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Eligibility Criteria For IAS(i) Age limits :21-32 years as on 1.7.2017. (Upper age limit relaxable for SCs/STs, OBCs and certain other categories as specified in Para 3(ii) of Notice).(ii) Educational Qualifications :Bachelor’s degree of a recognised university with at least one of the subjects namely Animal Husbandry & Veterinary Science, Botany, Chemistry, Geology, Mathematics, Physcs, Statistics and Zoology or a Bachelor's degree in Agriculture, Forestry or in Enginerring or an equivalent qualification (Para 3(iii) of Notice).(more content follows the advertisement below)A D V E R T I S E M E N T(iii) No. of permissible attempts :Four (Seven attemps of OBCs and no limit for SCs/STs (Para 3 (iv) of Notice)(iv) Fee :Rs. 100/- (Rupees one hundred only)(No fee for SCs/STs/Physically disabled only)Instructions to candidates for filling up the Application Form for the Indian Forest Service Examination, 2017.Side 1 of Application FormColumn 1 : Examination for which applyingDarken the circle against "IFS", in the box pertaining to Name of examination, write IFS starting from the first box on the left. Also write 2017 in the boxes meant for year of examination.Column 2 : FeeIf you have paid the requisite fee of Rs. 100/- (Rupees One hundred only), darken circle 1 and write 1 in the box; orIf you have not paid the fee and are claiming fee remission as SC, ST or Physically Handicapped, darken circle 2 and write 2 in the box.N.B. : Fee is payable only in the form of Central Recruitment Fee Stamp, as per instructions against Column 12.Column 3 : (I) Whether Physically Handicapped?If you are not a physically handicapped person, darken circle 1 for No and write 1 in the box; orIf you are a physically handicapped person, darken circle 2 for yes and write 2 in the box.(II) If yes, indicate categoryFill up this Column only if your answer to Column 3(I) is yes.If you are Orthopaedically handicapped, darken circle 1 and write 1 in the box; orIf you are Blind, darken circle 2 and write 2 in the box; orIf you are Deaf-Mute, darken circle 3 and write 3 in the box.Column 4 : CommunityIf you belong to SC, darken circle 1 and write 1 in the box; orIf you belong to ST, darken circle 2 and write 2 in the box; orIf you belong to OBC, darken circle 3 and write 3 in the box; orIf you belong to General Category (Others), darken circle 4 and write 4 in the box.Note 1 : Candidates belonging to OBCs but comming in the Creamy Layer and thus not being entitled to OBC reservation should indicate their community as "General Category (Others) Code No. 4".Note 2 : Candidates belonging to neither SC, ST, nor OBC communities should write Code No. 4 (General Category) against the Column for Community and not leave it blank.Note 3 : No change in the community status indicated by a candidate in his/her application form for the Examination will ordinarily be allowed by the Commission at a subsequent stage.Column 5 : SexIf you are Male, darken circle 1 and write 1 in the box; orIf you are Female, darken circle 2 and write 2 in the box;Column 6 : NationalityIf you are an Indian national, darken circle 1 and write 1 in the box; orIf you are not an Indian national, darken circle 2 and write 2 in the box.Column 7 : Name of the candidateFor filling up this column, first write in the boxes your full name (in English) in capital letters exactly as recorded in your Matriculation/High School/Secondary or equivalent examination certificate. Write a single letter in a box. Leave a box blank between any two parts of the name. Then darken the corresponding circle below each letter. Do not darken a circle below a blank box. Do not overshoot the boxes. Abbreviate name only if necessary. Do not use any prefix such as shri, Kum., Dr. etc with your name.See sample filled up form in the brochure for guidance.Column 8 : Date of BirthDarken the appropriate circles for the day, month and year of your birth as recorded in your Matriculation/High School/Secondary or equivalent examination certificate. Then write in the boxes using numerals 01 to 31 for day; numerals 01 to 12 for month and the last two digits for the year of birth.See sample filled up form in the brochure for guidance.Column 9 : Father’s NameWrite your father’s name (in English) in capital letters. Write a single letter in each box. Leave a box blank between any two parts of the name. Do not use any prefix such as Shri, Dr. etc.Column 10 : AddressWrite your complete mailing address including your name in English capital letters or Hindi within the box provided for the purpose. Also write the PIN Code therein. Write with blue or black ball pen only. Do not write outside the box. Please note that this address will be photocopied as such in all letters to be sent to you and therefore, it should be very clearly and legibly written.If you make any mistake in writing the address, cover the whole box with an exact sized white paper slip and rewrite your address on that.Column 11 : PhotographPaste firmly in the space provided your recent photograph of 4 cm. x 5 cm. size (preferably in Black & white). Do not staple the photograph. Photograph should neither be signed by you nor it should be got attested.Column 12 : Space for CRF StampFee to be paid for the Indian Forest Service Examination is Rs. 100/- (Rupees One hundred only). SC/ST and Physically Handicapped candidates are not required to pay any fee. No fee exemption is however available to OBC candidates and they are required to pay the prescribed full fee.Fee is payable only through Central Recruitment Fee Stamp (Not postage stamps). No other mode of payment is acceptable. Obtain only one single CRF Stamp of Rs. 100/- denomination from the post office and paste it firmly within the box. After pasting the CRF Stamp on the form, get it cancelled from the post office of purchase in the space provided. Do not staple the CRF Stamp.Side 2 of Application FormColumn 13 : (I) Are you residing in a remote area or abroadIf you are residing in a remote area specified in Para 6 of the Notice of the Examination or abroad, darken circle 1 against Yes and write 1 in the box; orIf you are not residing in a specified remote area/abroad, darken circle 2 against No and write 2 in the box.N.B. : Candidates residing in a remote area specified in the Notice of the Examination or abroad are entitled to one week’s additional time for submission of application form.