The Ravalli Republican. [volume] (Stevensville, Mont.) 1894-1899, 1896-03-04
AN INDIAN POMPEII.
Once the Versailles OF India, but Now
Desolation.

~ AA->-A--S
Desolation.
Nothing sadder or moro beautiful
exists in India than the deserted
city of Fathpur Silzri. There it
stands, somo % miles from Agra,
much as it stood 300 years ago when
Akbar decreed the stately pleasure
house. It was built to com1nemo-
rate 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 the
splendid throne. The saint did not
foresee that the infant would grow
up into that unmitigated dobauchee
Jehangir, whose orgies amazed Sir
Thomas Roo, and whose potent
liquor caused that virtuous embassa-
dor to sneezo incontinently, to the
delight Of the whole court. But the
heroic topper did not defile his IA
theirs palace city, which must have
been deserted soon after its found
er's death, for when William Finch
visited in 1919 he found it rllinato,
lying like q waste district and very
dangerous to pass through atnight y
Ruinato it has remained ever since,
desolate and abandoned No later
ruler Of India has ever dared to livo
in Akbar's Versailles, just as no rul-
or Of India has ever climbed to the
heights Of Akbar's genius. In tho
empty palaces, the wonderful
mosque, the sacred tomb, the baths,
tho ]ake-at evory turn We recognize
some memory OF the greatest of In
dian omporors. We may even en-.
ter his bedroom-the khwabgah, or
"abode Of dreams and see the very
sorcons of beautiful stone tracery,
| the very Persian couplets, tho iden-
tical decoration in gold and ultra.
marine upon which Akbar Toasted
his eyes during the long sultry aft
ernoons cf the Indian plains. We
may walk into tho houses of Faizj
and Abu-l- l-Fazzl, the laureate and tho
premier of his empire, who sang his
glory and chronicled his reign. We
may soc that strange building, the
Diwan-i- -khas, with it's central pilla1
throne and odd galleries, which some
have sought to identify with thu
famous hall where metaphysical de-
bates took place every Friday nigh:
under the omporor's personal presi
dency, and philosopher and theolo
gian, orthodox and slzeptic, did furi
GUS battle for their creeds Or doubt!
till they ended, long after the ''s1nal
hours" by bandying ''porvert' ant
"atheist,' to the disgust of an un
willing witness-the austere Ba
daoni.
Tho associations of Fathpur Sikri
"City of Victory,' are not its onl.
claims to our interest and respect
It's beauty in dcsolation excited tn
poetic imagination Of Heber ant
stirred tho critical enthusiasm 0
Ferguson, who says Of the ''Turk
ish sultan S house., which still over
looks tho Pachisi court where Ak
bar is tabled to hayo played hi
games of living chess, that it is i'm
possible to conceive anything So. pic
turesquo in outline' or any building
Sc richly and wonderfully carved
with out the least cxaggeration o
bad tasto. Equally exquisite is tn
celebrated shrine OF ST. Stllin Chish
tt, built in 1880, with it's puro whit
marble conotaph, its red sandston
domo and it's veranda inclosed b,
delicately pierced fall screens of fai
marble, like fine lace set in sa1nitc
And for grandeur what can compar
to tho stately thigh gate, . Bulau
Darvaza, of the mosque whic
crowns tho rocky plateau, and whic.
tho historian of architecture cites a
'noblo beyond any portal i'll India
perhaps in the whole world"
James Gazette.