were and are to the Brahman and Buddhist civilisations native to India,
what Calcutta and Madras and Bombay and Karachi are to the English from
over the seas, that are Delhi and Agra to the Musulmans entering India
from the northwest. The Musulmans were not the first to come this way
into India. The oldest of the sacred books of the Hindus tell of a
people who came from the northwest and apparently founded the Hindu
religion, accepting no doubt some of the religious beliefs of the
earlier, the Dravidian, population. From these Aryan invaders, speaking
Sanskrit, have been derived the languages of the peoples of Northern
India. Southeastward, southward, and southwestward from Delhi as far as
the centre of India, there spread the Hindi, Bengali, and Marathi
languages, as evidence of the effective conquest made by those remote
invaders entering through the Delhi passage between the desert and the
mountains. So far, however, as their language was concerned, they failed
to establish themselves in the Dravidian south. Long afterwards, but
still some three hundred years before the Christian era, the Greeks
under Alexander the Great traversed Persia and Turkestan and came over
the Hindu Kush, the mountain backbone of what is now Afghanistan, down
into the plains of the Punjab. Alexander advanced across the rivers of
the Punjab, tributary to the Indus, apparently as far as the Sutlej, and
then turned southward and followed the Indus to its mouth. Part of his
troops returned through the Persian Gulf on board the fleet, and part he
led back with great loss along the barren northern shore of the Arabian
Sea. Alexander and the Greeks came therefore to the very threshold of
India, and then turned aside towards the sea, leaving the desert of
Rajputana between them and the great prize of the conqueror.
In the seventh century of the Christian era there arose in Arabia the
prophet Muhammad, who in his youth had been influenced both by Christian
and Hebrew teaching. He preached to the Arabs that there was but one
God, and that Muhammad was his prophet.
Muhammad, “The Praised,” was born in Mecca, about the year 570. He
belonged to one of the ruling families of the tribe of Arabs who held
Mecca and the surrounding country, but his father died before he was
born, and his mother when he was only six months old. From his earliest
youth Muhammad was addicted to solitude and musing. In his wanderings he
visited Syria, and in a Nestorian convent there learned many of the
Hebrew and Christian ideas which he subsequently incorporated into his
teaching. In his twenty-fifth year he married Khadija, a widow of noble
birth and considerable wealth. This marriage placed him in a position of
independence, for he had previously been very poor.
When Muhammad was forty years old there came to him a Divine Call,
bidding him teach his people to abandon their idols, to worship God, and
to accept him as God’s Prophet. At first Muhammad met with the most
bitter opposition, and in the year 622 A.D. he had to flee from Mecca to
a city called Yathreb, which received him and made him its chief
magistrate. Ever since that event this city has been called
Medinat-un-Nabi, the City of the Prophet; or, shortly, Medina. The
flight of Muhammad from Mecca is called the Hegira, and it is from this
event that the Muhammadan calendar dates. In the year 630 A.D. Mecca was
conquered, and shortly after this all Arabia submitted to the claims of
the prophet.
After Muhammad’s death the Arabs set forth to conquer the world and to
convert it to Islam. They subdued Egypt and Syria and the plain of the
Euphrates. They marched to the gates of Constantinople, and through
Northern Africa to the Strait of Gibraltar, and beyond Gibraltar through
Spain into France, there to suffer a great defeat at the hands of the
Christian Franks, which saved the remainder of Christendom. All this was
accomplished in little more than a hundred years from the Hegira.
But the Musulmans did not wage war only against Christendom. Their
armies advanced from the Euphrates up on to the Persian plateau and down
into the lowlands of Turkestan in the heart of Asia, and over the Hindu
Kush into Afghanistan, and then down into the plain of the River Indus.
Already in the seventh century there had been Musulman incursions into
India overseas, by way of Sind. In the eleventh century after Christ the
Musulmans entered Gangetic India, and took Delhi. They founded there a
Muhammadan realm, which presently extended through most of Northern
India.
[Sidenote: 3.
The Mogul Empire at its greatest extent.] Five hundred years later a
second Musulman invasion, more effective than the first, came into India
by way of Delhi. The Moguls or Mongols of Central Asia had been
converted to Islam, and in the time of our King Henry the Eighth they
refounded the Musulman power at Delhi. For a hundred and fifty years,
from the time of our Queen Elizabeth to that of our Queen Anne, the
series of Mogul Emperors, from Humayun to Aurangzeb, ruled in splendid
state practically the whole of India. This map shows the greatest spread
of the Mogul Empire. Agra, a hundred miles down the Jumna from Delhi,
became a subsidiary capital to Delhi, and in these two cities we have
to-day the supreme examples of Muhammadan architectural art.
