32 



peacock's feathers. On a stool by the head, on the right hand, is the 

 Koran wrapt up in a napkin. On the left, near the monument of 

 Akber, is that of his eldest son; the other imperial princes repose 

 at a greater distance. It is altogether a stupendous fabric, with 

 an immense door in the centre, and twelve smaller in different 

 apertures. The design is grand, the execution in a superior style, 

 and the preservation wonderful, considering it has been erected 

 two hundred and thirty-six years. 



Under a neat marble tomb, near the peer, are deposited the 

 remains of Tanseine, the Orpheus of Hindostan, he being the first 

 who brought the art of singing to perfection in this part of the 

 world. By the Mahomedan accounts he was a brahmin boy, con- 

 verted to Islamism by Shah Mahomed Gose; who, struck with 

 the sweetness of his voice, patronized him very early in life, and 

 taking great pains in cultivating his talents, laid the foundation 

 of that celebrity which he afterwards attained. He lived many 

 years at the court of Akber, high in favour with the emperor, and 

 the admiration of his subjects. Dying at Lahore, while attend- 

 ing his sovereign, Akber, out of affection and respect to his memory 

 and talents, had his corpse conveyed from thence to Gwalier, at 

 a great expense, that it might be deposited near the remains of 

 his friend and early benefactor, Shah Mahomed Gose. Even to 

 this hour the memory of Tanseine is so celebrated, that the musi- 

 cal amateurs of Hindostan, hold it in the highest veneration, and 

 many travel from a great distance to do homage at his shrine. 

 His tomb was formerly shaded by a spreading tamarind- tree, 

 which has been so often stripped of its leaves, bark, and tender 

 branches, by these musical votaries, that it is now almost a sapless 



