 1631 and 1633 writes :This Kinge is now buildinge a Sepulchre for his late deceased Queene Tage Moholl [TajMahal] (as much to say att the brightnes of the Moholl), whome hee dearely affected,He refers to the deceased Queen as “Taj Mahal”.From a footnote on the same page :So it is clear that Shah Jahan’s wife Arjumand Banu Begum was known as Mumtaz Mahal (“Pride of the Palace”) and Taj Mahal (“Crown of the Palace”).P.N.Oak and others questioning the origin of Taj Mahal mention the discrepancies in the accounts of the European travellers who visited Agra during Shah Jahan’s reign; but almost all of those accounts do mention the Taj Mahal being constructed.There are also official records from Shah Jahan’s time which mention the arragements made for the construction of the Taj Mahal. From E.B.Havell’s book Indian architecture, its psychology, structure, and history from the first Muhammadan invasion to the present day (page 31) :Court historian of Shah Jahan, Abdul Hamid Lahori gives a poetic description of the building of the Taj Mahal’s foundation (which according to him began in January 1632) — “And when the spade-wielders with robust arms and hands strong as steel, had with unceasing effort excavated down to the water table, the ingenious masons and architects of astonishing achievements most firmly built the foundation with stone and mortar up to the level of the ground.”(The Taj Mahal by Lesley A. DuTemple, Page 34)After the foundation, the main plinth (the base on which the Taj Mahal sits) was constructed; and it was probably finished on the first urs (death anniversary) of Mumtaz Mahal in June 1632. Thousands of people— nobles, scholars, holy men, rich and poor alike— attended the event. A lavish feast was served. For several days, the atmosphere around the Taj Mahal resembled that of a festive bazar.(The Taj Mahal by Lesley A. DuTemple, Page 37)Peter Mundy mentioned the Taj Mahal to be one of the notable sites in Agra (Page 209) even before it was finished :Places of noate [in and about it] are the Castle, King Ecbars [Akbar's] Tombe, Tage Moholls [TajMahal's] Tombe, Gardens and Bazare.While it can’t be said with certainty how many workers built the Taj Mahal or what was the total expenditure, another discovery supports the fact the Taj Mahal was in fact constructed during Shah Jahan’s reign.In 2004, a list of 671 names was found engraved in a sandstone wall in the complex that surrounds the mausoleum. The list, found on the north side facing the river, is believed to have been inscribed by the same hands that fashioned the extraordinary decorative work of the building. If the archaeologists are right, it is the craftsmen's own attempt to preserve their memory down the centuries.(Image credit : Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images)The chief architect is known to have been Ustad - or Master - Ahmad Lahori. Shah Jahan is said to have had his eyes put out on the Taj's completion so nothing could ever be built to rival it. Amanat Khan Shirazi was in charge of the calligraphy that adorns the Taj. Ismail Khan Afridi was in charge of building the dome, and Mohammed Hanif was superintendent of the masons.The inscriptions reflect the diversity of those who built the Taj Mahal. Most are in Arabic and Persian, which would reflect the Islamic nature of Shah Jahan's court, but some are in the Devanagari script used by Hindi and other Indian languages. There are also traditional Indian symbols, such as swastikas, and geometrical patterns believed to have been used by illiterate artisans.D Dayalan, leader of the team of archaeologists who found the list, told The Asian Age that experts were working to decipher the epigraphs and names engraved in the stones."Since many of them were illiterate, they denoted symbols as a mark of their identity. We call these guilt marks. We already have a team working to decipher the epigraphs and the names.”"The names have been meticulously divided into sections like dome makers, garden development department, furnishing workers and inlay artists.”