Begums, Thugs and White Mughals

by Fanny Parkes

  It is customary with Musulmāns to erect the cenotaph in an apartment over the sarcophagus, as may be seen in all the tombs of their celebrated men. The Musulmāns who visit the Tāj lay offerings of money and flowers both on the tombs below and the cenotaphs above; they also distribute money in charity, at the tomb, or at the gate, to the fakīrs.

  The Sultāna Arzumund Bānoo was the daughter of the vizier, Asaf-jāh; she was married twenty years to Shāhjahān and bore him a child almost every year; she died on the 15th July, 1631, in child-bed, about two hours after the birth of a princess. Though she seldom interfered in public affairs, Shāhjahān owed the empire to her influence with her father: nor was he ungrateful; he loved her living, and lamented her when dead. Calm, engaging and mild in her disposition, she engrossed his whole affection; and though he maintained a number of women for state, they were only the slaves of her pleasure. She was such an enthusiast in Deism that she could scarcely forbear persecuting the Portuguese for their supposed idolatry, and it was only on what concerned that nation she suffered her temper, which was naturally placid, to be ruffled. To express his respect for her memory, the Emperor raised this tomb, which cost in building the amazing sum of £750,000 sterling. The death of the Sultana, in 1631, was followed by public calamities of various kinds. Four sons and four daughters survived her – Dara, Suja, Aurangzeb and Morâd: Aurangzeb succeeded to the throne of his father. The daughters were, the Princess Jahânārā (the Ornament of the World), Roshenrāi Begum (or the Princess of the Enlightened Mind), Suria Bânū (or the Splendid princess), and another whose name is not recorded. Arzumund Bānoo was the enemy of the Portuguese, then the most powerful European nation in India, in consequence of having accompanied Shāhjahān to one of their settlements, when she was enraged beyond measure against them for the worship they paid to images.

  Such is the account given of the Most Exalted of the Age; but we have no record of her beauty, nor have we reason to suppose that she was beautiful. She was the niece of one of the most celebrated of women, the Sultana of Jahāngeer, whose titles were Mher-ul-nissa (the Sun of Women), Noor-māhul (the Light of the Empire), and Noorjahān (Light of the World).

  Noorjahān was the sister of the Vizier Asaf-jāh and aunt to the lady of the Tāj. Many people, seeing the beauty of the building, confuse the two persons and bestow in their imaginations the beauty of the aunt on the niece. Looking on the tomb of Shāhjahān, one cannot but remember that, either by the dagger or the bowstring, he dispatched all the males of the house of Timur so that he himself and his children only remained of the posterity of Baber, who conquered India.

  In former times no Musulmān was allowed to enter the Tāj but with a bandage over his eyes, which was removed at the grave where he made his offerings. The marble floor was covered with three carpets, on which the feet sank deeply, they were so soft and full. Screens (pardas) of silk, of fine and beautiful materials, were hung between all the arches. Chandeliers of crystal, set with precious stones, hung from the ceiling of the dome. There was also one chandelier of agate and another of silver: these were carried off by the Jāt Suruj Mul, who came from the Deccan and despoiled Agra.

  It was the intention of Shāhjahān to have erected a mausoleum for himself exactly similar to the Tāj on the opposite side of the river; and the two buildings were to have been united by a bridge of marble across the Jumna. The idea was magnificent; but the death of Shāhjahān took place in 1666, while he was a prisoner, and ere he had time to complete his own monument.

  The stones were prepared on the opposite side of the Jumna, and were carried off by the Burtpoor Rajah and a building at Deeg has been formed of those stones. A part of the foundation of the second Tāj is still standing, just opposite the Tāj Mahal.

  An immense space of ground is enclosed by a magnificent wall around the Tāj, and contains a number of elegant buildings, surrounded by fine old trees and beds of the most beautiful flowers; the wall itself is remarkable, of great height, of red stone and carved both inside and outside.

  The Kalān Darwāza, or great gateway, is a line building; the four large and twenty-two smaller domes over the top of the arched entrance are of white marble; the gateway is of red granite, ornamented with white marble, inlaid with precious stones.

