History of Indian and Eastern Architecture v2.c31.s2.5

v2.c31.s2.5

In the citadel at Agra there stood when I was there, a fragment of a palace built by Sher Shâh, or his son Salîm, which was as exquisite a piece of decorative art as anything of its class in India. Being one of the first to occupy the ground, this palace was erected on the highest spot within the fort; hence our Government, fancying this a favourable site for the erection of a barrack, pulled it down, and replaced it by a more than usually hideous brick erection of their own. This afterwards became a warehouse, and looms, in whitewashed ugliness, over the marble palaces of the Mughals—a fit standard of comparison of the tastes of the two races.¹