[1]A letter written by Aurangzeb to Shah Jahan about the Taj Mahal needing repairs, is used as an “evidence” that by the time Shah Jahan “altered” the original structure of the Taj Mahal, it was already a few hundred years old because of which it was showing signs of wear.Aurangzeb writes :On Friday [4th] he circumambulated the most luminous shrine (ba tawaf-i-rauza-i-munawwara rafta) and earned the blessings [appropriate to such a] visit, prompted by the purest spirit of submission. The sacred structure (hazlra-i-qudsl asas, "holy hovel") still stands just as firmly as it did when it was completed under Your Majesty's eye.However, the following repairs are required: The dome covering the most sanctified sepulchre (marqad-i-mutahhar) leaks (tarawash mlkunad) in two places, on the northern side, during the rains. The four great arches, most of the balconies on the second storey, the four small domes, the chamber on the northern side [of the tomb] and the basement rooms in the pluith all need attention.The [marble] panels of the outer covering of the great dome (bam-i-jam posh-i-gumbaz-i-kalan [had lifted off] in two or three places, and let the water in (chaklda bud) during these [rains]; (dar in fasl) they have [now] been repaired. One can only guess what will happen in the next rains (dar barishkal-i-ayinda chi rul dahad?)The domes of the mosque and of the Jama'at Khana [opposite] also leaked during the rains, and have also been repaired. The builders claim that if they were to break up (wà karda) the floor above the roof of the second storey, plaster [the roof from above] (rekhta sâzand), and lay over it eighteen inches' thickness of tahkârl work, the pavilions, balconies, and smaller domes might perhaps be made sound.They profess themselves unable to do anything about the main dome.(A Drawing of the Taj Mahal under construction by Kunihiko Aoyama)The above excerpt is from the Letter 45 (pages 171–173) in the English translation Adab-i-Alamgiri, which has the collection of letters written by Aurangzeb to Shah Jahan, translated by Vincent John Adams Flynn.Vincent Flynn explains in the footnotes :The common feature of all these parts of the building is, that they had a flat outer surface permeable by water. The cement originally spread over the vaults of their floors or ceilings must have lacked hydraulic quality. Water will readily penetrate inferior cement, even when covered by thick slabs of stone or marble; but domes and flat roofs all over India have survived many hundreds of years without ever being re-surfaced, and the interiors are not stained by a drop of water.Unfortunately, Aurangzïb has not used exact language; the parts/"dar ham kashïda" (B.M. has dar nlm kashlda, "broken in half", which I, with Ch., reject). He could mean anything between "utterly ruined" and "need to be tidied up". In view of the phenomenal rains of 1652, and the nature of the damage to the principal dome, it is permissible to assert that water penetrated the cement lying above the brick-built vaults.P.N.Oak provided a line-by-line translation of the pages of Badshahnama, which deal with the burial of Mumtaz in his book published in 1966. The following passages are quoted from that source :(On) "Friday--15th Jamadi-ul Awwal, the sacred dead body of the traveller to the kingdom of Holiness, hazrat Mumtaz-ul Zamani--who was buried temporarily.... was brought to the capital Akbarabad (Agra)...The site covered with magnificent lush garden, to the south of that great city and amidst which (garden) the building known as the palace of Raja Mansingh, at present owned by Raja Jaisingh (Pesh az ein Manzil-e Rajan Mansingh bood Wadaree Waqt ba Raja Jaisingh), grandson (of Mansingh) was selected for the burial of the queen whose abode is in heaven.According to this translaton, there was only a palace and not a temple.So, by Oak’s own admission, the Taj Mahal was never a temple.But the question still remains— was the Taj Mahal a Rajput palace, which had a Shiv ling in the place where the cenotaphs of Mumtaz Mahal and Shah Jahan lie?Eminent historian E.B.Havell in his book A Handbook to Agra and the Taj, Sikandra, Fathepur-Sikri, and the Neighbourhood (page 73) writes :According to the old Tartar custom, a garden was chosen as a site for the tomb—a garden planted with flowers and flowering shrubs, the emblems of life,and solemncy press, the emblem of death and eternity. Such a garden, in the Mogul days, was kept up as a pleasure-ground during the owner's lifetime, and used as his last resting-place after his death. The old tradition laid down that it must be acquired by fair means, and not by force or fraud. So Rajah Jey Singh, to whom the garden belonged, was compensated by the gift of another property from the Emperor's private estate.Taj Mahal: The Illumined Tomb by WE Begley and ZA Desai