Page:The Imperial Gazetteer of India - Volume 10 (2nd edition).pdf/46



MURSHIDABAD CITY, 34 Grove of Karbala.' It is itself a fine structure, being considerably larger than the Imámbára at Hugli; but it occupies the place of the far more celebrated building erected by Siráj-ud-daulá, which is thus described in a native chronicle (Tarikh-i-Mansuri, by Sayyid Ali; MS. translated by Professor Blochmann, pp. 97-102):— It was built with care and reverence, Muhammadan workmen only being employed and Hindus excluded. The Nawab laid the first stone with his own hand, and put lime over it, after which the workmen coinmenced. In the midst of the Imámbára, a piece of ground called madiná was dug out to the depth of a man's stature, and filled with earth taken from the holy place at Karbala. On all four sides were rooms forming a sort of cloister. On the east were vestibules facing towards the west, with a pulpit and a place set aside for a sort of chapter-house, where the elegies on Husáin were read. In the west of the building there were similar vestibules facing toward the east, in which were nearly a hundred flags, and the sacred coffins made of silver, gold, glass, and wood, During the Muharram, the Kuran was here chanted day and night, and at fixed times during the other months of the year. The cloisters in the north and east of the building were constructed on a similar plan; but these contained only the out-offices, etc., where hundreds of workmen kept themselves in readiness during the Muharram to illuminate the place. The verandahs of the second storey contained screens of mica, behind which the lamps hung. On the screens were pictures of men, animals, and flowers, which had a striking effect when their transparent panes were illuminated from within. All kinds of chandeliers, in large numbers, were placed in the vestibules, and also Indian lamps. In the north and south vestibules were two representations of the Burág,—the horse on which the prophet ascended to heaven, with a human face and a peacock's tail. The length of the tails reached to the roof of the house. Well-polished shields and china or silver plates were fitted into the tails, to represent the eyes of a peacock's feathers. Swords, sabres, and daggers were arranged in different patterns around these shields, and hundreds of wax candles made the whole a dazzling and splendid object. All these costly treasures, lavished upon the temple by Siráj-ud-daulá with so inuch pride, were turned into ready money by Mir Kasim. This was not, however, to relieve his own necessities, -a motive which would have seemed sacrilege to one so religious as Mír Kásim,—but to assist the poor of the city, and to despatch a number of indigent Iuhammadans on a pilgrimage to Mecca.' This building was acci dentally burnt to the ground during a display of fireworks about forty years ago. Whilst the present Imámbára was building, which is said to have cost £60,000, the workmen received their food in addition to their