(II) If yes, indicate area code :Darken the appropriate circles for the area code as given below and then write the same code in the boxes.AreaCodeAreaCodeAssam01Sikkim08Meghalaya02Jammu & Kashmir09Arunachal Pradesh03Lahaul and Spiti District and Pangi Sub Division of Chamba District of Himachal Pradesh10Mizoram04Manipur05Andman & NicobarIsland11Nagaland06Lakshadweep12Tripura07Abroad13Column 14 : Examination Centre CodeChoose the Examination Centre from the list given below where you wish to appear and see its code. Darken the appropriate circles and then write the same code in the boxes. Do not indicate more than one centre.List of Centres of ExaminationCentreCodeCentreCodeCentreCodeAgartala45Gangtok42Panaji (Goa)36AhmedabadHyderabad10Patna15Aizawal47Imphal44Port Blair37Allahabad02Itanagar48Raipur49Bangalore03Jaipur11Ranchi41Bareilly54Jammu34Sambalpur53Bhopal04Jorhat46Shillong16Chandigarh35Kochi24Shimla17Chennai12Kohima43Srinagar18Cuttack07Kolkata06Thiruvananthapuram19Dehradun14Lucknow26Tirupati50Delhi08Madurai40Udaipur52Dharwar39Mumbai05Vishakhapatnam51Dispur09Nagpur13Column 15 : Educational Qualification CodeCodes prescribed for educational qualification are as follows :CodeEducational qualification01If you have already passed the requisite qualifying Examination, with prescribed subject;02If you have appeared/appearing at the requisite qualifying Examination, with prescribed subject;Choose the correct code applicable in your case and darken the appropriate circles. Write the same code in the boxes.Note: For prescribed subjects see para 3 (iii) of Notice.Column 16:(I) Whether claiming age relaxationIf you are claiming age relaxation, darken circle 1 for Yes and write 1 in the box; or If you are not claiming age relaxation, darken circle 2 for No and write 2 in the box.(II) If Yes, indicate category code Fill up this Column only if your response to Column 16(I) is Yes. Darken the appropriate circles for category codes given below and then write the same code in the boxes.Category - Codes for Claiming Age Relaxation(Refer Para 3(ii) (b) of Commission’s Notice published in the Employment News/Rozgar Samachar)Code No.CategoryExtent of Age Relaxation Permissible01.SC and ST5 years02OBC3 years03Blind, deaf-mute and Orthopaedically handicapped persons.10 years04Blind, deaf-mute and Orthopaedically handicapped persons + SC/ST15 years05Blind, deaf-mute and Orthopaedically handicapped persons + OBC13 years06Defence Services Personnel disabled in operations during hostilities with any foreign country or in a disturbed area and released as a consequence thereof.3 years07Defence Services Personnel(as against Code No. 06) + SC/ST8 years08Defence Services Personnel(as against Code No. 06) + OBC 6 years09Ex-Servicemen including Commissioned offices and ECOs/SSCOs who have rendered at least five years Military Service as on 1st January, 2017 and have been released (i) on completion of assignment (including those whose assignment is due to be completed within one year from 1st January, 2017) otherwise than by way of dismi-ssal or discharge on account of misconduct or inefficiency;or (ii) on account of physical disability attributable to Military Service; or (iii) on invalidment.5 years10Ex-Servicemen including Commissioned Officers and ECOs/SSCOs (as against Code No. 09) + SC/ST10 years11Ex-Servicemen including + OBC Commissioned Officers and ECOs/SSCOs (as against Code No. 09)8 years12ECOs/SSCOs who have completed an initial period of assignment of five years of Military Service as on 1st January,2017 and whose assignment has been extended beyond five years and in whose case the Ministry of Defence issues a certificate that they can apply for civil employment and that they will be released on three months notice on selection from the date of receipt of offer of appointment.5 years13ECOs/SSCOs (as againstCode No. 12) + SC/ST10 years14ECOs/SSCOs (as againstCode No. 12) + OBC8 years15Candidates who had ordinarily been domiciled in the State of Jammu & Kashmir during the period from 1st January, 1980 to 31st December, 19895 years16Candidates who had ordinarily been domiciled in the State of J & K (as against Code No. 15) + SC/ST10 years17Candidates who had ordinarily been domiciled in the State of J & K (as against Code No. 15) + OBC8 years(I) Optional subjectChoose any two optional subject from the list given below and see their codes. Darken the appropriate circles and then write the same code in the boxes.(II) No. of attempts already made?Write the number of attempts already made by you in the Indian Forest Services Examination in the boxes and darken the appropriate circles. If no attempt has been made by you earlier, darken circles 00 and write ‘00’ in the boxes.Columns 21 and 22 :Candidates appearing for the Indian Forest Services Examination 2017 are not required to fill any of these columns. They should, therefore, leave these Columns blank.Column 23 : DeclarationThe candidate must read the declaration carefully before signing. In Sub-para (i), the candidate must fill up the Examination Notice number viz. 06/2017 and date of publication of Notice in Employment News/Rozgar Samachar viz., 05.02.2017 in the spaces provided before the asterisk marks.Column 24 : Signature of candidateMake your usual signature in blue or black ball pen within the box provided. Your signature must not overflow or touch the border of the box provided. Do not merely write your name in capital letters in place of signature. Unsigned applications will be rejected.Also write the place and date of signing