Historians record that initially Aurangzeb was not in favour of building a monument as lavish as the Taj. He blocked the movement of marble from Rajasthan and various other parts of the Moghal empire, an ordinary structure was to be planned but Alam Shah was determined to have a monument to his mother that might vie with the Taj. Somehow, Alam Shah prevailed upon his father who eventually relented. Thus, only the onion dome was built with marble. The rest is of plaster. The French traveller, Tavernier, also records that in 1653 while crossing the present Aurangabad, now Sambhaji Nagar area, he spotted around 300 bullock carts loaded with huge marble slabs. On enquiry, he was told that they were for the Maqbara. The work was completed in six years and it cost six-and-a half lakh rupees as compared to the 22 lakh and 22 years that the Taj took.
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