Part 58 (2/2)
4. The meaning of this sentence is obscure.
5. Corresponding to A.D. 1753-4. In the original edition the date is misprinted A.D. 1167.
6. The tomb of Mansur Ali Khan is better known as that of Safdar Jang, which was the honorary t.i.tle of the n.o.ble over whom the edifice was raised. He was the wazir, or chief minister, of the Emperor Ahmad Shah from 1748 to 1752, and was practically King of Oudh, where he had succeeded to the power of his father-in-law, the well-known Saadat Khan: Safdar Jang died in A.D. 1754 and was succeeded in Oudh by his son Shuja-ud-daula.
The author's praise of the beauty of Safdar Jang's tomb will seem extravagant to most critics. In the editor's judgement the building is a very poor attempt to imitate the inimitable Taj. Fergusson (ed.
1910, vol. ii, p. 324, pl. x.x.xiv) gives it the qualified praise that 'it looks grand and imposing at a distance, but it will not bear close inspection'. See Fanshawe, p. 246 and plate. In the original edition a coloured plate of this mausoleum is given.
7. Nizam-ud-din was the disciple of Farid-ud-din Ganj Shakar, so called from his look being sufficient to convert _cods of earth into lumps of sugar_. Farid was the disciple of Kutb-ud-din of Old Delhi, who was the disciple of Muin-ud-din of Ajmer, the greatest of all their saints. [W. H. S.] Muin-ud-din died A.D. 1236. For further particulars of the three saints see Beale, _Oriental Biographical Dictionary_, ed. Keene, 1894. Dr. Horn (_Ep. Ind._ ii, 145 n., 426 n.) gives information about the Persian biographies of Nizam-ud-din and other Chishti saints.
8. For the personal history of Nizam-ud-din see the last preceding chapter, [13]. His tomb is situated in a kind of cemetery, which also contains the tombs of the poet Khusru, the Princess Jahanara, and the Emperor Muhammad Shah, which will be noticed presently. Fanshawe (p.
236) gives a plan of the enclosure. Nizam-ud-din's tomb 'has a very graceful appearance, and is surrounded by a verandah of white marble, while a cut screen encloses the sarcophagus, which is always covered with a cloth. Round the gravestone runs a carved wooden guard, and from the four corners rise stone pillars draped with cloth, which support an angular wooden frame-work, and which has something the appearance of a canopy to a bed. Below this wooden canopy there is stretched a cloth of green and red, much the worse for wear. The interior of the tomb is covered with painted figures in Arabic, and at the head of the grave is a stand with a Koran. The marble screen is very richly cut, and the roof of the arcade-like verandah is finely painted in a flower pattern. Altogether there is a quaint look about the building which cannot fail to strike any one. A good deal of money has at various times been spent on this tomb; the dome was added to the roof in Akbar's time by Muhammad Imam-ud-din Hasan, and in the reign of Shah Jahan (A.D. 1628 [_sic., leg._ 1627]-58) the whole building was put into thorough repair. . . . The tomb is in the village of Ghyaspur, and is reached after pa.s.sing through the 'Chaunsath Khambha'. (Harcourt, _The New Guide to Delhi_ (1866), p.
107.)
In the original edition a small coloured ill.u.s.tration of this tomb, from a miniature, is given on Plate 24. Carr Stephen (pp. 102-7) gives a good and full account of Nizam-ud-din and his tomb.
9. According to Harcourt (p. 108), the tomb of Khusru was erected about A.D. 1350, but this is a misprint for 1530. The poet, whose proper name was Abul Hasan, is often called Amir Khusru, and was of Turkish origin. He was born A.D. 1253, and died in September, 1325.
His works are numerous. (Beale.) The grave, and wooden railing round it, were built in A.H. 937 (A.D. 1530-1). . . . The present tomb was built in A.H. 1014 (A.D. 1605-6) by Imad-ud-din Hasan, in the reign of Jahangir, and this date occurs in an inscription under the dome and over the red sandstone screens. (Carr Stephen, p. 115.) In the original edition a small coloured ill.u.s.tration of this tomb, from a miniature, is given on Plate 24. See Fanshawe, p. 241.