the form in the spaces provided for the purpose.Verify the following before mailing the application1. That you have used the application form purchased from the designated Head Post Offices/Post Offices only.2. That you have filled in all the relevant columns of the application form by blackening the appropriate circles and also writing the corresponding code(s) in boxes. It may be carefully checked that there is no variation between the entries made by you by darkening the circles and those written in the accompanying boxes.3. That you have pasted your recent photograph preferably in black & white (unsigned and unattested) in column 11 of the application form.4. That in case you are required to pay fee, you have affixed a Central Recruitment Fee Stamp of Rs. 100/- denomination in column 12 of the application form and have got it cancelled from the Post Office.5. That you have signed in column 24 of the application form.6. That only one application form and one acknowledgement card is being mailed in the envelope supplied to you with the Brochure and no other enclosure is attached therewith.7. That you have written the name of examination viz., "Indian Forest Service Examination, 2017" on the envelope meant for despatch of application form and acknowledgement card. SPECIAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR CANDIDATESSpecial instructions to Candidates for Conventional type of papersArticles permitted inside Examination HallBattery-operated pocket calculators of “non-programmable” type only,mathematical/engineering/drawing instruments, including a flat rule divided on the edges into inches and tens of an inch and into centimeters and millimeters, a slide rule, set squares, a protractor and a pair of compasses, pencils, coloured pencils, mapping pens, eraser, T-square and drawing board for use wherever necessary. Candidates are not allowed to bring with them any “Tables or Charts” for use in the Examination Hall.Mobile phones, pagers or any other communication devices are not allowed inside the premises where the examination is being conducted. Any infringement of these instructions shall entail disciplinary action including ban from future examinations.Candidates are advised in their own interest not to bring any of the banned item including mobile phones/pagers to the venue of the examination, as arrangement for safekeeping can not be assured.Tables to be supplied by UPSCIf it is considered necessary for answering the questions set in any paper, the Commission may supply any of the following for reference purpose only:-(i) Mathematical/Physical, Chemical and Engineering Tables (including Logarithmic Tables);(ii) Steam Table (including Mollier Diagrams for Temperature up to 800 C and Pressure up to 500 Kgf/Cm);(iii) National Building Code of India 1970 or 1983 Group 2 Part VI;(iv) Any other special articles as may be necessary for the candidates to answer the questions set in the question paper.After conclusion of the examination, return the above items to the Invigilator.Answers to be written in own handWrite the answers in your own hand in ink. Pencil may be used for maps, mathematical drawings or rough work.Check Answer BookThe candidate must write his roll number (and not his name) only in the space provided for the purpose on every answer book used by him. Before writing in the answer book, please see that it is complete. In case there are any missing pages, it should be got replaced.Do not tear out any pages from the Answer Book. If you use more than one Answer Book, indicate on the cover of first Answer Book the total number of Answer Books used. Do not leave any blank, unused spaces between answers. If such spaces are left, score them out.Answers in excess of prescribed number will be ignoredThe candidate must attempt questions strictly in accordance with the directions given on each question paper. If questions are attempted in excess of the prescribed number shall be valued and the remaining answers will be ignored.Questions relating to graph/ récis should be attempted only on graph/ récis sheets to be supplied on demand by the Invigilators. All loose sheets such as récis sheet, drawing papers, graph sheets etc. whether used or not, should be placed inside the answer books and fastened along with the additional answer book(s), if any. Candidates who fail to observe this instruction will be penalized.Do not write your roll number on these sheets.Unfair means strictly prohibitedDo not copy from the papers of any other candidate nor allow your papers to be copied nor give nor attempt to give nor obtain nor attempt to obtain irregular assistance of any description. It will be responsibility to every candidate to ensure that his answers are not copied by another candidate. Failure to do so will invite penalty, as may be awarded by the Commission for adoption of unfair means.Conduct in Examination HallDo not misbehave in any manner or create disorderly scene in the examination hall or harass or bodily harm the staff deployed for the conduct of examination. You will be severely penalized if you attempt to do so.Please read carefully and abide by the instructions printed on the Question Paper and on the Answer Book supplied in the Examination Hall.Source- FREE IAS Exam Preparation

