Rambles and Recollections of an Indian Official by William Sleeman

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The mausoleum itself, the terrace upon which it stands, and the
minarets, are all formed of the finest white marble, inlaid with
precious stones. The wall around the quadrangle, including the river
face of the terrace, is made of red sandstone, with cupolas and
pillars of the same white marble. The insides of the churches and
apartments in and upon the walls are all lined with marble or with
stucco work that looks like marble; but, on the outside, the red
sandstone resembles uncovered bricks. The dazzling white marble of
the mausoleum itself rising over the red wall is apt, at first sight,
to make a disagreeable impression, from the idea of a whitewashed
head to an unfinished building; but this impression is very soon
removed, and tends, perhaps, to improve that which is afterwards
received from a nearer inspection. The marble was all brought from
the Jeypore territories upon wheeled carriages, a distance, I
believe, of two or three hundred miles; and the sandstone from the
neighbourhood of Dholpur and Fathpur Sikri.[16] Shah Jahan is said to
have inherited his partiality for this colour from his grandfather,
Akbar, who constructed almost all his buildings from the same stone,
though he might have had the beautiful white freestone at the same
cost. What was figuratively said of Augustus may be most literally
said of Shah Jahan; he found the cities (Agra and Delhi) all brick,
and left them all marble; for all the marble buildings, and additions
to buildings, were formed by him.[17]

This magnificent building and the palaces at Agra and Delhi were, I
believe, designed by Austin de Bordeaux, a Frenchman of great talent
and merit, in whose ability and integrity the Emperor placed much
reliance. He was called by the natives 'Ustan [_sic_] Isa, Nadir-ul-
asr', 'the wonderful of the age'; and, for his office of 'naksha
navis', or plan-drawer, he received a regular salary of one thousand
rupees a month, with occasional presents, that made his income very
large. He had finished the palace at Delhi, and the mausoleum and
palace of Agra; and was engaged in designing a silver ceiling for one
of the galleries in the latter, when he was sent by the Emperor to
settle some affairs of great importance at Goa. He died at Cochin on
his way back, and is supposed to have been poisoned by the
Portuguese, who were extremely jealous of his influence at court. He
left a son by a native, called Muhammad Sharif, who was employed as
an architect on a salary of five hundred rupees a month, and who
became, as I conclude from his name, a Musalman. Shah Jahan had
commenced his own tomb on the opposite side of the Jumna; and both
were to have been united by a bridge.[18] The death of Austin de
Bordeaux, and the wars between his [_scil._ Shah Jahan's] sons that
followed prevented the completion of these magnificent works.[19]

We were encamped upon a fine green sward outside the entrance to the
south, in a kind of large court, enclosed by a high cloistered wall,
in which all our attendants and followers found shelter. Colonel and
Mrs. King, and some other gentlemen, were encamped in the same place,
and for the same purpose; and we had a very agreeable party. The band
of our friend Major Godby's regiment played sometimes in the evening
upon the terrace of the Taj; but, of all the complicated music ever
heard upon earth, that of a flute blown gently in the vault below,
where the remains of the Emperor and his consort repose, as the sound
rises to the dome amidst a hundred arched alcoves around, and
descends in heavenly reverberations upon those who sit or recline
upon the cenotaphs above the vault, is, perhaps, the finest to an
inartificial car. We feel as if it were from heaven, and breathed by
angels; it is to the ear what the building itself is to the eye; but,
unhappily, it cannot, like the building, live in our recollections.
All that we can, in after life, remember is that it was heavenly, and
produced heavenly emotions.

