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.[25]
Notes:
1. The names and titles of the empress 'over whose remains the Taj is
built' were Nawab Aliya Begam, Arjumand Banu, Mumtaz-i-Mahall. The
title Nur 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 _Tage Mehalle_ [Mumtaz-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.
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