Unrivalled Grace
Sir Henry Craik had heard such glowing reports of Agra’s Taj Mahal, that he was afraid it might prove to be an anticlimax.
1907
King Edward VII 1901-1910
Sir Henry Craik had heard such glowing reports of Agra’s Taj Mahal, that he was afraid it might prove to be an anticlimax.
1907
King Edward VII 1901-1910
In 1907, Sir Henry Craik MP went on a tour of India. That December, he made his way south from New Delhi to Agra, where he marvelled at the sixteenth-century fort and the Pearl Mosque of Shah Jahan (r. 1628-58) before following the River Yamuna for a mile or so towards Shah Jahan’s legendary monument to his favourite wife, Mumtaz Mahal. Would it be all that report had made it?
abridged
SLOWLY the miracle of Agra, the Taj, opens on our view — at first a white dome, encircled by dazzling minarets, and then slowly showing its surroundings of portal and mosque, contrasting with its snowy brilliancy and simplicity in their deep warm red, and in the fantastic and rich ornamentation of their facades and parapets. The Taj rises above them, vast and majestic, in its perfect simplicity of outline, solid, and yet seeming at times almost to melt into cloud and sky. We pass through two courtyards of red stone, bordered with serais,* and on through its richly decorated portal of red, chequered with variegated marbles, into the long peaceful garden with its rows of Italian cypresses, its trim flower beds,* its marble paths, and its pools and fountains, at the far end of which rises, above marble staircase and platform, the vast mass of pure white outlining itself against the deep blue of the sky. All doubts, all fears of disappointed expectations, all feelings except that of over-mastering beauty, are swept away; and each step, as we come nearer to it, and it gradually dwarfs the foliage that lies below, confirms the magic of its unrivalled grace. By this alone, one is tempted to think, the voyage to India would be repaid. [...]
* By the end of the Mughal era, in the early nineteenth century, the condition of the gardens had declined; but in Victoria’s later years, the British relaid them, somewhat favouring the formal London fashions of the day.
* ‘Serai’ is a Turkish word (reflecting the influence of the Ottoman Empire on India) meaning a guesthouse.
Express the ideas below in a single sentence, using different words as much as possible. Do not be satisfied with the first answer you think of; think of several, and choose the best.
Craik visited the Taj Mahal. Everyone said it was very beautiful. He hoped he would not be disappointed.
See if you can include one or more of these words in your answer.
IAnticlimax. IIReputation. IIITrepidation.