MB 



Beport of the Archaeological Survey. 



lxxiii 



but of the same form, in the middle of each of the great entrances, the 

 archway being filled with a white marble lattice screen of bold pattern. 

 The decoration of the exterior depends chiefly on difference of colour, 

 which is effected by the free use of bands and borders of white marble, 

 with a few panels of black marble, on the large sloping surfaces of 

 red-stone. The horse-shoe arches are of white marble, and a broad 

 band of the same goes completely round the building at the springing 

 of the arches. Another broad band of white marble in upright slabs, 

 4 feet in height, goes all round the dome just above its springing. 

 The present effect of this mixture of colours is certainly pleasing, but 

 I believe that much of its beauty is due to the mellowing hand 

 of time, which has softened the crude redness of the sand-stone, as 

 well as the dazzling whiteness of the marble. The building itself is in 

 very good order, but the whole interior of the little fort in which it 

 stands is filled with filthy hovels and dirty people, and the place reeks 

 with ordure of every description. I would strongly recommend that 

 the whole of these hovels should be removed, and the interior of the 

 fort cleaned. The people might be located in Tughlakabad, only 

 200 yards to the north, where there are hundreds of domed rooms 

 under the ramparts, all in good repair and quite unoccupied. 



135 a. Inside the Mausoleum there are three tombs, which are 

 said to be those of Tughlak Shah and his queen, and their son Juna- 

 Khan, who took the name of Muhammad when he ascended the throne. 

 This prince was the most accomplished of all the Pathan Sovereigns 

 of India ; but he was also the most inhumanly cruel and most madly 

 tyrannical of them all. His cruelties were witnessed by his cousin 

 and successor Firuz Tughlak, who adopted one of the most curious 

 expedients which the mind of man has ever conceived for obtaining 

 the pardon of his tyrannical predecessor. I quote the words of Firuz 

 himself, as given by Ferishta,^ from the inscriptions on the Great 

 Mosque of Firuzabad. "I have also taken pains to discover the 

 surviving relations of all persons who suffered from the wrath of my 

 late Lord and Master Muhammad Tughlak, and having pensioned and 

 provided for them, have caused them to grant their full pardon and 

 forgiveness to that prince in the presence of the holy and learned men 

 of this age, whose signatures and seals, as witnesses, are affixed to the 

 documents, the whole of which, as far as lay in my power, have been 

 * Briggs, 1—464. 



