CHAPTER 52

Nûr Jahân, the Aunt of the Empress Nûr Mahal, over whose Remains the Tâj is built.

I crossed over the river Jumna one morning to look at the tomb of Itimâd-ud-daula, the most remarkable mausoleum in the neighbourhood after those of Akbar and the Tâj. On my way back, I asked one of the boatmen who was rowing me who had built what appeared to me a new dome within the fort. 'One of the Emperors, of course,' said he. 'What makes you think so?'

'Because such things are made only by Emperors,' replied the man quietly, without relaxing his pull at the oar.

'True, very true,' said an old Musalmân trooper, with large white whiskers and moustachios, who had dismounted to follow me across the river, with a melancholy shake of the head, 'very true; who but Emperors could do such things as these?'

Encouraged by the trooper, the boatman continued:--'The Jâts and the Marâthâs did nothing but pull down and destroy while they held their accursed dominion here; and the European gentlemen who now govern seem to have no pleasure in building anything but factories, courts of justice, and jails.'

Feeling as an Englishman, as we all must sometimes do, be where we will, I could hardly help wishing that the beautiful panels and pillars of the bath-room had fetched a better price, and that palace, Tâj, and all at Agra, had gone to the hammer--so sadly do they exalt the past at the expense of the present in the imaginations of the people.

The tomb contains in the centre the remains of Khwâja Ghiâs, one of the most prominent characters of the reign of Jahângîr, and those of his wife. The remains of the other members of his family repose in rooms all round them; and are covered with slabs of marble richly cut. It is an exceedingly beautiful building, but a great part of the most valuable stones of the mosaic work have been picked out and stolen, and the whole is about to be sold by auction, by a decree of the civil court, to pay the debt of the present proprietor, who is entirely unconnected with the family whose members repose under it, and especially indifferent as to what becomes of their bones. The building and garden in which it stands were, some sixty years ago, given away, I believe, by Nâjîf Khân, the prime minister, to one of his nephews, to whose family it still belongs. Khwaja Ghiâs, a native of Western Tartary, left that country for India, where he had some relations at the imperial court, who seemed likely to be able to secure his advancement. He was a man of handsome person, and of good education and address. He set out with his wife, a bullock, and a small sum of money, which he realized by the sale of all his other property. The wife, who was pregnant, rode upon the bullock, while he walked by her side. Their stock of money had become exhausted, and they had been three days without food in the great desert, when she was taken in labour, and gave birth to a daughter. The mother could hardly keep her seat on the bullock, and the father had become too exhausted to afford her any support; and in their distress they agreed to abandon the infant. They covered it over with leaves, and towards evening pursued their journey. When they had gone on about a mile, and had lost sight of the solitary shrub under which they had left their child, the mother, in an agony of grief, threw herself from the bullock upon the ground, exclaiming, 'My child, my child!' Ghiâs could not resist this appeal. He went back to the spot, took up his child, and brought it to its mother's breast. Some travellers soon after came up, and relieved their distress, and they reached Lahore, where the Emperor Akbar then held his court.

Âsaf Khan, a distant relation of Ghiâs, held a high place at court, and was much in the confidence of the Emperor. He made his kinsman his private secretary. Much pleased with his diligence and ability, Âsaf soon brought his merits to the special notice of Akbar, who raised him to the command of a thousand horse, and soon after appointed him master of the household. From this he was promoted afterwards to that of Itimâd-ud-daula, or high treasurer, one of the first ministers.

The daughter who had been born in the desert became celebrated for her great beauty, parts, and accomplishments, and won the affections of the eldest son of the Emperor, the Prince Salîm, who saw her unveiled, by accident, at a party given by her father. She had been betrothed before this to Shêr Afgan, a Turkoman gentleman of rank at court, and of great repute for his high spirit, strength, and courage. Salîm in vain entreated his father to interpose his authority to make him resign his claim in his favour; and she became the wife of Shêr Afgan. Salîm dare not, during his father's life, make any open attempt to revenge himself; but he, and those courtiers who thought it their interest to worship the rising sun, soon made his [Afgan's] residence at the capital disagreeable, and he retired with his wife to Bengal, where he obtained from the governor the superintendency of the district of Bardwân.