has a compilation of an anthology of contemporary accounts of Shah Jahan’s reign.Two books give details and a translation of the royal "farman" giving four "havelis" in lieu of Raja Jai Singh’s haveli (mansion).Padshah Nama by Qazwini describes the tract of land on the southern side of Agra that had the qualities needed to be the final resting place of the one whose residence was paradise. Qazwini says it was formerly the word "khana", or house of Raja Jai Singh.He also mentions that though the Raja was willing to give it for free, Shah Jahan gave him a lofty house in lieu of it.Lahori also describes a tract of land south of the city as being suitable for the queen’s resting place, and uses the word "manzil" or mansion of Raja Jai Singh. He also mentions the fact that though Raja Jai Singh was willing to give it for free, Shah Jahan gave a lofty mansion from the crown lands in exchange.Muhammad Salih Kanbo writes that the emperor acquired a "heaven-like tract of land (sarzamin e bihist-ain)" which was situated on the south side of Agra and belonged to Raja Man Singh. Once again, the word manzil is used.Though the mansion was gifted immediately after the decision to bury Mumtaz Mahal in Agra was taken in 1631, the exchange of the additional/replacement four "havelis" took two years to affect, as the royal "farman" is dated December 28, 1633.A certified contemporary copy of the "farman" dated 26 Jumada II 1043 AH, sixth regnal year [corresponding to December 28, 1633], is available in the Kapad Dwara collection in Jaipur City palace. The word used in the "farman" too is "haveli" (mansion).“Be it known through this glorious farman marked by happiness, which has received the honor of issuance and the dignity of proclamation, that the mansions (haveli) detailed in the endorsement, together with their dependencies, which belong to the august crown property, have been offered to that pride of peers and vassal of the monarch of Islam, Raja Jai Singh, and are hereby handed over and transferred to his ownership- in exchange of the mansion (haveli) formerly belonging to Raja Man Singh, which that pride of the grandees willingly and voluntarily donated for the mausoleum of that Queen of the ladies of the world ….. Mumtaz Mahal Begum.”[Translation Begley and Desai][2]To give you an idea of what the haveli must have looked like; here is a photograph of a haveli in the heritage village of Holipura in Agra which has charming havelis and rustic buildings, some dating back 350 years.[3]Now obviously, the Taj Mahal is not a haveli; so the structure that existed on the land owned by Raja Jai Singh, and which was probably built by Raja Man Singh, could not have been the Taj Mahal.P.N.Oak also claims about the existance of a Sanskrit inscription called the “Bateshwar inscription” (or as Oak calls it, the “Tejo Mahalaya inscription”) which allegedly refers to the raising of a "crystal white Shiva temple so alluring that Lord Shiva once enshrined in it decided never to return to Mount Kailash his usual abode". According to Oak, the inscription dated 1155 A.D. and was removed from the Taj Mahal garden at Shah Jahan's orders.But the part of the Archaeological Survey of India’s Report for the year 1871–1872 (which was published in 1874) which talks about the archaeological findings in Agra, which was written by A.C.L.Carlleyle under the superintendence of Alexander Cunningham,Director General of ASI , does not mention any such inscription.The report also talks about the etymology of Agra (pages 94–95) and Bhateswar (or Bateshwar) (pages 221–239) and then mentions the remains discovered near Bhateswar (pages 240–247) but there’s no mention of “Agreshwar Dham” (the holy shrine that Oak claims the Taj Mahal to be); even though it mentions the Hindu, Jain and Buddhist sites in and around Agra.