First published in: Journal & Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, vol. VI (June, 1910).
The opinion seems to be gaining around that “the Italian or French origin of the Taj is exploded.” When, where, how, and by whom was this result arrived at? What has been done to disprove that Jerome Veroneo, the Venetian, was the architect? The question, we insist, is not what workmen were employed on the Taj, but who planned it.
Let us go back to H.G. Keene’s little Handbook for Visitors to Agra and its neighbourhood (Calcutta, Thacker, 5th Ed. 1888).
“We learn from Manrique (a Spanish monk of the Augustinian Order, who was at Agra in 1641) that the plans and estimates were prepared by a Venetian, by name Geronimo Verroneo. Verroneo died at Lahore before Manrique’s arrival, and long before the work was completed. The work is then believed to have been made over to a Byzantine Turk.” (Cf. p. 23.)
Keene, then, did not hesitate to accept the Friar’s plain statement. “Much fruitless discussion has been waged on this subject [of the origin of the Taj],” he writes (ibid., p. 25); “but, the following considerations alone are likely to be of use to the general reader. The notion that the Taj was designed by an Italian is confirmed by Manrique. But, nothing can be less Italian than the general conception of the building with its simple and even stiff contour; nothing ever more in harmony with the style of Eastern feeling, which regards a white muslin tunic and an aigrette of diamonds as full dress for an Emperor. The tomb of Humayun (A.D. 1556) seems to have been the chief model of the elevation.”
Quite so, and no one thinks of denying that the Italian copied Indian models. The plan of Humayun’s tomb at Delhi “is in fact,” writes James Fergusson, “that adopted at the Taje, but used here without the depth and poetry of that celebrated building.” (Cf. Hist. of Indian and Eastern Archit., London, 1876, p. 576.)
The conclusion, which Keene endeavours to popularize in his Handbook, had been arrived at by a careful perusal of Frey Manrique’s writings. Of this we have sufficient evidence in his The Turks in India (London, Allen, 1879). There, Keene mentions Manrique in connection with a description of Akbar’s tomb at Sikandra (pp. 106-107); he states that Manrique confirms the fact of Veroneo’s procuring the discharge of some of the priests [?] taken prisoners at Hugli - fact noted by Manucci-Catrou (p. 121; I fail, however, to find the fact recorded by Manrique under Veroneo’s name); he analyzes part of Manrique’s account of Lahore and translates his curious relation of a banquet given at Lahore by Asaf Khan to the Emperor (pp. 126- 130); finally he adds a note on Manrique’s Mission and the Catholics in the time of Shah Jahan (pp. 251- 255. Cf. also J.R.A.S. Vol. X, N.S., 1879, pp. 93 - 98). This note makes it clear enough that Keene had before him a copy of Manrique’s Itinerario. The best proof, however, is the testimony of Father Symphorian, a Capuchin Missionary of Agra, who, in this article “The Chapel of Padree Sanioos in Agra” (Cf. Indo-Europ. Corresp., Calcutta, 1878, pp. 452-4, and Agra Archaeol. Soc. Transactions, 1878), states that Mr. Keene lent him his copy of Manrique’s Itinerario.
Keene does not hesitate to call the Augustinian’s narrative the best account of the Court life of Shah Jahan that has been preserved. He found it, however, no easy reading. He complains of “archaic words and forms of spelling which interfere with the reader’s case, unless he be an unusually profound Spanish scholar.” (Cf. The Turks in India, pp. 126, 251.)
If, instead of making only a few extracts, Keene had translated fully Manrique’s account of the Taj, it is likely that less hesitation would have been shown towards accepting it as conclusive. Such as they are, the extracts in The Turks in India (pp. 251- 255) are sufficiently cogent; and one cannot help being surprised at the off-hand manner in which certain writers, who were familiar with them, have passed them by or explained them away. Syad Muhammad Latif (Agra, Historical and Descriptive) studiously ignores them: Mr. E.B. Havell (The Taj and its Designers, in Nineteenth Century and After, 1903, pp. 1039 - 49) endeavours to explain them away.
