DELHI AND AGRA.
The train rushes over an iron girder bridge, crossing the Jumna, into
Delhi. There are sandy flats and bits of garden by the river-side, and
then the great red-sandstone walls of the fort, 30 or 40 feet high,
surmounted by remnants of the old white marble palace of Shah Jehan,
looking out eastward over the great plain. Here are the Pearl Mosque--a
little pure white shrine--the Shah’s private audience hall, the zenana
apartments, and the royal baths, still standing. The women’s apartments
are certainly lovely. White and polished marble floor and marble walls
inlaid with most elegant floral and arabesque designs in mosaics of
colored stones, and in gold; with marble screens of rich lace-like
open work between the apartments and the outer world; and a similarly
screened balcony jutting over the fort wall--through which the river
and the great plains beyond are seen shimmering in the heat. The
private audience hall is of like work--a sort of open portico supported
on some twenty marble columns, with marble floor and rich mosaic
everywhere (see illustration), and the baths the same. Indeed the old
Shah with his fifty queens must have had some high old times in these
baths--one for himself, one for the queens, and one for his children,
all opening conveniently into each other.
Behind the fort used to be the densest part of the city; but after the
Mutiny this was cleared away, and now an open space extends from the
fort walls up to the Jumma Mosque and the present Delhi.
[Illustration: DEWAN KHAS, OR AUDIENCE HALL, IN PALACE AT DELHI.]
A large city of narrow alleys and courtyards--here and there a broad
tree-planted avenue with disheveled little two-storey houses on each
hand, and occasional banks, hotels, and offices. Crowds of people. A
finer-looking race than southwards--more of the Mahomedan element--and
about the Hindus themselves more fling and romance and concreteness;
some handsome faces, verging a little towards the Greek or Italian
types--but looking fine with their dark skins. I suppose that in the
Punjaub the men are finer and taller still, and look down a little
on the folk at Delhi. Cows and brahman bulls throng the streets, and
come out of courtyards in the mid-city. Some of these bulls are public
property, belong to no individual and live on the highways and mingle
with the herds of cows. When they want food they go into the market,
and the Hindus feed them with their hands.
The Jumma Mosque is the first large mosque I have seen in India, but I
am a little disappointed with it. These Indian mosques differ a little
from the Turkish--being quite open to sun and sky. The idea seems to
be, first a large open square, 100 feet across, or 100 yards, or more,
paved with marble if possible, with a tank in the middle for worshipers
to wash their feet in, and an arcade round three sides, very likely
open-work of stone, with fine gateways in each side--and on the fourth
side a sort of very handsome portico, with its floor raised above the
general court, and surmounted by three domes. Right and left of the
portico stand the two tall minarets. To be perfect the whole should be
of white polished marble inlaid with arabesques and scriptures from
the Koran. One of the main points is the absolute purity of the place.
There is nothing whatever under the portico--no likeness of beast or
bird--only three recesses in which one might fairly expect to see an
altar or an image, a flight of three steps on which the reader stands
to read the Koran, and that is all. Attendants continually dust the
whole courtyard with cloths to keep it clean.
From a distance the effect of the domes, the minarets, the open-work
of the arcade, the handsome gateways, and the little kiosks is very
attractive; but within one misses something. It seems as if the portico
ought to open back on a vast interior; but it doesn’t. There is no
mysterious gloom anywhere--not a cranny for a hobgoblin even. There is
no nice Virgin Mary in the niches, or nasty gurgoyle on the angles,
no meditative Buddha or terrifying Kali with necklace of skulls, no
suggestion of companionship human or divine, no appeal to sense. It
doesn’t give one a chance of even having a make-believe god. How
different from Hinduism with its lingams and sexual symbols deified in
the profound gloom of the temple’s innermost recess!
[Illustration: THE JUMMA MOSQUE, DELHI.]
What an extraordinary region is this to the south and west of Delhi--a
huge waste sprinkled with the ruins of six or seven previous Delhis!
