In the contemporary texts, the Taj Mahal is known as:

2013

In the contemporary texts, the Taj Mahal is known as:

Answer: D. Rauza-i-MunavvaraConcept — When a comprehension item asks what something is 'known as' in a named body of writing, it is asking for an attribution rather than a general fact.…

  1. A.

    Mumtazabad

  2. B.

    Mumtaz Mahal

  3. C.

    Zainabad

  4. D.

    Rauza-i-Munavvara

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Correct answer: D

Concept — When a comprehension item asks what something is 'known as' in a named body of writing, it is asking for an attribution rather than a general fact. A passage of this kind ties each name it mentions to a particular context — a popular name, a formal designation, a settlement, a person — and the answer is the name tied to the context the stem names.

The reading discipline is therefore twofold: separate the name a monument acquired in popular usage from the designation its own period's records use, and keep place-names and personal titles distinct from the name of the structure itself. Persian usage marks that distinction plainly — the suffix -abad builds the name of a settled place, while rauza denotes a domed sepulchre standing within its walled garden.

Application — The passage states both attributions outright. It records that the name Taj Mahal is unknown in Mughal chronicles and was used instead by contemporary Europeans in India, which makes it the monument's popular name. It then states that in contemporary texts the monument is generally called simply the Illuminated Tomb — Rauza-i-Munavvara. Since the stem asks for the designation used in the contemporary texts, that is the phrase the passage supplies.

Contrast — The other three names appear in the passage attached to other things:

  • Mumtazabad — the area outside the enclosure walls, holding living quarters for attendants, markets, serais and other structures built by local merchants and nobles, maintained together with the tomb complex from the income of thirty villages. It names a settlement, not the building.

  • Mumtaz Mahal — the empress, who died in 1631 shortly after the birth of her fourteenth child, while the Mughal court was residing at Burhanpur. It names the person interred in the mausoleum.

  • Zainabad — the spacious garden on the bank of the river Tapti in which the grief-stricken emperor buried her remains, six months before they were carried to Agra. It names a place of temporary burial.

Result — In the contemporary texts, therefore, the monument is known as Rauza-i-Munavvara, the Illuminated Tomb.

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