IN AND AROUND DELHI.--DEPARTURE FOR SIMLA AND THE HIMALAYAS.
It was just about sunrise when our friends entered the train that was to
carry them from Agra to Delhi, a ride of 120 miles along the valley of
the Jumna. The boys devoted a part of the time on the road to making an
acquaintance with Delhi through the books that were drawn from their
satchels; before the train rolled into the station they were well aware
that the city claims an antiquity of more than 2000 years, but its
history is involved in obscurity until the eighth century. From that
date it has been the scene of several attacks and sieges, the last
having occurred in 1857, at the time of the Indian Mutiny, when the
power of the kings of Delhi was completely broken. The foundations of
the present city were laid about 250 years ago by the Emperor Shah
Jehan, who determined to exceed anything that had been done at Agra by
his grandfather, the great Akbar. The palace or citadel is enclosed by a
wall a mile and a half in circuit, and the city by a continuous wall of
granite nearly six miles long. The citadel has two gates, and the city
ten, all strongly fortified and capable of defence, as the history of
the Mutiny sadly illustrates in the loss of English life at the final
capture.
Delhi is one of the most interesting cities of India, partly on account
of its historical richness and partly by reason of the many varieties of
people to be met on its streets, and the splendor of its buildings. That
it proved to be so to our young friends is shown by their account of
what they saw and did during their visit. There was too much for either
of them to write alone; so they wisely divided the labor, and made a
joint production for the edification of their families and friends. We
are permitted to copy the letter in full:
"Delhi, India, January 15.
"We have seen so much here that we don't know where to begin, and
when we have started we sha'n't know where to leave off. Perhaps we
had best take things in the order in which we saw them, and if we
find our letter is getting too long we can represent the last half
of our sight-seeing by two or three 'et cæteras.'
[Illustration: SCENE ON THE CHANDNI CHOWK, DELHI.]
"The first thing we did was to go to the Chandni Chowk, which is
the Broadway of Delhi; it is more than a hundred feet wide, and has
a row of shade-trees in the centre, while on each side are the
shops of the wealthy merchants. From morning till night it is
crowded with people, and you see more varieties here a dozen times
over than you do on Broadway in New York, or on the boulevards of
Paris. There are men from Cashmere and Thibet; men from Southern
India and Nepaul--Hindoos, Parsees, Arabs, Afghans, and various
other tribes and nationalities that we cannot name without making a
long list. There are men on horseback, with saddles and trappings
richly set in silver, and possibly adorned with semi-precious
stones; every little while you see carriages of European
construction in which natives are riding, and occasionally a
stately elephant moves along with an elegant howdah on his back.
Then there are camels from the north, sometimes a dozen of them in
a train, each bearing a burden of costly merchandise from the looms
of Cashmere, or of grain from the fields around the great city.
Native buffaloes are numerous, some with packs on their backs after
the manner of camels, and others drawing rude carts with wheels
hewn out of single blocks of wood. The scene is more thoroughly
Asiatic than any we have yet encountered, and the people have so
much color in their dresses that the moving crowd makes you think
of a Japanese picture. In spite of the show of poverty in the
coolie water-bearers and other low-class laborers, the picture of
the Chandni Chowk suggests a great deal of wealth, and you almost
expect to see in the next moment the cortege of a Mogul emperor
entering by one of the gates and marching majestically toward the
palace in all the splendor of the ancient days.
[Illustration: MERCHANTS OF DELHI.]
"We went into several of the shops where shawls and other products
of Indian looms are for sale; and we also visited the famous
jewellery establishments of Delhi where silver is wrought into a
great many fantastic forms. If anybody wonders what becomes of all
the silver that is taken out of the ground, he has only to come to
India. This country, with China and one or two others of the East,
has long been known for absorbing a vast amount of silver every
year; it is made into jewellery and sold to all classes of people,
but principally to those who cannot afford anything more costly.
When you remember that there are 200,000,000 people in India, and
nearly all of them wear as many silver ornaments as they can
afford, you will not be surprised at the consumption of silver.
"We bought some shawls after considerable bargaining, and also some
specimens of Delhi jewellery that are very pretty to look at, and
possibly to wear. One form of jewellery is made by setting the
claws of the tiger into brooches, ear-drops, bracelets, and the
like, and the ingenuity of the natives is well displayed in the
fanciful forms they give to this kind of work. Then we bought some
miniatures painted on ivory, chiefly of the Mogul emperors and
empresses, with a few faces of modern days. The native painters
produce these portraits in all the fineness of a steel engraving,
and in brilliant colors; there can hardly be a prettier piece of
painting in the world than a Delhi miniature. There was such an
abundance of these paintings offered, that it took us some time to
make a selection; the dealers came to the hotel every day after
breakfast and dinner, and it seemed as though every one of them had
at least a hundred pictures for sale.
[Illustration: THE DEWAN-I-KHAS, DELHI.]
"The fort or citadel was the next sight after the Chandni Chowk.
