Rambles and Recollections of an Indian Official Part 56

The total height stated in the text, 242 feet, is said by Fergusson (p. 205, note) to be that ascertained in 1794; the present height of the _minar_, since the modern pavilion on the top has been removed, is 238 feet 1 inch, according to Cunningham. (_A.S.R._, vol. i, p.

196.) Originally the building was ten, or perhaps twenty, feet higher. The deep flutings appear to have been suggested by the _minars_ of Mahmud at Ghazni, 'which are star polygons in plan, with deeply indented angles'. The Kutb Minar was built by Sultan iltutmish alone about A.D. 1232. The statement in most books, including Fanshawe (pp. 265-8, with plates), that it was _begun_ by Sultan Kutb-ud-din, is erroneous.

21. The notion of the Hindoo origin of the Kutb Minar, which the author justly stigmatizes as 'foolish', was taken up by Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan, the author of an Urdu work on the antiquities of Delhi, and by Sir A. Cunningham's a.s.sistant, Mr. Beglar, who wasted a great part of volume iv of the _Archaeological Survey Reports_ in trying to prove the paradox. His speculations on the subject were conclusively refuted by his chief in the Preface (pp. v-x) of the same volume. The minar was built by Hindoo masons, and, in consequence, some of the details, notably its overlapping or corbelled arches, are Hindoo.

22. This is correct. The Hindoo 'towers of victory' are in a totally different style.

23. On the misnomer 'Pathans', see _ante_, previous note 6.

24. The Kutb mosque was constructed from the materials of twenty- seven Hindoo temples. The colonnades retain much of their Hindoo character. (Fanshawe, p. 259 and plate.)

25. The author's description of the unfinished tower is far from accurate. The tower was begun, not by Shams-ud-din iltutmish, but by Ala-ud-din Muhammad Shah, in the year A.H. 711 (A.D. 1311). It is about 82 feet in diameter, and when cased with marble, as was intended, would have been at least 85 feet in diameter, or nearly double that of the Kutb Minar, which is 48 feet 4 inches. The total height of the column as it now stands is about 75 feet above the plinth, or 87 feet above the ground level. (_A.S.R._, vol. i, p. 205; vol. iv, p. 62, pl. vii; Thomas, _Chronicles_, p. 173, citing original authorities.) Carr Stephen (p. 67) gives the circ.u.mference as 254 feet, and the height as about 80 feet.

26. Ala-ud-din's additions were never completed. The sack of Delhi by Timur Lang (Tamerlane) took place in December 1398. The Delhi sacked by him was the city known as Firozabad.

27. The glory of the mosque is . . . the great range of arches on the western side, extending north and south for about 385 feet, and consisting of three greater and eight smaller arches; the central one 22 feet wide, and 53 feet high; the larger side-arches, 24 feet 4 inches, and about the same height as the central arch; the smaller arches, which are unfortunately much ruined, are about half these dimensions.' The great arch 'has since been carefully restored by Government under efficient superintendence, and is now as sound and complete as when first erected. The two great side arches either were never completed, or have fallen down in consequence of the false mode of construction.' (Fergusson, _Hist. of I. and E. Archit._, ed. 1910, vol. ii, pp. 203, 204). The centre arch bears an inscription dated in A.H. 594, or A.D. 1198 (Thomas, _Chronicles_, p. 24).

