Shah Jahan built the Taj Mahal as a monument to his dead wife Mumtaz — one of the most beautiful buildings in human history, constructed by one of the most ruthless rulers in the Mughal dynasty. The man who commissioned this temple of grief had executed rivals, blinded his own nephews, and waged wars of expansion across the subcontinent. The Taj Mahal is not just a love story — it is a monument built by absolute power in the service of personal loss.

This episode traces Shah Jahan from his succession war through the golden age of Mughal architecture, the construction of the Taj Mahal, and the imprisonment by his own son Aurangzeb that ended his reign.

• Shah Jahan’s violent path to the throne and the elimination of rival claimants
• The death of Mumtaz Mahal and the twenty-two-year construction of the Taj Mahal
• The architectural golden age — the Red Fort, the Jama Masjid, and the rebuilding of Delhi
• The succession war, imprisonment by Aurangzeb, and Shah Jahan’s death gazing at the Taj