Part 55 (1/2)
The Kutb Minar was, I think, more beyond my expectations than the Taj; first, because I had heard less of it; and secondly, because it stands as it were alone in India--there is absolutely no other tower in this Indian empire of ours.[15]
Large pillars have been cut out of single stones, and raised in different parts of India to commemorate the conquests of Hindoo princes, whose names no one was able to discover for several centuries, till an unpretending English gentleman of surprising talents and industry, Mr. James Prinsep, lately brought them to light by mastering the obsolete characters in which they and their deeds had been inscribed upon them.[16] These pillars would, however, be utterly insignificant were they composed of many stones. The knowledge that they are cut out of single stones, brought from a distant mountain, and raised by the united efforts of mult.i.tudes when the mechanical arts were in a rude state, makes us still view them with admiration.[17] But the single majesty of this Minar of Kutb-ud- din, so grandly conceived, so beautifully proportioned, so chastely embellished, and so exquisitely finished, fills the mind of the spectator with emotions of wonder and delight; without any such aid, he feels that it is among the towers of the earth what the Taj is among the tombs--something unique of its kind that must ever stand alone in his recollections.[18]
It is said to have taken forty-four years in building, and formed the left of two 'minars' of a mosque. The other 'minar' was never raised, but this has been preserved and repaired by the liberality of the British Government.[19] It is only 242 feet high, and 106 feet in circ.u.mference at the base. It is circular, and fluted vertically into twenty-seven semicircular and angular divisions. There are four balconies, supported upon large stone brackets, and surrounded with battlements of richly cut stone, to enable people to walk round the tower with safety. The first is ninety feet from the base, the second fifty feet further up, the third forty further; and the fourth twenty-four feet above the third. Up to the third balcony, the tower is built of fine, but somewhat ferruginous sandstone, whose surface has become red from exposure to the oxygen of the atmosphere. Up to the first balcony, the flutings are alternately semicircular and angular; in the second story they are all semicircular, and in the third all angular. From the third balcony to the top, the building is composed chiefly of white marble; and the surface is without the deep flutings. Around the first story there are five horizontal belts of pa.s.sages from the Koran, engraved in bold relief, and in the Kufic character. In the second story there are four, and in the third three. The ascent is by a spiral staircase within, of three hundred and eighty steps; and there are pa.s.sages from this staircase to the balconies, with others here and there for the admission of light and air.[20]
A foolish notion has prevailed among some people, over-fond of paradox, that this tower is in reality a Hindoo building, and not, as commonly supposed, a Muhammadan one. Never was paradox supported upon more frail, I might say absurd, foundations. They are these: 1st, that there is only one Minar, whereas there ought to have been two-- had the unfinished one been intended as the second, it would not have been, as it really is, larger than the first; 2nd, that other Minars seen in the present day either do not slope inward from the base up at all, or do not slope so much as this. I tried to trace the origin of this paradox, and I think I found it in a silly old 'muns.h.i.+' (clerk) in the service of the Emperor. He told me that he believed it was built by a former Hindoo prince for his daughter, who wished to wors.h.i.+p the rising sun, and view the waters of the Jumna from the top of it every morning.[21]
There is no other Hindoo building like, or of the same kind as this;[22] the ribbons or belts of pa.s.sages from the Koran are all in relief; and had they not been originally inserted as they are, the whole surface of the building must have been cut down to throw them out in bold relief. The slope is the peculiar characteristic of all the architecture of the Pathans, by whom the church to which this tower belongs was built.[23] Nearly all the arches of the church are still standing in a more or less perfect state, and all correspond in design, proportion, and execution to the tower. The ruins of the old Hindoo temples about the place, and about every other place in India, are totally different in all three; here they are all exceedingly paltry and insignificant, compared with the church and its tower, and it is evident that it was the intention of the founder to make them appear so to future generations of the faithful, for he has taken care to make his own great work support rather than destroy them, that they might for ever tend to enhance its grandeur.[24] It is sufficiently clear that the unfinished minar was commenced upon too large a scale, and with too small a diminution of the circ.u.mference from the base upwards. It is two-fifths larger than the finished tower in circ.u.mference, and much more perpendicular. Finding these errors when they had got some thirty feet from the foundation, the founder, Shams-ud-din (iltutmish), began to work anew, and had he lived a little longer, there is no doubt that he would have raised the second tower in its proper place, upon the same scale as the one completed. His death was followed by several successive revolutions; five sovereigns succeeded each other on the throne of Delhi in ten years.[25] As usual on such occasions, works of peace were suspended, and succeeding sovereigns sought renown in military enterprise rather than in building churches. This church was entire, with the exception of the second minar, when Tamerlane invaded India.[26] He took back a model of it with him to Samarkand, together with all the masons he could find at Delhi, and is said to have built a church upon the same plan at that place, before he set out for the invasion of Syria.