Emperors in those days had a cheerful way--when they thought they
had found a securer or more convenient site--of calmly removing a
whole city from its old location. Now you pass through an arid land,
here and there green with crops, but running up into stony ridges
and mounds, and dotted with ruins as far as the eye can see. Stumpy
domes of decayed mosques in every direction looming against the sky,
mere lumps of brickwork, now turned into barns and farmyards, or with
herds of goats sheltering from the sun beneath their arches--the land
in some parts fairly covered with loose stones, remnants of countless
buildings. Here and there, among some foliage, you see a great mosque
tomb in better preservation--kept up by the Government--that of Safdar
Jung, for instance, who died 1753, Akbar’s Vizier, or of the Emperor
Humayoun, or the marble shrine of the poet Khusro. Along the roads go
bullock-carts of all kinds, some with curtains to them, concealing
women folk; and camels with loads of grass, and donkeys with huge
panniers of cowdung; and by the wayside are ash trees and peepul trees,
and wells worked by brahman cows drawing up water in huge skins.
Eleven miles south of Delhi stands the great Kutab Minar, a huge tower
240 feet high and 50 feet diameter at its base--tapering through five
storeys to its summit, which unfortunately has lost its four-columned
watch-turret and has only now a wretched iron rail--a kind of multiple
column breaking out into a sort of scroll-work capital at each
landing--not very beautiful, but impressive in its lonely vastness.
The twin column or _minar_--hardly to be called a minaret--was never
finished; its base alone stands to a height of 40 or 50 feet. Between
them lie the remains of a handsome mosque, and _within_ the courtyard
of the mosque the columned arcades of an ancient Hindu temple; while
the whole group stands within the lines of the old Hindu fortress
of Lalkab built about A.D. 1060. The mosque and minar were built
by Kutab-ud-din about 1200 A.D.; but the Hindu temple is no doubt
considerably older. Within the latter stands the celebrated iron pillar
(22 feet high above ground--and said to be an equal depth below the
surface--by 16 inches diameter at base)--whose construction at that
early date is somewhat of a puzzle. It evidently is not a casting, but
hammered. It is of pure iron, and was probably, I should say, welded
to these huge dimensions piece by piece. A Sanskrit inscription on it,
recording a victory over the Bahilkas near the seven mouths of the
Indus, fixes its date at A.D. 360–400.
This huge Kutab Minar is supposed to have been built as a kind of
glorification of the triumph of Mahomedanism over Hinduism; but now
from its top one looks out over a strange record of arid lands and
deserted cities--both Mahomedan and Hindu--fortified places built one
after another in succession and razed to the ground or deserted. The
circles of their old walls are still however mostly traceable. One of
these, which was called Toglakabad, and was destroyed by Tamerlane
in 1398, lies to the south-east. Another, which the English call the
old Fort, and which lies nearer Delhi, I visited on my way back to
the city. Like most of the villages it stands on an eminence composed
of the _débris_ of former habitations. The walls, 40 feet high, of
this little fortress, whose irregular sides are none of them probably
much more than a quarter of a mile in length, are very rude but
bold stonework, and command a dry ditch. Within there are now only
a hundred or so mud huts, and a red-sandstone mosque of rather good
appearance--from the terrace of which you look out over the Jumna and
see the minarets of the present city only three or four miles off.
Owing however to the dust flying in the air the views were by no means
very clear.
_Agra._--The fort here is quite on the same lines as that at Delhi,
but of earlier date--built by Akbar in 1566 or so--and even finer in
conception. There is indeed something very grand about this bold stern
and practical Mahomedan structure with its lofty seventy-foot walls
and solid gateway of red sandstone, surmounted by the glitter of the
marble and gilt-roofed domes and arcades and terraces which formed the
royal palace within. All these buildings of the royal palace, like
the Taj and other monuments, are now kept and repaired by the British
Government, and with tender care, and are open for visitors to walk
through at their own sweet will--subject to the trivial importunities
of a few guides. One may wander for a whole day through the many courts
of the palace at Agra and keep finding fresh beauties and interest.