(Bateshwar Temples; Uttar Pradesh Tourism | India Tourism Guide)In an article titled The Question of the Taj Mahal written by P. S. Bhat and A. L. Athawale which was published in the Itihas Patrika, Vol. 5, pp 98-111, 1985; they mention Marvin Mills of New York who allegedly reported about the Carbon-14 dating of the Taj Mahal : "Another item of evidence concerning the alleged date of the Taj is adduced from a radiocarbon date from a piece of wood from a door on the north facade of the Jumuna River's bank. The sample was tested by Dr. Even Williams, director of the Brooklyn College Radiocarbon Laboratory. The date came to 1359 AD with a spread of 89 years on either side and 67% probability, Masca corrected."Marvin Mills, now a faculty at Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Ringling College, was a professor at Pratt Institute in New York when he wrote a document titled ‘AN ARCHITECT LOOKS AT THE TAJ MAHAL LEGEND’ (which is available on his website — Marvin H. Mills, AIA History of Islamic Architecture).In his article, he mentioned some “key problems” with the Taj Mahal :1. Consider the identical character of the two buildings on either side of the Taj main building. If they had different functions-one a mosque, the other a guest residence-then, they should have been designed differently to reflect their individual functions.(Image source : Aerial Shots From Around The World)But the Mihman Khana (the guest house) which is the second building on the terrace and east of the mausoleum, does differ from the mosque in small details. It is devoid of Mihrab and Minbar, and the floor is made of simple slabs of red sandstone. Moreover, it does not have the small room that welcomed the remains of Mumtaz Mahal, as on the mosque. But it has the same basin for ablutions, although in its case it is only decorative. [4]Also, the floors of the jawab (another name of the Mihman Khana, which is a “jawab” i.e. “answer” to the mosque; as a form of architectural balance) have a geometric design, while the mosque floor was laid out the outlines of 569 prayer rugs in black marble. [5]2. Why does the perimeter wall of the complex have a Medieval, pre-artillery, defense character when artillery (cannons) was already in use in the Mughal invasions of India? [Why does a mausoleum need a protective wall in the first place? For a palace it is understandable.]Probably because the Taj Mahal was decorated with gold, silver and gems.3. Why are there some twenty rooms below the terrace level on the north side of the Taj facing the Jumna River? Why does a mausoleum need these rooms? A palace could put them to good use. The authors do not even mention their existence.4. What is in the sealed-up rooms on the south side of the long corridor opposite the twenty contiguous rooms? Who filled in the doorway with masonry? Why are scholars not allowed to enter and study whatever objects or decor are within?A website dedicated to the Taj Mahal [6]has an interesting theory about it :If we go by the Turkish Mughal tradition of providing a mausoleum with three set of graves, a tradition that has been followed in the tomb of Akbar, tomb of Itmad-ud-Daulah, and Chini-ka-rauza at Agra, Taj Mahal too should have a third set of graves, with the actual bodies of Mumtaz Mahal and Shah Jahan inside them. This is the myth of the "third graves" of Taj Mahal.[…]It is believed that these real set of graves must be somewhere inside the underground vaults that exist below the red sandstone platform of the Taj Mahal. And on the northern side of this red sandstone platform, lies two staircases that lead straight to the basement chambers which are seventeen in number and have been laid out in a line on the riverside. However, the doors on the extreme points on both the sides have been permanently blocked for some calculated purpose. A purpose that many believe is to conceal the presence of real graves of Mumtaz Mahal and Shah Jahan. According to the Muslim tradition, the real graves are always placed underground so that they remain undisturbed and the dead person could wait till the Day of Judgment and the graves that are visited by people are made in the likeness of the real graves.Another website also supports this theory and says :It is only in these underground vaults that the third set could have been placed. The doors in the basement corridor no doubt exist and must have originally given entry to some underground arrangement of chambers and corridors. Though they are now blocked, their existence lends weights to the legendary version. At least, we have figures,in the Persian manuscripts which contain the account of `third grave, expenditure on the Taj Mahal, of costs of three sets of tombstones. While the two are open to us, the third one is still a mystery. It is possible that the crypt and the passages were closed down in 1652 by Aurangzeb to give additional strength to the base which supported such a huge load above.