DELHI. 
231 
Seven days after quitting Agra, we entered Delhi. 
The ruins in the neighbourhood of this once mighty 
city are extraordinary ; they are scattered over a sur- 
face of nearly twenty square miles, and the old city 
is said to have occupied an area of equal extent. Its 
original name before the Mahomedan invasion was 
Indraprasth, by which name it is still distinguished in 
the historical records of the Hindoos. The modern 
Delhi was founded by the Emperor Shah Jehan, in 
1631, and named after himself, Shahjehanabad. It 
is about seven miles in circumference, and is protected 
on three sides by a plain brick wall. Within the new 
city are the remains of several splendid palaces, and 
there are many noble edifices still standing in the 
glory of their strength and beauty, among which may 
be mentioned the Jumma Musjid, a grand mosque, 
built by Shah Jehan at a cost of a hundred and 
twenty thousand pounds ; a great sum in the seven- 
teenth century, especially in that country. 
Though, in consequence of the almost total ex- 
tinction of the Mogul empire, the present population 
of Delhi bears no proportion to that which thronged 
within its walls during the reign of its founder and 
his ambitious successor, it has nevertheless greatly in- 
creased since it fell under the protection of the British 
government. This has, in some degree, restored it to 
its former flourishing condition, since there is not per- 
haps a city of Hindostan, which can even now vie with 
it in the wealth of its bazars, and in all the various 
indications of a prosperous and happy population. 
The streets of Delhi, like those of all Indian cities, 
are in general very narrow ; indeed, I believe there 
