ffipipBi LIBRARY UNIV£!<SITY OF CALIFORNIA . LESLIE WALKER SAN DIEGO H k i^ .,_<i ,. \ THE MOGUL EMPERORS THE MOGUL EMPERORS OF HINDUSTAN A.D. I398-A.D. 1707 BY EDWARD S. HOLDEN, LL.D. Often art action of small tiote, a short saying or a jest, shall distinguish a person's real character more than the greatest sieges. Plutarch. — NEW YORK CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS ^895 Copyright, 1895, by CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS & Co. Press of J. J. Little Astor Place, New York INTRODUCTORY NOTE A COLLECTION of miniatures of the Mogul emperors, some of which are copied in this book, came into The accounts my of these which are given reference quently I hands many months ago. unfamiHar personages the ordinary books of in found to be inadequate and incorrect. Accordingly, fre- devoted I the spare hours of a long and harassing win- reading the original memoirs of the ter to native historians of India and the accounts of early ambassadors and travellers to the court of the Great Moguls. I in wrote out brief, various periodicals. reprint I in am them in a A few of these and they were printed I have been asked to more complete form, which very glad to do, as I know of no one volume which contains the information here collected. To those who have lived or travelled in India, the subject of this book will be more Introductory Note vi or less familiar, since the jurisprudence, cus- toms, and perors have left remains which Yet recall their authors. may this class of readers Mogul em- the of architecture still serve to think that even I find convenient it have many scattered fragments of biog- to raphy and history brought together To place. the majority of persons, however, Mogul period is more than a name a closed one the note its is remote. moved in one in its ; foreign, and it is hardly impulses are alien, history its who But even to us, time and temper, in ; seems are so far reit is not with- out interest to study the characters of the kings who centuries ; India ruled and it is of readers that this I for three eventful chiefly to the latter class book is addressed. wish to emphasize the fact that its chap- ters are not intended to give the history of the reigns in question, but rather to present such views of the chief personages involved as an intellieent reader of the histories themselves might wish to carry away. which I The materials have used are to be found in great libraries, although they are dispersed all in Introductory Note very Moreover, the different volumes. many vii Oriental biographers require to writings of be worked over into a new shape before they are acceptable to Western readers. with I have not encumbered these pages the host of foot-notes which would be necessary had I by work, volume, and referred page to their sources. that the chief It may suffice to consulted authorities say have been the Memoirs of the emperors themselves histories the standard ; of Persia, and Tartary, by Elphinstone, Malcolm, Erskine, Price, Hunter, Howorth, and others; India, the records of early missions and voyages; and, more especially, the invaluable transla- tions of the native historians, Dowson, Professor Elliot, Blochmann ; was able to short, all in find by and Sir Henry Professor the works that I which treat of the subject in hand. very interesting lives of Akbar, by The Colonel Noer, Malleson and of and Comte F. A. de Aurangzeb, by Mr. Stanley Lane-Poole, came into my book was have carefully com- finished. I hands after this Introductory Note viii pared Chapters IV and VII with these, the authorities, latest As to change. but I have seen nothing a matter of Moguls must depend upon the same of the The originals. interpretation of these origi- nals rests with the reader. present to them so interpretation easy. sible, fact, all histories I fully have attempted Whenever ; and was pos- in spelling, have also chosen to retain the I of the my must be this excuse for some inconsistencies ing it the have used the very words of the I various chronicles etc. make as to spell- word Mogul, which a usage more than two centuries has made of familiar to English readers, rather than to introduce more the correct form, Mtighal. count myself particularly fortunate I that I in have the permission of Sir William Chapter VIII) his masterly picture of the downfall of the last Hunter to of the great I (in Mogul emperors. have been able to orieinal authorities libraries of to reprint for find this nearly all the book in the the Pacific Coast, which seems be not a little remarkable when it is Introductory Note how considered interests, ix removed our American far and otherwise, are from literary those of India, especially of mediaeval In- Other works dia. have consulted by the I courtesy of Dr. Justin Winsor, Librarian of Harvard University. There was every reason to expect that complete series of entirely authentic of the obtained. So traits discover, there By kind of far as is Mss., received Douglas, tutes one of of the its many emperors —which Chapter II, of to Professor Oriental copy the a col- and exquisite Indian draw- by contemporary of of keeper permission ings Jahangir and Mogul kings from the lection of rare of four America. Richard Garnett, keeper books, K. of in Museum, and through the very Robert portraits have been able to action of the authorities of printed I I no such series offices of Dr. its por- Mogul emperors could be the liberal the British no artists, is The group Humayun, Akbar, treasures. — Babar, is which consti- given at the beginning reproduced from a Ms, Shah-Jahan-Nameh (British Museum X Note Inh'odtictory Add., 20,734), ^vhich was formerly the in Akbar II, King of Delhi. The portrait of Shah Jahan as an old man (page 270), and of Aurangzeb (page 309), possession of are from Ms. Add., 18,801. These plates were kindly selected by Mr. H. Arthur Doubleday publisher to tliC good enough India Office, to me for London, of who was also superintend their photo- graphic reproduction from the original Mss. The portraits entirely authentic are ; with one exception they have never before been indeed, printed ; known to a existence was their few Oriental scholars ; only and they have the additional advantage of exhibiting Indian portraiture at its everything best, in but color. The frontispiece exquisite this book, from miniature on ivory, a picture given to Arnold. of The my a copy of is son by Sir plate of Akbar, tion. They purport portraits. How to Edwin Nur-Mahal, and Shah Jahan (as a young man) duced from other miniatures an in is repro- my collec- be copies of original faithfully, even slavir-hly, Introductory Note xi such originals are copied and recopied I have learned by comparing two photographs of Nur-Mahal is in my possession. now miniature now after a miniature after a in One of these London, the other in Delhi. The two miniatures were copied from the same orig- The inal. scrutiny closest any difference whatever The two photographs. rug is Hence have confidence Indian any part of the very pattern of a in warriors is comes to such reproductions by is it The artists. Asiatic that one spirited design of two used as a stamp on the after a Persian painting of the time Marco of detect to absolutely identical in the two copies of copies. cover, in fails Polo, circa a.d. 1300, and it is reproduced from Colonel Yule's remarkable life of the great traveller. The at the from " portrait of Nur-Mahal (Nur-Jahan) beginning of Chapter VI, an eng-ravinof Noor Jehan, after an or the original of the. Great which bears is copied the title Light of the World, drawing from the library Mogul, and now in session of the Publishers," which the posis further Introductory Note xii " P. marked work 185." but this rare portrait this belongs, evidently original, a Samarkand, I tomb of the some Indian of Tamerlane, in redrawn from a photograph is owe is extremely interesting. is The view which copy of faithful and do not know to what I kindness of Professor to the D. Gedeonof, Director of the Observatory of From Tashkend. Rousselet's India and its Native Princes the following cuts are taken (by permission Tomb the of publishers) : The Humayun, the Mosque of Aurangzeb at Benares. The view of the Taj-Mahal is made from a negative by Mr. Frederick Dlodati Thompson of New York, and first of appeared Sim. his book, in It is In the Track of the printed by permission of Messrs. D. Appleton & Co. These views of famous buildings ress (and decay) of characteristic illustrate the Mogul prog- architecture from the time of Tamerlane (1400) to the reign of Aurangzeb (1700). the lotus (page 356) Indian picture, Finally, the is drawing of reduced from a native in colors, in the collection of Miss Olive Risley-Seward of Washington. Introductory Note xiii Professor Gedeonof, Director of the Imperial Observatory of Tashkend, Professor C. Michie Smith, Director of the Observatory of Madras, Thomas G. Mr. New Allen of Jersey, and, Mr. H. Arthur Doubleday of Lon- especially, don, have been most kind in procuring for me miniatures and photographic copies of my portraits and views. grateful thanks to Miss Agnes Gierke for made Museum, researches British Upton for I the in and similar have to express of the collections Miss to Sara Carr made researches in the Library of Congress and elsewhere. Through the thoughtful kindness friends many in thus been volume of parts of the world possible to collect illustrations of the in many it this has one personages and of the architecture of the India of long ago. I beg them to express all ; my and also to sincere my obligations to publishers for the pains they have taken to present the illustrations in a fitting and artistic manner. A mere chance originally tion to the subject of this hours of a lonsf drew book winter were ; my atten- the leisure s^iven to the Introductory Note xiv study of the writings and characters of great rulers If I and great men have succeeded sions which I like in received, Babar and Akbar. conveying the impresI shall be more than gratified. E. S. H. The Lick Observatory, Mount Hamilton, April, 1893, TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE CHAPTER I. Tamerlane the Great (born a.d. 1336, died .1 A.D. 1405), CHAPTER Zehir-ed-din Muhammad queror (born a.d. n. Babar, 1482, CHAPTER the Con- died 1530), . 56 in. HuMAYUN, Emperor of Hindustan (a.d. 1530THE Adventures of Four Broth1556) ; ers, 97 CHAPTER IV. Shah Akbar the Great, the Emperor of Hindustan Organizer, (a.d. 1556128 1605), CHAPTER The Emperor Jahangir V. (a.d. 1605-1627). A Contribution towards a Natural History OF Tyrants, ..... 207 xvi Table of Co7itents CHAPTER Nur-Mahal (The VI. Light the of Empress of Hindustan CHAPTER Palace), (a.d. 1611-1627), 236 VII. Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb, Emperors of Hindustan (a.d. 1628-1658 and a.d. 270 1658-1707), CHAPTER The Ruin of Aurangzeb OF A Reaction. VIII. ; a.d. the History By Sir W. W. Hunter, 309 CHAPTER Appendix. or, IX. The Conquests of India 1526). (b.c. 327- Brief Chronological and Genealogical Tables, (a.d. 1398-1707), 357 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS BORN DIED FACING PAGE The Emperor Babar, (1482-I530) 56 The Emperor Humayun, (1508-I556) 56 The Emperor Akbar, (1542-I605) The Emperor Jahangir, (1569-I627) 56 The Empress Nur-Mahal, (1585-I645) 128 236 The Empress Mumtaz-i-Mahal, (1590-1630) 128 Frontispiece The Emperor Shah Jahan, . (1591-1666) The Emperor Aurangzeb, . (1618-1707) The Tomb of Timur at Samarkand, The Tomb of . Humayun, 128 270 309 10 97 The Taj-Mahal, at Agra, 289 The Mosque 302 The Lotus, of Aurangzeb, at Benares, Tailpiece THE MOGUL EMPERORS OF HINDUSTAN CHAPTER I TAMERLANE THE GREAT (born The 1336, DIED A.D. inhabitants became the of a of rulers Euphrates to the cliffs 1405) small Italian city the world from the We are of Albion. the inheritors of their civilization, and their history is taught to our little children. Their language and literature are as familiar as our own. great of men The are knowledge. acters, their lives part We of their of the and rulers common stock understand their char- aspirations, their most secret motives. Centuries after Rome was famous the The Mogul Emperors 2 hordes of Tartar and Mongol tribes far in the East gathered strength under great com- manders, and overran what they also called ** the inhabitable world," from Poland to the Persian Gulf and Hindustan Sea tinople to the China in India, What day. from Corea to the ; Their descendants founded a stable Ganges. empire from Constan- ; which lasted living idea can we form Babar and Akbar their great successors, Shakspeare's play ? Julius Ccesar might serve as a of Roman history Marlowe's scarcely is of such Chengiz-Khan, alien personalities as those of of Tamerlane, or of our own until in less first of text-book our schools to-day. famous Tamburlaijie ludicrously inadequate as a picture of the Grand Khan of Tartary. These people have never yet touched our national or our racial foreigners. We Spain and the in ; life. They are utter can understand the Moors chivalric Saladin is hardly stranger to us than Richard the Lion-Heart, But our interest or Saint Louis of France. in the Mongols tiveness. If is a mere intellectual inquisi- one seeks to satisfy this curios- Tamerla7ie the Great one meets with singular ity, 3 Not difficulties. only are the character and motives of particular individuals quite alien to our own, but their very histories are given in foreign forms which perplex and confuse. It is perfectly simple to understand that Ulugh Beg, the grandson of Tamerlane, built in at 1437, Samarkand, the greatest astronomical observatory of the world, one hundred and forty Tycho Brahe erected Uranibourg in Denmark. But it is almost impossible to comprehend the intrigues and years before violence which deposed this good prince, and own son. led to his death at the hands of his As in this case, history, so in others. by a native A consecutive writer, of the reigns of Chengiz or of Timur (Tamerlane, " the lame prince "), ical. Its seems totally unconnected and sanguinary pages record a which seems to be purposeless illog- hell —without an object. If we wish something, at tives of process to satisfy the curiosity to least, of know the character and mo- a sovereign like Timur, the simplest is to collect the narratives of men of The Mogul Emperors 4 who were our own world These actions. tive outlines, eye-witnesses of his recitals give us the perspec- which are The they are not complete. sketch must be filled seem to possible, into its us significant. though the to choose such as Finally, difficult, to it may be this fit inherited from our and adopted first details of the picture place in the view of the world which we have tors if up by extracts from the we have native writers, and even intelligible Roman for ourselves ; and importance to recollect that ancesit is of Rome was nearly two thousand years old when Mongol history begins. An Embassy to the Graiid (a.d. Khan of Tartary 1254) In the year 1248 Saint Louis of France embarked for the Holy Land. While he was yet at Cyprus he received ambassadors from the Grand Khan of Tartary, and understood, quite erroneously, that the Khan had been converted to Christianity. It seems to be : Tamerlane the Great 5 true that he desired to attack the Saracens from one Crusaders advanced side, while the From from the other. King Syria the sent one WilHam de Rubruquis, a monk of the order of the Minors, as a sort of Friars His ambassador to Tartary. was to spy out the land, converts as he could. " a person of missiori^ and to make such De Rubruquis was admirable parts, gence, unaffected letter to the real piety and great probity." dili- His King, giving an account of his extraordinary journey, fully bears out this praise and deserves Rubruquis left to be read in full. De Constantinople for Tartary May, 1253, and arrived at the court of Batu, the grandson of Chengiz-Khan (born in 1162, died 1227), after months of perilous travel. The subjects of Tamerlane were very those of Chengiz-Khan. like The acceptance of Islam was the only marked change, and the new religion was held but lightly. There is no better way to obtain a view of them than to copy a few paragraphs from the journal of the good monk The Mogul Emperors 6 " And cincts after we departed out we found the Tartars, amongst whom was come into a being entered, methought new world, of those pre- whose life I and manners will I describe unto your Highness as well as can. I They have no settled habitation know they to-day where they shall lodge to-morrow. They have all Scythia to themneither ; selves, which stretcheth from the river Dan- Each ube to the utmost extent of the East. of their Captains, according to the of his people, tures, knows the bounds of his pas- and where he ought to feed winter and summer, spring number and his cattle, autumn. Their houses they raise upon a round foundation of wickers, artificially pacted together wickers also, meeting roundell, which black) felt. the ; wrought and com- roof, above consisting in one little they cover with white This cupola they adorn of (or with variety of pictures." The houses were moved from place on immense wagons twenty drawn by two-and-twenty oxen eleven in a row. " The in place to feet wide, two rows, axle-tree of the cart — Tamerlane the Great was of a ship. huge bigness, the mast like Batu (grandson Hence it of a Chengiz-Khan) of whom hath sixteen wives, every one of a great house. 7 hath that the court is of a rich Tartar will appear like a very large village." At the camps the houses were dismounted from the carts and ranged in order. The beds and furniture had particular and un" varying situations within the house. is a little lean idol which as is, ceremony is constant in were, the it One guardian of the whole house. houses all ; a bench, on which stands a vessel and cups for drinking it. piece of namely, of milk summer- the In There time they care not for any drink but cosmos''' me leave without differ- " In respect to their food, give to inform your Highness that, ence or distinction, they eat all their beasts that die of age or sickness." The customs and are described at the laws of the Tartars Q^reat lenorth. The chief punishments are flogging and death. " On my arrival among * Mares' milk these barbarous koumiss. The Mogul Emperors 8 people I thought, as I I before observed, that The first they asked was whether we had was come question into a new world. ever been with them heretofore or not made us wait bread from long while, a wondering us, and ; begging our at all things they saw, and desiring to have them. It is true they took nothing by force from me, but they and is will a if but beg all they see, very importunately man bestows anything upon them lost, for to hands of On tai, his me it they are thankless wretches. So we departed from them seemed ; that ; and indeed we escaped out it of the devils." journey he was presented to Zaga- another grandson of Chengiz-Khan, and entered into his presence bashfulness." The "with fear and reception was not unfa- vorable, though the monk's gifts were few. " I expounded to him the Apostles' Creed, which, after he had heard, he shook his head." The interpreter, however, was "a sorry one." They still " went towards the eastward, seeing naught but the sky and the earth," they reached their journey's end. till At the Tamerlane the Great court of the fort ; Khan they found even luxury of a 9 a kind of com- What sort. is surprising, they met with Nestorian and obite priests in numbers sians, in smith, ; with fugitive Rus- a Knight Templar, a French gold- William Bouchier of wife, " a Jac- Hungarians, Muhammadans, Greeks, plenty ; most woman from Metz in Paris, and his Lorraine," and even with a strayed Englishman. This was more than a hundred years before the time of Timur, and it variety of arts reiofn. were affords an explanation of the known in Samarkand in his The Tartar and Monorol tribesmen still the same in his time, except for a nominal conformity to had been brought to Christianity Islam. Khorassan century by the Nestorlans. in the fourth There was a Merv in a.d. 334, and in Herat and Samarkand in a.d. 500. The Kerait Turkomans accepted Christianity about A.D. 1000, as a tribe. Buddhism came Nestorian bishop in through China into Transoxania ; and Islam crossed the Persian frontiers not long after the death of the Prophet. All these creeds were tolerated by Chengiz Khan. The Mogul Emperors lO The tolerance of Chengiz and his sons had MusHm ceased under Timur, and the ruled in all 7nollahs But the religious matters. arts of the architect, the goldsmith, the armorer, the weaver, had already been to these wilds transplanted from Europe, from China, from Africa, from Arabia, from As- Persia. tronomy, mathematics, poetry, learning of a sort were cultivated, and the field pared for that remarkable advance was pre- some in which of the arts (notably in architecture), marks the period of Timur and his imme- diate successors* An Embassy Tamerlane the Great to (a.d. King Henry III. of 1403) Castile 1407) despatched embassies to of Europe and Asia. 1376- (a.d. many princes Tamerlane sent in re- turn an envoy, Muhammad-al-Cazi, with presents and a letter. When the Mogul envoy * For a very interesting description of the fine monuments of Samarkand in Timur's lifetime, see an Blanc in the Revue des Deux article Mondes for February by M. Edouard 15, 1893. THE TOMB OF TIMUR 1 Tamerlajie the Great was him an embassy left which of Castile sent with to the court of Ruy Gonzales de has King to return, the 1 Timur Beg. one of the envoys, Clavijo, us an account of his perilous mission, set out arrived at from Seville Samarkand in in May, and 1403, August, 1404, after traversing the Mediterranean and Euxine seas to Trebizond, and passing by land through Erzeroum, Teheran, near Merv, and across the Oxus to Samarkand — over seventy degrees of longitude. In October, 1403, the ambassadors were Emperor they much desired received in audience by Manuel, the of Constantinople to for and as have a sight of the various Christian relics city * were which the churches of the famous, special them. as ; The their Emperor privileges were guide in himself Emperor acted The pious visits. their was the custodian of the In the church of John the Baptist they saw the of St. John. to son-in-law of the keys to the reliquaries. St. granted " left arm This arm was withered so that the skin and bone alone remained, and the * There were three thousand churches. The Mogul Emperors 12 of joints elbow and the hand were the another church adorned with jewels." In they saw the arm, " and this was saint's right "And and healthy." fresh body that the whole said, ' finger, Ecce Agnus Dei / arm was yet certainly the whole of this good preservation." * saw pieces of the true cross, iron on which the blessed roasted " ; blood of Christ ; some " ; ginus pierced his side, was as fresh as if committed St. ; " "a *' the ; " grid- Lawrence was some Lord of "the hairs of the Saviour's iron of the lance with tlie in Helena brought the very " bread which our Jesus Christ gave to Judas beard made from Holy Land; "the from the ' In various shrines they cross which the blessed St. (entire) John with which of the blessed St. was destroyed except one he pointed when he though they say which Lon- and the blood on the deed piece of the had just it been sponge with which Jesus Christ, our God, was given gall and vinegar when he was on the and his cross," garments for which the soldiers cast * Notre Dame d'Amiens Saint to this day. lots, claims to possess the face bones of the Tamerlane the Great 13 besides relics of saints beyond count. a stone of many were colors On the " tears of the three Marys and of St. John, and these tears looked fresh, as At Trebizond, on if they had just fallen." the Black Sea, they had already touched on the confines of Timur's dominions, for the prince of that place paid Timur Beg drawn this is to signify that stamped on are tributary to in this he He parts of the world. who The arms which bears," says Clavijo, "are three circles like O's, to be " Emperor. tribute to the is ^°, and lord of the three ordered this device his coins, him manner, shall and that those have it on the coins of their countries." stamped It was of the greatest benefit to the Spanish envoys to company travel in the sador. After of Timur's own ambas- many adventures they reached Teheran, and from here to Samarkand they were forwarded by post-horses, which were maintained by the Emperor on cipal routes ; all the prin- and they were entertained and cared for by the governors of towns and villages. in Their journey through Persia was the heats of July, and many of the party The Mogul Emperors 14 succumbed and what with the died, and the great pace dust, the lack of water, which their post-horses travelled " better pleased with is and a night him who for ; at Timur travels a and for fifty leagues, horses, than with heat, the kills day two him who does the distance in three days." " Timur, considering were very long leagues the that empire of Samarkand, in his divided each league into two, and placed small on mark pillars league, ordering the all road to his followers to march on each day's at least ten of these leagues journey equal And and ; to two they do each of leagues each leagues was these of Castile. . . . not only travel the distance which the lord has ordered, but sometimes fifteen or twenty leagues in a day and night." Fancy a whole kingdom official is forced to travel at least sixty miles per day, whether he likes or not " the When we first place in ; which each in ! arrived at any city or village, thing was to ask for the chief of the and they took the the street, and with first man they met many blows forced ; Tamerlane the Great him to show the house 15 of the chief. The who saw them coming, and knew they were the troops of Timur Beg, ran away as and those who if the devil was after them people ; were behind their shops shut them up and crying fled, dor ' ! ' which means ambassa- and saying that with the ambassadors ; there would And, in come fact, a black day for them." the villagers had to furnish that the travellers required, and all he was failed " Elchee and thus it killed, or, at if anyone the least, beaten was that the people were marvellous terror of the lord and of ; in his servants." With these people Timur has performed many deeds and conquered in many battles " for they are a people of great valor, excellent horsemen, expert with the bow, and enured to hardships. they eat heat, ple ; and in the leave their not, they suffer cold if hunger and they have food, If better than any peo- thirst, world. women, . and . . children, They do and not flocks be- hind when they go to the wars, but take all with them." 6 The Mogul Empcroi's 1 They quoted by are, says a writer who weep battles, who Vam- bery, " a people at their feasts, laueh follow their leader in their and hunger, do blindly, are content with cold not know words but or pleasure, have not even rest them to express They prepare and language. their in carry their own animated by one soul and one arms, are not spirit, dainty in food or clothes, unpitying, ready to tear the unborn child from They despised the agriculture life willing to subsist on they called wheat. mother." of towns, for slaves. fit its " the and held They were not top of a weed," as Since the time of Chen- giz-Khan, every soldier had his appointed place in war — or the centre down from " We ; in the right wing, the left wing, and these places were handed father to son. met many of them, and tliey were so burned by the sun that they looked as they had come out of On hell." the 31st of August, 1404, the ambassa- dors reached the kand. if neighborhood of Samar- They were kept waiting for days before they had audience ; " for eight it is the Tamerlane the Great ij custom not to see any ambassador or six days are passed, and the tant the ambassador may be, more impor- the longer he has Finally they were presented. to wait." Timur Beg was seated " until five in a portal, at the entrance to a beautiful palace, and he was sitting on the ground. a fountain, which w^as very high, and The in it Before him there threw up the water Vv^ere some red apples. was seated cross-legged, on silken lord embroidered carpets, amongst round pillows. He was dressed in a robe of silk, with a high white hat on his head, on the top of which was a ruby, with pearls and precious stones about it." They were very an Timur asked "How Spain. These Franks are I and given honorable place above the ambassador from China. of well received, will give Spain, world." my my son, is my after the son, the King King? truly a great people, and benediction to the King of who lives at the end of the Here, then, at the court of Timur, were met ambassadors from the two extremities of the habitable globe — China and Spain. The Mog2Ll Emperors i8 Banquets meats, boiled and of and profusion and with roasted, on drinking-bouts later Emperor's wives were There were gold on four present, unveiled. tents of And pearls, two each standing tables, and the tables and legs were legs, one. them, of which were set with emeralds, and were also six all seven golden vials stood upon large and each turquoises, one had a ruby near the mouth. round golden cups with large pearls inside, and it ; embroidered with gold and gems. silk, in fruits which the at These took place under magnificent " of and drink out of golden jugs kinds, all with followed, in There — one set the centre of was a ruby two fingers broad, and of a brilliant hue." Their interpreter was them to this feast, late and bringing in Timur was very angry. " How is it that you have caused enraged and put out ? Why with the Frank Ambassador ? me I order that a hole be bored through your nose rope be passed through it, to be were you not ; that a and that you be Tartterlane the Great through the army, dragged 19 punish- a as ment." " He had men took the interpreter by the nose to bore a hole in It is it," satisfactory to who attended on they had not sent know that the wretch by the intercession escaped horse to eat, the officer of As Emperor Spanish envoys. the eaten freely, lodgings their to when scarcely finished speaking, the "ten sheep and a and also a load of wine, and dressed the ambassadors in robes, and gave them and shirts There was hats." great feasting, for some Timur's grandsons were to be married another grandson, Pir India, was present. magnificence of ; of and Muhammad, ruler of The profusion and these feasts impressed the ambassadors, and they seem to have been chiefly struck with pavilions of the silk, built splendid tents like castles, and each with a multitude of rooms. Timur's chief wife was present of red silk, flowing. trimmed with gold It had no waist, and in " a lace, robe long and fifteen ladies The Mogul Emperors 20 held up skirts of it stones, On the top there was a three very hair, little and large mounted by a Her tall lace. castle, on which were brilliant plume of rubies, feathers. ; color. accompanied by three hundred down sat on one less " . . " three The side." She was ladies," and ladies held her headdress with their hands, that no . and they value black hair much more than any other when she sur- which was very black, hung down over her shoulders fall of red and other precious and embroidered with gold all her to very high, covered with large pearls, rubies, emeralds, of to enable She wore a crested headdress walk. cloth, the it mieht not other wives were gorgeously arrayed. On tainment this day with they the had much [fourteen] enter- elephants, making them run with horses and with the people, which was very diverting they together all ran earth trembled. ... it ; seemed and when as was a beautiful thino- the In this horde which the lord had assembled there were as as fourteen or fifteen if thousand to see." tents, many which Tamerlmie the Great So with feastlngs every day the was entertained, and was over mission dismissed finally The ambassadors with honorable presents. returned 21 nearly the same route which they had come, and arrived Spanish court on the at 24th day of by the March, 1406, after an absence of about three years. Their narrative is valuable, in that it gives a truthful though a dull picture of the court of the great warrior King. It is at the we time most disappointing, in that gain that vivid, impression life-like personality which same fail to of his they might have given. Perhaps the most striking idea to be obtained from ority it is of the that the intellectual superi- envoys to the Moguls (which we unthinkingly and less at once assume) is marked than one might have expected. Timur's officers do not seem especially rude and ignorant as compared with the Spanish gentlemen. Timur's court was not a mere assembly of his officials. in a was organized fashion as orderly as that of the Spanish King. A It Special ranks had special privileges. Tarkhan, for example, had les grajides The Mogul Emperors 22 A him. mace-bearers could the entrees ; more extraordinary accompaniment of this rank was that neither he nor dren could be called to account crimes exceeded nine .title far not stop was hereditary. more important in it is till their number; and the Timur himself was a any of his To complete our figure than Western contemporaries. view of him, his chil- necessary to consult the narratives of the native historians of India own Memoirs. And in these native histories we may leave out of consideration and his any consecutive account of the mere events These events were a lone of his reiofn. sue- cession of bloody razzias on a large scale, alike in the main. When one is all understood, all are. The Life of Ti7mtr, as Told by the Native Historians The native handed down actions historians and poets have some accounts of the and sayings of Chengiz-Khan which to us accurately describe the military Of Cheneiz it is said in verse life : of Timur. Tamerlane the Great In every Here direction that he urged his steed He raised dust commingled with blood. is Chengiz's letter demanding the Bokhara. treasure of Timur written by one of his It conquered might have been men chief to the moment when ful 23 cities, just at his soldiery of any that fear- were driving the inhabitants like sheep into the surround- ing plains till the walls were emptied, and just before the sacking of the town began. The " Bokhara ! thus concludes letter You have been mous crimes ; : O men guilty of I am the instrument, hath employed me against you. Of erty in this city which visible, is the prop- all it be needless to require an account. demand that is The would What the immediate surrender of is all concealed." trembling chiefs reveal the the hidden treasures plunder enor- hence the wrath of God, of whose vengeance I of ; the in the fields ; ; the soldiers loot and wretched populace in sites of a few days the prisoners becomes troublesome ; is herded number of the artisans and the men of learning are segregated from The Mogtil E77iperors 24 the and are despatched to people some rest, one of the conqueror's cities —to Samarkand; the despairing remnant into tens or twenties, Kesh or is divided and a Mogul warrior told off to slaughter them, and to produce is at nightfall ten or twenty heads to go towards the buildine of a horrid monument to com- memorate the butchery. After the conquest of Bagdad, one hundred and twenty such pyramids of heads were made by Timur's they were Sometimes built. " engineers," by building the whole body of the victims into the structure with brick and clay and mor- Two tar. were thousand prisoners, not materials the of one all such dead, monu- ment. When a city was sacked, the walls were usually levelled to the sowed on the site. ground and grain was The tombs of the saints were spared, and were often embellished and enlarged. of The God and almost infidels throats cut " ; the unity the legation of his prophet were invariably artisans. who denied slain unless they were Half of the garrison had their the other half were hurled head- Tamerlane the Great long from the battlements," is 25 one entry of Timur's diary. After Cliengiz-Khan had captured Bokhara the history of his conquest was given in a line by one of the sufferers dered, and departed." is were all Here The is history of Timur's They Timur's own account of a massacre was commemorated by the building of 70,000 human heads mid plastered with mud I plun- alike. 