This approach will help you think of a solid startup idea.It is broken into 5 steps to facilitate progress through a system that in total should take about 30-40 hours to complete over a week or two, if you do it all.Add rigor and discipline to your brainstorming and idea evaluation process:Build lists of potential customer types and business or pricing models.Evaluate the opportunities where these lists overlap.Then, exit your ivory tower and evaluate the top ideas with real potential users, customers, or suppliers.This will improve your likelihood of success and waste less time down the road, even if you pivot from your original idea.Preface: There certainly are simpler answers like, “pick an area that is trending”, “look for a large market that hasn’t changed in 10 years”, or “convert your hobby into a business”. Unfortunately those aren’t particularly helpful, and since this question comes up often in discussions, I wanted to get my thoughts down in a more comprehensive way. I’m sure Quora will have some good feedback for me :)Also, while this answer covers the ideation part of the journey, keep in mind that implementing the idea is the hard part.Three primary paths to a new business idea1. The spontaneous idea: It hits you when you’re in the shower, driving in your car, talking with friends, or doodling during a meeting. The dots suddenly connect in a new way and you have an epiphany...your sudden insight is surprising and exciting, and the value of this new idea seems obvious. You can’t believe nobody else has thought of it before!So you go online and poke around...and...most of the time it turns out that someone has thought of it before. But, you still might be able to do it better...so you keep thinking about it and a day passes, and you start to realize some problems. You share it with a few trusted friends and get feedback about a lot of things you hadn’t thought of yet (e.g., nobody pays for it, it’s a tiny market, etc.). It could turn out to be a great idea, but you don’t know, you have a good job, and it is uncharted territory...so you let the dream slowly die away. Cheer up, that was probably the right decision.2. The insider idea: Maybe you’ve spent the last 7 years building enterprise software for airlines and you’ve noticed some voids in the product stack or issues with how your company brings it to market. You point these deficiencies out to your bosses, but there are other company priorities and nothing changes. Or, say your company pays vendors a lot of money to do some work, but nobody ever seems happy with the results....and you see a way to do it better for less. Or, maybe you witnessed your company kill an amazing new product or feature not because testing didn’t show user interest, but for political or organizational reasons.You see an opportunity to do it on your own, so you start moonlighting on a solution. You gather more specific information, talk to trusted co-workers and industry contacts, and determine the viability of solving the problem. The good thing is, you’re already knowledgeable and well positioned/networked in the business space...so good luck to you!3. The deliberate idea: In this case, you aren’t starting with a business idea. Instead, you’re starting with a desire to create a new business and become an entrepreneur. You may be ready to quit your job and go for it whole-hog, or just start it on the side of your desk...but you’re looking for the right business idea to pursue (which could be a business related to your work environment or industry, as in #2).While the first two paths may happen unintentionally, the third is for people who know they want to start a company, but don't yet have their idea. If you fall into the third group, then this answer is for you.#3 The Deliberate IdeaIdeation is fun and freeing, but it is the easy part of the process. Execution of your idea separates the wheat from the chaff and is where most people fail. That said, coming up with the right idea will improve your odds of successful execution. This system will help you do that well.Step 1 - Decide what is your primary motivation or personal goal for starting this (1 hour)For example, do you want a:Fun or hobby based business (e.g., making bracelets to sell on Etsy (product))Part-time lifestyle business that could become full time (e.g., running a wine-investment club)Full-time startup hoping for acquisition exit in 3-5 years (e.g., It’s like Airbnb (product) for fish, get it?)Large, cash-flow positive business (e.g., B2B furniture import and delivery business)Path to industry credibility and networking over financial gain (e.g., scriptwriting peer-training exchange for aspiring comedy writers)Create a new spreadsheet and write down your goal in the first tab. It may seem like overkill now, but if you take a break from this project you’ll want to be able to have it as a frame of reference when picking it back up.Step 2 - Frame the problem (2 hours)If you try to just write down a list of ideas from scratch, you’ll probably be underwhelmed with the results. You’ll likely hit a block after a handful of ideas, and what you come up with will be based on your predispositions...i.e., if you are a gamer, you’ll have ideas for games. If you work in cloud computing, you’ll have ideas for new approaches, etc. This isn’t a bad thing, but it is limiting.Instead, make a deliberate effort to facilitate your own brainstorming.In the spreadsheet you created in step 1, create a new sheet and type out a list of 15-20 different categories of customer/audience types in the first column. Don’t start with the usual demographic descriptions like, “18-35 year olds in urban environments making over $100k per year”. Instead, use descriptive phrases that represent specific groups of consumers and/or businesses with unique challenges and needs. These tend to be easier to conceptualize so they are more useful and helpful for generating ideas.Start with some that relate to your personal interests, hobbies, experience or professional network, but don't limit yourself to them. Some examples include retail insurance agents, cyclical dieters, ex-pats in Asia, news junkies, people that eat out 3+ times per week, new college grads, stay-at-home mothers, winemakers, startup founders raising money, youth sports teams, companies at trade shows, wedding planners, gamers, health nuts, software development agencies, etc. If you’re having trouble coming up with enough, broaden to specific industries, e.g., public transportation, dating, real estate, etc. If you’re going after a specific geography, call it out (e.g., ex-pats in Asia).Next, along the first row of your spreadsheet, type the business or pricing models (i.e., the