India revisited . s soon brought up, and thus at last Delhi was reallytaken. To the right, at the end of this Chandni Chouk,is the Lahore, now Victoria, Gate, which leads by acovered bazaar to the magnificent fortress-palace of theEmperors. You traverse it, and emerge into a spacioussquare, where stand the majestic Diwan-i-Am, withits thirty-two red columns, and the royal seat of whitemarble; to its right the splendid and beautiful Diwan-i-Kh4s, the Private Hall of Audience of the Emperors,with close at hand the Moti Musjid, or Pearl Mosque,a white wonder of architecture, and the sumptuousAkab
India revisited . s soon brought up, and thus at last Delhi was reallytaken. To the right, at the end of this Chandni Chouk,is the Lahore, now Victoria, Gate, which leads by acovered bazaar to the magnificent fortress-palace of theEmperors. You traverse it, and emerge into a spacioussquare, where stand the majestic Diwan-i-Am, withits thirty-two red columns, and the royal seat of whitemarble; to its right the splendid and beautiful Diwan-i-Kh4s, the Private Hall of Audience of the Emperors,with close at hand the Moti Musjid, or Pearl Mosque,a white wonder of architecture, and the sumptuousAkab Baths. In the audience hall once stood thatthrone—the Takt-i-Talis—which cost six millions ster-ling, being composed of two peacocks of gold with spreadtails, all fashioned to the life with sapphires, emeralds,rubies, and diamonds, between them hovering a parrotof the natural size carved out of a solid emerald,and overhead a canopy of beaten gold supported bytwelve golden columns. Here sate in State the Great. ULWUR TO DELHI; 177 Moguls; but an almost higher idea is given of theirgrandeur by the white marble Bath Chambers adjoin-ing, where rivulets of crystal water were made towander through channels of polished alabaster, overslabs of inlaid stone, and the lips of silver and goldbasins. Nothing in imperial Rome ever exceeded themagnificence of these royal retreat^ of Shah Jehan andAurengzebe, or the delicate beauty of their zenana,lookiiig through pierced marble lattices upon theJumna. Over one gold and satin archway of thisbuilding the architect has written in a proud Persianverse: If on the earth there be a bower of bliss,That place is this, is this, is this, is this ! From the splendour of such a marble paradise, thelast of the Moguls, Bahadur Shah, was taken by us todie a prisoner at Eangoon, and the Queens ensignis quietly flying over the cupolas of the Gate as wepass, nor is Derby more peaceful now or contentedlyBritish than Delhi. You buy bulbuls at two annasapiece
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, bookidcu31924022984136, bookpubl