1387, which " The Mongols written in that one sentence. raids in " slaughtered, destroyed, burnt, came, : conquered the into a pyra- : Isfahan, and city of trusted in the people of Isfahan, and ered the castle into their hands. rebelled, soldiers. I I deliv- And they and they slew three thousand of the And I also commanded a general slaughter of the people of Isfahan." The condition of an invaded province described by an earlier writer : " is There were many who withered with fear, and a muttering arose, as of a drum beaten under a blanket." Timur's expedition to India was undoubt- The Mogul Emperors 26 edly inspired by the hope of plunder. But Memoirs (" his lying Memoirs," as an English commentator calls them) declare that his he was impelled to this invasion obtain the to title and polytheists. princes in order ghazi, victor of infidels He and nobles sought counsel of his in Some matter. the urged the invasion for one reason, some for another. Prince Muhammad on account of the "seventeen" it One situated in India. of gold, another of mine of these iron, last "a of steel." tions of the laid the Mogul Empire, and tant for that reason chiefly. In was a mere raid on an immense many mines was a mine and the Timur's conquest of India it Sultan favored of his other foundaimpor- is it its incidents scale, like so campaigns. He passed Hindu Kush Mountains in the spring of A.D. 1398, and in December he was proHis path was claimed Emperor of Delhi. the marked by slaughter and ravage, and days Delhi itself Fifteen days he was given over remained within for five to pillage. its walls, and by March, 1399, he had crossed the bor- Tamerlane the Great 27 way to Turkey, Bajazet, who ders of India once more, on his sub- due the Sukan died of a captive in his camp. While Timur lived the official prayers at Delhi were recited death the in name name, and his in of his son. India more Timur's march into Durino- at his than one hundred thousand Hindu prisoners had and fallen into his hands, it was feared that they might turn against their whom to captors, they were, at any rate, a serious Timur was advised embarrassment. " the prisoners to death. He to put listened to this considerate and wise advice, and gave orders And to that effect. all slain " " accordingly they were with the sword of holy war." The butchers must have been weary of the slaughter, for chief it is related that even " one of the ecclesiastics, who in all his life had never even slaughtered a sheep, put fifteen Hindus to the sword." These produced terrible and immense misfortunes in the afflicted nations a universal belief that this was the scouree fatalistic side of of God. The Islam exactly expresses this : The Mogul Emperors 28 overwhelming mis- state of acquiescence in The passage fortune. following might have been written of Timur, though, in fact, it refers to another "At when the time the page of creation was blank, and nothing had yet taken form or shape, the Supreme Wisdom, with a view to preserve regularity and order fixed the destiny of each in the world, man, and deposited the key for unravelling each difficulty in the hands of an individual endowed with suitable talents. A time was fixed for everything, and when that time comes removed [from if obstacles are his career]." Though Timur has written as all by left Memoirs which are himself, they are probably Em- the work of his officers, revised by the It is said peror. that his secretaries recorded every important event, as East, is usual in the and that he caused their records to be read over to him, correcting them from moment to lections, or to moment, either by his own recol- by the evidence of eye-witnesses the scenes described. Timur's day used the The Mosfuls of alphabet introduced Tamerlane the Great 29 A century later by Nestorian missionaries. the Emperor Babar invented a special character for the Turki language. Timur — the " traces his lineage to Abu-al-Atrak, Father of the Turks," The Japhet. Timur was Zagatai, of — the great-great-grandfather prime-minister (so the son was an His tribe ancestress of Chengiz and of Timur, article of faith in his court. father, Turghai, was the chief of the of Berlas, and the ruler of the still a city of While he young man, during his father's he was a successful commander of lifetime, 1,000 men. and of The Koua, the Kesh, where Timur was born. was After the death his patron, of his Amir Kazghan father of Trans- oxania, his fortunes were at a low ebb. was obliged He tells to fly than ico followers, and very often he had but one or two. fore He to the desert for safety. us that frequently he could com- mand no more always of to say) Chengiz-Khan. of immaculate conception of Alan common son of the chief important ; of his his tribe Still, he was and there- adherents were brave. The Mogul Emperors 30 good of His own and enterprising. birth, account of the his in rise fortunes gives a picture worth recording. '* I when my had not yet rested from number a of people appeared afar off and they were passing along the behind them, that tion, all might know their condi- I seventy horsemen saying, Warriors, answered unto me, ; and who ' We are ye if am one also I ' is search in And I How of his servants. bring you where he them put and they ? are the servants of ! I in asked of them, I Amir Timur, and we wander him, and lo we find him not.' * a line with in and what men they were. They were * ; mounted my horse and came I hill.''' devotions said, say ye And one ? ' of of horse to speed, and carried his news to the three leaders saying, ' We have found a guide who can lead us to Amir Timur.' The the guide]. leaders gave orders [to bring When their eyes fell upon me, they were overwhelmed with joy, and they they came, and they kneeled, alighted and * Note how he recollects part of the incident, — the topography as just as the red Indians if would it do. were a real Tamerlane the Great 31 my stirrup. I also alighted and took them in my arms. And I put my turban on the head of [one] and my girdle and they kissed ; on [another] ; and my cloak. And When the hour clothed [another] with I they wept, and prayed together; and This be very is was of prayer I made a like the were torture, to steal cattle, after the slay, burn, fight Such was away, as served best. might It And and to we feast." ready to harry, all also. arrived, Iroquois. Uncas and Chinoracook. feast they wept I or run his early fortune. "He was of good stature, fair complexion, an open countenance, and he had a shrill voice." His descendant, the Emperor Jahan- gir, tells us that there trait of of him was no authentic por- A in his time. famous etching Rembrandt's (No. 270) seems to express his character — exactly ; just as — force, me to patience, craft another of Rembrandt's etchings (No. 289) might serve for a portrait of Chengiz-Khan. he was illiterate, not written by his It is almost certain that and that his Memoirs are own hand, though undoubt- The Mogul Emperors 32 One edly they are often in his very words. of his firmans v/as signed with the imprint of his hand been All of red ink. in The famous anecdote sicrned in blood. of the ant does duty Timur. " I them might have was once in a Persian life of forced," he says, " to my enemies in a ruined building. To divert my mind from my hopeless condition, 1 fixed my eyes on an ant, take shelter from which was carrying a grain of wheat up a high wall. Sixty- nine times it fell to the ground, but the insect persevered, and the time seventieth si^ht orave it reached the top. me courage at the The moment, and I never forgot the lesson." Early ted in his Amir career (in 1370) Timur admit- Seiyid Berrekah, the most distin- guished of the Prophet's descendants (Ali was his ancestor) into his camp, and restored to him the revenues devotfed to religious uses. to A to the shrines friendship, have been warm and and which seems sincere, sprang up between the holy man and the warrior and endured till the death of the Seiyid. cautious policy of Timur's earlier years The may Tamerlane the Great have resulted from this 33 companionship. His profuse professions of devotion to Islam are no doubt due to Ali of —a Shia. trace when Sunni faith his in were his Timur was it. have not been able to I assumed descendants the but Babar (1500) declares that ; time the inhabitants of all of the sect Samarkand orthodox Sunnis. Timur s Maxims of Government Timur laid down tvv^elve maxims of gov- ernment, and the following paragraphs are No selected from this part of his institutes. doubt these are also his very words many in cases. " Persons of wisdom and deliberation and vigilance and circumspection, and aged men endowed v/ith knowledge and foresight, mitted to my private councils ated with them, and I ; and I I ad- associ- reaped benefit and acquired experience from their conversation. The soldier and the [civilian] subject garded with the same eye. the discipline among my And troops I re- such was and my The Mogul Emperors 34 subjects that the one was never injured or oppressed by the other." " From among merited the wise and prudent and trust who were confidence, worthy of being consulted on the government, and to whose care who affairs of might sub- I my empire, I selected a certain number whom I constituted the repositories of my secrets and my weighty and hidden transactions, and my mit the secret concerns of ; and intentions secret thoughts delivered I over to them." " By the wazirs, and the the scribes, my secretaries, and gave order and regularity to I public councils of the mirror of they showed ; made them I my unto the keepers government, me the in affairs which of my my armies and tich my treasury empire and the concerns of my people ; and they kept ; and they secured plenty and prosperity my soldiers proper and and to skilful my subjects of in and by measures they repaired the disorders incident to empire kept ; to ; and they order the revenues and the expenses government ; and they exerted themselves Ta7nerlane the Great in 35 promoting plenty and population through- out " my dominions." Men learned in medicine and skilled in the art of healing, and astrologers, and geo- who metricians, empire, I are essential to the dignity of drew around me physicians and surgeons sick ; I ; and by the aid of gave health to the and with the assistance of astrologers I ascertained the benign or malevolent aspect of the stars, their motions, and the revolution of the heavens ; and with the aid of geometricians and architects laid out gardens, I and planned and constructed magnificent buildings." " Historians and such as were possessed of information and intelligence my presence ; I admitted to and from these men heard I the lives of the prophets and patriarchs, and the histories ancient of princes, and the events by which they arrived at the dignity of empire, and the causes of the declension of their fortunes and the ; and from the narratives histories of those princes, and from the manners and conduct of each of them acquired experience from those men I and knowledge ; I and heard the descriptions and The Mogul Empei'ors 36 the traditions of the various regions of the knowledge globe, and acquired tions of the " To kingdoms gave encouragement, that I communicate mig^ht of the earth." and to voyagers of every travellers country of the situa- me unto the they intelli- gence and transactions of the surrounding nations ; and chiefs of caravans dom and bringf dise merchants appointed I to and travel to every king- to every country that they might me unto and rare and from all sorts of valuable merchan- curiosities the cities from of . . . Arabia Hindustan . . . and from the islands of the Christians, that they might give me and manners and of the customs of the information of the situation of the natives and inhabitants of those regions, and that they might observe and communicate unto me the conduct of the princes of every kingdom and every country towards their subjects." Timur's instructions revenue are very lowing " will give And I full. for collecting The paragraphs the fol- an idea of their form. commanded that the Amirs Tamerlane the Great . should not, on any account, . . 37 more than the taxes and And to ev'ery demand duties established. ... province I ordained two supervisors should be appointed; that that one of them should inspect the collec- and watch over the concerns of the tions inhabitants, that they ished, and that the use or oppress might not be impover- \ovcr-lord'\ them, . » might not ill- and that the . other supervisor should keep a register of the public expenses, and distribute the reve- nues among the soldiers." " And I ordained that the collection of the taxes from the subject might, sary, when be enforced by menaces and by threats, but never by whips and by scourges. governor whose authority power I neces- of the scourge is is The inferior to the unworthy to govern. ordained that the revenue and taxes should be collected in such a manner as might not be productive of ruin to the subject or of depopulation to the country." * * One-third of the gross produce of the cultivated land was the share of the government, and so remained under his descendants in India. The Mogul Emperors 38 "And I ordained that the rich and the if powerful should oppress the poorer subject and injure or destroy lent for upon the damage his property, an equiva- sustained should be levied and be delivered rich oppressor to the injured person, that he might [thus] be restored to his former estate." " I and of illustrious dignity, to conduct of the Faithful late man appointed a Siiddur, a ; watch over the that he might regu- the manners of the times superiors in holy offices every city and in of holiness ; and appoint and establish ; in every town, a judge of penetration, and a doctor learned in the law, and a supervisor of markets, the of the weights and the measures." " And I established a judge for the army, and a judge for the subjects ; and I sent into every province and kingdom an instructor in deter the Faithful from those the law, to things which are forbidden and to lead them in the truth." " in And I ordained that in every town and every city there should be founded a mosque, and a school, and a monastery, and Tamerlane the Great an alms-house for the 39 poor and indigent, and a hospital for the sick and infirm, and that a physician should be appointed to attend the hospital ; and that in every city a govern- ment-house and a court for the administration of justice should be built ; and that superin- tendents should be appointed to watch over the cultivated lands, and over the husband- men." " And I commanded that they should build places of worship and monasteries in every city ; and that they should erect structures for the reception of travelers roads and on the high they should make bridges that across the rivers." " And I commanded bridges should be repaired the that ; ruined and that bridges should be constructed over the rivulets and over the rivers ; and that on the roads, at the distance of one stage from each other, caravansaries should be erected ; and that guards and watchmen should be stationed on the road, and that in every caravansary people should be appointed to reside ; and that the watching and guarding of the roads should The Mogul EiJiperors 40 appertain unto them and that those guards ; should be answerable for whatever should be stolen on the roads from the " And unwary traveller." ordered that the Stiddtir and the I judge should, from time to time, lay before me my the ecclesiastical affairs of and I appointed a judge miorht transmit unto troops and In came that litigation me my civil matters of among my pass subjects." and have a picture which, would all ; he in equity, that to maxims these empire an portray if we reofulations it stood by enlightened itself, monarch, severe, perhaps, but not without benevolence. There is nothing in these paragraphs that might not have been written by Louis XIV. of France, for example, as a guide to his governors of Dauphine or of Languedoc. Hard as was the of that time fate of the under the semi-feudal rule his various overlords, freedom Timur's itself French peasant we know compared subjects. How known facts ? it was to the condition of then reconcile these liberal-minded the that of we to maxims with are Tamerlane the Great In the the his first of himself which whom desired to leave a memorial might serve to equal him to intellii^rent he and sultans of the kins^s Bagdad and had overthrown. Damascus were nificence we must remember that Timur were written late in place, Memoirs of life, when he the most 41 and mag-- seats of learnino^ The when he destroyed them. mosques and colleges which he erected in Samarkand were no unworthy rivals of the edifices of those great cities. The Samarkand desired to be ruler of remembered alonaf with the great Caliphs as a wise King and a This desire led him to patron of learning. throw a certain glamour over all his actions. Moreover, he had a high reverence for the laws of Chengiz-Khan, and he desired to leave behind him a code of the same sort, own suc- even accused, by one of the his- which should be reverenced by his cessors. He is torians, with valuing the laws of above the Kuran, practice The and in Chengiz many ways his proves that the charge was true. political ideal of Chengiz-Khan was the The Mogul Emperors 42 formation of a military should be centralized in the long enough to realize and to show whose power state, King, this, in He lived great measure, his successors that it was possi- ble to weld scores of individual tribes into something a like In Timur's day nation. the theoretic basis of the State was the law of the Kuran. were loud ; Timur's professions of Islam he was a zealous builder mosques, and a prompt paymaster of ious tithes. But in all of relig- matters of State he was guided by the laws of Chengiz, not by those of The Muhammadan Muhammad. maxim, All Muslims are brethren, makes nationality unimportant, or even impossible, as has often been pointed out. Timur never permitted a theory like this to interfere with immemorial usage, which was the basis laws of Chengiz-Khan. mass of his followers I of the suppose that the thought very little about religion of any kind, and were loyal to the King from fear of punishment and from hope of plunder. In the second place way and in his own Timur zvas, in his own day, a supremely wise Tamerlane the Great He King. of 43 had been one of the greatest commanders, military " learned the incalculable wisdom has over force," but he had also advantage which and experience had taught him that the civilian subject m.ust not be pressed more than so much, and that so much was enough and of his armies, government. to provide for the wants It is for the splendor of his impossible to believe that he was inspired by a sincere desire for the good of the husbandman, like descendants but ; is it one of his beyond a doubt that a long experience in governing had demonstrated to him that the subject must have something like fixity of erty, if the tenure were taxes his prop- come on what he had observed very nearly such as would have been written good Muslim of original are by no of the in They show, practical wisdom the Ber- means the outcome thinking. predecessors by any like his friend the Seiyid They how much with in Persia, in Syria, His maxims are Turkey. rekah. in His administration was modelled regularity. in to in ancient rather, of his monarchies of The Mogul Emperors 44 the East could be appreciated, at least theo- by the descendant cf Turki shep- retically, Appreciated, herds. maxims were, these down in the Memoirs, Appropriated, as a practical code of laws they are set since for all dominions, thev were not. his Again, we must recollect that the enlight- enment few was confined of his empire and the learning to a very small cities, number to a very of men doctors of the law and of science. The illiterate and rude,* though they were very * The military chiefs were profoundly culture of the Arabs had, however, begun to penetrate the higher ranks, and the following anecdote showing how the old and the new In the pursuit of the Sultan of two of Timur's officers were perishing did not have the other also. similarly circumstanced verbial everywhere. 1403), They could thirst. Aibaj Oghlan drank one, and if he is to said Arab companion his so famous that it would be a great proof of me certain death, you should give : has become prothis truth if, to your water also." maintain the reputation of his race the Arab gave up his share of the water. and It : Jelal recalled a tale of a Persian who had " The generosity of the Arabs To from companion, Jelalhamid, that he should die declared to his me from interesting in were blended Bagdad (Ahmed Khan, A.D. only find two small pots of water. save very is ideals of conduct I known Jelal will give to the went on to say you the water on princes of : " I wish to imitate the Arab, condition your house this that you sacrifice ; so will make that the Tamerlane the Great much above 45 The tribesmen the tribesmen. do not seem to have been superior to the we know them by the Jesuit Relations, for example. The cultivated The land was of relatively small extent. Huron Indians, as vast majority of the people were shepherds, and they have changed but wherever they have been It is only little left to to this day themselves. when they have come under the superior races, as in China or influence of Hindustan, that they have taken on even in a shade of culture. Timur's regulations referred theoretically, perhaps, to is certain, areas vast of his these memory Memoirs of this deed descendants of Jagatai way suggested (" these lying Memoirs"), may always redound Khan and be to all our descendants." is It however, that they were nowhere enforced in the enlightened in empire. to the credit of the cited as a proof of Whereupon Jelal gave up my courage his share. It a pleasure to record that he did not die. The tales of Boccaccio (1350) show that the Italians of that day held the Arabs to be their teachers in chivalry, and at least their equals in so it art, in science, in civilization. seems to me, is that ideal of the IMogul chiefs of 1403 ants of Jagatai. The Arab chivalry had essence of this also become stor)-, the highest — of the rude and violent descend- The Mogul Emperors 46 and that they were in practical effect only along the main roads and Spanish ambassadors " in the immediate towns and vicinity of the larger were in testify that the marvellous terror " The cities. people Timur and of his servants. If we understand they immense great of are the Mefnozrs in this light interest to importance. know It is of that this absolute ruler even cared to appear to posterity as an King. enlightened had It is clear that profoundly on what he had reflected been told by the wise men of his court on what he had himself observed lands which were far beyond in his and foreign own in Great as was his genius and success culture. as a Captain, admiration hold words we are forced to give an equal his to The maxims his Timur of his intelligence as a Ruler. government were house- the courts of the Emperors, in descendants ; but their methods, though peremptory enough, were gentle compared to his. One of them — Akbar — two hundred years later actually carried out these regulations in Tamerlane the Greai practical form, King 47 and Akbar's fame as a great forever secure for this reason alone. is Timur's family affections were ardent and On devoted. his campaigns he was accom- panied by his wives and children to long distances from Samarkand. favorite daughter died, In 1382 his and he sank into a melancholy so deep and persistent as to threaten serious danger to the State, whose The death of and of a favorite wife in he totally neglected. affairs his eldest sister He gave all busi- was imperatively called him profoundly. affected 1383 himself up to grief, and neglected ness till He was for. them It is his attention ; fond of his sons and proud of yet he ruled them with an iron rule. recorded that on occasions the princes, grown men and sturdy warriors, were sub- jected to the bastinado like the meanest of his slaves. The Persian poet Hafiz porary of Timur's, and there their meeting.'^' that if this One was a contemis an anecdote of of the ghazels declares Turk would accept his homage, * Hafiz died, however, four years before the capture of Shiraz. The Mogul Emperors 48 —For I would give the cities the black mole on Ms cheek of Samarkand and Bokhara, Timur upbraided him for this verse, and " By the blows of my well-tempered said : sword I have conquered the greater part of order to enlarge Samarkand and the world in Bokhara, my you, pitiful two cities for creature, generosity that my I ; and would exchange these " a mole." world," said Hafiz, " see, to and residences capitals it O Sovereign of the by similar is acts of have been reduced, as you present state of poverty." It is reported that the monarch was appeased by the witty answer, and that the poet departed with maornificent A o^ifts. less likely tale is told of a jest of the poet Kermani, who, with other wits, was in The King asked the poet, What price wouldst thou put on me if "About five-and-twenty I were for sale?" " Why, that is about aspers'' said Kermani. the bath with Timur. *' the price of the sheet Timur. I "Well, of course have on," rejoined I meant the sheet, for thou alone art not worth a farthing." Timur's Memoirs recite a few cases in Tamerla7ie the Great which he was merciful the inhabitants of a city to ; 49 the rulers or to these are usually in the early portions of his career, before his power was consolidated, and tain that his it mercy was not it never cer- He policy. always proud of the valor of his but is own not recorded that he was is troops, in least tender or careful of them, except He was one occasion. with his spoils. " way, over which Some of the sick the upon returning from India There was a river in the and encamped. crossed I is men were drowned in cross- directed that my own ing the river, so I all horses and camels should be used for trans- porting the sick and feeble. my camp crossed the river." profuse in his rewards to the own army, no reason why a good does not lament the dead and, indeed, there Muslim should do Early in is in his so. his career says, " the incalculable dom On that day all He was always survivors. He Timor discovered, he advantage which wis- has over force, and with what small means the greatest designs may be accomplished." 4 He never forgot the lesson. He The Mogtil Emperors 50 was no braver Amirs than his more patient, more hardly leader, skilled, but he was more crafty, ; more and of abso- constant, lutely indomitable will. His relation to his chiefs the following extract from the " Timitr Instructs well is and Amirs War about the Conduct of the " I mons now held a Court I ; issued a sum- commanders to the princes, amirs, in Memoirs : Princes the shown of thousands, of hundreds, and to the braves of the advance-guard. All tent. my and had used my own me all to their swords manfully eyes. my under But there were none who fights and battles as I had and no one who could compare with in the amount of fighting through, and the experience I came were brave veterans, soldiers had seen so many seen, They therefore o"ave mode them of carrying old. had gone had gained.* instructions as to the on war ; * This refers to the year 1398 in India. two years I I on making and Timur was then sixty- Tamerlane the Great meeting attacks ; 51 on arraying their men giving support to each other; and on precautions to When I be observed had finished [they] all war. in they blessino^s and thanks." . . testified their expressing departed, the . approbation, and carefully treasuring up counsel, on ; my their Before setting out on an important campaign, Timur personally attended equipment and provisioning of and Supplies stored. Each himself with water-bag. were forage soldier his thirty the army. collected was directed a bow, to and to furnish arrows, and Every ten men had, in a common, a tent, two mattocks, a spade, a shovel, a sickle, a saw, kettle, a hatchet, a rope, a cooking- one hundred needles, an awl, besides the necessary riding and baggage animals. The equipment seems to be modest, except as to the supply of needles ation (from Price's ; but the enumer- Muhammadan History) omits the sword and buckler, the mace, the spear, the javelin, with were certainly provided which many soldiers ; and says nothing of the leather jerkins lined with iron, of the The Mogul Emperors 52 helmets, or of the quilted cuirass for The horse. representation of two warriors used on the cover of fighting, man and copied from a Persian this book, is miniature of about Timur 's day. The armies themselves were immense. Two hundred thousand skilled warriors assembled for the conquest of China. in Persia review of his troops were At a the front of the army covered more than seventeen miles. Irregular troops flocked to his standards in Thousands and thou- the hope of plunder. sands of camp-followers and prisoners were charged with the transportation and the His Mogul warriors were lection of forage. like knew only savagery To Bahlol, "they die." Their exactly that of the red Indian. Afghans the of defile a Sultan and how to to eat is col- Hindu sanctuary they filled their boots with the blood of the sacred cows and* poured no favor " My over the it ; " Vanquished they ask vanquishing they show no mercy." principal object in stan [says toil Idol. Timur] and and hardship in was coming to undergoing to Hinduall this accomplish two ; Tamerla7te the Great The things. was first and by war with infidels, Muhammadan enemies of the the to 53 religion this religious warfare to acquire reward claim to the in life some The to come. other was a worldly object, that the army of Islam might gain something by plundering the wealth of the infidels plunder : as lawful as their mothers' milk mans who suming which lawful is war is Musul- to and the con- fight for their faith, of that in is means of a grace." This definition sounds the of means of grace reminiscence of his like a distorted friendship with the Seiyid Berrekah. " my I have not been able [he said] vast true some violence conquests without and the destruction believers ; but of a great I to effect am now number resolved to perform a good and great action, which be an expiation of exterminate the you, my in my idolaters sins. the repentance." many merit of of this I shall mean China. of dear companions, the instruments of share all of to And who have been my crimes, shall <7reat work of Fortunately for the infidels of '^^^ 54 Mogul Emperors China, he died at the very beginning of this enterprise. Timur over- "He anni- grass." He In nearly two-score campaigns many kingdoms and ran tribes. hilated empires as one tears penetrated Siberia till his up camps were nearly hundred miles distant from Samar- fifteen His forces ravaged southeastern and kand. southern Russia to the Don and the Sea of His invasions of India carried him to Azof. Delhi and beyond. Georgia, Anatolia, Ar- menia and Syria were conquered, and the great cities of Smyrna, Aleppo, Bagdad, and Damascus were He destroyed. was just beginning a campaign against China when he died, three hundred miles east of Samar- kand (a. d. Such 1405). amazing genius of the order, first justify his title It military — imply and of themselves " the great." cannot be said that he ruled the vast extent of conquered country all successes of it, and continued from a great part the Caspian, ; to ; but he ravaged receive tribute from the Persian Gulf to and from the Euxine to the ! Tamerlane the Great 55 Ganges, the coins bore his device of overlordship, and tribute and presents enriched his treasury. Timur had instructed his scribes to record whatever he should moment my of say, " injunction to the letter, for one manu- Memoirs ends thus " At night a. d. 1405] calling upon the name script of his [March 19, of Allah, I : my lost senses and resigned pure soul to the Creator." Thoroughly to realize the recall a single date Chaucer was buried in October, a. d. in 1400. my His pure soul gulf which then separated the East and the West, have but to last The existence." was carried out even to the we — our English Westminster Abbey The Mogul Emperors 56 CHAPTER MUHAMMAD ZEHIR-ED-DIN II BABAR, THE CON- QUEROR, EMPEROR OF HINDUSTAN (bORN 1482, DIED 1530) A.D. The Memoirs of Babar begin with these words: "In the month of Ramazan and in my of the twelfth year of The Ferghana. situated in the age country fifth became King I of Ferghana chmate, on the extreme On boundary of the habitable world. east The revenues maintain ing To or three a country in fruits Ferghana of may without oppressing the country, to suffice, is the has Kashgar and on the west Samar- it kand. It is and grain the melon his of is four thousand small fruits " extent, — and troops. aboundof these the favorite and the chief. dying day Babar remembered the melons of his native country. famous for its Ferghana was learned doctors of the law and j t. -K ^^T 'S^ i. <':! j' ' 0*9 -••^^.- •>' .<... ^^^^^^^::^^;vg;V j^J*;'^4^^ilX A!^-5^^ t-. lii HUMAYUN BABAR JAHANGIR AKBAR Zehir-ed-din for poets, too, as its one Muhammad Babar the of we shall see. 57 It was innumerable small states into which Timur's possessions had been divided This state had after his death. share of Babar's father, favorite prince of high Muhammadan, ambitions," a strict learning, a poet, "a and a friend poem was fallen to the a patron of His of poets. the famous ShaJi-nameli of Firdausi, that chronicle of knightly deeds. He was renowned for justice his Babar gives a striking instance of ; and A it. caravan from Northern China had perished the snow near was in real his capital, at a want. time when he In spite of his necessities the merchandise was sacredly preserved after one or two years, the heirs merchants came to his city untouched, from his hands. was soul large," says Babar, ; of and received " till, the it, His generosity "and so was his whole he was of an excellent temper, affable and sweet withal, On in in his conversation, yet brave, and manly„" his sudden death, Babar, sixth in descent his eldest son, from Timur, succeeded to the sovereignty, which he was, however, obliged The Mogul Emperors 58 to dispute with his rival brothers and to pro- tect from external the daughter of Yunis-Khan, a direct de- Babar's mother was foes. scendant of Chengiz-Khan, thirteenth male line. my of " She accompanied me wars and expeditions." in in the most His maternal grandmother was a woman of extraordinary force and wise " counsel. in There were few of her sex who sagacity." These women were Babar's guides and counsellors her in sense and excelled wars with which in the small his early years were occupied. are of a recital bats, sieges, hundreds His Memoirs of petty com- and stratagems, "excursions and alarums," successes and defeats, in the struggle to retain Ferghana or to capture Samarkand. Babar succeeded to the throne about two years before the discovery of America by Columbus, and four years before Vasco da Gama reached bella in Spain, in India. Ferdinand and Isa- Henry VII and Henry VIII England, were his contemporaries. Babar's Memoirs were own hand in come down written with his the Turki language, and have to us practically unchanged. Muhammad Babar hir-ed-diii They cover nearly all of his history to within a year of his death. recounted in tion," I have have written, to I And with the it have no inten- I All that only the plain truth. myself. " what in on any one. tioned is the most straightforward, simple, he says, " reflect All of this history manly way. engaging, 59 least I I have said is have not men- design to praise every word most scrupu- in lously followed the Let the reader, truth. therefore, excuse me." Babar's father had cherished an overpowering ambition to capture ancient Babar capital Timur's of succeeded Samarkand, the to the kingdom, and During desire. Timur's lifetime the government of the capital had been conferred on one of and on a grandson. At Timur's his sons, death, his youngest son Shahrokh Mirza, the ruler of Khorassan, given Beg it had seized the and had city, over to be ruled by his son Ulugh Mirza, the famous astronomer whom it was taken," says Babar, " ; by " from his son Abdul-latif Mirza, who, for the sake of the enjoyments of this fleeting world, murdered The Mogul Emperors 6o own his an father, man old so illustrious for his knowledge. Ulugh Beg, Who was the ocean the protector Drank from Abbas Yet his above five of this lower world. the honey of martyrdom. not retain the diadem son did or six of learning and science. months ; —/// does sovereignty become a parricide ; But should The he gain Abdul-latif mounted Mirza nearly two who six ?