288 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [June, 1910.] 



the Jesuits were restored to liberty ; many of the captives of 

 Hugh were ransomed a short time after their arrival in Agra, 

 and those who brought their influence and their gold to bear on 

 Shah Jahan and his grandees were chiefly Zu-1 Qarnin and 

 Veroneo. Where did Veroneo get the money from ? If he was 

 the architect of the Taj, if the lavish pay he received from the 

 Emperor justified the opinion that he was a wealthy man, we 

 have the answer. 



Searches made in our Roman Archives for further evidence 

 on Veroneo' s work on the Taj have proved fruitless; but, it 

 may be remarked that our Archives have been partly scattered 

 in iniquitous times. The following passage concerning Frey 

 Manrique's journey through Lahore occurs in an unpublished 

 Portuguese letter of Father Joseph de Castro to the Very Rev, 

 Father Mutius Vitelleschi, General of the Society in Rome, 

 (Agra, 25th August, 1641) : " Through a religious of St. 

 "Augustine, who passed here, coming from the Manilhas, on 

 " his way by land to Rome, as Procurator of the Province, I 

 "wrote at length to Your Paternity three months ago, when 

 " he left from here. He is called Fre Sebastiao Manriqe. I 

 "helped him in what I could, and obtained for his journey 

 1 ' a goodly alms from the Lord Nawab Asafkao , the f ather-in- 

 " law of the king, our ancient and only protector in these 

 "realms." 



What is more gratifying is that Mr. E. A. H. Blunt, who 

 is revising the inscriptions on European tombs in the U. P., 

 should have discovered Veroneo's grave during a recent visit to 

 Agra. It is dated 1640, a date which is in perfect agreement 

 with Manrique's statement that Veroneo had died at Lahore 

 shortly before Manrique's arrival [end of February?, 1641]. 

 That Veroneo should have been buried at Agra, though he died 

 at Lahore, will not appear surprising to those who are acquaint- 

 ed with the times. Barring that, it would seem that even his 

 contemporaries judged Agra the only fitting resting-place for 

 the man. So much admiration is felt by all for the entrancing 

 beauty of the Taj that it would be little short of a great 

 injustice to its builder, if nothing better than a crumbling 

 stone with a half-effaced inscription were left to mark his tomb, 

 and that within the very shadow of the Mausoleum attesting 

 his genius. 



