286 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [June, 1910. 



| 



passage, which will show what his methods are, and how hasty 

 conclusions can be reached. Cf. The Taj and its Designers, in 

 Nineteenth Century and After, 1903, pp. 1039-49. [The italics 

 are mine.] 



" Before discussing Verroneo's story, it will be interesting 

 to analyse it in order to separate the truth which may be in it 

 from the falsehood. It is highly probable that Verroneo \v 

 one of the many architects who submitted designs for the Taj. 

 So much is granted to Manrique, but no more.—" They were 

 doubtless in the style of the Renaissance, which was then the 

 architectural style of Italy. ' ' Elsewhere he writes : ' ' Neither 



a- 



smallest 



r • 



suggest the style of the Italian Renaissance, which a Venetian 

 architect^ of the seventeenth century would certainly have 

 followed. ' ' Could Veroneo not imitate existing designs and even 

 improve on them? A priori, and with as much right as Mr. 

 Havell, we might say that Renaissance was so sure to meet with 



Mogul 



been 



of Mogul architecture.— " Shah Jahan examined them [the de- 



signs 



Verroneo mistook for approval." What difficulty was there 

 for Veroneo to distinguish between Shah Jahan's satisfaction 

 at his work, and his irritation on hearing of his low estimates ? 

 — lhe anger of the Padsha on hearing of the estimates and bis 

 order to spend three krors ' clearly points to the indirect oriental 

 method of rejecting a proposal." This we all fail to see ; whereas 

 little knowledge of Asiatic manners is required to understand 

 with Mannque that Shah Jahan posed before the Westerner as 

 the wealthiest and most munificent of roonarchs.— " It is quite 

 certain that Verroneo heard nothing more of his commission, 

 from Shah Jahan." Is it ? All along, Mr. Havell travesties 

 nimselt into one of Veroneo 's contemporaries.— " [Verroneo] 

 • + ^ fc ° Lah °r e > an <3 Poured the garbled account of his doings 

 into the too credulous ears of Father de Castro, who retailed 

 it as history to his fellow-priest." Father de Castro, as we have 



returned 



shown , 

 postor. 



Mr. Havell's analysis of the storv, and we look 



vain tor the discussion " of the story, which ought to have 



followed . 



'< ^ Ut A7u haVe n ° mention of Veroneo," it is alleged, 



" in 



any of the Mohammedan authors ! " We answer with Fergusson : 

 it is hardly to be expected that natives should record the 



US^t? v I Wh ° sur Pa8sed them in their own arts, and 

 needy Italian adventurers were even less likely to have an op- 

 portunity of recording the works they executed in a strange and 



wE£?2Si r H i a ? any Italian who lived at the Courts of 

 Jehangir or Shah Jahan written a book, he might have recorded 