The Musulman, it must be remembered, came as an alien to India. He is no
polytheist or pantheist, but a believer in the one God, and that a
spiritual God, so that he holds it wrong to make any graven image,
whether of man or of animal. Islam is the name which the followers of
the prophet gave to their religion: it means primarily submission, and
so peace, greeting, safety, and salvation, and in its ethical sense it
signifies striving after righteousness. Islam is in its essence pure
Theism coupled with some definite rules of conduct. Belief in a future
life and accountability for human action in another existence are two of
the principal doctrines of the Islamic creed. Every Musulman is his own
priest, and, in theory at any rate, no divisions of race or colour are
recognised among the followers of the Prophet. Musulmans are forbidden
to take alcohol. The gospel of Islam is the Koran—The Book—in which are
embodied the teachings and precepts of the Arabian Prophet. The Koran
incorporates, as we have already seen, much that was drawn both from
Hebrew and Christian teaching.
More than sixty millions of the Indian population hold the faith of
Islam. They are scattered all over the land, usually in a minority,
although that minority, as we have already learned, is frequently
powerful, for it gives ruling chiefs to many districts which are
dominantly Hindu. In two parts only of India are the Musulmans in a
majority, namely, in the far east, beyond the mouths of the Ganges in
the newly formed Province of Eastern Bengal and Assam, and in the Indus
Basin from the neighbourhood of Delhi through the Punjab into Sind. For
this reason, and also because of its physical character—lying low
beneath the uplands of Afghanistan, and separated from the greater part
of India by the breadth of the desert—we may think of the Indus Valley
as being an ante-chamber to India proper. In this ante-chamber, and in
the Delhi passage, between the desert and the mountains, for more than
nine hundred years the Musulmans have predominated.
When the decay of the Mogul Empire began in the time of our Queen Anne,
the chief local representatives of the Imperial Rule, such as the Nizam
of Hyderabad, and the Nawabs of Bengal and Oudh, assumed an independent
position. It was with these new dynasties that the East India Company
came into conflict in the days of General Clive, and thus we may regard
the British Empire in India as having been built up from the fragments
into which the Mogul Empire broke. In one region, however, the Western
Deccan, the Hindus re-asserted themselves, and there was a rival bid for
Empire, as we have already learned, on the part of the Marathas. It was
the work of General Wellesley, afterwards Duke of Wellington, to defeat
the Marathas. In the north also, in the Punjab, there was a
recrudescence of the Hindu race, due to the new sect of the Sikhs, who
set up a power with which at a later time the British Raj came into
conflict. But this was not until after Delhi, the very seat of the Mogul
throne, had been taken.
[Sidenote: Repeat Map No. 2.] [Sidenote: 4.
Simla, Viceregal Lodge—distant view.] [Sidenote: 5.
Simla, Bazaar and Town Hall.] We are now prepared for the fact shown in
this map, that the tract northwestward of Delhi, in the gateway between
the desert and the mountains, is sown over with battle fields—ancient
battlefields near Delhi, where the incoming Musulmans overthrew the
Indian resistance, and modern battlefields near the Sutlej, where
advancing British power inflicted defeat upon the Sikhs after severe
contests. It is by no accident that Simla, the residence during more
than half the year of the British Viceroy, is placed on the Himalayan
heights above this natural seat of Empire and of struggle for Empire.
In the Mutiny of 1857 the Sikhs of the Punjab, and of the still
continuing Tributary States of Nabha and Patiala, mentioned in the last
lecture, remained loyal to the British rule, although they had been
conquered in the terrible battles on the Sutlej less than ten years
before. In no small measure this was due to the extraordinary influence
wielded over them by Sir John Lawrence, afterwards Lord Lawrence, the
brother of that Sir Henry Lawrence who defended the Residency of
Lucknow. As a result of the Sikh loyalty some of the British forces in
the Punjab were free to march to the re-capture of Delhi. Thus the
Indian Mutiny was overcome from two bases, on the one hand at Lucknow
and Cawnpore by an army from the sea and Calcutta, and on the other hand
at Delhi by an army advancing from the Punjab over the track beaten by
so many conquerors in previous ages. Let us visit Delhi and see its
defences, its mosques, the palaces of its Emperors, and the memorials of
the Mutiny. Then we will go to Agra to see other splendid monuments of
the Musulman dynasty. After that we will turn to Hardwar, at the point
where the sacred Ganges bursts from its Himalayan valley on to the
plain. Hardwar is a pilgrimage centre of the Hindus, second in sanctity
only to Benares itself.