type of business) that you could apply to these customers/audiences. There’s no exact right or wrong approach, and I’m using the term “business model” very liberally here. Not all models will apply to each group and some overlap is okay. Remember, you’re doing this to help you brainstorm and compare new business ideas, not to become an expert on business models.For example, subscriptions, product bundling, risk management/insurance, auctions, resale/classifieds, peer-to-peer exchanges, outsourcing non-core functions, freemium, advertising-supported content, new product development, after-sale care, daily deals (discounted pre-sale), collaborative consumption (think AirBnB), rapid evaluation/matching (e.g., Tinder), sales channel innovation, lead generation and referrals, marketplace, brokerage, BI/CI solutions, community, etc. (more here: TechCrunch business models)Step 3 - Generate ideas (4-6 hours)Your spreadsheet is now a grid with customer/audience types down the side and business/pricing models across the top. Each box where the two lists overlap is a place to brainstorm ideas. Go through each square in this grid. You can dismiss many of the boxes in a few seconds (e.g., Business Intelligence for stay-at-home moms?), but it is worth giving each consideration as you’ll inevitably come up with ideas you didn’t expect.The easiest way to do this is go column by column. Pick a business or pricing model, think of a few existing businesses that use it, and spend 5 minutes reading about them to get your head into that space. Then, apply it to each potential customer or audience group: how could it fit? What are their priorities, what gets in their way, where are they wasting time or money, what do they depend upon? Browse discussion forums where they participate or are discussed. See what they care about, what people complain about. Search online for other companies that already compete to offer them products and services. What are they?Your pass through the first column will take the most time, because you're learning about each of the 15-20 customer types as you go. It speeds up after that.Each time you come up with a keeper, type it into the corresponding box. For example, providing after-sale customer management for retail insurance agents? Or, a debt auction business for startups looking to raise seed funding? Type it in.Note: You may have 2+ ideas in a box. To add a new line inside of a cell type Alt-Enter for Excel on PC, Option-Command-Enter for Excel on Mac, Ctrl-Enter for Google Docs on MacTry to come up with at least 6 solid ideas. Then, create another tab in your spreadsheet and list all of your ideas there. In addition to writing down the ideas themselves, you should state the goal, audience(s), and model(s) for each one. These will change over time, but it is good to start grounded with something you can work-back towards.Step 4 - Evaluate ideas and narrow it down (3 hours)The next step is to evaluate your list of 6+ ideas against a set of criteria that will help you narrow down to the most promising three. For example:Heat in this space: E.g., Some answers on QuoraYour experience and connections: Do you have experience in this industry or with similar businesses? Are you well connected with friends or family that operate in this space? Any advantages, or disadvantages?Alignment with goals: How well does this align to your original goal? Are the upfront capital costs compatible with the level of investment you want to make in this business?Market opportunity: How big is this market and how unique or differentiated is your approach? Consider competition here, but don’t be discouraged by the presence of competition. It is validation that the space is interesting. Also, there are plenty of companies have come along and disrupted markets that others had written off as already solved, like:Google ... after Altavista, Metacrawler, Lycos, etc.Facebook ... after Friendster, MySpaceUber ... after Yellow cab, black car services, etc.Gmail ... after AOL, Yahoo!, Hotmail, etc.iPhone ... after Blackberry, Palm, Windows MobileFlipboard, Wavii, Zite, Pulse, Prismatic, etc. ... after Yahoo!, AOL, MSN, CNNYou probably don’t have time to really deep-dive on 10 ideas, so getting this narrowed down is both science and art. What does your gut tell you, what would be fun, where are you most comfortable and confident?OPTIONAL STEP: To add more science try quantifying some of these criteria.To do this, add a column to the Ideas tab, one for each criterion. Then, for each new column score your ideas from 1-5, with 5 being the best. So, for “Alignment with my goal”, a 5 means it aligns perfectly, and a 1 means it doesn’t align at all (e.g., your goal is to create a fun hobby business, but the idea is to sell offshore development services to technology companies in the US).Don’t worry if you aren’t sure whether something is a 3 or a 4, just go with your gut or do 5 minutes of online research. Keep moving forward, don't get stuck here bogged down in the weeds.When you’re finished, add up the scores and sort your list by the sum of these scores. In theory, the higher the score, the more interesting the idea should be to you.When you’re done evaluating your ideas run them by a couple of trusted friends, and narrow it down to the three that seem most promising. If you do the optional scoring step, don’t feel like you must pick the three that scored highest.Note - we could have used these criteria earlier in step 2 to narrow down the list of audiences and business/pricing models, but that would have limited the creative process too far upstream (i.e., before the brainstorming process), so I suggest waiting.Step 5 - Deep dive on those 3 ideas (20-30 hours over a week or two)Congratulations, you have come up with 3 solid ideas! Now it’s time to step out of your ivory tower and start getting street-level information and feedback. There are three basic steps for doing this (i.e., 5_a, _b, and _c) that are general enough to