The Chautauquan, Vol. 03, June 1883Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle
History
The Chautauquan, Vol. 03, June 1883
Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle
Chautauqua Institution -- Periodicals; Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle -- Periodicals
In greatest contrast to this magnificent mausoleum is the simple
sodded grave of that faithful daughter of Shah Jehan, who shared her
father’s captivity, and who desired this inscription to be placed on
her stone: “Let no rich canopy cover my grave. This grass is the best
covering for the last resting-place of the poor in spirit.” This we
turned aside to see as we drove the eleven miles out of Delhi to visit
the Kutab Minar, which is perhaps, after the Taj, the most celebrated
piece of architecture in India. It is a fluted column, 240 feet high,
and supposed to be, not a Mohammedan, but a Hindu building, dating
from the twelfth century. It is built in a series of five stories.
The first three are of fine red sandstone, on which are horizontal
bands of passages from the Koran carved in boldest relief, and these
are harmonious in architecture, but the last two stories are of white
marble, with a plain surface, and seem like a patch. The great mosque
of Delhi is called the Jumma Musjid, or Friday Mosque. The arrangement
is the same in all Mohammedan temples large and small. A quadrangle
open to the sky, a fountain flowing into a square, shallow tank, in the
center, for the ablutions of the faithful, a colonnade on three sides
with open arches, and on the west, facing Mecca, stands a building
surmounted with domes, open in front, and destitute of everything
approaching a symbol. Pure monotheism is here—the worship of the
invisible deity. In the midst of this revolting polytheism of the
Hindus one hears with no little satisfaction the muezzin’s call from
the minaret, “God is great. God is one. There is no God but God, and
Mohammed is his prophet.”
One may travel day after day in India without meeting Europeans, but
crowds of natives fill the third and fourth-class carriages, in which
the rates are very low. India is in advance of America in one respect.
On every train there is always one carriage provided for ladies who
are traveling alone, called the “Ladies’ Reserved,” as is the custom
in England and on the Continent. Here only, where we pride ourselves
on our railway conveniences, do we have the odious fashion of herding
together promiscuously in sleeping coaches, which may be endurable if
one has an escort, but is most disagreeable when a lady is unattended.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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