We went all over the palace in the fort, a very magnificent building
constructed by Shah Jahan within fortifications raised by his
grandfather Akbar.[20]

The fretwork and mosaic upon the marble pillars and panels are equal
to those of the Taj; or, if possible, superior; nor is the design or
execution in any respect inferior, and yet a European feels that he
could get a house much more commodious, and more to his taste, for a
much less sum than must have been expended upon it. The Marquis of
Hastings, when Governor-General of India, broke up one of the most
beautiful marble baths of this palace to send home to George IV of
England, then Prince Regent, and the rest of the marble of the suite
of apartments from which it had been taken, with all its exquisite
fretwork and mosaic, was afterwards sold by auction, on account of
our Government, by order of the then Governor-General, Lord W.
Bentinck. Had these things fetched the price expected, it is probable
that the whole of the palace, and even the Taj itself, would have
been pulled down, and sold in the same manner.[21]

We visited the Moti Masjid or Pearl Mosque. It was built by Shah
Jahan, entirely of white marble; and completed, as we learn from an
inscription on the portico, in the year A.D. 1656.[22] There is no
mosaic upon any of the pillars or panels of this mosque; but the
design and execution of the flowers in bas-relief are exceedingly
beautiful. It is a chaste, simple, and majestic building;[23] and is
by some people admired even more than the Taj, because they have
heard less of it; and their pleasure is heightened by surprise. We
feel that it is to all other mosques what the Taj is to all other
mausoleums, a _facile princeps_.

Few, however, go to see the 'mosque of pearls' more than once, stay
as long as they will at Agra; and when they go, the building appears
less and less to deserve their admiration; while they go to the Taj
as often as they can, and find new beauties in it, or new feelings of
pleasure from it, every time[24]

I went out to visit this tomb of the Emperor Akbar at Sikandara, a
magnificent building, raised over him by his son, the Emperor
Jahangir. His remains he deposited in a deep vault under the centre,
and are covered by a plain slab of marble, without fretwork or
mosaic. On the top of the building, which is three or four stories
high, is another marble slab, corresponding with the one in the vault
below.[25] This is beautifully carved, with the 'nau nauwe nam'-the
ninety-nine names, or attributes of the Deity, from the Koran.[26] It
is covered by an awning, not to protect the tomb, but to defend the
'words of God' from the rain, as my cicerone assured me.[27] He told
me that the attendants upon this tomb used to have the hay of the
large quadrangle of forty acres in which it stands,[28] in addition
to their small salaries, and that it yielded them some fifty rupees a
year; but the chief native officer of the Taj establishment demanded
half of the sum, and when they refused to give him so much, he
persuaded his master, the European engineer, _with much difficulty_,
to take all this hay for the public cattle. 'And why could you not
adjust such a matter between you, without pestering the engineer?'
'Is not this the way', said he, with emotion, 'that Hindustan has cut
its own throat, and brought in the stranger at all times? Have they
ever had, or can they ever have, confidence in each other, or let
each other alone to enjoy the little they have in peace?' Considering
all the circumstances of time and place, Akbar has always appeared to
me among sovereigns what Shakespeare was among poets; and, feeling as
a citizen of the world, I reverenced the marble slab that covers his
bones more, perhaps, than I should that over any other sovereign with
whose history I am acquainted.[29]

Notes:

1. December, 1835.

2. It is not, perhaps, generally known, though it deserves to be so,
that the bamboo seeds only once, and dies immediately after seeding.
All bamboos from the same seed die at the same time, whenever they
may have been planted. The life of the common large bamboo is about
fifty years. [W. H. S.] The period is said to vary between thirty and
sixty years. Bamboo seed is eaten as rice when obtainable. The
author's theories about electricity are more ingenious than
satisfactory.

3. Better known as the Mauritius.

4. This proposition may be accepted with confidence. Electricity is a
great mystery, which becomes more mysterious the more it is studied.

5. A letter of the author's, dated 13th March, 1809, is extant, in
which he gives a full description of the performance of _Macbeth_ at
the Haymarket by Kemble and Mrs. Siddons on Saturday, 11th March. The
author sailed in the _Devonshire_ on the 24th March.

