TOMBS OF SHAH JEHAN AND HIS EMPRESS. 197 
the founder and his empress, the one celebrated for his 
tyranny, the other no less celebrated for her beauty. 
They are both enclosed by a skreen of exquisite 
workmanship, formerly composed of jasper but now of 
marble, the more costly material having been pil- 
laged by the Mahrattas. On the right is the tomb of 
the empress, for the especial reception of whose body 
this remarkable edifice was erected, and on the left 
that of the emperor. They are both covered with 
tracery and mosaic most elaborately wrought, and the 
shades and colours of the flowers, which are repre- 
sented in almost endless profusion by different kinds 
of the inferior gems, are so true to nature that the 
eye is completely imposed upon by the resemblance. 
So minute and elaborate are some of the ornaments 
that the mosaic of a single flower is frequently com- 
posed of several dozen pieces of coloured stones. The 
astonishment which this wonderful production of art 
excites is acknowledged by every visiter. I have never 
met with a person who had seen the Taje, that has 
not admitted how very far it transcended the expecta- 
tions that had been formed of it, however highly 
these may have been previously raised. 
Had Shah Jehan survived his imprisonment by his 
son, the wily Aurungzebe, or rather, had he not been 
deposed by him, it is said to have been his intention 
to erect an edifice precisely similar to the Taje, for 
the reception of his own remains, and to connect the 
two by a bridge of white marble. If this stupen- 
dous plan had been executed, it would have formed 
at once a prodigy of human art and human vanity. 
The waters of the Jumna are already immortalized 
s 3 
