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Bentinck and the Taj

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 March 2011

Percival Spear
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Extract

For many years the official folk-lore of British India has included a story that Lord William Bentinck once contemplated the demolition of the Taj Mahal in order to sell its marble. The point of the story has varied with the mental climate of the time: at first it was an illustration of Bentinck's supposed meanness; the arch “clipper” would even lay hands on the Taj in order to make money. Later it became evidence of the supposed vandalism of the British in early nineteenth-century India; even Bentinck, the otherwise praiseworthy economical reformer, saw nothing in the Taj worthy of preservation. For many years, after the circumstances of its origin and its early expressions had been forgotten, the story lived on in the realm of verbal folk-lore, but more recently it has been revived in print and its truth largely taken for granted. The story, if true, would be a serious reflection on Bentinck according to the standards of any civilized age, and it is therefore worth asking with some particularity upon what basis of fact it rests.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 81 , Issue 3-4 , October 1949 , pp. 180 - 187
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1949

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References

page 180 note 1 p. 246. There is an earlier reference in Russell's, W. H.My Diary in India, vol. ii, 77. 7th ed. 1860Google Scholar. The latest reference is by Reid, C. L. in his Commerce and Conquest, London, 1947Google Scholar.

page 180 note 2 Garratt, G. T. (ed.), The Legacy of India, 401–2. Oxford, 1937Google Scholar.

page 180 note 3 Rawlinson, H. G., British Achievement in India, 178. London, 1948Google Scholar.

page 180 note 4 Woodward, E. L., Age of Reform, 398, n. 3. Oxford, 1938, et seq.Google Scholar:

“There appears to be no reliable evidence for the story that Bentinck wanted to pull down the Taj Mahal in order to sell the marbles, and that the building was saved because the auction for the palace of Agra proved unsatisfactory.”

page 181 note 1 Private letter, 13th January, 1939.

page 181 note 2 Parks, F., Diary ofa Journey in search ofthe Picturesque, i, 220. 2 vols. London, 1850Google Scholar.

page 181 note 3 Sleeman, W. H., Rambles and Recollections of an Indian Official, ii, 37. London, 1844Google Scholar.

page 181 note 4 Beresford, Lord Marcus, Journal of my Life in India, from 28th 08. 1836Google Scholar, up to my arrival in England, 30th June, 1841. Commonwealth Relations Office Library, Eur. MSS. c. 70, f. 98.

page 182 note 1 Information supplied by The Statesman, 19th August, 1939. John Bull was absorbed by the Englishman, which was in turn incorporated with The Statesman.

page 182 note 2 Stoqueler, , Pilgrimage I, iGoogle Scholar.

page 183 note 1 Sleeman, W. H., Rambles and Recollections, i, 140–1. London, 1844Google Scholar.

page 183 note 2 Pane, H. E., Five Tears in India. London, 1842Google Scholar.

page 183 note 3 General Consultations, 15th February, 1831, Nos. 51–3. Commonwealth Relations Office Library.

page 183 note 4 Ibid., 26th April, 1831, Nos. 19 and 20.

page 183 note 5 General Letter to the Court, 19th August, 1831, paras. 46, 47 (No. 25 of 1831).

page 184 note 1 By permission of the Duke of Portland through the late Mr. Philip Morrell.

page 184 note 2 Bentinok MSS. Major Mountain to Lord William Bentinck, 3rd November, 1834, from Meerut.

page 184 note 3 Private Journal of the Marquess of Hastings, ed. Marchioness, of Bute, , ii, 19–20, 24th 02, 1815. 2 vols. London, 1858.Google Scholar

page 185 note 1 Sleeman, op. cit., ii, 36.

page 185 note 2 Hastings, , Private Journal, ii, 18Google Scholar.

page 185 note 3 Ibid., ii, 26–7. Seeds of the pipal tree were imbedded in the dome. They were removed and the dome repaired just in time.

page 185 note 4 Letter from Mr. H. D. Roberts, 13th February, 1939.

page 185 note 5 Moghul baths of the kind in question were massive constructions occupying the centre of a marble chamber. Without the bath there would only be a shell of the room left, and this, on Hastings' evidence, was ruinous in 1815.

page 186 note 1 Bentinck MSS. Bentinck to the Duke of Portland, 11th June, 1829. The evasions were by Lords Hastings and Amherst.

page 186 note 2 Ibid.

page 186 note 3 Ibid. Bentinck to Peter Auber, 10th June, 1829.

page 186 note 4 Ibid.

page 186 note 5 Letter of Sir C. Metcalfe, 8th March, 1829. Quoted by Thompaon, E.. Charles, Lord Metcalfe, 264. London, 1937Google Scholar.

page 186 note 6 Bentinck MSS. Bentinck to Peter Auber, 10th June, 1829.

page 186 note 7 Thompson, E.. Charles, Lord Metcalfe, 276–8Google Scholar.

page 187 note 1 T. G. P. Spear. Lord Ellenborough and Lord William Bentinok. Proceedings of the Indian History Congress, 1939.

page 187 note 2 Hardinge, Lord of Penhurst, , My Indian Years, 55–6. London, 1948Google Scholar.

page 187 note 3 Sleeman, W. H., Rambles and Recollections, ii, 37, ed. 1844Google Scholar. His protest was against quadrille and tiffin parties periodically given at the Taj.