Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 2.djvu/361

 CHAP. X. MUGHAL ARCHITECTURE. 309 One of the most picturesque features about this palace is a marble pavilion, in two storeys, that surmounts one of the circular bastions on the river face, between the haram and the Diwan - i - Khass. It looks of an earlier style than that of Shah Jahan, and if Jahangir built anything here it is this. On a smaller scale, it occupies the same place here that the Chalis Situn did in the palace at Allahabad ; and exemplifies, even more than in their larger buildings, the extreme elegance and refinement of those who designed these palaces. 1 PALACE AT DELHI. Though the palace at Agra is perhaps more picturesque, and historically certainly more interesting, than that of Delhi, the latter had the immense advantage of being built at once, on one uniform plan, and by the most magnificent, as a builder, of all the sovereigns of India. It had, however, one little disadvantage, in being somewhat later than Agra. All Shah Jahan's buildings there seem to have been finished before he commenced the erection of the new city of Shah Jahanabad with its palace, and what he built at Agra is soberer, and in somewhat better taste than at Delhi. Notwithstanding these defects, the palace at Delhi is, or rather was, the most magnificent palace in the East perhaps in the world and the only one, at least in India, which enables us to understand what the arrangements of a com- plete palace were when deliberately undertaken and carried out on one uniform plan (Woodcut No. 431). The palace at Delhi, which is situated like that at Agra close to the edge of the Jamna, is a nearly regular parallelogram, with the angles slightly canted off, and measures 1600 ft. east and west, by 3200 ft. north and south, exclusive of the gateways. It is surrounded on all sides by a very noble wall of red sand- stone, relieved at intervals by towers surmounted by kiosks. The principal entrance or Lahor Gate (I) on the west faces the Chandni Chauk, a noble wide street, nearly a mile long, planted with two rows of trees, and with a stream of water running down its centre. Entering within its deeply-recessed portal, you find yourself beneath the vaulted hall (K), the sides of which are in two storeys, and with an octagonal break in the centre. This hall, which is 375 ft. in length over all, has very much the effect of the nave of a gigantic Gothic cathedral, and forms the noblest entrance known to belong to any existing palace. At its 1 Perfect plans of this palace exist in * Handbook of Agra,' though useful as the War Department of India. Without far as it goes, is on too small a scale and such plans it is very difficult to make any | not sufficiently detailed for purposes of description intelligible. That in Keene's j architectural illustration.