[Sidenote: 6.
The Kashmir Gate, Delhi.] East of Delhi, running almost due southward,
is the river Jumna, crossed by the great bridge of the East Indian
Railway, which carries the main line from Delhi through the United
Provinces and Bengal to Calcutta. West of the city is the last spur of
the Aravalli hills, the famous Ridge of Delhi, striking northeastward.
The city lies between the Ridge and the Jumna. It may be divided into
three parts. To the north is the European quarter. In the centre is
Shahjahanabad, or modern Delhi, entered from the north by the Kashmir
Gate. Between Shahjahanabad and the river is the Fort. The Jama Masjid
(Great Mosque) stands in the centre of Shahjahanabad, and the Kalan
Masjid (Black Mosque) is about half a mile further south. Passing out of
the modern city southward by the Delhi Gate we enter Firozabad, or
ancient Delhi, the capital of the earlier Mogul rulers. Further still to
the south are even more ancient ruins.
[Sidenote: 7.
Jama Masjid, Delhi.] [Sidenote: 8.
View from halfway up a Minaret, Jama Masjid.] [Sidenote: 9.
View from top of Minaret, looking south.] [Sidenote: 10.
The Same, looking northeast.] [Sidenote: 11.
Kalan Masjid, Delhi.] Let us begin our sight-seeing in the centre of the
modern city, at the Jama Masjid, a great building of marble and
sandstone. Its principal treasures are a hair of Muhammad, and some of
his handwriting. Here is a view of the mosque from the balcony of a
neighbouring house. Let us go up one of the minarets and look over the
city. This is a view taken from a little gallery half way up. To the
left is seen part of the large central dome of the mosque, and to the
right the top of one of the columns which rise on either side of the
main archway. Beyond, far below, can be seen part of the city. Next we
have a view, due southward, from the top of the minaret. The Kalan
Masjid is just visible in the foreground, but a smoke haze obscures the
more distant part of the town. We turn round and look northeastward over
the Fort. Notice on the ground the shadow of the other minaret of the
mosque. In the distance can be seen the Jumna, and crossing it the great
bridge of the East Indian Railway. Here we have a closer view of the
Kalan Masjid, or Black Mosque, built in the original style of the
mosques of Arabia with many small solid domes, unadorned by carving. It
has a sombre appearance. We see in front one of these domes, and behind
it the tops of two others.
[Sidenote: 12.
The Lahore Gate, Delhi Fort.] [Sidenote: 13.
The Delhi Gate, Delhi Fort.] [Sidenote: 14.
The Pearl Mosque, Delhi Fort.] [Sidenote: 15.
The Hall of Public Audience, Delhi Fort.] [Sidenote: 16.
The Orpheus Panel.] The chief glory of Delhi is, however, the Fort, and
the group of palace buildings within its precincts. It is approached
through the Lahore Gate, of which we have here a view. This gate is in
the middle of the west side of the Fort. Along the east side flows the
River Jumna. In the southern face there is another great gateway, the
Delhi Gate, with a grey stone elephant on either side of the entry.
Within the Fort, is the Moti Masjid, or Pearl Mosque, built by
Aurangzeb, of white and grey marble. The finest of the buildings of the
Fort is, however, the great Hall of Public Audience, the Diwan-i-Am.
There is a raised recess, in the wall of this hall, where formerly stood
the famous Peacock Throne of Aurangzeb, made of solid gold inlaid with
diamonds, rubies, and emeralds, and backed by two peacocks set thick
with gems. This throne was carried off when the Persians under Nadir
Shah sacked the city in 1739, and massacred most of its inhabitants.
Above the entry to the recess of the Peacock Throne are a number of
panels about nine inches high and six inches broad, made of inlaid
stones. Here is a photograph of one of them. Some of these panels were
injured, but, thanks to Lord Curzon, an expert artist from Florence has
recently restored them and made new ones in the spirit of the earlier to
fill the vacant spaces.
[Sidenote: 17.
The Hall of Private Audience, Delhi Fort.] We pass next to the innermost
court of the Fort-palace, the Hall of Private Audience, the
Diwan-i-Khas, ninety feet long and seventy feet broad, built of white
marble with many inlaid flowers of jewels. Beneath the cornice runs the
famous inscription: “If there is a Paradise upon earth it is this, it is
this.” Here we see one of the graceful arches, and beyond in the
distance the towers of the Pearl Mosque, already described.