/ionths be the limit of his reign. verses are Babar's own. "After ment it, let years. seized v/as the conferred it Abdullah Mirza,* throne, After and reigned him the govern- by Sultan Abusaid Mirza, upon his eldest son Sultan Ahmed Mirza. On his death (1494) Sultan Mahmud Mirza ascended the throne, and Baiesanghar Mirza. after him, from Baiesanghar Mirza. The I took it events that followed will be mentioned in the course of these Me7notrs" * There is a legend that told his assassination at the rebellion is by unmerited plainly different ; Ulugh Beg, finding hands of ill-treatment. and it that the stars fore- his son, drove the latter into But Babar's view of the case would seem that Babar should know. See also Vambery's History of Bokhara, Chapter XII. Muhammad Zehir-ed-din The Babar 6i succession of rulers presents a vivid idea of the unsettled period in which Babar Another striking lived. given. five He had instance and two of the five sisters; were captured in may be war and found places the harems of his enemies. in These were the dauo^hters and sisters of kings. The Memoirs go on to give the names and the characters of the Turki chiefs by Babar's cause was supported and ; spoken judgments allow us to know character as well as good-humored man, who whom his outhis own One was theirs. " a of plain, simple manners, excelled in singing at drinking parties." Another was " a pious, religious, faithful Muslim, whose judgment and talents were He was uncommonly good. turn, of a facetious and though he could neither read nor write, he had an ingenious and elegant vein of wit." " was related Another was Mir Ali Dost, who to my showed him great maternal grandmother. favor. would be a useful man I ; years that he was with what service he ever but during me, did." I was told that he I " all the cannot tell Another was " ; The Mogul E^nperors 62 He was Amir Omar-Beg. A honest man. he a brave, plain, son of his still is a lazy, idle, good-for-nothing is Such a father to have such a son fellow. ! manner Babar runs over the In this me with cata- logue of his ofhcers and companions, and weighs their qualities, just as* the Emperor Marcus Aurelius sums up the character of his Let these further instances associates. suf- fice. "Indeed, Ali Shir Beg was an incomparable person. first written written so From in the time that poetry was our language no much and to the airs themselves There is ; a greater in our history any patron and poets tection and he was singular alike men of his pro- in this, that child. '* He through the world unencumbered." clined the cares of government, time in study and composition. of Musicians, came under painters, had neither wife nor also left excellent both as ingenuity and talent than he." ; has and as to the preludes. not upon record man who was He so well. excellent pieces of music man passed He and spent The he dehis follow- Zehir-ed-din ing his is Yazid, Titer cy for on tJie I ' Do not an'se Lord par done th if the which Yazid did to the descendants Prophet, he will also pardon you may have cursed " say, say, 63 Almighty may have possibly the him,'' all the evil of you who " Oh, : Muhammad Babar who himl' Another was Sheikhem Beg. posed a manner of verses in He com- which both the words and sense are terrifying and corres- pond with each Duruig my sorroivs of the firmajnent The drago7zs of other. The following the night the whirlpool from its is his : of my sighs bears place ; the itmndations of my tears bear dow7i the four quarters of the habitable world." When said to he repeated these verses, the Mulla him " : Are you repeating are you frightening folks * I cannot resist illustrate a different poetry, or * quoting a short poem by Abd-er-Razzak to He was on the and thus describes the kind of Oriental exaggeration. shores of the Persian Gulf in Maj', intense heat ? " 1.442, : Soon as the sun shone forth from the height of heaven.. The heart of stone grew hot beneath its orb : The horizon "was so much scorched-up 6y its rays, Tliat the heart of stone became soft like ivax ; The bodies of the fishes, at the boftotns of the fish ponds, Biir>ied lilce the silk litliich is exposed to the fire : Both the water and the air gave out so burning a heat That the fish -went away to seek refuge in the fire ; In the plains, hunting became a matter of perfect ease. For the desert was filled with roasted gazelles. The Mogul Emperors 64 The chief doctor of the canon law in Fer- ghana was executed by his enemy. Of him Babar, himself the bravest of men, says have no doubt that he was a better proof of than that it his " I What saint. all : enemies perished in a short while? He very bold man, which no mean proof of also however brave mankind, All sanctity. is they be, have some little He tion about them. was also a anxiety or trepida- had not a particle of either." Khosrou Shah was thoroughly hated by Babar, who fleeting and and never says that, " For the sake of this faithless world, will which never was be true to anyone, this thank- and ungrateful man seized the Sultan, less whom a prince he himself had reared from infancy to manhood, and whose tutor he had been, and blinded him by lancing his eyes. Every clay till the day of judgment hundred thousand curses of that man who treachery action of tions ; let is every a on the head light guilty of man who may such black hears of this Khosrou Shah pour out impreca- upon him ; for he who hears of such Zehir-ed-din Michammad Babar and does not curse him, a deed AH worthy to be cursed." have suggested the form of Such were the chiefs he had to brave, but may Shir's verses this passage. whom Babar was whom and against Their followers were act. Their inconstant. welcomed himself is by surrounded, and through whom 65 cities alter- army of Babar (which was sometimes no more than nately straggling the two hundred warriors) and rejected Babar learned the school, war in a roueh thoroughly. On one art of and he learned it it, much plunder was unjustly taken by his men, which he made them give up. " Such was the discipline of my army that occasion, the whole was restored without reserve, and before the over, there* first watch of the next day was was not a of bit thread or a broken needle that was not restored to owner." He was one of the duce concerted army in action the place of rate hordes and thrice to intro- divisions mad of his rushes of sepa- tribes. Samarkand, the was of first its taken city of and Babar's affections, lost. He is never > The Mogul Emperors 66 dwelling on of tired buildings. the perfection of the whole In '* its habitable world there are few cities so pleasantly situated." were paced out by Babar's order, Its walls and found circuit. from Ulugh 16'." Beg's 393-1449) was man as a of miles in in latitude 39° 2)1' This is the calculation " tables," the from counted being English five he says, is, longitude 99" ( 1 be to " It Beg Ulugh Ferro. far better longitude to shine science than as a king. His fitted short reign of three years was a succession fame as a mathema- of misfortunes, but his tician and as an astronomer home permanent. Greek schools Since the time of the Alexandria, the is of the exact sciences of had been, successively, Bagdad, Cordova and Seville, was Tangiers and Samarkand * and ; not until the time of Tycho it (1576) that such learning was born in the western Ulugh Beg was the peoples. * It is interesting to the Russians four —have centuries Samarkand. know that the last new masters after the the of Turl<istan lately established an observatory at and a half of — Tashkend, establishment of that at Muhammad Babar Zehir-ed-din Arabian A school. and century 67 a half before Tycho, he constructed mighty instru- ments for astronomical observation, and, with the aid of a hundred observers and calcu- he prepared his famous tables of the lators, motions of the planets and his catalogues of stars. " Ulugh Beg's observatory," says Babar, "was erected on the skirts the of hill Kolik, and was three stories in height. of Not more than seven or eight observatories have Among been constructed these, one was erected by the Caliph Mamun, in the world. another was built by Ptolemy at Alexandria." The college, the baths, the for exceeding praise ; mosques, all call even "the bakers' shops are excellent, and the cooks are skilful." The Samarkand were paved, and runOnce ning water was distributed in pipes. streets of more we hear of the wine of " encies. When its depend- drank wine at Samar- Bokhara, one of I kand, in the days when bouts, I city, too, melons, and of its excellent used that wine." I had It my drinking was a learned and hospitable to poets ; and here The Mogul Emperors 68 Babar acquired and practised the poetic no mean himself, with The was city art skill. noble of full buildings, mosques, colleges, palaces, built by artisans by Timur, and impressed decorated with mosaics, gilding, and pictures.* The colleges were students and ; of learned full men and the court of the kings, with poets painters. This was the heyday of Turki blossomed learning, which the midst of in men could read and write, however, and the memory was therefore highly cultivated. As one of them said " When a man has once heard "Hilali, anything, how can he forget it?" the poet, had so retentive a memory that he Not ignorance. of the chief all : could recall from * This thirty was not orthodox for to briefly, in Jews, were no friends tecture early arts in which which there are pictures;" and "every painter is in in them. ; like the but noble archi- After Babar's time the Samarkand, and by the seven- teenth century the city was stagnant. sians took possession, says, a dog, nor that another place, more and sculpture witli and learning rapidly declined in is The Muslims, hell-fire." to painting became a passion Muhammad good Muslims. " The angels do not enter a house house forty thousand On May 14, 186S, the Rus- and the twentieth century may witness a revival of learning in the colleges of Turkistan. Muhammad Babar Zehir-cd-din couplets." Such mnemonic credible to us 69 seem in- moderns, who are used to feats depend upon the eye and not upon the ear. Yet they are doubtless correctly reported. The Rig-Vcda more contains than ten thousand verses, and for over two thousand years it ditions, was preserved solely and but not Brahmins could An one, recite it word time, as I have said by Nestorian Babari character were — and often writing of position copies of his poems, He himself literary stickler for propriety eldest son, monarch Your is com- Humayun, then Kabul, for consequence You is the various of the you have employed, your by no means very spelling correct. in " In errors. far-fetched words meaning in and on one occasion he soundly ; his reigning —the his presents to great written out by his transcribers. was a great Babar's but he invented and new manner introduced a nobles ; of for word. had been employed up to priests rates oral tra- thousands introduced alphabet by not bad, certainly do intelligible. yet not not quite excel in ; The Mogul 70 the In letter-writing. which words, plain you future with unaffectedly, write Efitpei^ors should using clearness, cost trouble less to both writer and reader." Here written Do Babar's when he was thou resign For Fate And one of is is again to in couplets, great distress Fate him who injures a servant that early 'will : thee. not leave thee unavenged. : Let the sword of the world be brandished as it It cannot cut one vein without the permission may. of Allah I have fotind no faithful friend in the world but my Except my own heart, I have no trusty confidant. The period dark one in to which this Babar's fortunes. refers He ! soul was a had Ferghana, and Samarkand was no longer lost his. "For nearly one hundred and forty years Samarkand had been the capital of my A foreign robber,* one knew not family. * This "foreign robber " was a direct descendant of Chengiz- Khan, and, therefore, a relative of Babar himself, who, however, was no friend to the Mogul tribesmen, but counted himself a Turki. Babar is another unjust to this rival Sheibani in his Memoirs, as also to rival, Khosrou Shah. and successful soldier, a Persian, a builder of colleges learned men. Sheibani poet, a Khan was an enterprising scholar in Arabic, Turki, and and mosques, and a notable patron of Mithaminad Babar Zehir-ed-diii 71 whence he came, had seized the kingdom, which dropped from our hands. now gave me back my plundered and Allah pillaged country." was It lost to him, how- " Such by the issue of a pitched ever, was our situation when and hurried on the He who I battle battle. precipitated matters ; with impatient haste lays his hand on his sword. Will afterward gnaw that hand with his " Almighty The my cause of teeth from regret, eagerness to engage was, that the stars called the 'eight stars' were on that day exactly between the two armies ; and elapse, they had suffered that day to would have been favorable to if the enemy." the I And experience cipitation ; lost *' : him These my nonsense, and all was without the This battle more his later years of observances were he goes on to say, with pre- least solid excuse." his kingdom once but he never quite recovered from superstition. Witness the following involved account of his reasons for refusing a battle in India toward the end of his that same Saturday I life had fought, : " If it is on prob- The Mogul Emperors 72 able that should have won. I But came it my head that last year I had set out on a New Year's Day, which fell on a Tuesday, and had overthrown my enemy on a into This year we commenced our Saturday. march on New Year's Day, which Wednesday, and day we On troops beat them on a Sun- that account I did not march " ! have now to recount what I on a would be a (too) remarkable coin- it cidence. my if fell is, and will doubtless remain, one of the standing puzBabar's history. zles of We shall see that Babar was the soul of outspoken boldness, and that he was not afraid to confess himself in the was wrong, nor unwilling to amend. He skilled in the devices of poetic art, but the very essence of the dramatic power of his Memoirs simplicity. the year is their flowinof naturalness The Memoirs 1529, a year and continue to about before his death. Remembering all this, it is more than strange to find in them two sudden gaps, where the narrative breaks off abruptly, and leaves the hero in the midst of the extremest perils. Miihammad Zehir-ed-din The of these gaps first Babaj' occurs at the the year 1502, and the narrative of resumed Babar "j^ is end not until 1504. defending a fortress with scarcely is more than a hundred men. arrive, and cut his way Every detail of a His enemies he after a severe fight forced to gateway and to the nearest fight is given, is to fly. most exciting hand-to-hand even to the number of arrows that Babar discharofed. " A man on horse- back passed close to me, fleeing up the nar. row lane (of the city). struck him such a I blow on the temples with the point of my sword that he bent over as fall from ready to if his horse, but, supporting himself on the wall of the lane, he did not lose his seat, escaped with the utmost hazard." hand-to-hand fighting like this, and Through Babar escapes, and gains the open country, warmly pursued. His adherents are soon reduced to eight, and presently Babar only two of the " is fleeing enemy were They gained upon me to flag. What was twenty arrows alone. left. to be ; The last close to him. my done At ? horse began I had about pursuers did not The Mogul E^npei'ors 74 come nearer than a bowshot, but kept on The flight had begun before tracking me." afternoon prayers, and it was now sunset. His enemies called to him, but he pushed on till about bedtime prayers, when he reached a place where his horse could go no farther. His pursuers swore to him by the Kuran that they wished to do He him no harm. forced them to proceed in front of him out of the glen and they continued marching road, dawn. but where they were, towards the The next day they little food, the lay concealed, with and only a moment After midnight another till enemy for sleep. arrived with the information that Babar's chief rival knew He had been their place of concealment. betrayed by his companions. " was thrown I There into a dreadful state of agitation. nothing which affects a ful feelings ' Tell me man with more pain- than the near prospect of death. the truth,' I exclaimed, things are about to go with my wishes, that last ablutions.' I is may I I felt at me least my ' if indeed contrary to perform strength my gone. rose and went to a corner of the garden. I Muhammad Babar Zehir-cd-din meditated with myself and said man live a * : 75 Sliould a hundred, nay a thousand years, yet at last he ^ " So the narrative breaks off. It not resumed is for two years, when Babar's fortunes had improved vastly. Is a piece of literary art him the the of recital Is ? to spare it successful intrigues which he drove Khosrou Shah from dom and took his place these intrigues, and is ? Is this the he ashamed of reason The first break why he whom no solution. is in the narrative miofht taken as an accident ond occurrence There ? if of the it by his king- blackens the character of Khosrou, of others speak so well it were not for a same kind in be sec- the year when Babar was deserted by the very Moguls whom he had seduced from their i5o8, allegiance to Khosrou Shah, and by followers every rank From of this his description. second misfortune Babar rescued himself by desperate personal valor, sources. The former and all rulers as fickle fighting we learn and reckless from other tribesmen deserted their and attached themselves to The Mogul Emperors 76 his fortunes. The cities The opened Persians became his aUies. their gates, and he became Kabul, and Kabul was the the master of stepping-stone to India. enemy of Babar, who kingdom of Samarkand, Sheibani, the ancient had usurped came his membered, and ent, His body was to a violent end. his limbs were sent to dis- differ- His head was stuffed with kingdoms. hay and sent to Turkish emperor at the His Constantinople. skull, set in gold, was used by the Persian king as a drinking-cup. Babar's allies, the Persians, put fifteen thou- Many sand prisoners to the sword. were of Babar's own with the race, Persians did and of these this alliance not help him to re- cover his kingdom, though his worst enemies were overcome by their assistance, and he was thus left free to execute Taking of Hindustan. Shi'as of Persia aid his conquest from the hated never be approved could by the orthodox Turki Sunnis of Trans- oxania. Herat, too, had fallen into the hands of his allies and relatives, and he made a lon^ Mtc/iammad Babar Zehir-ed-din stay At a court. their at great 'jy feast in Herat, Babar had another occasion to show thus " In : He manners. his simple the course of the feast a roast goose was put down was it ig^norant of the in told I how of carvincr it, I I let Badia-ez-Zeman Mirza (the head alone. ; As front of me. mode of Babar's family) asked it records the event him frankly that to carve luxurious, Babar's me it." and The relatives It cost him a little of so simple a to I did not like know did not I court was refined and was this if a great him a as feast of young man. to confess his ignorance But thing. he did not shrink. The fortunes of this city of Herat —the Aria the Greek chronicles ander— deserve a chapter, not a of — Heri of Alex- brief para- graph. In the time of a crowded city, Chengiz-Khan having, with its it was surrounding country, a population of several hundreds of After thousands. 1 222-1 223 its its first sie^e inhabitants were of spared. a.d. A revolt on their part led to the second siege of seven months, and to its capture. For The Mogul Empei^ors yS seven days and nights it was devoted plunder and massacre, and the native to his- more than a miUion persons Whatever the exact number may torians aver that perished. Ox have been, the Mocrul trooDs did not leave ' until it was supposed no remained three alive. Inhabitant single After their departure some thousand wretched beings assembled amid the band In a few hours a ruins. of two thousand Moguls returned and completed the slaughter, and the remnant perished to a man, save for miserable sixteen creatures who had hidden themselves in sewers, in water-courses, in the dome of the mosque. These finally crept fearfully forth smoking ruins city. of They were the great amid the and beautiful joined by other four and twenty from the surrounding country, and for fifteen years these forty individuals were the only inhabitants of the proudest city of the East, which had counted her children by Herat was rebuilt hundreds of thousands. by Octal Khan about recovered it its splendor. was the most a.d. 1235, and it soon In the time of Babar polite city of the East. : Muhammad Zehir-ed-diii Herat the soul, of is which and if Khorassan the world, Herat This is allowed world this the body ; is Babaj be the 79 but is bosom of to be the heart. Babar's account of it "The city of Herat abounded with eminent men of unrivalled acquirements, each of whom made it his aim and ambition to carry perfection the art to to the highest Among he devoted himself. these was the Moulana Abdul-rahman Jami, person period of the whether science. in could which to whom no be compared, respect to sacred or to profane His poems are well known. His merits are of too exalted a nature to admit of being described by me ; but I have been anxious to bring the mention of his and an allusion to humble pages ing." The his excellences into these for a good omen and a Though I am not I am Say 7iot devoted 7-cIated to to A'ing, Dervishes, ofa Prince I am is : them heart and that the state Though a bless- following quatrain of Babar's not out of place here Yet name is soul. remote from that of a Dervish ; the Dervish' s slave. Babar enumerates the many wise men, The Mogul Emperors So poets, and Herat in his youth. who were musicians living in J ami was the chief of the poets, but he finds space for short biographies of a dozen account of the be declares " or and musi- Professor Vambery, an authority on who such matters, * : Every notion a Muhammadan elsewhere possesses (at high refinement, culture, him by name — is in now Asia day) this civilization short, of all those qualities to some for painters skilled cians of the court. should and others, only of — in known derived from the con- ditions which then (in the times from Timur to Babar) flourished at the courts of Herat and Samarkand." By diligently reading the annals of these alien people, they come seem we common almost familiar to us, because distinguish the underlying note of a human nature, and almost lose the sense of foreignness. modern that we need to superficial Everything appears so to force ourselves to return abruptly to our accustomed standards in order to preserve a right perspective. * Jlistoty of Bokhara, pa<;e 241. Mnhammad Babar Zchir-ed-diii The poets and artists of Herat in 1507 form a group that a 8i is To almost friendly. acquire due perception of their separateness, we must seek a for sharp The antithesis. poems of Ali Shir Beg touch us to-day, but we are forced to recognize that Schubert's B-minor symphony would be mere discord to him. The incident which follows, shows Babar's estimate of the value of poetry, and exhibits his straightforward simplicity of says : " During a drinking party the lowing verse was repeated What He mind. can one do to fol- : regulate his thoughts, 7vith a mistress possessed of every blandishment? Where you to " It are, ho^u is it possible for our thoughts to wander another? was agreed that everyone should make an extempore couplet to the same rhyme, and " I said : What can be done with a drunken sot like you ? What can be done with one foolish as a she-ass? Before this verse to I writing. posed these lines, had always committed Now, when my mind led my I had com- me to reflec- ; The Mogul Emperors 82 tions, and my heart was struck with regret that a tongue which could repeat the est bestow any trouble should productions subHm- on such unworthy verses ; that was melan- it choly that a heart, elevated to nobler conceptions, should submit to occupy itself with these forward ical From despicable fancies. I religiously abstained had not considered practice was." from time satir- At the time or vituperative verses. how this I objectionable the Later on, we find him trans- lating a religious tract into verse. " posed every day, on an average, fifty-two I com- couplets." In a winter's journey to Kabul the army was deeply distressed by snows and storms. Finally they halted at a cave. for himself a hole in the snow Babar dug " as deep as my breast and the size of a prayer-carpet," and sat go down in it. " into the cavern, but Some I desired me to would not go. I felt that for me to be in a warm dwellino- and in comfort, while my men were in the midst for me to be enjoying of snow and drift ; sleep and ease, while they were in distress — Muhammad Babar Zehir-ed-dhi 83 would be a deviation from that society was suffering which therefore, to On continued, I the drift." in sit their due. in another of his night marches against the enemy, he ascended a high pass. this time had never seen the I Canopus (which star Soheil not visible indeed, is, "Till in northern latitudes), but on reaching the top, Soheil appeared below, bright, to the south. said, I ' This answered, 'It is, indeed, descendant of Ulugh his knowledge of stars Soheil. Beg came the stars Canopus if they saw They The justly — even to-day would soldiers of ' Soheil.'" which he had never seen. our of be cannot of by the How many recognize it ? In his early youth Babar was shamefaced and modest, no wine. and for a lono- time he used In later years he caroused with a kind of fierce regularity, and he duly chronicles each of his drinking-bouts. battle says, After the which gave him India, he made, as he "an sincere. effectual He drinking-cups broke repentance," which was all his jewelled golden and gave them to dervishes The Mogul Emperors 84 made and the poor, of wine into his store vinegar, and finally issued a proclamation of change of his and humbled himself before life, Allah. Let us see how a tyrant dreams. when Babar had taken a potion he " bhang, of dream asleep and has recorded his fell While under its influence In gardens. beautiful hand bloom ; I beds the On flowers. in on the other hand, red flowers were blossom. in the In many places they sprung up same bed, mingled together, as had been flung and scattered abroad. of the were beds of yellow flowers in my : some visited different ground was covered with one Once if they I took seat on a rising ground to enjoy the view As the flower-plots. all far as the eye could reach, there were flower-gardens of a similar kind." Recollect was written years then he after adds: "In that the this history dream. And the neighborhood of Peshawer, during the spring, the flower-plots are exquisitely beautiful." Wherever this stern warrior went, he planted flower-gardens and orchards and built places of delight. ;; ; Muhammad Babar Zehir-cd-din A Kabul, Babar con- distance from little 85 on a structed a small cistern of red granite site overlooking the sides these verses Siiieet is the city, and engraved on : return of the tiew year Sweet is the smiling spring Sweet is the juice of the mellow grape Sweeter far the voice of oh Babar Strive, its love. ! to secure the joys of life, Which, alas! once departed, never more return. "I directed this fountain around with stone. *On be to built the four sides of the fountain a fine platform for resting was on a very neat plan. constructed time when the At the Arghzvan flowers begin do not know that any place blow, I world is be compared with to From Kabul he made into India, on the it." several incursions which were mere he set out in to raids, and finally his expedition of conquest, aided by the disaffected nobles of the Penjab. There and is no space nesfotiations, to relate the complex wars nor to describe the final great battle which gave him Agra, the capital. His armies were the Turki hordes with Indian allies ; The Mog2tl E7iiperors 86 —In whose stern faces shined the quenchless Jire That after burnt the pride of Asia. His success was largely due pline he was which the to one of the introduce. The men were armed and arrows, spears, cimeters, The a few matchlocks. day was that "While the bridge remarkably charged times ued ; artillery and well. The and ; ponderous. gun his day he first the firing in the second, sixteen same way. was It called Gun, and Ustad Khan was for his success." After the capture of Agra, treasure was distributed. in i526, the Humayun, Babar's and successor, obtained eighty- eldest son seven thousand besides dollars, a palace. His other sons and the emirs received way from twenty thousand five every hundred man arrny, all dis- for three or four days he contin- the Victorious the of Ganges was con- of the eight times it rewarded with bows Ustad Ali Kuli played structing, to first and maces, and siege clumsy disci- my dollars. of letters, rehitives and " all to seventy- Every merchant, everyone in friends, great the and Mtiha^nmad Babar Zehir-ed-din small, had cloth, in presents in silver and jewels, in Every man, woman, and in and gold, captive in slaves." child, slave or free, country of Kabul, received a silver the coin 87 of the value of an English shillingf. Babar's lavishness became a proverb. At the same time the famous "It captured. so valuable," says Babar, is " that it of the whole world," * is diamond was valued at half the daily expense Babar was thus settled on the throne of India, empire. and had become the founder of an Let what the conqueror see us thought of his conquest. " Hindustan a is country that has few recommend it. The people are not handsome. They have no idea of friendly society. They have no genius, no comprepleasures to hension of mind, no politeness of manner, no kindness or fellow-feeling, no ingenuity or mechanical invention their handicraft * This tlie in works may have been no skill or knowleds^e the stone, T/ie Ocean of treasury of the Shah of Persia. ins; to ; planning or executing the latest autli()ritics. It was not the Ltcsti-e, A'o/iiiiiir, now in accord- The Mogul Emperors 88 design or architecture in no good horses, they have no good ; no grapes or musk- flesh, melons, no ice or cold water, no good food no or bread, no (public) baths or colleges, candles, no torches, not a candle-stick even." The " is chief excellency of is that it a large country, and has abundance of gold and silver," Agra ics, and many alone, he daily says : " In artisans. employed 680 mechanIn another place he buildings. The people larly the of Hindustan, and particu- Afghans, are a strangely foolish and senseless race, and skilled and he kept 1491 stone-masons busy with his various in Hindustan possessed of less foresight. reflection little They can neither persist and manfully support a war, nor can they continue in amity and friendship." His and had been one life up strife eleventh to year of time. this my of incessant activity " From age onward I the have never spent two festivals of the Ramazan the same place." When in he was fourteen years of age he was present at a siege, and complains : " For two months there was nothing but siege operations, and no fine Muhammad Babar Zehir-ed-din All his active fighting." marching fighting or in " for This day life swam I amusement. he spent 89 in fine to the fray. across the River Ganges had previously crossed, I by swimming, every river that I had met Ganges alone excepted." with, the he had to contend with secret In India enemies, well as with as armies in the field. In Agra, Babar was poisoned through the treachery of his cooks and the carelessness of cut to The " the taster. pieces. be flayed taster was ordered to be commanded the cook to One of the women was I alive. trampled to death by an elephant, the other was shot by a matchlock." " Thanks be to Allah hend before that The poet says life I did not fully compre- was so sweet a to the value the gates of faint. o of Death, Life. Whenever these awful occurrences my memory, thinor. : Whoever comes Knows ! Babar recovered. pass before feel myself involuntarily turn The mercy of Allah has bestowed a I The Mogul Emperors 90 new upon me, and how can my tongue life my express " gratitude ? a singular good fortune, By of Babar's letters. One is written to his sons The warning and reproof. in and trusted friend an old and hurt by the conduct of the last in to solicitude is my visit boundless He and the time near at hand for is trust in be completely settled shall, and says : " My beyond great Almighty Allah that I I ; western dominions expression. As soon The Kabul. his children inmost heart to his friend. will to is an outpouring of the griefs of his is (Kabul) other shows that he was disappointed letter first we have two when everything in country. this as matters are brought to that state, with the permission of Allah, set out your quarters without a moment's delay. How is it possible that the delights of those lands should ever be erased from the heart How is it possible to forget the ? delicious melons and grapes of that pleasant region They very recently brought musk-melon from Kabul. up, I felt myself affected me a single While cutting with a ? it strong Muhammad Babar Zekir-ed-din and a sense of feeling of loneliness from my native country, and shedding He tears." " plantation of trees was very could not help I matters to be political Besteh, of called formed a and Nazergah it must there beautiful trees, I also goes around sow beautiful all accompany the little, friends, me " And : Syed Kasim more After artillery." will government, he quotes fondly details of the a on straight (the some plant and sweet-smelling flowers and shrubs." he : and as the prospect from ; fine, I You view). exile and continues without a break to, At the southwest it my gives long instructions on the military and attended 91 trivial incident of former days and "Do and says: for deviating into not think amiss of " these fooleries." I conclude with every good wish." Towards the end rapidly, failed fell and ill. The tenderly despaired of. distinguished that and latter of his for son Humayun was conveyed cared One 1529 Babar's health for, but his also Agra to life was of Babar's high officers, his Almighty Allah piety, said to Babar might vouchsafe to The Mogul E^npej'ors 92 spare Humayun's rifice of life return for the sac- in Babar's most precious possession, and suggested that the great diamond cap- Agra be my own tured at Babar, " my of end." Hfe devote I times walked three he exclaimed, "I have borne his unvarying affection Returning away; "and it Humayun to brothers, and, cases, the With strono^er. for sought during to this from that time Babar declined and beloved son Vv'axed his it about the dying prince and retired to pray. in fact, No," said most precious the is possessions, and He " the offering. his his he be- family, kind and forgiving to be what is rare in such admonition was faithfully respected many trying years. In a short time Death, the sunderer of societies, the garnerer of graveyards, the plunderer of palaces, bore him away to the mercy of Allah, the com- passionating, the compassionate, and his son reigned " in his stead. The grave of Babar is marked by two erect slabs of white marble, and, as in is common the East, the different letters of a part of the inscription indicate the number of the : Muhammad Babar Zchir-ed-di7i year of the Hcgira which the Emperor in The device, in seems to me happy present instance, the died. 93 When in heaven Roozvan asked the date of his death, I told him that heaven is the etertial abode of Babar Padishah. " Near the Emperor wives and his chil- dren have been interred, and the garden, which is small, was once surrounded by a A wall of marble. running and clear spring yet waters the fragrant flowers of this cemetery, which is the great holiday resort of the In front of the grave there people of Kabul. is a small but chaste an inscription upon mosque sets forth that it peror Shah Jahan, that poor From offer the their prayers." * which overlooks a noble prospect, is gardens of the beneath it. In was Muhammadans hill tomb there verdure and up it and by order of the Em- built in the year 1640, might here of marble, city are Babar's flowers in full Babar's and the blossom own words, "the render Kabul, in spring, a very heaven." * Burnes' Travels into Bokhara, quoted by Erskine. the The Mogul E^nperors 94 Babar has portrayed words which every He understand. soldier own his character in generous heart will was a gentleman and a — throughbred. He had prudence, knowledge, energy, ambition, and generosity, " all the and derives on " Exaltation name." its of his Memoirs, has A was written Mr. Erskine, the trans- his forehead." lator from which nobility qualities summed it up judiciously-: " character is his princes. Instead of the stately, systematic, throne that seems to belong to we Asia, in Babar's unlikeness to other Asiatic character artificial the striking feature in him find natural, lively, affectionate, simple, retaining throne all common are on the the best feelinors and affections of life. entitled We shall to find few princes who rank higher than Babar genius and accomplishment. in His grandson Akbar may perhaps be placed above him for profound and benevolent policy. crooked artifice tled to the same of distinction. Chengiz-Khan and in their Aurangzeb of is The The not enti- merit of Tamerlane terminates splendid conquests, which far excelled Zehir-ed-din Mtthammad Babar But the achievements of Babar. of mind, in the 95 in activity gay equanimity and unbroken with which he bore the extremes of spirit good and bad fortune, in the possession of the manly and social virtues, so seldom the portion of princes, in his love of letters, and success his shall find the in cultivation of them, we no other Asiatic prince who can justly be placed beside him." Two sayings of Babar's, placed side, give the key to " Inspired I as side his public actions. all was with an ambition for conquest and for extensive dominion, not, " How such a must I would on account of one or two defeats, down and look can any -line well called The idly man around me ; " sit and again, of understanding pursue of conduct as, after his death, his fair stain by Fame fame The ? wise have a second existence." circumstances of Oriental and of " Between Western life us and them crawls the nine-times-twisted are totally dissimilar. stream of Death." needed allowances If for we can make the these differences of time and circumstance, Babar will appear not The Mogul 96 unworthy Ei7tperoi's to be classed with the great Caesar as a general, as an administrator, as a letters. Caesar's, His character is more lovable than He conquered India and founded a mighty empire. the of and reminds us of Henry IV of France and Navarre. for all in man all, Mogul Take him he was the most admirable of kings. Humayu7iy Emperor of Hindustan CHAPTER HUMAYUN, EMPEROR III HINDUSTAN OF 97 (a. D. THE ADVENTURES OF FOUR I53O-I556) BROTHERS " When Fortune's adverse, minds are perverse.'" — Persian SAYING. The intelligent the events of Bernier, Mogul Empire. " that reflection custom of his recital of a later reign, explains sentence the fatal defect the in " I in the a policy of he says, desire," be made on in unhappy the this state, which, leaving the pos- session of the crown undecided, exposeth it At the to the conquest of the strongest." death of every emperor a struggle took place between the adherents of his various sons, The or even grandsons or nephews. est won ; and then proceeded to assure a lasting peace They were or their strong- by doing away with his rivals. death at once, either put to eyes were blinded, or they were The Mogul Emperors 98 imprisoned the in Gwalior, or of hill-fort stupefied with opium, or they fled into Persia, make the pilgrimage new emperor was not or they were forced to Mecca." to If the strong or cruel enough to impose the severer punishments, his rivals were sent to govern distant portions of the realm, often to vex called the most returned may be India, in prosperous have been those were cruel or crafty enough safe policy to its reigns to the throne. Moguls understood later " which there in were the fewest living heirs The What power. his " whence they and this well, to carry out the extreme. Humayun, we have an example of Mogul prince whose whole life was spent In agitation in in exile, because he was too too filial, and too kind or affectionate, a to such extremities. to go His blood was Turki, and not yet Hindu. Babar, the the Turki highest have seen, ambition, father " of ideal prudence, and Humayun, its he had, as we knowledge, energy, generosity which nobility draws ; fulfilled — qualities name." from : Hitmaywi, Emperor of Hmdustan A while before short called for his son his and heir (Humayun), and Allah should grant him if the throne and crown, he should not put to death, but deal kindly with Humayun promised them. Babar death, charged him that his brothers 99 obedience, and notwithstanding that his brothers (Kamran, were Mirza-Askari) Hindal, opposed to him, and often in continually open war, he forgot their hostile proceedings as soon as he had vanquished them, for many years, and on many separate occasions. His kindness was the source of woes and, ; amiable fatal to like many a pri\iate in the state. a quality all which his is person, was well-nigh was not It until his brothers were removed by war or otherwise, towards the last of his reign, that had any sort of peace. aged such things better . ; Empire the The Hindus manas in the example thus related by an ancient historian " In the Mahmud, a Hindu against an enemy who time of Sultan rajah asked his aspired to the plained : the aid same sovereignty. situation to the He Sultan ex- thus " The Mogul Emperors lOO ' my In religion the kings of killing is when one king gets another into his power, he makes a small and dark room underneath his own throne, and, having put his enemy into it, unlawful but the custom ; that is, Every day he sends he leaves a hole open. a tray of food into that room, until one or the other of the kings Humayun 1530. succeeded to the throne in a.d. His brother Kamran was then gov- ernor of Kabul, Babar had It dies.' was the capital from whence set out for his conquest of India. clearly empire should Babar's intention be divided, not Kabul should remain The armies that and the that Hindustan. subj,ect to the emperor were recruited of mainly from the Turki, Mogul, and Afghan tribes of this neighborhood, were vast numbers and while there Hindu of auxiliaries, the latter were even less faithful than the Moguls. cially, The officers of had to be drawn the countries outside of yielded to