DELHI, a celebrated city, capital of the above province, and for many years the capital of the Patan and Mogul empires, situated on the banks of the Jumna. During the era of its splendour it is said to have occupied a space of twenty miles round; and its great extent is still attested by the ruins, which cover a vast surface. The inhabited part of the town is about seven miles in circuit; it is seated on a range of rocky hills, and is surrounded by an embattled wall, which the English government have put into repair, and have strengthened with bastions, a moat, and a regular glacis. The city has seven gates, namely, the Lahore gate, the Ajmeer gate, Turkoman gate, Delhi gate, Mohur gate, Cabul gate, and Cashmere gate; all built of freestone. The houses within the walls
are many of them large and high. The streets are in general narrow, with the exception of two: the first leading from the palace to the Delhi gate, which had formerly an aqueduct along its whole extent; and the second from the palace to the Lahore gate. These are really wide, handsome, and, for an Asiatic city, remarkably clean. The breadth of the first may be about equal to that of Pall-Mall, and is called Chandnee Chokee, or Silversmiths' Street, though there is no great number of that trade in it. The city is partitioned into thirty-six divisions, each named after a particular nobleman who resides there, or from some local circumstance. It contains a great number of mosques, with high minarets and gilded domes, and the remains of many splendid palaces belonging to the great omrahs of the empire. They are all surrounded with high walls, and occupy a considerable space of ground, as they comprehend gardens, baths, stables for all sorts of animals, and music galleries, besides an extensive seraglio. Above all is seen the imperial palace, a very high and extensive cluster of Gothic towers and battlements. It was built by Shah Jehan, on the west bank of the Jumna, and is surrounded on three sides by an embattled wall sixty feet high, built of red granite, with small round towers, and two noble gateways, each defended by an outer barbican of the same construction, though of less height, and the whole surrounded by a wide moat. It is a place of no strength; but, "as a kingly residence," says Heber, "it is one of the noblest that I have seen. It far surpasses the Kremlin; but I do not think that, except in the durability of its materials, it equals Windsor." Adjoining to it is the fortress of Selimghur, now in ruins. The gardens of Shalimar were made by the Emperor Shah Jehan, and are said to have cost one million sterling; but, like his other works, they are now in ruins. They are surrounded by a brick wall, and were about a mile in circumference.
There are many fine mosques in Delhi, still in good repair, the chief of which are the Jumna Musjeed and the Kala Musjeed. The former is advantageously elevated on a small rocky eminence to the full height of the surrounding houses. It was begun by Shah Jehan in the fourth year of his reign, and was completed in the tenth. In front it has a large square court, surrounded by a cloister open on both sides. It is paved with granite inlaid with marble, and commands a view of the whole city. In the centre is a great marble reservoir of water, with some small fountains supplied by machinery from the canal. On its west side, and rising at another flight of steps, is the mosque itself, which is entered by three noble Gothic arches, surmounted by three domes of white marble. It has at each end a very tall minaret. "The ornaments," says Heber, "are less florid, and the building less picturesque, than the splendid group of the Imambora and its accompaniments at Lucknow; but the situation is far more commanding;" and Bishop Heber was more impressed with the size, the solidity, and rich materials of this building, than with any thing of the sort which he had seen in India. By the liberality of the British rulers, it is kept in excellent repair, a grant having been made for this purpose, which has rendered them exceedingly popular. The Kala Musjeed is small, and is chiefly worthy of notice from its plainness, solidity, and great antiquity, being a work of the first Patan conquerors in the times of primitive Mussulman simplicity. Not far from the palace is the pretty little mosque of Roshun ud Dowlah, with its three gilt domes, on the porch of which it is said that, in 1739, Nadir Shah sat to witness the massacre of the unfortunate inhabitants by his licentious soldiery; and a gate leading to a bazar near it retains the name of "Coonia Durwazu," or the Slaughter Gate. There are, besides, about forty other mosques, but of an inferior size. The tombs of the imperial family at
