250 NOTICES OF BOOKS

THE HISTORY OF THE TAJ AND THE BUILDINGS IN ITS

VICINITY. By M. MOIN-UD-DIN. Agra, 1905.
The author offers here a translation of his Urdu work
Mu'in-ul-asdr, published in 1894; and although his
English is at times erratic and occasionally, as he would
call it, too " floral", we accept his plea of its being his
first venture in a foreign language the more readily that
only rarely is his meaning obscure.
First we are told all about Mumtaz Mahal, Shahjahan,
and their children, collected from the best authority, the
Bddshdhndmah. The Mausoleum is then described with
various details. Next we enter on the controversy as
to the designer, in which, as was to be expected, the
author unhesitatingly adopts the view of Mr. Havell and
others that no European was employed. This debateable
question has been settled for us in trenchant fashion by
a recent German traveller, Professor Rouleux, of Berlin,
" Eine Reise quer durch Indien " : " The Italian myth must j
be entirely rejected. From a Persian MS. the following .]
most interesting particulars have been extracted . . . " j
Then follows a repetition of all the old details about i
'Isa Afandi and the rest. These details, mostly derived j
from the Bddshdhndmah, ii, 322-30, are found in M. Moin- i
ud-din's treatise and also in Mahomed Latif's Agra, \
Historical and Descriptive, to which M. Moin-ud-din ,
seems to be largely indebted. But the Professor has }
assumed as proved the very matter in dispute. . What is :
the value of the alleged manuscript, who wrote it and '
when, where is it now ? I have looked at similar works,
in the British Museum, and the principal one, passing
under the name of Manik Chand, is unmistakably ;
a production of the early nineteenth century. More
must be found out about this MS., and the alleged
original plans in the possession of 'Isa Afandi's descendants
must be examined, before we can arrive at any conclusion.
M. Moin-ud-din's dates must be accepted with caution;

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 A HISTORY OF INDIA 251

they are nearly all out by one year. The statement on

p. 25 that the tomb of I'timad-ud-daulah (f 1621) was
built before Austin of Bordeaux arrived in India, cannot
be true, as Von Poser found Austin at Agrah in 1621, and
he probably arrived in 1616. Thevenot (p. 19) is not
a good witness about the Taj ; he was never at Agrah,
never nearer it than Ahmadabad (Gujarat). "Bright
Quarter" (p. 55) seems a wrong rendering for Jilau-
khdnah, meaning the place where the retinue and led
horses assembled. On p. 71 there is a bad misprint;
40 lakhs of dam equal 1 lakh, not 4 lakhs of rupees; and
Mr. Oscar Browning will hardly know himself under the
description of Persian professor (p. 79, note). The book
has some nice illustrations and gives the original text of
all the inscriptions. The most valuable section is perhaps
that devoted to the vanished, or fast vanishing, tombs,
mosques, and palaces between Agrah fort and the Taj.
WILLIAM IRVINE.

A HISTORY OF INDIA. Part I: THE PRE-MUSULMAN PERIOD.

By K. V. RANGASWAMI AIYANGAR, M.A. Longmans,
1910.
Mr. Aiyangar intends this work for use in the higher
forms of secondary schools, and in my judgment it is
admirably suited for that purpose. Indeed, it may well
be retained at their side by more advanced students as
a convenient conspectus of the subject, contained in a very
small bulk. The appearance of the book is attractive,
the paper and print are good, while the twenty-seven
illustrations and eight maps are well executed. The
English style is remarkably correct and pleasing, and
I have come across only one obscure sentence (p 26,11. 7
and 8).
The author has made excellent use of the most recent

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