verything movable and systematically wrenched
precious stones from their places in the design ornamenting the fabric
of the interior. After the Mutiny came the red-coated soldier, who
relieved the tedium of garrison duty by appropriating any attractive
piece of inlay overlooked by the Mahrattas--these pretty bits made
interesting souvenirs of India for sending home to the British Isles.

For twenty years the British government has been repairing this
desecration, under guidance of its viceroys. The great chamber of the
Taj now seems perfect in its embellishment--but there are no diamonds,
no rubies, and no emeralds, as of old. Bits of colored glass fill their
places.

But the Taj's exterior is to-day as perfect as it could have been two
centuries ago; and the dignity and sovereign chastity of its marble
surfaces--spoiled by no misplaced ornamentation, and unsullied by
vandal--make of this poetic shrine an offering to love surpassed in
beauty by nothing in all the world fashioned or reared by man.

Nowheres on God's footstool has any queen such a monument, and it is
even more beautiful in the silver dress of moonlight than in the golden
robes of the midday sun. By day or night alike it makes an impression on
the mind that time can never obliterate. Shah Jahan erected the Jami
Masjid mosque at Delhi, and the costly Muti Masjid mosque in Agra Fort,
as well as the splendid Khas Mahal, the Diwan-i-ain, and the
Diwan-i-khas, likewise in the fort--but more satisfying art is
represented in the Taj than in all the other structures of his reign.

CHAPTER IX

BENARES, SACRED CITY OF THE HINDUS

Unique among Indian cities is Benares, and for the Hindu the sacred
capital on the Ganges has a significance similar to that of Mecca for
the Mohammedan, and a greater attracting power than Jerusalem has for
the Christian. Benares is the home and shrine of the complex religion
that binds the Hindu nations, and is the very soul and heart of
Hinduism.

No other place where men congregate can compete with deified Benares in
the matter of divine merit that may be conferred on the pilgrim entering
its gates and threading its narrow and filth-smeared streets. There two
hundred thousand people live and fatten upon the half million devotees
coming annually to the idolatrous fountainhead. The sacred city attracts
this tide of pious humanity from all the tribes and nations of
many-peopled India: they journey to Benares brimming with l