24th.—We visited this noble masjid,—the finest I have seen; no difficulty was made in allowing us to inspect it. “The gate of the house of God is always open[27]:” not only literally, but also to converts.
“This mosque is situated about a quarter of a mile from the royal palace; the foundation of it was laid upon a rocky eminence, named Jujula Pahar, and has been scarped on purpose. The ascent to it is by a flight of stone steps, thirty-five in number, through a handsome gateway of red stone. The doors of this gateway are covered throughout with plates of wrought brass, which Mr. Bernier imagined to be copper. The terrace on which the mosque is situated is a square, of about fourteen hundred yards of red stone; in the centre is a fountain, lined with marble, for the purpose of performing the necessary ablutions previous to prayer.
“An arched colonnade of red stone surrounds the whole of the terrace, which is adorned with octagonal pavilions for sitting in. The mosque is of an oblong form, two hundred and sixty-one feet in length, surmounted by three magnificent domes of white marble, interspersed with black stripes, and flanked by two minarets of black marble and red stone alternately, rising to the height of an hundred and thirty feet. Each of these minarets has three projecting galleries of white marble, having their summits crowned with light octagonal pavilions of the same. The whole front of the building is faced with large slabs of beautiful white marble; and along the cornice are ten compartments, four feet long, and two and a half broad, which are inlaid with inscriptions in black marble, in the Nishki character; and are said to contain the greater part, if not the whole, of the Koran. The inside of the mosque is paved throughout, with large slabs of white marble, decorated with a black border, and is wonderfully beautiful and delicate; the slabs are about three feet in length, by one and a half broad. The walls and roof are lined with plain white marble; and near the kibla is a handsome taak, or niche, which is adorned with a profusion of frieze-work. Close to this is a mimbar or pulpit of marble, which has an ascent of four steps, balustraded. Kibla literally implies compass, but here means a small hollow or excavation in the walls of Muhammadan mosques, so situated on the erection of the buildings as always to look towards the city of Mecca.
“The ascent to the minarets is by a winding staircase of an hundred and thirty steps of red stone; and, at the top, the spectator is gratified by a noble view of the King’s Palace, the Cuttub Minar, the Hurran Minar, Humaioon’s Mausoleum, the Palace of Feroze Shah, the Fort of old Delhi, and the Fort of Loni, on the opposite bank of the river Jumna. The domes are crowned with cullises of copper, richly gilt; and present a glittering appearance from afar off. This mosque was begun by the Emperor Shāhjahān, in the fourth year of his reign, and completed in the tenth. The expenses of its erection amounted to ten lākh of rupees; and it is in every respect worthy of being the great cathedral of the empire of Hindūstan.”—Franklin.
Exclusive of the mosques before described, there are in Shāhjahānabad and its environs above forty others; most of them of inferior size and beauty, but all of them of a similar fashion. In the evening, we drove to the Turkoman gate of the city, to see the Kala Masjid or Black Mosque. We found our way with difficulty into the very worst part of Delhi: my companion had never been there before, and its character was unknown to us; he did not much like my going over the mosque, amid the wretches that surrounded us; but my curiosity carried the day. The appearance of the building from the entrance is most singular and extraordinary; it would form an excellent subject for a sketch. You ascend a flight of stone steps, and then enter the gateway of the masjid: the centre is a square; the pillars that support the arches are of rude construction,—stone placed upon stone, without mortar between; there are twelve or fifteen small domes on three sides of the square. I wished to sketch the place, but my relative hurried me away, fearful of insult from the people around. The masjid was built four hundred and fifty years ago, before the building of the modern Delhi. The tradition of the place is this:—
In former times the masjid was built of white stone. A father committed a horrible crime within its walls. The stones of the masjid turned from white to black. It obtained the name of the black mosque. No service was ever performed there, and the spot was regarded as unholy: none but the lowest of the people now frequent the place; and any stranger visiting it might as well take a barkindāz as a protection against insult. Hindoo Rāo, the brother of the Bāiza Bā’ī, lives near Delhi, in the house of the late Mr. Frazer; he came in his curricle to call on Captain S⸺: I saw him; he is a short, thick-set, fat Mahratta, very independent in speech and bearing. After some conversation, he arose to depart, shook hands with me, and said, “How do you do?” thinking he was bidding me “good night.” This being all the English he has acquired, he is very fond of displaying it. Some young officer, in a fit of tamāshā (i.e. fun) must have taught him his “How do you do.”
There is no guide-book to conduct a stranger over the city of Delhi, or to point out the position of its numerous gates; I have therefore added a plan of the city, which we found very useful when arranging our excursions, and I have made numerous extracts from Franklin to point out places worthy of a visit[28].
25th.—Quitted Delhi, and encamped the first march at Furrudnagar on our return to Meerut; it was too hot for tents.
26th.—Encamped at Begamabad: I was very unwell; the annoyance of thieves around my tent, and the greater plague of fever, kept me awake all night.
27th.—Was driven into Meerut the whole march, being unable to sit on my horse; called in medical aid, and was confined for six days to my charpāī, unable to rise from fever, influenza, and severe cough.