apply to most types of ideas.A quick aside: at this point people ask, "If I share my idea with a lot of people, won't someone steal it?" The answer is possibly, but unlikely. As previously mentioned, there are a lot of startup ideas but few people with the time, energy, or know-how to implement them. The benefits of getting good feedback early on outweigh the risk that someone will steal it. So, don't tell people that won't benefit you, and avoid telling direct competitors that are in a position to do it themselves, or to block you from doing it, but generally don't worry. Related questions / blog posts:Will a VC or Angel steal my idea?How can I be sure people won't steal my idea during a pitch?Will anyone steal my startup idea?Why you shouldn’t keep your startup idea secret5_a. Get smart(er) (6-8 hours)You will be able to evaluate and refine your ideas 10x faster by engaging in discussions with real potential customers, users, and partners. But, if you go into these unprepared you’ll wind up asking the wrong questions, sounding out of place, and wasting your opportunity and their time.So, before you invest in surveys, coffee shop chats, or informational meetings, you need to get up to speed on the basics of the industry you are targeting. If you gave yourself a 5 in the “Experience and connections” category in Step 4, you can skip this. If not, invest 2-3 hours per idea.Note - throughout this process you should take detailed notes. Create a new tab for each of your ideas, or an entirely new document; doesn’t really matter as long as you can write stuff down. Track who you've spoken with, emailed, feedback, etc. Trust me, you will be glad that you wrote this all down.This will probably take a couple of days. At minimum I would:Call up or email savvy friends and family to get their thoughts (LinkedIn is a great tool for this).Give them the 10,000 foot view of your idea and ask for their opinion. (Take good notes on or right after the call; do not trust your memory for this.)Ask them what they think is the biggest problem with it, otherwise they might just say nice things.If they’re in your industry then ask if they know of other companies in your space, what they think is broken, etc.Ask them who they would speak with if they had your idea. Ask if you can get informational interviews with those people.Talk to potential investors if possibleThey don’t have to be the people that will actually invest in your business, but at this step ideally you have a personal relationship with them. Position your conversation as looking for advice to make a decision, not their money.Anyone you know that does angel investing, VC, M&A, etc., will have a trained perspective.Do lots of online research. For example:Find out who competes in this space, and add them to your spreadsheet.Read their websites, watch their videos, and search for them together, e.g., “Windows AND Android AND iPhone”. These search queries surface articles and blog posts that analyze the broader industry, offering helpful perspective and discovery of competitors you missed. E.g., “Windows, Android and iPhone versus Blackberry”.Browse on Wikipedia to learn industry vocabulary and organization.Search Quora for questions about the industry or these competitors.Determine external dependenciesYou may need data. Is it available free or paid, or will you have to mine it yourself, etc.?Do you need any particular physical materials, machinery, etc. that are hard to come by?Will you require any permits or government approvals?Will you need to hire any specialists people that are particularly difficult to find and recruit?Expensive equipment?Will you need to raise a significant amount of outside funding just to get started b/c there are high capital costs?Etc.Now you are smart enough to have the intelligent conversations with people in your prospective industries, and you probably have also improved and refined your ideas. Woohoo, you’re getting closer to “the one”.At this point a lot of people would pick something and invest time in “creating” their business. I.e., set up a corporation, pick a name, secure a domain, design a logo, print business cards, figure out their title, etc. While these things feel like progress towards a “real company”, they are an unnecessary distraction at this point. It is much wiser to spend that energy on validation of your idea, like testing with real customers, meeting competitors, mocking up prototypes, etc.5_b. Talk to potential customers, competitors, and industry partners you don’t know personally (5-10 hours)Before you pour your heart and soul into a new venture, you should validate it outside of your friends and family circle. Is this solving a real issue for potential users or customers? Would they be willing to pay for it...or do businesses even have budget for what you’re offering? Again, the mechanics of this depend on the type of business idea that you have (e.g., starting a sandwich shop vs. office supply delivery vs. peer-to-peer insurance), but here are some general approaches that I would recommend.Run an online surveyQuick way to get a relatively large sample of answers from your target customers or audience.There are probably others, but Google Surveys is drop-dead simple to use and it allows you to easily limit responses to your target (e.g., people that buy life insurance).It’ll cost you a couple hundred bucks per survey. A cheap alternative is to post the concept on a discussion forum or Quora to get feedback.Talk with your potential customers/audienceIf you’re targeting consumers, figure out where they spend time and go there to ask them questions (e.g., certain neighborhoods or coffee shops, concerts, sporting events, conventions, etc.). If you end up in a coffee shop, print a sign for the back of your laptop that says “Your feedback on my idea for a free latte”!If you’re targeting B2C businesses, approach them as a customer, and ask them some questions. Buy something if they sell retail.If you’re targeting B2B