India.

Colonist, Issue II, 8 December 1857, Page 4

India.

THE CITY OF DELHI.

Delhi is a celebrated city in the Bengal presidency of India, and was anciently the metropolis of the Patan and Mogul empires. Its population is about 200,000. Delhi, in its period of splendour, was a city of vast extent and magnificence; its ruins cover nearly as large a surface as London, Westminster and Southwark, The present inhabited city, east and north the ruins, built by the Emperor Shah Jehan, and called by him Shahjehanbad, about seven miles in circuit, is situate on a rocky range of hills, and is surrounded by an embattled j wall, with many bastions and intervening martello towers, faced along its whole extent with substantial masonry, and recently strengthened with a moat and glacis by the British Government. It has many good houses, chiefly of brick. The streets are in general narrow, but the principal are wide, handsome, and, for an Asiatic city, remarkably clean; the bazaars have a good appearance. There were formerly two noble streets; but houses have been built down' their centre and across, so as to spoil them; along one of these, running from the palace south to the aggregate, is the.aqueduct of Ali Merdan Khan, re-opened by Captain Blanc in 1820. The principal public buildings are, the palace, the Jumma Musjeed, or chief mosque, many other mosques, the tombs of the Emperor Humayoon and of Sefdar Jung, the Cuttub Minar, &c.; and within the new city the remains of many splendid palaces, belonging formerly to the great dignitaries of the Mongul empire. Almost all these structures are of red granite, inlaid in some of the ornamental parts with white marble. The general style of building is simple, yet elegant; those of Patan architecture are never overdone with ornaments, sq as to interfere with their general severe and solemn character. The palace, as seen from a distance, is a very high and extensive cluster of Gothic towers and battlements, towering above the other buildings. It was built by Shah Jehan, is surrounded by a moat and embattled wall, which toward the street in which it stands is sixty feet high, and has several small round towers and two noble gateways. Heber states that as a kingly residence it far surpasses the Kremlin at Moscow; but, except the durability of its materials, it is inferior to Windsor Castle. When Heber visited the Emperor, he proceeded first through 'a long vaunted aisle like of a Gothic cathedral, with a small open octagonal court in its centre, all of granite,' and all finely carved with inscriptions from the Koran, and with flowers. This ended in a ruinous and exceedingly dirty stable-yard, beyond which a richly carved but ruinous gateway led into a very handsome and striking court, with low but richly ornamented buildings. * Opposite to us, f continues the bishop, * was a beautiful open pavilion, of white marble, richly carved, flanked by rose bushed and fountains, and some tapestry and striped curtains, hanging in festoons about it, within which was a crowd of people, and the poor old descendants of Tamerlane, seated in the midst of them.' This part of the palace is in tolerable preservation. The Shalima Gardens (so highly extolled in Lalla Koohh) were also formed by Shah Jehan, and are said to have cost a million sterling^but * laughing Ceres has reassumed her reign,' the gardens having been reconverted to agricultural purposes. The Jumma Musjeed, the largest and handsomest plape of j Musselman worship in India, was built in six years by Shan Jehan, at an expense of: ten lacs of rupees. X stands on a small rocky eminence, scarped for the purpose. The ascent to it is by a flight of thirty-five stone steps, through a Ipndsome gateway of red stone, the doors of which are covered

