308. Plan of Mosque at Mandu. No scale.
The interior of the court is represented in Woodcut No. 309, and for simple grandeur and expression of power it may, perhaps, be taken as one of the very best specimens now to be found in India. It is, however, fast falling to decay, and a few years more may deprive it of most of that beauty which so impressed me when I visited it in 1839.
The tomb of the founder, which stands behind the mosque, though not remarkable for size, is a very grand specimen of the last resting-place of a stern old Pathan king. Both internally and externally it is reveted with white marble, artistically, but not constructively, applied, and consequently in many places peeling off. The light is only admitted by the doorway and two small windows, so that the interior is gloomy, but not more so than seems suitable to its destination.
309. Courtyard of Great Mosque at Mandu. (From a Sketch by the Author.)
On one side of the mosque is a splendid Dharmsala, or hall, 230 ft. long, supported by three ranges of pillars, twenty-eight in each row. These are either borrowed from a Hindu edifice, or formed by some native architect from stones originally Hindu, and on the north side is a porch, which is avowedly only a re-erection of the pillars of a Jaina dome.
The palaces of Mandu are, however, perhaps even more remarkable than its mosques. Of these the principal is called Jehaj Mehal, from its being situated between two great tanks—almost literally in the water, like a “ship.” It is so covered with vegetation that it is almost impossible to sketch or photograph it,[521] but its mass and picturesque outline make it one of the most remarkable edifices of its date; very unlike the refined elegance afterwards introduced by the Moguls, but well worthy of being the residence of an independent Pathan chief of a warrior state.