Just As The Muezzin Was Calling To
Evening Prayer, We Again Resumed Our Monotonous Order Of Travel,
And Branched Off Towards Agra To Visit The Famous Taj Mahul.
OCTOBER 28.
- Reached Agra at two A.M., and finding the bungalow full,
had to go to the hotel. At sunrise we drove out to the Taj, and here,
I think, for the first time, we were not disappointed in the difference
between reality and description. The entrance to the gardens in which
the Taj is situated was beautiful in itself, but one sight of the
main building left no room for admiration of anything besides.
It is situated on the banks of the Jumna, with a fine view of the
magnificent fort, with its mosque and minarets, and is entirely of
pure white marble, inlaid with stones into shapes of flowers and
arabesques, &c. At each corner rises a white marble minaret, like a
pillar of snow, beautifully decorated and carved, but unsullied by a
single line of any other colour whatever. The interior is profusely
inlaid with minute stones of considerable value, and is lit by carved
marble windows of the most beautiful design imaginable. In the centre,
surrounding the tomb of Mumtaz and her lord, is a marvellous white
marble screen, in the form of a polygon, carved like perforated ivory,
and also inlaid with minute stones of every shape and colour.[34]
The queen, in whose honour the tomb was built, occupies the very
centre of the enclosure, Shah Jehan's tomb being on one side of it,
and larger in size, which rather spoils the symmetry of the space.
Exactly underneath the tombs, in the main body of the building,
one descends to a marble vault, where there are two others precisely
similar in shape, but without any inscription or ornament whatever,
and under these latter the mortal remains of the famous Shah Jehan
and Mumtaz repose in peace. Over the queen's tomb, in the very centre
of the interior, a single ostrich egg was suspended by an almost
invisible thread, probably to shadow forth something of the meaning
of the "Resurgam" affixed to monuments elsewhere. On either side,
without the mausoleum, are two buildings facing inwards, one of which
is a mosque, built in red granite and white marble; and the whole are
profusely ornamented with carvings in marble, which would take an age
to examine thoroughly, and which produce an effect quite incapable
of being adequately portrayed by either pen or pencil.
In one of these edifices, among the inlaid work and arabesques,
and not far from the mortal remains of the departed King and Queen,
we found a curious and interesting inscription, which seems to have
been hitherto unmentioned by the many travellers who have visited
the sacred spot. It was prominently placed and easily decipherable,
being in unusually large letters, and in that character which might
be called the "UNEIFORM," of which so many valuable specimens exist
in all parts of the known globe.
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