DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.15172#0216
CHAP. VII.
THE GREAT MOGUL.
181
the " Persian robber" while the citizens of Delhi
were massacred. One would have thought that the
temple in which he sat would have softened down
the asperities even of a Nadir; but he fell himself
in the end, and in the holiest city of his mighty
conquests.
Dec. 15. 1831.—I paid my obeisance to the Great
Mogul this morning, in company with the Resident,
Mr. Martin. I made my ko-tou to the fifteenth in
descent from Timour, was clothed in a dress of
honour, and had the other insignia given by oriental
princes tied on my head by his majesty. He is a
decrepit, toothless old man, with a venerable ex-
pression of countenance. The mummery of the
ceremony was absurd, and I could not suppress a
smile, as the officers mouthed, in loud and sonorous
solemnity, the titles of the king of the world, the
ruler of the earth, — a monarch now realmless, a
prince without even the shadow of power !
Dec. 16. 1831. — I drove out to the Kootub
Minar this morning, and consider my journey re-
warded by a sight of this beautiful monument of
art. It rears its lofty summit from among the
fragments of Hindoo temples which have been de-
faced by the idolatry-hating Moslem. The pillar
commemorates the zeal of the Sultan Altimush,
and rises to a height of 210 feet, tapering in its
ascent. The resemblance of the Hindoo buildings
to the Uraeedin ka Jhopra * in Ajmeer is striking;
* See a beautiful drawing of this building in Colonel Tod's
splendid work on Rajistan.
N 3
THE GREAT MOGUL.
181
the " Persian robber" while the citizens of Delhi
were massacred. One would have thought that the
temple in which he sat would have softened down
the asperities even of a Nadir; but he fell himself
in the end, and in the holiest city of his mighty
conquests.
Dec. 15. 1831.—I paid my obeisance to the Great
Mogul this morning, in company with the Resident,
Mr. Martin. I made my ko-tou to the fifteenth in
descent from Timour, was clothed in a dress of
honour, and had the other insignia given by oriental
princes tied on my head by his majesty. He is a
decrepit, toothless old man, with a venerable ex-
pression of countenance. The mummery of the
ceremony was absurd, and I could not suppress a
smile, as the officers mouthed, in loud and sonorous
solemnity, the titles of the king of the world, the
ruler of the earth, — a monarch now realmless, a
prince without even the shadow of power !
Dec. 16. 1831. — I drove out to the Kootub
Minar this morning, and consider my journey re-
warded by a sight of this beautiful monument of
art. It rears its lofty summit from among the
fragments of Hindoo temples which have been de-
faced by the idolatry-hating Moslem. The pillar
commemorates the zeal of the Sultan Altimush,
and rises to a height of 210 feet, tapering in its
ascent. The resemblance of the Hindoo buildings
to the Uraeedin ka Jhopra * in Ajmeer is striking;
* See a beautiful drawing of this building in Colonel Tod's
splendid work on Rajistan.
N 3