Before we present the reader with the complete translation of Manrique’s narrative, of which the Goethals Indian Library in St. Xavier’s College possesses a copy, a short biographical sketch of the writer seems necessary. Father Symphorian’s article and Keene’s A Sketch of the History of Hindustan (London, 1885, pp. 198- 199) will simplify our task.
Manrique was an Augustinian Friar who spent 13 years in the East. He came to the Convent of his Order at Hugli in 1628 and began applying himself to the languages of Bengal, Bengali and Hindustani. On September 11, 1629, he left for Arakan, and continue his apostolic ministrations in Arakan and Bengal until 1636, leaving Pipli for Goa on February 25. His next mission brought him to the Philippines and Macao. On August 12, 1640, he was back at Balasore, and on the even of Christmas, 1640, he arrived at Agra, where he was the guest of the Jesuit Fathers Anthony de Oliveira and Matthew de Cruz. immediately after Christmas, he went to Biana [Bayana], passing through Fathpur-Sikri. A rich Armenian merchant of Biana, to whom he had letters of recommendation, sent with him one of his relatives to help him in his negotiations for the release of Father Anthony of Christ, an Augustinian who had been made prisoner at the fall of Hugli in 1632 and was still in durance at Agra. In January 1641, Manrique was back at Agra, paying visits to his confrere in jail, and interviewing Subdal Khan, the governor of Agra, in his behalf; but, as the Emperor was then at Lahore, the negotiations could not proceed. Subdal Khan very courteously said that, as he himself was going to Lahore in a short time, he might join him in the journey. Manrique gladly accepted the offer, and profited by the delay to visit the principal monuments of Agra. After twenty-six days passed in expectation of Subdal Khan’s departure, finding that he was not likely to move before another month, Manrique took leave of him, of Father Anthony, still in prison, and of the Jesuit Fathers, and set out for Lahore, where he arrived in 21 days. There he met Father Joseph de Castro, S.J., who invited him to his dwelling, promising to assist him in expediting his affairs. Manrique was admitted to an audience with Asaf Khan. To cut the story short, he obtained all his requests, and proceeded from Lahore to Sind, while Father Anthony was restored to liberty.
Manrique was evidently a man of mark, having been Visitor of his Order in the East. A keen and interested observer, he notes down manycuriousobservationsinhisItinerario delas Missiones del India Oriental (Rome, 1653, in 4°, pp. 476, 2 col.) This work, now very scarce, was never translated into English, though, if we remember rightly, the Hakluyt Society intended many years ago preparing a translation.
In Ch. LVIII Manrique relates his experiences at Agra. In the following chapter, he describes the Mogul Court and its palaces. Ch. LX. is headed thus:
“In which is given an account of two Mocorabas or Mausoleums of Emperors Achabur and Corrombo”. [1]
“Among the grand buildings of the town of Agra, the chief are two Mausoleums, and, to redeem my promise, I shall begin with Achabar’s tomb, as being the first and the more ancient.” [Here follows the description, pp. 350-351] At p. 351, col. 2, we read: “The other Mausoleum, the work, as I have said; of Emperor Corrombo, is dedicated to the unhappy memory of his chief and cherished wife Begoma [the Begum], and is situated at the other extremity of the town. This edifice not being finished yet at the time, and a great portion being still wanting, judging from the plan which it bore and which was contemplated, I shall speak only of the portion which was finished. It consisted of a fine, very large, quadrangular and proportionately high wall of magnificent red hewn stone; at the top, in lieu of battlements, it is being adorned and embellished by thick strong spikes? (espigones) of the same stone. [An allusion, probably, to the balustrades. A la qual [muralla] por remate en lugar de almenas la ornan y reparan gruessos, y fuertes espigones de la musma piedra.] At the four corners of this great wall rose as many other Palaces built of large slabs of beautiful and whitest marble, which from more than forty leagues are brought there for those buildings. Some, which I met on the road to Biana, were of such extraordinary length and breath that they set all in a perspiration many yokes of strong lazy oxen and of ferocious-looking, heaving-horned buffaloes, which in files of twenty and thirty pair were dragging strong unshapely carts. This great wall enclosed a very large quadrangular space, in the centre of which stood a