The Kutb Minar was, I think, more beyond my expectations than the
Taj; first, because I had heard less of it; and secondly, because it
stands as it were alone in India--there is absolutely no other tower
in this Indian empire of ours.[15]
Large pillars have been cut out of single stones, and raised in
different parts of India to commemorate the conquests of Hindoo
princes, whose names no one was able to discover for several
centuries, till an unpretending English gentleman of surprising
talents and industry, Mr. James Prinsep, lately brought them to light
by mastering the obsolete characters in which they and their deeds
had been inscribed upon them.[16] These pillars would, however, be
utterly insignificant were they composed of many stones. The
knowledge that they are cut out of single stones, brought from a
distant mountain, and raised by the united efforts of multitudes when
the mechanical arts were in a rude state, makes us still view them
with admiration.[17] But the single majesty of this Minar of Kutb-ud-
din, so grandly conceived, so beautifully proportioned, so chastely
embellished, and so exquisitely finished, fills the mind of the
spectator with emotions of wonder and delight; without any such aid,
he feels that it is among the towers of the earth what the Taj is
among the tombs--something unique of its kind that must ever stand
alone in his recollections.
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