It is built in the Italian style,
and is truly majestic; the columns are of uncommon height; the
stairs, saloons, and rooms are very spacious and lofty. A fine
garden surrounds the back of the palace, a large court-yard the
front, and a high fortified wall encloses the whole. Dr. Sprenger,
as director of the college, occupies a truly princely dwelling in
it.
The palace of the Princess Begum, half in the Italian and half in
the Mongolian style, is tolerably large, and is remarkable for its
extremely handsome saloons. A pretty and hitherto well kept garden
surrounds it on all sides.
The Princess Begum attracted great attention at the time before
Delhi was under the English dominion, by her intelligence,
enterprise, and bravery. She was a Hindoo by birth, and became
acquainted in her youth with a German named Sombre, with whom she
fell in love, and turned Christian in order to marry him. Mr.
Sombre formed a regiment of native troops, which, after they were
well trained, he offered to the emperor. In the course of time, he
so ingratiated himself with the emperor, that the latter presented
him with a large property, and made him a prince. His wife is said
to have supported him energetically in everything. After his death,
she was appointed commander of the regiment, which post she held
most honourably for several years. She died a short time since at
the age of eighty.
Of the numerous mosques of New Delhi, I visited only two, the Mosque
Roshun-ad-dawla, and the Jumna Mosque. The former stands in the
principal street, and its pinnacles and domes are splendidly gilt.
It is made famous through its connection with an act of cruelty on
the part of Sheikh Nadir. This remarkable, but fearfully cruel
monarch, on conquering Delhi in the year 1739, had 100,000 of the
inhabitants cut to pieces, and is said to have sat upon a tower of
this mosque to watch the scene. The town was then set fire to and
plundered.
The Jumna Mosque, built by the Sheikh Djihan, is also considered a
masterpiece of Mahomedan architecture; it stands upon an enormous
platform, to which forty steps lead up, and rises in a truly
majestic manner above the surrounding mass of houses. Its symmetry
is astonishing. The three domes, and the small cupolas on the
minarets, are of white marble; all the other parts, even the large
slates with which the fine court-yard is paved, are of red
sandstone. The inlaid ornamental work and stripes on the mosque,
are also of white marble.
There are great numbers of caravansaries, frequently with very
handsome portals. The baths are unimportant.
We devoted two days to making an excursion to the more distant
monuments of Delhi. We first stopped at the still well-preserved
"Purana Kale." All the handsome mosques resemble each other much.
This one, however, is distinguished by its decoration, the richness
and correctness of its sculptures, its beautiful inlaid work, and
its size. Three lightly arched and lofty cupolas cover the
principal building, small towers adorn the corners, and two high
minarets stand at the sides. The entrance and the interior of the
domes are inlaid with glazed tiles and painted, the colours are
remarkably brilliant. The interior of every mosque is empty; a
small tribune for speakers, and a few glass lustres and lamps,
constitute the whole decoration.
The mausoleum of the Emperor Humaione, very much in the same style
as the mosque, was commenced by this monarch himself. But as he
died before it was completed, his son Akbar carried out his
intentions. The high-arched temple, in the centre of which stands
the sarcophagus, is inlaid with mosaic work of rare stones. Instead
of window-panes, the openings are furnished with artistically worked
stone lattices. In adjoining halls, under plain sarcophagi, rest
the remains of several wives and children of the Emperor Humaione.
Not far from this is the monument of Nizam-ul-din, a very sacred and
greatly venerated Mahomedan. It stands in a small court, the floor
of which is paved with marble. A square screen of marble, with four
small doors, surrounds the sarcophagus. This screen is still more
delicate and finely worked than that in the Taj-Mehal; it is
scarcely conceivable how it was possible to execute such work in
stone. The doors, pillars, and elegant arches are covered with the
most chaste reliefs, as fine and perfect as any that I have seen in
the most artistic towns of Italy. The marble used for them is of
remarkable whiteness and purity, worthy, indeed, of these great
works of art.
Adjoining this are several pretty monuments, all of white marble.
They are passed by with some indifference when the most perfect of
them all has been seen first.
A great deal has been said about a large water basin, which is
surrounded on three sides by cells, already much dilapidated; the
fourth side is open, and from it a beautiful stone staircase, forty
feet broad, leads to the water basin, which is twenty-five feet
deep. Every pilgrim would consider his pilgrimage of no account if
he did not step in here immediately on his arrival.
Divers plunge from the terraces of the cells to the bottom of the
basin, and fetch out the smallest pieces of money which have been
thrown in. Some are dexterous enough to catch the coin even before
it touches the bottom. We threw in several coins, which they
succeeded in bringing up every time, but I can scarcely believe that
they caught them before they reached the bottom.
