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100 great political events have made the Mogul buildings more famous.

And just as the modern Indian mansion in Rajputana retains the principal features of the building described as the Palace of the Gods in the Bharhut sculptures, so it is clear that the sixteenth and seventeenth century palaces of the Rajput princes were built according to a traditional Hindu plan, and were not mere imitations of the fashions of their foreign rulers.

Perhaps the finest of them is the old palace at Datiyā with its noble exterior, an architectural masterpiece comparable with the Doge's Palace at Venice. It was built in the beginning of the seventeenth century by Rāja Bir Singh Deva of Urchā, who made himself infamous in the history of the time as the agent employed by Jahāngīr to waylay and kill his father's intimate friend and prime minister, Abul Fazl, when he passed through the Rāja's territories on his return to court from the Dekhan. The Rāja, when the plot succeeded too well, was hunted into the jungle by the imperial troops, but escaped capture, and on Jahāngīr's accession to the throne was richly rewarded by his employer. Jahāngīr's enmity to Abul Fazl was due to the fear that the latter might persuade his father to set aside his succession to the throne on account of his unruly temper and drunken habits.

Built very solidly of granite and "well adorned with spacious tanks," the palace follows very closely Sukrachārya's directions for the planning of a royal residence. The Rāja's private apartments are in a square tower of four stories about 140 feet in height, "standing in the midst of the council buildings"—i.e., in the centre of the quadrangle formed by a great block of buildings, "of equal length in all