Delhi the ancient capital of the Mogul Empire--General description,
population, &c.--The king's palace--Embattled walls and
guns--Martello towers--Jumna Musjeed, or chief mosque--The tombs of
the Humayoon, and of Sefjar Jung--The Shelima gardens--The ancient
Patons, or Afghan conquerors of India--The celebrated Cattab
Minar--The tomb of Humayoon--The aqueduct of Alikhan--College for
Orientals and Europeans.
Delhi being the ancient capital of the Mogul Empire, I will here give
a description of it, as, having a few days leave from cantonment,
I found it in my visit. It is situated on the eastern bank of the
Jumna, and some 950 miles from Calcutta. It is walled and fortified,
and has a population of somewhere near 200,000. It is between seven
and eight miles round it, and may be about two miles across. The
palace inhabited by the King stands in a very commanding position.
The entire city is built on a rocky range of hills, and, as said, is
surrounded by embattled walls and guns, with intervening Martello
towers facing along the whole extent with good masonry, moats and
glacis. Its chief houses are built of brick, the streets narrow;
the principal avenues all wide and handsome, and for an Asiatic
city, very clean. The bazaars along the avenues look remarkably
pretty; formerly the city had some noble wide streets, but these
have been divided by buildings all along the centre, and now spoil
their appearance. The next principal buildings to the Palace is the
Jumna Musjeed, or chief mosque. The tombs of the Emperor Humayoon,
and of Sefjar Jung, and Cuttub Menir; and within the new city are
the remains of many palaces. These structures are nearly all of red
granite inlaid and ornamented with white marble; the general style
is elegant, yet simple. The Palace, as seen from a distance, is very
high, with gothic towers and battlements rising above any other
building. It was built by Shah Jehan, and seems some sixty feet
high, with two noble gateways. It is allowed by travellers to far
surpass the Kremlin, in Moscow, in magnificence, or any other kingly
residence. I thought, on looking at it, of our old Windsor Castle,
and asked did any of them making the comparison ever see it. To my
mind old Windsor surpasses it, except in its material.
[Sidenote: The Shelima gardens.]
The gardens known as the Shelima, and mentioned in Lalla Rookh, were
formed by the same potentate, and are said to have cost the immense
sum of 1,000,000 pounds; but they are now wild and allowed to go in
ruins. The Mosque-Musjeed is considered the largest and most elegant
temple of worship in India, it cost sixty lakhs of rupees, and Shah
Jehan was six years in building it. It stands on a rocky eminence
scarped for the purpose. A flight of thirty-five steps brings you to
a beautiful gateway of red stones, the doors of which are covered
with wrought brass. The terrace on which it is built is about 1600
yards square, and surrounded by an arched collonade with pavilions
at convenient distances. In the centre stands a large marble cistern
supplied by machinery with water from the canal. On the west side
of the Mosque proper, of an oblong form, say 260 feet in length,
its entire front is coated with large slabs of white marble, and
compartments in the corner are inlaid with Arabic inscriptions in
black. The mosque is approached by another flight, and surrounded
by a marble dome at the flanks, as at all mosques, are minarets
about 150 feet high, each having three projecting galleries of black
marble and red stone alternately, their summits crowned with light
pavilions of white marble. The ascent is by winding stairs of 180
steps of red stone. It is truly a noble structure, well worth this
unequal description--for it must be seen to realize its beauty. It is
said this mosque is maintained by a grant from our Government. Not
far from the King's palace is another of red stone, used I suppose
by that personage and his princes for intermediate times of worship.
This one is surmounted with three gilt domes. Altogether there is
some fifty mosques in this city, of more or less grandeur, some
bear marks of great antiquity. One other, however, deserves a note
in passing, and that one was erected in 1710 by the daughter of the
great and mighty Arungzebee, and in which she is buried. Perhaps the
oldest is the one erected by the ancient Patons or Afghan conquerors
of India. It is of dark coloured granite, and of a different design,
but exactly like the Arab mosques.
[Sidenote: Cattab Minar--the Paton.]
The prospect south of the Shulnia gardens, as far as the eye can
reach, is covered with the remains of extensive gardens, pavilions,
sepulchres, all connecting the town of Cattab with the capital,
and through their neglected appearance, exhibiting one of the most
striking scenes of desolation to be witnessed.
The celebrated Cattab Minar is a very handsome round tower rising
from a polygon of twenty-seven sides, in five different stages,
gradually diminishing in circumference to the height of 250 feet, its
summit crowned with a majestic cupola rising from four arcades of red
granite is reached by a spiral staircase of 384 steps, and between
each stage a balcony runs round the pillar. The Paton, erected by the
old conquerors is almost in ruins, it was once a solid fortress, its
architecture not sinking, but there remains a high black pillar of
metal of Hindoo construction, originally covered with inscriptions.