6. No European had ever before, I believe, noted this, [W. H. S.]
Moin-ud-din (p. 49) says that this phrase, 'Thou art our patron, help
as therefore against the unbelieving nations,' is from the long
chapter 2 ('The Cow') of the Koran, but I have not succeeded in
finding the exact words in Sale's version of that chapter. I suspect
that the words have been misread. Moin-ud-din gives as the words at
the north side of the tomb, _script characters_ 'the unbelieving
nations', whereas Muh. Latif (_Agra_, p. 111) says that the words 'on
the head of the sarcophagus' are _script characters_ 'He is the
everlasting. He is sufficient.' It will be observed that the
characters in the two readings are almost identical.

7. The Empress had been a good deal exasperated against the
Portuguese and Dutch by the treatment her husband received from them
when a fugitive, after an unsuccessful rebellion against his father;
and her hatred to them extended, in some degree, to all Christians,
whom she considered to be included in the term 'Kafir', or
unbeliever. [W. H. S.] Prince Shah Jahan (Khurram) rebelled against
his father, Jahangir, in A.D. 1623, and submitted in A.D. 1625. The
terrible punishment inflicted by Shah Jahan when Emperor on the
Portuguese of Hugli (Hooghly) is related by Bernier (Constable's ed.,
pp. 177, 287). The Emperor had previously destroyed the Jesuits'
church at Lahore completely, and the greater part of the church at
Agra.

8. The cleverness, astuteness, energy, and business capacity of
Aurangzeb are undoubted, and yet his long reign was a disastrous
failure. The author reflects the praises of Muhammadans who cherish
the memory of the 'namazi'. The Emperor himself knew better when, in
his old ago, he wrote to his son Azam the pathetic words, 'I have not
done well by the country or its people. My years have gone by
profitless' (Lane-Poole's version in _Aurangzib_ (Rulers of India),
p. 203. Letter No. 72 in Bilimoria, _Letters of Aurungzbe_, Bombay,
1908. Another version in E. and D. vii, 562.) His reign lasted for
almost forty-nine years, from June 1658 to February 1707, and not for
only forty years.

9. The real tombs are in the vault below. Beautiful cenotaphs stand
under the dome. The inscription on the tomb of the Empress is exactly
repeated on her cenotaph, and runs thus:-
'The splendid sepulchre of Arjumand Bano Begam, entitled Mumtaz
Mahall, deceased in the year 1040 Hijri.'

The epitaph on Shah Jahan's tomb is as follows:-
'The sacred sepulchre of His Moat Exalted Majesty, nesting in
Paradise, the Second Lord of the Conjunction, Shah Jahan, the
Emperor. May his mausoleum ever flourish. Year 1076 Hijri.'

The inscription on Shah Jahan's cenotaph adds more titles and gives
the exact date of death as 'the night of Rajab 28, A.H. 1076'. 1040
Hijri corresponds with the period from July 31, A.D. 1630 to July 19,
1631; and 1076 Hijri with the period July 4, A. D. 1665 to June 23,
1666, Old Style. The dates in New Style would be ten days later.

The epithet 'nesting in Paradise' (_firdaus ashiyani_) was the
official posthumous title of Shah Jahan, frequently used by
historians instead of his name.

The title 'Second Lord of the Conjunction' means that Shah Jahan was
held to have been born under the fortunate conjunction of Venus and
Jupiter, as his ancestor Timur had been.

10. The details in the text are inaccurate. Arjumand Bano Begam,
daughter of Asaf Khan, brother of Nur Jahan, the queen of Jahangir,
was born in A.D. 1592, married in 1612, and died July 7, 1631 (o.s.),
at Burhanpur in the Deccan. After a delay of six months her remains
were removed to Agra, and there rested six months longer at a spot in
the Taj gardens still remembered, until her tomb was sufficiently
advanced for the final interment. Her titles were Mumtaz-i-Mahall,
'Exalted in the Palace'; Qudsia Begam, and Nawab Aliya Begam. She
bore her husband eight sons and six daughters, fourteen children in
all, of whom seven were alive at the time of her death. The child
whose birth cost the mother's life was Gauharara Begam, who survived
for many years (Irvine, _Storia do Mogor_, iv. 425). Beale wrongly
gives her name as Dahar Ara.