[Sidenote: 18.
Mausoleum of Humayun, Delhi.] To see old Delhi we must drive from the
modern city either by the Delhi Gate in the south wall of the Fort or by
the Ajmer Gate in the southeast corner of the city wall, past great
dome-topped temples, most of them in ruins, until a few miles out, not
far from the trunk road leading from Delhi to Agra, we come to the
Mausoleum of Humayun, of which we have here a view. The design, as will
be realised presently, is very similar to that of the Taj Mahal at Agra,
but the Mausoleum is the older building. Notice the terraced platform on
which it stands. It is built of red sandstone and marble. Beneath the
platform, and approached by a long dark passage, is the vault where
Humayun is buried. Around the Mausoleum are a number of old ruins, and
the debris and cactus remind one of Pagan in Burma, which we saw in the
second lecture.
[Sidenote: 19.
The Kutab Minar and Iron Pillar, Delhi.] We resume our drive, past
ruined tombs and walls, and at last, about eleven miles south of Delhi,
we come to the buildings of the Kutab Minar, where are some of the few
remains of the Hindu period now visible in the neighbourhood, though the
mass of the work is of Muhammadan date. The Kutab was begun at the end
of the 12th century, on the site of an ancient Hindu temple destroyed by
the Musulmans. The famous Iron Pillar stands in front of the mosque. It
is one of the most remarkable of all the antiquities of India, for it
consists of a solid mass of wrought iron, weighing probably more than
six tons, and measuring some 24 feet in height, with an average diameter
of a little over a foot. At the base is an inscription in Sanskrit, from
which it appears that its probable date is the fourth century, A.D. This
inscription runs thus: “As long as I stand so long shall the Hindu
kingdom endure.” The Kutab mosque is the Moslem reply to this. The
wrought iron of the Pillar has an almost bluish colour when seen against
the warm sunlit red sandstone of the great Kutab Tower. In this
photograph a man has climbed to the top of the Pillar, and stands there
as though a statue, giving us the scale of the monument.
[Sidenote: 20.
The Lat of Asoka, the Ridge, Delhi.] Now let us visit the district to
north of the modern city, of deep interest in connection with the
Mutiny. On the Ridge top, between the Flagstaff Tower towards its
northeastern end and the Mutiny Memorial further south, is another
curious pillar, this one of stone, called the Lat of Asoka. At its base
is the following modern inscription:
“This pillar was originally erected at Meerut in the third century B.C.
by King Asoka. It was removed thence, and set up in the Koshuk Shikar
Palace by the Emperor Firuz Shah in A.D. 1356, but was thrown down and
broken into five pieces by the explosion of a powder magazine A.D.
1713-1719. It was restored and set up in this place by the British
Government A.D. 1867.”
[Sidenote: 21.
The Flagstaff Tower, the Ridge, Delhi.] We will walk past the various
memorials of the Mutiny struggle. Here is the Flagstaff Tower, in which
were gathered at the outbreak of danger the women and children of the
British garrison anxiously looking for relief from Meerut. But the
relief did not come, and Delhi was stormed and captured by the
mutineers. The refugees in the Flagstaff Tower were compelled to fly for
their lives to Karnal, on the road to the Punjab, where gradually
British troops and loyal natives were assembled. The British returned to
the Ridge, and for two months the siege of the city was pressed, but
unsuccessfully. A brigade and a siege train then arrived from the
Punjab, commanded by General Nicholson. The struggle continued for yet
another month. Our troops were not in sufficient force to surround and
starve the city, and it was therefore necessary to bombard and storm the
defences. Slowly the British won their way into the town, though with
terrible loss. General Nicholson was himself wounded in one of the
assaults, and died a week later. At last, on the 20th September, the
Fort was taken, and next day the rebel King of Delhi was captured at
Humayun’s Tomb, and was exiled to Rangoon. Two of his sons were shot in
front of the Delhi Gate. The terrible nature of this siege may be
realised from the fact that of the ten thousand British and loyal native
troops who took part in it nearly four thousand were killed and wounded.
Here is the statue of General Nicholson in the park named after him,
just south of the cemetery, outside the Kashmir Gate, where he is
buried. On the Ridge itself is the Mutiny Memorial, unfortunately not a
very beautiful building.
[Sidenote: 22.
General Nicholson’s Statue, Delhi.] [Sidenote: 23.
The Mutiny Memorial, the Ridge, Delhi.]
[Sidenote: 24.