Salîm succeeded his father on the throne; and, no longer restrained by his (scil. Akbar's) rigid sense of justice, he recalled Shêr Afgan to court at Delhi. He was promoted to high offices, and concluded that time had removed from the Emperor's mind all feelings of love for his wife, and of resentment against his successful rival--but he was mistaken; Salîm had never forgiven him, nor had the desire to possess his wife at all diminished. A Muhammadan of such high feeling and station would, the Emperor knew, never survive the dishonour, or suspected dishonour, of his wife; and to possess her he must make away with the husband. He dared not do this openly, because he dreaded the universal odium in which he knew it would involve him; and he made several unsuccessful attempts to get him removed by means that might not appear to have been contrived or executed by his orders. At one time he designedly, in his own presence, placed him in a situation where the pride of the chief made him contend, single-handed, with a large tiger, which he killed; and, at another, with a mad elephant, whose proboscis he cut off with his sword; but the Emperor's motives in all these attempts to put him foremost in situations of danger became so manifest that Shêr Afgan solicited, and obtained, permission to retire with his wife to Bengal.

The governor of this province, Kutb, having been made acquainted with the Emperor's desire to have the chief made away with, hired forty ruffians, who stole into his house one night. There happened to be nobody else in the house; but one of the party, touched by remorse on seeing so fine a man about to be murdered in his sleep, called out to him to defend himself. He seized his sword, placed himself in one corner of the room, and defended himself so well that nearly one-half of the party are said to have been killed or wounded. The rest all made off, persuaded that he was endowed with supernatural force. After this escape he retired from Tânda, the capital of Bengal, to his old residence of Bardwân. Soon after, Kutb came to the city with a splendid retinue, on pretence of making a tour of inspection through the provinces under his charge, but in reality for the sole purpose of making away with Shêr Afgan, who as soon as he heard of his approach, came out some miles to meet him on horseback, attended by only two followers. He was received with marks of great consideration, and he and the governor rode on for some time side by side, talking of their mutual friends, and the happy days they had spent together at the capital. At last, as they were about to enter the city, the governor suddenly called for his elephant of state, and mounted, saying it would be necessary for him to pass through the city on the first visit in some state. Shêr sat on horseback while he mounted, but one of the governor's pikemen struck his horse, and began to drive him before them. Shêr drew his sword, and, seeing all the governor's followers with theirs ready drawn to attack him, he concluded at once that the affront had been put upon him by the orders of Kutb, and with the design to provoke him to an unequal fight. Determined to have his life first, he spurred his horse upon the elephant, and killed Kutb with his spear. He now attacked the principal of officers, and five noblemen of the first rank fell by his sword. All the crowd now rolled back, and formed a circle round Shêr and his two companions, and galled them with arrows and musket balls from a distance. His horse fell under him and expired; and, having received six balls and several arrows in his body, Shêr himself at last fell exhausted to the ground; and the crowd, seeing the sword drop from his grasp, rushed in and cut him to pieces.

His widow was sent, 'nothing loth', to court, with her only child, a daughter. She was graciously received by the Emperor's mother, and had apartments assigned her in the palace; but the Emperor himself is said not to have seen her for four years, during which time the fame of her beauty, talents, and accomplishments filled the palace and city. After the expiration of this time the feelings, whatever they were, which prevented his seeing her, subsided; and when he at last surprised her with a visit, he found her to exceed all that his imagination had painted since their last separation. In a few days their marriage was celebrated with great magnificence; and from that hour the Emperor resigned the reins of government almost entirely into her hands; and, till his death, under the name first of Nûr Mahall, 'Light of the Palace', and afterwards of Nûr Jahân, 'Light of the World ', she ruled the destinies of this great empire. Her father was now raised from the station of high treasurer to that of prime minister. Her two brothers obtained the titles of Âsaf Jâh and Itikâd Khan; and the relations of the family poured in from Tartary in search of employment, as soon as they heard of their success. Nûr Jahân had by Sher Afgan, as I have stated, one daughter; but she had never any child by the Emperor Jahângîr.