large, high, circular tower, from the centre of which [tower], the famous Geometer [Jerome Veroneo, as I understand it]. Drawing equal lines, made his perfect circumference with less trouble than Archimedes the Syracusan. This tower, too, is of shining white marble. On this, and on the other works, were generally employed a thousand men, overseers, officials and workmen. A great number of them were likewise occupied, some in laying out curious gardens, others in planting shady groves and making orderly plantations of poplar-trees (alamedas); others, finally in making roads and reservoirs for the liquid crystals, without which it was impossible to go on with the works. The architect of those structures was a Venetian, named Jerome Veroneo, who went to those parts in the ships from Portugal, and died in the city of Laor [Lahore], shortly before my arrival. Emperor Corrombo gave him large salaries; but, it is thought that he profited so badly by them that, when he died, they say Father Joseph de Castro, of the Society, a Lombard by birth, found on him much less than was imagined. Of him Fame, fleet messenger of all good and evil tidings, had reported that the Padcha, having sent for him and manifested to him his desire of raising a grandiose and sumptuous monument to his defunct consort, and that for this he should make some designs which he should show him. Veroneo, the Architect, obeyed this order, and within a few days submitted to him in various models of the finest architecture all the perfection of the art which he knew; but that, having satisfied His Majesty in this matter, he displeased him, according to his barbarous and arrogant pride - by the low estimates which he made; they say also that, growing angry, he ordered him to spend three krors [crouras] of rupees, i.e., three hundred lakhs [leckas], and that, when they were spent, he should let him know - a sum of money so great that one is surprised. But, if the sepulchral apartments (sepulchrales, estancias) were, as they said, to be covered with plates of gold, as was the urn in which were already deposited the bones of the Agarene [Mohammedan] Express, such large sums will not be matter for surprise, - though he, in particular, will wonder who habitually spends his limited crowns [escudos] after first passing many hours in sundry considerations, seeing that, in as little time as it takes to open and close one’s mouth, fifteen millions of Spanish pesos were ordered to be spent, a sum amounting to the three krors above-said; and, for the better understanding of the curious reader, let it be known that a kror is a hundred lakhs, and a lakh a hundred thousand rupees, and a rupee half a Spanish peso.”
This, then, is the text which must be got rid of. And why? What are the insuperable difficulties, the “wild improbabilities” militating against it?
The Taj was begun in 1630 or 1631 and completed in 1648, and here is a traveller who saw it, when the work was in full swing. He spent at least 26 days in Agra, and was the guest of the Jesuits, than whom he could have had no better informed cicerones. They knew the place; they knew its history. Since the days of Father Jerome Xavier, from 1595 to 1641, there had been no break of continuity in their stay at Agra. What was more natural than that Manrique, who must have kept a diary, should have questioned them on all matters of interest? Among the things worth recording, he noted that Veroneo had supplied the plans of the Taj and superintendent the work.
Fathers de Oliveira and de Cruz were at Agra in 1641, and they could know, since fame had carried far and wide the report of Veroneo’s share in the matter, even to minute particulars of his interviews with Shah Jahan.
One who surely knew was Father J. de Castro. He has been in the Mogul Empire since 1610, had occupied a high position of influence under Jahangir, and acted as Chaplain to Mirza Zu’l Qarnin, Court-poet under Jahangir, and Governer in Bengal, (Patna?) under Shah Jahan (1629- 32). We have letters of his dated Agra, 1633, 1637, 1638, 1640 and 1641. Finally, he was Veroneo’s executor. During his stay at Lahore, Manrique was Father de Castro’s guest. He had ample opportunities of satisfying his curiosity; but, even after his conversations with Father de Castro, Frey Manrique wrote as we have seen. What interest had he to write otherwise than he heard? Or what interest had the Jesuits, the Portuguese and other foreigners, with thom Manrique was brought into contact, to speak otherwise than they knew?
The a priori theories of some writers on the respective merits and the peculiar character of Indian and Western art- in appreciations of this nature