The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c23.s4.139

v4.c23.s4.139

Although there is much that is very fine in the external appearance of this fortress as a whole with its steep insurmountable defences and strong but elegantly designed gateways, the highest skill of its architects was undoubtedly expended on the design, construction and decorative treatment of this range of royal palaces, together with the Dīwān-i-‘Ām. Each of the palaces on its side looking into the fort was fronted by a garden divided into parterres by watercourses with an ornamental fountain in the middle, while on their outer side they crowned the sandstone ramparts with a succession of turrets, kiosks, gilt domes, hanging balconies, oriel windows, arcades and perforated screens, which if not exactly orderly in their arrangement, were remarkably picturesque and breathed the very spirit of romance. Along this wall there were something like twelve separate pavilions, all connected with one another and each designed for a different purpose and bearing a distinctive name, such as the *Motī Mahall* or "Pearl Palace", the *Hīra Mahall* or "Diamond Palace", and the *Rang Mahall* or "Painted Palace". The style of each is much the same, although there is a pleasing variety of plan, each consisting of a single-storeyed hall usually open on all sides, divided into bays by massive piers and the roof supported by foliated arches. Above are flat coffered ceilings at one time plated with silver or gilt, and the piers, walls and all interior surfaces are decorated either with inlay, low relief carving or patterns in colour and gold. The floors are paved with marble, and provision is made for a system of aqueducts to pass along the entire length of the buildings, partly to supply water for the numerous *hammāms*, but with the main object of adding to each apartment all the refreshing accompaniments of a water-palace. A constant supply of water was obtained by tapping the river Jumna at a point seventy miles up stream and bringing it by canal to the fort, where its inlet was at the northern angle. Here the Nahr-i-Bihisht, or "Stream of Paradise", as it was called, entered by a scalloped marble cascade in the open central arcade by the Shāh Burj or "King's Tower", and from there was distributed by stone or marble channels in all the required directions. In some of the pavilions it was diverted into fountains, the finest of which is the one completely filling the central compartment of the Rang Mahall (Fig. 72), and, in the words of Sayyid Ahmad, its