6. Between these two buildings and the great equatorial dial is an instrument called shamlah. It is a concave hemispherical surface, formed of mason work, to represent the inferior hemisphere of the heavens.
The best and most authentic account of the labours of Jayasinha for the completion of his work and the advancement of astronomical knowledge, is contained in his own preface to the Zeej Mahommedshahy; from which the following extract is a literal translation:—
“To accomplish the exalted command which he had received, he (Jey-sing) bound the girdle of resolution about the loins of his soul, and constructed here (at Delhi) several of the instruments of an observatory, such as had been erected at Samarcand, agreeably to the Musalman books: such as Zat-ul-huluck, of brass, in diameter three guz of the measure now in use (which is nearly equal to two cubits of the Koran), and Zat-ul-shobetein, and Zat-ul-suchetein, and Suds-Fukheri, and Shamlah. But finding that brass instruments did not come up to the ideas that he had formed of accuracy, because of the smallness of their size, the want of division into minutes, the shaking and wearing of their axes, the displacement of the centres of the circles, and the shifting of the planes of the instruments; he concluded that the reason why the determinations of the ancients, such as Hipparchus and Ptolemy, proved inaccurate, must have been of this kind; therefore he constructed in Dar-ul-kheláfet, Shah-Jehanabad, which is the seat of empire and prosperity, instruments of his own invention, such as Jey-per-gàs and Ram-junter, and Semrat-junter, the semi-diameter of which is eighteen cubits, and one minute on it is a barleycorn and a half, of stone and lime, of perfect stability, with attention to the rules of geometry and adjustment to the meridian, and to the latitude of the place, and with care in the measuring and fixing of them; so that the inaccuracies from the shaking of the circles, and the wearing of their axes, and displacement of their centres, and the inequality of the minutes, might be corrected.
“Thus an accurate method of constructing an observatory was established; and the difference which had existed between the computed and observed places of the fixed stars and planets, by means of observing their mean motions and aberrations with such instruments, was removed. And, in order to confirm the truth of these observations, he constructed instruments of the same kind in Sewaī Jeypoor, and Matra, and Benares, and Oujein.”
After this most interesting visit to the Observatory, we returned to Delhi.
THE ZENĀNA.
During my visit at Khāsgunge, Mr. James Gardner gave me an introduction to one of the princesses of Delhi, Hyat-ool-Nissa Begam, the aunt of the present, and sister of the late king. Mr. James Gardner is her adopted son. The princess sent one of her ladies to say she should be happy to receive me, and requested me to appoint an hour. The weather was excessively hot, but my time was so much employed I had not an hour to spare but one at noon-day, which was accordingly fixed upon.
I was taken in a palanquin to the door of the court of the building set apart for the women, where some old ladies met and welcomed me. Having quitted the palanquin, they conducted me through such queer places, filled with women of all ages; the narrow passages were dirty and wet,—an odd sort of entrance to the apartment of a princess!