The Qutb Minar, Delhi.

The Qutb Minar, Delhi; in the foreground an Englishman on horseback with a servant. By a Delhi artist, c.1848. Inscribed in Persian characters on border below picture: 'Burj i Masjid i Quwat al-Islam. Naqsha i Minar Qutb Sahib Burj i nau sakht' (Tower of the Mosque 'Quwat al-Islam'. Picture of the Qutb Tower. Newly repaired). 1843 water mark. Water-colour; 30 by 21.25 ins. Purchased June 1921. Note: The Qutb Minar, which had been badly damaged by an earthquake in 1803, was repaired by Major Robert Smith of the Bengal Engineers in 1828-29. As part of these repairs he replaced the fallen 'chatri' (cupola) of Firuz Shah Tughluq with a late Mughal-style Bengali 'chhatri' of red sandstone - an addition which caused great controversy. In 1848 the Governor-General, Lord Hardinge, ordered the 'chhatri' to be removed and, as can be seen in the present drawing, it was placed on a mound near the Minar. In 1914 it was installed in the garden south east of the Minar. The inscription 'Newly repaired' clearly refers to the removal of the 'chatri' in 1848. [This same view is reproduced as a woodcut in Syed Ahmad Khan's 'Asar al-Sanadid' (Delhi, 1847), between pp.128-9, with the controversial cupola already on the ground; see also S.C. Welch, 'Room for Wonder', New York 1978, no.51.]. For Robert Smith, see his western drawings under this name, and for his repairs to the Qutb Minar, including a discussion of the controversial 'chatri' see India Office Records, Boards Collections, vol.1324, no.52472. For drawings of the Qutb Minar, showing Smith's cupola on the top, see a water-colour by J.A. Crommelin (WD1381), a pen-and-ink drawing by G.F. White (WD 3087), and a painting by a Delhi artist, c.1830-40, reproduced W.H. Sleeman, 'Rambles and recollections of an Indian official' (London, 1844), plate 21.

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