Amber Palace

Delhi Thursday Feb’y 17/98.

Maidans [sic] Metropolitan Hotel, 6:30 p.m.

I arrived here this morning at 8:45. Yesterday, at Jeypore, I posted what I had previously written so that I might catch the outgoing mail from Bombay on Saturday.

Well, I left Ahmedabad at 10:30 on Tuesday morning, the city or native part of which is an abominable place, & beyond the few spots of interest, not worth spending more than one day in it. The journey to Jeypore was long, arriving the following morning Wed. 5:30. I was disappointed with the country: a dry, parched land, but many patches had been under irrigation & these were green & beautiful to look on. Such a great contrast to the bulk. Wheat, barley, & other crops, (native) were the principal growth where irrigated. Trees everywhere & some very beautiful. Foliage green & large, much brushwood & very rough grass, but quite dry & colourless. Monkeys everywhere & funny fellows they were, very playful. Plenty birds, peacocks, beautiful, but saw no game. Inhabitants here & there scattered, peasantry at work ploughing &c., with [2:26] oxen, numerous herds of goats, sheep, cattle, & native buffalo, different from the oxen: dark hairless skin, horns fall back along the neck & by no means neat or fine. There were herdsmen attending all wherever we saw them, also droves of donkeys, & I suppose all were marketable. Horses are not used either for agriculture or waggon work, all oxen, & these vary in size. Only few have I seen to equal our English. As we came higher up we entered a range of very rugged hills: huge ridges, peculiar shapes, one identical with the Salisbury Crag[1] at Edinbro’ & the “Lion” couchant.[2] It impressed me much & changed its form similarly as we rounded it, but for wierdness [sic], I’ve seen nothing in hills that approaches these. Consult your map & you will see the range between Ahmedabad & Ajmere.[3] It soon after this got dark, & I turned in & awoke fairly fresh at my journey’s end. Got to the Rustomji Hotel (Jeypore), the Consul & his wife too, & after a little rest had a drive to the Public Gardens. Very lively, a zoo too & a most magnificent building, ill to describe, “The Museum”. I went in & saw many curios but my impression of museums are that they duplicate each other. After breakfast the Consul, wife, & I joined & drove about, viewing much that we had seen previously & in the afternoon we went to view the ancient city & palace of Amber, see encyclopaedia.

[2:27]

The drive to it was very uninteresting & dusty but the palace is beyond description. Cain says truly it is a sight worth going to India alone to see.[4] The architecture, adornments, carvings, masonary [sic], inlaid work & its magnitude surpasses conception: marble polished, marble carved, marble pillars, marble floors, steps & roofs, in fact marble, gold, silver everywhere, & the zenana[5] part exquisite in every detail. Its position is on a hill & a big climb it is. We got back at 6, had dinner & left at 7:28 p.m. for Delhi. Had to change into another train at 10:30. Mean time I rested. After changing trains at 10:30, went to bed & had a fair rest, arriving here 8:45 a.m. This is a charming city, apart from the native site, & it is as the previous places, dilapidated & filthy, & the natives in swarms: wretched, very. The fort is a sight never to be forgotten, the remains of former glory unimpaired & the magnificence of the work elaborate with gold & inlaid art, has to be seen to be understood, & every where is so interesting as scenes connected with the Mutiny that one feels thrilled when wonder strikes you, & the thought of the horrors & sufferings enacted. See if the ency. refers to the “Fort” & Divan-i-ahan, most lovely & wonderful, then we visited some fine mosques, gardens, the monument, cemetery, the ridge, the celebrated “Soka” Pillar, & we looked down on the plain where the celebrated Durbar[6] assembled to proclaim Her Majesty Empress of India.

[2:28]