Kamran and added to it the the army, espe- from Persia and India. kingdom Humayun of Kabul, the countries bordering on Humayun, Emperor of Hhidustan the Indus, and the Panjab. loi Prince Hindal was made governor of Sambal, and Mlrza- Humayun was emperor Askari of Mewat. Hindustan, of had but not retained the sources of the military power by which alone could it be The army held. but there were remained, of firmly no sure means even of maintaining, or increasing, still its fighting strength. The emperor's wars began sion of Guzerat and the suppression of The lions elsewhere. forts with the invarebel- siege of one of the was the occasion two incidents, each of highly characteristic of hill- Humayun. The first stages of the siege had been very unsuccessful. fort All the practicable approaches to the were closely guarded. cal precipice bounded one on which the fort was determined to attack it An almost verti- side of the plateau built, and by night on Humayun this side. Accordingly steel spikes were prepared and driven right and left, face of the the form of a ladder. emperor cliff, in himself three hundred one by one, into the accompanied a men to The party the perilous of attack, The Mogul Emperors I02 Humayun was which was successful. forty-first in order to ascend. was known that the It much treasure, find to till was they was counsel to and this drawn off rather, a prisoners be tor- confessed. The The water was followed. from in emperor's them with kindness, treat the treasure found failed Humayun's juncture this contained search strict advised that the ofiicers tured In it. but castle the a vast and cistern, a chamber beneath it, according to information given by one of the prisoners to his generous captor. Humayun's great personal bravery and his these two Mirza-Askari, his youngest brother, who humanity are well exhibited in incidents. was left in charge of these first conquests, soon beean to show his want of subordination. At a convivial party he took too much wine, and began to boast that he, too, was " a kine and the shadow of Allah." time the war with ruler of province Berar, of lust at this Sher-Shah, the Afghan began to be serious. The Bengal was overrun by Sher- Humayu7i, of Hiiidtistan Einpc7'oi' 103 Humayun was committed the rainy season. The sol- Shah's forces, and campaign to a deserted diers in when they Hindal marched permission. off his could, whole army without Kamran Prince and Prince set out with a large force from Kabul, professedly to sup- port the emperor, but in reality to seize the throne he could do if Humayun Agra, and so. was forced retreat to to fight a battle with towards Sher-Shah which he was disastrously defeated in His queen was captured, 1539). army met totally dispersed. at Agra and were The my and his three brothers reconciled, of defence was concerted. (a.d. It is and a plan no part of intention to recite the events of the next campaign (1540), which ended in the complete success of Sher-Shah (who became emperor of India) and Agra ; and princes and ; in the capture of Delhi in the flight of to Lahore. At Lahore another council was held. was abundantly manifest says one was no the emperor to the "It emperor," of the native historians, " that there possibility of bringing his brothers The Mogul Emperors 104 and his emirs to any agreement, and he was very despondent." Prince Hindal marched away in one direction ; Prince set off for Kamran Kabul. " " proved faithless," and His brothers then began to shoot the arrows of discord at the target of sovereignty," as the native chronicler has Humayun now it. set cast up what remained about for a place to Sind, the of his state. province just south of Kabul, had been part of Timur's conquests, had overrun belonged ants who emperor and whatever Timur to any of his descend- could take and keep set out for On it ; so the Sind with the remnants way he stopped at the camp of Prince Hindal, where he became violently and suddenly enamoured of the young of his army. his daughter of Hindal's instructor. Sheikh Ali Akbar Jami. old, She was but fourteen years and had been promised though not yet betrothed. decided to marry her at once. in marriage, The emperor Though she was not of suitable rank, her father was a seiyad, a Muhammad, descendant and the of family the was Prophet distin- Humayun, Empej-or of Hindustan 105 The mar- guished for learning and piety. riage took place the next day. But Prince Hindal's camp was no place for the head of the state. " the Ten dci'viskes can sleep on one rug, but same climate of the eaj^th cannot contain two kings!' Accordingly Humayun plunged into the deserts of Sind, relying on the promises of one of his redeemed. party was living on vassals there., During this desert march the reduced to the greatest berries, lacking water, by enemies. At the in the which were not straits, and harassed solitary castle of Amerkot, midst of the "desert, the empress gave birth to her son Akbar (October 15, 1542). The emperor was encamped some miles distant when the news was brouo^ht to him. He had no rich presents to give to the senger and to his ary. He little party, as mes- was custom- opened a single pod of musk, and among his faithful was named Jalalu-d- distributed the contents adherents. din The child Muhammad Akbar— king like the odor of the musk of kings his — and fame spread The Mogul Evipcrors io6 throughout the habitable world, according to wishes of the the loyal little band of the emperor's followers. Kandahar was held by Mirza-Askari as It was a dependent of Prince Kamran. now Humayun's intention to win Askari to his cause, When and find to an asylum there. he was some one hundred and thirty miles from the city, intelligence came that his brother the Mirza was marching against him with hostile intent, and that he must This he did safety. infant Akbar had most of the to in be queen and a band such haste that the left In party. fly for the camp with Humayun, with of only forty others, fled Akbar and those who were to Persia. the left behind were well treated by the Mirza, and removed sent to to Kandahar, and the child was Kabul. As Mirza-Askari and his troops were returning with the young Akbar, one of the emperor's faithful plotted to steal the child from to return him to his parents. its adherents captors and The project was discussed with the guards, and It was decided that Humayun must have had good Humayun, Emperor of Hindustan reasons leaving for brother's hands, son infant his and that 107 his in would not be it him right either for the guards to give up, or for the emperor's immediate followers to with interfere Upon litter, this plans not understood. fully approached Akbar's the warrior and received from the chief of the escort a little fillet, And child's turban. in charofe or ribbon, from the from with this pledge one grim warrior to another, he set out to join the fortunes of the flying emperor, to bring prince. him the These and news of the young last are not the savage manners of barbarians. For three years the emperor had been He now Sind, exposed to every hardship. set out for Persia to ask the help of Tahmasp, the hereditary Humayun Persia, agreed to scale, and was obliged * His great ancestor this artTurncnt Timur was was used and all made on both sides. restore Kandahar to to conform observances of the Shia'^ sect of t'.iat Shah friend of his family. His reception was on a grand kinds of promises were in the Muhamma- a S/iia; though to chansje his beliefs. to I do not find ; : The Mogtil Emperors io8 dans return for the assistance of a well- in equipped army of twelve thousand Persian troops. On the Humayun envelope the of despatched which letter Shah, the to he wrote these verses Much hath this aching head endured Jilttch among And much But the rocks among the waters, and mountains, amoftg the sands of the desert all (these sorrows no'w) are past. Many more sorrows still remained to him, however, before his fortunes were retrieved. His was a life of constant vicissitude morning he dwelt in a house In the In the evening he As if he had been Prince had no longer a Kamran was captured Prince Hindal Paradise or Heaven, dwelling. homeless. Kandahar had been been like ; ; reigning Kabul. his possession in from in him by his brother had been recaptured The brother was marching against at the of a foreign army. a siege. Askari The was city and ; was now held by Mirza-Askari. it had ; fourth head was taken after pardoned, but he Humaytm, Emperor of Hindustan was recaptured, escaped, and imprisoned, Kandahar was delivered over and 109 the to Persians. As came the winter needed shelter, and on, as the Persian prince in command opportunely and made at made once" it emperor died, the Kandahar, from the captured time, Humayun's troops Persians this a winter's march Kabul. to Hindal joined the successful army, Prince and Prince Kamran abandoned and He headquarters. his re- fled ; all his forces The young emperor. his capital coming over to the Akbar (now Prince about three years old) was restored to his After a few months father. out on an expedition Humayun set Badakshan against (another one of Timur's conquests) ; there- upon Kamran returned and again captured Kabul and the young Akbar with it. The forces of Humayun and Hindal immediately returned and closely invested the native writers say feeling, : " city. The Kamran, with dastardly ordered that the prince Akbar should be exposed upon the battlements where the balls and shot of the guns and muskets fell no The Mogid Emperors But thickest. Almighty Allah Kamran was him." more, and Badakshan obliged now fell preserved to into this occasion hands, /^zV but was recaptured by the emperor On once fly Kamran became in 1548. the pris- Humayun and Hindal. The emperor displayed the greatest kindness to Kamran, who again received the oner of " emblems set of sovereignty." at liberty at this Mirza-Askari was time, and the four brothers ate bread and salt together in sign of amity. In a few months, however, Kam- ran and Askari again rebelled, and Kabul was again taken by them, and the prince Akbar (a precious hostage) again into their fell Once more the emperor attacked Kabul, and once more Kamran was obliged hands. to fly. These successive flights, They raids, captures, sieges, read like the annals of a band of Sioux. represent to the life the history of the Moguls before they were permanently established in India. Such "history" ably monotonous and dull, and dismiss it we with the thoudit that is intoler- are apt to all this was 1 Humayun, Emperor of Hindustan among barbarous four centuries ago, But the wars Turkistan. same epoch, were they materially We modern war that forget And Napoleon's campaigns. barous tribes parallels in — do we different ? with as to the bar- not find almost exact the cruel revolutions in South In the Argentine ? at the began American States even to-day? ras tribes of Europe in 1 1 In Brazil ? In Chile? In ? Hondu- There are no prisoners taken. The corpses of the dead are terribly mutilated. The are looted, captured cities and their inhabitants inhumanly outraged. It was about Kamran wrote to time this beg him to put an to end to their eternal wars. he says, brother," " you will " Oh, my unkind what are you doing For every murder that side, Humayun that is committed on either have to answer at the day of Come and make peace, that manmay be no more oppressed by our quar- judgment. kind ? rels." Kamran's answer was the verse He who would obtain Must woo sove7-eignty for his : bride. her across the edge of the sharp sword. The Mogul Empero7's 112 And the wars went rebellion failing and on. ravaging provinces " the family of the in Breaking into was an old Emir Timur," says one of the native historians. Hindal was sent to capture Kamran, and could have done so, but furthered his escape, and shortly afterwards was himself a battle against the killed in Afghans under Kam- ran's command. into banishment, and afterwards made the Mirza-Askari was ordered when pilgrimage to Mecca, and died (1558) just beyond Damascus. It was obvious that no terms could be made with Prince Kamran. He was finally made captured, deprived of sight, and he also the pilgrimage and afterwards died at Mecca, (1557). Prince Kamran was of a sullen and cruel nature, though bold and enterprising. inspired no unfortunate she to happy, attachment in his or apparently in any one, save his officers, exile. permanent He wife, who followed him into You gave me to my husband," said her father, "when he was a king and and would take me from him now " 3 Humayitn, E77tperor of Hindustan that he no, ; attend him faithfully wherever he will I 1 and blind and miserable fallen is 1 goes." At the sieo^e of Kabul he young children three and threw officers, of murdered the one of Humayun's mangled their bodies He over the walls to the besiegers. gave the wife of the same nobleman to the rabble in These the bazaar to be dishonored. were not only atrocious acts themselves, but in they were totally contrary to the customs of war. There him and is no doubt that the emperor loved all his brothers with a sincere affec- tion in spite of treacheries When Kamran presented himself before make the throne to his submissions), his his neck. said the emperor, " there throw it past as the over, the is is "Alas ! alas !" no need of this ; away." As soon was submission (one of he approached humbly with hung around a whip beyond count. past. to ceremony. ceremony emperor exclaimed Thus far prostration of : " What is we have conformed Let us now meet as brothers " ; 4 1 The Mogul Emperors 1 and embracing him with made him And honor. him for in by sit his side then, in a Turki (as the in were the private speech it if place of moment, addressing two descendants of Timur), he close to me," as emperor tears, the they had been said, " Sit little boys once more. When Hindal was Prince slain by the Afghans under Kamran, the emperor's camp was on a was hill above Hindal's. Humayun over, After the fight asked for his brother, but " no one had the courage to stood and on the been little called aloud different at had he that last the in find him. learned his brother's overwhelmed with in his tent. One grief, " darkness, and sent two for Hindal, messengers to him The emperor killed. hill tell When fate, he he was and shut himself up of the hiorh nobles found the emperor in tears, and asked the cause. " Have you not heard of the martyrdom of Mirza Hindal?" The ness and good sense to reply your own gain less " ; had the bold- chief : "You lament you have one enemy the —which was true indeed. 5 Humaytin, Emperor of Hindustan The rebellion of Prince last it 1 Kamran, and conduct at the siege of Kabul, his atrocious had made 1 clear that he deserved no mercy, and that the safety of the state demanded The emperor's his death. unanimously of this councillors were opinion, and they pre- sented a formal written petition and remonstrance, begging that justice The emperor would from his affection for not his be done. consent, partly turbulent treacherous brother, partly from promise to his placed in strict dying father. his and memory of Kamran was custody, and the next morn- ing orders were given that his eyes should be lanced to deprive him of sight, though not of life. was in bellion Only so would he be harmless. This Kamran had been in re- 1553, after more or less constantly for twenty- The emperor's orders were Some time afterreceived and executed. wards Kamran sent to beg for an interview. "At midnight the emperor, lighted by a lantern, and attended by five or six men of distinction, repaired to Kamran's tent." The emperor sat down and sobbed aloud as the three years. 6 The Mogul Emperors 1 1 blinded Mirza was led how to witness He in. affairs little had turned out according to his wishes, and felt for his how deeply he brother's sufferings. "The Mirza He called Allah was told who were in the Mir Tardi Beg, Monaim inquired Bapus Beg (whose children he had tent. Beg, slain), and some others on which he addressed them Be all of you witnesses that whatand said ; ' : me ever has happened to my own much has proceeded from misconduct and affected, Humayun, fault.' and wishing to put an end to the scene, his voice interrupted by convulsive sorrow, faltered out The Fateheh.'* recommended care, who said that subject * ; The opening Praise be * Let us nov/ repeat the Mirza, upon this, earnestly his children to the emperor's : * Set yourself at ease upon they are of the to : Kuran Allah, the my own — a prayer. Lord of children.' " f It reads as follows: the Worlds, The Compassionate, the Merciful, King of the day of Judgment I Thee ive worship, and Thee lue ask for help. Guide us in the straight way. The 'way of those Not of \ those upoji whom Thou art gracious: whom is Thy wrath, nor of the to erring. Summarized from Erskine's Life of Humayun, Chapter Book v. III, ; Humayuii, Emperor of Hindustan For the first was possible in the field time for the emperor's reign in him 117 it to undertake operations without fearing the treachery of his own brothers. His previous failures are attrib- uted by (foreign) historians to the levity and weakness of to me to make his father's brothers, — if if All accounts seem his character. it clear that, if he had not obeyed admonitions to be kind to his rival he had done as his successors did he had promptly put them to death would have been — he called a successful ruler cruel to his brothers, perhaps, but kind to He was the world besides. kind, even Saif-Khan had once held in more than often magnanimous and all great-hearted. his whole army check for half a day, while his over-lord, Sher-Khan, was making good through a mountain defile. escape his He was finally captured and brought to the emperor, bleeding from three wounds, and expecting death. The emperor said: "Such it behooves a soldier to be who should lay down his life to advance ; his master's cause. ever you choose." ily is I set you free ; Saif answered, " with Sher-Khan ; I go wher- My fam- wish to go to him." The Mogtil Emperors ii8 Now, Sher-Khan was a thorn Humayun the Moguls, but " have given you your Hfe I Humayun had in the side of did not hesitate. ; do as you will." a strain of romance in his character, like that of the caliphs who granted favors to poets for their verses, to singers for The Ask a boon " their songfs. of me." following incident, which occurred dur- ing the reign of his father, is an excellent example of the romantic impulse and respect for learning which are parts of the Oriental character A the : soldiers town had been captured, and everywhere for sought " and plunder. A party of three entered house," says Maulana my gold Sadu-lla, " father (who, in studying my and seized and teaching the sciences for sixty-five years, had, in the and made evening of his life, him Others came and bound me, and prisoner. sent me ordered me I not grieve sitting on reached his house, and be bound with a chain, one end of which was did present to the Mirza The Wazir was when to a as (Shah Husain). a platform lost his sight) for tied to the platform. I myself, but shed tears Humayun, Emperor of Hindustan for my asked his pen to I writing for no one " father's sad condition." materials, was write, but 119 The Wazir and mended called away, leaving but the captive. in the place approached the platform, and wrote, on Wazir intended the very paper on which the to write, these verses : Do not your eyes see how I am zveeping. And do you never say, weep no tnore? And does your heart never suggest to you That you should have pity upon me When the garment of " Wazir returned he found the released the poet, writing, ? his own, who the Mirza himself, robed him in and introduced him a to set the father free, and restored their goods to the two prisoners, dismissing them both with honor. Everything was now favorable for the conquest of India. set In horse, invaded the the emperor fifteen thousand 1555 from Kabul with out Panjab, captured Lahore from the Afghans, and took Delhi and Agra, the Prince in the possession of Successful battles, in which Akbar took possession re- of part, confirmed him Hindustan. He died The Mogul Emperors I20 effects of a fall in 1556, half a year from the Akbar (then Delhi, and return to after his thirteen years old) reigned in his place. In this last invasion that, a vow Providence restored the sovereignty if would never again make of India to him, he slaves Humayun made of He true believers. was fighting against Afghans, who were Musulmans, and had no scruple making a pyramid of the fashion of Timur the their heads, in in This Tartar, but he did not enslave them. last pyramid teen years heads was erected seven- of before the Massacre of Saint Bartholomew. The success reconquest of of the first India was produced no change Humayun's mind. in He for battle splendid the ; the but it equanimity of had always endeav- ored, he said, to observe three principles of conduct : first of then, energy in action tion in success ; integrity all, ; of design ; and, finally, modera- ascribing all the glory to an overruling Providence, and nothing to the merits of man. A very curious chapter might be written Humayun, Emperor of Hindtistan 2 1 i concerning the dreams of the emperors, as recounted in their Putting to one Memoirs. side those architecturally elaborate dreams, " I saw an eagle descend from the empy- rean and devour a dove, announced by the emperor so that the astrologers to mean that ke is the — putting which are etc.," Durbar, at his may expound them eagle, and his enemy there still remain to us a considerable number of evi- the dove,* these aside, dently genuine dreams. We must regard Babar's account of dream of genuine. flower-gardens the He recounts throws on his thouo^hts a lovely light In the ! Timur there are several cases meant to be interpreted in public one case which seems to real, and secret to mind. He is dreams but there be entirely to give a glimpse into the monarch's recounting his " holy " (May, 1398, After days of fighting and extreme war against the A.D.). me ; it Memoirs of of is entirely as with real pleasure it And what years afterwards. his infidel Kators * Such, for example, as the dreams of Olympias, mother of Alexander the Great, just before his birth. The Mogul Einperors 122 Timur sleeps, and dreamed that my sword fatigue in the mountains, dreams —what? When was bent." others, it to " I he awakes, must be expounded. this " dream, Hke interpreted I be a certain token that Burhan Aghlan As had been defeated." had been dream but ; was itself is it clear, true, a matter of fact he I think, that the and not a fabrication intended to convey the idea that Timur was Here inspired. event. " I official a small but genuine psychic dreamed that my sword was Humayun, — is too, had dreams de circoiistance dreams, meant to be interpreted his favor. It is in related also that he had a supernatural warning of his death He bent." in a dream. himself says: "I lately rose after mid- night to say the stated prayers and retired again to rest was I lying, ; when my eyes just before dawn, as shut, but my I heart awake, heard a supernatural voice clearly repeat these verses \ Oh, Lord, of Thine infinite goodness make Oh, call He : to me Thine own; Thee thy poor lover; Oh, grant me my release.^'' repeated these verses frequently, with Humayun, Emperor of Hindustan deep emotion ; and wards that he met was not long it 123 after- death by an accident. his Nizamu-d-din-Ahmad was the son of a favorite noble of Babar's and Humayun's His history court. emperor of the estimate a standard one, is an intelligent observer, is " doubt that Humayun is is sincere. no reason He says : reigned for more than twenty- and he was five years, when he his writing the fullest Omitting a few adjectives of convention, there to his at least that of who had opportunity for judgment.''' and fift^^-one years of age His angelic character was died. adorned with every manly age he excelled all virtue, and in cour- the princes of the time. All the wealth of Hindustan would not have sufficed to the In have maintained his generosity. sciences of astroloo^y eood * his and the of the time He came men all learned and great and were admitted into high favor with the mathe- He made good matics he was unrivalled. verses, and to his so- Emperor Akbar by marching twelve hundred miles in twelve days, so as to be present at the celebration of the thirty-fifth anniversary of his coronation at Lahore. 124 ^-^"^ ciety, Mogul Emperors and passed the night The Hght company. on men of abihty of favor shone and worth during his in Such was his reign. his clemency that he repeatedly pardoned the Kamran, when rebellions of his brother, Mirza he was taken prisoner and was He in his was devout and ceremonious power. in all re- ligious observances." His "weary indecision" was manifested chiefly in the early part of his reign, only in counsel. brave in He was action, as and then always prompt and became a descendant of Of Timur we may say what Saint-Simon says of Peter the Great " Tout Amir Timur. : montrait en lui la vaste etendue de ses lumieres, et qiiclque chose de continuelleinent consequent^ All the descendants of Timur were distinguished for personal valor courage of the heart. Some of — the them in- herited from their great ancestor that cour- age of the mind which made him capable of long, patient, unswerving devotion to a resolution once formed. But Humayun was not one of his heirs in this respect. he had, but he was Valor deficient in resolution. : Htimayun, Emperor of Hindustan 125 Erskine, the author of a Life of Humayini, has given another estimate of his character, which quote I "He was a man of great quickness of parts, His but volatile, thoughtless, and unsteady. disposition was naturally generous, and affectionate and winning. manners his ; His generosity friendly, polite, finally frank, degen- erated into prodigality, his attachments into weakness, and hence to the day of his death he was the prey of He was fond of flatterers literature, verses,* and had made, it is favorites. and delighted He the society of the learned. and in v/as a writer of said, considerable progress in mathematics and astronomy. At the time of his death he was about to construct an observatory, and had already lected the necessary instruments." a good Musulman, rigid in the " col- He was observance of the stated prayers and of the ceremonial of the law." "But though he was brave and good-tempered, his virtues fects, all liberal, bordered on neighboring de- and produced * and fond of learning, As was little fruit." his brother Hindal also. 126 TJie His ment Mog7il Emperors father, Babar, has also left us a judg- For a long time Humayun him. of lived at the court of and shared in every detail government, and was the inseparable assoemperor, ciate of the who was never repeating that, as a companion, tired of Humayun had not his equal in the whole habitable world. He was very flower of the His affection courtesy. genuine and sincere. his of for humanity and his father was In the forty-sixth year age he transcribed Babar's Memoirs with his own hand, adding a commentary of own. his He was uniformly kind and considerate to his dependents, devotedly attached to his son Akbar, to his friends, and to his turbulent brothers. The misfortunes of his reign arose, great part, from his failure to treat them in But we are obliged to esteem with rigor. him for for it was the ise to his loncr-sufferincr this faithful fulfilment of his dying The very consideration, prom- father. defects of render him less of nations, make his character, which admirable as a successful ruler us more fond of him as a Huinayun, Emperor of Hindustan 127 His renown has suffered man. reign in that his came between the brilHant conquests of Babar and the beneficent statesmanship of Akbar the ; but he was not unworthy to be son of the one other. and the father of the The Mogul Emperors 128 CHAPTER IV SHAH AKBAR THE GREAT, EMPEROR OF HliNDUSTAN (a.D. I556-1605) The book of the Thousand Nights and a Night begins with these words " Verily the works and words of those gone before us have : become instances and examples to men of our modern day, that folk may view what admonishing chances befel other and folk, may therefrom take warning and that they may peruse the annals of antique peoples, ; and all that hath betided them, thereby ruled and restrained. fore be to Allah of the Past an who hath made be Praise there- the histories admonition unto the Present." The works and words to and be instances and of Akbar examples are worthy and even admonitions unto the present. By command of the Emperor Akbar wazir, Abul-fazl, wrote the history of his his life, — Shah Akbar the Great 129 and also a monumental book treating of the eovernment and It is kino-dom.* statistics of the possible from this work Empire lively picture of the a Moguls of the and the charac- at the height of its splendor, ter of its enlightened to obtain monarch set forth in is the laws and customs which he prescribed. Abul-fazl's style abounds smooth in flattery, which seems offensive to a Western reader chiefly because it addressed to a king is and kings are out of however, fulsome, date. than the It is no more address a of candidate for Parliament or Conorress to the masters. voters, his As reasonable people disregard the latter sort of flattery, so may fore, in also discount the former. I we have, there- omitted most of the eulogistic passages Abul-fazl's book, as they are merely con- ventional, and have but little genuine siofnifi- cance. *-r This volume, the Ain-i-Akbari, has been twice translated by Francis Gladwin (iSoo) and by Professor Blochmann (1S73). edition of 1873 is so interesting, so double title to supplemented by a learned, as to 1 scries of notes, so elaborate, give the work of Abul-fazl a be regarded as one of the world's great books. have quoted from both translations : lie in this chapter. I ; The Mogul E.mperors 130 Akbar was the son Humayun, and came of to the throne in 1556. He reign of nearly fifty a after died in than the The years. history of his wars and conquests interesting 1605, picture is of far less his civil Cfovernment. Abul-fazl's linger book enables us the of monarch the to trace every detail in of the administration of a vast and well-ordered empire which extended from Persia to the Ganges, and from Cashmere to the Deccan. A glance at the table of contents the following chapter-headings The Household the Encampment Royalty of the Perfume Office ; Stables Artillery ; Camels, Oxen ; for ; Regulations ; Army ; ; Ensigns of Painting Gallery Elephants, Account of ; ; Horses, Revenue Department Each One of the Fifteen Provinces Governed by Viceroys of the for Regulations for Teaching the Public Schools Particular the Regulations for the Public Fights of Animals in ; : Mint; the Harem; the Journeys for among many the Royal Treasuries ; Jewel Office; the Equipage gives ; Rent-roll Empire; Religious Toleration; Descrip- Shah Akbar tion of trines Hindustan — — 131 Inhabitants its Customs, its the Great etc., etc., — its Doc- and etc., a thousand things besides. " It is " that universally agreed," says Abul-fazl, the employments noblest are the reformation of the manners of the people, the advancement of agriculture, the regula- and the discipline of the tion of the offices, army; and these desirable ends are not to be attained without studying to please the joined people, good management with economy the finances and exact penses of the state in view, every class What an paragraph ! the ex- but when these are kept of people enjoys prosperity!' immense change denotes Akbar's ancestor people ; in of ! Compare from The this of ideal that this Timur, of prosperity of with terrible the the marches and sieges of Timur, each marked with its pyramids of human heads. advance of agriculture of the descendant of who ! This is The the ideal those Turki warriors jeered at wheat, calling it " the top of a weed." The emperor appointed treasurers for The Mogtil Emperors 132 who kept each department, and other jewels belonging were valued and classed was seal affixed, that they might not be un- Each ruby "The inscription, These jewels cannot Akbar's of to-day A ? pearls were strung ; end of each string the sorted or stolen. the crown the to at the and scores, monthly, Diamonds and yearly accounts. quarterly, in daily, of price bore magnificent all be Are any lost. European rubies in ruby." collections mint with fixed regulations and officials was established, and rules for the fineness of the precious metals v^re with paid down.* laid were coins Liorht received " according to established discounts. money matter will be satisfactorily when the parties express their minds * Among his jewellers history is and every day He was curious. from Syria and Persia at Goa the journey ; him a house and shillings in One After ; money." five Leades' of the company and Fitch returned published an account of his voyages. from Queen many adventures Leades entered Akbar's service home clearly, one of four Englishmen who travelled Elizabeth to the Great Mogul. monk well, gave six to India in 1583, bearing letters to very different ends. settled^ was an Englishman, Mr. William Leades. The king "entertained him very slaves, a horse, Every to (Storey) ; they came became a Newberry died on England in 1591, and Shah Akbar the Great 133 then take a pen, and write down the state- ment As we read handwritinor," leofible in we these paragraphs do not seem to be the middle ages, until, by accident, we in see that "metals are formed of vapor and exha- which lation, be particularly learned to is Akbar from books of natural philosophy." brought his coins and improved purity were weig-hed One of The a to best coin is that the necessaries for a legend which They shape. their standard arate weiohts. acjainst them bore standard of fixed is of life, and which : employed in supplyitig men with betiejits the companions in the road of God. Special Akbar coinage alloys were invented by who experimented himself, departments Minute from rules on deer-fights religion prescribed should " the leanness of elephants thirteen classes," been — to see the betting conducted be all metallurgy. to how in ; and was divided into their food had if stolen. Akbar inherited his desire for classifying and organizing everything from his father The Mogul Emperois 134 Humayun, whom in the systematic tendency was strongly developed, but whose vagabond life did not permit him to carry out his ten- dencies to the Humayun full. ning of his reign divided The three classes. hermits, Prophet, the people into his all royal family, the nobles, the military chiefs, were the religious in the begin- class first descendants the law the literati, ; asfronomers, and the the of officers, poets, " besides the the other great and respectable men," were the second class ; lovely, the singers third. The who were youn^ those while and musicians, were the occupations of the days of the week were apportioned two days to each occupation even his rather of life, silly and to these three clalfces, The more class, etc. guarding his soon broke up serious kingship, this artificial scheme, of which I and and have given but a very small part. Abul-fazl thus writes Harem, or Seraglio : " (feelingly) of There is, in the general, great inconvenience arising from a number women the ; dance of but his majesty, out his of of abun- wisdom and prudence, has made Shah Akbar it subservient to the Great 135 public advantage for ; by contracting marriages with the daughters of the princes of Hindustan and of other coun- he secures himself against insurrections tries, at home, and forms powerful alliances abroad.^' The harem is an enclosure of such immense extent as to contain a separate room for each one of the women, whose number exceeds five thousand. They and a proper employment panies, to each individual. woman panies a one are divided into com- is Over each assigned is com- of these appointed to And rule. selected for the care of the whole, in is may be order that the affairs of the harem conducted with the same regularity as the other departments of the state." The harem was was chief thus a state bureau ous-adventures of his childhood, and cess. is Of worth while to give all who was, this foot-note to a correction of the the royal families of the proud Rajputs, one only, that of Oudipur, steadily rejected the peril- often said that one of Akbar's wives was a Christian prin- It is error. its Maham Anka, who had been Akbar's nurse and faithful attendant during the * It ; Mogul conquerors, and all to this marriages with the house of day has kept according to the ancient Rajput customs. its blood pure, The Mogul Emperors 136 prime minister in fact, his in the early years of his reign, " Each one receives a salary equal to her The pen cannot measure merit. of the emperor's largesses ; the extent but here shall be given some account of the monthly stipend of The each. ladies of the first from 1,610 rupees* down Some" down to from paid "Whenever any twenty rupees, and others rupees up to forty." of this multitude of women two want anything, they apply The " 1,028 rupees. to the principal servants have from of fifty-one are quality receive of the inside to the treasurer." harem guarded by is women," and there were eunuchs, porters, and military guards at different distances outside, each • in a prescribed position. The equipages for journeys and encamp- ments were as complex as a town. For it must be remembered that when the emperor moved from with him slaves. ; a city, the inhabitants moved merchants, families, servants, and The camp was simply the city under tents. * A rupee may be taken as about fifty-five cents in Akbar's time. Shah Akbar Akbar had various name alone ; his ancestors the Timur ; Rectitude I is the lost of a : his attentions it. He eats but course of twenty-four hours, and he always leaves is all and has made many wise recjulations concernino- what of his in the straight road. to the kitchen department, in the bore means of pleasing God. never saw any one His majesty even extends once 137 for petitions was used with the inscription seal " One name seals. another, up to Great the off with an appetite. required for the harem from morning to night." " is But going on Trusty people are appointed to the kitchen department, and his majesty is not unwatchful of their conduct." In Babar's time an awning was spread over the kitchen to insure that poison should not be dropped from above, and was done under guard. against the emperor's all the cooking Moreover, attempts life were provided against by the appointment of tastejs, and unmindful tasters were flayed alive ! The same precautions were taken by Akbar, and the dishes were sent from the kitchen in nap- The Mogitl Emperors 138 kins whose corners were fastened by a seal. " The copper utensils tinned twice a month and for his majesty's use are ; those for the princes harem only once the time." that kingdom of Akbar drank only the waters of Everything was regulated ordinances. in in this " Salt- the Ganges, cooled with saltpetre. petre, which supplies in the composition of gun-powder has been discovered by his heat, majesty to be also productive of cold."