  From the second story is a fine view of the Tāj itself, to which it is directly opposite. I sat in this superb gateway some time, looking at the darwān’s snakes; he keeps, as pets, cobra de capellos, caught in the gardens of the Tāj. There are four rooms in this gateway, in which strangers, who are visitors, sometimes live during the hot weather

  A long line of eighty-four fountains runs up through the centre of the garden from this gateway to the tomb itself, eighty of which are in perfect order. Twenty-two play in the centre of the garden; ten are on the sides of the tomb in the courts before the Masjids, and the rest run up in the line from the gate to the tomb. The water is brought across a fine aqueduct from the Jumna. Of an evening, when the fountains are playing, and the odour of exotic flowers is on the air, the fall of the water has a delightful effect both on the eye and ear: it is really an Indian paradise.

  February 1st – A fair, the melā of the Eed, was held without the great gateway; crowds of gaily-dressed and most picturesque natives were seen in all directions passing through the avenue of fine trees and by the side of the fountains to the tomb: they added great beauty to the scene, whilst the eye of taste turned away pained and annoyed by the vile round hats and stiff attire of the European gentlemen, and the equally ugly bonnets and stiff and graceless dresses of the English ladies. Besides the melā at the time of the Eed, a small fair is held every Sunday evening beyond the gates; the fountains play, the band is sent down occasionally, and the people roam about the beautiful garden, in which some of the trees are very large and must be very ancient.

  A thunderbolt has broken a piece of marble off the dome of the Tāj. They say during the same storm another bolt fell on the Mootee Masjid in the Fort, and another on the Jamma Masjid at Delhi.

  The gardens are kept in fine order; the produce in fruit is very valuable. A great number of persons are in attendance upon, and in charge of, the tomb, the buildings and the garden, on account of the Honourable Company, who also keep up the repairs of the Tāj.

  At this season the variety of flowers is not very great; during the rains the flowers must be in high perfection. The mālī always presents me with a bouquet on my entering the garden, and generally points out to my notice the wallflower as of my country, and not a native of India.

  All the buildings in the gardens on the right are fitted up for the reception of visitors, if strangers: they are too cold at this time of the year, or I would take up my abode in one of the beautiful turrets (burj) next to the river.

  The two jāmma khānas are beautiful buildings on each side of the tomb, of red stone, carved outside and ornamented with white marble and precious stones. One of them is a masjid: the domes are of white marble; the interior is ornamented with flowers in white chūna and carved red stone. One of the burj near the masjid contains a fine well (bā’olī). The four burj at each corner of the enclosure are of the most beautiful architecture, light and graceful; they are of the same fine red stone and the domes are of white marble. From the one generally used as a residence by visitors to the tomb, the view of the Tāj, the gardens, the river and the Fort of Agra beyond is very fine. During the rains the river rises and flows against the outer wall that surrounds the gardens. The view from the river of this frost-work building, the tomb, is beautiful: the fine trees at the back of it, the reflection of its marble walls, and of the two jāmma khānas, with that of the elegant bastions or towers in the stream is very lovely.

  The fretwork appearance of the Tāj is produced by the quantity of carving on the white marble, which is also ornamented externally with inlaid Arabic characters and precious stones worked into flowers around the arches and the domes. The marble is cleaned every year and kept in a state of perfect purity and repair. Con
stant attention is requisite to remove the grass and young trees that shoot forth in any moist crevice: the birds carry the seeds of the peepal tree to the roof, and the young trees shoot forth, injuring those buildings that are in repair while they impart great beauty to ruins.

  Beyond the Great Gate, but still within the enclosure of the outer wall of the Tāj are the tombs of two begums, erected by Shāhjahān. The sarcophagus over the remains of the Fatehpuri Begum is of white marble, carved very beautifully: its pure white marble, without any inlaid work or mosaic, is particularly to be admired. The building which contains it is of the lightest and most beautiful architecture and of carved, red stone; the dome of plain white marble.

