These kings and princes all try to get a place as
near as they can to the remains of such old saints, believing that
the ground is more holy than any other, and that they may give them a
lift on the day of resurrection. The heir apparent to the throne of
Delhi visited the tomb the same day that I did. He was between sixty
and seventy years of age.[32]
I asked some of the attendants of the tomb, on my way back, what he
had come to pray for; and was told that no one knew, but every one
supposed it was for the death of the Emperor, his father, who was
only fifteen years older, and was busily engaged in promoting an
intrigue at the instigation of one of his wives, to oust him, and get
one of her sons, Mirza Salim, acknowledged as his successor by the
British Government. It was the Hindoo festival of the Basant,[33] and
all the avenues to the tomb of this old saint were crowded when I
visited it. Why the Muhammadans crowded to the tomb on a Hindoo
holiday I could not ascertain.
The Emperor Iltutmish, who died A.D. 1235, is buried close behind one
end of the arched alcove, in a beautiful tomb without its cupola.
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