f
marble richly inlaid with previous stones, and directly facing the
entrance, once stood the celebrated peacock throne, the most gorgeous
example of its class that perhaps even the East could ever boast of.
Behind this again was a garden-court; on its eastern side was the
Rang Mahall, or painted hall, containing a bath and other apartments'
(Fergusson, ed. 1910, vol. ii, p. 310).

The inlaid pictures were carried off, sold by the spoiler to
Government, set as table-tops, and deposited in the Indian Section of
the Victoria and Albert Museum at South Kensington (_Hist. of Ind.
and E. Archit._, ed. 1910, vol. ii, p. 311, note); but in November,
1902, the Orpheus mosaic, along with several other inlaid panels, was
returned to Delhi, where the panels were reset in due course. The
representation of Orpheus is 'a bad copy from Raphael's picture of
Orpheus charming the beasts'. Austin de Bordeaux has been already
noticed. Many of the mosaics in the panels which had not been
disturbed were renewed by Signor Menegatti of Florence during the
years 1906-9.

The peacock throne and the six other thrones in the palace are fully
described by Tavernier. (Transl. and ed. by V. Ball, vol. i, pp. 381-
7.) Further details will be found in Carr Stephen, _Archaeology of
Delhi_, pp. 220-7.

25. The throne here referred to was a makeshift arrangement used by
the later emperors. Nadir Shah in 1738 cleared the palace of the
peacock throne and almost everything portable of value. The little
that was left the Marathas took. Their chief prize was the silver
filagree ceiling of the Diwan-i-Khas. This hall was, 'if not the most
beautiful, certainly the most highly ornamented of all Shah Jahan's
buildings. It is larger certainly, and far richer in ornament than
that of Agra, though hardly so elegant in design; but nothing can
exceed the beauty of the inlay of precious stones with which it is
adored, or the general poetry of the design, It is round the roof of
this hall that the famous inscription runs: "If there is a heaven on
earth, it is this, it is this ", which may safely be rendered into
the sober English assertion that no palace now existing in the world
possesses an apartment of such singular elegance as this' (Fergusson,
ed. 1910, vol. ii, p. 311).

26. All the events alluded to are related in detail by Bernier and
Manucci. Sulaiman and Sipihr Shikoh were the sons of Dara Shikoh. The
author makes a slip in saying that Shah Jahan sat in t