Taj Mahal has a mood that changes with the hour of the day. Archaeologist K K Muhammed feels the Mughal momunent’s beauty make his heart sing quietly. Coming out of the romance of Taj Mahal, the Kerala-born Muhammed says calling Taj Mahal as Tejo Mahalaya is aimed at creating an unnecessary controversy. On the other side, he says that in Ayodhya case (Ram Mandir-Babri mosque dispute) Muslims were misled by historian Irfan Habib and his communist ‘group’ making them pay a heavy price. He emphatically says Indian is secular because it’s a Hindu-majority country. If Muslims leave fundamentalism and change their attitude a little, it will also change fundamentalists among Hindus. K K MUhammed spoke such interesting things  to Malik Asghar Hashmi, editor, Awaz the Voice, Hindi in an interview . Here are excerpts from its second part:

After retirement, you stayed in Hyderabad, worked for the Aga Foundation and were in charge of conservation of Humayun's Tomb. How was the experience?

The Aga Khan Foundation is a trust that is working not only in Hyderabad or other parts of India, it’s all over the world. Their work is also going on in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Egypt. It works for the education of poor children. All over India the Trust is also doing archaeological conservation work. The Trust have given the shape to Humayun's Tomb (Delhi) as you see it today. The conservation of this tomb is excellent. I am sure the ASI would not have been able to deliver the same results mainly because of the financial constraints of being a government body. There is a beautiful Mughal museum also inside the premises.

The second part of this project is in Golconda Fort in Hyderabad. It has seven mausoleums. Under the leadership of Ritish Nanda of Agha Khan Trust, we have done excavation and conservation work there too.

Why were you always deputed to guide the visiting foreign leaders around Taj Mahal?

It was just a coincidence that when I was transferred from Patna to Agra, Pervez Musharraf (Pakistan’s ex-President) was to visit Agra (for the summit with Atal Behari Vajpayee). I was transferred 15-20 days before his arrival. I used to guide VIP visitors around Taj Mahal even earlier. I have done a lot of research about the monument. Taj Mahal is a building that has a mood in the morning, a different one in the afternoon, and it has absolutely different mood in the evening. At night it’s definitely has the fourth mood. Similarly, when it’s about to rain, see the Taj Mahal, it will look very beautiful. In the morning, the Taj Mahal feels very calm. Accordingly, the verses of the Quran are also inscribed in tune with the changing mood of the monument. For example, in the morning the surah you will find is Surat-al-Fajar. Fajar means in the morning... So is the mood on the same side.

On the other side you will find Surat-ul-Doha. Doha means what the mood at ten o'clock. Thereafter it will be Vashsamso Tajri i.e. the sun will reach your Uruj, then you will have to say anywhere in Surat-ul-Lai, Lai in Arabic is for night. Similarly, the sizes of the Quranic verses keep changing. In the inner part to a person standing in the gateway, the letters in the lower rows would appear smaller; their size keeps growing as one looks up. After this one finds that all the letters are of uniform size. There is a scientific explanation for it. The artisans knew that while moving up people will not be able to read the inscriptions; but they can read all from this particular point without any difficulty.

How can we connect the civilization of Harappa and Mohenjodaro to our present life?

The city plan at that time was very good, and that’s missing from our big cities today. Even in those days, the waste water from the house was collected in a soak pit; it would go out through the drain. The drain was on both sides of the road. Such a city plan did not exist in any Mesopotamian, Persian, Egyptian or Chinese culture.

Today's youth reads history only to clear competition examination; they don’t see history from the same perspective as you do. Would you like to tell them why they must take interest in the subject?

The first thing is they must have passion for this subject. This task is not easy. You cannot do this work sitting in a library; you will have to roam around. Only if you are ready to work in rain or sunshine, then you can become an archaeologist. Second point: to counter you, there should be someone to pull you down, as happened in my case. I salute those people right now.

Besides this, one should read books on self-improvement. Reading will make you a strong personality. You should have courage to fight the rocks.

In your autobiography, you have said that a mosque was built over a temple in Ayodhya and that led to the dispute. An attempt was made to prove you wrong. Also, in the same vein some people got a chance to say that Qutub Minar is also a pagoda and so is Taj Mahal. What is the truth?

