India's Royal Pageant

Plans for the Magnificent Delhi Coronation Durbar

Noble Chiefs Will All Attend

Homage for King Edward to Be Tendered to His Viceroy—Imposing Ceremony Will Be Held Near the Scene of Many Deeds of British Valor

The ground upon which the ceremonies connected with the coronation durbar at Delhi, India, will take place is not only specially connected with the roll of honor of the British empire, for the famous ridge bounds it on the east, but is also specially associated with the assumption of imperial authority, as the Shalimar gardens, which witnessed the coronation of the only great mogul emperor subsequent to the founder of the present city of Shahjahanabad—viz, Aurangzeb, the ornament to the throne—lie but a short distance removed to the west, and the durbar itself will be held in the great Bawari plain, upon the same site as the imperial assemblage which signalized the assumption of the title of kaisar-i-hind by the first queen empress of India on Jan. 1, 1877, says the London correspondent of the New York Times.

At ordinary times the plain at the foot of the ridge is an empty, bare stretch, covered with short turf and forming a pleasant ground for a morning's canter, but at Christmastide, 1902, it will be covered with the snowy camps of the viceroy of India and his principal lieutenants and adjutators and will be resplendent with the bright eastern surroundings by which such camps are always framed. The vice-regal camp will be in the center of all, flanked on the south by the camps of the governor of Bombay and of the commander in chief of India and the generals of the four commands, and on the north by those of the governor of Madras and the lieutenant governors, chief commissioners and agents to the governor general throughout India.

At the back of the central camp is being constructed a permanent residence for the viceroy's occupation. This will hereafter fill a much needed want at Delhi—viz, a guesthouse for distinguished guests and visitors. The press camp will be on the left of the state camps and one visitors' camp on the right, while another will be outside the Kashmir gate of the city. All the camps and the durbar plain will be connected by the light railway which Is being constructed for the convenience of visitors, and all will be illuminated by electric light.

Proceeding along the Grand Trunk road and beyond the canal another plain is seen to the north, more low lying and more bare than the stretches of the old cantonment. This is the Bawarl plain, and in the middle of it, about two miles from the state camps, which will be the center of everything, and some four miles from the Kashmir gate, are the imperial amphitheater and dais where the coronation durbar will be held. On this occasion, as on that of the imperial assemblage, it will be the scene of a gorgeous ceremony, in which no element of oriental pomp will be lacking. The viceroy himself, the great chiefs in peace and war subordinate to him alone, the noble Indian feudatories of the crown, troops and guns, horses and elephants, splendid regiments and brightly clad, joyous crowds, all will be there and will make a picture of display and splendor such as has never been seen even in India.

The amphitheater in which the durbar will be held is somewhat different in shape from that constructed in 1877 and has been built in a horseshoe form, with the imperial dais at the upper end instead of in the center, as then. Inside the wedges of seats will be a circular road, by which the viceroy will drive up to the dais, and in front and behind the amphitheater will be drawn up the troops which will lend military splendor to the display. The road from the viceroy's camp to the amphitheater will pass through the principal bodies of troops encamped at Delhi; the cavalry camp, however, will be farther up the Grand Trunk road, near Badiikisavih [Badli-ki-Serai], where the battle of June 8, 1857, was fought, and on the nearer side of it will be the camp of the ruling chiefs of the Punjab. The camps of the other ruling chiefs of India will be situated at various points on the western road from the Lahore gate of the city of Rehtak [Rohtak], and on the southwestern road from the Ajmir gate to the Kutab, and great will be the display and furious