We had a drive through the native city after 3. The people, habits, & mode of doing business is exactly as in places previously visited. These native parts are so decayed, & restoration doesn’t appear to engage its inhabitants, the wonder is what[7] will a century, aye less, produce. Referring to Jeypore, we got through the Grand Palace of the Marajah,[8] teeming with life & an enormous area, stables & 300 horses therein, such stables, all open in front straw for bedding, each horse tethered by the hind legs, long ropes tied to a stake far behind their heels. This is the native custom. In the Great Yard of the stables is a grand dais, tape covered, where His Highness sits to see the horses exercise. Then we met in the gardens (larger by far than our park) several native servants exercising the dogs. All sorts, but of the smaller breeds. Then we saw the enormous al[l]igator tank & the huge monsters basking in the sun. The keeper got some tripe & induced them to come to the steps where we stood, & by his calling they came sailing along & great fun to see him feeding them.[9] He tied pieces on to a long string & threw it into the water & as they grabbed he withdrew. Some times he let one get it into the mouth (enormous capacity) [2:29] & as they didn’t chew but simply gulped it down, as soon as it attempted the gulping, out he drew it to the great annoyance of the brute, & a roar followed. Turtle in great numbers & big in size were also there, & plenty fish & long legged big birds[10] around the edge. I dare say the area of the tank will be fully the circumference of our park, fully so. Peacocks, monkeys and lots of fowl in the gardens, pomegranates, oranges, cocoa nuts growing. Then the Grand Durbar Hall & other magnificent reception rooms were really amazing, & every now & again messengers going to & fro here & there, & these all carried sword in hand. I got 2 or 3 views of this enormous palace. Jeypore[11] streets are very wide. These in the vicinity of the palace, & the front wall of the palace runs the length of one side of a street, & a very high minerate [sic] tower in the middle. The palace front is washed pink & white scrolls & every street the same, every house coloured pink. There’s a great fort called Tiger Fort on a very big hill top & great letters on the hillside “Welcome” (Caine notes this).[12] All these cities are walled. Delhi is in much better repair than some & the breeches [sic] our army made in Delhi walls [2:30] remain the same today. I got a few good views. The suburbs of Delhi are very pretty & luckily for us rain has fallen during the past few days, & everything looks fresh. Lovely pansies, scarlet runners just like yours, wall flowers, stocks &c. &c. & sweet is the perfume. This of course outside. The perfume? in the native city is the very opposite. This hotel is good & is full tonight. About 30 sat at dinner. One family of 5 (mother, son & 3 daughters, Americans) left after dinner & had been 5 days here. They won’t go on to Bombay on account of the plague, & are going to Agra tonight, thence Calcutta, where they had started from. Lots of monkeys around this hotel, which is on the city wall. I just walk out of my room on to the wall & look down into the vast forest of trees. Tomorrow we go at 9:30, a drive of 12 miles to Old Deli & a celebrated old palace & tower called “The Kutab”, but more of this in my next. We are supposed to return at 4 & leave on Saturday morning about 9 for Agra, 6 ½ hours’ journey. Now it is 10:30 so I am off to bed. Good night!!

I might here add in case I forget: while in the palace at Jeypore we also saw the Maharajas fighting elephants. Caine‘s illustration of the ground & viewing points is perfect. The elephants were all chained up in separate built squares, & the keeper enraged them for our benefit. I got a snap & hope it will be a picture as the brute’s position was exciting & good.[13]

[2:31]

Also, in case I forget, while at Ahmedabad I was in a very beautiful Jain temple & visited the mosques & other places Caine mentions in his book. We can refer after I get home to his “Picturesque India”.

I feel my diary won’t be very intelligible to you. I straggle the incidents & this I can’t very well avoid. I ought to jot down as I go along but there’s so much to see I find it impossible to divide my thoughts into noting down & observing, & I can get more interest out of the latter because I can stow it away & call upon it after, tho’ not with the satisfaction I should like, so excuse the disjointedness throughout.[14]

[1] Inserted on facing page: “Arthur’s Seat”.

[2] A heraldic lion.  (Couchant: adjective. Etymology: Middle English, from Middle French, from present participle of coucher; lying down especially with the head up.)

[3] A city of British India in Rajputana.

[4] Inserted on facing page: “Palace at Amber (W.S. Caine): human sacrifice was offered daily before the British Governed India, & since an animal is sacrificed daily. The alter [sic] we were shewn & the ground wet with the blood.”

[5] “Harem”: Hindi zanAna, from Persian, from zan woman

[6] A formal reception held in Delhi in 1876 to celebrate Queen Victoria’s new title of Empress of India.

[7] Inserted on facing page: “Jeypore”.

[8] A Hindu prince ranking above a raja.

[9] Inserted on facing page: “Chairs are provided on a stone balcony, steps running down to the tank”.

[10] Inserted on facing page: “Cranes & flamingoe [sic]”.

[11] Inserted on facing page: “Jeypore: we drove from Jeypore to visit the ancient city of Amber”.

[12] Inserted on facing page: “See a photo I took ‘Welcome’”.

[13] Inserted on facing page: “Delhi:

See my photo of Hindu Pillars in the Bhut Khana at the Kutab 11 to 12th century.

See donkeys grazing in front of the hall.

Jumma Masjid, the most famous mosque in the East, built by Shan Jehan 1629/58. See my Photos of it (several).

Lahore gate of the fort, Delhi, is the one by which I entered the great & magnificent palace, founded by Shan Jehan 1638/58.

Tomb of Nizam-ud-din founded AD 1350, all marble.

Mahomedan tomb.

Plain where Queen was proclaimed Empress of India 1877.

Metcalf house (a yellow house).

Ludlow Castle now hotel.

Note Jan’y 1st 1903, King Edward VII proclaimed Emperor on the same plain.”

[14] Inserted on facing page: “Delhi: Imperial tombs. The principal is that of Hamayan

Kutab Minar, 10/11 miles to South of Delhi. See my photos of it. Erected 13th century 238 feet high dia. of 47 ft. at base & 9 ft. at top.”

Also King Soka’s iron pillar, 1356. Never rusts. Near the Kutab Pillar & close to the monument recording British los[s]es.

Delhi on the right bank of the river Jumna, 113 miles NNW of Agra & 954 NW of Calcutta. See photo of bridge spanning the river, taken from walls of the fort.

Palace of Shah Jehan, now the fort.

The above jotting I copied out of encyclopedia, Sep 11/1901.”