185 
beholder of Central Asia but the slender column and 
the rare kiosque. 
Chief among the Works of this time (in Order of 
date) are: — 
A.D. 
The Fort at Agra from - - 1566 
The Palace at Futtehpoor Seekree, j 1570 to 
from about - - - J about 1600 
The tomb of Akber at Sikandra, - 1608-1613 
The tomb of Itmad-ood-Dowlah - 1621 
to which may be added the group of tombs at Labore 
of some five years later than the last-mentioned date. 
(These were onee decorated both with tiles and in 
laying, but the Sikhs have injured both, and especially 
the latter.) 
Between the works of Akber and those of his son 
and immediate suocessor Jahangeer, will be found 
little generic difference ; and wherever inseriptions and 
contemporaneous writings are wanting it is hard to 
determine from internal evidence to wbich reign a 
work belongs. The absence of the use of timber, 
the fine stone-chiselling, and the sparing employment 
of the true arch, mark both alike. Under Shah 
Jahan, however, these things disappear, while a new 
element comes into prominence. 
5th Period.—At the end of 1627 Shah Jahan 
succeeded his father Jahangeer, and at once began 
the most splendid series of buildings that modern 
times have seen. The Indian Saracenic school of 
Shah Jahan is seen to have modified the preceding 
eclecticism and to have adopted a softness of contour 
and a use of dazzling detail which trembles on the 
line that separates pretention from true dignity ; and 
though its happiest efforts are unique in their charm, 
yet all its virtues lean to vice’s side, and a fall is feit 
to be impending. Persian ideas predominate though 
Hindoo praotice is not at first entirely eliminated 
from the details. It is only as the healthy industrious 
influence fades that the inherent faults of this last 
development of Moghul art become fully conspicuous, 
the stiff proportions, the effeminate curves, the rvant 
of true structural representation. 
To give a catalogue of the works of this school 
would be to name all the buildings (excepting the 
Ivootub Minar) which have made Indian Musulman 
architecture best known in Europe. The dates of 
some of the principal examples follow:— 
The Khas Muhul, or private apartments of Agra 
Fort begin about 1628, completed - 1637 
The Deewan Khas of do. do. - do. 
The Jam’a Musjid of 1628, do. - 1644 
The Taj Muhul of do. do. - 1648 
The Motee Musjid of do. do. - 1653 
The Jam’a Musjid at Dehii do. - 1658 
From the aecession of Shah Jahan to his deposition 
by Aurungzeb is a period of thirty years, during 
which Moghul art culminated and commenced its 
decline. The same thing that oceurred in politics 
occurred in art also. The Hindoo practice, divoreed 
for a time from activity, languished in suspense, but 
it was the active partner that was doomed to die. 
While the Moghul architects have sunk from the Taj 
to the tomb of Sufdur Jung, and from the palaces of 
Shah Jahan to the stucco nightmares of Lucknow, 
the Hindoo has caught up and retained all that -was 
best in the art of his employers, and has blended it 
with a vitality and an ingenuity all his own. Jaipoor 
and Muthra attest his excellence in carving, and the 
ateliers of Nuthoo and Purusram of Agra equal if 
they do not surpass the finishedyuefra dura of the in- 
layers of the Taj. These, industries are extant at 
this day in this small tract of country in complete 
perfection, and give it the honourable distinction of 
harbouring two arts that are unique among the arts of 
the world. As there is no civilized country that can 
at the present day compete with India in the build 
ings that it contains. so none can contend with the 
people of this part of India in the eye for colour or the 
hand for elaborate workmanship. The traveller of 
to-day, going through northern Rajpootana and the 
land of Brij, finds galleries being placed in front 
of modern dwellings that need not shrink from 
comparison with the loggie of the Grand Canal. The 
workshops of Agra continue to turn out samples of 
inlaying that rival in taste and finish the famous 
ornamentation of the Medicean chapel. And these 
things are produced, not by proud and intellectual 
aristocracies in thehour of their greatest strength and 
grandeur, hut by a patient subject race, not consulted 
in its own taxation or law-making, and enslaved to 
many degrading superstitions. In natural and 
political Science England has a lesson for the East. 
In art the people of this country is the master of its 
conquerors, as of old. But the suceessors of the 
Moghul cannot contribute beneficially as their prede- 
cessors did. Yet the Hindoo mind is so docile and 
receptive that there is a danger of their arts being 
corrupted by intercourse with those from whom they 
are learning lessons in the practical Sciences and their 
application. The vulgär maxim that “ Time is 
“ Money,” and the vain craving for obvious utility, 
are spoiling art in England, and if not jealously 
guarded against will spoil it here. 
Admitting that rvhat has here been ealled Mun- 
ubbut was originally applied to geometrio patterns 
only, it seems almost to have deserted them now if 
you are to judge by the Agra workshops. The 
difference between the older, or Taj, work and that 
which seems now to be coming into vogue is that 
the former is symmetrical and has a certain amount 
of stiffness in consequence, while the latter strives 
rather to follow the natural forms and irregulär 
dispositions of flowers, butter-flies, and birds. Ex- 
cept in minuteness of finish, I see no difference 
between the modern work and the flat pietra dura 
of Florence. This is a sad result of European inter- 
ference. 
Mosaic work appears to have had its origin in the 
East, the land of leisure and luxury; and to have 
passed over to the Roman Empire in the times of its 
Eastern conquests, only to travel back to its native 
home in later times. 
The first mention of inlaying as applied to archi 
tecture occurs in the Bible. In the Book of Esther 
the'palaceat Susa, now a mass of almost indistin- 
guishable decay, is described as having “apavement 
“of red, and blue, and white, and black marble.” 
Borrowed by the Romans the art became what is 
now known by the distinctive name of “ Mosaic 
that is, “ the art of producing artistic designs by 
“ setting small squares of stone or glass of different 
“ colours, so as to give the effect of paintingand 
continued to be a purely Italian art which it is 
necessary to distinguish from the architectural 
practice which forms our present subject. The 
etymology of the Word “ Mosaic ” is unknown, so 
that it might equally appropriately be used of either 
branoh of the inlayer’s art. But, inasmuch as the