588 Some account of the " Kalcin Musjeed." [June, 



this kind within the precincts of a large and modern town, and promi- 

 nently conspicuous from almost all parts of that town, should have 

 been so little noticed by modern travellers. Bernier has not a word 

 about it ; it is not alluded to by Franklin, whose description of Dehli, 

 in the fourth Volume of the Asiatic Researches, forms the staple basis 

 of all subsequent accounts. It is possible however that descriptions 

 may exist ; if so the writers of this have not seen them, and can only 

 hope that in such a case their account may be found to contain matter 

 not previously touched upon by others.* They may further be per- 

 mitted to express a hope that they will not be considered presumptuous 

 in suggesting to other members of the Archaeological Society of Dehli, 

 the plan they have adopted in this paper with regard to other edifices 

 around Dehli, by which a large mass of valuable illustrative information 

 might be collected in a very short time. 



We may state in addition that we have learnt, since the above was 

 written, that several years after Dehli came into the possession of the 

 British government, the principal Mahommedan inhabitants of the 

 neighbourhood of the Torkman gate, who noticed with grief the neglect 

 with which this mosque was treated by the king in whose charge it ap- 

 pears then to have been, presented a petition to the local authorities to 

 restore the mosque to its original use ; that their request received 

 favorable consideration, that a grant, said to have amounted to Us. 1500, 

 was made to clean and repair the mosque, that the silk-weavers who had 



* The following- is the account, a very disparaging' one, given of the mosque by 

 Bishop Heber in the narrative of his journey : — " The Kala Musjeed is small, and has 

 nothing worthy of notice about it but its plainness, solidity and great antiquity, being a 

 work of the first Patan conquerors, and belonging to the times of primitive Mussulman 

 simplicity. It is exactly on the plan of the original Arabian mosques, a square Court 

 surrounded by a cloister ; and roofed with many small domes of the plainest and most 

 solid construction, like the rudest specimen of what we call the early Norman architec- 

 ture. It has no minaret ; the crier stands on the roof to proclaim the hour of prayer. 

 —Vol. II. p. 297, 8vo. edit. 



Hamilton, in his East India Gazetteer (2d edit. 1828) says of the Kalan Musjeed: 

 " Besides these there are forty other mosques, some of which bear the marks of consi- 

 derable antiquity. This applies more particularly to the black mosque, a large and 

 gloomy edifice of dark-coloured granite, whose rude internal columns, cloistered area, 

 numerous low cupolas, and lofty outer walls, devoid of aperture or ornaments denote 

 an origin coeval with the earlier Affghan dynasties." [This last, paragraph clearly shows 

 that the inscription had not been read at the time the Gazetteer was published, because 

 the reading would have left no doubt about the matter]. 



