The Caucasian. (Shreveport, La.) 1900-192?, 1903-03-22
AKBAR'S PALACE, AGRA.

India. One Of the greatest OF the Tam
erlane dynasty was .AkDIr. who first
established the capital at Agra. reIuov-
ing it from ancient Delhi because he
liked Agra better. This was i'll 1866.
Agra is 1874 miles southeast Of DelEi.
Akbar built himself a fort and Il
dwelling house, show places of Agra
to this day The fortress is far and
away the most magnificent in all north
India. It's walls are of red sandstone,
and they are seventy feet high.
Akbar died and was succeeded by
the greatest Of the Mogul emperors,
Shah Jehan, and Shah Jehan built the
Tai Mahal. the most renowned, Won
derful and beautiful mausoleum that
ever was constructed. He erected it
to express his sorrow for and admira-
ton of Mumtaz Mahal, the most be-
loved Of his assortment of wives. Per
haps the fact that~this glorious MAUI
solemn was to be the tomb of Shah
Jehan himself when his time came had
a little something to do with it's mag
nifcent construction. Let us, how
ever, give due credit to the one Mus
sulman in history who seemed to ap-
preciate a woman. Americans have
seen so many pictures of the Tai
Mahal that it is more familiar to them
than the new library at Washington.
Shah Jehan also built before he was
gathered to his fathers in 1927 the
Mott Musjid, called the Pearl mosque.
and the jana Musjid,- or Great
mosque. The Pearl mosque is lined
from entrance gate to roof with daz-
zling white marble. Mogul workmen
understood better than any others
before or since their time the art of
making marble look like lacework.
An English writer says, Into the
fair body of the India marble the Mo-
guls could work designs and ara
besques borrowed from the Persia Of
ancient history and flowers of ex-
quisite hue and symmetry suggested
Florentine artists
The design of the Pearl mosque is
a three sided court with fountain in
the center. At the entrance and the
side opposite it the marvellous marble
lacework is wrought into exquisite
screens. Arcaded cloisters surround
the three sides.
Another Of the show places of this
gorgeous old Agra, lovely as an Ara
bian Nights CITY, is the Mirror palace.
Shish Mahal. 1t was a bathing pal
ace, lined with convex mirrors, ar
ranged in grouped oriental designs.
There are thousands Of these mirrors
still. The Shish Mahal surpassed in
spIendor even the great baths of Do
cletian.
The reign of Shah Jehan was tho
golden age of the MoguI empire. Thir-
ty-one years after him-1G5S to 1907
reigned Aurangzeb. last of the great |
Mogul emperors, and Aurangzeb took
the capital away from Agra and re-
stored it to Delhi. the ancient seat of
government But the unTiyaled arch- |
tectural monuments of the former time |
remain to this day to tell the story of |
Agra the splendid, and not even sacred |
A1S4AAA Sa4l Nv atl IL All bllSSS ~ |
the tourist.
So soon as the capital was taken |
from Agra the Mogul empire declined |
The magnifcence. the wealth and the !
of it's rulers became mere /
ale and tradition. Today only it's Tai |
Mahal, its mosques, gates. palaces and !
is fort remain to prove that Agra was
md is not.
The Mogul empire had shrunk to a
shadow by the beginning of the nine
zenith century, and then the English
sobbled the shadow and took over
Delhi. Agra and the whole land to
themselves. Only once since the time
# the Moguls has Agra appeared prom
nently in the public view. and that
vas in 1876. when King Edward then
Prince Of Wales, held there an i'm
'ariGl durbar- representing his motho-.
s T.e.'I (EE.;.:9;t il! January f>,prese2te,
lin Ct C&..4