Âsaf Jâh became prime minister on the death of his father; and, in spite of his sister, he managed to secure the crown to Shâh Jahân, the third son of Jahângîr, who had married his daughter, the lady over whose remains the Tâj was afterwards built. Jahângîr's eldest son, Khusrû, had his eyes put out by his father's orders for repeated rebellions, to which he had been instigated by a desire to revenge his mother's murder, and by the ambition of her brother, the Hindoo prince, Mân Singh, who wished to see his own nephew on the throne, and by his wife's father, the prime minister of Akbar, Khan Azam. Nûr Jahân had invited the mother of Khusrû, the sister of Râjâ Mân Singh, to look with her down a well in the courtyard of her apartments by moonlight, and as she did so she threw her in. As soon as she saw that she had ceased to struggle she gave the alarm, and pretended that she had fallen in by accident.

By the murder of the mother of the heir-apparent she expected to secure the throne to a creature of her own. Khusrû was treated with great kindness by his father, after he had been barbarously deprived of sight; but when his brother, Shâh Jahân, was appointed to the government of Southern India, he pretended great solicitude about the comforts of his poor blind brother, which he thought would not be attended to at court, and took him with him to his government in the Deccan, where he got him assassinated, as the only sure mode of securing the throne to himself. Parwîz, the second son, died a natural death; so also did his only son; and so also Dâniyâl, the fourth son of the Emperor. Nûr Jahân's daughter by Shêr Afgan had married Shahryâr, a young son of the Emperor by a concubine; and, just before his death he (the Emperor), at the instigation of Nûr Jahân, named this son as his successor in his will. He was placed upon the throne, and put in possession of the treasury, and at the head of a respectable army; but the Empress's brother, Âsaf, designed the throne for his own son-in-law, Shâh Jahân; and, as soon as the Emperor died, he put up a puppet to amuse the people till he could come up with his army from the Deccan--Bulâkî, the eldest son of the deceased Khusrû. Shahryâr's troops were defeated; he was taken prisoner, and had his eyes put out forthwith, and the Empress was put into close confinement. As Shâh Jahân approached Lahore with his army, Âsaf put his puppet, Bulâkî, and his younger brother, with the two young sons of Dâniyâl, into prison, where they were strangled by a messenger sent on for the purpose by Shâh Jahân, with the sanction of Âsaf. This measure left no male heir alive of the house of Tîmûr (Tamerlane) in Hindustan, save Shâh Jahân himself and his four sons. Dârâ was then thirteen years of age, Shujâ twelve, Aurangzêb ten, and Murâd four; and all were present to learn from their father this sad lesson--that such of them who might be alive on his death, save one, must, with their sons, be hunted down and destroyed like mad dogs, lest they might get into the hands of the disaffected, and be made the tools of faction.

Monsieur de Thevenot, who visited Agra, as I have before stated, in 1666, says, 'Some affirm that there are twenty-five thousand Christian families in Agra; but all do not agree in that. The Dutch have a factory in the town, but the English have now none, because it did not turn to account.' The number must have been great, or so sober a man as Monsieur Thevenot would not have thought such an estimate worthy to be quoted without contradiction. They were all, except those connected with the single Dutch factory, maintained from the salaries of office; and they gradually disappeared as their offices became filled with Muhammadans and Hindoos. The duties of the artillery, its arsenals, and foundries, were the chief foundation upon which the superstructure of Christianity then stood in India. These duties were everywhere entrusted exclusively to Europeans, and all Europeans were Christians, and, under Shâh Jahân, permitted freely to follow their own modes of worship. They were, too. Roman Catholic, and spent the greater part of their incomes in the maintenance of priests. But they could never forget that they were strangers in the land, and held their offices upon a precarious tenure; and, consequently, they never felt disposed to expend the little wealth they had in raising durable tombs, churches, and other public buildings, to tell posterity who or what they were. Present physical enjoyment, and the prayers of their priests for a good berth in the next world, were the only objects of their ambition. Muhammadans and Hindoos soon learned to perform duties which they saw bring to the Christians so much of honour and emolument; and, as they did so, they necessarily sapped the walls of the fabric. Christianity never became independent of office in India, and, I am afraid, never will; even under our rule, it still mainly rests upon that foundation.

