816 Observations upon the past and present [Oct* 



wall of the palace and of the island, those which face the long side of 

 the wall are parallel ; but these walls are not parallel to the hanks which 

 confine the water-works, so that the last when viewed from the palace 

 have an un pleasing appearance of crookedness. One architect would 

 hardly have thus distorted his work. It was so easy to have built all 

 straight at first ; but it was not so easy to make the bank square to the 

 palace already erected. The style too of the supposed earlier buildings 

 seems to me more rude and in a different taste to that of the rest : but 

 on this point I maybe mistaken. The following inscription gives u* 

 the date of the first (according to ray theory}, Musalman buildings, 

 A. D. 1457. 

 Inscription outside the building, No. 1 of the sketch. — Date 1008 H. 1599 A. D. 



C^tT y& O^J; *£ \ ♦ ♦ A <*iw £*);* ye^ J^ 1*1* ^ Mj^i 



J j y^/^ villi; ^js"^ *jvlil jy*& ts-^.lj dji ^Sdjxs^ *yc 



jisk. &», ) Ms$ * JI^J ^ ^Uj JSJjjT ^ 'i&j £ Jlj^ &J> 



* LJ't^H ^'j *j*&*.*c J^S'* "koJIi 



We owe them therefore to the splendid Mahmud Khilji' whose 

 name is celebrated throughout Malwa for the multitude of his palaces. 

 This will not interfere with the date 1499, ascribed to the water- works 

 by Sir W. Malet^, and the last indeed might seem less in the taste 

 of the martial Mahmud than of his pleasure-loving grandson Na'sir 

 Ud Din. 



There is a silly tradition regarding the founder. 

 Badshah GhoriJ possessed a talisman, the putting which between 

 his teeth rendered him invisible. One hapless day it slipped down his 

 throat. In a moment the wretched monarch felt a consuming flame 

 devouring his entrails and — 



While within the burning anguish flows, 

 His outward body glows, 

 Like molten ore — 



* From this line is derived the date of the first builder, the value of the last 

 word of the line is of course deducted from the sum total of the letters 

 contained within brackets, 1563—701 = 862 of the Hegira, or A. D. 1457. 



f Malet is said to have taken his date from a history of Mahca. It was not 

 from Ferishteh's, for I have searched his huge folios in vain for any notice of 

 Oujein. The Mirat Iscanderi a history of Guzerat informs us that the water- 

 palace was built by Na'sir TJp DiN. 



X This Ghori would throw the date still further back, but a Hindu legend is 

 but a frail base for a theory. 



