The ruins of Futtehpore, the Versailles of the great Akbar, cover the
summit of a hill twelve miles from Bhurtpore. On leaving that town, we
travelled across a succession of monotonous plains alternately composed
of marshes and rocky deserts. The horizon was unbounded, except on the
east, where lay the hill of Futtehpore, the fantastic outline of which
caught the rays of the rising sun. Even from afar, the eye is struck by
the number and size of the buildings, which a royal caprice has erected
in the midst of this desert: one would take it for a large and populous
city. Those long lines of palaces with their gilded domes and pinnacles
could never have been built to be so soon abandoned to solitude. The
scene becomes grander the nearer you approach. On arriving at the foot
of the hill, the road passes under a majestic gateway, beyond which are
the long, silent streets; the palaces still standing perfect and entire
amidst the ruined dwellings of the people; with the fountains and the
magnificent gardens, wherein the pomegranates and the jessamine have
grown for centuries. The whole scene is of imposing grandeur; and the
hand of time has fallen so lightly upon it that one might take it for a
town very recently deserted by its inhabitants, or one of the enchanted
cities of Sinbad the Sailor.
The _bigarri_,[1] whom we had taken with us from the village of
Sikri, conducted us to a bungalow which is maintained by the English
Government for the accommodation of travellers. This bungalow, which
was once the ancient _kutchery_[2] of Akbar, is built of red
sandstone, and surrounded by a beautiful verandah supported by columns.
It is situated on the northern extremity of the plateau, and overlooks
the town on one side and the front of the zenanah on the other. An
old Sepoy is placed in charge of the edifice, which contains two
comfortably furnished apartments.
The foundations of Futtehpore, “the Town of Victory,” were laid by
Akbar in 1571, and the ramparts, city, and palace were all completed
with extraordinary rapidity. Akbar was attracted to this desert by the
sanctity of a Mussulman Anchorite, Selim Shisti, who inhabited one of
the caverns on the hill. Attracted by the situation, he built himself
a palace, and finally, being unwilling to give up the society of the
holy man, he resolved to establish there the capital of his empire. In
a few years this desert spot was transformed into a large and populous
city; but the death of Selim soon put an end to this prosperity. Akbar
then saw the folly of trying to place his capital in the midst of
these sterile plains, unapproached by any of the great rivers, more
especially as he possessed the unusually favourable situation of Agra.
His resolution was promptly taken. In 1584, he abandoned Futtehpore
with all its grandeur, and carried off the whole population to
people his new capital of Agra. The evacuation was complete; none of
the successors of Akbar cared to carry out his foolish project, and
very soon the only inhabitants of Futtehpore were wild animals and
a few anchorites. One is almost tempted to think that Akbar built
Futtehpore for the sole purpose of giving posterity some idea of his
greatness in leaving this monument of his capricious fancy.
[Illustration: FUTTEHPORE-SIKRI, INDIA.]
The fame of Selim still attracts thousands of pilgrims to his tomb,
where they assemble at certain seasons of the year; and, to supply
the wants of these devotees, two villages have sprung up on the site
of the deserted town, one called Futtehpore, and the other Sikri; and
it is by this double appellation of Futtehpore-Sikri that the ruins
are generally known. Apart from their beauty, which all must admire,
they are of special interest to the archæologist as being the work of
a single individual, and therefore a perfect specimen of the style of
architecture of his epoch. From their marvellous state of preservation,
you can trace, step by step, the mode of life of the great Akbar, and
can form a just idea of Indian manners and customs in the Sixteenth
Century. Everything still breathes of the magnificence of that
Eastern Court the fame of which was carried to Europe by contemporary
travellers, whose tales were looked upon as fables, and the wealth
and splendour of which excited later the avarice and cupidity of the
Western nations.
