Mud-pack to give back sheen to Taj marble

The Taj Mahal, the monument of love at Agra, will get a ‘mud-pack treatment’ to give sheen to its white marble which is getting pale because of high pollution in and around this 17th century mausoleum.

Officials blame air pollution for the discolouration of the marble. They say the Taj Mahal is encrusted with “suspended particulate matter,” or granules of dirt and soot found in high levels in the air.“The deposition of SPM on the shimmering white marble of the Taj Mahal imparts yellow tinge to the marble surface,” an official said.

To restore the monument to its pristine glory, a panel recommended packing it in mud, a process used on the Taj Mahal in the past.

The treatment takes about two months and involves caking the domed edifice in clay and letting it dry and they washing the mud off. As the mud dries, it absorbs the dirt build-up.

As part of the ‘facial’ treatment for the monument, lime-rich clay will be plastered over the affected areas of the monument and left overnight. As the mud begins to dry, it will be washed away, hopefully with the grime that coats the monument.The maiden mud-pack treatment of the Taj took place in 1994, the second in 2001 and the last such treatment was given to it in 2008.The last treatment cost Rs 10.4 lakh. Over two experts had carried out the work.The Taj Mahal was built by the Mogul Emperor Shah Jahan between 1632 and 1654 for his favourite wife, Mumtaz Mahal. It houses their graves. The Taj complex has a mosque as well as several other graves of lesser Mogul royalty.

Some three million tourists visit the mausoleum every year.To check pollution, the visitors to The Taj have to park their vehicles about two kilometres away from the monument and take battery-run buses or horse-drawn carriages, to reach the gates of the grand mausoleum.