Shah Jahan, two years before his union with Arjumand Bano Begam, had
been married to a Persian princess, by whom he had a daughter who
died young. Five and a half years after his marriage to Arjumand Bano
Begam, he espoused a third wife, daughter of Shah Nawaz Khan, by whom
he had a son, who died in infancy. This third marriage was dictated
by motives of policy, and did not impair the Emperor's devotion to
his favourite consort (Muh. Latif, _Agra_, p. 101).

11. The testimony of Tavernier is doubtless correct if understood as
referring to the whole complex of buildings connected with the
mausoleum. He visited Agra several times. He left India in January,
1654, returning to the country in 1659. Work on the Taj began in
1632, and so appears to have been completed about the close of, 1653
(Tavernier, _Travels_, transl. Ball, vol. i, pp. xxi, xxii, 25, 110,
142, 149). The latest dated inscription, that of the calligraphist
Amanat Khan at the entrance to the domed mausoleum, was recorded in
the twelfth year of the reign, A.H. 1048, equivalent to A.D. 1638-9.
That year may be taken as the date of the completion of the mausoleum
itself, as distinguished from the great mass of supplementary
structures.

12. Various records of the cost differ enormously, apparently because
they refer to different things. If all the buildings and the vast
value of the materials be included, the highest estimate, namely,
four and a half millions of pounds sterling, in round numbers, is not
excessive (_H.F.A._, 1911, p. 415) The figures are recorded with
minute accuracy as 411 lakhs, 48,826 rupees, 7 annas, and 6 pies. A
_karor_ (crore) is 100 lakhs, or 10 millions.

13. The enclosure occupies a space of more than forty-two acres.

14. This statement, though commonly made, is erroneous. The building
is named the 'assembly house' (jama'at khana), or 'guest-house'
(mihman khana) and was intended as the place for the congregation to
assemble before prayers, or on the anniversaries of the deaths of the
Emperor Shah Jahan or his consort. Taj Mahal (Muh. Latif, _Agra_, p.
113). Of course, it also serves as an architectural balance for the
mosque.

15. The gardens of the Taj have been much improved since the author's
time, and are now under the care of a skilled European
superintendent, and full of beautiful shrubs and trees. The author's
measurements of the quadrangle seem to be wrong. Different figures
are given by Moin-ud-din (_Hist. of the Taj_, p. 29) and Fergusson
(ed. 1910, vol. ii, p. 313). No official survey is available.

16. The white marble that forms the substance of the building came,
Mr. Keene thinks, from Makrana near Jaipur, but according to Mr.
Hacket (_Records of the Geographical Survey of India_, x. 84), from
Raiwala in Jaipur, near the Alwar border [note]. The account of these
marbles given in the _Rajputana Gazetteer_, 1st ed. (ii. 127) favours
Mr. Keene's view' (_N.W.P. Gazetteer_, 1st ed., vol. vii, p. 707).
The ornamental stones used for the inlay work in the Taj are lapis
lazuli, jasper, heliotrope, Chalcedon agate, chalcedony, cornelian,
sarde, plasma (or quartz and chlorite), yellow and striped marble,
clay slate, and nephrite, or jade (_Dr. Voysey, in Asiatic
Researches_, vol. xv, p. 429, quoted by V. Bail in _Records of the
Geological Survey of India_, vii. 109). Moin-ud-din (pp. 27-9) gives
a longer list, from the custodians' Persian account.

17. There is some exaggeration in this statement. Shah Jahan's
concern was with his wife's tomb, and his fortified palaces, more
than with 'the cities'.

18. Sleeman's talk about Austin de Bordeaux is wholly based on his
misreading of _Ustan_ for _Ustad_, meaning 'Master', in the Persian
account, which names Muhammed-i-Isa Afandi (Effendi) as the chief
designer. He had the title of Ustad, and some versions represent
Muhammad Sharif, the second draughtsman, as his son. Muhammad, the
son of Isa ('Jesus'), apparently was a Turk. He had the Turkish title
of 'Effendi', and the Persian MS. used by Moin-ud-din asserts that he
came from Turkey. The same authority states that Muhammad Sharif was
a native of Samarkand.

