68 THE KOH-I-NOOR.
scarlet and crimson, braided with gold and silver, and
all were armed with swords and tulwar.
Amongst public buildings, the most conspicuous is
the Jumma Musjid, an enormous mosque erected by
Shah Jehan in 1641. I t stands at the extreme end of
a large quadrangular court, with arcades on each side,
and is approached by a flight of steps ; the architecture
is that of other Mahomedan structures, with large
entrance gate, minarets, &c., and built of red stone,
except the cupolas, which are of white marble. The
whole is very impressive from its size, solidity, and rich
material.
The Mogul’s palace, of which only a portion now
remains, must have been very similar to that at Agra,
a cluster of towers and battlements still marking its
extent. The throne room, open, and supported by
columns and arches, still exists, and the emperor’s seat
is of white marble of very simple design. Here stood
in former times the famous Peacock throne, of which
the “ Koh-i-noor,” or “ Mountain of Light,” was the
principal ornament. The jewel had been carried off in
1739 by Nadir Shah, the Persian conqueror of Hindustan,
whose successor, Shah Soojah, the exiled
monarch of Cabul, in 1815 was forced to hand it over
to Runjeet Singh, the last Maharajah of the Punjab,
when the former sought refuge with him after his
INDRAPUT. 69
escape from Cashmere, and Runjeet Singh bequeathed
the gem in 1839 to the shrine of Juggernaut in Orissa;
hut ten years later, on the extinction of the Punjab
kingdom, it got into the possession of the British
Crown. A few private apartments and bath rooms of
white marble inlaid, and a small mosque of the same
material is all that now remains of this noble royal
residence.
An excellent college, and a number of more or less
elaborate religious buildings, complete the list of public
edifices; but I must not omit a visit on horseback to
the ruins of Old Delhi, or “ Indraput ” (Indra, the firmament),
a very ancient Hindu city, which covers an
immense area on the banks of the Jumna. These
remains belong to temples, palaces, and tombs—the
very image of desolation. Amongst them we come
upon an interesting relic in the shape of an unsightly
tall black metal (edict) pillar, or “ stambhas,” twenty-
three feet, eight inches high, marking the sight of an
old Patan palace erected in the fourth or fifth century.
The Patans are an Afghan race which had to make
room for the Mogul emperors.
The Kuttab minaret merits special mention amongst
that mass of granite and marble scattered everywhere.
I t belonged to an enormous mosque built 700
years ago by the first Mohamedan ruler of this