I have before alluded to the tomb of Humayoon the conqueror, which
was erected by his daughter. It is of gothic architecture, and
stands in an immense garden with terraces and numerous fountains;
everything about it bears marks of decay. The garden is surrounded
by an embattled wall and cloister, and in its centre, on a platform
ascended by a flight of granite steps, is the tomb itself, a square
building with circular apartments, surrounded by a dome of white
marble. From the top of this building the ruins all round can best
be seen--where Indrapat once stood--extending almost over a range of
hills seven or eight miles distant.
[Sidenote: Manufactures of Delhi.]
The soil in the neighbourhood of Delhi seems singularly devoid of
vegetation. The Jumna annually overflows its banks during the rainy
season, but its waters, in this part of its course, are so much
empregnated with natron that the ground is almost barren. In order
to supply water to the royal gardens, the acqueduct of Ali-Khan
was constructed through the chief avenue, by which the pure and
wholesome water was brought from the mountains, over one hundred and
twenty miles off. This channel, during the troubles that followed
the decline of the Mogul Empire was stopped by rubbish, but when the
English got possession they cleared it, and it is now the sole source
of supply of Delhi. This was done in 1820, and is still remembered
by the inhabitants with, I trust, some degree of gratitude. It
was, at least, on the opening of the channel, for the inhabitants
then turned out, with drums beating, to welcome the water, throwing
flowers, and ghee, and sweetmeats in the current as it flowed along;
for this they called down all manner of blessings on the British.
But for this dearth of water, Delhi would be a great inland mart for
the interchange of commodities between India and the countries west
and north. Cotton, cloth and indigo are manufactured here, and there
is also a large Persian shawl factory, with weavers from Cashmere.
The bazaars rival any others in wealth and beauty. At the south of
the city stand the ruins of an observatory, erected by Jye Singh; it
formerly contained several instruments, but, like the building, long
ago partially destroyed. There is also a college in this city, with
two departments--Orientals and English--and the number of pupils are
270. I have dwelt rather long on this description of the famous city,
but I feel any picture I can give will be far short of the reality.
It is said seven cities, at different times of the earth's history,
have stood on the same site. Indraput was the first; then the
Patons, or Afghans; then Sultan Balun built and fortified one, after
destroying the Patons; then Mozes-ud-deem built another nearer the
Jumna; this destroyed, another nearer Cattal; and lastly, Shah Jehan,
towards the middle of the seventeenth century, chose the present site
for his capital. I might add that the census of any place in India
is hardly ever taken, for the reason of so much superstition in the
inhabitants--they could not be made to believe anything else but that
it was intended for their destruction. The estimate of the population
I have given was then considered as nearly as possible correct.
CALCUTTA.
[Sidenote: The Black-hole.]
Calcutta presents a remarkable instance of what may arise from
small beginnings, if I might so speak. In 1640 the English obtained
permission to erect a factory at the ancient town of Hooghly, on
the opposite bank of the river. In 1696 the Emperor Aurungzcebee
allowed them to remove to the pretty village of Govindpoor, and in
the following year to secure it by erecting a fort. So slow was
the progress of the new settlement that up to 1717 the site of the
present City of Palaces remained an assemblage of huts, wretched
indeed, with only a few hundred inhabitants. In 1756 it had not
more than seventy houses in it occupied by the English. An attempt
had been made in 1742 to defend the place from the invasion of the
Maharattas, by surrounding it with a ditch, a precaution, however,
which availed but little against the attack, in June, 1756, by
Suradja-ud-douhal, or Viceroy of Bengal. In consequence of this
attack, apparently a surprise, the factory was deserted by the
governor, the commandant and many of the European functionaries
and residents. A memorable catastrophe of a most lamentable nature
ensued. Such of the English as had remained for its defence were
seized and thrust into a small uninhabited dungeon called the
Black-hole, and of one hundred and forty-six individuals who were
thus shut up at night, one hundred and twenty three perished
under the most frightful sufferings ere the arrival of morning. The
black-hole was afterwards converted into a warehouse, and upon an
obelisk, fifty feet high at its entrance, were inscribed the names of
the unhappy victims.
[Illustration: THE ASCENT TO THE TEMPLE OF PARBUTTEE, NEAR POONA.]
Early in the following year a squadron of five ships brought 2,400
troops under Lord Clive up the Hooghly from Madras, they retook the
town of Calcutta, from which the garrison of the Subidhar retired
after an attack of only two hours duration. The population now
amounts to some 600,000.
[Illustration: (Vignette)]
[Illustration: (Vignette)]