92 GARDENS OF THE PLAINS— DELHI 



marks the gouth-western angle of the capital of 

 the ;^glish-Aryan King-Emperor of India. 



Six Delhis lie between Purana Kila and the 

 Ridge; six capitals of Empires each famous in 

 its day ; but the plain has conquered all save 

 one : the vast, relentless, sandy plain, broken 

 only where the Kutb Tower of Victory soars 

 up against the sky, the grim dark walls 

 of Tughlakabad rise deserted but defiant, or 

 the fairy gates of Indraspat catch the sunset 

 light on the site of Yudisthara's legendary 

 citadel. 



Shah Jahanabad, modern Delhi as we call it, 

 still stands, and a wonderful city it is. A palace, 

 fort, and city built at one time, by one man, and 

 that man an Emperor, an artist, and the greatest 

 builder of his day. Fergusson, in his Indian 

 Architecture, says that the whole conception 

 of the palace-fort, with its entrance built to look 

 straight down the Chandi Chauk (the Moonlight 

 Market), with its trees and long canal full of 

 running water, forms the finest approach to " the 

 most magnificent palace in the East — ^perhaps in 

 the world." Near the fort, too, stands the grand 

 Jama Masjid, the cathedral mosque of India, yet 

 with all these magnificent buildings the strangest 