The west face of the quadrangle, in which the tower stands, formed the church, which consisted of eleven large arched alcoves, the centre and largest of which contained the pulpit. In size and beauty they seem to have corresponded with the Minar, but they are now all in ruins.[27] In the front of the centre of these alcoves stands the metal pillar of the old Hindoo sovereign of Delhi, Prithi Raj, across whose temple all the great mosque, of which this tower forms a part, was thrown in triumph. The ruins of these temples he scattered all round the place, and consist of colonnades of stone pillars and pedestals, richly enough carved with human figures, in att.i.tudes rudely and obscenely conceived. The small pillar is of bronze, or a metal which resembles bronze, and is softer than bra.s.s, and of the same form precisely as that of the stone pillar at Eran, on the Bina river in Malwa, upon which stands the figure of Krishna, with the glory around his head.[28]
It is said that this metal pillar was put down through the earth, so as to rest upon the very head of the snake that supports the world; and that the sovereign who made it, and fixed it upon so firm a basis, was told by his spiritual advisers that his dynasty should last as long as the pillar remained where it was. Anxious to see that the pillar was really where the priests supposed it to be, that his posterity might be quite sure of their position, Prithi Raj had it taken up, and he found the blood and some of the flesh of the snake's head adhering to the bottom. By this means the charm was broken, and the priests told him that he had destroyed all the hopes of his house by his want of faith in their a.s.surances. I have never met a Hindoo that doubted either that the pillar was really upon this snake's head, or that the king lost his crown by his want of faith in the a.s.surance of his priests. They all believe that the pillar is still stuck into the head of the great snake, and that no human efforts of the present day could remove it. On my way back to my tents, I asked the old Hindoo officer of my guard, who had gone with me to see the metal pillar, what he thought of the story of the pillar?
'What the people relate about the ”kili” (pillar) having been stuck into the head of the snake that supports the world, sir, is nothing more than a simple _historical_ fact known to everybody. Is it not so, my brothers?' turning to the Hindoo sipahis and followers around us, who all declared that no fact could ever be better established.
'When the Raja,' continued the old soldier, 'had got the pillar fast into the head of the snake, he was told by his chief priest that his dynasty must now reign over Hindustan for ever. ”But,” said the Raja, ”as all seems to depend upon the pillar being on the head of the snake, we had better see that it is so with our own eyes.” He ordered it to be taken up; the clergy tried to dissuade him, but all in vain.
Up it was taken--the flesh and blood of the snake were found upon it- -the pillar was replaced; but a voice was heard saying: ”Thy want of faith hath destroyed thee--thy reign must soon end, and with it that of thy race.”'
I asked the old soldier from whence the voice came.
He said this was a point that had not, he believed, been quite settled. Some thought it was from the serpent himself below the earth, others that it came from the high priest or some of his clergy. 'Wherever it came from,' said the old man, 'there is no doubt that G.o.d decreed the Raja's fall for his want of faith; and fall he did soon after.' All our followers concurred in this opinion, and the old man seemed quite delighted to think that he had had an opportunity of delivering his sentiments upon so great a question before so respectable an audience.
The Emperor Shams-ud-din iltutmish is said to have designed this great Muhammadan church at the suggestion of Khwaja Kutb-ud-din, a Muhammadan saint from ush in Persia, who was his religious guide and apostle, and died some sixteen years before him.[29] His tomb is among the ruins of this old city. Pilgrims visit it from all parts of India, and go away persuaded that they shall have all they have asked, provided they have given or promised liberally in a pure spirit of faith in his influence with the Deity. The tomb of the saint is covered with gold brocade, and protected by an awning--those of the Emperors around it he naked and exposed. Emperors and princes lie all around him; and their tombs are entirely disregarded by the hundreds that daily prostrate themselves before his, and have been doing so for the last six hundred years.[30] Among the rest I saw here the tomb of Mu'azzam, alias Bahadur Shah, the son and successor of Aurangzeb, and that of the blind old Emperor Shah Alam, from whom the Honourable Company got their Diwani grant.[31] The gra.s.s grows upon the slab that covers the remains of Mu'azzam, the most learned, most pious, and most amiable, l believe, of the crowned descendants of the great Akbar. These kings and princes all try to get a place as near as they can to the remains of such old saints, believing that the ground is more holy than any other, and that they may give them a lift on the day of resurrection. The heir apparent to the throne of Delhi visited the tomb the same day that I did. He was between sixty and seventy years of age.[32]
I asked some of the attendants of the tomb, on my way back, what he had come to pray for; and was told that no one knew, but every one supposed it was for the death of the Emperor, his father, who was only fifteen years older, and was busily engaged in promoting an intrigue at the instigation of one of his wives, to oust him, and get one of her sons, Mirza Salim, acknowledged as his successor by the British Government. It was the Hindoo festival of the Basant,[33] and all the avenues to the tomb of this old saint were crowded when I visited it. Why the Muhammadans crowded to the tomb on a Hindoo holiday I could not ascertain.