with wrought brass. The terrace on which ; it is built is about 1,400 yards square, and surrounded »by an arched colonnade with octagon pavilions at convenient distances. In the centre is a large marble reservoir, supplied by machinery from the canal. On the west side is the mosque itself, of an oblong form, 261 feet in length; its whole front coated with large slabs of white marble, and compartments in the cornice inlaid with Arabic inscriptions in black. It is approached by another flight of steps, and entered by three Gothic arches, each surmounted by a marble dome. At the flanks are two minarets, 130 feet high, of black marble and red stone alternately, each having three projecting galleries, and their summits crowned with light pavilions of white marble, the ascent to which is by a winding staircase of 180 steps of red stone.! This truly noble structure is in good repair, being maintained by a grant from the British Government for that especial purpose. Not far from the palace is a mosque , of red stone, surmounted with three gilt i domes', in which Nadir Shah sat and witnesses the massacre of the unfortunate inhabitants. There are above forty mosques j one, erected by the daughter of Aurungzebe,! contains the tomb in which she was interred in 1710; some bear the marks of great ah- ; tiquity, especially the Kala Musjeed, or; black mosque, built of dark coloured granite by the first Patan conquerors. It is exactly on the plan of the original Arabian mosques. The prospect south, the Shalimar Gardens, as far as the eye can reach, is covered with the remains of extensive gardens, pavilions, mosques, and sepulchres, •.connecting the village of Cuttub with the new city of Delhi, from which it is nearly ten miles distant south-west, and exhibiting one of the most striking scenes of desolation to be anywhere met with. The celebrated Guttub Minar is a very handsome round tower, rising from a polygon of 27 sides, in five stages, gradually diminishing in circumference to tj^ height of 242 feet; its summit, which W crowned by a majestic cupola rising from four arcades of red granite, is ascended by a spiral staircase of 384 steps, and between each stage a balcony runs round the pillars. The old Pataa palace, a mass of ruin larger than the others, has been a solid fortress in a plain and unornamented style of architecture. It contains a high black pillar of cast metal, of Hindoo construction, and originally covered with Hindoo characters, but which Ferose Shah afterwards inclosed within the court of his palace, covering it with Arabic and Persian inscriptions. The tomb of Humayoon is of Gothic architecture, surrounded by a large garden, with terraces and fountains, nearly all of which are now gone to decay. The garden is surrounded by an embattled wall and: cloister, and in its centre, on a platform ascended by a flight of granite steps, is Jthe tomb itself, a square building, with circular apartments within, surmounted by a dome of white marble. 'From the top of this building the desolation is seen to extend to the west, in which direction Indraput stood, apparently to a range of barren hills seven or eight miles off. In order to supply water to the royal gardens, the -aqueduct of Ali Merdan Khan was constructed, by which the waters of the Jumma, while pure and wholesome, are conducted for 120 miles to Delhi, immediately after the river leaves the mountains. During the troubles that followed the decline of the Mogul power the channel was neglected; and when the English took possession of this city, it was found choked up in most parts with rubbish. It is the sole source of vegetation to the gardens of Delhi, and of drinkable water to its inhabitants, and when reopened in 1820, the whole population went out in jubilee to meet the stream as it flowed slowly onwards, throwing flowers, ghee, sweetments, and other offerings into the water, and calling down all manner of blessings on the British Government. At the south-west extremity of the city stands the famous.observatory, built like that of Benares, by Jye Singh, Rajah of Jyepoor, and formerly containing similar astronomical instruments, but which, together with the building itself, have been since partially destroyed. Near the Ajmeer gate is the Medressa, or College of Ghazee-ud-Deen Khan, an edifice of great beauty, for the repair of which, and the revival of its functions, the Government has very liberally contributed. The Delhi college is now divided into the Oriental and the English departments, astronomy and mathematics are taught on European principles, and in 1830 there were 287 students. According to Abul Fazel, no less than seven successful cities have stood on the ground occupied by Delhi and its ruins. Indraprast'ha or Indraput was the first, and the residence of the Hindoo rajahs before 1193, when the Affghans or Patans conquered it; it was the seat also of the first eight sovereigns of that dynasty. Sultan Baleen built another fortified palace—Moez~ud-Deen, another on the banks of the Jumma, and others were built in different parts by succeeding sovereigns, one af which was near Cuttub; and lastly, Shah Jehan, towards the middle of the 17th century, chose the present spot for its site, which is certainly more advantageous than that of any of the preceding cities. In 1011 Delhi was taken and plundered by Mahmoud of Ghiznee; in 1398 by Timour; in 1525 by Baber, who over- j turned the Patan dynasty, and commenced that of the Moguls; in 1737 the Maharattas burned the suburbs, and in 1739 Delhi was entered and pillaged by Nadir Shah, who did not retain possession of it. Since 1803, together with its territory, it has virtually belonged to the British, and is the seat of a Resident who has exclusive charge of the Emperor and royal family, conducts all the ordinary negotiations with the States in the north-west of India, in the judicial and revenue departments possesses all the powers of the sudder court, and also of the revenue board within the five divisions of the Delhi territory. The annual stipend of the Delhi Emperor and family amounts to .£150,000.