28. Most of the description of the Iron Pillar in the text is erroneous. The pillar has nothing to do with Prithi Raj, who was slain by the Muhammadans in A.D. 1192 (A.H. 588). The earliest inscription on it records the victories of a Raja Chandra, probably Chandra-varman, chief of Pokharan in Rajputana in the fourth century A.C. (_E.H.I._, 3rd ed., 1914, p. 290, note). The pillar is by no means 'small' when its material is considered; on the contrary, it is very large. That material is not 'bronze, or a metal which resembles bronze', but is pure malleable iron, as proved by a.n.a.lysis. It has been suggested that this pillar must have been formed by gradually welding pieces together; if so, it has been done very skilfully, since no marks of such welding are to be seen. . . . The famous iron pillar at the Kutb, near Delhi, indicates an amount of skill in the manipulation of a large ma.s.s of wrought iron which has been the marvel of all who have endeavoured to account for it. It is not many years since the production of such a pillar would have been an impossibility in the largest foundries of the world, and even now there are comparatively few where a similar ma.s.s of metal could be tumed out. . . . The total weight must exceed six tons.' (V. Ball, _Economic Geology of India_, pp. 338, 339.) The metal is uninjured by rust, and the inscription is perfect. An exact facsimile is set up in the Indian Section of the Victoria and Albert Museum at South Kensington, The pillar is shown, with the smaller arches of the mosque, in _H.F.A._ fig. 232. See also Fanshawe, pp. 260, 264, and plates. The inscription was edited by Fleet (_Gupta Inscriptions_, 1888, No. 32). The dimensions of the pillar are as follows: Height above ground (total), 22 ft,; height below ground, 1 ft. 8 in.; diameter at base, 16.4 in.; diameter at the capital, 12.05 in.; height of capital, 3 1/2 ft. At a distance of a few inches below the surface it expands in a bulbous form to a diameter of 2 ft. 4 in., and rests on a gridiron of iron bars, which are fastened with lead into the stone pavement. (_A.S.R._, vol. iv, p. 28, pl. v.)

This last prosaic fact, established by actual excavation, destroys the basis of all the current local legends and spurious traditions.

29. This name is printed Ouse in the author's text. The saint referred to is the celebrated Kutb-ud-din Bakhtyar Kaki, commonly called Kutb Shah, who died on the 27th of November, A.D. 1235.

iltutmish died in April, A.D. 1236 (Beale).

30. The royal tombs are in the village of Mihrauli, close to the Kutb. See Carr Stephen, op. cit., pp. 180-4, and Fanshawe, pp. 280-4.

31. That is to say, the revenue administration of Bengal, Bihar, and Orissa in 1765.

32. He is now Emperor, having succeeded his father, Akbar Shah, in 1837. [W. H. S.] He is known as Bahadur Shah II. In consequence of his having joined the rebels in 1857, he was deposed and banished. He died at Rangoon in 1862, and with him ended the line of Emperors of Delhi. He was born on the 24th of October, 1775, and so was in his sixty-first year when the author met him. His father was about seventy-eight (eighty lunar) years of age at his death.

33. 'Basant' means the spring. The full name of this festival of the spring time is the Basant Panchami.

34. According to Harcourt (_The New Guide to Delhi_, 1866), the tomb of iltutmish was erected by his children, the Sultanas Rukn-ud-din and Razia, who reigned in succession after him for short periods, that is to say, Rukn-ud-din Firoz Shah for six months and twenty- eight days, and the Empress Razia for about three years, from A.D.

1236 to 1239. (See Carr Stephen, p. 73.) iltutmish died in April, A.D. 1236, not in 1235. Fergusson observes that this tomb is of special interest as being the oldest Muhammadan tomb known to exist in India. He also remarks (p. 509) that the effect at present is injured by the want of a roof, which, 'judging from appearance, was never completed, if ever commenced'. Harcourt (p. 120) states that 'Firoz Shah, who reigned from A.D. 1351 to A.D. 1385 [_sic_, 1388], is said to have placed a roof to the building, but it is doubtful if there ever was one, as there are no traces of the same. Cunningham and Carr Stephen (p. 74) both find sufficient evidence remaining to satisfy them that a dome once existed. Fanshawe (p. 269) says 'that the chamber was intended to be roofed is clear from the remains of the lowest course of a dome on the top of the south wall; but, if it was built for her father by Sultan Raziya, as seems probable, it is quite possible that the dome was never completed'. The interior, a square of 29 1/2 feet, is beautifully and elaborately decorated, and in wonderful preservation considering its age and the exposure to which it has been subjected. The walls are over seven feet thick, the princ.i.p.al entrance being to the east. The tomb is built of red sandstone and marble; the sarcophagus is in the centre, and is of pale marble.