businesses, email them or go to conferences that they attend, etc. Try to get an informational interview based on the premise that you’re working to improve the industry and do something valuable for them, so you need their expertise and advice. People like it when others ask for their ‘expertise’.Talk with suppliersThis is relatively easy, since you are a potential buyer and they will want your business.In a previous step you identified the external dependencies you’ll want to take, i.e., what you should buy vs. build, and some possible vendors. Get meetings with them.You need to verify your assumptions, and while a lot of the details will be available on their website, information about pricing, access restrictions, etc., is often not, so you’ll want to email or call them to get details.Try to speak to more than 1 provider for each item so you can compare prices and look for differences or similarities, which will tell you a lot about the industry.OPTIONAL - Start selling before you have anything to sellSome people call this doing a “smokescreen test”, and the mechanics of it really depend on the business idea. In many cases, it actually won’t be practical to do this until you are working on your final idea.B2C: If you’re targeting consumers you can do this via the Google or Facebook ad platforms.B2B: If businesses, then send a bunch of emails to potential customers (you can find them online) with a proposed offer and price...vary the price and offer details and keep track of how people respond (hopefully some do). see if you can get on the phone with one or two of them. Learn what questions they ask, what they push back on, if the price seems reasonable. If someone wants what you’re selling, then you may have your first customer if you can deliver something quickly (you won’t be the first to sell something before you own it...remember Bill Gates and IBM (company))5_c. Write abbreviated business plans (7-10 hours)We’ve spent a lot of time working on the individual components of each idea, and now it is time to step back and see the big picture. Bring your thinking and research together into a brief business plan for each idea that still appears to be worth pursuing. If it is obvious from the previous steps that that an idea isn’t going to work, drop it.Here’s a suggested outline. Try to limit it to be 2-3 pages, and no more than 3 hours per idea:Page 1One-line description of your idea:[Company] will <do, make, or provide> for <target audience or customer> so that <the value/outcome you bring>.Example: Lewis Industries will develop customer management software for automotive dealerships so that they can increase loyalty post-sale and sell more services and upgrades to consumers that buy vehicles.Description of your products and services: 150 word description of the problems you are addressing and the scenarios you will focus on first.Page 2How and when you monetize: Will you start as a free service for everyone, and hope to monetize later through premium offerings (freemium) or advertising (ad-supported)? Or, will you start charging immediately, or never? You won’t know for sure, but give your best guess.Distribution model: How will potential customers or users discover you? What marketing and/or partner channels do you plan to use?External dependencies: For what core things will you rely on others to provide, e.g., A database of all vehicle makes and models, and option packages since 1970? You should have this list from previous steps, and don’t worry about generic things (e.g., office space).Page 3Estimated cost to reach your Minimum Viable Product (MVP): Just try to get in the ballpark here. The main reason to figure this out during the ideation stage is that it will impact how you approach starting the business, which may or may not align with your goals. I.e., if you’re planning to build a Zipcar for trucks and need to raise $2 million for the vehicles, then you probably can’t do it as a lifestyle business off the side of your desk.What are the major external dependencies and how much will they cost (e.g., $20,000 for the automotive database)How much development and design do you need to do for this idea, any large capital costs (e.g., a fleet of trucks)?Here are some places to learn how to estimate these costs: Estimating startup costs for a new businesses (StartupNation), How to estimate the cost of starting a business from scratch (United States SBA), Estimate startup costs (Entrepreneur)Summary of idea’s strengths and weaknesses (1-2 sentences for each)Research: What did you learn from your survey, calls, emails and online research that supports or challenges this idea? E.g., Positive if 67% of people surveyed say they will pay $10 for this, less so if 4 of the 5 companies you spoke with have no interest in what you’re proposing.Industry/macro trends: Will you have a tailwind or a headwind doing this? List out the specifics (e.g., My largest customer, retirees, is estimate to grow at 10% per year for the next 20 years.)Your knowledge and connections: You'll have a good sense for this, but write it down anyways. E.g., I have spent 4 years working on software for this industry, and x, y, and z from college are potential buyers.Risks: Are you taking dependencies where the solution isn’t yet clear? How competitive is the market, and what advantages do competitors have...or, is competition not a deterrent for x reason?You could easily increase the scope of this business plan by an order of magnitude, and there are a dozen templates for this (Writing a Business Plan) or approaches to analyzing your ideas (e.g., SWOT analysis). The important thing is that you’re being honest and self-critical, because ultimately you are the one taking the risk.Step 6 - Pick the best idea and get startedIf after all of this digging you are still feeling really good about one of these ideas, then go for it...this is where the real work begins. You’re going to need to think about financing, hiring, networking, and