New Delhi, India - Indian religious groups are squabbling over who owns the Taj Mahal, one of the wonders of the world and a huge money-spinner.
The Archaeological Survey of India, which has run the Taj since the late 19th century, has asked the central government to let it keep the 350-year-old monument to enduring love.
But a leading Sunni Muslim body, some Shia Muslim leaders and a right-wing Hindu group allied to the former government are all laying claim to the tomb on the banks of the sacred but polluted Yamuna river at Agra, 200 km, south of New Delhi.
The Sunni Waqf (Trust) Board in Uttar Pradesh, home to the Taj, wants the national government and the state's high court to give it ownership and 7 percent of the takings from the more than 20,000 people who visit each day.
Foreigners pay 750 rupees entry to the Taj while Indians pay 20 rupees.
"We stand on a very sound footing," board chief Hafiz Usman told Reuters, saying Shahjehan, who built the Taj as a tomb for his wife, Mumtaz Mahal, bequeathed it to the trust's predecessor.
Like other state Sunni waqfs, the Uttar Pradesh body was granted ownership of Sunni graves in the state and also claims the Taj Mahal as a grave under its care. And, it insists, the emperor and his wife were Sunnis.
But some leaders of the state Shia Waqf board say the mausoleum was built under supervision of an Iranian Shia architect and that Shahjehan was in fact a Shia. So the Shia Waqf should own it.
The hardline Vishwa Hindu Parishad, allied to the former ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, says the gleaming white structure, flanked by two mosques, is not even Muslim.
"The Taj Mahal was originally a Hindu temple and should, therefore, be handed over to Hindus," says VHP chief Ashok Singhal.
Rows over monuments and sacred sites are common in India, which has seen the ebb and flow of invasions for centuries and has variously been ruled by Buddhists, Muslims, Christians and Hindus.
In 1992, a mob led by the VHP and other Hindu activists razed a 16th century mosque in Ayodhya which they said had been built on the birthplace of the god-king Ram.
Thousands died in the religious riots that followed, some of India's worst communal bloodshed.
Looking after a wonder of the world is not easy - the archaeological survey employs 105 maintenance staff, 50 gardeners, 30 workers at an anti-pollution centre and 180 guards. None of those claiming the Taj want to look after it, leaving maintenance instead to the archaeological survey.
Historians say Shahjehan consulted experts from the Middle East and Europe as he planned the tomb, which took 20,000 people more than 22 years to build.