The tomb of Selim, the imperial palace, and some of the dwellings of
the Mogul grandees are almost entire. They form a compact group, one
mile in length, which occupies the summit of a hill 180 feet high. This
hill furnished the whole of the material of which they are built, which
is a fine sandstone, varying from purple to rose colour. The stone has
been left unornamented throughout; but the architects have avoided the
monotony of the colour by artistically arranging its various tints. The
mass is now softened by time; and one of its chief beauties is this
mellow colouring, which blends ground and building in one, making the
latter appear as though carved out of the peaks of the mountain.
The imperial palace lies to the east of the tomb. It is a vast
collection of separate buildings connected by galleries and courtyards,
and covering an area at least equal to that occupied by the Louvre and
the Tuileries.
The first building you come to on leaving the tomb used to contain
the private apartments of the emperor. It now goes by the name of
_tapili_, or guard-house, from the fact of its being inhabited by
the handful of soldiers who are employed to keep off marauders from
the ruins. The palace is built with great simplicity, its exterior
being nothing but a blank wall, with a small court in its centre, into
which the galleries on the different stories open. On one side is a
colonnade, profusely ornamented in the Hindoo style; this was the
verandah of the apartment of Akbar’s favourite wife, and the mother of
Jehanghir: and at the end of an open space which extends in front of
the palace is the _kutchery_, now converted into a bungalow for
travellers.
A ruined gallery leads from the _tapili_ to the Imperial zenanah,
which is surrounded by a high wall. Each princess was allotted a
separate palace in this enclosure, with its own gardens, etc.,
constructed according to her own taste and wishes. The first of these
was the palace of the Queen Mary, a Portuguese lady whom Akbar had
espoused; in the apartments of which are numerous frescoes, amongst
others one representing the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary. It is
a matter of surprise to find a Mussulman prince, in the Sixteenth
Century, with such tolerant views as to allow in his palace a thing so
opposed to the principles of his religion; but it does not astonish
one in such an enlightened man as the great Akbar. Wishing to put
an end forever to the subjects of discord which divided the nations
of his empire, he devised the plan of creating a new religion which
should unite the sympathies of all. For this purpose he assembled a
general council which was attended by the priests of all the religious
denominations of India, and even by some of the Christian missionaries
from Goa; and to them he submitted his project: but nothing resulted
from the discussion. In spite of this the emperor compiled a voluminous
work on the different religions of the world, viz., Christianity,
Judaism, Islamism, and the various Hindoo sects, in which he displayed
very liberal and enlightened views.
From the palace of Queen Mary you enter a court, surrounded by
apartments, and almost entirely occupied by a basin of vast dimensions,
in the centre of which is an island built on a terrace, and reached
by four stone foot-bridges. At the extremity of this court, there is
a pavilion, the walls and pillars of which are enriched with fine
sculptures; its rooms overlooking on one side the ornamental tank, and
on the other a garden still ornamented with shrubberies and fine trees.
This was the abode of one of Akbar’s wives, the Roumi Sultani, daughter
of one of the Sultans of Constantinople.
On a high terrace, to the right of this palace, is the emperor’s
sleeping-apartment; the ground-floor containing a spacious hall with
sculptured columns, which is half filled up with rubbish.
On the west of the zenanah, rises a fanciful construction, called
_Pânch Mahal_--“the Five Palaces,”--which consists of four
terraces, supported by galleries rising one above another, and
gradually diminishing in size towards the top, where they terminate in
a dome sustained by four columns. It resembles the half of a pyramid,
and has a very curious effect. The thirty-five pillars which support
the second terrace are all different, comprising almost every style
and some very remarkable specimens of original architecture. It is a
valuable architectural collection. There has been much discussion as to
the design of the building, since the open galleries could not possibly
have been intended for habitation. Its position against the walls of
the zenanah, the interior of which it overlooks and communicates with,
leads to the supposition that it was assigned to the eunuchs; but in
any case it was a fanciful idea of the architect. In the little court
which surrounds the _Pânch Mahal_ are some very curious detached
buildings for the accommodation of the servants of the harem. The
architect evidently wished to give them an appearance most befitting
their use; and, as there was no wood at his disposal, he minutely
copied in stone those light constructions which serve in the palaces
of India as a shelter for the lower servants. The roof, formed of
slabs of stone, is carved to imitate thatch, and is supported by the
same net-work of beams which would be used for a lighter material than
sandstone. In a word, they are sheds built of sculptured stone.