There are two things in Qutub Minar, one is Qutub Minar and the other is Quwwat-ul-Islam Mosque, next to it. That mosque was built over a temple. There is also a Jain temple in it. You will find many idols there. This Mosque was built after breaking the idols and demolishing the temple. There is no doubt its truthfulness. Hasan NIzami has written about it in his Arabic book of that time, Tajul Māsir.  He has written there is a Katba (epitaph) in front of the mosque. Some of the things that happened then were not in the spirit of Islam and, were, therefore, wrong. In Islam it is wrong to call someone bad. Islam says, if you want to debate with someone do it well; you cannot even abuse other’s idols.

However, the invader Afghans did many wrong things. They broke many temples and Muslims should have no hesitation in accepting this. Obviously, they made a mistake and today's Muslims are not responsible for that. But Muslims should not make another mistake; whatever they are doing nowadays is an attempt to justify their (Afghans) doings. Things will go bad if they keep justifying such deeds. Some people say that they came to demolish temples and loot their wealth. This perception is also wrong. The Communists say that there were economic reasons behind it (invasions). Don’t say all these things to justify a wrong. The British and the Portuguese have also made a mistake, but they do not justify them. If you try to justify, then Hindus also get infuriated.

Otherwise, Hinduism is a very accommodative religion and I have high respect for it. Because it gives you freedom to worship any God, not have faith in God; to practice religion orremain non-practicing; visit a temple or avoid it; and yet one remains a Hindu. Muslims should benefit from being in coexistence with such a great religion.

The other building is Qutub Minar; it is a completely Islamic building. Earlier, similar towers had been built in Afghanistan and even in Samarkand or Tirmij. But the biggest tower was built in India. The reason is that we had been building very good temples in stone. Look at the temple of Khajuraho; it is very beautiful. The Qutub Minar was built when we had a mixture of stone artisans and Islamic concepts. The Hindu fundamentalists, who claim that it was a Vishnu temple, are wrong. I have renovated and conserved more than a hundred temples in India, but I have not yet heard the name of Tejo Mahalaya. Nobody has heard of it.

In Taj Mahal, there are minarets; these were not in vouge in the Hindu period or in ancient times. Arches did not exist in the Hindu times. The dome is tablighi islamic. During the Sultanate period i.e. 1192 to 1526 there was a trend of a single dome. The double dome was first built in Humayun's tomb. Hindu extremists claim that it belongs to the 11th century. However, back then there were no arches, no domes, no mosaic work, nor minarets. The art of ornamental carving didn’t exist.

Take the dome from Humayun's tomb, minarets from Akbar's Sikandra, lattice work from Salim Chishti's mausoleum and keep all these in one place; you will see Taj Mahal. This is the logical culmination. If someone calls it a temple, then he is just trying to create trouble.

When you said, there is an underground temple below in Ayodhya, Muslims were very angry. The Supreme Court almost endorsed your claim. You did your professional duty, but it made people angry. Since the issue if settled is there any change in peoples mind?

Back then many Muslims were ready to give up claim on that land. They were instigated by a lobby of Communists led by Irfan Habib. They told the Muslims don’t leave this land because B V Lal’s excavation has not yielded any idols. They asked Muslims not to go for a compromise; if you compromise on one site the others (Hindus) will stake claim on many more sites. Irfan Habib and his communist group made the Muslims take recourse to a wrong path and Muslims had to pay a heavy price for it. By the way, in the meantime, Irfan Habib and Nadeem Rizvi launched a campaign against me that I had not participated in that excavation. They even publicised it in a newspapers. Prof Lal was in the USA that time. He had to send an email message to the newspaper to clarify. His reply was also published. They had become habitual liars and were misleading the Muslims.

Ayodhya is as sacred for Hindus as Macca and Madina are for Muslims. If India is a secular country even after giving Pakistan to Muslims; it’s only because it’s a Hindu majority country. If it was a Muslim-majority country, it would never be secular. This is the reality about us and we should accept it. Wherever possible, Muslims should have compromised but Irfan Habib and the gang misled them. That mistake has been made. Muslims had realised it then and even now they do so. Many more people today realise the wrong that was done.

Have the attitudes changed?

Much has changed. Some people of the Hindu community are becoming extremists as a reaction to the fanaticism of Muslims. So, if Muslims change their attitude even in a small ways, the Hindus will also change. It’s not too difficult to change a Hindu’s mind. Also, at the same time, we should also say that those who believe that only our way is the right one and all others are wrong; and only we will go to heaven and the rest to the hell – have to change in the modern times. Muslims must change such thinking. To create a new India, Muslim-Hindu-Christian will all have to move together.

What is your next project or Mission?

I am shaping my work into a book. My all attention is focused on this.