* All the water for Akbar's use and all the provisions were kept in vessels under seal, and the magazines and gardens were guarded by trusty servants. This was necessary realm where treachery abounded, the in a classic land of poisons.f The receipts for thirty dishes are given the wazir. benefit of I shall only * The philosophy of Abul-fazl is that the animal so extremely f "Chickee. at a tortoise, is like that of the little girl and remarks how passing strange in it which supplies her with her combs should possess little hair. Ibn Batuta Sultan quote one, for the young housekeepers. Punch, who gazes by Mahmud tells us that there was a special seal-bearer under (a.d. 997-1030) whose duty water-jars used by that emperor. it was to seal the ; Shah Akbar Ten pounds and washed of wheat until one pound of it is the Great made flour into a paste reduced into two pounds and the same clarified butter, quantity of onions 139 cardamoms, and saffron, ; ounce cloves, each quarter of an ; cinnamon, round pepper, and coriander seed, each half an ounce green ginger and ; ounce and a To the salt, Some add lemon juiced half. Western palate seems indifferent it not. A menu for whether the lemon were added or hundred was dishes " Akbar's dinner. was at dinner, each an it the usual One day when his majesty occurred to his mind that probably the eyes of some hungry one had upon the fallen therefore, could it while the hungry were debarred from He therefore gave orders that every day he eat it ? How, food. some hungry persons should be fed with some of the food prepared for himself, and that afterwards he should be fed." majesty has a great disinclination for and he provided frequently variety of says, food ' " His flesh, Providence has for man, but through gluttony and ignorance he destroys living creatures and makes his body a tomb " The Mogul Emperors 140 for beasts. leave off my is And If were not a king I eating intention to quit on two days by degrees.' it Akbar was every week. in ceedingly fond of fruit, The from Persia and Tartary. rupees each half Samarkand were " fumes, and is censers." His receipts for is burned perfumes 3 faithful in and fumigated gold and silver minister gives compounding " con- is scents. A many long also given of the flowers of the and cost apples from presence-chamber the best exceedingly fond of per- stantly scented with flowers, with ; ten for a rupee. His majesty ex- and introduced many muskmelons came from Tartary, and two and a it he always abstained from meat in fact varieties now once, and flesh at would I list country of their seasons for blossominof. 0/ Marriages : His majesty does not approve of every one marrying more than one wife. He censures old young husbands. women who take His majesty maintains that the eo7isent of the bride and bridegroom, and the permission of the parents, are absoltitely necessaryU' This is almost inconceivably ad- Shah Akbar the Great 141 vanced doctrine, when we remember the time and A place. consideration of the juvenile marriages of the Hindus had formed Akbar's opinions on this point. " Every day some capable person reads who his majesty, date of the always marks with the month the There off. hears every book from be- He ginning to end. is to place where he leaves hardly a work of science, of genius, or of history, but has been read to his majesty, and he is not tired of hearing them repeated, but always listens with great avidity." Many books were command, and world for the pared by Pope of a history of last having already his parts of the all thousand years was pre. his order. Rome by translated for a Akbar applied to the copy of the Pentateuch, in his possession, so he says, the Evangelists and the Psalms in Persian." " All civilized nations Hindustan naries." is As particularly in have schools ; famous for semi- everything else Akbar had improvements * One to of the Persian poets declares that the ally wriLten by David in the Persian dialect ! in its but the empire, suggest ; and Psalms wer^ origin(Ross's Saadi.) " Mogill The 142 what used to take Emperors up years, is now accom- plished in a few months, to the astonishment "Every boy should every one." of books on morals, arithmetic, read agriculture, mensuration, geometry, astronomy, physiog- nomy, household matters, the rules of govern- ment, (theological, mathematical, and physi- and history cal) sciences, — of which all may be gradually acquired," " His majesty takes great delight painting-gallery, from the art caused the and having patronized this rei^n, has of besfinninof to it in arrive his high at perfection." Every week pictures were submitted and the artists rewarded. A list to him of the eighteen most eminent painters of his court given. is one (in Books were illuminated a and twelve volumes) had no less than fourteen hundred illustrations. all also, Portraits of the chief officers were made, and bound in volume "wherein the past are kept in lively remembrance, and the present are insured immortality." The brother library of of his Abul-fazl) poet-laureate contained (the forty-six Skak Akbar Great the 143 hundred manuscripts, and Akbar's was far more the complete. In Jahangir's' time, Lahore were walls of the palace at literally- covered with portraits and other pictures. Timur's picture gallery at Samarkand con- mural tained paintings " Hindustan. There appears to It quite peculiar For a painter has life, and in the other, must me as come God. anything that limbs, its dis- a painter had if sketching devising I recognizing of in hate that "but such men means in battles many are painting," says Akbar, like. his of one after to feel that he cannot bestow individuality upon work, and his is thus forced to think of God, the giver of life." In the year 1570 Akbar laid the founda- tions of his city Futtehpore-Sikri, near the residence whom of the eldest his Selim, afterwards Saint Selim Shisti, named The Jahangir). son was after (Prince site was not really suitable, and the city was aban- doned wonder in to Agra was Its ruins are travellers. The great 1584. built by him also. If to-day fort a at he had not ^-^^ 144 Mogtil Emperors been succeeded by two kings with a passion for architecture, Hke Jahangir, and especially Shah Jahan, Akbar would have been famous There is a sober solidity as a builder also. many to of his constructions which renders them to-day at once imposing and characteristic. Particular manufacture of and were rules artillery musket the emperor had dred separate beasts its the ; by Akbar appears that with one single It everything Each one for and of small arms these pieces were tested all himself. in down laid — killed nineteen hun- for in his hunting, as he kept precise accounts. else, of the emperor's private guns had appropriate name. Abul-fazl's description of the elephants of India is most interesting, but for quotation. It It is time is far too may be remarked says that the natural that of man," it is life long that he of this beast, "like one hundred and twenty years. noteworthy, too, that before Akbar's it was considered unlucky elephants to breed mounted this ; " but his prejudice" — to allow tame majesty has sur- this superstition. Shah Akbar " His the Great 145 majesty being very fond of horses, droves are constantly arriving, so that at this day there are in his stables twelve Akbar paid horses." a salary to an official whose business of his stables, thousand it was to burn a kind of mustard-seed to avert the evil eye. The express-service of the empire was done on swift camels, and not by horses. At every on the principal routes a postman six miles was stationed, and besides these "a great number of are waiting in the camel-riders palace for the purpose of carrying orders or messages, the instant they are ready to be despatched, to the most distant extent of the realm." Whenever his majesty marches at the head of his army the road is carefully measured, by means of bamboo rods, by persons appointed for that purpose. The units of measure were one guz (equal to about thirty" three inches), and one five thousand gzcz." erozih, The which equals ancient definitions of these standard measures are worth quoting, that for some we may comprehend the necessity of the reforms of Akbar. In one : The Mogul Emperors 146 province the crouh, standard or " the greatest distance at was measure, which may be heard the ordinary lowing of an ox." other, " a man placing upon it it crouh." I to pluck a green leaf, and, is walk with his head, to becomes dry this distance, ; In an- until it they say, is a quote part of one of the tables given " 6 hairs of a mule's tail . . . make one 6 barley corns 24 inches The makes " " barleycorn its " of one inch. " one guz." our old arithmetics appearance here. His majesty is exceedingly fond of music, and has a perfect knowledge of This art, the as barleycorn. " its principles. which the generality of people use means of inducing sleep, serves amuse him, and to keep him awake." The Emperor Babarwas not fond dus, nor of Hindustan, as Abul-fazl says " ble, of Hin- we have seen ; but : Summarily the Hindus are courteous to retirement, religious, affa- strangers, cheerful, ored of knowledge, lovers of to to able in justice, business, enamgiven grateful, Shah Akbar the Great 147 admirers of truth, and of unbounded in all their dealinofs. what to is it fly fidelity Their soldiers know not from the of field battle. They have great respect for their teachers, and make no account of their lives when they can devote them to the service of God." This unbounded panegyric ought to stand Unfortunately, in another place, Abul- alone. expresses a different opinion fazl " In short, some have the disposition some who : of There are and others are demons. angels, he says ; for the merest trifle will commit the greatest outrages." As work was Abul-fazl's to pass under the eye of the king, he improved the opportunity to give little moral lessons to inculcate an even temper, or to strengthen the position of good wazzrs. which sages, of " A There are many such I shall quote but one wise prince never suffers pas: himself to be led away by reports, but exercises his circumspection and makes diligent investigation, seeing that truth common ; and it is scarce and falsehood behoveth him to be more especially doubtful of whatever is said to the The Mogul Emperors 148 prejudice of those by peculiar marks whom he has distinguished of his favor, as the world general bears them enmity even without in cause, and the wicked frequently put on the appearance of virtue to compass the destruc- But Akbar, though tion of the innocent." hasty friends and ; was faithful his wazir, in particular, to his enjoyed favor to his last day, and was sincerely his mourned " temper, his in after his death. The Manner in which His Majesty spends His Time. " On ness of this all depends the welfare and happi- ranks of people. It is his majesty's constant endeavor to gain and secure the hearts of all Amidst a thousand men. cares, he suffers not his temper to be disturbed, but to is He always cheerful. do that which is He He to lull them listens to what never suffers him- be led away by wrath. story-tellers to the mind on profound and abstract speculations. self to ever striving most acceptable Deity, and employs his every one has to say. is to Others employ sleep, but his Shah Akbar the Great 149 them majesty, on the contrary, listens to He keep himself awake. self austerities, pays regard to external forms, any in He avoid cause for reproach. at or ridicules upon him- exercises both inward and outward to and order to never laughs religion or sect ; * he never He omits the performance of any duty. is continually returning thanks unto Providence and scrutinizing his own He conduct. is ever sparing of the lives of offenders, wishing to bestow happiness upon His majesty his subjects. everybody twice visible to is all He the course of twenty-four hours. in often appears at an open window, and from thence receives petitions withotit the intervention of any person. He tion of justice considers an equal distribu- and the happiness jects as essential to his own Making every allowance felicity." for the obsequious- ness and servility of an Oriental clear that Abul-fazl is * This show. is by no means official, it is here describinof some- thing between the ideal which set before himself, of his sub- and the Akbar reality really which he true, as the present chapter will abundantly The Mogul Emperors 150 attained. The possible. Perhaps was nearly the highest ideal no The Aurelius has had a higher one. must be judged by the his plans. I Marcus but ruler reality practical success of do not know that many West- ern rulers have surpassed him, and certainly no Oriental monarch has come near to this excellence.* What, then, in fact, should a benevolent and wise ruler do of Akbar's for a for his subjects model of practice, just as * Sher-Shah, the Afghan king who dustan, and whose dynasty was in to have originated very religious toleration. finance, tude, manliness, of the administrative reforms ; the knowledge rival." of business, Two " lie was far behind him in his business — that is, and administrative of Akbar's advisers, then, were skill, men and one of them, Abul-fazl, a wonder- and elevated statesman. in the financial Hindus but fortunate in having a great min- Mr. Horace "Whatever in Mill's ///af/a, declares explicitly: have been Humayun from Hin- turn overthrown by /flcbar, Abul-fazl says of him, that "for honesty, recti- of the very highest ability, fully liberal Insti- surveyed the Rajah Todar Mai, who had learned under Sher-Shah. he was without a Akbar was Timur's He drove its many which are usually credited to Akbar ister of acts government might almost be taken tutes are admirable theory. seems The ? Hayman arrangements of Akbar, essentially to it Rajah Todar Mai. a great king to utilize such ministers. . Wilson, merit there may belonged It to required Shah Akbar land and divided it the Great 151 He into classes. equalized In times of famine and distress the taxes. "His he partly or totally remitted them. majesty abolished fixed standard He arbitrary taxes. all measures after which he ascer; tained the value of the lands, The revenue accordingly." and fixed the duties on manu- factures were reduced one-half (to five per The complicated and cent.). were either of official fees or much simplified, unjust systems totally abolished and the officials v/ere usually paid by the state, instead of extorting for themselves what the peasants could give and yet Full statistics were collected, exist. and the imposts were then of ten years. of the state ments. thousand ways the affairs were settled on a definite basis of law, instead of no space In a fixed for a period on shifting caprice. There is to present the details of these enact- Perhaps the quickest method of exhibiting them will be to give brief extracts from the " instructions These were the actual for rules empire was administered, at latter part of the reign. the officers." by which the least during the — The Mogul Emperors 152 The — Viceroy. " He must constantly keep view the happiness of the people in not take away deliberation life until who apply those ; them not be after the most mature for justice, let with delay afflicted made safe let ; him consider let ; him let ; accept the excuse of the penitent roads be he shall ; it the his duty to befriend the industrious husbandman." The Cazi partiality (judge). — and avarice, " Divesting himself of let him distinguish the oppressor from the oppressed, and act accordingly." The Cootwal " kind of provost-marshal). (a His own conduct must strictly learn he honest be upright the idle he shall oblige to ; some trade ; upon coins short of weight shall take exactly the deficiency more) ; and he shall prohibit (and no drinking of the spirituous liquors, but need not take pains to discover what allow a widow men do to be in secret ; burned contrary inclinations." TJie Collector he shall not of the Revenues. — " to her He must consider himself the immediate friend of the husbandman ; he must not require any inter- ; Shah Akbar mediary he must ; the Great assist the man with loans of money, and needy husbandreceive and convenient periods at distant reward 153 skilful management ; his demands do not exceed let him collect ; payment he must let him see that his agreements ; the revenue with kindness vexatious taxes must not be exacted." These formal the extracts are but specimens of the and elaborate instructions given to The officials. documents some of these There is reason to originals of exist to-day. believe that degree. At they were obeyed a great in events, they certainly repre- all sent the ideal towards which this monarch strove. His life horrors the years a.d. Borgia was but Caesar 1605. The covered the of sack of just 1542dead. Rome had endured for seven months of the year 1527. Elizabeth of England reigned from 1558 to 1603. The very scientific value first English book of any (Robert metic) was printed Recorde's Arith- The Massacre of St. Bartholomew was in The 1572. Spanish Armada was defeated in 1588. in 1540. ^^^^ 154 Shakespeare's first poem was printed The 1600. first treatise in Rome Jorclano Bruno was burned in 1593. in Mog2il Emperors on the law of and the Habeas Corpus Act were Witches were exenearly a century later. cuted in Enorland until 171 2, and were nations, burned in France till Luther {circa 1780. encounters with the Spain, 17 18; in 1530) had devil. till personal When Blaise Pascal was a year old he was bewitched, and only rescued by the application of a plaster made from herbs plucked before sunrise, by a virgin of seven years, and bruised the blood of a cat belonging to the with sorceress (1621). as a witch, in down and he had the greatest saving his (1620) ; Kepler's aunt was burned difficulty mother from the same fate Kepler himself, the leading man of science in central Europe, declared that the reality of witchcraft could not died in 1630. Russia, France, Spain, Italy, Germany, were no better India. It governed than might very well be debated the actual condition of the English was He be denied. to be preferred to that of the if people Hindus Shah Akbar the Great of the central provinces tively mild rule of under the compara- Akbar.* Akbar was but little over of age when he ascended the this time until 155 thirteen years From throne. he was eighteen, he remained under the tutelage of a great noble, Bairam Khan, prime his and guardian. minister From him Akbar learned and he saw operation the rough and in daily the art of war ; ready methods of government which were We usual. might They Timur. call them the methods were, in fact, of Timur's methods modified by the progress of culture and chivalry * under intelligent and generous princes It is difficult for us to realize the veritable condition of the peasantry of Europe in the beginning of the seventeenth century. If it should seem that the comparison in the text to India, I beg ness of the peasants of of 1709 in France was exceptional, taxes, also for exceptional cases and loaning money. be made too favorable to Feillet, wretched- France a century after Akbar, Manoires de Saint- Simon, year 1709, chapter provided is to refer to a graphic portrayal of the In no doubt. xxix. in the The misery But Akbar's policy by distributing food, remitting this connection reference Histoirc die Panperisine, and to may La Bruyere's famous paraijrapli on the French peasants, in his chapter De r Homme. The facts for England are to be found in Professor Thorold Rogers' History of Prices, and some conclusions therefrom in the Nineteenth Century for June, 1893, page 932. The Mogul Emperors 156 Babar and Humayun. like doubt Akbar's that There grave defect. If on reflections methods impressed upon him little is these at least he were to rule one in India, it essential to be at peace with the great was Hindu This could not be unless the chiefs,* old political methods were made more liberal. law of every fundamental Moreover, the Muhammadan empire was the law of the Kuran, interpreted, be it remembered, by bigots. was It clear that the millions of could not be ruled by such a code. and relis^ious toleration Hindus Political were therefore forced upon Akbar, and he became convinced that the old methods must be greatly changed. probable that Bairam It is these the views ; it is, at harem intrigued eighteenth treating his did not share rate, certain, that against year Akbar (sending him pardoning any Khan him. dismissed In his Bairam on the pilgrimage to Mecca, outbreak into rebellion, and him with considerate generosity), and * There were nearly a hundred Hindu princes, very powerful. many of them Shah Akbar assumed the the Great 157 From sole authority. (1560) Akbar ruled alone. this year Until the eigh- teenth year of his reign (1573) he was perpetually occupied in suppressing rebellion, or conquering new provinces in until then that vast his ; and it was not possessions were These early reduced to an orderly empire. years w^ere necessarily years of strife and of successful military activity. Abul-fazl end of came this to his court in 1574, at the first period. Up to this time Akbar had been a good Muslim, making pilgrimages, and circumambulating the tombs of saints. This second period of his reign (1574-1605), though not free from wars and rebellions, chiefly memorable for its peace- triumphs. ful " is is His majesty, who knows what high regard due to approved customs of antiquity, continually endeavoring acquainted with them of who was as appear proper." ; to make is himself and then, regardless the institutor, he adopts such Toleration of the Hindu and Persian heretics was, particularly in the latter part of his 158 The Mogul Efuperors reign, the keynote of Akbar's As duct. Abul-fazl persecution, after it obliges men well " Religious says, defeats all, political con- own ends its ; to conceal their opinions, but produces no change in them," In the flowery language of the TJiousa7id a7id One Nights, this principle deserves to " written with be needle-gravers on the corners of the eye-balls, as a warner to whoso will His early toleration in be warned." religious matters was succeeded by the establishment religion eclectic represented emperors had done. of celestial power, which Akbar himself in Deity of an much as The sun, the Roman as the symbol was worshipped daily by the while the people saluted the emperor ruler, as the representative of that has various Abul-fazl Divine as the Faith," or the " new belief was power on references to earth. " The Divine Monotheism," called, and I purpose to extract a few of them.- There is nothing more curious history than the formation of must not rudely past, but it reject all a in human creed. It the beliefs of the may modify them so as to meet Shah Akbar demands the " Faith the Great " of the present. The Divine was prosperous under Akbar, and survived for a while under successor, but went on of 159 it under the sway left manifold native its immediate died a natural death as time and India was ; his it and of sects little- altered Islamism. Four times daily the thanks to the Deity and sunset, emperor returned — at daybreak, at noon, at at midnigrht. mysteries are in honor of "All these orrand God and ; if ignorant people cannot comprehend their meaning, is it to be blamed ? Every one is who sensible that our duty to praise our benefactor, and is consequently to praise this Fountain of Light, Sun, and more the especially behoveth it princes so to do, seeing that this sovereign of the heavens sheddeth his divine influence upon the monarchs earth. His majesty has also great veneration for fire in general, and of the for lamps, since they are to accounted rays of the greater be Once light." fire was brought down from heaven by a crystal lens, a year, and near the vernal " this celestial fire equinox, was committed to the The Mogul Emperors i6o care of proper persons " (Abul-fazl himself " being the chief of these) and when the ; new year expires they catch Huge fire." candles of camphor, in candlesticks of massy gold and by So minutely were night. lated, that the number palace (fire-pots by the age eight camp lighted the emperor's silver, moon. the were flambeaux flambeaux in the torches) was regulated of of of his affairs regu- At new moon lighted from ; the fourth to the tenth day, one less was burned each night, so that on the tenth day one was and so on throughout the lunation. sufficient, The was very quantity of specified. 0/ Spiritual Gtiidauce, that decrees of God mankind are in Again he " and rags per torch oil by the disposed general actions, says, and to " thus different beliefs, and respective condemn those bodies of amuse may be men their of others;" with their " Some- illusions." good fortune revealed. own hold different themselves dreams and times, through the the truth applaud to of mankind, When a private person arrives at such a degree of knowledo-e, Shah Akbar the Great i6i he keeps silence from the dread of savage human forms beasts in an emperor, given to knew that indeed, veil fit did, occasion the light is astrologers Akbar," then, to " speak. to His however, for some time, cast a over this mystery, that known this if as was given it is majesty but ; it might not be to strangers." Finally he proclaimed his divine attributes, and miraculous power was his in various ways ; manifested who came those near him increased in knowledge, and the poor and He needy loved him. and cured diseases. others as circumstances many, according recreated says the with to may their sublime courtier, place for giving a in foretold the future " His majesty instructs and capacities, are discourses." " this full ; require is But, not the proper account of the manner which he instructs mankind, nor of the numerous miracles he has performed. Should my life be sufficiently prolonged, and should have leisure enough, compose a volume on ject. it is my I intention to this interesting sub- 1 The Mogul Emperors 62 It willing to postpone and clear is it Faith had no " good Abul-fazl was the that plain is his promised volume, that " the enough Divine This real interior vitality. was too much based on reasonings. religion There were no mighty miracles and signs manifest upon which to rest acles " ascribed to " affairs. it. The " mir- Akbar are poor and cheap Faith believing what is is Akbar true," as the little school-child wrote. did not make lordship ; demands on the credu- sufficient They acquiesced lity of his sectaries. not they rejoiced in in his the sunshine of his favor; they prospered under his just and even The rule. and under the his immediate successor but even ; emperors held Jesuits endured under him, state religion and Mollahs and admitted lightly, it open debates to in their presence, and proposed to put the power of prayer to physical tests. Akbar's toleration is summed up well in an inscription written by Abul-fazl for one of the temples of Cashmere Oh I God, in every temple language I hear see people spoketi, people : thai see praise Thee. Thee, and in every Shah Akbar the Great 163 Polytheism and Islam feel after Thee. Each religion says. If be a it Thou mosque, people art One, tuithotU equal. murmur the holy Christian church, people ring the bell I frequent Sometimes Christian the prayer ; and if from it be a love to Thee. and cloister, someti?nes the mosqjie, But Thou whom I seek from it is Thy elect veitlier Heresy But temple to temple. have no dealings with heresy nor with orthodoxy ; for of these stands behind and religion to the heretic, the dust the screen to the of Thy truth. orthodox. rose-petal belongs to the heart of the of perfume- the seller. The foregoing account is mostly drawn from Abul-fazl's book of the Regulations of Akba?'. rupt its have not been willing to I inter- orderly flow with commentaries from the other native historians of the reign, but have preferred to present extracts from their various accounts together in one place. The Emperor Jahangir trait It of Akbar, would seem He says : " with learned he was his father, to My in his Memoirs, be of the highest authority. father used to hold discourse men of illiterate, yet, ing with gives us this por- learned all persuasions ; though from constantly convers- and clever persons, his language was so polished that no one could The Mogul Emperors 164 discover from his conversation that he was He uneducated. entirely understood the elegancies of poetry and prose so well, that it impossible to conceive of any one more is proficient." I many great had read times, and description this to failed a reconcile entire illiteracy with the possession of deli- when I found what I be a solutipn. Akbar ascended the cate critical faculties, suppose to throne at the age of thirteen, after a youth full of accidents and perils and vicissitudes. From a paragraph in the history of Mir Yahya Masum, whose son was chosen to be his preceptor in the it appears that knew not how "at that time the prince to read " at that phrase second year of his reign, time and " write." indicates that he sub- sequently became "literate." that his father of was not educated last years of This instructor dullatif^was the ciple in his youth, not surprising, considering the events is the reien. And Jahangir's probably means no more than description which The very of *' first Humayun's troubled Mir Abof Akbar's — to teach peace-zuith-all," a him the prin- doctrine which the Great Shah Akbai' was then name. definite enough 165 have to a special Akbar's sixteenth year he had In another tutor, and read with him "poems in mystic language." A highly would read and write grammar and its position. in those days Arabic, understand educated youth its of rules poetic com- Large portions of the Kuran he would know by heart. his mother-tongue, Persian would be and he would be able to repeat nearly the whole of the poems of Hafiz and Saadi, and many verses from Firdausi. He would be familiar with the biographies He kings and princes. would know a of little mathematics and astronomy and somewhat of music. The descendants of Timur kept up a knowledge of the Turki language certainly as late as the time of Jahangir, pose who could com- in Turki.""'' "Akbar was tendency to be of middling stature, but with a tall ; wheat-color complexion, rather dark than fair; black eyes and eye* For an amusing sketch of a perfect education, tlie reader should refer to the tale of Abu-al-Husn and his slave-girl Tawad- dud in I.ady Burton's Arabian Nights, vol. iii., p. 277. ; 1 The Mogul Emperors 66 brows ; stout body open forehead and chest ; ... long arms and hands. He had a very loud voice, and a very elegant and pleasant way of speech. His manners and habits were quite different from those of other persons, and his visage was godly dignity," full of —so says his son Jahanglr. Like hunter. his ancestors, Akbar was an eager In one day he personally slew six- He teen of the swift wild asses of the desert. ornamented the mile-posts near Agra with " some hundreds which had been killed stagfs " He of thousands of the horns of in his hunts. once rode two hundred and twenty miles within filled with " hours. forty-eight instances His history is romantic courage, of and he seems to have been stimulated by an instinctive love of danger as often as by any rational motive." He perfectly fulfilled the ideals of personal chivalry in his day. among These which were current ideals the Arabs, and in had their sources India they were modified by the Rajput standards of military valor — no mean origin and descent. The following instances of chivalry and loyalty Shah Akbar show how the Great fully these ideals in practice 167 were carried out One by the Turki warriors. of Timur's sons (Jahangir) was pursuing Kuni- mer Addyn and overtook threw himself forward and authority cried out, "/ — and perished A him. a in soldier tone of am Kummer Addyn," meter's stead. in his Kokah and Babar were taken by an Uzbeg Khan. Oasim an- Qasim prisoners nounced that he was Babar, and was cut Babar leaving pieces, Khan, a high escape. to to Bairam Humayun's (and the officer of guardian of young Akbar), was surprised by Abul Oasim, a man an enemy. was mistaken stature, about to be forward and said "No," Bairam." my onl}'- as he So and is, let in It off." his over-lord a heroic (whom Akbar am Abul Oasim, "he sacrifice himself for was Abul was so. is me. slain, Bairam escaped. Akbar captured the strong after I and, brave and faithful ; he wishes to him the latter stepped a manly voice, " said attendant imposing Bairam, and was for when killed, of defence shot with castle of Chitor by Rajah Jeimall his favorite gun ; 1 The Mogul Emperors 68 named Sangrant) and To honor his brother. the extraordinary valor of these high-born Akbar adversaries, mounted on up set elephants, at the gates of royal city of Says Delhi. Bernier, " two huge elephants, mounted indescribable press a awe and fill These me with To sup- respect." instance must suffice. dangerous his by the two heroes, are full of grandeur, and One more statues, their revolt, Akbar marched an army of three thousand men four hundred and fifty miles season, and in nine days, the rainy completely surprised the rebel army (which was much larger than his own) The few who were sleeping in their tents. alert could in not believe that they saw the emperor, since there were no war elephants in his train. "The royal ranks that an it feelincr ran throuo^h the was unmanly enemy unawares, and until to fall that they he was roused." upon would wait Akbar accordingly ordered the trumpeters to sound the onset the rebel army prepared for action, and was routed and overwhelmed. While Jahangir, the son of Akbar, was Shah Akbar Great the 169 yet the heir-apparent, his tendency to cruel punishments had begun to show matters of state he was ever inexorable all and a In itself. On relentless. who had servant, against his this came policy in different, one occasion he ordered life, joined a be flayed to to the ears of conspiracy When alive. his father, such cases was usually whose very so and whose nature was kind, wrote his son a severe letter, he reprobating his conduct, and saying that as he himself was unable to see even a sheep stripped of skin without horror, him how his it son could was inconceivable inflict could be very brief and upon occasion. he sent this letter : " If to thee Akbar peremptory, how- To a dilatory envoy thou dost not return to court with Asad, thou shalt see happen to such an awful punishment upon a fellow creature. ever, its what and to thy children." will Vari- ous anecdotes show that he had a violent, though not a vindictive, temper.