Ixxxvi 



Report of the Arch&ological Survey. 





the Horse Guards in London, as sentinels at the gate of their imperial 

 foe, to do honour to their conqueror. Admitting this view to be correct 

 I can understand why Shahjahan removed them to Delhi to occupy 

 the same position at the gate of his new citadel. Under the same 

 view I can also understand why they were spared for a time by the 

 bigotted Aurangzib. On the other hand, if we suppose with Bernier 

 and Tod that the statues were set up in honour of the two Eajput 

 warriors, their re-erection by Shahjahan is to me quite incomprehen- 

 sible. 



157. But the question of Akbar's intention, whether it was to do 

 honour to his foes or to himself, is one of comparatively little moment. 

 To us the statues are simply valuable as works of art, as they are, 

 perhaps, the only portrait statues that have been executed in India for 

 many centuries. They are made of red sand-stone, and are of life-size, 

 while the huge elephants on which they sit are of black marble, and 

 the housings are decorated with white and yellow marbles. On these 

 grounds, I conclude that the dresses and turbans of the Rajput Chiefs 

 were coloured, while the faces and hands were most probably left of 

 the natural reddish brown colour of the sand-stone. When set up 

 again in the Delhi garden, I have no doubt that they will command 

 as much attention and admiration from our own countrymen as they 

 did two hundred years ago from the enthusiastic Frenchman Bernier. 



158. There are many other remains at Delhi that are both beauti- 

 ful and interesting, but as their age and origin are well known, they 

 will naturally form a part of my proposed account of the Muhammadan 

 architecture of Northern India. Such are the Zinat Masjid, more 

 commonly called the Xudri Masjid, or " Maiden's Mosque," because 

 built by Zinat-un-nissa, the virgin daughter of Aurangzib ; the 

 Kashmiri Masjid, and the Begam Masjid in the city, and the tombs 

 of JaMndrd Begam and Zib-un-nissa, the sister and daughter of Au- 

 rangzib, outside the city. I will only notice here a grave mistake made 

 by Mrs. Colin Mackenzie in her account of the epitaph on Jahdndras 

 tomb. The marginal inscription records the name of " the perishable 

 Fakir, JaMndrd Begam, the daughter of Shahjahan, and the disciple 

 of the Saints of Chisti, A. H. 1094 (or A. D. 1682)." The holy 

 men here mentioned are the Muhammadan Saints of the well known 

 family of Chisti, of whom famous shrines exist at Ajmere, Fatehpur 

 Sikri, Thanesur, and Kasur. This notorious Muhammadan name is 



