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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[APRIL, 1874.
.
The double night of ages, and of her, Night's daughter, Ignorance, hath wrapt,
and wrap AU round us, we but feel our way to err; The ocean hath its chart, the stars their map, And Knowledge spreads them on her ample
lap; But Rome is as the desert, where we steer Stumbling o'er recollections ; now we clap Our hands, and cry 'Eureka!' it is clear When but some false mirage of ruin rises
near." I have attempted in the above brief and hurried sketch to give some faiat idea of what may be seen during a short tour in the North- West. To those who have the time and the inclination, the chief interest lies in marking the rise and progress of architectural science as evidenced by the different monuments of the successive dynasties that held their sway over Hindustân. The whole subject is fully and ably treated in the works of Mr. Fergusson, and the Guide-books to Agra and Dehli, published by Mr. Keene : all that I could contribute would be mere extracts from those authors, to whom every reader can have access. It is curious to observe how in India as in Europe the period of the cinque cento, the latter half of the sixteenth century and also the first half of the seventeenth, are the period when the decorative arts culminated in their highest point of excellence. In India, it is true, of painting, properly so called, and statuary, we have no traces; but this is owing to the stern tenets of the Muham- madan faith, which condemned as idolatrons all
artistic representations of animal life; but in architecture and domestic decoration, the artisans of Hindustân stand unrivalled. The knowledge of proportion and effect, the wealth of imagination exhibited in tracery and pierced marble-work, the taste in colour as seen in mosaics and encaustic tiles, and the now lost art of enamelling on plaster, attest alike the artistic feeling and the skill of these ancient craftsmen, most of them, it is believed, Hindus. The old palaces in the forts at Agra and Delhi contain fully as beautiful specimens of work in marble and pietra dura as are to be seen in the churches and palaces of Italy; and that the old art and artistic feeling have not entirely died out is shown by the more modern productions of Dig and Govardhan, while in the streets of Mathurâ are to be seen abodes which, while differing in style, and more modest in their proportions, are not unworthy to be compared with the ducal mansions of Florence. Even the palaces of Lakhnau, which are the production of modern times, debased, as they are termed, in an artistic point of view, have a charm of their own, and it should be remembered that it is to the introduction of European ideas that this debasement is due. At Agra, the ancient art of mosaic-work is still carried on by Hindu artificers, the descendants of the men who adorned the palaces of Akbar and his descendants, and who produced such an exquisite piece of workmanship as the octagonal marble screen which surrounds the sarcophagi of Shah Jehan and his queen Mumtaz-i-Daulah in the central vault of the Taj. The world cannot produce anything of its kind more perfect.
THE GEOGRAPHY OF IBN BATUTA'S TRAVELS IN INDIA.
BY COL. H. YULE, PALERMO.
I propose to collect from the French version which had an extent of fifteen days' journey, and of Ibn Batuts the chief passages touching on on which the fatal sim dm was common. He then Indian topography, and to see what can be made reached the Indus, which he calls "the Sind, of them. Some points that are not obvious I known under the name of the Panjab." hope to explain, but & great many remain dark for He crosses the river, and enters & marshy me. Other readers of the Indian Antiquary may tract where he sees the rhinoceros. After two days' be more successful in elucidation.
journey he reaches Jang ni, a fine city on the (1.) The Traveller entered India from Kabul. His river's bank, occupied by a people called s & mira. route lay by Karm&sh, a fortress standing be. He advances again and arrives at iwastan or tween two mountains, and a stronghold of Afghan Sihwan. robbers, by Shashnaghar, and by a desert! Here are obscurities enough. I cannot point out