* clemency was of very gradual growth. * See Herbert's Travels, edition of 1638, p. 71. His 1 The Mogul Emperors JO " The emperor used ing prayers, to retire after even- during which time the serv- when they reappear. That come out earlier ants dispersed, assembling again expected majesty his to evening he happened to He than usual. up coiled in a saw a luckless lamplighter Enraged careless sleep. at the sight, he ordered him to be thrown from the tower, and he was dashed into a thousand The pieces." on guard were officers We graced and their places given to others. have this story from one of the dis- In latter. the twelfth year of his reign eight thousand Rajputs were slaughtered after the surrender at Chitor ; in the seventeenth he ordered the tongue of a captive to be cut out ; in the eighteenth he raised a pyramid of two thou- sand heads various in the fashion portions sanctioned, or of punishments and Timur earlier his directly of ordered, ; and reign in he barbarous This was before torture. he had come under the influence of Abulfazl, and while he was But still a young man. for every such act of violence, a score of wise and humane enactments can be cited. Shah Ahbar Great the In the seventh year of his reign it 171 was decreed that the wives and children of soldiers cap- tured in war should no longer be in the made slaves ; eighth the onerous taxes on pilgrims were removed ; in the ninth the poll-tax on un- believers (a mighty multitude) was abolished * ; the in a twenty-fifth made, order to in dence of taxation ; equalize sonal may be He was " * to unite A emblem all men Shah of justice. in a — had anticipated Hindu dealing with his infidels, cited. mon- subjects. He His object common bond century before Akbar's time the Cashmere — Ali per- other a powerful, world-subduing arch, the very was his among many these, ; inci- and Akbar up the custom by presence instances, the the twenty-eighth the in obligatory suttee was abolished, himself broke the all names and occupations) inhabitants (giving was census of full Muhammadan many ruler of of of Akbar's reforms in abolished the hated tax on forbade the slaughter of oxen, and was, besides, an ardent patron of learning and of the were familiar to arts. These and other Akbar through verbal repcwts and, like matters after the twelfth year of his reign, through the translation of the history of Cashmere which Faizi was preparing. too. was no new thing teenth century it in The India. doctrine of universal toleration, During the whole of the was preached and practised by the Sikhs. six- I The Mogul Emperors 72 He strove to be the king of all his He maintained four hundred and peace." subjects. fifteen Of Ma^tsebdars these, — commanders fifty-one were Hindus, of horse. the rest Moguls, Usbeks, Afghans, Turks, and Persians. Shah Jahan had Mansebdars, of whom were Hindus. It six hundred and nine one hundred and ten was simply impossible to govern these chiefs and their followers by the rigid law of As Lord Tennyson has to his poem of Akbars political necessity. notes said in the Drea7n, " His Tolerance was a Islam. tolerance of religion, and his abhorrence of religious persecutions, put our Tudors to shame." The most interesting incidents of his reign are connected with the Divine this step Monotheism." was his foundation of "the His chief adviser in wazir Abul-fazl. Shaikh Mubarak, a distinguished and lib- eral-minded scholar, had two yet more distin- guished and libokTal-minded sons poet (born the 1547), statesman, Akbar (born — Faizi and Abul-fazl the the writer, and the prime minister of 1551). It is necessary to know Shah Akbar something of of Akbar's during the larger was Faizi life. 173 whose influence family, this predominant was the Great part intro- first duced at court in the twelfth year of Akbar's reign, and became came Abul-fazl and his friend six years later, in Akbar, now thirty-two years favorite. when 1574, old, began to have some respite from his incessant wars Shaikh Mubarak was bred and expeditions. an orthodox Sunni, had become, more or a Shia, and tions, had investigated the various India and of Persia. reliofions of poems Faizi's less, often turn on religious ques- which are sometimes treated mystically, but frequently Like entals, verses is it to ; love of but, ; the with as beautiful give a critical other boy who Abul-fazl promises at beloved. time simple devotion. poets, he deals with the universal all passion in a spirit of edition is —a of Faizi's critical mands me down some * A it is love which does not travel along the road of to write the some future * " but now," he says, " but now, brotherly love Ori- nicety — that com- of his verses." promise which he redeemed. ; I The Mogul Emperors 74 I copy a few of the many extracts so shall given, partly to illustrate the nature of the poetry of the age, partly to exhibit the char- emperor acter of the poet, and that of the who admired and loved him. These verses are from Oh Thou who Thy from exlstest Thy cannot bear Science is like blinding desert the town of Literature 7vorld Human is Thy peifection. and Thy glory think of Thee destroys reason ; baffles Thy essence confounds sand on the road to Thy thought. perfection a mere hamlet compared with the of the alphabet of Thy Each brain is spell the first love. full of the thought of grasping Thee ; the brow of Plato even Oh man, wisdom ; of Thy knowledge. knowledge and thought combined can only letter : abidest forever, sight cannot express light melts the understanding, to and Eternity, light, praise Odes Faizi's bwned with the fever heat of this hopeless thought. thou coin bearing the double stamp of body do not know what and spirit, I thy nature is; for thou art higher than heaven and lower than earth. Thy frame contains the image of the heavenly and the loiver regions ; be either heavenly or earthly, thou art at liberty to choose. Do not act against thy reason, for put not thy heart on Be ashamed of title If thou of illusions, thy appearance ; '''sum-total," it for is a trustworthy cowisellor / the heart is a lying fool. for thou pridest thyself on the and art yet but a marginal note. wishest to understand the secret meaning prefer the welfare of others and others with sugar. to of the phrase "to thy own,^' treat thyself with poison : Shah Akbar My dear Son, consider how Great the 175 short (he time is that the star of good fortune revolves according thy wish j Fate shows no friend- to ship. The companion of my scratching of If I were the spirit The is is in of the age could bear following Ghazals comprehensive genius ; the harmony for my bring forth what to my loneliness is my pen my ear. mind, I wonder whether it. couplets from are the : I melted my heart, and laid the foundation for a I have too often patiently patched up my torn heart. It were better if new one ; Although life far from a distance I cannot show with I is thee is an approach to death, yet to stand at a mark of courtesy. ungratefulness to Love. Has he not overwhelmed me performed ; it —sadness and sadness? cannot understand the Juggler-trick introduced of my Thy form through eye, into the large space cannot coittain which so small of my love an aperture as heart, and yet the pupil my heart it. The most -uonderful thing I have once the pearl, the ocean, and seen is Faizi's heart ; it is at the diver. This verse from the Rubais goes very far in flattery of the emperor The Mogul Emperors 176 If you to 'ivish never see Thy it see the path of guidance as I have done, you zvithout old-fashioned prostration Akbar and you tvill having seen the king. of no advantage is thee to —see see God. Akbar had been, in all outward respects at least, a good Muslim up to the year 1574, making pilgrimages Unquestionably etc/' revolvino; relioious previous. The to tombs to the of saints, mind had been his doubts for some time influence of Abul-fazl seems have confirmed Akbar's disposition, and to have stimulated definite inquiry. Shah Nawaz Khan (born authority, says of 1699), a standard him that "It has often been asserted that Abul-fazl was an it more is man at is no doubt that he was a of lofty character, peace with mous mind to his and desired to He men." all enemies ; public service. he was pure writer. was an Abul-fazl live was magnani- he was incorruptibly honest ; ; he was a pan- just to say that There theist. infidel "His pen was more his in in the elegant feared than * In the twelfth year of his reign he destroyed or mutilated the fine doubt ; monuments of Chitor, partly for but partly, also, for religious ones. political reasons, no Shah Akbar He Akbar's arrow." ministrator, a loyal the Great 177 was an excellent ad- and devoted subject, A liberal patron, a considerate friend. share of the glory of Akbar's reign a large directly is Such a king deserved such a due to him. wazir. Bedauni (one of ans, that and a man " Akbar the emperor's histori- of learning) says of Abul-fazl, looked upon him more favor- ably than he did upon me " ingratiated by himself " that Abul-fazl ; unremitting his devotion to the king's service, by his temporizing disposition, by his duplicity, by his study of the king's sentiments, and by his boundless flattery." Abul-fazl's flattery was boundless at times, but not more so than the He was habit of the age demanded. silly about it, like the courtier who never told Le Roi-Soleil that the rain at Marly was not wet. Abul-fazl's fortunes (deservedly) rose became " from " zvazir. my I," till he says Bedauni, inexperience and simplicity, could not manage like my to advance myself." position, any other." But poor He " I do not and should be glad to be himself was much to in blame I The Mogul Emperors 78 for his ill-fortune, as he and left, from and was so ri^ht foolish as to be absent duties for a long time without a his leave. made enemies The king did not like him (though was doubtless appreciated), and his learning on one occasion spoke harshly to him " court. From at " that day," Bedauni says, my have abandoned presumptuous and conBoth Abul-fazl and troversial manner." I his distinguished brother Faizi were constantly kind to Bedauni for a space of forty years. He was never tired of reviling them, partly, no doubt, from sheer envy of their success. It is truly only fair to say, however, that he was a Muhammadan, and devout religious beliefs that his were daily outraged by the doings and sayings of these free-thinking heretics. (much against his Maha-Bharata for the the Poor Bedauni was will) to translate emperor's librar}'. What a task for "The consequence believer! two translated surdities set of be amazed. sections, which the at a true was, that I the puerile ab- creation Such injunctions as may well one never Shah Akbar heard of What ! against turnips the Great not to eat, and a prohibition " " ! But such be employed on such works wrote the preface. his Allah and infidelities also translated the years in the task. ! translated fate — to " Abul-fazl " defend us from Bedauni absurdities!" Ramayana, spending four He seems presented the complete book, " We my is have been to better pleased with this work, praised." 179 for, it when he was greatly Goa learn that a Jesuit from many Greek treatises the for emperor's library. The Aifi-i-Akbari the of of Akbar's history Abul-fazl change presents of religious who was new religion. The opinions from the view-point of one himself high-priest of the wazi'i' of Akbar puts the most favorable struction upon every circumstance. The historians also contain native con- many references to the establishment of the Divine Faith, be and the more important extracts copied edition note of of here. Professor Abul-fazl's fifty shall Blochmann's work devotes a long pages to a history of Akbar's religious views. It is very largely composed i8o The Mogul Emperors of extracts from Bedauni ; and these extracts are carefully arranged in chronological order. Bedauni was certainly a prejudiced witness and a disappointed courtier; but he was, no man less certainly, a Allowance should be made for and courage. his bias ; but his testimony deserves the most careful attention. I Blochmann's fessor of intelligence, learning, shall extract translation of from ProBedauni the most significant paragraphs, in order to present both sides of a most important ques- Akbar tion. praise that " It too great a man to need any not his just due. was during these days Abul-fazl He is is (a.d. 1574) that came the second time laid before the emperor to court. (as a present) a commentary on (one of the verses of the Kuran) ; and, though people said that been written much praised." by his father, it had Abul-fazl was Bedauni now gives an account of the persecutions to which Abul-fazl and his two sons had been subjected Akbar's reign. in the early They were not years of orthodox Stmnis, and they had been obliged to fly for Shah Akbar their lives and to keep had been Faizi Great the i8i hiding for safet3\ in called to court as a poet, and had been received graciously on that account, His influence over Akbar as has been said. grew rapidly and surely and his ; and soon younger brother were high own favor throuofh their They introduction. his father in Akbar's merits and on his did not persecute their early enemies. "During the year 1575 many places of worship were built by command of his majThe cause was this. For many years esty. previously the emperor had gained remark- The empire had able and decisive victories. grown extent from day to day in had turned out leisure time . the day. Kuran and the Tradi- reverence and law, were the order of His majesty passed whole nights thoughts of From his Sufism, scientific discussions, inquiries into philosophy in and passed much of . in discussing the tions. everything His majesty had thus well. . ; for God his Him who ; heart was is the full of true Giver. a feeling of thankfulness for his past successes, he would sit many a morning alone. 1 The Mogul Emperors 82 prayer and melancholy, in on a large stone which lay near the palace, spot, with gathering the " head bent over his flat in a lonely his chest, bliss of early hours." The emperor had, from his youth, taken He delight in the society of learned men. always treated them with respect and honor. He listened to their discussions of nice points of science, of the ancient and profited and peoples and sects, He palace special twentieth modern by what he heard." of religions such for and he built assemblies in year of his reign (when thirty-three years and old), had four halls. ants of the sat many The palace the southern, in ; and the wise Shaikhs and in ; the north, " men-of-ecstasy eastern, the nobles of the court sympathy with the he was In the western, the descend- Prophet sat the learned a spent nights there in their company. ern, the history learning. When was too fatigued with business ; " in who were his the in majesty to attend these meetings, he sent one of his nobles in his place, choosing a man " in whose and gentleness he had confidence." kindness Shah Akbar Some court, in the Great 183 idea of the constitution of Akbar's and men who assembled the wise of these congresses, can be obtained from the given at the end of biographies history, Bedauni's which relate to thirty-eight Shaikhs and holy men, sixty-nine "learned men," fif- teen physicians, and no less than one hundred The names of three monks who lived at court have come down to us Rudolpho Aquaviva, Antonio de Monand fifty-three poets. — serrato, Francisco Enriques. for were discussion night. They were were often very Chief Justice, in held These meetings every Thursday fully attended, far and they from orderly. the meeting-hall, " called Hadji Ibrahim an accursed wretch, and up The lifted his stick to strike him." Muhammad predicted that Islam would be divided into seventy-two heretical sects ; and there were representatives of enough hostile parties in these meetings to bring their dis- cussions to violent terminations. Akbar became frankly disgusted with what he saw and heard father, and in his meeting-hall. Abul-fazl, his his brother, did not fail to point The Mogul Emperors 184 out the scandal of at it to the emperor, though, appears they did not join freely first, it in the disputes. Akbar's was the disofust He perversion from Islam. his in staofe first soon went farther. *On one occasion he commanded the presence of a high doctor of the law, " as he wished newly come emperor to court were " oppose him. to some others Abul-fazl and annoy him." to by the on set His majesty took According to every occasion to interrupt." an order previously given by Akbar, some those of present began to stories of the him was in many diso^raced, invited guest, offensive mon, badger The doctor and odium was thrown on the set a ''^" trap for the the law by asking At a later meet- that the four. maximum number Muslim The names five Muslim doctors how many he could lawfully maintain. * to Akbar, who had as many wives as Solo- ing, were and ways. cause which he represented. is scandalous tell There for a women is no doubt good Muslim practice has always of eleven wives are given by thousand in the of free-born wives winked Biochmann. harem, including servants. There Shah Akbar at an unlimited the Great number 185 of wives for kings ; but Akbar put the question as a matter of Muslim theory. was the wives, what, then, many he could have but four If legal status of the Rajput prin- free-born and high-born Were they concubines ? Dare the Muhammadan doctors insult the emperor's wives ? The trap was not a fair one. The Muslim doctor who was the victim cesses in his harem ? on that occasion, closed his part of the dis- when he Very well," cussion with a very sensible remark, " saw that the case was hopeless. said he, " I have nothing more to add A as his majesty pleases." was found who, then and made very long ceedings," as well uncompromising there, were now banished gave a decree " The veteran faces at these pro- they might. the of ; The most religious new heretics orthodox came court and were received into favor, and " heresies sprung up. just complaisant Cazi that such marriages were legal. lawyers ; to new His majesty had the early history of Islam read to him, and soon commenced to think less well concerned with it. " Soon " of ever)thing after, the observ- 1 The Mogul Einperoi^s 86 ance of the belief prayers and five down Prophet, were put and the with the bHnd- as rehgious and man's reason was acknowledged ness, the basis priests also as connected everything in fasts, of came and frequently, majesty inquired into the belief, Portuguese religion. all his their of articles which are based on reason." In the year 1576 Bedauni again chronicles the arrival of new evenine discussions continued, and be- still came more and more mental truths of The Thursday heretics. The fundawere now called in violent. Islam question. In 1578 Bedauni writes: "His majesty, had shown every till now, was diligently searching for truth. sincerity, But heretic principles, ; he had been doubt the truth of Islam. perplexity into his real his much neglected and, men low of and he was by education had been surrounded as and the object, the forced Falling from one other, he lost search sight of for truth when the strong embankment law and our excellent faith to of ; and our clear had once been Shah Akbar broken and through, colder, the Great majesty grew colder his after the short space of five till, of Muhammadan his heart. Matters then or six years, not a trace feeling was in left became very 1S7 different." come make the In 1595 Bedauni says matters had to such a pass that a request to pilgrimage to Mecca would have subjected the asker to capital punishment. " A based on some elementary prin- faith ciples traced itself (gradually) of his heart, and there grew the conviction that there were sensible (and in all ages). like knowledge to be found, why should The man " the transmigration of in his heart." emperor that "the per- referred to the ruler of the age, and that the nature of a king was holy. this to ? took deep root Flatterers told the or " doctrine of souls, especially, ; which was scarcely a Islam, thousand years old fect some in all religions be confined to one religion a creed " men true If was thus everywhere truth on the mirror way many agreeable to the emperor." " things were " In said Learned monks brought 1 The Mogul Emperors 88 the gospel. the truth ordered His majesty firmly believed of the Christian Murad Prince and religion, (then eight in years old) to take a few lessons in Christianity." " These accursed monks applied the best of all rest thinof The Brahmin even devils would not do." Bal Bir the — God's blessings whole house — a which prophets on him and his Rajah descrip- Muhammad, Satan to tion of a cursed " impressed upon the em- peror that the sun was the origin of every- The emperor thing. from some learned, Hindus, formularies to reduce the influence and read them of the sun to his subjection, morning and evening as a religious exercise." The sun was venerated as the chief ligfht and benefactor of the world, and as a friend to kings, who used it to mark periods and eras. Akbar next prohibited two reasons the slaughter of " because the Hindus devoutly worship them," and, sec- cows, ond, for " because illness " (as first, physicians flesh as difficult of of ; it represent their digestion and productive very likely is in the hot Shah Akbar climate Akbar was India). of practical in his he was at the he had full same time devout. and eminently enactments, while religious trust 189 "Although hope of heavenly he neglected no material means assistance, one of of success," says Fire-worshippers also and taught their fire the Gi'eat his ofBcIals. came religion, to the court and the sacred (lighted with a lens at the vernal equi- nox) was committed to the care of Abul" Fire fazl. is one of the signs of God," said the emperor, " and one light from the many lights of among " In the his creation." twenty-fifth year of his reign he prostrated himself before the sun evening the whole respectfully " in when in public court the ; and had to in the rise up lamps were lighted." These sentiments had been long growing the emperor's mind, and ripened gradu- ally to a firm conviction." "In the year 1579 his majesty was anx- ious to unite in his person the powers of the state and those of the church, for he could not bear to be subordinate to any one." made an attempt He to read the public prayers ! The Mogul Emperors igo in some verses the mosque, ending with Faizi's He : Lord has given Tlie And of has guided And me has removed vie the empire, and a strong arm. a wise hear I, in righteousness his power, is justice. fnan's understaiiding. His praise surpasses Great and justice. from my thoughts everything but Allahu Akbar Fear or the hope of promotion continu- brought new converts to Akbar's views. ally In the year 1579 Akbar mation which declared his issued a procla- judgments to be of higher validity than those of the religious doctors, and which virtually to be infallible.* opinion of If pronounced him there were a variance upon questions decree of the king was to be of religion, the " ing. is his majesty, in his unerr- not in opposition to the Kuran, and which for the benefit of the nation, * He had law, for signed made Kuran it shall be previously obtained the sanction of the doctors of the form's sake. The document which they (reluctantly) the emperor the spiritual as well as the temporal chief of the nation. the if and bind- iudement, should issue an order which inois Further, final "The intellect of the just as the basis of the law. king" took the place of Shah Akbar the Great binding and imperative on every to sition shall it 191 man oppo- ; involve damnation in the world to come, and loss of religion and property in this " life." His majesty had now determined to use the formula and Akbar * : is There is no God beside God, God's representative ; but as ' he found that the extravagance of this led to contentions, he restricted the use of to it a few people in the harem." In this same eventful year the emperor "distinctly denied the existence oi jiiuis, of angels, and of ble world, as all other beings of the well prophets and the saints mony the as ; miracles invisi- of he rejected the the testi- of the witnesses of our faith, the proofs of the Kiiran, the existence of the soul after death and future rewards and punishments so far as they differed from metempsychosis." Later on, his partisans strenuously insisted on the miracles performed by Akbar they were spoke feeble at his birth, matters was one at the — and but ; best — he carried no conviction. The long beard was worn by all good ; The Mogul Bmperors 192 Muslims, Akbar ordered the but court to appear with of his This was in the officers shaven faces. year 1592, when he was fifty years old.* Akbar became more and more ready to claim the dignity of a prophet, or even divine He honors, says Bedauni. tolerant opposition, and of also became in- deported good (and stubborn) Muslims as slaves, exchanging them Turkish for horses. "His majesty was now (1582) convinced that the millennium was drawing near." f The coinage was changed to show the era a history of the written ; it should be "" I of the millennium thousand years was past was ordered that prostrations made before the have, however, a beautiful portrait of him, in which he wears a white beard, parted and brushed sidewise in the It Wine king. must have been painted The Hindu face is fashion. nervous, expression, fine to the verge of anxiousness. almost querulous in In middle face life his late in his life. was strong and somewhat coarse. Portraits, taken in his last years, represent him with a long white moustache and a full represents enough f him without a to see a picture of We may delusions. A beard closely clipped. recall that beard. Akbar Europe I medal struck after his death have never been fortunate in his youth. in A.D. looo was subject to like Shah Akba7' shops were licensed in the Great 193 Pigs and dogs Agra. looked on as unclean. were no longer o tomb was even splendid Certain of the ceremonial Akbar's hounds. ablutions were abrogated. It The marry a cousin. to one of for built was forbidden prayers of Islam and the pilgrimage were prohibited. era of Hegira was the Persian was year solar feasts of the Zoroastrians Jesuits of A abolished. introduced. were revived. Agra and Lahore exhibited way every doubted and "In in fear, " The good were " and the wicked were secure." majesty saw in was doctrine of Islam ridiculed." The new The The repre- sentations of the birth of Christ in wax. the same A the defeat of one His party a own infallibility." One Muslim MuUas wrote, in derision proof of his of the : This year the emperor has claimed prop he fskip, Next year, if Everything aloof. emperor 13 : " wills, he will be not did Akbar, however. held God Many Rajah Only tell go of God. smoothly with the Bhagwan best to the new sect said us where the men that so is, Mogul Emperors '^^^^ 194 may I Islam declared that Sinofh Man Rajah believe." and knew, he Hinduism he knew, but besides these he knew no other iers had made One religion. his of the court- fortune by proposing to introduce the custom of prostration before Another, with an eye to the king. exclaimed, " Oh that had been the inventor I A " of this little business profit, ! devout Muslim courtier used to say his prayers in the audi- When Akbar ence chamber. asked him to say them at home, he replied this Whereupon Akbar give orders." a fool, and cancelled In 1583 My king, your kingdom, that you should not is " : called him his grant of land. new orders of various kinds were Hindus." Akbar wore made the Hindu mark on his forehead, and the to " please the Brahminic thread. alchemy, and showed gold made by " His majesty learned in public " him." names told the like of his of the Cheating Brahmins collected a set of a thousand scrit some and one San- majesty the Sun, and emperor that he was an incarnation Ram and others. They also brought Shah Akbar Sanscrit said verses, the Great have to 195 been from the sayings of ancient sages, it was predicted should up rise in that in which conqueror great a taken who would honor India Brahmins and cows, and govern the world They wrote with justice. paper and old-looking emperor, who Bedauni new but he has said showed in his say Professor evidence a in shows how " the it." the history farther, with what has gone before : the side of the Muslim has been presented ously. to it believed every word of carries details, nonsense on this good and vigor- well Blochmann sums up the few words, saying that it Akbar, starting from the idea of the divine right of kings, gradually came to look upon himself as the (high priest) God and of the age, then as the prophet of God's vicegerent on earth, and lastly as a deity." We have an account of the kine's change of religious Hakh. this ment " opinions, from Shaikh One of the stranee incidents of year (1578) was the king's of the national relieion, Nuru-1- abandon- which became The Mogul Emperors 196 many people weak a stumbling-block to The king was the faith." tendance mind was the ascertaining of the nature to his They, subjects discussed in the of fact, did, so far as Abul-fazl's wise suspicions of motives, which were derogatory and but character in common day after day, something feared was men as is deserved." Akbar would he subsequently or even possible. politic, account little that assume divine honors, the The assemblies, entertained king's on solely bent " truth." people learning, these at- at the assemblies for religious dis- cussion, "for his the constantly in in the discussion of He interesting. of says : " Sufis, doctors, preachers, lawyers, Sunnis, Shias, Brahmans, Buddhists, Christians, Jews, Zoroastrians, and learned were gathered together bly. Each one his assertions, and heated." earnest of every belief in the royal assem- fearlessly brought forward and the contentions were long A Jesuit from comers, and offered, and men " Goa refuted all with perfect calmness conviction," to undergo ordeal of the fiery furnace with the the Bible Shah Akbar in his V It The emperor made experiments in natural was ordered that some twenty should be kept infants religion. suckling a secluded in doc- challenge was angry words. with refused The Kuran. the 197 Muhammedan hands, against the tors with also the Great place where they should not hear a word spoken, so as to test the accuracy of the tradition which says, inclination was It to see came ' to Every one religion.' " is with an born This experiment what creed they would incline to. to naught, for "after three or four years the children experiment all The came out dumb." may have been suggested by Herodotus' account of a similar experience, which led to equally unsatisfactory conclusions. The Sherar, following judgment, written by Mr. C.S.I., presents a view of Akbar's religious experiments which to quote. It is not the Akbar's character, and complete account. On it it is worth while received view of certainly not a is the other hand, there very is a shade of truth in It should be weisjhed alone with the it, at the least. rest. The Mogul Emperors 198 Mr. Sherar says at new : doctrines, "Akbarwas more amused new theories, new objects of veneration, than culties burdened with the diffi- which surrounded the acceptance of And them. there surely no parallel be- is tween a grave and powerful mind bowed down, everlastingly, with the stern dilemmas whence and whither ? of that great enigma, and the that superficial was too nently restless to any to curiosity of an intellect bind itself code particular permaopin- of ions." For my own judgment part, I have found no brief of Akbar's faith so entirely satis- who says: Akbar owes factory as that of Elphinstone, " It to his internal policy that his is place in that highest order of princes, reiofns that as have been a blessings to whose mankind ; and policy shows itself in different shapes, it affects religious or Akbar's tolerant his reign, and appears independent of origin of spirit the was displayed early to Muhammadan listen, in have been entirely any doubts him, however, to government. civil of the faith. divine It led without prejudice. Shah Akbar to the doctrines involved him members of of the Great other 199 enmity with the in and reliofions, bigoted own, and must thus have his contributed to shake his early belief, and to dispose him to question the infallible author- of a The the Kuran. ity of new advantages political which should take religion, classes of his subjects, could not over, to occur to him. his reign in he was assiduous and places, the In the in in more- fail, part of first visiting sacred men attendance on holy twenty-first in all year of ; even he reign his spoke seriously of performing the pilgrimage to Mecca. . . . The religion seems to have been pure Deism, tion to mitted It Akbar of in addi- which some ceremonies were perin consideration of human infirmity. maintained that we ought to reverence God accordincr to derived from our knowledgre the own reason, of him by which his unity and benevolence are sufficiently established ; that we ouo^ht to serve him and to seek for our future happiness by subduing our bad passions and practising such tues as are beneficial to mankind ; vir- but that The Mogul Emperors 200 we should of aiiy error not adopt a creed on the authority man, as like necessary all were ourselves. men for If to object of adoration, by might fire it were absolutely have some means visible which they of raise their souls to the Divinity, recommended He priests, no public worship, and no about food, except as a had no restrictions recommendation of tending to exalt the mind. His only observances were salutations sun, prayers at midnight Akbar /r^^/Z^r^ as permitted them, all his it to the and daybreak, and meditations at noon on the sun. as Akbar that the sun, the planets, or should be the symbols. abstinence, and liable to vice . . But . ceremonies, as well may be doubted whether they had not gained some hold on his imagi- He nation. seems to have been by nature devout, and, with all his scepticism, to have inclined even to superstitions that promised him a is closer connection with the Deity." It necessary to pause for a jnoment and to remark that, while these nently true, sixteenth we judgments are emi- are trying this ruler of the century by the standards of our Shah Akbar own day. It the Great how wonderful is 201 the test is met. "In these days esty asked how it maj- 1575-/6), his (a.d. would be if he engraved God mean the words Allahu-Akbar (which means is made but which can be great, Akbar is God^ upon the The ambiguity was pointed to imperial coins." out to him, and " he was displeased, saying that it was self- evident that no creature, in the depths of his impotence, could advance any claim to divin- The words ity." were, however, finally so engraved. Of Akbar's revenue arrangements we have this account tent) : by Bedauni (who was a malcon- " Regulations were circulated, but eventually these were not observed as they ought to have been." He admits the excel- lence of the regulations themselves, but gives instances where the peasants' lands were laid waste, and their wives and through the rapacity of the "many of the officials children officials. were brought account" and punished; even tortured. spite of this, the fate of the sold But to In husbandman and The Mogul Emperors 202 of the soldier was hard; "but the emperor's good and where annihilated, and One much wanted." of the oppressions of W. W. Hunter) in life-like picture Muhammadan officers " All districts of the empire. he says, " were crushed with an equal classes," tyranny were not so of the Sivaite poets of the sixteenth century, gives a remoter this, enemies were everysoldiers Bengal (quoted by Sir in the all was so great fortune flourishing, that his for ; fallow lands were entered as arable; and, by a false measurement, three-fourths of a bigJui \were taxed as a full bigha. deducted The more than one treasury officers rupee seven, short weight and exchange. in The husbandmen threw their cattle kets, so that ' from their lands and fled and goods into the mar- a rupee's worth of things sold for ten annas.'" In another native authority this place some of we read: "At emperor's officers the were directed to protect the cultivated land in the vicinity of the trustworthy camp men were examine the land ; and, besides this, directed to carefully after the army had passed, Shah Akbai' and tice is to to assess the became a Great the damage done. rule in all his justice. provinces of It is This prac- campaigns." certain mildly governed. It is It that the older kingdom were the "^ emperor was plain that the effort of the do 203 and well beyond a doubt that frequent instances of misrule and oppression occurred everywhere, especially in the newly conquered districts. Akbar sary for to It was obviously be tolerant neces- in religious matters for the sake of political stability. How much of his even-handed justice mild benevolence necessity, it is sprang from the But not possible to say. and same leav- ing to one side all^questions as to interior motives, the writings of the native historians show was marked that the emperor's reign by the most consummate personal character distinguished Babar ; is political skill. far less His engaging and than that of his grandfather he did not leave so cent buildings as Shah Jahan many ; magnifi- but he con- * The troops of the Fronde (1652) regularly pillaged the quarters of Paris which they chanced in the heart of an to hold, precisely as enemy's country. if they had been The Mogul Emperors 204 solidated a great state even generous laws, and wise, left a We empire behind him. just, and homogeneous are used to repre- kingdom sent to ourselves the Mogul by of the Great as a barbaric state, ruled by a semi- fabulous monster of bloodthirsty disposition. A more inspection careful empire which bear will shows close an us comparison with the states of Europe at the same epoch. The blood that it of Timur had been thinned so ran calmly in the veins of a great statesman and a good king, and the lust of mere conquest was replaced by a sincere desire for "the happiness and prosperity of the husbandman." The character of the India in Timur's day is chapter of this book. them. The Mogul invaders indicated in the of first Their acts portray history of Babar, six generations later, sufficiently culture which displays the high ideals of were held by the chief men of his time. Music, oratory, poetry, were cul- tivated even by sanguinary military They maintained architects, at musicians, their courts, leaders. painters, astronomers. The Shah Akbar the Gi^eat 205 doctors of the religious law were learned the fashion speculative begun had or prevailed, Akbar opened the and to prevail. road of promotion to Western the nations of all time, Arabian ideals of military chiv- eloquent. alry the of in Asia. Persians, Afghans, Turkis, Hindus, were welcome at his court, and all were on equal terms. In intellectual matters this intermixture of races and religions showed and liberality itself in ideals of in great freedom culture. famous book from the Shah-Namch Mahabharata was in The to the Akbar's library. religious questions a revolution plished. Every In was accom- standards of military chivalry, which had been based on Turki and Arab models, were modified by the customs of the splendid Rajput soldiers. These processes went on during the reigns of Jahangir and of Shah Jahan. until the reign of ceived a check. Aurangzeb We must the period between was not that they fio-ure to was I re- ourselves Akbar and Aurangzeb one of remarkable freedom. peasants' condition It as suppose the not especially differ- The Mogul Emperors 2o5 ent from what officials, and great were free to now it But the host of Is. small, military and civil, do or to think as they liked, performed their they that provided, only, duties fairly well, paid their regular tribute to the king, and did not meddle with plots acralnst their rulers. one Interfered with no one troubled himself doings, and their No about the opinions of his neighbors. There was no " non-conformist conscience," and no Inquisition to be taken account of by any When Aurangzeb came man. this happy the rleld conduct, under 1658. state of things to the throne, was changed, and law of Islam became the rule of as we liberal shall rule see ; but India was during the years 1556- Jahangir, Emperor of Hindustan 207 CHAPTER V EMPEROR JAHANGIR, HINDUSTAN OF (a.D. 1605-1627) A Contribution towards a Natural History of Tyrants But if Casar, the empero7-, should adopt you, no one could endure your arrogance. The most reign — Epictetus. and character of on the authority interesting prince this the is Diary of Sir TJiomas Roc, English Envoy The to his court from James the First. narrative has real literary merits, and is inspired by a sound good trast of the characters of the the envoy, who esteemed each marked and most words are given when "March the Lizard the ; it is i6th (1615) the 26th other, follows as con- emperor and Sir interesting. Journal commences The sense. ; most is Thomas's very his practicable we : lost sight of we saw the coast ; The Mogul Emperors 2o8 of Barbary and on the 5th of June bay came From Hne cut the anchor to Cape Saldanha, next the of Hope." till, we April the 14th ; of in the Good thence the voyage continued on the 26th of September, Sir Thomas landed at where the Company had India "continued much from force, Surat, its British factory. East Here he the 30th of October, suffering till the (native) governor, who, by searched what he thought many chests and took out fit." On day the envoy this departed on his land journey to the capital of the Great Mogul. His mission was to conclude a treaty of commerce, and to col- outstanding debts due to English mer- lect chants. How important the commerce of England with India was becoming, may be read in immense. 16 1 3 By Mill's history. Eight voyages The in profits the years 1603- yielded an average of 171 the 14th of November were Sir per cent.