35. Sultan Ghiyas-ud-din Balban reigned from February, A.D. 1266 to 1286. I cannot discover any authority for the statement that he finished the Kutb Minar, and 'added the church'. It is not clear which 'church', or mosque, the author refers to. For a notice of Balban's tomb and buildings, see Carr Stephen, pp. 79-81, He certainly did not finish the Kutb Minar.

36. See _A.S.R._, vol. i, p. 199. '_Top of the Kutb Minar_.--This octagonal stone pavilion was put up in A.D. 1826 over the Minar by Major Smith, of the Engineers, who had the superintendence of the repairs of the Kutb, but it was taken down by the order of Government' (Harcourt, _The New Guide to Delhi_, p. 123). This 'grotesque ornament' was removed in 1848 by order of Lord Hardinge, and bereft of its wooden pavilion, which had carried a flag-staff (Carr Stephen, p. 64; Fanshawe, p. 266). It has now been moved farther and more out of sight.

37. This alleged outrage does not appear to have really occurred. The author seems to have been misinformed about the position of Ala-ud- din's tomb, which still exits in the central room of a building, the eastern wall of which is in part identical with the western wall of the extension of the Kutb Mosque, built by iltutmish (Carr Stephen, op. cit., p. 88). Fanshawe agrees (p. 272).

38. The tomb desecrated by Mr. Blake is on the right of the road leading from the Kutb Minar to the village of Mihrauli, and is either that of Adham Khan, whom Akbar put to death in A.D. 1562 for the murder of Shams-ud-din Muhammad Atgah Khan, one of the Emperor's foster fathers, or the neighbouring 'family grave enclosure' of his brothers, known as the _Chaunsath Khambha_, or Hall of Sixty-four Pillars. Adham Khan's tomb is still, or was until recently, used as a rest-house (Fanshawe, pp. 14, 228, 242, 256, 278; Carr Stephen, pp.

31, 200, pl. ii). The best-known of the 'kokahs', or foster-brothers, of Akbar is Aziz, the son of Shams-ud-din above mentioned. Aziz received the t.i.tle of Khan-i-Azam (Von Noer, _The Emperor Akbar_, transl. by Beveridge, vol. i, pp. 78, 95; and Blochmann, _ain-t- Akbari_, vol. i, pp. 321, 323, &c.). The young chief of Jaipur died in 1834, and in the course of disturbances which followed, the Political Agent was wounded, and Mr. Blake, his a.s.sistant, was killed (D. Boulger, _Lord William Bentinck_, 'Rulers of India' series, p.

143). I cannot find mention in any authority of Imam Mashhadi. Mr.

Fraser's murder has been fully described _ante_ chapter 64.

CHAPTER 68

New Delhi, or Shahjahanabad.

On the 22nd of January, 1836, we went on twelve miles to the new city of Delhi, built by the Emperor Shahjahan, and called after him Shahjahanabad; and took up our quarters in the palace of the Begam Samru, a fine building, agreeably situated in a garden opening into the great street, with a branch of the great ca.n.a.l running through it, and as quiet as if it had been in a wilderness.[1] We had obtained from the Begam permission to occupy this palace during our stay. It was elegantly furnished, the servants were all exceedingly attentive, and we were very happy.

The Kutb Minar stands upon the back of the sandstone range of low hills, and the road descends over the north-eastern face of this range for half a mile, and then pa.s.ses over a level plain all the way to the new city, which lies on the right bank of the river Jumna. The whole plain is literally covered with the remains of splendid Muhammadan mosques and mausoleums. These Muhammadans seem as if they had always in their thoughts the saying of Christ which Akbar has inscribed on the gateway at Fathpur Sikri: 'Life is a bridge which you are to pa.s.s over, and not to build your dwellings upon.'[2] The buildings which they have left behind them have almost all a reference to a future state--they laid out their means in a church, in which the Deity might be propitiated; in a tomb where leaned and pious men might chant their Koran over their remains, and youth be instructed in their duties; in a serai, a bridge, a ca.n.a.l built gratuitously for the public good, that those who enjoyed these advantages from generation to generation might pray for the repose of their souls. How could it be otherwise where the land was the property of Government, where capital was never concentrated or safe, when the only aristocracy was that of office, while the Emperor was the sole recognized heir of all his public officers?

