The dazzling white marble of
the mausoleum itself rising over the red wall is apt, at first sight,
to make a disagreeable impression, from the idea of a whitewashed
head to an unfinished building; but this impression is very soon
removed, and tends, perhaps, to improve that which is afterwards
received from a nearer inspection. The marble was all brought from
the Jeypore territories upon wheeled carriages, a distance, I
believe, of two or three hundred miles; and the sandstone from the
neighbourhood of Dholpur and Fathpur Sikri.[16] Shah Jahan is said to
have inherited his partiality for this colour from his grandfather,
Akbar, who constructed almost all his buildings from the same stone,
though he might have had the beautiful white freestone at the same
cost. What was figuratively said of Augustus may be most literally
said of Shah Jahan; he found the cities (Agra and Delhi) all brick,
and left them all marble; for all the marble buildings, and additions
to buildings, were formed by him.[17]
This magnificent building and the palaces at Agra and Delhi were, I
believe, designed by Austin de Bordeaux, a Frenchman of great talent
and merit, in whose ability and integrity the Emperor placed much
reliance.
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