The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1895-12-27
An Indian Pompeii.

Nothing sadder or more beautiful ex-
lists in India than the deserted city of
Fathput Sikri. There IL stands, some
twenty-three miles from Agra, much
as 1t stood 300 years ago, when Akbar
decreed the stately pleasure house. 1t
was built to commemorate the blessing
Of the holy Salim Chishti, the hermit
who dwelt among the wild beasts in
his cave at Sikri, and who had foretold
that Akbar's son, born on that spot,
should live to succeed him on his splen-
did throne. The saint did not foresee
that the infant would grow up into
that unmitigated debauchee Jehangir,
whose orgies amazed Sir Thomas Roe
and whose potent liquor caused that
virtuous ambassador to sneeZe incon-
tinently, to the delight of the whole
court. But the heroic topper did not
defile his fathers palace city, which
must have been deserted soon after its
founders death; for when William
Finch visited it in 1910 he found it
''ruinate, lying like a waste district.
and very dangerous to pass through at
night" Ruinate it has remained ever
since, desolate and abandoned. No
later ruler of India has ever dared to
live in Akbar's Versailles, just as no
ruler of India has ever climbed to the
heights of Akbar's genius. In the emp
ty palaces, the wonderful mosque, the
sacred tomb, the baths, the lake, at
every turn we recognize some memory
of the greatest of Indian Emperors.
We may even enter his bedroom-the
khwabgah, or abode of Dreams
and see the very screens of beautiful
stone tracery, the very Persian coup
let's, the identical decoration in gold
and ultramarine, upon which Akbar
feasted his eyes during the long sultry
afternoons of the Indian plains We
may walk into the houses of Faizi and
Abul-Fazl, the laureate and the pre-
mier of his empire. who sang his glory
and chronicled his reign. We may see
that strange building. the Diwan-i-
Khas with Its central pillar-throne and
odd galleries, which some have sought
to Identify with the famous hall where
metaphysical debates took place every
Friday night under the Emperor's per-
sonal presidency. and philosopher and
theologian, orthodox and sceptic, did
furious battle for their creeds or doubts,
till they ended, long after the Small
hours" by bandying "pervert" and
atheist" to the disgust of an unwill-
ing witness-the austere Badaoni
The associations of Father Sikri,
"City of Victory" are not it's only
claims to our interest and respect. It's
beauty in desolation excited the poetic
Imagination of Heber and stirred the
critical enthusiasm of Ferguson, who
says of the Turkish Sultana's house" +"
| which still overlooks the Pachisi Court,
where Akbar is tabled to have played
| his games of living chess, that It Is
| impossible to conceive anything SO
| picturesque in outline" or any building
so richly and wonderfully carved with
out the least exaggeration or bad taste
| Equally exquisite Is the celebrated
shine of Saint Salim Chishti, built In
| 1880, with its pure white marble ceno-
taph, its red sandstone dome, and Its
veranda enclosed by delicately pierced
fall screens of fair marble, like fine lace
set in samite. And for grandeur wha,
can compare to the stately "Higl
| Gate" Bulaud Darawaza, of the mosqu,
which crowns the rocky plateau, anC
which the historian of architecture cite
as mobile beyond any portal in India
perhaps in the whole worldT'-St
| Jamess Gazette.