every fide are two rows of magnificent arches, enriched with
moft magnificent fculpture, or beautifully inlaid with marbles of
different colors. This is the entrance into a garden of twenty
acres, finely planted, and laid out into walks, amidft which arife
t:he various buildings. The minarets and domes o f the Maufoleum
are o f white marble; the other parts compofed of marbles
of various colors, like the former, inlaid in red ftone : fancy
muff have been exhaufted in the invention of ornament. In
the middle of the Maufoleum is a vaft hall, in the middle of
which a plain farcophagus o f white marble, contains the poor
remains o f the great emperor, with no other infcription than
that o f A kbar.
I s h a l l not, fays the philofophical Bernier, ftay to difcourfe
■of the monument o f Akbar, becaufe whatever beauty is there,
,-is found in a far higher degree in that of lajemabel, or the
C rown of the Seraglio, the favorite queen o f Shah Jeban,
who ereited this maufoleum to her honor. She was that extraordinary
beauty o f the Indies, whom he loved fo paflionately,
that it is faid that he never enjoyed any other woman while Ihe
lived, and when ihe died he was in danger to die himfelf.
Mr. Daniel!, in his eighteenth plate, fully verifies the opinion
of Bernier. The gateway is of the moft exquifite workman-
ih ip ; in the centre is a large pointed arch, and within that four
-lefier; on each fide two others one above the other; the whole
front is unfpeakably rich in fculpture, or inlaid work; the
building is fquare, and at each corner an angular tower, ornamented
with fculptured compartments, and on each a moft elegant
cupola: from the two fides of this building is a long range
of
©f cloifters, with pointed arches; beyond thefe cloifters appears
the Maufoleum; in the center is a magnificent dome, and
at a fmall diftance, on two fides, are two lofty m in a re ts th e
whole is compofed of marble of fnowy whitenefs, brought from-
Candahar, fix hundred miles diftant. tavernier, part ii. p. 50,,
affirms, that he faw the beginning and completing of this work,
with the affiftance of twenty thoufand men always at work.-
The affies of the fair 5Tajamahel are depofited in a white farcophagus,
in a hall beneath the great dome.
In. Bernier’s time, portions of the Alcoran-were continually
read with profound refpecf to the honor of the deceafed. Both
the gardens in which thefe maufolees are built, are inclofed in a
lofty wall, with a gallery running round the fummit of each.
Bernier and his friend who was with him, agreed- in their admiration
of thefe celeftial gardens, efpecially of the I aft, which-
on one fide was bordered by the magnificent Jumna, and every
part embelliihed with fountains, and laid out In a tafte the candid.
frenchman never expefted to find on the plains of Hindoqftan.
He gives up every comparifon of FrarcA elegance, and at length-
confeffes “ that he does not yet well know whether he is not in-
fedled ftill with Indianifm; but I muft needs fay, but that I believe
the iajemahel ought to be reckoned amongft the wonders-
o f the world, rather than thofe unffiapen mafles of the Mgyp-
lidn pyramids, which I was weary to fee after I had feen them
twice, and in which I find I fee nothing without but pieces o f
great ftones ranged in the form of fteps one upon another, and-
within, nothing but very little art and invention.”'
To continue the funebrial fubjeil,. we may fay, that the twoimmediate/