The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c18.120

v4.c18.120

While the Tāj is conspicuous, not only for its grandeur of conception and delicate profusions of detail, the pearl mosque in the fort at Delhi, constructed in 1646–53, delights the eye by its majestic simplicity. Of the splendours of the fort at Delhi and the new city founded there in 1639 much has been written.³ The verse inscribed round the cornice of the hall of private audience declaring that if there is a heaven on earth it is here is less hyperbolical than the boasts of many great builders. In size alone the palace exceeds anything of the kind in Europe, covering an area more than double that of the Escurial. The main street of the city is nearly a mile long and very wide. The canals originally made for irrigation were extended to supply the city and palace with water, and the chronicle records that there was not a room in the palace nor a lane in the city to which the supply did not reach.