The only thing that he could not inherit were his tombs, his temples, his bridges, his ca.n.a.ls, his caravanserais. I was acquainted with the history of most of the great men whose tombs and temples I visited along the road; but I asked in vain for a sight of the palaces they occupied in their day of pride and power. They all had, no doubt, good houses agreeably situated, like that of the Begam Samru, in the midst of well-watered gardens and shrubberies, delightful in their season; but they cared less about them--they knew that the Emperor was heir to every member of the great body to which they belonged, the _aristocracy of office_; and might transfer all their wealth to his treasury, and all their palaces to their successors, the moment the breath should be out of their bodies.[3] If their sons got office, it would neither be in the same grades nor in the same places as those of their fathers.

How different it is in Europe, where our aristocracy is formed upon a different basis; no one knows where to find the tombs in which the remains of great men who have pa.s.sed away repose; or the churches and colleges they have founded; or the serais, the bridges, the ca.n.a.ls they formed gratuitously for the public good; but everybody knows where to find their 'proud palaces'; life is not to them 'a bridge over which they are to pa.s.s, and not build their dwellings upon'. The eldest sons enjoy all the patrimonial estates, and employ them as best they may to get their younger brothers into situations in the church, the army, the navy, and other public establishments, in which they may be honourably and liberally provided for out of the public purse.

About half-way between the great tower and the new city, on the left- hand side of the road, stands the tomb of Mansur Ali Khan, the great- grandfather of the present King of Oudh. Of all the tombs to be seen in this immense extent of splendid ruins, this is perhaps the only one raised over a subject, the family of whose inmates are now in a condition even to keep it in repair. It is a very beautiful mausoleum, built after the model of the Taj at Agra; with this difference, that the external wall around the quadrangle of the Taj is here, as it were, thrown back, and closed in upon the tomb. The beautiful gateway at the entrance of the gardens of the Taj forms each of the four sides of the tomb of Mansur Ali Khan, with all its chaste beauty of design, proportion, and ornament.[4] The quadrangle in which this mausoleum stands is about three hundred and fifty yards square, surrounded by a stone wall, with handsome gateways, and filled in the same manner as that of the Taj at Agra, with cisterns and fruit-trees. Three kinds of stones are used--white marble, red sandstone, and the fine white and flesh-coloured sandstone of Rupbas.

The dome is of white marble, and exactly of the same form as that of the Taj; but it stands on a neck or base of sandstone with twelve sides, and the marble is of a quality very inferior to that of the Taj. It is of coa.r.s.e dolomite, and has become a good deal discoloured by time, so as to give it the appearance, which Bishop Heber noticed, of _potted meat_. The neck is not quite so long as that of the Taj, and is better covered by the marble cupolas that stand above each face of the building. The four n.o.ble minarets are, however, wanting.

The apartments are all in number and form exactly like those of the Taj, but they are somewhat less in size. In the centre of the first floor lies the beautiful marble slab that bears the date of this small pillar of a _tottering state_, A.H. 1167;[5] and in a vault underneath repose his remains by the side of those of one of his grand-daughters. The graves that cover these remains are of plain earth strewed with fresh flowers, and covered with plain cloth. About two miles from this tomb to the east stands that of the father of Akbar, Humayun, a large and magnificent building. As I rode towards this building to see the slab that covers the head of poor Dara s.h.i.+koh, I frequently cast a lingering look behind to view, as often as I could, this very pretty imitation of the most beautiful of all the tombs of the earth.[6]

