Page:History of India Vol 5.djvu/328

 27G THE BEGINNING OF HUMAYUN'S KEIGN The king accordingly fixed the resolution in his enlight- ened mind; and after he had returned from Gwalior to Agra, under the protection of the Almighty God, he turned the reins of his world-travelling horse toward the city of Delhi in the beginning of the month of Zu-1- hijja, 939 A. H. When he had reached the city, which was as beautiful as heaven, and had taken omens and religious advice, a rising ground adjacent to the banks of the stream of Jumna, about three leagues from the city, was selected for the foundation of Dinpanah. In the middle of the month of Muharram, 940 A. H., at an hour which was prescribed by the most clever astrologers and the greatest astronomers, all the di- vines, Sayyids, scholars, and elders o the city of Delhi accompanied the king, who was as generous as the ocean, to the new site, where they prayed that God on high might vouchsafe to finish the happy foundation of that city and to strengthen the basis of the king's wealth. His Majesty with his holy hand first laid a brick upon the ground, after which each person from that concourse of great men placed a stone on the earth, and they all made such a crowd there that the army, the people, and the artists, masons, and labourers found neither space nor time to carry stones and mud to the spot. On the same date work was commenced in the king's own palace, and by this time, that is to say, the latter part of the month of Shawwal of the same year, the walls, bastions, ramparts, and gates of the city of Dinpanah are nearly finished.'