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Bharatpur and Other Places In the Vicinity of Agra. There are some other places of considerable interest easily accessible from Agra, but it would be beyond the scope of this book to describe them in detail. BHARATPUR. This place, which has been often alluded to, is the capital of a native state of that name, founded by the Jâts under Suraj Mal about 1750.
In the walls of the Khas Mahal are a number of niches which formerly contained portraits of the Mogul Emperors, beginning with Timur, which, like so many other things, were looted by the Rajah of Bharatpur. A number of similar portraits and other fine paintings of the Mogul period are preserved in the Government Art Gallery, Calcutta.
In 1809, the fort at Bharatpur resisted for six weeks a siege by General, afterwards Lord Lake, who withdrew, after four desperate assaults. The Palace of Suraj Mal is at Dig, twenty-one miles by road from Bharatpur. It was commenced about 1725, and is the finest and most original of the Indian palaces of that period. The Jât chief carried off to it a great deal of the loot from the Agra Fort.
It must be seen from the outside of the quadrangle, for, magnificent as it is there, it certainly does not harmonize with the mosque viewed from the quadrangle. This mighty portal, 176 feet in height from the roadway, is a landmark for miles around. From the top of it the Taj, twenty-five miles away, and the distant Fort of Bharatpur are visible.
THE HINDU TEMPLE. Beyond the Chitore gates you enter into another quadrangle surrounded by arcades, which recalls a different chapter in the chequered history of the palace. Here is a Hindu temple, built by one of the Bharatpur Rajahs, who sacked Agra about the middle of the 18th century, and occupied it for ten years. The Machhi Bhawan.
In 1739 Nadir, Shah of Persia, sacked Delhi, carried off Shah Jahan's famous peacock throne, and laid Agra also under contribution. The Mahrattas next appeared on the scene. In 1764 the Jâts of Bharatpur, under Suraj Mal, captured Agra, looted the Taj, and played havoc with the palaces in the Fort.
The Emperor's armour, clothes, and books, which were placed beside the tomb, are said to have been carried off by those insatiable marauders, the Jâts of Bharatpur. Smaller chambers surrounding the central one, on the level of the platform, contain the tombs of two of Akbar's daughters and a son of the Emperor Shah Alam.
From side to side of his throne there is a long fissure, which opened, so says tradition, when the Jât Rajah, Jawahar Singh of Bharatpur, in 1765, set his usurping feet on the throne of the Great Mogul. The tradition holds that blood spurted out of the throne in two places, and red marks in the stone are pointed out as evidence of the truth of the story.
The road to the left after passing the Elephant Gate leads up to the entrance of the Mûti Masjid, or "Pearl Mosque," placed on the highest point of the Fort enclosure. You pass on the left a building known as Dansa Jât's house, said to have been occupied by the Rajahs of Bharatpur when the Jâts held the Fort.
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