Austin de Bordeaux was wholly distinct from Muhammad-i-Isa, Ustad Afandi, and there is no reason to suppose that he had anything to do with the Taj.  Sleeman’s story about his work at Agra and his death comes from Tavernier (i. 108, transl.  Ball:  see next note).  Austin was in the service of Jahangir as early as 1621, and probably came out to India from Persia in 1614.  He is described as an engineer (ingenieur), and is recorded to have made a golden throne for Jahangir (J.R.A.S., 1910, pp. 494, 1343-5).  Sleeman’s misreading of ustad as ustan, and his consequent blunders, have misled innumerable writers.  In cursive Persian the misreading is easy and natural.  He took Ustan as intended for ‘Austin’.  Certain marks in the garden on the other side of the river indicate the spot where Shah Jahan had begun work on his own tomb.  Aurangzeb, as Tavernier observes, was ‘not disposed to complete it’ (see A.S.R., iv. 180).

For a summary of the controversy concerning the alleged share of Geronimo Veroneo in the design of the Taj, see H.F.A., 1911, pp. 416-18.  Personally, I am of opinion, as I was more than twenty years ago, that ’the incomparable Taj is the product of a combination of European and Asiatic genius’.  That opinion makes some people very angry.

19.  I would not be thought very positive upon this point, I think I am right, but feel that I may be wrong.  Tavernier says that Shah Jahan was obliged to give up his intention of completing a silver ceiling to the great hall in the palace, because Austin de Bordeaux had been killed, and no other person could venture to attempt it.  Ustan [sic] Isa, in all the Persian accounts, stands first among the salaried architects. [W.  H. S.] Tavernier’s words are, ’Shah Jahan had intended to cover the arch of a great gallery which is on the right hand with silver, and a Frenchman, named Augustin de Bordeaux, was to have done the work.  But the Great Mogul, seeing there was no one in his kingdom who was more capable to send to Goa to negotiate an affair with the Portuguese, the work was not done, for, as the ability of Augustin was feared, he was poisoned on his return from Cochin.’ (Tavernier, transl.  Ball, vol. i, p. 108. ) The statement that Austin had ’finished the palace at Delhi, and the mausoleum and palace of Agra’ is not warranted by any evidence known to the editor.

20.  Akbar erected his works on the site of an older fort, named Badalgarh, presumably of Hindu origin, ’which was of brick, and had become ruinous.’  No existing building within the precincts can be referred with certainty to an earlier date than that of Akbar.  The erection began in A.H. 972, corresponding to A.D. 1564-5, and the work continued for eight (or, according to another authority, four) years, costing 3,500,000 rupees, or about L350,000 sterling.  The walls are of rubble, faced with red sandstone.  The best account is the article by Nur Baksh, entitled ‘The Agra Fort and its Buildings’, in A.S.  Ann.  Rep., 1903-4, pp. 164-93.