10. Akbar II, who died in 1837.
11. When the author was with his regiment, after the close of the Nepalese war.
12. Harcourt (p. 109) truly observes that this tomb 'is a most exquisite piece of workmans.h.i.+p. The tomb itself, raised some few feet from the ground, is entered by steps, and is enclosed in a beautiful cut marble screen, the sarcophagus being covered with a very artistic representation of leaves and flowers carved in marble. Mirza Jahangir was the son of Akbar II, and the tomb was built in A.D. 1832 '.
'He was, in consequence of having fired a pistol at Mr. Seton, the Resident at Delhi, sent as a State prisoner to Allahabad, where he resided in the garden of Sultan Khusro for several years, and died there in A.D. 1821 (A.H. 1236), aged thirty-one years; a salute of thirty-one guns was fired from the ramparts of the fort of Allahabad at the time of his burial. He was at first interred in the same garden, and subsequently his remains were transferred to Delhi, and buried in the courtyard of the mausoleum of Nizam-ud-din Aulia.'
(Beale, _Dictionary_.) The young man's 'overt act of rebellion'
occurred in 1808, and his body was removed to Delhi in 1832. The form of the monument is that ordinarily used for a woman, 'but it was put over the remains of the Prince on a dispensation being granted for the purpose by Muhammadan lawyers'. (Carr Stephen, p. 111.)
13. Muhammad Shah reigned feebly from September, 1719, to April, 1748. 'He is the last of the Mughals who enjoyed even the semblance of power, and has been called ”the seal of the house of Babar”, for ”after his demise everything went to wreck”.' (Lane-Poole, p.
x.x.xviii.) Nadir Shah occupied Delhi in 1738, and is said to have ma.s.sacred 120,000 people. The tomb is described by Carr Stephen, p.
110.
14. Jahanara Begam, or the Begam Sahib, was the elder daughter of Shahjahan, a very able intriguer, the partisan of Dara s.h.i.+koh and the opponent of Aurangzeb during the struggle for the throne. She was closely confined in Agra till her father's death in 1666. After that event she was removed to Delhi, where she died in 1682. (Tavernier, _Travels_, transl. Ball, vol. i, p. 345.) She built the Begam Sarai at Delhi. Her amours, real or supposed, furnished Bernier with some scandalous and sensational stories. (Bernier, _Travels_, transl.
Constable, and V. A. Smith (1914), pp. 11-14.) Some writers credit her with all the virtues, e.g., Beale in his _Oriental Biographical Dictionary_. The author has omitted the last line of the inscription- 'May G.o.d illuminate his intentions. In the year 1093 ', corresponding to A.D. 1682. The first line is, 'Let nothing but the green [gra.s.s]
conceal my grave.' (Carr Stephen, p. 109.)
15. The tomb of Humayun was erected by the Emperor's widow, Haji Begam, or Bega Begam, not by Akbar. She was the senior widow of Humayun, ent.i.tled Haji or 'pilgrim ', because she performed the pilgrimage to Mecca. Carr Stephen and other writers confound her with Hamida Banu Begam, the mother of Akbar. For her true history see Beveridge, _The History of Humayun by Gulbadan Begam_ (R.A.S., 1902).
Carr Stephen (p. 203) says that the mausoleum was completed in A.D.
1565, or, according to some, in A.D. 1569, at a coat of fifteen lakhs of rupees. The true date is A.D. 1570, late in A.H. 977 (Baduoui, tr.
Lowe, ii. 135). It is of special interest as being one of the earliest specimens of the architecture of the Moghal dynasty, The ma.s.sive dome of white marble is a landmark for many miles round. The body of the building is of red sandstone with marble decorations. It stands on two n.o.ble terraces. Humayun rests in the central hall under an elaborately carved marble sarcophagus. The head of Dara s.h.i.+koh and the bodies of many members of the royal family are interred in the side rooms. After the fall of Delhi in September, 1857, the rebel princes took refuge in this mausoleum. The story of their execution by Hodson on the road to Delhi is well known, and has been the occasion of much controversy.
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