Austin de Bordeaux was wholly distinct from Muhammad-i-Isa, Ustad
Afandi, and there is no reason to suppose that he had anything to do
with the Taj. Sleeman's story about his work at Agra and his death
comes from Tavernier (i. 108, transl. Ball: see next note). Austin
was in the service of Jahangir as early as 1621, and probably came
out to India from Persia in 1614. He is described as an engineer
(_ingenieur_), and is recorded to have made a golden throne for
Jahangir (_J.R.A.S._, 1910, pp. 494, 1343-5). Sleeman's misreading of
_ustad_ as _ustan_, and his consequent blunders, have misled
innumerable writers. In cursive Persian the misreading is easy and
natural. He took Ustan as intended for 'Austin'. Certain marks in the
garden on the other side of the river indicate the spot where Shah
Jahan had begun work on his own tomb. Aurangzeb, as Tavernier
observes, was 'not disposed to complete it' (see _A.S.R._, iv. 180).

For a summary of the controversy concerning the alleged share of
Geronimo Veroneo in the design of the Taj, see _H.F.A._, 1911, pp.
416-18. Personally, I am of opinion, as I was more than twenty years
ago, that 'the incomparable Taj is the product of a combination of
European and Asiatic genius'. That opinion makes some people very
angry.

19. I would not be thought very positive upon this point, I think I
am right, but feel that I may be wrong. Tavernier says that Shah
Jahan was obliged to give up his intention of completing a silver
ceiling to the great hall in the palace, because Austin de Bordeaux
had been killed, and no other person could venture to attempt it.
Ustan [_sic_] Isa, in all the Persian accounts, stands first among
the salaried architects. [W. H. S.] Tavernier's words are, 'Shah
Jahan had intended to cover the arch of a great gallery which is on
the right hand with silver, and a Frenchman, named Augustin de
Bordeaux, was to have done the work. But the Great Mogul, seeing
there was no one in his kingdom who was more capable to send to Goa
to negotiate an affair with the Portuguese, the work was not done,
for, as the ability of Augustin was feared, he was poisoned on his
return from Cochin.' (_Tavernier_, transl. Ball, vol. i, p. 108. )
The statement that Austin had 'finished the palace at Delhi, and the
mausoleum and palace of Agra' is not warranted by any evidence known
to the editor.

20. Akbar erected his works on the site of an older fort, named
Badalgarh, presumably of Hindu origin, 'which was of brick, and had
become ruinous.' No existing building within the precincts can be
referred with certainty to an earlier date than that of Akbar. The
erection began in A.H. 972, corresponding to A.D. 1564-5, and the
work continued for eight (or, according to another authority, four)
years, costing 3,500,000 rupees, or about L350,000 sterling. The
walls are of rubble, faced with red sandstone. The best account is
the article by Nur Baksh, entitled 'The Agra Fort and its Buildings',
in _A.S. Ann. Rep._, 1903-4, pp. 164-93.

21. It is difficult to understand how men like the Marquis of
Hastings and Lord William Bentinck could have been guilty of such
barbarous stupidity. But the fact is beyond doubt, and numberless
officials of less exalted rank must share the disgrace of the ruin
and spoliation, which, both at Agra and Delhi, have destroyed two
noble palaces, and left but a few disconnected fragments. Fergusson's
indignant protests (_History of Indian and Eastern Architecture_, ed.
1910, vol. ii, p. 312, &c.) are none too strong. Sir John Strachey,
who was Lieutenant-Governor of the North-Western Provinces in 1876,
is entitled to the credit of having done all that lay in his power to
remedy the effects of the parsimony and neglect of his predecessors.
The buildings which remain at both Agra and Delhi are now well cared
for, and large sums are spent yearly on their reparation and
conservation. The credit for the modern policy of reverence for the
ancient monuments is due to Lord Curzon more than to any one else.

