Q 01/05

The Taj Mahal stands on the bank of which river?

A) Yamuna

B) Ganges

C) Indus

D) Brahmaputra

Answer · why

A) Yamuna

The Yamuna side of the complex was left without a wall, and the gardens were once watered from the river through an aqueduct and earthenware pipes.

Q 02/05

Shah Jahan, who built the Taj Mahal, was the grandson of which Mughal emperor?

A) Babur

B) Akbar

C) Bahadur Shah Zafar

D) Jahandar Shah

Answer · why

B) Akbar

Akbar doted on the boy, chose his name, Khurram, and had him raised in Akbar's own household instead of his father's.

Q 03/05

Which poet likened the Taj Mahal to a teardrop on the cheek of time?

A) Kipling

B) Tagore

C) Iqbal

D) Yeats

Answer · why

B) Tagore

Tagore became Asia's first Nobel laureate in 1913, when the prize honoured translated poems from his collection Gitanjali.

Q 04/05

Mumtaz Mahal died accompanying Shah Jahan on what?

A) A hunting expedition

B) A religious pilgrimage

C) A military campaign

D) A state visit

Answer · why

C) A military campaign

A military campaign in the Deccan took her to Burhanpur, where she died bearing their 14th child; she had followed his army on earlier campaigns despi...

Q 05/05

What does the name Taj Mahal mean?

A) Crown of the Palace

B) Tomb of the Queen

C) Garden of Paradise

D) House of Light

Answer · why

A) Crown of the Palace

Crown of the Palace is the literal meaning of the words, though one theory says 'Taj' began as a shortened form of the name Mumtaz.