[7]But of course, this is only just a speculation.Returning to Mills’ list of “key problems” :5. Why does the "mosque" face due west instead of facing Meccah? Certainly, by the seventeenth century there was no problem in orienting a building precisely!I don’t think this proves that the mosque was meant to be something else.6. Why has the Archaeological Survey of India blocked any dating of the Taj by means of Carbon-14 or thermo-luminiscnece? Any controversy over which century the Taj was built could easily be resolved. [Radiocarbon dating of a piece of wood surreptiously taken from one of the doors gave 13th century as a possible date. But more data is needed.]In a presentation (Taj Mahal: Not a Muslim Masterpiece (2007)) about his arguments and findings, he showed a document signed by Evan T. Williams which allegedly states that a sample of wood that Mills procured from the Taj Mahal is about 300 years older than the Taj Mahal itself.But he neither mentions those findings in his article on his website, nor in a letter he wrote to the editor of The New York Times on December 20, 1991 in which he objected to them calling the Taj Mahal "one of the most remarkable monuments of Mogul architecture" and "the tomb of Shah Jahan's beloved Mumtaz Mahal." [8]In his book, History's Mysteries: People, Places and Oddities Lost in the Sands of Time (page 75), Brian Haughton writes :The results of the radiocarbon dating of the wood were allegedly published in the academic journal Radiocarbon (Volume 19; 1977). However, although an examination of back issues of Radiocarbon for 1977 (available at www.radiocarbon.org) does indeed show an article by Dr. Evan Williams (“Brooklyn College Radiocarbon Dates I,” Volume 19, Number 1, 1977), nowhere in this article is there a mention of the dating of a piece of wood from the Taj Mahal.Some people say that the Taj Mahal could not have been constructed by a Muslim emperor, since its very existence is unislamic, (it is more or less a matter of debate whether constructing a tomb is permitted in Islam or not). But it is also a fact that the Mughal emperors before Aurangzeb weren’t staunchly religious in their personal lives.And Aurangzeb, on grounds of both economy and fidelity to the Islamic law criticized the Taj Mahal,the tomb of his mother, remarking: "The lawfulness of a solid construction over a grave is doubtful, and there can be no doubt about the extravagance involved." [9](Although Aurangzeb too commissioned a tomb for his first and chief wife Dilras Banu Begum, posthumously known as Rabia-ud-Daurani; in Aurangabad, which is known as Bibi Ka Maqbara and bears a striking resemblance to the Taj Mahal.)P.N.Oak claims that the interior of the dome rising over Mumtaz's centotaph has a representation of Sun and cobras drawn in gold; and Hindu warriors trace their origin to the Sun while cobras are always associated with Lord Shiva.This is the design he was talking about.While a solar motif is definitely there, there are no cobras— just an artistic representation of the rays of the sun. It’s another example of the brain seeing what it wants to see.[10]Oak also claims that the pinnacle of the Taj Mahal depicts a "Kalash" (sacred pot) holding two bent mango leaves and a coconut, which is a sacred Hindu motif.It is likely that the the architectural design of the Tamga of the Mughal Empire (see above) on the finial of the Taj Mahal, which by the way has “Allah” inscribed on it (see below) was inspired by the kalash on top of Hindu temples.But it is reasonable to assume that if the Taj Mahal were actually a temple, it would have a proper kalash and not a flattened one.Something like these —Image source : Hindu temple architectureAn argument is also made that since the Taj Mahal seems to have a lot of Hindu symbols, it cannot be an Islamic mausoleum; and it must have been a temple or a structure constructed by Hindu rulers.What they seem to forget is that Mughal architecture is an amalgam of Persian, Turkish, and Indian architecture — the former two being “Islamic” and the latter being “Hindu”. So it is not surprising that Mughal structures have Hindu symbols on them too, such as the lotus canopy on the central dome of the Taj Mahal.The Taj Mahal is the culmination of Mughal architecture. It draws inspiration from previous Mughal monuments and perfects their art.Humayun’s Tomb in Delhi seems to be the prototype, from which the central structure of the Taj Mahal was inspired.(Image source : Tourist places | 21th Congress of the International Society for Human and Animal Mycology)Akbar’s Tomb in Sikandra was the source of inspiration for the design of the minars of the Taj Mahal.