This building, which exhibits one of the first specimens of Mahomedan grandeur among the Mogul race of princes, confifts of a spacious apartment of forty feet fquare, with others adjoining. It is furmounted at top by a magnificent dome, with fix-and-twenty others of fmaller dimenfions. Thefe are attached to different apartments on each fide of the mosque. To the eye this building has a very grand effect, but it is difficult to defcribe. The edifice is furrounded by a high wall of confiderable length, and within the enclosure are convenient habitations for the attendants on the mosque. The wall is flanked with octangular pavilions of red ftone, and the entrances through the gateways are of the fame materials.

The plain of Panniput has likewise been celebrated in the hiftory of modern times. It was on this plain that the famous battle was fought in 1762 between Ahamed Shah, the Duranny, and the Mahrattas. The latter were commanded by Viswas Raou, a prince of the Mahratta empire, who was flain in the conteft. The lofs of this action wrefted from the Mah

rattas the fovereignty of Hindooftan; though the fupineness and effeminacy of Ahamed Shah, after his fuccefs, prevented his enjoying the fruits of his victory.*

The city of Panniput is situated in 29° 22′ of north latitude. Its circumference may be about four miles. It was formerly furrounded by a brick wall, which in many places is ftill entire. This wall, and a noble caravanfera of ftone adjoining the Delhi gate, was built at the expence of Nuwaub Rofhun Al Dowlah, grand-chamberlain of the household to Mahomed Shah. The remains of the Delhi gate are still handfome. It is built of brick, forty feet in height, arched at the top and flanked with towers of red ftone, and is connected by

*The particulars of this battle have been too ably detailed by the pen of colonel Brown, in a letter to the Asiatic Society, to require comments in this place. It is here sufficient to remark, that no remains of the entrenched camp of the Mahrattas are now to be seen, the plain being perfectly level. But about a mile east of the city, two trees were pointed out to us by the natives, as the place where the Bhow's tent was pitched previous to the battle.

a rampart within the city wall. The exterior of this gateway is encrufted with very fine chunam, and decorated with paintings of flowers, in various patterns, executed in a style of peculiar neatness and delicacy.

In the centre of the city is the fhrine of a Mahommedan devotee, by name Shah Shurfuddeen Boo Ali Culinder, the fon of Furruckuddeen Iraki. Since his death, which happened in the 724th year of the Hijerah, this maufoleum has been repaired several times. The tomb is fituated at the upper end of a spacious fquare, at the entrance to which is a fcreen of perforated stone-work; beyond this is the verandah or portico, the roof of which is fupported by four pillars of fungmuhuk, a fpecies of black marble; the pillars are twelve feet in height, having pedestals of porphyry. The cieling of this tico is decorated with paintings of flowers on fine chunam; along the front of the vestibule, on a flab of white marble, are engraved couplets in the Perfian language in black marble characters. Thefe verfes are in praise of the fanctity of the deceased, and by the operation

F

por

of the arithmetical verfe called ABJUD,* give the date of his death in the 724th year of the Hijerah.

Within the dome is the grave of Boo Ali Culinder: it is fix feet by three, of white marble, and is covered by a pall of rich brocade. The whole is furrounded by a latticework of wood. Above is a covering of green. filk, fupported by four pillars of wood, encrufted with mother of pearl.

The revenues of this tomb were formerly confiderable; but most of them, during the troubles which have fubfifted in the upper provinces, have long fince been confifcated.

* The arithmetical verse called ABJUD, consists of the letters of the Arabic alphabet joined together so as to form articulate sounds, but without any meaning. It may be given as follows in Roman character :

Abjud, Huwwuz, buttee, Cullamun; Saufuz, kurshut sukkhuz, Zuzzug.

Each of these letters having a numerical property, from one to one thousand, by this operation the dates of inscriptions are discovered. See Richardson's Dictionary, article Abjud.

However, ftill there are from four to five hundred perfons attendant on the fhrine. Thefe fubfift on the contributions of the charitable.

The city, though now much decayed, and the population reduced, formerly contained many good houses. The bazars, of which there are two, are of confiderable length, but narrow; they contain about three hundred shops tolerably well furnished. The trade of this place confifts in imports of falt, grain of all kinds, and cotton cloths: they export coarfe fugar.

2.

In the flourishing times of the empire, Panniput, fituated in the high road to Lahore, Cabul, and Perfia, was the emporium of the caravans from the north, and the feat of an extenfive commerce. But the ravages occafioned by the distracted ftate of the empire, for more than half a century, have not only caused a fad reverse, but almost annihilated its commercial relations with other countries.