The Tank Itself, The Natives
Informed Us, Was Bottomless, And It Really Appeared To Be So; For
From The Windows
Of the baradurree, some fifty feet over the water,
we could see the sides stretching back as they descended, and
Losing
themselves in the clear water, which looked, from the intensity of
its blue, both deep and treacherous to an unlimited extent. The water,
too, was so intensely, icily cold, that an attempt to swim across it
would have been a dangerous undertaking, and neither F. nor I could
summon courage to jump in. We, however, bathed in the stream which
ran out of the inexhaustible reservoir, and its effect we found very
similar to that of hot water, so that a little of it went a very Iong
way with us. As for the fish, they swarmed in such numbers that they
jostled each other fairly out of the water in a dense living mass,
while striving for grains of rice and bread.
This also was a favourite resort of Jehangeer and Noor Jehan; and I
found an inscription in the Persian character which, in a sentence
according to Eastern custom, fixed the date of the erection of the
building attached to the tank as A.H. 1029, or, about A.D. 1612. The
inscription runs thus: -
"The king of seven climes, the spreader of justice, Abdool, Muzuffer,
Noor-ul-deen[13] Jehangeer Badshah, son of Akbar, conqueror of kings,
on the day of the 11th year of his reign paid a visit to this fountain
of favour, and by his order this building has been completed.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 87 of 303
Words from 23623 to 23890
of 82277