Notes:

1. The names and titles of the empress 'over whose remains the Tâj is built' were Nawâb Aliyâ Begam, Arjumand Bânû, Mumtâz-i-Mahall. The title Nûr Mahall, as applied to her, is without authority: it properly belongs to her aunt. 'It is usual in this country', Bernier observes, 'to give similar names to the members of the reigning family. Thus the wife of Chah-Jehan--so renowned for her beauty, and whose splendid mausoleum is more worthy of a place among the wonders of the world than the unshapen masses and heaps of stones in Egypt--was named Tâge Mehalle [Mumtâz-i-Mahall], or the Crown of the Seraglio; and the wife of Jehan-Guyre, who so long wielded the sceptre, while her husband abandoned himself to drunkenness and dissipation, was known first by the name of Nour Mehalle, the Light of the Seraglio, and afterwards by that of Nour-Jehan-Begum, the Light of the World.' (Bernier, Travels, ed. Constable, and V. A. Smith, 1914, p. 5.)

2. Properly, Ghiâs-ud-dîn, meaning 'succourer of religion'. The word Ghiâs cannot stand as a name by itself.

3. The author's slight description of Itimâd-ud-daula's exquisite sepulchre is, in the original edition, illustrated by two coloured plates, one of the exterior, and the other of the interior (restored). The lack of grandeur in this building is amply atoned for by its elegance and marvellous beauty of detail. An inscription, dated A.H. 1027 = A.D. 1618, alleged to exist in connexion with the building, has not, apparently, been published. (N.W.P. Gazetteer, 1st ed., vol. vii, p. 687.)

Fergusson's description and just criticism deserve quotation. 'The tomb known as that of Itimâd-ud-daula, at Agra, . . . cannot be passed over, not only from its own beauty of design, but also because it marks an epoch in the style to which it belongs. It was erected by Nûr-Jahân in memory of her father, who died in 1621, and was completed in 1628. It is situated on the left bank of the river, in the midst of a garden surrounded by a wall measuring 540 feet on each side. In the centre of this, on a raised platform, stands the tomb itself, a square measuring 69 feet on each side. It is two stories in height, and at each angle is an octagonal tower, surmounted by an open pavilion. The towers, however, are rather squat in proportion, and the general design of the building very far from being so pleasing as that of many less pretentious tombs in the neighbourhood. Had it, indeed, been built in red sandstone, or even with an inlay of white marble like that of Humâyûn, it would not have attracted much attention, its real merit consists in being wholly in white marble, and being covered throughout with a mosaic in 'pietra dura'--the first, apparently, and certainly one of the most splendid, examples of that class of ornamentation in India....

'As one of the first, the tomb of Itimâd-ud-daula was certainly one of the least successful specimens of its class. The patterns do not quite fit the places where they are put, and the spaces are not always those best suited for this style of decoration. [Altogether I cannot help fancying that the Italians had more to do with the design of this building than was at all desirable, and they are to blame for its want of grace.] But, on the other hand, the beautiful tracery of the pierced marble slabs of its Windows, which resemble those of Salîm Chishtî's tomb at Fatehpur Sikrî, the beauty of its white marble walls, and the rich colour of its decorations, make up so beautiful a whole, that it is only on comparing it with the works of Shâh Jahân that we are justified in finding fault.' (Indian and Eastern Architecture, ed. 1910, pp. 305-7.) Further details will be found in Syad Muhammad Latîf, Agra (Calcutta, 1896); A.S.R. iv, pp. 137-41 (Calcutta, 1874); and more satisfactorily, in E. W. Smith, Moghul Colour Decoration of Agra (Allahabad, 1901), pp. 18-20, pl. lxv-lxxvii. Mr. E. W. Smith, if he had lived, would have produced a separate volume descriptive of this unique building.