(Image source : Agra 83 - Akbar's tomb)And Tomb of Jahangir in Lahore seems to have inspired the idea of minars surrounding the central structure.(Image source : Jahangir's Tomb Located In Shahdara, Punjab Pakistan)(Image source : Interesting Facts About the Tomb of Itmad-ud-Daulah Agra)Tomb of I'timād-ud-Daulah (I'timād-ud-Daulah Maqbara), described as a "jewel box", and sometimes called the "Bachcha Taj" (“Baby Taj”), is often regarded as a draft of the Taj Mahal.The tomb, built between 1622 and 1628 represents a transition between the first phase of monumental Mughal architecture – primarily built from red sandstone with marble decorations, as in Humayun’s Tomb in Delhi and Akbar’s tomb in Sikandra – to its second phase, based on white marble and pietra dura (floral design made up of semiprecious stone) inlay, most elegantly realized in the Taj Mahal.The mausoleum was commissioned by Nur Jahan, the wife of Jahangir, for her father Mirza Ghiyas Beg, who had been given the title of I'timād-ud-Daulah, “pillar of the state”; and was also the grandfather of Mumtaz Mahal. Nur Jahan was also responsible for the construction of Tomb of Jahangir in Lahore.The tomb situated on the eastern banks of the river Yamuna, is planned in the centre of a Char-Bagh(Four quartered garden), with the usual enclosing walls and side buildings. The main tomb of white marble is marvelously set in the centre of the garden. It stands on a plinth of red stone having in the middle of each side, facing the central arch, a lotus tank with fountain.The tomb is square in plan with octagonal towers, surmounted by chhatris, attached to its corners.There is no dome ; instead the building is roofed by a square 'Barahdari' having three arched openings on each side which are closed by jalis except in the middle of the north and south sides. It is protected by a chhajja above which is the chaukhandi(pyramidal) roof, crowned by lotus petals and kalash finials.The only asymmetrical element of the entire complex is that the cenotaphs of Nur Jahan’s father and mother have been set side-by-side, a formation replicated in the Taj Mahal.[11]With all these similarities in design, there remains little doubt that the Taj Mahal is a product of Mughal architecture— which is an amalgamation of Hindu and Islamic architecture.But since P.N.Oak was in denial, he claimed that that “all dead muslim courtiers and royalty including Humayun, Akbar, Mumtaz, Etmad-ud-Daula and Safdarjang have been buried in capture Hindu mansions and temples” (as mentioned in Stephen Knapp’s website).The myth that the Taj Mahal was a Hindu temple probably originated from E.B.Havell’s book Indian architecture, its psychology, structure, and history from the first Muhammadan invasion to the present day (pages 21–24) where he wrote that Chandi Sewa at Prambanam inJava, which has an arrangement of domes strikingly similar to that of the Taj, supplies the true prototype of the Taj mausoleum; and not Humayun’s tomb.(Image source : Candi Sewu, Part Of Prambanan Hindu Temple, Indonesia)On page 27, Havell further writes :But (on pages 29–30) he also makes it clear that he is not trying to “erase” the legacy of Mughal architecture (Oak should’ve read this part) :[12]It is a fact that the Taj Mahal was heavily influenced by Humayun’s Tomb, and the Quincunx ( a geometric pattern consisting of five points arranged in a cross, with four of them forming a square or rectangle and a fifth at its center) design which the Taj Mahal employs with the central dome and four smaller domes surrounding it, is not only reminiscent of the Candi Sewu temple and of a Panchayatana (when in a temple the main shrine is surrounded by four subsidiary shrines— a similar design is the quincunx of Angkor Wat), but also of Roman, Byzantine and Persian architecture.(St. Mark’s, Venice : Photo by Dave Curtis)(St. Michael’s Monastery in Kiev. Domes over side chapels are here added to the quincunx which defines the central mass of the church. [Image Source])In pagan antiquity, the quincunx pattern was understood to be a geometric emblem of an ordered world. And after the Christian revelation, a summary of a sanctified universe.