On my way I turned in to see the tomb of the celebrated saint, Nizam- ud-din Aulia, the defeater of the Transoxianian army under Tarmah s.h.i.+rin in 1303, to which pilgrimages are still made from all parts of India.[7] It is a small building, surmounted by a white marble dome, and kept very clean and neat.[8] By its side is that of the poet Khusru, his contemporary and friend, who moved about where he pleased through the palace of the Emperor Tughlak Shah the First, five hundred years ago, and sang extempore to his lyre while the greatest and the fairest watched his lips to catch the expressions as they came warm from his soul. His popular songs are still the most popular; and he is one of the favoured few who live through ages in the every-day thoughts and feelings of many millions, while the crowned heads that patronized them in their brief day of pomp and power are forgotten, or remembered merely as they happened to be connected with them. His tomb has also a dome, and the grave is covered with rich brocade,[9] and attended with as much reverence and devotion as that of the great saint himself, while those of the emperors, kings, and princes that have been crowded around them are entirely disregarded. A number of people are employed to read the Koran over the grave of the old saint (_scil._ Nizam-ud-din), who died A.H. 725 [A.D. 1324-5], and are paid by contributions from the present Emperor, and the members of his family, who occasionally come in their hour of need to entreat his intercession with the Deity in their favour, and by the humble pilgrims who flock from all parts for the same purpose. A great many boys are here educated by those readers of their sacred volume. All my attendants bowed their heads to the dust before the shrine of the saint, but they seemed especially indifferent to those of the royal family, which are all open to the sky. Respect shown or neglect towards them could bring neither good nor evil, while any slight to the tomb of the _crusty old saint_ might be of serious consequence.

In an enclosure formed by marble screens beautifully carved is the tomb of the favourite son of the present Emperor,[10] Mirza Jahangir, whom I knew intimately at Allahabad in 1816,[11] when he was killing himself as fast as he could with Hoffman's cherry brandy. 'This ', he would say to me, 'is really the only liquor that you Englishmen have worth drinking, and its only fault is that it makes one drunk too soon.' To prolong his pleasure, he used to limit himself to one large gla.s.s every hour, till he got dead drunk. Two or three sets of dancing women and musicians used to relieve each other in amusing him during this interval. He died, of course, soon, and the poor old Emperor was persuaded by his mother, the favourite sultana, that he had fallen a victim to sighing and grief at the treatment of the English, who would not permit him to remain at Delhi, where he was continually employed in attempts to a.s.sa.s.sinate his eldest brother, the heir apparent, and to stir up insurrections among the people. He was not in confinement at Allahabad, but merely prohibited from returning to Delhi. He had a splendid dwelling, a good income, and all the honours due to his rank.[12]

In another enclosure of the same kind are the Emperor Muhammad Shah,[13]--who reigned when Nadir Shah invaded Delhi--his mother, wife, and daughter; and in another close by is the tomb which interested me most, that of Jahanara Begam, the favourite sister of poor Dara s.h.i.+koh, and daughter of Shah Jahan.[14] It stands in the same enclosure, with the brother of the present Emperor on one side, and his daughter on the other. Her remains are covered with a marble slab hollow at the top, and exposed to the sky--the hollow is filled with earth covered with green gra.s.s. Upon her tomb is the following inscription, the three first lines of which are said to have been written by herself:-

Let no rich canopy cover my grave.

This gra.s.s is the best covering for the tombs of the poor in spirit.

The humble, the transitory Jahanara, The disciple of the holy men of Chisht, The daughter of the Emperor Shah Jahan.'

I went over the magnificent tomb of Humayun, which was raised over his remains by the Emperor Akbar. It stands in the centre of a quadrangle of about four hundred yards square, with a cloistered wall all round; but I must not describe any more tombs.[15] Here, under a marble slab, lies the head of poor Dara s.h.i.+koh, who, but for a little infirmity of temper, had perhaps changed the destinies of India, by changing the character of education among the aristocracy of the countries under his rule, and preventing the birth of the Maratha powers by leaving untouched the independent kingdoms of the Deccan, upon whose ruins, under his bigoted brother, the former rose. Secular and religions education were always inseparably combined among the Muhammadans, and invited to India from Persia by the public offices, civil and military, which men of education and courtly manners could alone obtain. These offices had long been exclusively filled by such men, who flocked in crowds to India from Khorasan and Persia. Every man qualified by secular instruction to make his way at court and fill such offices was disposed by his religions instruction to a.s.sert the supremacy of his creed, and to exclude the followers of every other from the employments over which he had any control. The aristocracy of office was the ocean to which this stream of Muhammadan education flowed from the west, and spread all over India; and had Dara subdued his brothers and ascended the throne, he would probably have arrested the flood by closing the public offices against these Persian adventurers, and filling them with Christians and Hindoos. This would have changed the character of the aristocracy and the education of the people.[16]

