In 1570 This Town Was Called Shadiabad, The Abode Of Happiness.
The Franciscan Missionaries, Adolf Aquaviva, Antario De Moncerotti,
And Others, Who Came Here In That Very Year As An Embassy From Goa
To Seek Various Privileges From The Mogul Government, Described
It Over And Over Again.
At this epoch it was one of the greatest
cities of the world, whose magnificent streets and luxurious ways
used to astonish the most pompous courts of India.
It seems almost
incredible that in such a short period nothing should remain of
this town but the heaps of rubbish, amongst which we could hardly
find room enough for our tent. At last we decided to pitch it in
the only building which remained in a tolerable state of preservation,
in Yami-Masjid, the cathedral-mosque, on a granite platform about
twenty-five steps higher than the square. The stairs, constructed
of pure marble like the greater part of the town buildings, are
broad and almost untouched by time, but the roof has entirely
disappeared, and so we were obliged to put up with the stars for a
canopy. All round this building runs a low gallery supported by
several rows of thick pillars. From a distance it reminds one, in
spite of its being somewhat clumsy and lacking in proportion, of
the Acropolis of Athens. From the stairs, where we rested for a
while, there was a view of the mausoleum of Gushanga-Guri, King of
Malwa, in whose reign the town was at the culmination of its
brilliancy and glory.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 152 of 357
Words from 41029 to 41286
of 96531