[13]The design proposed for St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican by Donato Bramante was a quincunx as well (below). The dome even had a Fleur-de-lis on top.So the Taj Mahal (like other monuments built by the Mughals) is a product of the architectural traditions from different parts of the world.One of the structures which directly influenced the Taj Mahal (and Humayun’s Tomb too) is the Gur-e-Amir (“Tomb of the King”) in Uzbekistan; where an ancestor of the Mughals, Timur (or Tamerlane) is buried.Gur-e-Amir is a one-cupola building, which is famous for its simplicity of construction and for its solemn monumentality of appearance. It is an octahedral building crowned by an azure fluted dome. The exterior decoration of the walls consists of the blue, light-blue and white tiles organized into geometrical and epigraphic ornaments against a background of terracotta bricks. [14](Image source : Gur-e-Amir - Mausoleum in Samarkand - Thousand Wonders)Mughal architecture is a synthesis of of Persian, Turkic, Timurid Iranian, Central Asian, and Indian Hindu and Muslim styles. [15]E.B.Havell in his book A Handbook of Indian Art (page 142) writes how the Taj Mahal is an Islamic structure built in the Hindu and Buddhist traditions :E.B.Havell quotes a line from W.R.Lethaby’s Architecture (page 207) in his book Indian architecture, its psychology, structure, and history from the first Muhammadan invasion to the present day (page 31) to describe Mughal architecture. He says that like all true architeture, it was “not a thing of will, of design,or of scholarship, but a discovery of the nature of things in building, a continuous development along the same line of direction imposed by needs, desires, and traditions”.And that Mughal architecture is “Indian in body and soul” :Up until the 20th century, the Taj Mahal was considered a “symbol of love”, that the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan constructed for his beloved wife Mumtaz Mahal.But after it was finished, Shah Jahan visited the Taj only twice.There is a letter from Aurangzeb to him after a visit, reporting that the dome was leaking and needed to be fixed (mentioned in this answer previously). Shah Jahan wasn't bothered: He had moved on to designing his next project, Shahjahanabad, shifting the Mughal capital from Agra.That is why Aakar Patel in an article writes that Shah Jahan built the Taj Mahal in gratitude :Shah Jahan became emperor because of his wife. Her relatives used the uncertainty around Jahangir's illness and death, to secure power for him.By the time he arrived in Agra, his brothers had all been blinded. This left the throne open for Khurram (as Shah Jahan was named) and without his wife, he would not have been emperor.[…]Absent the quick actions of his wife, Khurram would likely have been blinded or executed by one of his brothers, instead of going on to become a name famous in history.And so the Taj was likely an act of Shah Jahan showing gratitude and it explains why, having done this, he moved on without a qualm.[16]Recent studies have found out that the Taj Mahal is a representation of Paradise associated with the notion of Last Judgment.This vision is due to Wayne Ernest Begley, who published a comprehensive study on the subject. If contemporary texts of the creation of the Taj Mahal specify it, it is essentially the works of Begley which confirms it: The plans of the monument were made compared to the "Plain of the Assembly" (Ard al-Hashr), the eschatological place of the Last Judgment.The layout of the buildings is similar to the plan which is described in the manuscripts of the Illuminations of Mecca by Ibn Arabi :Hence, the Taj Mahal represents a spiritual journey. The complex is divided into 4 parts, all aligned from South to North. Each passage from one to the other corresponds to a symbolic passage, from the most terrestrial to the most celestial.The inner courtyard, named Jilaukhana, is a place of preparation for spiritual life. Symbolically this is the place where people from outside prepare to enter the holiest places of the monument, a place where are the graves of the first two wives of Emperor Shah Jahan and where the officiant resided religious, at the time.The garden (“charbagh”) is a representation of Paradise; and the 4 channels symbolize the 4 rivers of Paradise according to Muslims, namely the river of water, that of milk, that of wine and that of honey.The mausoleum, octagonal, is on a square base, a geometric form associated with the earth. We must know that according to Muslims, we speak not of one but of 8 paradises. It is easy to get between these 8 paradises and the octagon of the mausoleum, and we have a chain: Square to octagon to dome, which symbolically represents the passage from the earth to Paradise. And the 4 minarets are a direct reference to the ascension of souls to the sky.