TAJE MAHAL. 
193 
most magnificent mausoleum upon earth. Can we 
wonder that a wicked father should have been the 
parent of an equally wicked son ? We cannot be sur- 
prized that the tyrant Aurungzebe inherited with the 
blood the vices of the tyrant,, Shah Jehan — the san- 
guinary offspring of a sanguinary parent — for Aurung- 
zebe, too, was a fratricide. 
Near the city of Agra is the celebrated Taje Ma- 
hal, a tomb erected by the father of Aurungzebe to the 
memory of his lovely and beloved Sultana, Arjemund 
Banu. It is said to have cost upwards of eight hun- 
dred thousand pounds sterling, an amazing sum, if we 
consider that in India money will go at least five times 
as far as in Europe ; and if we further consider the 
value of money early in the seventeenth century, when 
that splendid pile was erected, this sum will be found 
to have been equal at least to three or four millions 
with us now. Labour is always uncommonly cheap 
in India, so that I am sure I have rather underrated 
than exceeded the relative cost. The tomb is said to 
have been twenty years and fourteen days in erecting ; 
but the expense did not fall heavily on the emperor, 
if it be true that he compelled his conquered foes to 
send all the materials which they were able to sup- 
ply, and for which of course their conqueror did not 
think it necessary to pay. No man was so likely 
to have made such a cruel exaction as the tyrant 
Shah Jehan. 
The first sight of the Taje is highly imposing ; the 
edifice is constructed entirely of white marble, and, 
standing as it does upon a vast plain, under a vertical 
sun, the reflections are so vivid, that the shadows pro- 
s 
