 |
10. THE EMPEROR MAHMOOD’S TOMB.
THE village of Roza, justly celebrated for the Mosque containing the tombs of the Emperor Mahmood of Ghuznee, who in A. D. 1026 (416 of the Hejira, or era of Mahommed) was the conqueror of India, is one of the most interesting and pleasing spots I have visited in Afghanistaun. It is on the high road between Caubul and Ghuznee, distant two miles from the latter city. Before entering the garden in which the sacred edifice is situated, the traveller is ushered through a rather spacious court-yard watered by a clear stream, which, after murmuring through the village and its highly cultivated orchards, meanders round the temple, through richly ornamented drains, amid fonts and broken masses of ancient and grotesquely chiselled marble slabs; bearing the images of elephants, birds, hares, boars, dogs, and other animals, interspersed with scrolled and flowers. After passing through the courtyard, one enters a building consisting of carved passages, similar to cloisters, which open to a beautiful garden formed of avenues of the “shauh-toot,” or king mulberry (of which magnificent fruit two sorts abound throughout the country, one a long almond-shaped transparent white, the other large and round of the deepest blood-red) and of plum, peach, apricot, pear, cherry, and rose trees. Their blossomed foliage overshadows groups of exquisitely-carved marble tombs, which from rich beds of turf enameled with the choicest of English flowers rear their polished stones, sculptured in wreaths of leaves and fruit, and carved in Persian and Arabic characters with the names and titles of the dead. In the midst of such a scene as this shoots up the hallowed shrine of the heroic Sultaun, whose sanctity and celebrity is such that his tomb has been a place of pilgrimage for ages, and is approached with awe and reverence by every Mahommedan tribe in the east to offer there their prayers and praises, present their gifts, and collect the sacred dust, in which the pilgrims rub their hands and heads, and bear away to far distant countries portions of it as relics to heal every malady that mortal flesh is heir to. The Moollahs, or priests, have a private store of this invaluable medicine in a hole at the head of the tomb, which they dole out to the superstitious purchaser. The sarcophagus is of a long triangular form, placed on an ornamental slab of marble, and bears an inscription in Cufie, the letters of which are inlaid with fruit and flowers. It rests under a canopy, imitative of the Prophet’s tomb at Mecca, consisting of various coloured velvets, satins, and chintzes, supported by bamboos, which are decorated daily with fresh bunches of flowers, and the feathers of the Peacock-- an emblem of royalty. Until lately, also, the identical iron mace which the Emperor carried through his wars lay near his tomb, but it has now disappeared. I found only some broken remnants of a carved chair, which I was told was once his throne. From the portal were suspended conch-shells and ostrich eggs, and from a beam above the porch outside hung the three diamond, or leaf-shaped pendants of red bricks which adorn holy places in Afghanistaun, with their concomitants the skull and horns of the wild sheep.
The celebrated sandal-wood gates of Somnauth, which (from the eccentric and pæon-like proclamation of a late Governor-General, who therein informed “his brothers and his friends, all the princes and chiefs and people of India,” that through their re-capture by General Nott’s army, “the insult of eight hundred years was at last avenged,”) are now as notorious in England, as they were once venerated throughout Hindoostaun, form, in the picture, the folding doors of the Mosque. The entrance to the temple is guarded by two immense marble groups of lions and dragons fighting, and a figure of a lion couchant. This was perfectly hollow, with a circular hole bored through the side; so possibly it had been also a receptacle for hidden treasure, as was the Giant Idol Somnauth, which, when struck in two by a blow from the iron mace of Mahmood (when he and his soldiery pillaged the idol’s temple in Guzeraut) discovered a mine of gold and precious jewels, which its priests had concealed therein. On calling to my remembrance this circumstance of the broken god, I turned for explanation to the Moollahs, who were always in attendance at the tomb, mumbling verses from the Koran in a kind of chaunt, and rocking themselves backwards and forwards as they read. They, in answer to my inquiries, told me, that the carpet round the monument, the sandal-wood gates, and the marble animals had been brought to Ghuznee on elephants, as trophies from the temple of Somnauth, eight hundred years before, by the high and mighty Sultaun Mahmoud, Melic of Islaum, Emir of Moslems, the trustee of the faith; may the mercy of Allah be upon him!