While looking upon the slab under which his head reposes, I thought of the slight 'accidents by flood and field', the still slighter thought of the brain and feeling of the heart, on which the destinies of nations and of empires often depend--on the discovery of the great diamond in the mines of Golconda--on the accident which gave it into the hands of an ambitions Persian adventurer--on the thought which suggested the advantage of presenting it to Shah Jahan--on the feeling which made Dara get off, and Aurangzeb sit on his elephant at the battle of Samugarh, on which depended the fate of India, and perhaps the advancement of the Christian religion and European literature and science over India.[17] But for the accident which gave Charles Martel the victory over the Saracens at Tours,[18]

Arabic and Persian had perhaps been the cla.s.sical languages, and Islamism the religion of Europe; and where we have cathedrals and colleges we might have had mosques and mausoleums; and America and the Cape, the compa.s.s and the press, the steam-engine, the telescope, and the Copernican System, might have remained still undiscovered; and but for the accident which turned Hannibal's face from Rome after the battle of Cannae, or that which intercepted his brother Asdrubal's letter, we might now all be speaking the languages of Tyre and Sidon, and roasting our own children in offerings to Siva or Saturn, instead of saving those of the Hindoos. Poor Dara! but for thy little jealousy of thy father and thy son, thy desire to do all thy work without their aid, and those occasional ebullitions of pa.s.sion which alienated from thee the most powerful of all the Hindoo princes, whom it was so much thy wish and thy interest to cherish, thy generous heart and enlightened mind had reigned over this vast empire, and made it, perchance, the garden it deserves to be made.

I visited the celebrated mosque known by the name of Jami (Jumma) Masjid, a fine building raised by Shah Jahan, and finished in six years, A.H. 1060, at a cost of ten lakhs of rupees or one hundred thousand pounds. Money compared to man's labour and subsistence is still four times more valuable in India than in England; and a similar building in England would cost at least four hundred thousand pounds. It is, like all the buildings raised by this Emperor, in the best taste and style.[19] I was attended by three well-dressed and modest Hindoos, and a Muhammadan servant of the Emperor. My attention was so much taken up with the edifice that I did not perceive, till I was about to return, that the doorkeepers had stopped my three Hindoos. I found that they had offered to leave their shoes behind, and submit to anything to be permitted to follow me; but the porters had, they said, strict orders to admit no wors.h.i.+ppers of idols; for their master was a man of the book, and had, therefore, got a little of the truth in him, though unhappily not much, since his heart had not been opened to that of the Koran. Nathu could have told him that he also had a book, which he and some fourscore millions more thought as good as his or better; but he was afraid to descant upon the merits of his 'shastras', and the miracles of Kishan Ji [Krishna], among such fierce, cut-throat-looking people; he looked, however, as if he could have eaten the porter, Koran and all, when I came to their rescue. The only volumes which Muhammadans designate by the name of the book are the Old and New Testaments, and the Koran.

I visited also the palace, which was built by the same Emperor. It stands on the right bank of the Jumna, and occupies a quadrangle surrounded by a high wall built of red sandstone, about one mile in circ.u.mference; one side looks down into the clear stream of the Jumna, while the others are surrounded by the streets of the city.[20] The entrance is by a n.o.ble gateway to the west;[21] and facing this gateway on the inside, a hundred and twenty yards distant, is the Diwan-i-Amm, or the common hall of audience. This is a large hall, the roof of which is supported upon four colonnades of pillars of red sandstone, now white-washed, but once covered with stucco work and gilded. On one of these pillars is shown the mark of the dagger of a Hindoo prince of Chitor, who, in the presence of the Emperor, stabbed to the heart one of the Muhammadan ministers who made use of some disrespectful language towards him. On being asked how he presumed to do this in the presence of his sovereign he answered in the very words almost of Roderic Dhu,

I right my wrongs where they are given, Though it were in the court of Heaven.[22]

