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146
THE INDIAN
AN ANTIQUARY.
which is so well known. About the same time (1631) De Laet's description of the city appeared. In 1717 the Emperor Farukhsir received at Dehli á deputation from the East India Company, and the 4. Dehli descriptions left by Tieffenthaler, Franklin, and others, towards the end of the eighteenth century, close the accounts we have of the city while its Moghul rulers possessed any remnant of authority for you as dinisen
[MAY, 1877.
in
Cunningham, and the only plan a bad copy of one by Mr. Fergusson of the palace of Shah Jehan); there are no illustrations besides the photographs; there is no bibliography, and the index is very imperfect; but what the author has tindertaken he has done thoroughly well. We have tested' his measurements and descriptions, and found them invariably correct. His authorities" es generally quoted, and his dates well supported; ; and, most creditable of all, he has firmly avoided the tall writing to which Dehli, of all other cities in India, invites the unwary. Mr. Carr Stephen, too, has refrained from the incongruous parallels which are
The preseitt century has necessarily been prolifie in general descriptions of the old and modern cities; bnt, excepting those of Heber (1824), Jacquemont (1831-32), Sleeman (1844), Mrs. Colin Mackenzie (1847), Bayard Taylor (1853), and Norman Macleodso much the fashion, and which led not long ago (1868), 1 t of them are already forgotten, and none to the neglected and mutilated Shalamar garden of them reach service to the archeologist. at being styled Versailles not backward in so Panjab"! Imagine a Versailles without a palace, important a field. In 1801 Colebrooke attacked without a picture gallery, without fountains, and the inscriptions on the Dehli pillars, and therewithout parterres! s1 Delli has been without much after, in the Asiatic Society's Journal and olsewhere, the archaeology of the city continued to receive due treatment by such as Prinsep, Thomas, Cunningham, Campbell, Tremlett, and Ahmad. In 1847 the local interest in the subject had become so general that the Dehli Archeological Society was formed, and this body published a journal which, so long as it lasted," was a mino of special information. The year 1855 produced the results of u of Mr. J. Fergusson's examination of the Muhammadan, monuments, This was principally directed
unfitness described as the Rome of Asia, but parallels should cease there. It is but bare justice to say of Mr. Carr Stephen's book that the traveller, unless he be provided with Generat Cunningham's Reports, cannot properly appreciate the city without it. The book, so far as it goes, is a decided acquisition, and the appreciative reader will regret that it does not contain six hundred pages, instead of less than half that number."
first attractive
objects, but was important as architectural introduction of the subject to to the home public, In 1862-63 General Cunningham, then Archaulogical Surveyor to Government, went over the ground, and issued a report which, besides containing much that was new, collected the results of all the previous piecemeal inquiries. This publication was wanting in illustrations and plans, and did not treat any but the more he more portant
It is refreshing, in the first place, to find a Government officer resident at Dehli taking the trouble to perform the tiresome work which has been done in this case, as neither the European community not occasional visitors impress one as caring much for this architectural paradise. 'Most persons deem two days sufficient for doing the forty-five square miles of ruins. Under these circumstances it is not surprising that the Panjab Government can only afford an annual budget allotment of two or three thousand rupees for the repair of the monuments of the old capital, while as many lakhs are being lavishly spent on Gothic structures of very questionable correctness and taste at Bahor. It must not be understood from this remark, however, that we are un we are ungrateful f what Government has done. On the contrary, it has laid the public under much obligation" by up of building very comfortable ban
estions in detail, but it has been the basis and guide of later investigators. It was supplement." ed in 1874 by Mr. Beglar, of the Archaological Survey; but as he principally confined himself to the further elucidation of a few fundamental points, such as the sites of the successive cities and the origin of the Kutb Minar and Masjid, there still remained a great deal to be done, both in exploration of the Hindu remains, Juice Faid the at Kutb, Tughlakabad, and Humayun's detailed examination of those of the Man
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At this stage the work was taken up by Me. Carr Stephen, who has confined his labours closely to the historical and architectural branches of the antiquities of Debli. His work is destitute of proper maps and plans (the only maps being two
indifferent, copies of the old gold sketches of General
206 betraod qua my bed fle
access is allowed to the Lal Kila! where demanded Government probably spends quite as as much money on the pre servation old as the Key df'T
The speciale hohen' work are
the numerous and new t translations of Muhammadan inscriptions; some judicious criticisms of former attempts to fix the ALTER Bite ef of the Pathan orties. The soil to anodal oda agiould obat
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