The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1879-07-02

Our stay in Agra was short, but it would
have been impossible to have left India with
out seeing the Tai. This building is said to
be the most beautiful 10 the world. 1t hap
pened to be Sunday, and as we drove along
the road there seemed to be Sunday air
about the crowds that drifted backward and
forward from the garden. On our arrival at
the gate the General and party were received
by the custodians of the building, and as we
walked down the stone steps and under the
overarching shade trees we had grown to be
quite procession.
The TAI is the expression of the grief of
the Emperor Shah Jehan for his wife, who
was known in her day as Mumtaz -Mabal or
the Exalted One of the Palace. She was her.
self of royal blood, with Persian ancestry in
termingled. She was married in 1915 to Shah
Jehan, then heir to the throne, and having
borne him seven children, died in 1920 in Civ
| ing birth to the eighth child. Her life, there
fore, was in the highest sense consecrated, for
she gave 1t up In the fulfllment of supreme
and holy duty, in itself a conservation of wo-
manhood. The husband brought the body of
the wife and mother to these gardens and en-
tombed ituntil the moment of his grief should
be done. 1t was seventeen years after the
work was finished. The cost is unknown. the
best authorities rating 1t at more than two
millions of dollars. Two millions of dollars
in the time of Shah Jehan, with labor for the
asking, would be worth as much as twenty
millions in our day. For seventeen years 90
600 men worked on the Tai, and their wages
was daily portion of corn.
The effect of the Tai as seen from the gate,
looking down the avenue of trees is grand
The dome and towers seem to rest In the air,
and 1t would not surprise you If they became
clouds and vanished into rain. The gardens
are the perfection Of horticulture, and you
see here, as in no part of India that / have
vieitcd, ilie wuaitn ard beauty or aatase IA.
Hindostan. The landscape seems to be flush
ed with roses, with all varieties of the rose,
and that most sunny and queenly of flowers
seems to strew your path and bid you well
come as you saunter down the avenues and up
the ascending slope that leads to the shrine of
husbands love and a mothers conservation.
a spray and cool the air. and when you pass
the trees and come to the door of the bniId-
ing its greatness comes upon you--its great
ness and its beauty. Mr.. Keene took us to
various parts of the garden, that we might
see 1t from different points of view. could
see no value in one view beyond the other
And when our friend, in the spirit of courte--
| snIn al r.. <Ieeo - Al.
building-that 1t was too much this, or too
much that, or would have been perfect il it
had been little less of some else--there was
just the least disposition to resent criticism
and to echo the opinion of Mr.. Borie, who,
as he stood looking at the exquisite towers
and solemn marble walls, said :. 1t was worth
coming to India to see the Tai" l value that
criticism because it is that of practical bnsi-
ness man, concerned with affairs, and not dis
posed to see poetic side to any subject
What he saw in the TAI was the idea that its
founder meant to convey-the idea of solemn,
overpowering and unapproachable beauty.
AS you enter you see vast dome every
Arabic, verses from the Koran, engraved mar.
BILE, mosaics, decorations in agate and jasper.
In the centre are two small tombs of white
marble modestly carved. These cover the
resting place of the Emperor and his wife,
whose bodies are In the vault underneath. In
other days the Turkish priests read the Koran
from the gallery, and you can imagine how
solemn must have been the effect of the
words chanted In priestly cadence by the
echo that answers and again answers the
chanting of some tune by one of the party
The more closely you examine the Tai the
more you are perplexed to decide whether its
beauty is to be found in the general effect Of
the design as seen from afar, or the minute
and finished decorations which cover every
wall. The general idea of the building Is new
er lost There is nothing trivial about tho
| Tai, no grotesque, gothic moulding or flower
ing Corinthian columns--all is cold and white
and chaste and pure. You may form an idea
of the size Of the Tai from the figures of the
measurement of the royal engineers. From
the base to the top of the centre dome is 1891
feet to the summit Of the pinnacle, 243t #.
1t stands on the banks of the river Jumna,
and it is said that Shah Jehan intended to
build counterpart in black marble in which
his own ashes should rest. But misfortunes
came to Shah Jehan-ungrateful children,
strife, deposition-and when he died his son
felt that the TAI was large enough for both
father and mother. One is almost glad that
the black marble idea never terminated. The
Tai by itself alone. is unapproachable. A
duplicate would have detracted from its peer
less beauty.
We remained in the gardens until the sun
went down, and we had to hurry to our car
riages not to be caught in the swift descend
J ing night. The gardener came to Mrs Grant
| with an offering of roses. Some of us, on our
return from Jeypore, took advantage of the
now moon to make another visit. We had