Formerly there were about a dozen large buildings in it, and many
small ones; but nearly all of the latter and some of the former
were destroyed at the time of the Mutiny, or within a few years
after it. The finest of the public ones were preserved, and they
are certainly great curiosities. There are two magnificent
halls--the Dewan-i-Am and the Dewan-i-Khas. In the former the
emperor used to give public audience to any one who wished to
present a petition, while the latter was a hall of private
audience, where nobody could come without special invitation. Both
of them are of white marble, and their ceilings are beautifully
carved with all sorts of curious designs. The pillars that support
the roof are very large, and you only get an idea of their real
size when you see a man standing near one of them. The Dewan-i-Khas
is smaller than the other, and is more like a pavilion than a room,
as it is open on three sides, and the wind can circulate freely
through it. They say that the ceiling was once composed of gold and
silver filigree-work made by the jewellers of Delhi, and cost a
great deal of money; the same room contained the famous 'Peacock
Throne,' which received its name on account of its back being made
to represent an outspread peacock's tail, set with diamonds and
other precious stones. We cannot do better than copy the
description of it:
"'The throne was six feet long and four broad, composed of solid
gold inlaid with precious gems. It was surrounded by a gold canopy
supported on twelve pillars of the same material. Around the canopy
hung a fringe of pearls; on each side of the throne stood two
_chattahs_, or umbrellas, symbols of royalty, formed of crimson
velvet, richly embroidered with gold thread and pearls, and with
handles of solid gold eight feet long, studded with diamonds. The
back of the throne was a representation of the expanded tail of a
peacock, the natural colors of which were imitated by sapphires,
rubies, emeralds, and other precious gems. Its value was estimated
by Tavernier, a French jeweller, who saw it, at £6,000,000, or
$30,000,000.'
"When we heard about the peacock throne you can be sure we wanted
to see it, and asked the guide to show us where it was. He said it
was carried away by the great Persian conqueror, Nadir Shah, when
he captured Delhi in 1738, and ordered its inhabitants to be
massacred. More than 100,000 were killed by his command, and
history says that he sat in the Dewan-i-Khas with the captured
monarch, while the troops were obeying his command and slaughtering
everybody on whom they could lay their hands. Men, women, and
children were butchered, and the property carried away from Delhi
amounted to a great many millions. The throne was in the centre of
the room, and the place where it stood is occupied by a block of
marble. We tried to picture the scene when Shah Jehan was in the
height of his power, and before the Persians had come to plunder
him. According to all accounts, Delhi must have been superior to
any other city of the East in barbaric splendor, and her wealth was
something fabulous. When the English captured the place, in 1857,
the soldiers were allowed to plunder the palace, and they carried
away millions of dollars' worth of diamonds, and gold, and other
precious things.
"On the block of marble where the peacock throne stood we saw an
inscription in Arabic, and asked what it was. The guide said it was
famous all over the world, and was as follows: 'If there be an
elysium on earth, it is this, it is this, it is this.' The Arabic
words are '_Agar furduse baru-i-zamin ast, hamin ast, hamin ast,
hamin ast._'
[Illustration: JAMMA MUSJID, OR GREAT MOSQUE.]
"We left the palace and proceeded to the Jamma Musjid, or Great
Mosque, one of the finest in all India. It stands on a small hill;
and as the minarets are 130 feet high, a view from the top of one
of them includes the whole of Delhi and a large extent of country
around it. To enter it we climbed a long flight of broad steps, and
then crossed a court-yard 450 feet square, with a marble tank in
the centre. The court-yard has steps on three of its sides, but the
principal entrance is on the east, and this was the one our guide
led us to. The mosque is on the west side of the court, and is a
handsome building, 200 feet by 120; it has three marble cupolas,
and is paved throughout with slabs of white marble with a black
border, so that its appearance is very rich. There is a good deal
of marble carving in and about the mosque, and we were not
surprised to learn that it took ten years to complete the building.
The proportions of the interior are not as fine as those of the
Pearl Mosque, at Agra, and it is evident that the architect tried
to make a large building, rather than a strictly handsome one.
"The whole city of Delhi was spread out at our feet like a map, as
we looked from the minarets of the mosque. We could trace the
streets, or at any rate all the principal ones, and our guide
showed us the public buildings, and the points that were made
memorable during the Mutiny. But we found our attention drawn to
the ruins around Delhi quite as much as to the city itself. Far as
we could see toward the south we discovered masses of ruins, or
scattered tombs and other buildings; they cover an area ten or
eleven miles long by six in width, and it is said that no less than
five different cities have been built here. Delhi has been called
the Rome of Asia, and certainly the comparison does not appear a
bad one.
"Having seen the ruins of the old cities from a distance, we
naturally wanted to examine them closely. So our second day was
devoted to an excursion, and we started early in the morning for a
drive among the remains of ancient Delhi.
"We had our heads filled with tombs, walls, forts, old palaces,
towers, and similar things, before we returned. The sight could not
fail to impress us with the grandeur of the city of the Mogul
emperors, and since we left home we have seen no better
illustration of the changes which time works than in Delhi and the
surrounding country. Empires and kingdoms that had their capitals
here have been overthrown one after another, and in each instance
the conquerors have shown little or no respect for the conquered.