The building is now carefully guarded and kept in repair. The restoration of the inlay of precious stones is so enormously expensive that much progress in that branch of the work is impracticable. The mausoleum contains seven tombs.

a. This sentence has been deleted by Dr. Burgess in his edition, 1910.

4. This tale is mythical. The alleged circumstances could not be known to any person besides the father and mother, neither of whom would be likely to make them public. Blochmann (transl. Âîn, i. 508) gives a full account of Itimâd-ud-daula and his family. The historians state that Nûr Jahân was born at Kandahâr, on the way to India. Her father was the son of a high Persian official, but for some reason or other was obliged to quit Persia with his family. He was a native of Teheran, not of 'Western Tartary'. The personal name of Nûr Jahân was Mihr-un-nisâ.

5. This story is erroneous, and inconsistent with the correct statement in the heading of the chapter that Nûr Jahân, daughter of Ghiâs-ud-dîn, was aunt of the Lady of the Tâj. The author makes out Ghiâs-ud-dîn (whom he corruptly calls Aeeas) to be a distant relation of Âsaf Khan. In reality, Âsaf Khân (whose original name was Mirzâ Abûl Hasan) was the second son of Ghiâs-ud-dîn, and was elder brother of Nûr Jahân, The genealogy, so far as relevant, is best shown in a tabular form, thus:--

Mirzâ Ghiâs-ud-dîn Beg (alias Itimâd-ud-daula). | | |----------------|-------------------------| | | | Muhammad Âsaf Khan *Nûr Mahall* Sharîf. (alias Mirzâ (alias *Nûrjâahân*), Abûl Hasan). *Empress of Jahângîr* | (and widow of | Shêr Afgan). | *Mumtâz-i-Mahall* (alias Arjumand Bânû Bêgam, alias Nawâb Aliyâ Bêgam), *Empress of Shâh Jahân*.

6. Alî Qulî Beg, from Persia entered Akbar's service, and in the war with the Rânâ of Chitôr, served under Prince Salîm (Jahângîr), who gave him the title of Shêr Afgan, 'tiger-thrower', with reverence to his deeds of prowess. The spelling afgan is correct. The word is the radical of the Persian verb afgandan, 'to throw down'.

7. In October, 1605.

8. Properly Kutb-ud-dîn Khan. He was foster-brother of Prince Salîm (Jahângîr), and his appointment as viceroy alarmed Shêr Afgan, and caused the latter to throw up his appointment in Bengal. The word Kutb (Qutb) cannot stand alone as a name. Kutb (Qutb)-ud-dîn means 'pole-star of religion'.

9. Tândân, or Tânra. Ancient town, now a petty village, in Mâlda District, Bengal, the capital of Bengal after the decadence of Gaur. Its history is obscure, and the very site of the city has not been accurately determined. It is certain that it was in the immediate neighbourhood of Gaur, and south-west of that town beyond the Bhâgîrathî. Old Tândân has been utterly swept away by the changes in the course of the Pâglâ. It was occupied by the Afghan king of Bengal in A.D. 1564, and is not mentioned after 1660. (I.G., 1908.)