  On the other side the enclosure, to correspond with this tomb, is that of the Akbarābādee Begum. The building of red carved stone, the dome of white marble; the floor and the sides of the apartment that contains the sarcophagus are of white marble. The latter is beautifully inlaid with precious stones. On the top of the upper slab is a sort of royal coronet of precious stones, inlaid on the marble.

  Both these tombs are in tolerable preservation from being within the enclosure of the walls of the Tāj.

  In speaking of the red-stone of which the buildings are formed, let it not be supposed it is of a red like the flaming and varnished red in the pictures by the native artists. The red granite is of a sober and dingy reddish colour, and looks very handsome in buildings; the stones are very large, and generally beautifully carved; they are of three sorts: the first is of pure red granite, the second mottled with white spots and the third sort streaked with white; all very handsome in architecture. I brought away a bit of the fallen ornament of red granite from the tomb of the Akbarābādee Begum as a specimen. The same granite is in quantities in the quarries at Fatehpur Sikri. The buildings in the old city of Agra are of the same material and some of them, which must be very ancient, are of this highly-carved red freestone.

  I laid an offering of rupees and roses on the cenotaph of Arzumund Banoo, which purchased me favour in the eyes of the attendants. They are very civil and bring me bouquets of beautiful flowers. I have stolen away many times alone to wander during the evening in the beautiful garden which surrounds it. The other day, long after the usual hour, they allowed the fountains to play until I quitted the gardens.

  Can you imagine anything so detestable? European ladies and gentlemen have the band to play on the marble terrace, and dance quadrilles in front of the tomb! It was over the parapet of this terrace a lady fell a few months ago, the depth of twenty feet, to the inlaid pavement below. Her husband beheld this dreadful accident from the top of the minaret he had just ascended.

  I cannot enter the Tāj without feelings of deep devotion: the sacredness of the place, the remembrance of the fallen grandeur of the family of the Emperor and that of Asaf Jāh, the father of Arzumund Banoo, the solemn echoes, the dim light, the beautiful architecture, the exquisite finish and delicacy of the whole, the deep devotion with which the natives prostrate themselves when they make their offerings of money and flowers at the tomb, all produce deep and sacred feelings; and I could no more jest or indulge in levity beneath the dome of the Tāj, than I could in my prayers.

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  The erection of the Tāj was the most delicate and elegant tribute and the highest compliment ever paid to woman.

  And now adieu! – beautiful Tāj – adieu! In the far, far West I shall rejoice that I have gazed upon your beauty; nor will the memory depart until the lowly tomb of an English gentlewoman closes on my remains.

  CHAPTER XXXI

  PLEASANT DAYS AT AGRA

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  FEBRUARY 3RD 1835 – The palace in the Fort contains magnificent buildings, which are all of white marble, and were erected by Shāhjahān. The denāni-khas or hall of private audience, is a noble structure; the arches are beautiful; so is the building, which is of the same material, inlaid with coloured stones. In the interior, the roof and sides are beautifully and delicately ornamented with the representations of various flowers, beautifully combined, and formed of precious stones; the whole of the ornaments are also richly gilt. The apartments of the zenāna, which adjoin this building, are of white marble, exquisitely carved and inlaid with precious stones, in the style of the mosaic work at the Tāj. These apartments were converted into a prison for Shāhjahān, during the latter part of his reign. The central room is a fountain which plays in and also falls into a basin of white marble inlaid with the most beautiful designs, so that the water appears to fall upon brilliant flowers.

  The Noorjahān burj, or turret of Noorjahān, is of the same exquisitely carved marble, inlaid in a similar manner. In an apartment on the opposite side of the court the same style is preserved; the water here falls over an inlaid marble slab, which is placed slanting in the side of the wall and, being caught, springs up in a fountain.

  Some wretches of European officers – to their disgrace be it said – made this beautiful room a cook-room! and the ceiling, the fine marbles and the inlaid work, are all one mass of blackness and defilement! Perhaps they cooked the sū’ar, the hog, the unclean beast, within the sleeping apartments of Noorjahān – the proud, the beautiful Sultana!

