pride at the thought that his name will live long as men reverence deeds of valour. "My Son, No sound is breathed, so potent to coerce VII AGRA A GRA, like Delhi, has been indebted, if not for its origin, at any rate for its importance, to the commercial and strategetical advantages of its position. The Jumna was the natural highway for the traffic of the rich delta of Bengal to the heart of India, and it formed from very ancient times the frontier defence of the Aryan stock settled in the rich plain between the Ganges and the Jumna against their western neighbours, hereditary freebooters who occupied the highlands of Central India. Along this great highway the early settlers built forts, planted trees, and cultivated their fields. The groves which lined the banks of the curling stream were the homes of the deities of their mythology. Foremost among these was Krishna, the Hindu Apollo, the royal god of light. About thirty miles south of Delhi, on the western bank of the Jumna, stands Bindraban, which means the Tulasi grove, or the grove of Holy Basil. As Daphne was turned into the laurel, hence sacred to Apollo, so Krishna's coy nymph was converted into a lovely shrub of Tulasi, alike sacred to him. At Bindraban Krishna passed much of his youth. In olden days an ancient tree was shown at whose root Krishna sat and played so divinely his celestial reed (bansuli) that all the wild beasts and reptiles of the forest assembled round him to listen. Here is the spot where, like Apollo, he slew a terrible python (Kali Naga), which by lying across the Jumna stopped its course and poisoned its waters. Here he stole the raiments of the maidens as they laved “their sweet limbs" in the stream. In the meads beside the waters he loved to sport with the cow-herds and milk-maids, and as he touched his reed one said, "Oh, favoured stream of Jumna, where Krishna deigned to drink." Another cried, "Melodious above all is the flute which resides for ever in his lips"; and another exclaimed, "Honoured above all existing animals are these cattle which the Creator Himself leads to pasture." Under the name of Gopala, Krishna is the pastoral Apollo who fed the herds of Armeties. Pan is not dead. The Hindu women as they call the cows and buffaloes home, hear his pipe, and the beautiful, brave, and amorous Krishna is the most beloved of all deities. Nine miles below Bindraban stands the sacred city of Mathura, the birthplace of Krishna. At the time when history begins to dawn on us it was the capital of an extensive kingdom of the same name. Four miles south-east from Mathura (Muttra), perched on some beetling cliffs, is Gokul (cow-stall), the suburb of ancient Mahaban, where Krishna was cradled. Mahaban means the Great Forest, and in the ravines and woods around the Moghul Emperors had their royal hunts and killed their tigers. Thirty-six miles below Muttra in a bend of the river lies Agra. No place was better fitted for an emporium and for a frontier fortress. It combined the advantages of the river, being at no time fordable, and yet being capable of navigation to boats of heavy tonnage throughout the year. Whether the genius of some far-seeing warrior or the natural development of traffic called Agra into being it is vain to surmise. It is equally vain to attempt to settle its high antiquity by the derivation of its name from the Sanskrit word agre, in front. Another suggested derivation is that Agra is the shortened form of Agrahara, a royal donation of land or village to Brahmins. We have the substantial evidence of ancient coins as to its Hindu origin, and Jehangir in his autobiography tells us that before his father, Akbar, built the present fort, the town was defended by a citadel of great antiquity. For three hundred years the Afghans and other tribes came down from the north and founded kingdoms; and their power radiated from Delhi and Agra. It was Sikandar, of the house of Lodi, the last of the Afghan dynasties, who realized the stragetic importance of Agra as a point for keeping in check his rebellious vassals to the south. He removed his court there, and Agra, from being " a mere village of old standing," says a Persian chronicler, became the capital of a kingdom. On Sunday, December 14, 1517, the year that Luther made his great "protest," Sikandar Lodi, one of the fiercest persecutors of the Hindus, died at Agra, after a reign of twenty-eight years. The suburb of Sikandar, now best known as the site of Akbar's tomb, was named after him. It was here, five years before his death, he built the fine redstone summer-house where Akbar afterwards buried his wife, who is supposed to have been a Portuguese. Sikandar was succeeded by his son Ibrahim, who fell on the fateful field of Panipat, "having five or six thousand of the slain lying in heaps in a small space around him." On the very day of the battle Baber1 pushed forward two detachments, the one to Delhi, the other to Agra, both to prevent the plunder and to secure the treasures of these cities. Next morning, says Baber, "we marched," and on the third day we encamped to the south of Delhi, between the Kutub Minar and the Jumna. On Friday, April 27, 1526, his name as Emperor was read in the public prayers at the Grand Mosque, and the following morning he proceeded "march upon march upon Agra." On reaching the suburb of that city he found the fort had not surrendered, though Humayun, his son, had blockaded it. In the citadel were the wives and children and some of the chief followers of Bakrama Jit, 1 See Delhi. the Hindu Raja of Gwalior, who, Baber states, "has governed that country for upwards of a hundred years." The Raja had been compelled to surrender his principality to Ibrahim, and was enrolled in his service. According to the charitable mode in which a good Muhammadan signifies the death of an infidel, Baber writes, "In the battle in which Ibrahim was defeated, Bikermajit was sent to hell.” His wives and followers, in attempting to escape from the fort at Agra, were captured. Humayun behaved generously to the captives, and prevented their being plundered. “Of their own free will they presented to Humayun a Pish-kash (a present to a superior), consisting of a quantity of jewels and precious stones. Among these was one famous diamond which had been acquired by Sultan Alaeddin. It is so valuable that a judge of diamonds valued it at half the daily expenses of the whole world." This diamond was the Kohinoor, which Tavernier the jeweller, a competent judge, afterwards valued at £880,000 sterling. On Baber's arrival Humayun presented it to his father, who returned it to him. On Thursday, May 10, the Emperor entered Agra, and took up his residence at Sultan Ibrahim's palace. It was the hottest season of the year, and Baber's followers began to long for their cool mountain homes. "Many men dropped down and died on the spot." The inhabitants in terror fled before them, "so that we could not find grain nor provender either for ourselves or for our horses. The villagers, out of hostility and hatred to us, had taken to rebellion, thieving and robbery. The roads became impassable." All these evils made his best men lose heart. They objected to remaining in Hindustan, and even began to make preparations for their return, but Baber was determined to found a Tatar empire in India. As soon as he heard of the murmurings among his troops he summoned a council of his nobles. "I told them that empire and conquest could not be |