After one guide has been exhausted and paid off the others leave one
respectfully alone, and one may sit down in the lovely arcade of the
Dewan Khas, or in the canopied balcony called the Jessamine Tower,
and enjoy the shade and coolness of the marble, or the sight of the
brilliant landscape between the arches--the river banks and the busy
folk washing themselves and their linen--or study the beautiful floral
mosaics upon walls and columns, at one’s leisure.
[Illustration: PERFORATED MARBLE SCREEN IN PALACE AT DELHI.]
In marble and mosaic it is impossible to imagine anything more
elegant than the Mahomedan work of this period--as illustrated by
numbers of buildings--the brilliant coloring and richness of inlaid
stone in coral, agate, jade, bloodstone, turquoise, lapis-lazuli,
or what not; the grace of running leaf and flower; the marble
reliefs--whole plants--in panels, the lily or the tulip or the oleander
conventionalised--one of the most beautiful in the Dewan Khas being a
design of the tomato plant; and then the inimitable open-work screens
(often out of one great slab of stone)--of intricately balanced yet
transparently simple designs--some in the zenana apartments here
almost as elaborate as lacework; and the care and finish with which
they have all been wrought and fitted. It was from this fort and among
these arcades and balconies that 500 English during the early days of
the Mutiny watched the clouds of flame and smoke going up from their
burning homes.
* * * * *
Here at Agra I find myself as usual at least an hour’s walk from
the native city, measuring by milestones--but how far I am from any
possibility of converse with the people there, considering that I
cannot speak their language, that they bow to the ground if I only look
at them, and that my view of _noblesse oblige_ as a Britisher should
forbid my associating freely with them, is more than I can calculate.
To go and see the Taj Mehul is easy: enough; but to explore what lies
behind some of these faces that I see on the road--beautiful as they
are, something more wonderful than even the Taj itself--is indeed
difficult. All this is very trying to people of democratic tendencies;
but perhaps it will be said that such people ought not to visit India,
at any rate under its present conditions.
One must I suppose console oneself with the Taj. I saw it for a few
brief minutes this evening under the magic conditions of deep twilight.
I was standing in the middle of the garden which opens like a lovely
park in front of the tomb. Cypresses and other trees hid its base;
the moonlight was shining very tenderly and faintly on the right of
the great white building; and on its left a touch of the blush of
sunset still lingered on the high dome. The shadows and recesses and
alcoves were folded as it were in the most delicate blue mist; the four
minarets were (in the doubtful light) hardly visible; and in the heart
of the shrine, through the marble lacework of doors and screens, was
seen the yellow glow of the lights which burn perpetually there.
[Illustration: THE TAJ, AT AGRA.]
I think this is the best point of view. The garden foliage hides the
square platform on which the Taj stands--which platform with its four
commonplace minarets is an ugly feature, and looks too obtrusively like
a table turned upside down. Indeed the near view of the building is not
altogether pleasing to me. The absolute symmetry of the four sides,
which are identical even down to the mosaic designs, and the abrupt
right angles of the base give the thing a very artificial look. But the
inlaid work of colored and precious stones--only to be seen on a near
view--is of course perfect.
The Taj stands on a terrace which falls perpendicular into the Jumna
river (behind the building in the above illustration). A mile and a
half away to the west lies the sombre line of the fort walls crowned
with the marble kiosks and minarets of the royal palace. A mile or
two beyond that again lies the city of Agra, with one or two spires
of English churches or colleges; while to the east the lovely tomb
looks out over a wild ravine land, bare and scarred, which suggests a
landscape in the moon as much as anything.
In the daytime the ornamental garden of which I have spoken, with its
gay flowers, and water-tanks, and children at play, sets off the chaste
beauty of the building; while the reflected lights from the marble
platform, with their creamy tints, and blue in the shadows, give an
added aerial charm. The thing certainly stands solid as though it would
last for centuries--and might have been built yesterday for any sign
of decay about it. Indeed I was startled--as if my own thoughts had
been echoed--when I heard a voice behind me say in good English, “This
is rather a different style from your English jerry-building is it
not?”--and looking round saw a somewhat jerry-built native youth, whose
style showed that he came from one of the great commercial centres,
saluting me in these mocking tones.