10. This narrative, notwithstanding all the minute details with which it is garnished, cannot be accepted as sober history; and I do not know from what source the author obtained it. 'This lady, whose maiden name was Muhr-un-Nisâ, or "Seal of Womankind", had attracted the admiration of Jahângîr when he was crown prince, but Akbar married her to a young Turkomân and settled them in Bengal. After Jahângîr's accession the husband was killed in a quarrel with the governor of the province, and the wife was placed under the care of one of Akbar's widows, with whom she remained four years, and then married Jahângîr (1610). There is nothing to justify a suspicion of the Emperor's connivance in the husband's death; nor do Indian historians corroborate the invidious criticisms of "Normal" by European travellers; on the contrary, they portray Nûr-Mahall as a pattern of all the virtues, and worthy to wield the supreme influence which she obtained over the Emperor.' (Lane-Poole, The History of the Moghul Emperors of Hindustan illustrated by their Coins, p. xix.) The authorities on which this statement is founded are given in E. & D., vol. vi, pp. 397 and 402-5. See also Blochmann, Âîn, vol. i, pp. 496, 524. Details of such stories in the various chronicles always differ. Jahângîr openly rejoiced in the death of Shêr Afgan, and it is by no means clear that he was not responsible for the event. He was not troubled by nice scruples. The first element in the lady's personal name seems to be Mihr, 'sun', not Muhr, 'seal'. The words are identical in ordinary Persian writing.

11. The long interval which elapsed between Shêr Afgan's death and the marriage with the Emperor is a fact opposed to the assumptions which the author adopts that Nûr Mahall was 'nothing loth', and that the death of her first husband was contrived by Jahângîr.

12. Quaint Sir Thomas Herbert thus expresses himself: 'Meher Metzia [Mihr-un-nisâ] is forthwith espoused with all solemnity to the King, and her name changed to Nourshabegem [Nûr Shâh Bêgam], or Nor-mahal, i.e., Light or Glory of the Court; her Father upon this affinity advanced upon all the other Umbraes ['umarâ', or nobles]; her brother, Assaph-Chan [Âsaf Khân], and most of her kindred, smiled upon, with the addition of Honours, Wealth, and Command. And in this Sun-shine of content Jangheer [Jahângîr] spends some years with his lovely Queen, without regarding ought save Cupid's Currantoes' (Travels, ed. 1677, p. 74). Authority exists for the title Âsaf Jâh, as well as for the variant Âsaf Khân.

Coins were struck in the joint names of Jahângîr and his consort, bearing a rhyming Persian couplet to the effect that

'By command of Jahângîr the King, from the name of Nûr Jahân his Queen, gold gained a hundred beauties.'

The Queen's administration is censured by some of the European travellers who visited India during Jahângîr's reign as being venal and inefficient, and she is accused of cruelty and perfidy. She died on the 18th December (N.S.), 1645, and was buried by the aide of Jahângîr in his mausoleum at Lahore. At her death she was in her 72nd year, according to the Muhammadan lunar reckoning, and would thus have been thirty-four solar years of age when the Emperor married her in 1610 (Beale: Blochmann).

13. According to Sir Thomas Herbert (Travels, ed. 1677, p. 99), 'Queen Normahal and her three daughters' were confined by order of Shâh Jahân in A.D. 1628.

14. Son of Bhagwân Dâs, of Ambêr or Jaipur, in Râjputâna, and one of the greatest of Akbar's officers.

15. Also known as Azîz Kokah, a foster-brother of Akbar.

16. This story may or may not be true; but a charge of this kind is absolutely incapable of proof, and would be readily generated in the palace atmosphere.

17. According to a contemporary authority, the blinding was only partial, and the prince recovered the sight of one eye (E. & D. vi. 448). With regard to such details the discrepancies in the histories are innumerable.

18. A.H. 1031 = A.D. 1621-2. The charge seems to be true.

19. A.H. 1036 = A.D. 1626-7.

20. This is a blunder. Jahângîr's fourth son was named Jahândâr, and died in or about A.H. 1035 = A.D. 1625-6. Dâniyâl was third son of Akbar, and younger brother of Jahângîr. He died from delirium tremens in A.D. 1605, a few months before the death of Akbar,

21. Jahângîr died, when returning from Kâshmîr, on the 8th November, A.D. 1627 (N.S.), and was buried near Lahore. The fight with Shahryâr took place at Lahore.