Delhi have several of them the most splendid architectural ornaments. That of Humayoon, the second of the Mogul dynasty who reigned over Hindustan, is a noble building of granite, inlaid with marble, and in a very simple style of Gothic architecture. It is surrounded by a large garden with terraces and fountains; and the garden itself is surrounded by an embattled wall with towers, four gateways, and a cloister within all the way round. In the centre of the square is a platform of about twenty feet high and two hundred feet square, supported by cloisters, and ascended by four great flights of granite steps. Above rises the tomb, also a square, with a great dome of white marble in its centre. The apartments within are a circular room, in the centre of which lies, under a small raised slab, the mortal remains of the prince; and in the angles are smaller apartments, where other branches of his family are interred. About a mile westward is another burying-ground, or collection of tombs and small mosques, some of them very beautiful. The most remarkable is a little chapel in honour of a celebrated Mussulman saint Nizam ud Deen; and around his shrine most of the deceased members of the present imperial family lie buried, all in their own little enclosures, surrounded by very elegant lattice work of white marble. From the gate of Agra to Humayoon's tomb is a very awful scene of desolation; "ruins after ruins," says Bishop Heber, "tombs after tombs, fragments of brick-work, freestone, granite, and marble, scattered everywhere over a soil naturally rocky and barren, without cultivation except in one or two small spots, and without a single tree." Amongst these ruins is to be seen one mass which is larger than the rest. This is the old Patan palace, which was a large and solid fortress, in a plain and unornamented style, and chiefly remarkable for a high black pillar of cast metal, called Firose's Walking Stick, a Hindu emblem of Siva, as is supposed, concerning which there is a tradition, that, whilst it stood, the children of Brahma were to bear rule in Indraput, the name of the Hindu city which preceded Delhi. The vanity of the prediction appeared when the country was conquered. The pillar is covered with inscriptions, mostly in Persian and Arabic; but that which probably contains the prophecy is in a character obsolete and unknown, a sure mark of its high antiquity.
Delhi has fallen from its ancient splendour; the fine manufactures of which it was formerly the seat are greatly declined, and the commerce, for so large a place, is inconsiderable. Cotton cloths and indigo are still manufactured in the town and neighbourhood; there is also a shawl manufactory carried on by Cashmerian weavers with wool brought from the Himalaya. Jewellery is executed in great perfection. The chief imports are by the northern caravans, which amount to nine annually, and bring from Cashmere and Cabul shawls, fruit, and horses.
The ruins which surround the present town mark the site of old Delhi, which was founded on the ruins of the still larger Hindu city of Indraput towards the west. This city was taken in 1193 by the Mahomedans under Cutubaddeen Khan, who fixed his residence there, and, upon his succeeding to the throne, made it his capital. It was increased and improved, until, under the Afghan monarchs, Agra was made the capital, which continued to be the seat of empire till the return of Humayoon from Persia in 1554. During the reigns of Akbar and Jehangire, Delhi was deserted, but was restored to its ancient splendour by the Emperor Shah Jehan, who founded the present city, and removed to it many of its inhabitants; the others followed, to be near the palace and the principal markets; and as, during the disorders of the Mahratra government, it was unsafe to remain without the walls, the old city was soon entirely abandoned.
Delhi is the residence of the Great Mogul, the representative of the house of Timour, now reduced to a very low ebb by the political revolutions which have taken place in India. He has been honourably treated by the English, who assigned him an annual pension of ten, twelve, and ultimately of fifteen lacs of rupees for his subsistence, and who treat him with all the outward homage of royalty, acknowledging him as the sovereign of the country, and themselves as his tributaries. Delhi, when it was formerly under the dominion of the Mahrattas, was frequently the scene of disorder and bloodshed; but since it has come under the dominion of the British, and tranquillity has been maintained in the country, it has been increasing in population, and property of all descriptions has been rising in value, especially houses and lands, which are more than doubled. The travelling distance from Calcutta by Birbhoom is 976 miles.