Horse Fair, Delhi.] [Sidenote: 25.
Dariba Street, Delhi.] Finally, we have two scenes of native life at
Delhi. The first is a horse fair outside the Kashmir Gate, and the
second a street view.
Let us travel to Agra, which stands on the right bank of the Jumna,
about a hundred miles southeast of Delhi. The Jumna flows from north to
south until beside Agra Fort, and then turns sharply eastward. About a
mile and a half further on, on the same right bank, now the south side
of the river, there stands the Taj Mahal, the most celebrated of all
Muhammadan tombs. The building of Agra Fort was commenced by the Emperor
Akbar in the middle of the 16th century, and was completed by Shah
Jahan, the father of Aurangzeb, in the 17th century. It was this Shah
Jahan who built the Palace within the Fort and also the Taj.
[Sidenote: 26.
The Pearl Mosque, Agra Fort.] The Fort and the buildings which it
contains rise by the side of the river and dominate the plain beyond it.
Here within the Fort we have a view of the marble interior of the Moti
Masjid, or Pearl Mosque, built by Shah Jahan in the middle of the 17th
century. The floor is divided by inlaid lines of black and yellow marble
into some six hundred separate divisions, called Masalas, used by the
Musulmans for prayer. In the centre is a large marble tank. The effect
produced on entering this mosque is profound. Outside, the city may be
quivering in a haze of heat, but here the cool and soft light, and an
entire absence of any discordant features in the architecture, combine
to give a sense of rest and peace. Many Europeans have remarked that
this mosque is a rendering in stone of the text “My house shall be
called the house of prayer.”
[Sidenote: 27.
Jehangir’s Throne, Agra Fort.] [Sidenote: 28.
The Jessamine Tower, Agra Fort.] [Sidenote: 29.
The Seat of the Jester, Agra Fort.] Let us go out on to the open space
by the wall, and look over the moat which divides the main buildings of
the Fort from the outer rampart by the river. Across the water the Taj
Mahal can just be seen beyond the bend of the river. In front of us is
Jehangir’s throne, set up in the time of Akbar. It consists of a single
great slab of black marble. Close by, is the Jessamine Tower. Here we
have another view in which we see the Throne from the back and a corner
of the Jessamine Tower. Notice the lower slab opposite, which is called
the Seat of the Jester. The effect of its presence is by contrast to
enhance the beauty of Jehangir’s Throne itself. Between the wall in the
foreground and the outer ramparts by the river there is a drop of some
sixty feet, and in this ditch fights between lions and elephants used to
be held in the days of the Mogul Emperors.
[Sidenote: 30.
Jama Masjid, Agra.] Just outside the Fort, facing the west or Delhi
Gate, is the Jama Masjid, of which we have here a view. We see the
courtyard and one of the entries. The peculiarity of this mosque lies in
the structure of the three great domes. They are without necks. We can
just see the tops of two of them. They are built of red sandstone, and
the encircling bands are of white marble.
[Sidenote: 31.
Taj Mahal, Agra.] [Sidenote: 32.
The Taj Gardens.] [Sidenote: 33.
The Same, by moonlight.] We will now visit the Taj Mahal. It was built,
chiefly of marble inlaid with precious stones, by Shah Jahan as a tomb
for his queen. Here we have a view of the Taj taken from without the
entrance gateway. Then we pass through the gateway and enter the Taj
Gardens. The watercourse in the centre is of marble, and along each side
is a row of cypresses. The original cypresses had grown to such a height
that the view of the Taj was becoming obstructed. They were therefore
removed, and those which we see in the picture were planted by Lord
Curzon, when he was Viceroy. The Taj is perhaps most beautiful in the
light of the setting sun, or by moonlight. We have here a photograph
made from a painting of the Taj by moonlight.
[Sidenote: 34.
The Bazaar, Agra.] [Sidenote: 35.
Agra College.] [Sidenote: 36.
Agra Jail—Wool spinning.] [Sidenote: 37.
Agra Jail—Carpet making.] We will drive back through the native city.
This is a typical scene in the Bazaar. Notice the Kotwal, or Chief of
the Police, in the centre of the crowd. He is an Afghan, standing well
over six feet in height and finely proportioned. On the awning over one
of the shops an advertisement obtrudes, showing that even the native
quarters of the cities of India are being permeated with European
methods. Here is Agra College, endowed about a century ago by the then
Maharaja of Gwalior. There are about a thousand students. Close by is
the Jail. In this picture we see some of the prisoners spinning wool,
and in the next they are making carpets.