* Thomas had reached Brampore, which he guessed to be two hundred and twenty-three miles beyond * Tavernier says that the profits of the Portuguese were 500 or eveu 1000 per cent. Jahangir, Emperor of Hindustan Here he was met by an Surat. who conducted him the king, in made side of a wall, so that I making officer lodging " to his lodgings I his excuse that was conducted to court I I whose outward right made him a gallery that in told I refused, under him, railed tow^n, with carpets. and the prince all his I body; the great with their hands before The slaves. overhead with a place was covered rich canopy, It was and under foot like a great stage, sat at the upper end of Having no place assigned me, I before him, he refusing to admit up the steps or to allow me a 14 I to a where in, bowed went within, where were like that as and went on reverence, and he of the me must touch the ground with m.y head, which them was." it found about a hundred gentlemen on approached men the ; the prince (Par- visit He sat high went around. An officer I tent was the best it found I horseback. place my lay in the town, as in of brick in the wiz, a son of the emperor), in all officer of the town, which were " four chambers hke ovens, and no bigger, so 209 it. stood right me chair. come Having to 2 1 The Mogul Emperors o my received presents, he offered to another room where sit into should be allowed to by the way, he made himself drunk but, ; I go out of a case of bottles I gave him, and so This was our envoy's the visit ended." first struggle with Indian etiquette, and here, as always after, he stood up mightily for the ambassador of the King of dignity of an England. The termination of the ceremony was not unusual either for prince or empe- From his meeting with the prince. Sir Thomas proceeded on his journey, passing ror. through the country of the Rajah Rama, "who is lineally descended from Porus, that warlike Indian monarch overcome by Alex- ander the Great." On January lo, 1616, he had arrived at the court of Jahangir, and presented himself at the noon. durbar (audience) Here " the at four in the after- Mogul sits daily to enter- tain strangers, receive petitions and presents, give out orders, and to see and be seen. And here it will be proper to give some account of his court." " None but eunuchs come within the king's 1 Jahangir, Emperor of Hindusta7t private lodgings, and his him with The every morning shows himself to the people at a window. 1 women, who guard weapons. warlike 2 At noon he Mogul common is there again to see elephants and wild beasts fight, men the rail. under him within a of rank being he comes to the durbar After noon aforementioned. of the clock, he After the supper, at eight comes down to the Gtizalcan, a fair court, in the midst of which of freestone, courses No at of where he business of state a throne Here he sits. things indifferent is dis- very affably. done anywhere but is one of these places, where it is publicly canvassed, and so registered, which register may be seen for two shillings, and the common people know as much as the council, so -that every day the king's resolutions are the public news, and exposed to the censure of every scoundrel." " Before to use the durbar I my audience customs of had obtained leave my to conduct me rail, nearer. At the before him country. was conducted right entering the outward met I ; two noble slaves At the first rail — 2 2 The Mogul Emperors 1 made a low reverence, at the next another, His and when under the king a third. I reception was very favorable, but does not need particularizing." When " came I cross-legged on a in found him I little throne, sitting clad all in diamonds, pearls, and rubies, before him a table of gold, plate, set all him on to whom equipages, in he com- wines So drinking great flagons. and commanding others, became the a thousand of pieces of gold drink, froliquely, several standing by his lords fifty with stones, his nobility about in their best manded about it majesty and his finest men all ever saw I humours." Apparently the business of the envoy did " not advance. March the first I rid out to see a house of pleasure of the king's, seated between two mighty from the sun. delight, and began the festival of king, which, of all and defended a place of melancholy, On safety." great presents the It is rocks, the the nth New sorts of March Year, when were offered to though not equal to report, were yet incredible enough. On the 12th ; Jahangir, Emperor of Hindustan another audience, and on March came of 213 when "I pressed to have the peace and commerce with England settled after a solemn manner, which the Mogul 13th another, the ordered should be done." It may be noted here that delay in attending to the missions of envoys and dismissing them was con- in sidered a proof of the king's dignity, and that it was many a long day before Sir Thomas had his treaty signed due the English merchants " On of his nation on suspicion of felony, and sent him to pose of at me my in will. irons, as a slave, to dis- This a great favor, for which adding that nor thought God him settled. Mogul condemned one the 23d the own and the debts I looked upon as returned thanks England we had no in it is lawful to make equal to a beast, but that as a servant, well, give him and if with." the image of I would use he behaved himself his liberty. was well pleased slaves, On This the Mogul this, as on every other occasion, the English envoy conducted himself with sense, and with a simple dignity which evidently impressed the autocrat, who The Mogul Empei^ors 2 14 was never tired of showing him marks of his appreciation. One must all read the original narrative detail to obtain the full sense of the its men dramatic contrast between these two of different countries, whose mutual respect was founded on something deeper than At one of the durbars. Sir Thomas alone in a high place of honor. Chan I I in " race. stood Asaph- (the king's brother-in-law) insisted that among should rank myself refused at first, the nobility. but then removed to the other side, where only the prince and young Rama Chan." were, which A avail, " so more disgusted Asaph- complaint to the king was of no I kept my " place in quiet." On the 31st of March, the king dined at Asaph- Chan's house, to it, all the way from the palace which was an English mile, being under foot with silks and velvets laid sewed together, but rolled up as the king passed. They reported that the cost ;^i50,ooo." .^ Little feast and present progress was made in tlie business, as usual. "On June i8th, the king commanded one 5 Jaka7tgi7^, Emperor of Hind2istan brother's of his sons, 2 who had been 1 per- suaded to become a Christian, with a design to make him odious Sir a Thomas), lion that to the people (so says to lay his hand on the head of was brought before the king, which he refused out of fear ; upon which the king bid his youngest son go touch the lion, who did so without receiving any hurt. Whereat the king took occasion to send his nephew away to prison, where he is never like to see daylight." In July a " gentlewoman of Nur-Mahal's punished for a breach of decorum. " was The woman was set up to the armpits in earth close rammed about her, with her poor the feet tied to a stake, so to continue three days and two time nio-hts. If she died not in that she was to be pardoned." " On August the 9th, a hundred thieves were broujjht chained before the Mos^ul, with their accusation ; without further ceremony * Four of Jahangir's nephews were baptized by names of Philippo, Carlo, Henrico, Eduardo ; tlie Jesuits by the and the doors of the palace at Lahore bore "the images of the crucifix and of the Blessed Virgin," so says Herbert in his Travels. The Moo 21 1 Emperors 2i6 he ordered them to be carried away, the chief of them to be torn in pieces This was the rest put to death. by dogs, the pro- all and form," and the sentence was carried cess out. " ing" Seven months were now spent in solicit- the signing and sealing of the articles of peace and commerce, and nothing obtained week but promises from some of king's sons for men foresee " death. a the struoro;les between the power civil The whole the nobility are sad full at court. war upon court is full The wisest the king's of whispers the multitude, like ; rumor and of week and from During October the envoy day to day." recites to ; itself, without head or noise, order, rages, but applies not to any proper means." Sir Thomas says : " The history of country for variety of matter and the this many subtle practices in the time of Akbar-Shah, the father of this were well worth king, come from such despise them and writing; but because they remote parts, many will ; by reason these people are esteemed bar- 7 ; Jahangivj Emperor of Hindustan them barous, few will believe I forbear deliver as making them many though I equalled." It is About a loss not to have had this obliged to make the "knock- head against the ground," which Sir ing^ his Thomas had being this number among them ; ; ceremonious a nine mules very fair seven camels laden with velvet two chests of Persian hangings forty ; muskets ; of ; wine two rubies ; fourteen sweet waters ; after the I rich one ; twenty-one camel loads ; camel loads of seven of rose distilled water ; ; five seven swords same manner; seven Venetian looking-glasses, and that one eight carpets ; daggers set with precious stones set ; clocks five camel laden with cloth of gold of silk brousfht three times nine Arabian and Persian horses, and large He " refused to do. presents cabinet be time came the ambassador of this who was Persia, easily good an observer. history from so for one age, would not believe, for state, and adages, subtle evasions, policies, answers as could I and notable acts of rare 1 and therefore ; public, 2 these so fair was out of countenance when and I rich heard 8 2 The Mogul Emperors 1 In it." fact, meanness of the presents tlie which Sir Thomas had brouo^ht from Eno^land was a the thorn constant larsfe mastiff-doo^s thoroughly appreciated told him why the as in his seem side. Only have been to and the emperor ; plainly that he could not understand monarch of so great country a England should send so poor a list of presents. It is easily to be seen that the real success Thomas' mission was due of Sir sonality, and not to the to his per- fame of England or to the value of his gifts. "These people know the best of merchandise, of all kinds and are served by the Portu- guese, Venetians, and Armenians with rarities of Of his reception to is much : " I caused be diligently observed, and found he was not favored above It the Europe." the Persian envoy he says point, but all me at any less in several particulars." worth while to add that when the Persian ambassador took his leave, he pre- sented the king with other thirty horses, and received in return three thousand crowns. Jahaiigir, E7nperor of Hindustan The king removed from and his palace, to a camp one of at 219 a few miles his audiences the English envoy had a glimpse of "his two principal wives," one of been Nur-Mahal. " whom must They were there had been no other monds and pearls When I Then light, retired, their the king if dia- and were so supposed they laughed I but ; show them. sufficed to looked up they merry that " had indifferently smoothed up white, with black hair have came down the at me." stairs with such an acclamation of health to the kingf as would have outroared cannon. servants came, and his Then one of on the king's girt sword, and hung on his buckler set all over with diamonds and rubies, the belts being of On gold, suitable. his head he wore a rich turban with a plume of heron's feathers, not many, but long. hung a ruby On one side of other side a diamond as large an emerald staff like a heart, ; much in the middle bigger. His was wound about with a chain of ereat pearls, rubies, his his turban unset, as big as a walnut; on the and diamonds, drilled. About neck he wore a chain of most excellent The Mogul Emperors 220 pearls, the largest I Above ever saw. his elbows armlets set with diamonds, and on his three rows wrist of various sorts; his hands bare, but on almost every finger a rincT." in The king and coaches made lish carriage the queen, Nur-Mahal, rode which Sir Thomas Roe had They had not brought out as a present. been willing to use so plain an same the covered with gold pattern, only and gems, somewhat to Jahangir's his discomfiture. Memoirs no reference mission the affair as had had others made on original one, but the Eng- after the pattern of an from England, is In made to except a bare mention of these carriages. So they proceeded a great wonder, to the having been set up and finished in four hours, yet twenty English vale showed camp, which was miles in was not it compass. I was with carriage, and ashamed of for five years' allowance me than " The like a beautiful city, for the bag- gage made no confusion. vided less ill my provided equipage ; would not have pro- with an indifferent suit answerable Jahangir, Empe7'or of Hindustan the to so others, returned to I my 221 poor house." " You may add authority, "that the to all says another this," Grand Mogul keeps nigh him two or three thousand brave be always ready upon occasion horses, to as also eight ; or nine hundred elephants, and a vast num- ber of mules, horses, and porters to carry all the great tents and their cabinets, to carry his wives, kitchens, water, and all household he were the other necessaries for the court in its obliged to follow the migrations, finding and food as best he might. his lodgings in abandoned tiful " that castles of transporta- He took up or sometimes on the tents, Rajput rajahs, so beau- a banished Engrlishman miofht be content to live there." trigues of the court, '* if home." at The envoy was now tale Ganges which he hath always about him, as field tion stuff, which will He learns the in- and promises to tell a discover a noble prince, an excellent wife, a faithful counsellor, a crafty step-mother, an ambitious son, a cunning favorite, reconciled all by a patient king, ; The Mogul Emperors 222 whose heart was not understood by any But those." all deems I cannot find that he He promise. his king embrace a sees of re- patient this ragged dervish after dirty, conversing with him familiarly for an hour, which him left " in admiration to see such virtue in a heathen prince, which in emulation and sorrow mention I wishing either that ; our Christian princes had this devotion, or that this zeal were guided by a true light of the gospel." " Laws The people have none written. these king's judgment binds gives judgment with much ; who sits and patience, both in and criminal causes, where sometimes civil he sees execution done by his elephants, with too much delight in blood. of provinces rule them, izing by his and take His governors commissions authorlife and goods at pleasure." "In revenue the king doubtless exceeds the sums I dare not either Turk or Persian ; name ; but the reason. no man has a foot. All the land He maintains is all his that are not mechanics, by revenues bestowed on Jahangir, Emperor of Hindustan Favor them. and rich got by frequent presents The Mogul rare. He die. is takes 223 all that money, only leaving their all heir to is the widow and daughter what he To the sons of those that die worth two or some small three millions, he gives He to begin the world anew. is pleases. lordship of counte- nance cheerful, not proud by nature, but only by habit and custom, very affable and full for night at gentle of he is conversa- tion." One evening these of more minutely described fell : conversations " The good king to dispute of the laws of Moses, Jesus, and Mahomet, and he turned to shall drink was so kind, that in me and be welcome. said : I am Christians, in love, a king ; you Moors, Jews, he meddled not with their faith all is ; they came and he would protect them from wrong; they under his safety, and none and often re- peated, but in extreme drunkenness, he fell lived should oppress them to weeping and kept us With till this to ; this divers passions, and so midnight." we leave Sir Thomas with re- The Mogul Emperors 224 oret, many so of his own adventures being untouched upon. " The Jesuits have a church at Agra," says and a building which they Bernier, " college, where they privately call instruct a the children of (some) thirty Christian families, collected I know not how in Agra, and induced to settle there by the kind and charitable aid which they receive from the Jesuits. This religious order was invited hither by Akbar, and that prince not only gave them an annual income for their maintenance, but permitted and them The Lahore, warmer patron sorely in oppressed Agra build churches in to found Jesuits Jahangir, but by Shah monarch deprived them and destroyed the church their That pension, Lahore and the greater part of that at Agra." "'^ Jahangir's attitude towards religion set forth in the following story, not be true, but which is still they were Jahan. of at a is Vvell which may ben trovato. The Muslim doctors had admonished him against * His empress, Mumtaz-i-Mahal, was, reason, especially unfriendly to Christians. for some unknown JahangiTy Emperor of Hindustan 225 the use of forbidden meats, etc. becoming impatient, inquired in the use of every kind of The permitted. what reHgion meat and drink was reply was, in the Christian " reHgion alone. Jahangir, ; We must, then," said the emperor, "all turn Christians." Blochmann {Ain-i-Akbari, Professor 310, 477, 619) has collected a account for Their number amusing an instance emperor's easy-going fashions. nioirs, Jahangir his child, ter, is whom says the In his Ale- Prince that of may Parwiz, the son of Zain Kokah's daugh- he married the forty-first year in There of Akbar's reign. ever that pp. of twenty- and there easily four of Jahangir's wives, may have been more. list no doubt what- is Parwiz was born in the thirty- fourth year, long before Jahangir had seen the daughter of apparently, that which one of his Zain. Hence it follows, Jahangir had forgotten to many wives he was indebted for his second son. The in his acts of Jahangir are given at length own Memoirs and writings of the native in some historians. of the In the : The Mogul Emperors 2 26 following chapter of this book the history of the last years of it his reign not the history which is to interest Americans. Europeans, and Our is desire But recited. is of is special less still to comprehend to the character of this powerful and autocratic we understand ruler, as of France from the The that of Louis XIV Memoirs of Saint-Simon. native historians are but poor substi- duke who has written tutes for the literary the annals of the reign of the Very Christian And King. Jahangir's Memoirs worth quoting, and give but a of his personality. I are seldom slight picture append a few extracts from various sources which have a sort of value, and reserve the more important for the next chapter, which treats of the reign of the emperor's wife, who, many real ruler of the state for " We read One night the in Memoirs it it I years. Jahangir of my mind mals and birds I had my and told them how formerly was. occurred to was the all, turned the discourse of I courtiers on the chase, fond of after At the whether killed same time all the ani- could not be Jahangir, Empej^or of Hindzistan The calculated." twelfth to his result was that from his year he had killed fiftieth own hand, 17,168 animals and birds with his "and the following 227 an account of them is in detail." * 4f •K- * -Jfr Of these 86 were * -K- 90 wild boars, tigers, 1,372 deer, 13,964 birds, etc. Two young nobles of the city were very dissipated, " lived in great pomp, and did not They amused them- care for the emperor." selves by passing the palace noisily, in pleasure-boats, though they had often been warned. Jahangir gave a hint to one of his officers, and the young men were incontinently sinated, assas- and the emperor's peace was turbed no more. Jahangir was fond of cruel He and unusual punishments. revived the impalements and flayings barbarous which had been almost forgotten. ingenious, too. dis- A number of alive He was Amirs had graced the imperial cause by a defeat. caused the painted traits in in portrait of each Amir to dis- He be miniature, and, taking the por- hand, one by one, he showered 2 The Mogul Emperors 28 abuse on each Amir before the assembled In another instance, the emperor courtiers. caused the offenders' heads to be shaved and women's be thrown over their veils to faces. Thus arrayed they were paraded through city on donkeys, seated so as donkeys' Sewing the tails. was a favored mode the fastening face the to eyelids together of punishment, as also the inside culprit As newly-killed animal. the of a skin the skin dried the victim perished. "With the object of acquiring information about the history of Kabul, Babar's Memoirs, which was written with his all, own I used to read except four parts, hand. To com- plete the work, I copied those parts myself, end I added some paragraphs and at the in the Turki language to show that they were written in Hindustan, yet inor an(^ writingf Here of Though by me. is I am I was brought up not deficient in read- Turki." a specimen of the religious debates which he was so fond. " One day served to some learned Hindus, that foundation of their reliction rested I ob- if the on their : Jahangir, Emperor of Hindustan 229 belief in the ten incarnate gods, tirely absurd, because in it such a case was en- became it who necessary to admit that the Almighty, infinite, is must possess a " length, and depth." definite breadth, After a long discourse they admitted that there was a whom no corporeal form and of definite notion " no God who had they had (which appears to have agreed with Jahangir's own ideas). had represented him by these ten as to raise their minds up told them they could not this means." incarnations first, is more " attain that his ten then I end by (nine) to be referred to here at and the Great First Cause the king figures so to him. Vishnu and seem They practical at last ; but and positive than explicit. Jahangir was fond Urfi, a man — too fond of real talent. — of the poet These verses are his Cling to the hem of a heart which saddens the tiightingale ; The more I exert myself, calm, the at the plaintive voice of for that heart knoivs something. the more I come ocean'' s centre is at the shore. into trouble ; if I am — The Mogul Emperors 230 Not a grain shall be taken of that "which thou hast reaped, htit a harvest shall be demanded of that which thou hast not sown. The emperor down, sets Memoirs, in his that certain tribes "associate and intermarry Hindus, giving and taking daughters. with As for taking," he says, " matter ; it does not so much but as for giving their own daughters — heaven protect us Here is " I one of the king's experiments " the trivial fooHng of a muddled brain. it As has been several times asserted that laugh- ter arises from eating majesty saffron, his determined on making a and, therefore, sent for a trial of its effects, condemned criminal and made him eat (a large quantity) presence. On him. It his did not occasion any change in the next day he gave him double the quantity, but smile, in much it less did not even cause him to to laugh." The royal ex- perimenter neglected an important element. He should first \i2i\^ pardoned \i\^ criminal ! Jahangir describes, in his Mefnoirs, one of the classic feats of Indian jugglery produced a chain, threw one end of fifty it : " They cubits in length, and towards the sky, where Emperor of Hindustan Jahaiigir, it remained as if 231 A fastened to somethinof. dog was brought, and immediately ran up and disappeared the chain the in same manner a hog, a panther, a the and a down lion, were successively sent up, and tiger At equally disappeared. all In air. the chain and put discovering they took last into a bag, it no one what way the different animals in were made tricks were shown to Ibn Batuta, the Arab to traveller, in to him, The 1348. made my jugglers' who sat next comment on the Kazi, a skeptical "Wallah!" whole performance. is Similar vanish." said he, "it opinion there has been neither going up nor coming down, neither marring nor mending; a is 'tis capital occurred in alhhocus-pocus." As witness. The emperor the daytime, he was, in hood, sober. One trick, been described by others also. and of if it all likeli- could not ask for better evidence for this famous jugglers probably this which has If Indian can hypnotize an entire audience, they can then suggest to each that he sees every individual what can is desired, member and if be forced to recollect The Mogul Emperors 232 all the details of the performance, the trick is explicable. we must Otherwise, share Jahangir's bewilderment."''" In the sixth year of his reign (a. 11. 1020), Jahangir coined his famous gold one face a portrait of the emperor in the is act of raising a wine-cup to his lips other The is On niohitr. on the ; the sun in the constellation of Leo. inscription on the coin Persian. in is Perhaps no more extraordinary coin was ever tions. The emperor broke with all The Muhammadans — at least, Sunni sect minted. — did statues and efifiories. Wine was abhorred coin this head of the church. Pope should strike a medal It it of was who was celebrated by the head of the state, also the of the not permit the making of good Muslims, and on all tradi- was as if the defiling the cross and denying the Holy Ghost.f * Since the foregoing was written Andrew Lang {Contemporary Review to regard the explanation by hypnotic and Mr. Frank Stockton has adopted The Magic Egg {The Century \ It is have noticed that Mr. seems illusion as, at least, plausible it, ; out and out, in his tale of for June, 1894). not strictly correct to say that Jahangir was the head of the orthodox church. who I for September, 1893) The successor of Muhammad has the custody of the relics of the prophet is l,his that person cloak, teeth. Jahangir, E^nperor of Hindustan 233 The face and interesting, is an unflattered likeness, as Jahangir which of traits authentic. The jaw and broad at astute and is is it probably resembles por- it accepted are heavy, the nose long, the base, and the expression same year another In the sly. coin was minted, where the wine-cup changed as ex- is book (which can only be the for a Kuran), and on which the expression of the emperor's face tude is one of dignity is and refined he ; His entirely changed. is his face ; no longer the is atti- softened violator, but the protector, of the law. has been surmised that the It first coin gave such occasion of scandal (as well it might) that the second was struck to take its place. This may be minted explain to difficult in later, in the year it then becomes why another a.ii. 1023, coin three was years which the wine-cup again appears. The sun on these coins serves to recall the fact that the emperor was born on a Sunday. beard, etc.), and who These titles belong successor). but so, But in rules the sacred cities of to the Sultan of Mecca and Medina. Constantinople (the Khalife India the orthodox doctors of the declared the emperor to be the head of the church. = law had Mogul ^^^^ 234 Ei7iperors Jahangir also caused a silver medal to be soon after his father's death, which struck bears the effigy of The Akbar. face has only a moustache, and not the beard of the Yet the obverse orthodox Muslim. medal bears the profession God no is but of faith of the There : God ; Muhammad the is Apostle of God. With tyrants. lived is this may we leave The atmosphere nest this of which they foreign to us, and their actions seem in wild and barbarous to us Western folk live our orderly lives between lines which we do not overstep. , who well-drawn " Custom makes us makes cowards of us all," and habit These Oriental despots were unreflecting. no more savage or vindictive or careless than the Caesars them ; and we have long ago accepted as part of our ancestry. It is clear that Briton, Sir Thomas Roe, a model was continually and unconsciously comparing the Emperor Jahangir with own English tage of the his king, not always to the advanlatter. Even to us, who have crossed the seas and the centuries, there is Jahangir^ Emperor of Hindustan 235 something not totally unfamiliar in this Oriental nature freely displayed under strange and outlandish conditions. Coelu7n, nan ariimimt mutant, qui trans mare currunt. Note. — The description of Jahangir's coins on pages 232 ct was written the only ones then available to me. several respects. Coins of the seq, after consulting the older authorities (Marsden, etc.), Those It is not strictly correct in interested should refer to Dr. R. S. Poole's Mogkul Emperors, London, Vv'here plates of these coins are given. iSg2, pages Ixxx, 62, etc., The Mogul Emperors 236 CHAPTER VI NUR-MAHAL (tHE LIGHT OF THE PALACE), EMPRESS OF HINDUSTAN (a.D. 161 I-1627) In the history of the reigns of the Great Moguls, women the seldom appear, except devoted or the of intrioruinfT in royal the character of wives and whose words are never heard on the curtain which shuts The world. the throne make a There is fierce light of mothers, this side of them away from the penetrates twilight house which beats upon the harem only to mystery and intrigue. one great and striking exception in the person of the Empress Nur- Mahal, whose reign was nearly contemporaneous with that of King James Elizabeth, and I. of England, the successor of who may fairly be compared with that great English queen. We are more or less familiar in the Western world with the power of ment. women in But our Western heroines govern- — Frede- NUR-MAHAL Nur-Mahal, Empress of Hindustan Madame de gonde, Joan of Arc, who personages been could be The Indian queen, heard. Stael 237 — have and seen after the time of Babar, was confined to the harem, and could be seen only by her nearest relations, and could be heard only from behind the curtain. I have met but two works which give a sense realizing women power the of Oriental of namely, the brilliant novel of Kip- ; The Nmilakha (1892), and the Memoirs of a certain wazir, one ling and Balestier, NIzamu-1-Mulk Tusi hundred years history is (a.d. 1092), The wazirs whole earlier. interesting. His accounts of the power of female intrigue are from what I have of the ladies of against some eight said, pathetic. the " Now, disadvantages the royal household being us {wazirs) may be But learned. the advantages of their being in our favor are equally numerous," as show by a story too long he goes on to to He relate. quotes the words of a powerful minister who resigned his office and went to govern remote province, as an example. made him prefer it to a rank in " a What which he The Mogul Emperors 238 "O Imam!" dom?" " I have not told but I king- the ex-minister says, even to this secret my sons, not conceal the truth from you. will I over the whole influence exercised have resigned that power on account of Jamila Kandahari (one of the queen's ladies). For years I government me had the management of my in in everything. darkness before my remedy against the all the hands, and she thwarted For reason there was this eyes, and Now evil. could find no I I have sought retirement, and have procured release from all such troubles. Allah pleases, If escape her machinations I shall in this distant prov- mce. The Akbar Emperor Jahangir had succeeded in the year 1605. ^^'^ t:he thirty-first year of Akbar's reign he had rebelled against his father, ment and had in the enue (thirty To remove set up a separate govern- Penjab and appropriated the revlacs of rupees) to his his chief enemy own at court, use. he had basely murdered his father's prime minister and attached friend, the and had embittered the learned Abul-fazl, last days of his great Nur-Mahal, Empress of Hindustan 239 and rebellious acts. sire " by violent, About fazl cruel, my the close of was wearing on at Abul- exterior He was not my my convinced me that which he sold to high price. His bearing friend. if a plausible his the jewel of probity, father father's reign fully he were allowed to arrive at court he would do everything the indignation Under this in his my of power invited I Singh to annihilate Abul-fazl on God promising him favors. prise flight, his journey, were and he himself murdered. me was sent to Jahangir's own Allahabad." put to His head Such is account. Akbar's death at a disgraceful at Nar aided the enter- followers Abul-fazl's ; me. against father apprehension to excite is ascribed to his vexation and public quarrel between Jahangir and his son Khosrou about the merits of their respective elephants at a fight of animals. He was remorseless, even vindictive, in the punishment of crimes against the state — that a laree is, —and against himself this seems in measure to have been a matter of The Mogul Emperors 240 settled policy on Jahangir had an his part. intimate horror of everything that tended to disturb the indifferent thoughtlessness of his and careless self-indulgent In the early life. portion of his reign he was obliged to stamp out a rebellion fomented by his son Khosrou. His own words are my Lahore, and took ion built a seat in the royal pavil- and father, number of sharp up, stakes upon which thrones despair to my by "I entered the castle at : I directed that should be set misfortune and of caused the seven hundred traitors be impaled this there cannot "a more excruciating pun- the for Than alive. be," he goes on, ishment, I culprits die in lingering torture." His son was between the captured, finally of lines impaled victims, and then imprisoned. He tears and groans for his and no doubt He doubtless in paraded spent the time past misconduct, deadly fear for his own recalled in his father's life. express declaration that " Sovereignty does not re- gard the relation of father and son it is said a king should ; and deem no one — Nur-Mahaly Empress of Hindustan his Kingship relation." knows 241 no kin- ship. much Jahangir always evinced "too in delight blood," and his violence was often due to intoxication time " by wine or opium. took to wine drinking," he I From from day to day took more and more, it had no drinking I upon me, and effect I drank Finally, he in spirit, nor I fourteen of the day, and six at night." " (and courageous) physician. years until resorted to was warned to stop by a was good, and and In the course of nine years spirits. got up to twenty cups of which I that says, " life was dear ; faithful His advice and for fifteen have kept to six cups, neither more Opium took less." abandoned Two cups. the place of the of his brothers died from drunkenness. In spite of many excellent, character. this dark picture, there are even admirable, He was traits in his self-indulgent and capri- cious, rather than deliberately vicious. very first act of his reign "chain of justice" in was to set his palace at The up the Agra a golden chain sixty feet long, reaching from 16 : The Mogul Emperors 242 On the ground to his chamber. were sixty golden bells, this chain and a suitor for justice could call the emperor's attention to claim without the his any intervention of person.