[17](Image source : Taj Mahal from the sky — Wikimedia Commons)In his answer to this question, Puneetchandra Sharma mentions a portion of the English translation of Ain-i-Akbari by Henry Blochmann (Ain-i-Akbari by Abul Fazl, tr by H. Blochmann, Vol I, page 341, No. 30), which reads :Man Singh died a natural death in the 9th year of Jahangir's reign whilst in the Dak'hin. Sixty of his fifteen hundred wives burned themselves on the funeral pile. At the time of his death, only one of his numerous sons was alive, Bhao Singh, regarding whose succession to the title vide Tuzuk i Jahinngiri,“The ground on which the Taj at A'grah stands, belonged to Man Singh.”Mr Sharma argues that “very fact that the Taj Mahal was there before Mumtaz died, falsifies the the present historians claim that it was built by Shah Jahan.”Except it doesn’t.In the beginning of A’i’n 30, which is titled Grandees of the Empire (where the aforementioned excerpt is from); Abul Fazl, referring to the Grandees of the Court, writes that he shall “merely record, in form of a table, their names and the titles which have been conferred upon them” (page 308) :But we find that in the Blochmann translation, there isn’t a mere table but a list of 415 Grandees of the Mughal Empire along with their biographies (from page 308 to page 526).In the footnote on page 308, the translator has written :The fact that these biographies are not there in Francis Gladwin’s translation of Ain-i-Akbari proves that they were not there in the original text, and were only included by Henry Blochmann in his translation.That is why Blochmann has written “The ground on which the Taj at A'grah stands, belonged to Man Singh.”; because he was aware of the history of the Taj.Abul Fazl could not have written this, because he died in 1602 and the construction of the Taj Mahal did not even begin till 1632.TL;DR — NO.The Taj Mahal is not a temple of Lord Shiva.It was commissioned by Shah Jahan as a mausoleum for his deceased wife Mumtaz Mahal. And while it can be argued if it is actually a “symbol of love”, it was certainly never a temple.Also read : What are your views of P.N. Oak’s theory that the Taj Mahal was not built by Shah Jahan and 'Tejo Mahalaya'? by Mayur KanaiyaReferencesThe True Story of the Taj Mahal by Stephen Knapp (a summary of P.N. Oak’s book Tajmahal : The True Story)The Travels of Peter Mundy in Europe and AsiaIndian architecture, its psychology, structure, and history from the first Muhammadan invasion to the present day by E. B. HavellArchaeological Survey of India’s Report for the year 1871–1872The Taj Mahal by Lesley A. DuTempleAn English Translation of the Adab-i-'Alamgiri : The Period Before the War of Succession being The Letters of Prince Muhammad Aurangzib Bahadur to Muhammad Shihabu'd-din Shah Jahan Sahib-i-Qiran-i-Sani, Emperor of Hindustan by Vincent John Adams FlynnA Handbook to Agra and the Taj, Sikandra, Fathepur-Sikri, and the Neighbourhood by E. B. HavellThe Question of the Taj Mahal by P. S. Bhat and A. L. AthawaleAN ARCHITECT LOOKS AT THE TAJ MAHAL LEGEND by Marvin H. MillsHistory's Mysteries: People, Places and Oddities Lost in the Sands of Time by Brian HaughtonRadiocarbon, 1977 ; BROOKLYN COLLEGE RADIOCARBON DATES I by Evan T. WilliamsA Handbook of Indian Art by E. B. HavellThe Ain i Akbari by Abul Fazl ‘Allami, translated from the original Persian, by H. BlochmannAyeen Akbery; or, The Institutes of the Emperor Akber. Translated from the Original Persian by Francis GladwinFootnotes[1] Craftsmen who built Taj Mahal preserved their names in stone[2] The real story of how Taj Mahal was built[3] Discovering the soul of Agra … not at the Taj Mahal - Breathedreamgo[4] Mosque of the Taj Mahal[5] Taj Mahal[6] Is There a Third Set of Graves in Taj[7] Information About Third Grave at Taj[8] Opinion | Separating the Taj Mahal From Legend[9] part2_15[10] The Interior of the Main Dome[11] Tomb of I'timād-ud-Daulah - Wikipedia[12] Taj Mahal Architecture: Origins in Humayun's Tomb (Video) • Approach Guides[13] The Quincunx: Queen of Symbols[14] Gur-e-Amir - Wikipedia[15] Boundless Art History[16] Shah Jahan built the Taj in gratitude[17] Symbolism of the Taj Mahal