  In this turret I took refuge for some time from the heat of the noonday sun. What visions of former times passed through my brain! How I pictured to myself the beautiful Empress, until her portrait was clear and well defined in my imagination: still, it bore an European impress. I had never entered the private apartments of any native lady of rank and I longed to behold one of those women of whose beauty I had heard so much; I had seen two paintings of native women, who were very beautiful; but the very fact that these women had been beheld by European gentlemen degraded them to a class respecting which I had no curiosity. I was now in the deserted zenāna of the most beautiful woman recorded in history; and one whose talents and whose power over the Emperor made her, in fact, the actual sovereign; she governed the empire from behind the parda. The descendants of Jahāngeer, in their fallen greatness, were still at Delhi; and I determined, if possible, to visit the ladies of the royal zenāna now in existence.

  The zenāna masjid, a gem of beauty, is a small mosque, sacred to the ladies of the zenāna, of pure white marble, beautifully carved, with three domes of the same white marble.

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  I have just returned from an expedition that has taken a marvellous hold of my fancy. Yesterday Mr C— said that if I would promise to pay the Shīsha-Mahal a visit, he would have it lighted up: the apartments are usually only lighted up to satisfy the curiosity of the Governor-General. I went with pleasure; the place was illuminated with hundreds of little lamps: there was not time to have the water raised from the river or we should have seen the effect of the sheets of water pouring over and beyond the rows of lights in the marble niches. After viewing the Shīsha-Mahal, the effect of which was not as good as I had imagined it would be, Mr C— asked me if I should like to see the apartments under ground in which the pādshāh and his family used to reside during the hot winds. We descended to view these tykkanahs and the steam-baths belonging to them. Thence we went by the aid of lighted torches to view a place that made me shudder. An officer examining these subterranean passages some time ago observed that he was within the half of a vault of an octagon shape, the other half was blocked up by a strong, but hastily formed wall. Tradition amongst the natives asserted that within the underground passages in the Fort, was a vault in which people had been hanged and buried, but no one could say where this vault was to be found.

  The officer above-mentioned, with great toil and difficulty, cut through a wall eight feet in thickness and found himself in an inner vault of large dimensions, built of stone, with a high and arched roof. Across this roof was a thick and carved beam of wood with a hole in its centre and a hook, such as is used for hanging people. Below and directly under this hole in the beam, and in the centre of the vault, was a grave; this grave he opened and found the bangles (ornaments for the arms)
of a woman. Such is the place I have just visited. My blood ran cold as I descended the steps, the torches burning dimly from the foulness of the air and I thought of the poor creatures who might have entered these dismal passages, never to revisit the light of day. I crept from the passage through the hole which had been opened in the thick wall and stood on the ransacked grave, or perhaps graves of secret murder. Close to this vault is another of similar appearance; the thickness of the wall has baffled the patience of some person who has attempted to cut through it; however, the officers who were with me this evening say they will open it, as well as a place which they suppose leads to passages under the city. An old sergeant who has been here thirty years says he once went through those passages, but the entrance has subsequently been bricked up and he cannot discover it: the place which it is supposed is the blocked-up entrance through which he passed will, they say, be opened tomorrow. Having seen this spot of secret murder and burial, I can believe any of the horrible histories recorded in the annals of the pādshāhs: only imagine the entrance having been blocked up by a wall eight feet in thickness!

  Quitting the Fort, we drove to the Tāj: the moon was at the full, adding beauty to the beautiful; the Tāj looked like fairy frost-work, yet so stately and majestic. And this superb building – this wonder of the world – is the grave of a woman, whilst only a short distance from it is the vault of secret murder – the grave also of a woman! What a contrast! How different the destiny of those two beings! The grave of the unknown and murdered one only just discovered amidst the dismal subterraneous passages in the Fort: the grave of the other bright and pure and beautiful in the calm moonlight. The damp, unwholesome air of the vaults is still in my throat; we were some time exploring and hunting for the passage which, they say, leads to the temple of an Hindu who lives in the Tripolia; he will suffer no one to enter his temple and declares the devil is there in propria persona.