The Emperor iltutmish, who died A.D. 1235, is buried close behind one end of the arched alcove, in a beautiful tomb without its cupola. He built the tomb himself, and left orders that there should be no 'parda' (screen) between him and heaven; and no dome was thrown over the building in consequence. Other great men have done the same, and their tombs look as if their domes had fallen in; they think the way should be left clear for a start on the day of resurrection.[34] The church is stated to have been added to it by the Emperor Balban, and the Minar finished.[35] About the end of the seventeenth century, it was so shaken by an earthquake that the two upper stories fell down.
Our Government, when the country came into our possession, undertook to repair these two stories, and entrusted the work to Captain Smith, who built up one of stone, and the other of wood, and completed the repairs in three years. The one was struck by lightning eight or nine years after, and came down. If it was anything like the one that is left, the lightning did well to remove it.[36]
About five years ago, while the Emperor was on a visit to the tomb of Kutb-ud-din, a madman got into his private apartments. The servants were ordered to turn him out. On pa.s.sing the Minar he ran in, ascended to the top, stood a few minutes on the verge, laughing at those who were running after him, and made a spring that enabled him to reach the bottom, without touching the sides. An eye-witness told me that he kept his erect position till about half-way down, when he turned over, and continued to turn till he got to the bottom, when his fall made a report like a gun. He was of course dashed to pieces. About five months ago another fell over by accident, and was dashed to pieces against the sides. A new road has been here cut through the tomb of the Emperor Ala-ud-din, who murdered his father- in-law-the first Muhammadan conqueror of Southern India, and his remains have been scattered to the winds.[37]
A very pretty marble tomb, to the west of the alcoves, covers the remains of Imam Mashhadi, the religious guide of the Emperor Akbar; and a magnificent tomb of freestone covers those of his four foster- brothers. This was long occupied as a dwelling-house by the late Mr.
Blake, of the Bengal Civil Service, who was lately barbarously murdered at Jaipur. To make room for his dining-tables he removed the marble slab, which covered the remains of the dead, from the centre of the building, against the urgent remonstrance of the people, and threw it carelessly on one side against the wall, where it now lies.
The people appealed in vain, it is said, to Mr. Fraser, the Governor- General's representative, who was soon after a.s.sa.s.sinated; and a good many attribute the death of both to this outrage upon the remains of the dead foster-brother of Akbar. Those of Ala-ud-din were, no doubt, older and less sensitive. Tombs equally magnificent cover the remains of the other three foster-brothers of Akbar, but I did not enter them.[38]
Notes:
1. The Sultan, called by the author 'the Emperor Tughlak the First', as being the first of the Tughlak dynasty, was by birth a Karauniah Turk, named Ghazi Beg Tughlak. He a.s.sumed the style of Ghiyas-ud-din Tughlak Shah when he seized the throne in A.D. 1320, and he reigned till A.D. 1325.
2. This gigantic fortress is close to the village of Badarpur, about four miles due east of the Kutb Minar, and ten or twelve miles south of the modern city. The building of it occupied more than three years, but the whole undertaking 'proved eminently futile, as his son removed his Court to the old city within forty days after his accession.' (Thomas, _Chronicles of the Pathan Kings of Delhi_, 1871, p. 192.) The fort is described by Cunningham in _A.S.R._, vol. i, p.
212, whose description is copied in the guide-books. See also Fanshawe, _Delhi Past and Present_ (John Murray, 1902), p. 288 and plate. That work is cited as 'Fanshawe'.
3. Also called Adilabad. It is described in _A.S.R._, vol. i, p. 21; Carr Stephen, _The Archaeology and Monumental Remains of Delhi_, Ludhiana, 1876, p. 98; and Fanshawe, p. 291.
4. '_The Barber's House_. This lies to the right of the road from Tughlakabad to Badarpur, and is close to the ruined city. It is said to have been built for Tughlak Shah's barber about A.D. 1323. It is now a mere ruin.' (Harcourt, _The New Guide to Delhi_, Allahabad, 1866, p. 88.)
5. This fine tomb was built by Muhammad bin Tughlak (A.D. 1325-51).
It is described by Cunningham in _A.S.R._, vol. i, p. 213. See also _Ann. Rep. A. S., India_, 1904-5, p. 19, fig. 11; _H.F.A._, p. 397, fig. 234; and Fanshawe, p. 290, with plate. Thomas (_Chronicles_, p.
192) and Cunningham both say that the causeway, or viaduct, has twenty-seven, not only twenty-five, arches, as stated in the text.
The causeway is 600 feet in length. The sloping walls are characteristic of the period.