22. This date is erroneous. The inscription is dated A.H. 1063, in
the 26th year of Shah Jahan, equivalent practically to A.D. 1653. It
is given in full, with both text and translation, in _A.S. Ann. Rep._
for 1903-4, p. 183. It states that the building was erected in the
course of seven years at a cost of 300,000 rupees, which = L33,750,
at the rate of 2_s_. 3_d_. to the rupee current at the time. Errors
on the subject disfigure most of the guide-books and other works
commonly read.

23. The beauty of the Moti Masjid, like that of most mosques, is all
internal. The exterior is ugly. The interior deserves all praise.
Fergusson describes this mosque as 'one of the purest and most
elegant buildings of its class to be found anywhere', and truly
observes that 'the moment you enter by the eastern gateway the effect
of its courtyard is surpassingly beautiful'. 'I hardly know
anywhere', he adds, 'of a building so perfectly pure and elegant.'
(_Ind. and E. Arch._, ed. 1910, vol. ii, p. 317. See also _H.F.A._,
p. 412, fig. 242.)

24. I would, however, here enter my humble protest against the
quadrille and tiffin [_scil._ lunch] parties, which are sometimes
given to the European ladies and gentlemen of the station at this
imperial tomb; drinking and dancing are, no doubt, very good things
in their season, even in a hot climate, but they are sadly out of
place in a sepulchre, and never fail to shock the good feelings of
sober-minded people when given there. Good church music gives us
great pleasure, without exciting us to dancing or drinking; the Taj
does the same, at least to the sober-minded. [W. H. S.] The
regulations now in force prevent any unseemly proceedings. The
gardens at the Taj, of Itimad-ud-daula's tomb, of Akbar's mausoleum
at Sikandara, and the Ram Bagh, are kept up by means of income
derived from crown lands, aided by liberal grants from Government.

25. The anthor's curiously meagre description of the magnificent
mausoleum of Akbar is, in the original edition, supplemented by
coloured plates, prepared apparently from drawings by Indian artists.
The structure is absolutely unique, being a square pyramid of five
stories, the uppermost of which is built of pure white marble, while
the four lower ones are of red sandstone. All earlier descriptions of
the building have been superseded by the posthumous work of E. W.
Smith, a splendidly illustrated quarto, entitled, _Akbar's Tomb,
Sikandarah, Agra_, Allahabad Government Press, 1909, being vol. xxxv
of A. S. India. Work had been begun in the lifetime of Akbar. The
lower part of the enclosing wall of the park dates from his reign.
The whole of the mausoleum itself probably is to be assigned to the
reign of Jahangir, who in 1608 disapproved of the structure which had
been three or four years in course of erection, and caused the design
to be altered to please himself. The work was finished in 1613 at a
cost of five millions of rupees (50 lakhs, more than half a million
of pounds sterling). The exquisitely carved cenotaph on the top story
is inadequately described by Sleeman as 'another marble slab'. It is
a single block of marble 3 1/4 feet high. The tomb in the vault 'is
perfectly plain with the exception of a few mouldings'.

26. The ninety-nine names of God do not occur in the Koran. They are
enumerated in chapter 1 of Book X of the 'Mishkat-ul-Masabih' (see
note 10, Chapter 5 _ante_): 'Abu Hurairah said, "Verily there are
ninety-nine names for God; and whoever counts them shall enter into
paradise. He is Allaho, than which there is no other; Al-Rahman-ul-
Rahimo, the compassionate and merciful," &c., &c.' (Matthews, vol. i,
p. 542.) The list is reproduced in the introduction to Palmer's
translation of the Koran, and in Bosworth-Smith, _Muhammad and
Muhammadanism_.

27. The court, 70 feet square, of the topmost story, is open to the
sky, but the original intention was to provide a light dome,
presumably similar to that built a little later to crown the
mausoleum of Itimad-ud-daula. Finch, the traveller, who was at Agra
about 1611, was informed that the cenotaph was 'to be inarched over
with the most curious white and speckled marble, and to be seeled all
within with pure sheet gold, richly inwrought.' The reason for
omitting the dome is not recorded.