business operations in addition to the fun part of actually building your product or service.That is for another post! In the meantime, here are some resources to help you on your way:First I'd sit back and read...Startups are roller-coasters that often end in failure...make sure that you know what you're getting yourself into! Check out Mashable’s post on Why 90% of Startups Fail, David Lee's on Why I Never Started My Own Company, and Dave McClure's slides and video about “Why not to do a startup”.Now, if you still want to do this, read Paul Graham 's essay on How to start a startup (he also has an interesting view on startup ideas)Next, grab a drink and read Quora's take on what first timers often miss - What first time entrepreneurs are blind toThen, Jimmy Wales' answer to how to contact him about a startup idea...it applies broadly to how you should contact a potential advisor or investor about their startup.Lastly, go up-vote something Ashton Kutcher wrote on Quora and ask Mark Zuckerberg a question that he won't answer...Congrats! You're half-way to a great startup (scene story for your friends). :-)Startup advice and storiesQuora questions - What is the hardest part about staring a company, Common mistakes made when starting a tech company, Top five things to remember whens starting a companyJames Altucher, TechCrunch - Should you start a company?Jason Goldberg, Betashop - 13 things you must do every week as a startup CEOSeth Sternberg, Meebo co-founder (acquired by Google since this article) - From nothing to something. How to get there.Ben Horowitz vs Fred Wilson - Ben posts (case for fat startup), Fred rebuts (fat not healthy), Ben rebuts (revenge of fat guy)Neil Patel, Geekwire - Wish I would have known before starting my own businessDane Carlson - 20 things not to do before starting a business (I agree with most of this, but not #1 if you can afford it)Scott Weiss, TechCrunch - The path to starting a startupJames Altucher, TechCrunch - What you can learn from Woody AllenErick Schonfeld (2006), 5 ways to start a company (without quitting your day job)ChecklistsRyan Roberts, Startup Lawyer - If I launched a startup (great cheat sheet)Quora - How do you start a companyForbes - 38 things to do when starting a business (non-tech)Fiverr (marketplace) - Startup checklist (non-tech, and website is a little kitschy with all the dashes, stars, and arrows in the text)Finance and LegalQuora - What questions do entrepreneurs want to ask venture investors most but are afraid to askUser-10887637379381104900 - So you want to raise seed capitalFred Wilson, AVC - Financing options for startups, Financing options: convertible debt (likely way you will raise your first round of angel/seed money)Ryan Roberts, Startup Lawyer - How convertile debt works, What type of entity should I form, What does a series A term sheet look likeMartin Kleppmann - Valuation caps on convertible notes explained with graphsOrrick - Startup toolkitBrad Feld, Foundry Group (venture capital firm) - Term sheet series wrap upHiringBabak Nivi, Venture Hacks - What does an employee offer letter look like, Questions recruits might ask Part I, Part IIRobert Scoble, Quora - How to avoid hiring the wrong people for your startupElad Gil, Elad blog - Hiring for cultural fitBlogs by entrepreneurs:Jason Goldberg - BetashopDanielle Morrill - Danielle Morrill’s blogMarco Arment - Marco.orgBen Milne - Ben Milne’s blogKate Kendall - Kate Kendall’s blogGuy Kawasaki - How to change the worldSeth Godin - Seth Godin’s blogSriram Krishnan - Sriram Krishnan’s blogPenelope Trunk - Penelope Trunk’s blogScott Adams - Dilbert blogNeil Patel - Quick SproutEric Ries - Startup Lessons LearnedSteve Blank - Steve Blank’s blogDharmesh Shah - OnStartupsQuora - Other startup founder blogsBlogs by VCs:Brad Feld (Foundry Group) - FeldThoughtsFred Wilson (Union Square Ventures) - AVCDave McClure (500 Startups) - Master of 500 hatsPaul Graham (Y Combinator +) - Paul Graham EssaysDavid Lee (SV Angel) - dasleeUser-10887637379381104900 (Andreessen Horowitz) - Chris Dixon’s blogJeff Bussgang (Flybridge Capital Partners) - Seeing Both SidesBen Horowitz (Andreessen Horowitz) - Ben’s blogJosh Kopelman (First Round Capital) - Redeye VCMike Hirshland (Resolute.VC, formerly Polaris Ventures) - VCMike’s BlogDavid Cowan (Bessemer Venture Partners) - Who has time for thisJalak Jobanputra (FuturePerfect Ventures) - The barefoot VCHoward Morgan (First Round Capital) - Way too ealryGreg Gottesman (Madrona Venture Partners) - Stark Raving VCDavid Skok (Matrix Partners) - For entrepreneursMark Suster (GRP Partners) - Both Sides of the TableOther blogsJared O'Toole and Matt Wilson - Under 30 CEOAnita Campbell - Small Business TrendsAndrew Chen - Andrew Chen’s blogCarson McComas, Work Happy blog for entrepreneursYoung Entrepreneur BlogHarvard Business Review Blog NetworkBusiness PunditQuora entrepreneurs to follow (there are a lot of ‘must follow’ lists of entrepreneurs on Quora, of which many aren’t very active. These people are)Wikipedia, Jimmy WalesCraigslist, Craig NewmarkBlippy and Adbrite, Philip KaplanVontu & Pipewise, Michael WolfeQuora & Facebook, Adam D'AngeloFriendster, Jonathan AbramsInstagram, Kevin SystromFoursquare, Dennis CrowleyPath, Dave Morin500 Startups, Dave McClureFacebook, Dustin MoskovitzMahalo, LAUNCH, & Weblogs, Jason CalacanisPayPal, David SacksEchoSign, Jason M. LemkinWavii, Adrian AounOther people’s listsRyan Spoon, Polaris Ventures - list of Quora threads for startupsOther resources:SBA (U.S. Small Business Administration)StartupNation (Source for Small Business Advice)Notes: I tried to use mostly plain-speak when writing this. There are a lot of opinions on vocabulary and the definition of business models, business plans, etc., so if you’re hung up on those details write your thoughts in the comments, but keep in mind that the nuances are less important than the spirit of applying some rigor to picking an idea.

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