he history of the Begam Samru
(Sumroo). The 'great street' is the celebrated Chandni Chauk, a very
wide thoroughfare. The branch of the canal which runs down the middle
of it is now covered over. The Begam's house is now occupied by the
Delhi Bank (Fanshawe, p, 49).

2. _Ante_, chapter 54, note 14.

3. The Emperors were not in the least ashamed of this practice, and
robbed the families of rich merchants as well as those of officials.
In fact they levied in a rough way the high 'death duties' so much
admired by Radicals with small expectations. Some remarkable cases
are related in detail by Bernier (Bernier, _Travels_, ed. Constable,
and V. A. Smith (1914), pp. 163-7). When Aurangzeb heard of the death
of the Governor of Kabul, he gave orders to seize the belongings of
the deceased, so that 'not even a piece of straw be left' (Bilimoria,
_Letters of Aurungzebe_, No. xcix).

4. The meaning of this sentence is obscure.

5. Corresponding to A.D. 1753-4. In the original edition the date is
misprinted A.D. 1167.

6. The tomb of Mansur Ali Khan is better known as that of Safdar
Jang, which was the honorary title of the noble over whom the edifice
was raised. He was the wazir, or chief minister, of the Emperor Ahmad
Shah from 1748 to 1752, and was practically King of Oudh, where he
had succeeded to the power of his father-in-law, the well-known
Saadat Khan: Safdar Jang died in A.D. 1754 and was succeeded in Oudh
by his son Shuja-ud-daula.

The author's praise of the beauty of Safdar Jang's tomb will seem
extravagant to most critics. In the editor's judgement the building
is a very poor attempt to imitate the inimitable Taj. Fergusson (ed.
1910, vol. ii, p. 324, pl. xxxiv) gives it the qualified praise that
'it looks grand and imposing at a distance, but it will not bear
close inspection'. See Fanshawe, p. 246 and plate. In the original
edition a coloured plate of this mausoleum is given.

7. Nizam-ud-din was the disciple of Farid-ud-din Ganj Shakar, so
called from his look being sufficient to convert _cods of earth into
lumps of sugar_. Farid was the disciple of Kutb-ud-din of Old Delhi,
who was the disciple of Muin-ud-din of Ajmer, the greatest of all
their saints. [W. H. S.] Muin-ud-din died A.D. 1236. For further
particulars of the three saints see Beale, _Oriental Biographical
Dictionary_, ed. Keene, 1894. Dr. Horn (_Ep. Ind._ ii, 145 n., 426
n.) gives information about the Persian biographies of Nizam-ud-din
and