22. Bulâkî assumed the title of Dâwar Baksh during his short reign, and struck coins at Lahore. He 'vanished--probably to Persia--after his three months' pretence of royalty; and on 25th January, 1628 (18 Jumâda I, 1037), Shâh-Jahân ascended at Agra the throne which he was to occupy for thirty years'. Shahryâr was known by the nickname of Nâ-shudanî, or 'Good-for-nothing' (Lane-Poole, The History of the Moghul Emperors of Hindustan, illustrated by their Coins, p. xxiii). The two nephews of Jahângîr, the sons of Dâniyâl, slaughtered at this time, had been, according to Herbert, baptized as Christians (Travels, ed. 1677, pp. 74, 98). There are great discrepancies in the accounts given by various authorities concerning the fate of Bulâkî and the other victims of Shâh Jahân. A dissuasion of the evidence would take too much apace, and must be inconclusive, the fact being that the proceedings were secret, and pains were taken to conceal the truth.

23. The dates of birth are, in Old Style:-Dârâ Shikoh, March 20, 1615; Sultan Shujâ, May 12, 1616; Aurangzêb, October 10, 1619; and Murâd Baksh, not stated (Beale).

24. Ante, Chapter 2, text following . The quotation is from Part III, chap. 19, p. 35 of The Travels of Monsieur de Thevenot, now made English. London, Printed in the year MDCLXXXVII. The author, in his quotation, omits between 'that' and 'The Dutch' the clause 'This indeed is certain that there are few Heathens and Parsis in respect of Mahometans there, and these surpass all the other sects in power as they do in number.'

25. During the reign of Akbar, many Christians, Portuguese, English, and others, visited Agra, and a considerable number settled there. A Roman Catholic church was built, the steeple of which was pulled down by Shâh Jahân. The oldest inscriptions in the cemetery adjoining the Roman Catholic cathedral are in the Armenian character. Three Catholic cemeteries exist at or near Agra, namely

(l) the old Catholic graveyard at the village of Lashkarpur, dating from the time of Akbar, who made a grant of the site about A.D. 1600. This cemetery includes the Martyrs' Chapel, also known as the Chapel of Father Santus (Santucci), which was erected in memory of Khoja Mortenepus, an Armenian merchant, whose epitaph is dated 1611. The next oldest tombstone, that of Father Emmanuel d' Anhaya, who died in prison, bears the date August, 1633. Father Joseph de Castro, who died at Lahore, on December 15, 1646, lies in the same building.

(2) A cemetery in Pâdrîtola, the native Christian ward of the city behind the old cathedral. Father Tieffenthaler is buried there.

(3) A cemetery in an unnamed village, granted by Jahângîr, and situated a mile north of Lashkarpur. An unpublished letter in the British Museum shows that Jahângîr closed the churches in his dominions in 1615. Notwithstanding, the College at Agra was founded about 1617 by an Armenian who is known by his title Mirzâ Zul- Qarnain. The acute persecution by Shâh Jahân occurred in 1631.

The artillery men in the Mogul service were not all European Christians. Turks from the Ottoman Empire were freely employed. (See Ep. Ind., ii, 132 note.)

The facts concerning the early history of Christianity in Northern India have been imperfectly studied. In this note I have used chiefly a pamphlet by Father H. Hosten, S. J., entitled Jesuit Missionaries in Northern India, &c. (Catholic Orphan Press, Calcutta, 1907), and the confused little book by Fanthome, Reminiscences of Agra (2nd ed., Thacker, Spink & Co., Calcutta, 1895). The Jesuit and Capuchin Fathers are working at the subject and hope to elucidate it. From the A.S. Progress Rep. N. Circle, Muhammadan Monuments, for 1911-12, p. 21, it appears that arrangements for the proper maintenance of the Old Catholic cemetery are in hand.

The author's observations concerning the official relations of Christianity in India do not apply at all to the very ancient churches of the South (See E.H.I., 3rd ed., 1914, App. M, pp. 245- 7). Even in the north, the modern missionary operations may claim to be 'independent of office'.