The small green parrots (the same that one commonly sees in cages
in England) which are common all over India, and which haunt the Taj
here and its garden, billing and chattering close by one, are quite a
feature of the place; their flight, with the long tail straight behind,
is something like a cuckoo’s or a hawk’s. Occasionally one may see
a vulture perched upon some point of vantage looking down upon them
with an envious eye. In Delhi, walking through a crowded street, I
saw a kite swoop down and actually snatch something--some eatable I
think--out of a child’s hand a little in front of me. It then soared
up into the air, leaving the little one terrified and sobbing on a
doorstep.
This great river (the Jumna, and the Ganges the same) and the plain
through which it slowly winds have a great fascination for me--the long
reaches and sandy spurs, the arid steep banks and low cliffs catching
just now the last red light of sunset--here and there a little domed
building standing out on a promontory, with steps down to the water--or
a brown grass-woven tent on the sands below; the great vultures slowly
flapping hitherward through the fading light; a turtle splashing into
the water; the full moon mounting into the sky, though yet with subdued
glory, and already the twinkle of a light in a house here and there;
and on my right this great mountain of marble catching the play of all
the heavenly radiances.
She must have been very beautiful, that queen-wife “the crown of the
palace,” to have inspired and become the soul of a scene like this; or
very lovely in some sense or other--for I believe she was already the
mother of eight children when she died. But indeed it does not matter
much about external or conventional beauty; wherever there is true love
there is felt to be something so lovely that all symbols, all earth’s
shows, are vain to give utterance to it. Certainly if anything could
stand for the living beauty of a loved creature, it might be this dome
pulsating with all the blushes and radiances of the sky, which makes a
greater dome above it.
Across the river, just opposite, you dimly distinguish the outline of
a vast platform--now mainly ploughed up and converted into fields--on
which the good Shah intended to have built a similar or twin tomb for
his own body; fortunately however he died long before this idea could
be carried out, and now he lies more appropriately by the side of his
loved one in the vocal gloom of that lofty interior.
“You say we Mahomedans do not respect our women, yet where in all
Europe can you point out a monument to a woman, equal to this?” said
Syed Mahmoud triumphantly to me one day. And then one remembers that
this precious monument (like so many others that the world is proud of)
was made by the forced and famine labor of 20,000 workmen working for
seventeen years--and one thinks, “What about them and _their_ wives?”
* * * * *
Called on a coterie of professors connected with the university college
at Agra--A. C. Bose, who is professor of mathematics; Gargaris,
professor of physics; Nilmani Dhar, law lecturer; and A. C. Bannerji,
judge of small cause court--an intelligent and interesting lot of
fellows. I found Bose reading a book on Quaternions; when he learnt
that I had known W. K. Clifford at Cambridge he was much interested,
and wanted to hear all about him--has read his book on “The Common
Sense of the Exact Sciences,” and was interested in the theory of
“crumpled space” and the fourth dimension. They told me a good deal
about family communism as it exists among the Bengalis, and spoke
rather feelingly of its drawbacks--in respect of the incubus of poor
relations, etc. They also asked some questions--rather touching--about
sending their sons to study in England, and what treatment they might
expect at the hands of the English at home--“if it were the same as we
receive here, we would never consent to send our sons.” Of course I
assured them that their reception in England would be perfectly cordial
and friendly. At the same time I said that they must not think ill of
the English people generally because of the unfortunate gulf existing
between the two races in India; because after all the officials and
Anglo-Indians generally--though an honorable body--could not be taken
to represent the whole people of England, but only a small section;
and that as a matter of fact the masses of the people in England made
much the same complaint against the moneyed and ruling sections there,
namely, that they were wanting in good manners. Bannerji asked me if I
saw the Lieut.-Governor (Sir A. Colvin) at Allahabad, and I said that
I had had some conversation with him, and that I thought him a man of
marked ability and culture, and probably having more liberality in his
real opinions than his natural reserve and caution would allow him to
give rein to.