The throne projects into the hall from the back in front of the large central arch; it is raised ten feet above the floor, and is about ten feet wide, and covered by a marble canopy, all beautifully inlaid with mosaic work exquisitely finished, but now much dilapidated. The room or recess in which the throne stands is open to the front, and about fifteen feet wide and six deep. There is a door at the back by which the Emperor entered from his private apartments, and one on his left, from which his prime minister or chief officer of state approached the throne by a flight of steps leading into the hall. In front of the throne, and raised some three feet above the floor, is a fine large slab of white marble, on which one of the secretaries stood during the hours of audience to hand up to the throne any pet.i.tions that were presented, and to receive and convey commands. As the people approached over the intervening one hundred and twenty yards between the gateway and the hall of audience they were made to bow down lower and lower to the figure of the Emperor, as he sat upon his throne, without deigning to show by any motion of limb or muscle that he was really made of flesh and blood, and not cut out of the marble he sat upon.

The marble walls on three sides of this recess are inlaid with precious stones representing some of the most beautiful birds and flowers of India, according to the boundaries of the country when Shah Jahan built this palace, which included Kabul and Kashmir, afterwards severed from it on the invasion of Nadir Shah.[23]

On the upper part of the back wall is represented, in the same precious stones, and in a graceful att.i.tude, a European in a kind of Spanish costume, playing upon his guitar, and in the character of Orpheus charming the birds and beasts which he first taught the people of India so well to represent in this manner. This I have no doubt was intended by Austin de Bordeaux for himself. The man from s.h.i.+raz, Amanat Khan, who designed all the n.o.ble Tughra characters in which the pa.s.sages from the Koran are inscribed upon different parts of the Taj at Agra, was permitted to place his own name in the same bold characters on the right-hand side as we enter the tomb of the Emperor and his queen. It is inscribed after the date, thus, A.H.

1048 [A.D. 1638-9], 'The humble fakir Amanat Khan of s.h.i.+raz.' Austin was a still greater favourite than Amanat Khan; and the Emperor Shah Jahan, no doubt, readily acceded to his wishes to have himself represented in what appeared to him and his courtiers so beautiful a picture.[24]

The Diwan-i-Khas, or hall of private audience, is a much more splendid building than the other from its richer materials, being all built of white marble beautifully ornamented. The roof is supported upon colonnades of marble pillars. The throne stands in the centre of this hall, and is ascended by steps, and covered by a canopy, with four artificial peac.o.c.ks on the four corners.[25] Here, thought I, as I entered this apartment, sat Aurangzeb when he ordered the a.s.sa.s.sination of his brothers Dara and Murad, and the imprisonment and destruction by slow poison of his son Muhammad, who had so often fought bravely by his side in battle. Here also, but a few months before, sat the great Shah Jahan to receive the insolent commands of this same grandson Muhammad when flushed with victory, and to offer him the throne, merely to disappoint the hopes of the youth's father, Aurangzeb. Here stood in chains the graceful Sulaiman, to receive his sentence of death by slow poison with his poor young brother Sipihr s.h.i.+koh, who had shared all his father's toils and dangers, and witnessed his brutal murder.[26] Here sat Muhammad Shah, bandying compliments with his ferocious conqueror, Nadir Shah, who had destroyed his armies, plundered his treasury, stripped his throne, and ordered the murder of a hundred thousand of the helpless inhabitants of his capital, men, women, and children, in a general ma.s.sacre. The bodies of these people lay in the streets tainting the air, while the two sovereigns sat here sipping their coffee, and swearing to the most deliberate lies in the name of their G.o.d, Prophet, and Koran;--all are now dust; that of the oppressor undistinguishable from that of the oppressed.[27]

Within this apartment and over the side arches at one end is inscribed in black letters the celebrated couplet, 'If there be a paradise on the face of the earth, it is this--it is this--it is this.[28] Anything more unlike paradise than this place now is can hardly be conceived. Here are crowded together twelve hundred _kings_ and _queens_ (for all the descendants of the Emperors a.s.sume the t.i.tle of Salatin, the plural of Sultan) literally eating each other up.[29]