I subjoin a few interesting remarks abridged from a report of a Committee on the Somnauth Gates, assembled by order of General Nott, in camp near Peshawur, 8th November, 1842. “The tomb of Mahmood of Ghuznee has been for ages a place of pilgrimage, almost of adoration, to Mahommedans, and the gates objects of especial attention: it is not therefore matter of surprise that their lower portions, with in the reach of a man’s hand, have suffered greatly, and that the carving has in some places disappeared, pieces, from time to time, having been abstracted as relics. Here and there bits of carved wood, dissimilar in pattern, have been employed to repair the fabric. The upper parts of the gates retain much of their original carving, which is in high relief, of beautiful execution, and in a wonderful state of preservation. Plates of some precious metal appear to have originally decorated them, fixed to the wood-work by slips of iron. Many of these slips still remain in regular patterns over the top of the gates; lower down they have disappeared. The frames of the gates are in double folds, hinged in the centre; their height is eleven feet, and width mine and a half. The exterior dimensions of a framing which surrounds these are sixteen and a half feet high, and thirteen and a half wide. This framing is in fair preservation, except near the ground, where seats seem to have existed on both sides the gateway, and where portions of it have been fairly rubbed away to the height of a man’s shoulders. Considering the great age of these doors, the probable injury sustained by them in their displacement from the Temple of Somnauth, their transport to Ghuznee, the circumstances of their having been taken down and buried during the invasion of Afghaunistaun by Chenghiz Khaun to preserve them from destruction, and their subsequent disinterment and re-erection, they must be deemed in good preservation.” In examining the framing surrounding the gates, the Committee (of which Major Saunders, Engineers, who furnished the above document in a much more enlarged state, was president) observed a Cufic inscription carved in the wood, which wasb translated by Major Rawlinson: this, with an inscription on Mahmood’s tomb, with which the Committee was favoured by the same distinguished Oriental scholar, I have taken the liberty of copying from the pages of the “Asiatic Journal,” for which I trust the talented translator will pardon me, should he ever chance to glance at these humble pages. Copy and translation of an Arabic inscription upon the Somnauth Gates; the same rendered in modern Arabic: -- “In the name of the most merciful God (may there be) forgiveness from God for the most noble Ameer, the great King (he who was) born to become the Lord of the States and the Lord of Religion, Abil Kasim Mahmood, the son of Sabaktagin. May the mercy of God be upon him (remaining phrase illegible).” Translation in the Suls character of the Cufic inscription on the Somnauth Gates: -- “In the name of God the most merciful. (Erected. ) By order of the mighty Sultan, the Melic of Islam, the standard of dominion and wealth, the august Masood, son of the supporter of the State, Mahmood, father of Ibraheem, defender of the faith, Emir of Moslemes, the right arm of dominion, the trustee of the faith, the master of the necks of the nations, the noble and imperial Sultan, lord of the countries of Arabia and Persia. May the great God perpetuate his throne and kingdom, commemorated be his beneficence. May God forgive the sins of himself, his parents, and all Moslems.” Translation of inscription in Cufic characters on the sarcophagas of the Tomb of the Sultan Mahmood: -- “May there be forgiveness from God upon him who is the Great Lord, the noble Nizam-ud-din Abul Kasim Mahmud, the son of Sabaktagin. May God have mercy upon him.” Mem. – On the reverse of the sarcophagus there is an inscription in the Neskh character, recording the date of the deceased Sultan Mahmood, as Thursday, the seventh remaining day (i. e. the 22nd or 23rd) of the month of Rabie Akhir, A. H. 421. (Signed) J. A. RAWLNISON.
I shall not easily forget the horror and consternation that seized all ranks of people on the 9th of September, 1842, when a company from the 2nd Grenadires was dispatched from the army of Nott, then lying before Ghuznee after its destruction, to tear down and carry off from the temple at Roza its sandal-wood gates, the Afghauns’ memorial of India’s subjugation. Moollahs raved incoherently, tore their beards, clutched their rosaries, and heaped dust on their heads and clothing. Men, women, and little children howled and wept, and entreated the despoilers to spare the gates, their beautiful gates. When they saw their grief had no effect on the inexorable soldiery, the whine of prayer and expostulation gave place to “loud lament and furious rage.” Imprecations and curses, threats even and prophecies, were boldly uttered that we should reap the fruit sown by our impious hands, and that on a certain day before reaching Boodkark (in the Caubul passes, elsewhere made mention of), the Ghazees would doubtless be induced with supernatural power to rescue the emblems of the national glory from the hands of their infidel ravishers. However, the day came not, and the gigantic trophies of our victory, each on the carriage of a four-and-twenty pounder, dragged heavily by a herd of half-starved sleepy buffaloes, and followed by the hearty blessings of the exhausted men and officers who guarded them, bungled with harsh creakings, slowly, but far, alas! from surely, through the tremendous mountain passes of Afgaunistaun, the sandy plains of the Punjaub, and the fiery tracts of northern India, from Ghuznee to the fort of Agra, a weary journey. There they still remain. It is singular that, though these gates bear an inscription with a boastful defiance, wherein Sultan Mahmood speaks somewhat in the language of a popular braggadocio – “He who doth these boots displace, shall meet Bombastes face to face;” or, literally, “He who removes these doors must be a Mightier One than I;” nevertheless, it has never been clearly ascertained which of the two Feringhee heroes claimed to himself the honour of surpassing in prowess the illustrious Ghuzneevide, he who decreed the despoilment of the Mausoleum, or he who achieved the feat.
[Keywords]
shahtut/ bonbasta/ Rawza/ Sultan Mahmud/ Ghazni/ Mulla/ Kufi/ Somnath/ Gujarat/ Chingiz Khan/ Butkhak/ Farangi/ Panjab/ Sabktakin
|
NEXT |
|
|
BACK |
|
|