Magnificent tombs are decaying, palaces are crumbling into ruins,
and the gardens which were once the secluded retreats of crowned
heads are converted into fields and pastures. Where once were the
crowded streets of a populous city there are now only a few
straggling natives, who subsist on gratuities received from
strangers, and the walls of the forts have gone to decay so that
they would be utterly useless for purposes of defence.
[Illustration: THE KUTTUB MINAR.]
"The most famous of the sights in the vicinity of Delhi is the
Kuttub Minar, which is said to be the tallest column in the world.
We are not quite certain as to the correctness of this statement,
and will give the figures, so that anybody may correct us. It is
divided from the base to the summit into five different stories,
and each story has a balcony at its top. The distance between the
balconies diminishes in proportion to the diameter of the column,
so that as you look upward from the base the column appears a good
deal higher than it really is. The lower story is shaped like a
polygon, but the others are round, with deep fluting all the way
up.
"The first three stories are of fine red sandstone, while the two
upper ones are mostly of marble. The whole height of the column is
240 feet, and it is thought that it was originally not far from 300
feet. It is fifty feet in diameter at the base, and thirteen at the
top, and is ascended by 375 steps. We did not find the ascent very
fatiguing, as we rested at each of the balconies, and took things
as easily as we could. Fortunately for us, the day was cool, and
there was a fine breeze that required us to put on our overcoats as
soon as we reached the top.
"It is not exactly known when the tower was begun or completed, but
the inscriptions on and around it indicate that it was built about
seven hundred years ago, and the work occupied twenty or thirty
years. Evidently somebody wanted to excel it, as there is the
beginning of another structure of the same character, but twice the
circumference, about 500 feet away. The first story of this new
edifice was never completed, and from present appearances it never
will be. All around the Kuttub Minar there are ruins of mosques and
temples, some of Hindoo and others of Moslem origin. The nearest
and largest was the Jamma Musjid, or Great Mosque, of old Delhi,
and was built from the ruins of twenty-seven Hindoo temples that
were pulled down after the Mohammedans captured the city, about
A.D. 1193. There is one arch fifty feet high and twenty-two feet
wide, and one of its rooms was 135 feet long, with a roof supported
on five rows of marble and sandstone pillars.
"From the ruins of the mosque the guide took us to a well about
eighty feet deep, where a group of natives were ready to jump to
the water on payment of a small sum. We had seen the same thing at
Futtehpoor-Sikra, and were in a hurry to get through with the
ruins, and so we refused to witness the performance. The guide told
us that the men expected every traveller to pay them for taking
this extraordinary leap; that it was their means of living, and
they did not pretend to do any other work. The water is said to be
very cold, as the sun rarely shines upon it, and nobody can tell
how old the well is, or by whom it was made.
[Illustration: THE IRON PILLAR.]
"In the court-yard of the mosque is an iron pillar twenty-two feet
high, with a capital at the top, which is said to date from the
Hindoo king who ruled before the Mohammedans came here. The
tradition is that he dreaded the fall of his dynasty, and consulted
the Bramin priests; they told him that if he could sink an iron
pillar, and make it pierce the head of the snake-god Lishay, who
supported the world, his kingdom would endure forever. He sunk the
shaft, and after a while took it up, to see what effect it had
had; it was found covered with blood, and then the priests told him
he had hurt the snake without killing him, and his kingdom would
come to an end. Their prediction was verified, for soon after this
event the Moslems came and captured his kingdom, and put him and
many of his followers to death.
[Illustration: TREES IN THE COURT-YARD OF THE MOSQUE.]
"There are some tall trees growing in the court-yard. We did not
realize how large they were till we saw a group of natives seated
beneath one of them, and waiting to beg from us as we approached.
Some of these trees are very old, and show conclusively that the
place has been in ruins for a long time.
"We spent two or three hours around the Kuttub Minar, and then
returned to Delhi, stopping on the way to see the tombs of several
kings and queens, whose names would not be particularly interesting
to you, and who have been dust and ashes for hundreds of years. The
Government preserves these tombs from injury, and appoints keepers
to look after them; but before the English took possession of India
there was a good deal of destruction and negligence. It seems to
have been the rule with these Eastern monarchs to destroy the works
of their predecessors, rather than to preserve them; and if they
failed to do so in any instance, it was because the destruction
would cost too much, or require a long time.
"There is enough around Delhi to keep a visitor occupied for at
least a week, and if he is greatly interested in antiquities he
might stay here a month and find something new every day. We are
afraid of becoming tedious, and so we will cut this letter short,
and say good-bye to Delhi."
From Delhi the party continued its railway journey to Umballa, 161
miles, without stopping, as there was nothing of importance to be seen
along the route. Doctor Bronson had telegraphed the day before their
departure for dawk garries to be engaged to carry them to Simla, and
when the train reached the station a messenger informed them that the
carriages had been secured. What the dawk garry is, and what was to be
done with it, was a matter of some interest to the boys, as this was
their first journey away from the line of the railway. How their
curiosity was satisfied we will learn in the next chapter.