After passing through the galleries of the _Pânch Mahal_, you come
out upon the principal court of the palace, called the Court of the
Pucheesee; on one side of which are the walls of the zenanah, and on
the other the apartments of the ministers and the audience-chambers.
Pucheesee is a game of great antiquity, which the Indians have always
been passionately fond of; and it is played with pawns on chess-boards
greatly resembling those used in Europe. There are four players, with
four pawns apiece; and the moves are regulated by throwing the dice,
the object being to get your four pawns into the centre of the board.
The game of pucheesee was played by Akbar in a truly regal manner; the
court itself, divided into red and white squares, being the board, and
an enormous stone, raised on four feet, representing the central point.
It was here that Akbar and his courtiers played this game; sixteen
young slaves from the harem, wearing the players’ colours, themselves
represented the pieces, and moved to the squares according to the
throw of the dice. It is said that the emperor took such a fancy to
playing the game on this grand scale that he had a court for pucheesee
constructed in all his palaces; and traces of such are still visible
at Agra[3] and Allahabad.
To the north of this court and on the same side as the _Pânch
Mahal_ is a palace, built with great simplicity, and in such a
good state of preservation that you might mistake it for a modern
building. One wing is a perfect labyrinth of corridors and passages, in
which the ladies of the Court amused themselves with their favourite
games of “aukh-matchorli,” or blind-man’s-buff, and hide-and-seek;
and before it rises a kiosk of Hindoo architecture, called the
_Gooroo-ka-Mundil_, “Temple of the Mendicant.” The emperor, in
order to show his regard for the religion of the majority of his
subjects, entertained at his Court a Gooroo, or religious mendicant
of the Saïva sect, and even had this temple built for him and his
co-religionists.
A little farther on and facing the zenanah is one of the most
beautiful buildings of Futtehpore, consisting of a graceful
pavilion of one story, surmounted by four light cupolas. This is the
_Dewani-Khas_, or Palace of the Council of State. The simplicity
of its outline, its square windows and handsome balcony, remind one
of our modern buildings. It is, however, quite in accordance with
the character of Akbar, who, as well in architecture as in religion
and government, never copied his predecessors. The interior of the
_Dewani-Khas_ is a large hall the whole height of the edifice,
in the centre of which is an enormous column of red sandstone, which
terminates at some distance from the ceiling in a large capital
magnificently sculptured. This capital forms a platform, encircled by
a light balustrade, from which diverge four stone bridges, leading to
four niches in the corners of the building; and a staircase hidden in
the wall leads to a secret corridor, which communicates with the niche.
It is one of the strangest fancies of the architect of Futtehpore.
On the occasion of a council being assembled, the emperor took his
place on the platform, his ministers occupying the niches; while the
ambassadors and other personages who were called into their presence
remained in the hall at the foot of the column, and were unable to
judge of the impression which their communication produced on the
council.
A long gallery, partly in ruins, leads from the _Dewani-Khas_ to
the _Dewani-Am_, or Palace of the Public Audiences. It is a small
building, one side of which overlooks the Court of the Pucheesee, and
the other a large court surrounded by colonnades.
The chronicler Aboul Fazel says that at certain hours the people were
admitted into this court. After the council the emperor repaired to the
_Dewani-Am_, where, after having put on his robes of state, he
seated himself on a tribune overlooking the court. Here he remained for
some time, inquiring into and redressing the grievances of the people,
and receiving the strangers who flocked to his court. According to
tradition, it was here that he received the Jesuits of Goa, who brought
him the leaves and seeds of tobacco; and it was at Futtehpore that
Hakim Aboul Futteh Ghilani, one of Akbar’s physicians, is supposed to
have invented the hookah, the pipe of India.
It would take too long to describe every part of this vast palace in
detail, for, besides what I have already noticed, there are the baths,
the mint, the barracks, and numerous other buildings, all in ruins.