ani grant.[31] The grass grows
upon the slab that covers the remains of Mu'azzam, the most learned,
most pious, and most amiable, l believe, of the crowned descendants
of the great Akbar. 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. He
built the tomb himself, and left orders that there should be no
'parda' (screen) between him and heaven; and no dome was thrown over
the building in consequence. Other great men have done the same, and
their tombs look as if their domes had fallen in; they think the way
should be left clear for a start on the day of resurrection.[34] The
church is stated to have been added to it by the Emperor Balban, and
the Minar finished.[35] About the end of the seventeenth century, it
was so shaken by an earthquake that the two upper stories fell down.
Our Government, when the country came into our possession, undertook
to repair these two stories, and entrusted the work to Captain Smith,
who built up one of stone, and the other of wood, and completed the
repairs in three years. The one was struck by lightning eight or nine
years after, and came down. If it was anything like the one that is
left, the lightning did well to remove it.[36]

About five years ago, while the Emperor was on a visit to the tomb
of Kutb-ud-din, a madman got into his private apartments. The
servants were ordered to turn him out. On passing the Minar he ran
in, a