Evening star., 1904-03-17
THE FORT AT AGRA
One Of the Great Works of
Shah Jehan.
SURPRISES lKREMLIN
NO MODERN EDIFICE COMPARES
WITH IT.
Luxury Of the Mogul Court Described
by Frenchman, Who Visit
ed It in 1868.
BY WILLIAM E. CURTIS.

SpeCiaI Correspondence OF Inc Evening Star ana
Chicago Record Herald.
AGRA India, February %, 1904
Although the moguls have vanished their
glory remains in the most sublime and
beautiful monuments that were ever erect
ed by human hands. and people come from
the uttermost parts of the earth to admire
them. In the form of fortresses, palaces.
temples and tombs they are scattered
pretty well over northern India, and the
finest examples may be found at Agra, a
city of 100000 inhabitants only short
ride from Delhi, the mogul capital. Agra
was their favorite residence. Akbar the
Great actually removed the seat of gov
ernment there the latter part of the six
teenth century, and there expended genius
and money until he made it the most beau
tiful city in India, and filled 1T with the
most splendid palaces that were ever seen.
Shah Jehan, his grandson, who was a
greater man than he. and lived and reigned
nearly hundred years after him. even sur
passed him in architectural ambition and
accomplishments. Jehan built the fort at
Agra, and the best specimens of his archi-
tectural work are within it's walls, erected
between 1880 and 1887, and he was con-
fined there, the prisoner Of his son Auran-
zeb. for seven years before his death, from
1858 to 1865
The fortress at Agra is probably the
grandest citadel ever erected. 1t surpasses
In beauty and strength the Kremlin at
Moscow. the Tower of London the citadel
at Toledo and every other fortress know
Of Nothing erected in modern times can
compare with 1t. Although it would be a
poor defense and protection against mod
ern projectiles. 1T was impregnable down to
| the mutiny Of 1857. The walls are two
miles and quarter in circumference; they
are protected by a moat thirty feet wide
and thirty-fve feet deep; they are seventy
feet high and thirty feet thick. and built
of enormous blocks Of red sandstone.
There are two entrances, both very tmpos-
ing. one called the Delhi Gate and the
other the Elephant Gate. where there used
to be two large stone elephants, but they
were removed many years ago.
Within these walls is a collection of the
most magnificent oriental palaces ever
erected. with mosques; barracks, arsenals,
store houses, baths aud other buildings for
residential, official and military PURPOSES
all of them on the gfandest scale. Since
the British have had possession they have
torn down many Of Che old buildings and
have erected unsightfy piles of brick and
stone in their places, but the world should
be grateful to them for leaving the most
characteristic and costly of the mogul resi-
dences undisturbed A small garrison Of
English soldiers isasartered in the fortress
at present just enough to protect 1t and
keep things in order..hut there is room for
several regiments, and during the mutiny
of 1857 more than 1s0e9 foreigners. refugees
from northern India, found refuge and pro-
tectlon mere. ,'.JLk ke~ so c..
Although the palaces seem bare and COM
FORTRESS to us today and we wonder how
people could ever be contented to live in
them, we are reminded that when they were
actually occupied the open arches were
hung with curtains, 5ha marble floors were
spread with rugs; and covered with cush-
ions, and the banquet halls, were furnished
with sumptuous services of gold, silver and
linen. The moguls We're not ascetics. They
loved luxury and lived in great magnifi-
cence, with, every comfort and convenience
mat the ingenuity and experience of those
days could contrive.. 1t is never safe to
judge of things by your own standard You
may; always be sure that intelligent people
VIII adapt themselves in the best possible
manner to their conditions and epyiron-
ments. Those who live In the tropics know
much better how to make themselves com
Portable than. friends who visit them from
the arctic zone. Wise travellers will always
initiate local habits and customs so far as
they are able to do So While these won
derful compositions of carved marble seem
cold and comfortless as they stand empty
To-Day, we must not forget that they were
very different when they were actually in
habited
Mogul Court in Shah Jehan's Reign.
Some idea of the luxury of the mogul
court may be gained from an account given
by NJ Bernier. a Frenchman who visited
Agra in 1888. during the reign Of Shah
Jehan. He says:
THE king appeared sitting upon his
throne, In the bottom of the great hall of
the Am-kas, splendidly appareled His
vest was Of white satin. fowered and
raised with a very fine embroidery of gold
and silk. His turban was of cIoth-of-eold
having fowl wrought upon it like heron.
whose loot was covered with diamonds of
an extraordinary bigness and price, with a
great oriental topaz. which may be said to
be matchless, shining like little sun A COL
lar OF Dig pearls hung about his neck down
TO MS stomach. after the manner that some
OF the heathens wear their great beads His
throne was supported by six high pillars or
feet, said to be of massive gold and set
with rubies emeralds and diamonds l am
ber or the price of this heap of precious
stones. because 1t Is not permitted to come
near enough to count them and to Judge OF
their water and purity Only this / can
say: Ihat the big diamonds are there in
confusion, and that the throne is estimated
to be worth four kouroures of roupies. if
remember well: have said elsewhere
that roupie Is almost equivalent to half q
crown, leclue to hundred thousand rom
pies and kourour to hundred leco1es.
so SO that the throne, is valued at forty mil
sixty millions of French livres. That which
L find upon it best devised are two pea
cocks covered with precious stones and
pearls; Beneath this throne there ap-
peared all the Omrahs, in splendid apparel
upon raised ground covered with a can.
opy OF purified gold. with great golden
1r1ngeS, ana incloSed by silver baIistre
The pillars OF the haE were hung with
tapestries of purified gold having the
ground of gold and for the roof of the
hall ha There there was ne9ipg but great canopies
silken cords thab3shh3f big tufts of silk
mixed with threads QGgeld.'
The Psar1s Mosque
The gem of th4sarehitecturaI exhibition
always exemptinghtK eiTaj Mahal. the tomb
of the Princess Arjnaahd Banu of which /
wrote you the Others day. is the Pearl
Mosque" so called because 1t is built of
stainless white msarbls without the slight
est bit of color within except inscriptions
from the Koran there's and there inlaid in
precious stones. IsIwas the private chanel
or the mogul empesors, as you might say:
was built betweene f6fS and 1855. and has
been pronouncedcuy fhe highest AUTHORITY
to be the purest aHGk most elegant example,
or Saracenic architecture In existence No
iovelier sanctuary3Was ever erected i'm honor
OF the Creator. One of the inscriptions tells
us that 1t was intended to be .Iikened to a
mansion OF paradise or to a precious pearl .
1t Is built after the usual fashion, a SQUARE
courtyard paved with white marble and
surrounded by marble colonnade. with
exquisite arches supported by pillars of