A 60kg copper chandelier gifted to the Taj Mahal by Lord Curzon as viceroy came crashing down on Wednesday, prompting a probe by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) .

The chandelier had been hanging at the Royal Gate (picture above), one of the four entrances to the monument. The Taj, which was completed in 1653, originally had a silver chandelier under the main dome, above the tombs of Mumtaz Mahal and Shah Jahan.

This fell into the hands of Jat forces who ransacked Agra after it was captured by Maharaja Suraj Mal in 1761."The Jat forces tried to burn down the Taj by stuffing it with straw but weren't successful. They then turned to (nearby) Sikandra where they dug up Akbar's grave and burnt his bones," historian RV Smith told The Telegraph.

Almost a century later, the forces under Brigadier Edward Greathed, who broke the Siege of Agra by rebels during the First War of Independence, scraped out the jewels studded in the walls of the Taj.

After Lord Curzon became viceroy in 1899, Curzon's own sources led him to a lamp, which was known to have hung in the mosque of Sultan Beyfors II in Cairo. The lamp itself was missing but its features had been meticulously recorded. after a spat with Commander-in-Chief Lord Kitchener. It was installed in 1908 by Sir John Hewett, lieutenant-governor of United Provinces, covering present-day Uttar Pradesh.

While the ASI is unclear about the origin of the chandeliers, Smith said they were most likely Egyptian.