341. View in Courtyard of Mûti Musjid, Agra. (From a Photograph.)
The Jumma Musjid at Delhi is not unlike the Mûti Musjid in plan, though built on a very much larger scale, and adorned with two noble minarets, which are wanting in the Agra example; while from the somewhat capricious admixture of red sandstone with white marble, it is far from possessing the same elegance and purity of effect. It is, however, one of the few mosques, either in India or elsewhere, that is designed to produce a pleasing effect externally. As will be seen from the woodcut (No. [342]), it is raised on a lofty basement, and its three gateways, combined with the four angle-towers and the frontispiece and domes of the mosque itself, make up a design where all the parts are pleasingly subordinated to one another, but at the same time produce a whole of great variety and elegance. Its principal gateway cannot be compared with that at Futtehpore Sikri ([Woodcut No. 331]); but it is a noble portal, and from its smaller dimensions more in harmony with the objects by which it is surrounded.
It is not a little singular, looking at the magnificent mosque
342. Great Mosque at Delhi from the N.E. (From a Sketch by the Author.)
which Akbar built in his palace at Futtehpore Sikri, and the Mûti Musjid, with which Shah Jehan adorned the palace at Agra, that he should have provided no place of worship in his palace at Delhi. The little Mûti mosque that is now found there was added by Aurungzebe, and, though pretty enough in itself, is very small, only 60 ft. square over all, and utterly unworthy of such a palace. There is no place of prayer, within the palace walls, of the time of Shah Jehan, nor, apparently, any intention of providing one. The Jumma Musjid was so near, and so apparently part of the same design, that it seems to have been considered sufficient to supply this apparently anomalous deficiency.
Aurungzebe, A.D. 1658-1707.
There are few things more startling in the history of this style than the rapid decline of taste that set in with the accession of Aurungzebe. The power of the Mogul empire reached its culminating point in his reign, and there were at least no external signs of decay visible before the end of his reign. Even if his morose disposition did not lead him to spend much money on palaces or civil buildings, his religious fanaticism might, one would think, have led him to surpass his predecessors in the extent or splendour of their mosques or religious establishments. This, however, is far from being the case. He did, indeed, as mentioned above, pull down the temple of Vishveshwar, at Benares, in order to erect a mosque, whose tall and graceful minarets still form one of the most prominent features in every view of the city. It was not, however, from any love of architectural magnificence that this was done, but to insult his Hindu subjects and mark the triumph of Islam over Hinduism. The mosque itself is of no great magnificence, but none more important was erected, so far as I know, during his reign.