Gargaris is a big-headed logical-minded slowish man who inquired much
after the Positivists, and apparently thinks much of them--being indeed
of that type himself. Nilmani Dhar seemed very enthusiastic about the
Brahmo Somaj, which I cannot say I feel any interest in. He is of
course a Theist, but most of the folk now-a-days who go in for Western
learning and ideas are Agnostics, and adopt the scientific materialism
of Huxley and Tyndall.
* * * * *
The men in the streets here--and I noticed the same at Nagpore--are
very handsome, many of them, with their large eyes and well-formed
noses, neither snub nor hooked, and short upper lips. With great
turbans (sometimes a foot high) on their heads, and fine moustaches,
they look quite martial; but like mermaids they end badly, for when you
look below you see two thinnest shins with little tight cotton leggings
round them, and bare feet. How they get these leggings on and off is a
question which I have not yet been able to solve. Anyhow I have come to
the conclusion about the Hindus generally that their legs are too thin
for them ever to do much in the world.
The people sitting by the hundred at all the railway stations in
this part of India, waiting for their trains, are quite a sight.
They congregate in large sheds or areas--hardly to be called waiting
_rooms_--reserved for this purpose; and whether it be that their notion
of time is so defective, or whether it be for the sake of society or of
rest or shelter that they come there, certain it is that at any hour
of day or night you may see these compacted crowds of thin-shanked
undemonstrative men, with wives and children, seated squatting on their
hams, talking or meditating or resigning themselves to sleep, as if the
arrival of their train was an event far remote, and of the very least
importance. They must however really enjoy this method of traveling,
for the third-class carriages are generally crowded with the poorer
natives. They squat on the seats in all attitudes, and berth-like seats
being let down overhead, they sometimes occupy these too--forming
two storeys of cross-legged mortals. The women and children have a
carriage to themselves--a fine exhibition generally of nose-rings
and ear-rings. It is the third class that pays; first and second are
only scantily used; the first by English alone, the second by mixed
English and higher class natives. Though the distances to be covered
by the traveling Englishman are generally large the conditions are not
uncomfortable. Journeys are made largely by night, for coolness; first
and second class are generally small saloons with couch-like seats; and
these couches with the berths available above generally allow of one’s
having a good stretch and a sound sleep.
Traveling second class one meets (though not always) with some pleasant
bivalves. As a specimen (and a favorable one) of the Young India that
is growing up under modern influences I may mention a railway goods
clerk who was my companion in the train between Nagpore and Bombay; a
very bright face with clear well-balanced expression, and good general
ability,--said he worked ten hours a day on the average, Rs. fifteen
a month, but would be raised next year; was leaving Nagpore district
because it was so out of the way--no papers, etc. “In Bombay you
knew what was going on all over the world. Why he had only heard of
Mr. Bradlaugh’s death yesterday--two months after date.” The English
rule was very good. “Under the Mahrattas you were liable any day to
have your goods stolen, but now there was general security, and peace
between the different peoples instead of dissension as there would be
if the English were to go”--a real nice fellow, and I felt quite sorry
when he left the train.
Later on the same evening, in the same train, a little incident
occurred which may be worth recording. I and another Englishman were
the sole occupants of the compartment; it was in fact near midnight,
and we were stretched on our respective couches, when our slumbers were
disturbed by the entrance of a family of four or five Parsees, among
whom were a lady and a child and an old gentleman of somewhat feeble
but refined appearance. Of course, though we were not disturbed, there
was a little conversation and discussion while couches were being
arranged and berths let down, etc.--till at last my fellow-countryman,
losing his little store of patience, rolled over among his rugs with
a growl: “I wish you would stop that chattering, _you Parsees_.” To
which, when they had settled themselves a bit, one of them replied,
“Please to sleep now, _Mr. Gentleman_.”