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This is twenty-two miles distant, a day's excursion, and easily reached in automobiles; although it took some faith to trust one's self to the rather indifferent chauffeurs. FATEHPUR-SIKRI: This royal but long-destroyed city is sacred to the memory of the Emperor Akbar, who built a gorgeous structure and selected the site through the advice of the renowned Saint Selim Chisti.
Akbar removed to Agra, from the old capital Fatehpur-Sikri, about 1568, but the only monuments that are now attributed to him are the massive walls of the fort and the red palace. Jahangir built the palace which bears his name, but as it is somewhat gloomy in appearance, his chief claims to distinction as a builder are the tombs of Itimid-ud-Daulah and Akbar's tomb at Sikandra.
The beginning of 1584 found Akbar still at Fatehpur-Síkrí. The principal events of the year were, the pacification of Bengal; the outbreak and suppression of a rebellion in Gujarát; the revolt of the ruler of Asírgarh and Burhánpur; disturbances in the Deccan; and the death of the brother of Akbar, the then ruler of Kábul. The revolts were put down and a new governor was sent to Kábul.
This year he founded Fatehpur-Síkrí, the magnificent ruins of which compel, in the present day, the admiration of the traveller. The story is thus told by the author of the Tabakat.
On February 11 he marched from Agra to encounter the army of this prince, who, joined by Muhammadan auxiliaries of the Lodí party, had advanced too, and had encamped at Bisáwar, some twelve miles from Biána and some sixty-two, by that place, from Agra. Bábar advanced to Síkrí, now Fatehpur-Síkrí, and halted.
And in that comparison one realises how impossible it is at a hazard to date an Indian ruin, for, as I have said, Fatehpur-Sikri is from the days of Elizabeth, while Pompeii was destroyed in the first century, and yet Pompeii in many ways seems less ancient. The walls of Fatehpur-Sikri are seven miles round and the city rises to the summits of two steep hills.
He eventually abandoned it on account of its unhealthy location, and transferred the capital to Agra, where, as we have seen, he built a fort and the red palace. There is an unusually imposing gateway on one side of Fatehpur-Sikri, leading up to the mosque, but we made our entrance from the adjacent side; hence our first view was like that in the illustration.
From his family Akbar now selected a wife for his son, Prince Salím, afterwards the Emperor Jahángír. The marriage was celebrated at Fatehpur-Síkrí, with great ceremony and amid great rejoicings. Until this reign the Rájpút princes had scornfully rejected the idea of a matrimonial alliance with princes of the Muhammadan faith.
There he remained three weeks, then, having pardoned his brother and re-bestowed upon him the government of Kábul, he returned by way of the Khaibar to Lahore, settled the government of the Punjab, and then marched, by way of Delhi, to Fatehpur-Síkrí. 'He now, writes the chronicler, 'remained for some time at Fatehpur, administering justice, dispensing charity, and arranging public business.
At the shrine of the Saint Nizam-ud-din, near Humayun's Tomb, I found them but there they were healthy-looking youths and again at Fatehpur-Sikri. But for this sporadic diving, the wrestling bouts which are common everywhere, the Nautch and the jugglers, India seems to have no pastimes.
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