upon an isolated rock in the middle of the once lake, now plain, about a mile to the west of the barrier wall.  The rock is connected with the western extremity of the northern fortress by a causeway of twenty-five arches, and about one hundred and fifty yards long.  This is a fine tomb, and contains in a square centre room the remains of the Emperor Tughlak, his wife, and his son.  The tomb is built of red sandstone, and surmounted by a dome of white marble.  The three graves inside are built of brick covered with stucco work.  The outer sides of the tomb slope slightly inwards from the base, in the form of a pyramid; but the inner walls are, of course, perpendicular.[5]

The impression left on the mind after going over these stupendous fortifications is that the arts which contribute to the comforts and elegancies of life must have been in a very rude state when they were raised.  Domestic architecture must have been wretched in the extreme.  The buildings are all of stone, and almost all without cement, and seem to have been raised by giants, and for giants, whose arms were against everybody, and everybody’s arm against them.  This was indeed the state of the Pathan sovereigns in India—­they were the creatures of their armies; and their armies were also employed against the people, who feared and detested them all.[6]

The Emperor Tughlak, on his return at the head of the army, which he had led into Bengal to chastise some rebellious subjects, was met at Afghanpur by his eldest son, Juna, whom he had left in the government of the capital.  The prince had in three days raised here a palace of wood for a grand entertainment to do honour to his father’s return; and when the Emperor signified his wish to retire, all the courtiers rushed out before him to be in attendance, and among the rest, Juna himself.  Five attendants only remained when the Emperor rose from his seat, and at that moment the building fell in and crushed them and their master.  Juna had been sent at the head of an army into the Deccan, where he collected immense wealth from the plunder of the palaces of princes and the temples of their priests, the only places in which much wealth was to be found in those days.  This wealth he tried to conceal from his father, whose death he probably thus contrived, that he might the sooner have the free enjoyment of it with unlimited power.[7]

Only thirty years before, Ala-ud-din, returning in the same manner at the head of an army from the Deccan loaded with wealth, murdered the Emperor Firoz the Second, the father of his wife, and ascended the throne.[8] Juna ascended the throne under the name of Muhammad the Third;[9] and, after the remains of his father had been deposited in the tomb I have described, he passed in great pomp and splendour from the fortress of Tughlakabad, which his father had just then completed, to the city in which the Minar stands, with elephants before and behind loaded with gold and silver coins, which were scattered among the crowd, who everywhere hailed him with shouts of joy.  The roads were covered with flowers, the houses adorned with the richest stuffs, and the streets resounded with music.