* His Memoirs, from which have already I quoted, are addressed to his sons and ciples, and begin thus " First, let them know and that the eternal, it dis- that the world less care not they have for Act towards your the better. is inferiors as you wish that your superiors towards you." clear that the Jesuits of Goa had It is mark left their * The idea was not original. established the for (a.d. 1211) at Delhi, same end. ; should act and indeed he The drums of Humayun were Altamsh, Sultan Shamsu-d-din " made an order that any man who suffered from injustice should wear colored clothes. Now all the inhabit- ants of India wear white clothes, so that whenever he rode abroad and saw any one in a and took means to render (even) with this plan, night, and I colored dress he inquired into his grievance, and him said, justice. * But he was not Some men wish to give them redress.' So he placed of his palace two marble lions on two pedestals. iron chains round their necks it at the These from which hung great victim of injustice came at night and rung the Sultan heard satisfied suffer injustice in the bell, lions bells. door had The and when the he inquired into the case and gave satisfaction to the complainant." — Ntir-Mahal, Empress of Hindustan was wonderfully tolerant of 243 religions, all although he did not (openly) go so far this direction " as his father. No kine was ever more generous and kind to beggars to mendicants religious -fakirs in — or " or more anxious for new light from holy men. Jahangir had been born famous Muslim by " the house of a in and was saint, his name A famous place of worship (Selim). neighborhood," he says, "and in it at first called I in is went this to see the possible chance of meeting some fakir from whose society I might derive man is as rare as the advantage ; but such a philosopher's stone, and all that I saw was a small fraternity without any knowledge of God, the sight of whom filled my heart with nothinor o but reorret." o He court, from encouraged and was lavish his Sundays). art, all sorts of learning at his in distribution of alms audience window every week (on He was and devoted to fond of architecture and the beauties of natural scenery and flowers, even childishly his way to so. On Kashmir the army marched along Mogul Einperors ^-^^ 244 a river bed, " and the oleander bushes were in full bloom, and of exquisite color, like peach-blossoms. to bind bunches of the flowers bans, and that "it goes on, such that sio^ht take one's eyes off As the air drinking wine. amazingly on It is was He it." indulged myself I In short, I enjoyed myself march," this surprising to us to meet this appre- ciation of nature in the it is it was very charming (and the flowers beautiful), in in their tur- the flowers were so beauti- was a impossible to " attendants thus devised a beautiful garden." I At another camp ful my ordered I Mogul character, but Chengiz-Khan, that a genuine quality. bloodthirsty savage, in describing a spot in Tartary, says, " It is a beautiful grazing o-round for roebucks, and a charmino- restino; place for an old man " —as he then was. the Moguls, nature was beautiful, but it To was something outside of themselves the Greeks ; felt themselves a part of it. Jahangir goes on to say, " Kashmir delightful country in the seasons of and of spring. I visited it is a autumn and found it Ntir-Mahal, E^nprcss of Hindustan even more charming than There no other place is saffron is 245 had anticipated. I the world where in The abundantly cultivated. so sometimes two miles fields of saffron are and they look very beautiful length, distance. It has such a strong people get a headache from Kashmirians whether it that asked the had any such upon them, and was surprised by at a smell I it. in effect their reply, which was, that they did not even know what headache was." land no "The surface of so covered with green that is carpet place was be to full spread of wonders, upon it the requires The it." and they showed the sceptical king a fountain of "unfathomable depth." He ordered sounded by a it stone and a rope, and the depth turned out to be nine feet. He was manly a sports, mighty hunter,* brave, fond of devoted and affectionate to his friends, always providing that their actions did not affect the safety or welfare state, * He and again rHat cctait had v/ild boars. killed eighty-six tigers with his hii; of the and cruel own hand, and ninety The Mogul Emperors 246 and vindictive deeply attached to his of the " How can his Her that she my youth. me that for and me was such affection for I I not care to did It is be I did not care to eat or recorded, also, and is it very Nur-Mahal had " Before I never knew the real meaning I of marriage." upon For four live. true, that after married her, to her in effect empress he declared, his She was was married Her death had such an likely to become her excellence one hair of mine. and bride, days and nights drink." Amber, and of would have given a thousand sons ransom first the daughter rebellious son Khosrou. describe I good nature? as a first wife, Rajah Bhagwan Das mother of the He was the contrary case. in The Persian woman was made of different clay from the daughters of the Rajput princes. These extracts from a picture of the his own capricious sayings give despot who succeeded to the just and benevolent Akbar. Professor Dowson, the editor of Elliott's History of India as told by its oivn His to- Nur-Mahal, Empress of Hmdustan made rzans, has 247 a calm estimate of Jahanglr's character. The autobiography proves Jahangir to have been a man of no common ability. He " records weaknesses and his faults with candor, confesses and a perusal of this his work alone would leave a favorable impression of and character his talents. He was fond of jewels, of flowers, of architecture, a lover a mighty hunter. nature, of have been was sober just, ; He seems to and even generous, when he but even as prince-royal he was noted for his ruthless punishments when he was in his cups." Such was the king who received the sovereignty of India from the dying Akbar, and who then all " began to win the hearts of the people and to rearrange the withered world." While he he had seen young girl of in was yet crown-prince, the women's apartments a remarkable beauty for whom he formed a passionate attachment. was Mihrunnisa, afterwards This Nur-Mahal. Her mother found means to lay before Akbar, who remonstrated the with case his — The Mogul Emperors 248 son, and who, the better to guard against a mesalliance, married the girl to one own officers, Shir- Afghan- Khan, his whom on bestowed a government in distant The newly wedded departed pair of he Bengal. their to government, and the prince was duly married and to the grand-daughter of a great rajah, became a power in the state, warring and making war, sometimes on own account his The grandfather for his father, oftener in rebellion. of Nur-Mahal had been wazir to the governor of Khorassan. In circumstances his consequence of adverse son Mirza Ghiyas Beg set out for stan to retrieve his fortunes. His caravan was plundered, and he was reduced poverty. When Hindu- to abject he reached Kandahar, in year 1585, his wife was delivered of a child, Mihrunnisa — the sun of afterwards called Nur-Mahal. had their condition become was exposed on the highway of the chief took girl Vv'omen So desperate that the infant to perish. One merchants of the caravan, see- ing the beauty of the child, and pity, the her up and moved by resolved to educate Nur-Mahal, ETnpress of Hindustan own her as his to seek for a nurse, nurse in care was and the only available relation thus strangely brought about was the turning point When first the party was, naturally, the child's The mother. His daughter. 249 they reached the their career. in Fathpur, city of Ghiyas Beg was presented to the Emperor Akbar, and in he was raised a short time to the office of superintendent of the house- and the fortunes of the family were hold, made. " He was considered and skilful ing business. both exceedingly clever in writinor He had and in transact- studied the old poetry, and had a nice appreciation of the meaning of words, bold and elegant" and — accomplishments commend him would " His leisure ; and which emperor. the to moments were devoted study of poetry and style osity handwriting was his to the his gener- and beneficence to the poor were such that no one ever turned disappointed from his door." He was prosperity, and to the full. on improved the hio-h road to his opportunities "In the taking of bribes he The Mogul Emperors 250 most uncompromising and certainly was less " His ! wife, too, was a woman fear- of note. Jahangir relates that she invented attar of roscs.^ " ing the oil She conceived the idea rose-water which is also, heated, and the The and fine needlework, son Asaf-Khan rose under the succeeding the In tomb 1 64 1 said, and Their also. prime minister and no subject of reign, of the he died, and was buried near Emperor His palace ter. be the arts in king ever enjoyed a like pros- Indian perity. to daughter, it is she wrote a few Persian poems an was found oil was unusually accomplished of painting when rises to the surface be a powerful perfume." to of collect- lion dollars, in Jahangir, his mas- Lahore had and the jewels, plate, which he left were valued millions. His daughter at cost a mil- and money over twelve Arjamand (after- wards Mumtaz-i-Mahal) married the Prince Khurram (afterwards Shah Jahan). In the died, first wife had and he had ascended the throne. * Anfar, an roses, meantime Jahangir's however. Arab novel of the eighth century, mentions In adar of " Nur- Mahal, Empress of Hindustan the first 251 year of his reign he sent his foster- Kutbu-d-Din to Bengal as viceroy, brother and charged him with a mission to procure the divorce of Nur-Mahal and to send her to Details regarding him. are not known, but it these is negotiations certain that they were received with anger by Shir-Afghan, her husband ; and probably Nur-Mahal never heard of them at all. At all events, she appears to have been sincerely attached to her first husband. In the second year of the reign, the vice- having received commands to send Shir- roy, Afghan his to court, government. made an The men official of to visit the viceroy crowded around Shir-Afghan, who had only two attendants, and who asked what this kind of proceeding meant. viceroy ordered his engaged men to stand apart, in a conversation in which, the desires of the clared, " quietly The and no doubt, emperor were again de- and a promise of immunity given case the husband should prove complaisant. However this may docile in and be, the out- raged noble immediately killed the viceroy The Mogiil Emperors 252 with a dagger which he had concealed, and was himself once cut to pieces by the at viceroy's troops.* The future empress was attached and to Agra, the suite of the empress Jahangir was sorely distressed by dowager. the death cause, to was sent of foster-brother his Nur-Mahal seems and such in to a have re- pulsed his offer of marriage with disgust, and have made the emperor forget to her. "She remained some time without notice." " some time " This must have been about four was not until the sixth year (a.d. years, for it 161 the reign that "the days of mis- 1 ) of fortune drew to a close, and the stars of her * One of the historians ently. He likely), but managed intending to hands. to him kill not killed outright (which is un- his wife rather than to let her fall into Jahangir's that his wife to the differ- drag himself to the door of his house, Nur-Mahal's mother would not herself into a well. went to end of Shir-Afghan relates the says that Shir was let him enter, and declared had already committed suicide by throwing " Having heard the sad news, Shir-Afghan heavenly mansions." stories is appropriate here The Muslim comment on such — Allah knows remarks of Shir-Afghan's death in his if this Memoirs be true. Jahangir that he hopes "the black-faced wretch will forever remain in hell," which seems cruel and in keeping with his character. Nur- Mahal, Empress of Hindustan good fortune commenced wake as bride's and to to shine, were from a deep it 253 The " sleep." chamber was prepared, the bride was Hope decorated, and desire began to arise. A was happy. key was found closed for doors, a restorative for broken hearts on a certain New and ; Year's festival she (again) attracted the love and affection of the king." Thus lamely does the native chronicler recite " She was soon made the favorthe history. She received at ite wife of his majesty. first the title of Nur- Mahal {the light of the palace), and after some days that of NurJahan-Begam queen, the {the light of the world)" Up had led the usual to this time she life of an Oriental lady of rank, hidden from the eyes of men, and having only an occult ence upon the petty ernment. At one personage in India, influ- affairs of a small gov- became the chief step she " All her relatives were elevated to the highest offices of the state. Her father became prime minister, and the king and his relatives were thus deprived of all power. Nur- Mahal managed the whole Mogul Emperors '^^^ 254 of affairs realm, and the honors of every description were at her disposal, and nothing was wanting to make her an absolute monarch, except reading the Khutba * The name." abandoned Persian the desert in veritable ruler of " twenty- six years old. another Day by No She was granted the She would in sit By struck order of to it under her seal. the balcony of her palace (as to a king) and superscription and dignity rights of sovereignty. while the nobles would Coin was day," says grant of land was bestowed upon any woman, except added She was now historian, " her influence increased. her had become the India. all in who had been child present to listen in themselves her dictates. name with her this : Kin^ Jahangir, .gold has a hundred splendors by receiving the impression of the name of Nur-Jahan the queen. " She signed king. At last all /armans jointly with the her authority reached such a pitch that the king * The was such only official prayers. in name. Nur- Mahal, Empress of Hindustan 255 "She commands and governs day at this harem with supreme in the king's authority, having cunningly removed out of the harem, by marriage or other handsome ways, either women who might the other all jealousy many and having also ; alterations almost own were made by deposing and displacing to dignities other and of alliance." time the this new ones and particularly those creatures, of her blood By the court the old captains and officers, and all by advancing her in give her any affairs of in excellent shape, the kingdom and the self-indulgent Jahangir laughed and said that he had be- stowed the government on the most competent. As and meat. the for himself, When he asked only wine he was physicians (who ill he dismissed were indeed of small account), and depended only on the empress, " whose theirs. sense " It is and experience impossible to " exceeded describe beauty and wisdom of the queen ; in matter that was presented to her, if culty arose she immediately solved it." was benevolent to all, protecting a the any diffi- She some from The Mogul Entpero7's 256 tyranny, and " portioning penniless orphans. She won golden opinions from The greatest of all people." all her benefits was in modi- fying the tyrannical and capricious conduct of tlie own emperor, and in introducing by her and good intelligence aided in powerfully taste, the wise conduct of state affairs by now wazir, something like a steady polic3^ The affairs of the kingdom her father, were prosperous attainable taste ; was easily through Jahangir's good nature The tact. bestowed justice of a sort the court was magnificent by her ; liberal and her ; on justly her praise which has been another due. '' Indian is She was endowed with every princely virtue, and those nize her actions Sultana,* most severely who will scruti- find in her no fault but that she was a woman." had Jahangir eldest, in had been disgrace. four in sons ; Khosrou, the open rebellion and was His father had always disliked him, but the people attributed his exclusion from the court to the Khan and the empress. influence He of Asaf- died suddenly * Rezia Bec;um, circa a.d. 1240. Nui'-Mahal, Empress of Hindiistan "of a colic," while brother Shah Jahan, at emperor was uted (very ill and ; when the a time his death falsely) likely custody of his the in 257 to was attrib- keeper. his Prince Parwiz, the second son, was a brave more. Shah Jahan had shown very high military talents, and dissipated soldier, and little He and had obtained great successes. and was married a niece of Nur-Mahal's," sustained at court powerful influence ; this (at and had time) by her for this reason, and because of his marked talent for government, he was the favorite of To his father. all people, even to the greatest nobles, he was cold and haughty. " He was by flattered some, envied by others, loved by none." The youngest son of Jahangir was Prince Shahriyar, who was affianced to the daughter who was born to Nur-Mahal of her alliance with the unfortunate Shir-Afghan-Khan, to the time of their engagement, Nur-Mahal * His favorite wife was Arjamand, better Mahal (the exalted of many known as Mumtaz-i- the palace), the daughter of the niece consequently of Nur-Mahal. at her death, in 1630, she Up was buried She was born in the sons and daughters to Shah Jahan. Asaf-Khan in 1590, ; and Taj-Mahal; she bore The Mogul Emperors 258 had been a strong partisan of Shah Jahan. But had made him overbearing, his success and the empress began never mould him to her could Her to reaHze that she purposes. was thus transferred to the cause of Shahriyar, where her interest lay. At influence very juncture the father of Nur- this Mahal which was died, all the more unfor- tunate, as the contentions of the princes among of their various partisans began nobles be to brother Azaf-Khan, who became prime minwas stead, ister in weak to master events, which The power to worse. daily, and if must be done Mahal were it of far too went from ill Shah Jahan grew to be curbed at all, it Accordingly Nur- once. at high Her troublesome. father's his the and cast about for a general who should be devoted to her cause, to lead the imperial armies. Her eye one of the was a crreat saiyid, a of high family. (if we are to " directly to the fell upon Mahabet-Khan, nobles. Mahabet-Khan descendant of the Prophet, His lineage believe is to one of prophet Moses." be traced his family) Mahabet- Nur-Mahal, Empress of Hindustan Khan in 259 youth entered the service of his Jahangir, then crown-prince, and became a prime favorite with him by (treacherously) murdering a Hindu rajah who stood prince's way. Thomas Roe Sir in calls the him, however, a noble and generous man, well beloved by men all ; and he had the most eminent of general, all accompanied risen to be This the nobles. for a time by the emperor, and later by Prince Parwiz, drove Shah Jahan away from the vicinity of Agra and into the Deccan and so thorough was Shah Jahan's defeat that Jahangir felt at ; liberty to go, for two successive summers, to Kashmir, The emperor had and docile son much father by Akbar, and had given his and anxiety by pain opposition. ten-fold to not been a very loyal All this was returned conduct of his the Shah Jahan. him by name Jahangir him "the wretch." word ' is wretch ' referred to." occurs here, " to open him own son does not mention in parts of his calls his Memoirs, but "Whenever the my who it is The pen cannot son describe The Mogul Emperors 26o what have done for him, nor the anxiety I and grief which oppress me during the (miHtary) marches which pursuit of in The I him who is am obHged no longer my son." Mahabet-Khan connection of close make to with Prince Parwiz led to the fear that he would endeavor the and was it resolved court, to deprive But life. him with warriors " to bring him of honor, property, had he Asaf-Khan's him cleverly and designs, to disgrace, through had brought four, or five thousand united in one cause." abiding place of bank Rajput He been built. Asaf-Khan, of so brave heedless left of to " The where a bridge Mahabet-Khan with the also court at this his bridge. notwithstanding the presence and daring an enemy, was so the him on that children " emperor was on the of the River Behat, army came " the and seen brought with him the war-elephants. had ruin to Accordingly Asaf-Khan recalled him him. to and throne, the upon place this prince to emperor's safety, that he side of the river with the and women. He sent over also Nur- Mahal, Empress of Hindtistan 261 arms, etc., the baggage, the the treasure, Mahabet-Khan even to the very domestics. perceived stake, at friend that his Hfe and that he He court." at had not were a single resolved on a bold With about two hundred Rajputs stroke. at the chief entrance he suddenly appeared Let us quote the account to the royal tents. of and honor one of the royal household who was an " eye-witness. Mahabet-Khan rode door of the state room and then went exclaimed, exceeds He ' did I in alio-hted. my I simplicity This presumption and temerity bounds. all moment, and forward, the to go will not If in trouble you will wait a and make a report. himself to answer," down a board partition. The emperor came out from behind it, and seated himself. The Khan ap" His attendants tore proached him respectfully, and said, ' I have assured myself that escape from the hatred of Asaf-Khan I shall is be put to death impossible, and that in shame, I have therefore boldly and presumptuously thrown myself on your Majesty's protection. If I The Mogul Emperors 262 death deserve order, that punishment, or may I suffer give your pres- in it the ence. But it was for the Khan flocked for his troops in, to make terms, and the emperor was a prisoner without a blow. Jahangir was wild with instantly controlled but almost rage, and began that course himself, of dissimulation which led to his release in He consented to ride out before the troops on an elephant to the hunting- the end. ground, and was then forced to go to the Khan's quarters. All time this Khan had taken no thought and he determined to make " But, also. thinking that as his of Mahabet- Nur-Mahal, her a prisoner happened, Nur-Mahal, it Majesty had gone out hunting, took the opportunity to pass over the to river Asaf-Khan. " pay a visit to Mahabet-Khan her brother bitterly pented of the blunder he had made in re- not securing her at once, and he proceeded with the emperor riyar, to the house of Prince where they spent the " After Shah- night. Nur-Mahal had crossed the river, " Nur-Mahal; Empress of Hindustan summoned she the chief nobles, and ad- all dressed them in reproachful terms. she said, ' * This,' has happened through your neg- and lect 263 What arrangements.* stupid never entered into the imagination of any one has come to pass, and now you stand stricken with shame must do your best The for You your conduct. to repair this evil.' bridge had been destroyed, and the nobles resolved to pass the river at a ford, and to give battle to the rebel. The was ford was a bad one, and everything whose " confusion. in account crossed one is I the (says quoted branch of the officer had above) river, standing on the brink of the and was other, watch- At this time an officer of the empress came and said, The Begam wants to know if this is a ing the working of destiny. ' time for delay boldly forward.'" the press, in * It is Khan. and irresolution. The empress Strike herself was mounted on an elephant, and impossible not to suspect treachery on the part of Asaf- Though Nur-Mahal was wife of Shah Jahan. his sister, his daughter was the The Mogul Emperors 264 opposite reached the nearly was defended by swarms attendant in the howdah was wounded, and with the not was a brave and skil- who had hunter single shot.* forced to defeated. This could blood. affright her, for she ful Her of Rajputs. pulled out the arrow and was the empress covered which shore, However, turn back, Asaf-Khan timers killed was she and with a at last army was the fled to his fort, which was invested and captured, and Asaf bound Khan. Mahabet- support the cause of himself to The emperor and mained prisoners re- Khan, who gave the of Nur-Mahal orders in their name. " His majesty, and gentleness,-)- *In to was a tiger in tlie be surrounded. smell of the tiger stand feat. has still; and I made to take told read: " My neighborhood. Nur-Jahan huntsmen reported ordered his retreat I to fire my musket. The the elephant very restless and he would not good aim from a howdah is a very difficult Mirza Rustam, who, after me, has no equal as a marksman, fired three or four shots from an elephant's back without effect. Nur-Jahan, however, killed f great good nature, his own Memoirs we Jahangir's that there in had now become reconciled this tiger with the Which, beyond a doubt, were assumed. first shot." Nur-Mahal, Empress of Hindustan to 265 Mahabet-Khan, and showed him great favor, so that he felt quite secure on that side. Whatever Nur-Mahal peror in and he bade him beware, some Besides, he had lost and public." less watchful. of his best soldiers She suggested to the to order a review of the troops, was an over-lord as she had a design Nur-Mahal worked against him in the fight. emperor for she Mahabet became upon him. em- he repeated to the Khan, private, in private said to the and of a district near by, she mustered a formidable array of cavalry devoted to her cause. The review was held, and Mahabet-Khan was prevailed upon many own of his to absent himself with troops, lest blood should be His weakness induced him to again shed. accede, and he left the emperor surrounded by only a portion of his Rajputs. At the review, the cavalry of the empress pressed close around this guard and overawed it, and once more the emperor was his own master — saved by his own crafty dissimulation by the more manly energy and of the empress. Mahabet-Khan received peremptory orders The Mogul Emperors 266 to march at once against Shah Jahan, and to He send Asaf-Khan back to court. hesitated to obey the latter order, " which greatly en- Beeam," who sent him a second rasfed the message which cowed him, and which was He promptly obeyed. set off on his journey with about two thousand troops, and joined his fortunes with Prince Shah Jahan, whom he had been sent to destroy. It was at this very time that Prince died in " a heavy sleep." Parwiz illness was attributed to excessive drinking, but, as Mu- His hammadans say in doubtful cases, " Allah Poisonings were knows if this be true." suspected of in this reign as freely as in that XIV Louis France, a century later. the custody of his brother Shah He was in Jahan. The of twenty-second year of the reign had now begun. of Jahangir all-powerful, but the forces were increasing. came ill, and was obliged ease, fell the ill, of Shah Jahan Sultan Shahriyar also beto leave where the emperor had gone. himself Nur-Mahal was Kashmir, The emperor with a return of his old asthma. He dis- refused wine, and ) Nur-Mahal, Empress of Hindustan rapidly 267 grew worse, and died October 28, 1627, at the age of fifty-nine years. Shah Jahan was his designated successor, but Nur-Mahal clung to the vain idea of retaining the reins of government which she had held so long, and intrigued Sultan Shahriyar to rebel. to cause The sons of Shah Jahan were still in the female apartments with Nur-Mahal, but they "were not safe with her," and they were accordingly removed from her charge. 1628, all By February, obstacles had been removed, and on the 6th of that month Shah Jahan ascended the throne after Shahriyar had been captured and " blinded.'^ Thus had he (through a sea of blood attained the highest post and dignity of the * Shahriyar was the most beautiful of when he was troubled with by Mukawab Khan. all the princes. Once a severe pain in his eyes, he was cured The emperor heard of his cure and cynically remarked, that no doubt his eyes would remain entirely well until they were put out by his brothers—as indeed came to pass. To insure a safe title to the throne, Shah Jahan felt obliged to do away with the sons of his brothers Khosrou, Parwiz, Daniel, and Morad. All these were executed and buried at Lahore, and their heads sent to Shah Jahan. the throne. His reign was not troubled by rival claimants to — The Alogul Emperors 2 68 Eastern world, surrounded with delights and guarded by a power, When sistable." his conceiving, unre- In Herbert wrote this (in 1638) the favorite Mumtaz-i- Mahal had been dead eight years, and was rumored he had it taken her daughter to wife, " incest of so high nature that that yeare his whole empire was wounded with God's arrowes of plague, pestilence, and famine, this thousand yeares before never so terrible." Nur-Mahal's influence was now completely name gone, and her her death respect, in 1645." not again heard of is till She was treated with and received a handsome income ninety-four thousand dollars (two lacs) a year as empress-dowager. She wore no color but white after the emperor's death, abstained from * and appeared to entertainments, all At the age of sixty years. Professor Blochmann (p. 510) says she died at Lahore in a.h. 1055 at the age of seventy-two. {Agra Guide) has the same remark. to have been A.D. 1585. Akbar was Keene believe the date of her birth I in the Penjab directing the campaigns against Kashmir and the Afghans during 15S6 and 1587. It was at this time, I think, that was presented Historians, vol. to the vi., p. emperor 404.) in the the father of city Nur-Mahal of Fathpur. {Native Nur-Mahal, Empress of Hindustan devote her life entirely to the husband. She is buried in memory tomb a at 269 of her Lahore, near Jahangir. It almost is impossible compare the to career and talents of an Asiatic and a West- ern The ruler. circumstances and our familiar standards unlike, utterly are fail. Bad, weak, and cruel as Jahangir was, he does not seem more despicable than James I. of England, for example, who was his contemporary. His empress was unsuccessful her plans, where no skill in wisdom would or have prevailed, while Elizabeth of England succeeded in her policy. contemporaries of the If While she Mahal was the greatest if we are forced to to the great Elizabeth for a comparison even. Asia, We think of the empress, Indian shall not find her equal. go back we lived, personage not in the whole world. term of Nurin all The Mogul Einperors 270 CHAPTER VII SHAH JAHAN AND AURANGZEB, EMPERORS OF HINDUSTAN (a.D. 1628-1658 AND A.D. 1658-I707) The reigns in Bernier, a man no gives princes a famous work by recounted Thomas two these of Monsieur less intelligent than Sir A Roe. are preface some small account of to his him. volume Mon- " sieur Bernier, after he had benefited himself for many years by the converse of the famous Gassendi, and had seen him expire in his arms, succeeded him in his knowledge, and inherited his opinions and discoveries, (then) embarked for Egypt, stayed above a whole year at Cairo, and took the occasion of some Indian vessels to pass to Surat, and abode twelve years Mogul. merit the at His the of the Great prudent conduct made him esteem of Fazel-Khan, court who his since is generous master, become the first SHAH JAHAN Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb minister of that great empire, to 271 whom he taught the principal languages of Europe, he had translated for him the whole after philosophy of Gassendi from the Latin, and whose leave he could not obtain to go home till he had eot for him a select number of European books, thereby our best to sup- ply the loss he should suffer of his person. Never a traveller went from home more capable to observe, nor hath written with more knowledge, candor, and And after this Surat in the year 1655. who that the preface begins by reciting Bernier " integrity." I his history of arrival at found that he reigned there was called Shah Jahan, is to say, king of the world. the tenth of those He was who were descended from Tamerlane, which signifieth the lame prince, who married his near kinswoman, the only daughter of the prince of the nations of Great Tartary, (thus) communicated stranorers that called Moguls, who have their name to now govern Hindustan, the the country of the Indians, though those that are employed in public charges and ofifices, The Mogul Emperors 272 and even those that are listed in the militia, be (from) nations gathered out of all coun- most of them Persians, some Arabians, tries, and some Turks." " found also at I my Shah arrival that this Jahan, of above seventy years of age, had four sons and two daughters ; some that years since he had made these four sons vice-kings, or governors of it provinces was almost a year that he was a great sickness, whence ; that fallen into was believed he it would never recover; which had occasioned a orreat (all division amono- these four brothers empire), and had laying claim to the kindled about among them five a war which years, and which I lasted design here to describe." We cannot follow the very intelligent nar- Aurangzeb, rative of Bernier of the rise of one of the four sons, compactly which is is set forth in a larre book of to power. the original itself. The is work, intricjue so close and constant that the narrative can scarcely bear condensation. to This my purpose to give in Bernier's It is more own words Shah Jahan and Aiirangzcb some of the Incidents of He sonal knowledge. 273 which he had per- was at this court In the quality of a physician under salary from one of the great lords who was, he most knowing man Asia." In be necessary to name the children It will of the king " : The eldest of these four sons was called Dara, that was called Sultan-Sujah, that prince zeb, name the ; which throne Bakche, as the the of Darius eldest Begum-Saheb, that is, ; is, the second the valiant was Aurang- ornament fourth you should If The plished. is, of the third signifies that ; says, " the was of the Morad- say, desire accom- daughter was called the mistress princess; and the youngest, Rauchenara-Begum, which is as much as bright princess, or the splendor of princesses." Here is Bernier's penetrating estimate of the character of the tyrants in : " good exceeding members of this nest of Dara, the eldest son, wanted not qualities. civil and He was liberal, gallant, witty, but entertained so good an opinion of his person that he was intolerant of all counsel, so that even those 2 Mogul Emperors ^-^^^ 74 most affectionate to him were shy in anger and affronted Though he was even the greatest nobles. Muhammadan in public, a mere heathen in laxness turned much against and is it Hindus and religion in a he was, probably, private, that he encouraged both This dis- He was covering secret intrigues to him. extremely passionate of was certain Jesuits. afterwards his advantaofe in the struorofles for the throne." * " Sultan-Sujah, the second son, was much humor of Dara, but he was more close and more settled, and had better conduct and of the dexterity." " Aurangzeb, the third brother, had not that Dara gallantry ; nor surprising presence of he appeared more serious and melan- was much more judicious, understanding the world very well. He was choly, and, indeed, reserved, crafty, dissembling ; and exceedingly versed in inasmuch that for a long while * Dara's adherents were chiefly Hindus, and the prince translated the Upanishads from Sanscrit into Persian. Miiller the makes basis of Professor the curious remark that Dara's Persian version the Latin declares that his system is translation founded. Max was upon which Schopenhauer Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb 275 he made profession to be {2^ fakir, renouncing the world, and feigning not to pretend at to the crown, but to desire to pass his life all in In the mean- prayer and other devotions. time he failed not to with dexterity, had the tion of " skill to art, make maintain himself Shah Jahan, He and secrecy. in also the affec- his father." Morad-Bakche, the youngest of the least dextrous and He a party at court the least all, was judicious. cared for nothing but mirth and pastime, to drink, hunt and liberal, and shoot ; he was very and bragged in his arm and despised cabals, openly that he trusted only civil sword." " est, Concerning the two daughters, the eld- Begum-Saheb, was very beautiful and a great wit, passionately beloved of her father. It was even rumored that he loued her to that degree as is hardly to be imagined. had given her charge to watch over and to table, have an eye to all that and she knew perfectly to He his safety came to his manage his humor, and to bend him as she pleased. She stuck entirely to Dara, and espoused The Mogul Emperors 276 cordially his part, because he had promised come her that so soon as he should crown he would which is (find a husband for her) almost never practiced ; Indostan" in were so (as the royal princesses to the rank far in above any subjects). Bernier relates one of the adventures of as " they are not amours like ours, but attended with events dreadful and this princess, tragical." It appears that she received one of her lovers into her apartments, and that, Shah Jahan was about to enter, she had nowhere to conceal him except in one of the as larore hot-water caldrons The emperor feigned made see to after a long visit sternly till Her " the man was a fire and did not dead. Rauchenara-Begum, sister, in. nothing, but commanded to be built beneath the bath, leave to bathe never passed for so handsome and witty as Begum- Saheb, but she was not less cheerful, and comely enough, and hated pleasures no more than her sister ; but she addicted herself wholly to Aurangzeb, and consequently declared herself an enemy to Begum-Saheb and Shah Jahan Aurangzeb Mumtaz-I- Mahal, their Dara." to ajid had been dead some for 277 mother, and was buried years, She her glorious tomb, the Taj-Mahal. in died in giving birth to the younger "So Shah sister. Jahan, finding himself charged with these four princes, pretending to the all crown, come of age, all enemies to one another, and each of them secretly forming a party, was perplexed enough as to what was fittest for him to do." They were too powerful to be imprisoned, and he was constrained to set them over distant parts of the empire, though this course gave each of them power and an army A trifling of his own. incident placed Aurangzeb in alliance with Emir-Jemla, luazii- of Golconda. These two great men were not long together till all, they framed large designs. the And, first of emperor was presented with "that great diamond which Presents is esteemed matchless.* and intrigue put the two friends new powers, and gave and every gain to them Dara, who was with his into the possession of them new armies seemed a loss ; to " This was the Kohinur. The Mogul Emperors 2/8 father at court. Shah Jahan must die. In the midst of these events fell sick, and Mighty armies were was thought he it raised by Dara at Agra and Delhi by Sultan-Sujah in Benby gal by Aurangzeb in the Deccan Aurangzeb caMorad-Bakche in Guzarat. ; ; ; joled the latter into joining forces with him, and the two set out for Agra to take posses- sion of the kinordom should their father be dead ; " to kiss his feet should he be alive, and to deliver him from the hands of Dara." a letter to Morad, Aurangzeb says, " In need not remind you, pugnant to my government. of my " I What, While Dara and sigh only for the then, should fortunate king, do, have no at all Agra re- real disposition are the toils Sujah are tormented with a minion, how brother, I who life thirst of Sultanfor do- fakir'' 2. Shah Jahan, this un- seeth that his sons recfard to his orders ; who is informed hours that they march apace towards at the head of their armies, and who at this conjuncture finds himself sick, to boot, in the hands of Dara, that is, of a man who ; Shah Jahan and Aurangzcb breatheth nothing but war it with all who prepareth ; for the marks of an enraged resent- ment asfainst his he do in this to 279 abandon brothers? extremity? them to But what could He constrained is He his treasures. is forced to send for his old and most trusty captains, to whom he knows for the most part be not very affectionate to Dara ; he must command them to fight for Dara against own blood, his own children, and those whom he is them obliged forthwith to send armies against all." first Aurangzeb all for he had more esteem than for Da'ra The were his not were Morad-Bakche, and far in was a decided victory battle from arms. Agra.* An army and for they Immediately of one hun- dred thousand horse, twenty thousand foot, and four thousand cannon was levied for the cause of Dara, in who forced a great battle which he was hopelessly defeated and * In this battle the hoivdah of Prince Murad's clepliant stuck thick with arrows as a porcupine with quills." It "was was long preserved as a curiosity, " also as a memorial of the bravery of a descendant of Timur." 28o The Mogul Emperors obliged to fly victorious brothers came desperate in case, while his gates of the to Agra, where presently the emperor's guards were overpowered and he was subject to their man was " If ever will. astonished, Jahan was, seeing that he was snare the others, which he himself was that Auranezeb master prisoned by done death to was defeated in prepared for and fortress." Morad-Bakche was imwily his into fallen imprisoned, of the a short time In had Shah by violence. a and brother, pitched had been, and was again. soon Sultan-Sujah battle All as Dara things fell out contrary to both these vanquished and unfortunate By men. Bernier met Dara strange a after his accident worst defeat, and saw him march away with an escort of no more than five had led hundreds later hundred cavalry, he of thousands. he again saw him in chains, A who few days a prisoner, borne on an elephant through the streets of Delhi. "This was none of of those brave elephants Ceylon or Pegu, that he was wont to Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb ride on, with gilt covers and dirty and a harness and embroidered, was an old it ; nasty, animal, caitiff an with seat pitiful 281 open to all cover torn old very- the sun. There was no more seen about him that necklace of big pearls which those wont are wear. to of coarse vest linen, All head scarf over like a varlet." By the vehement advice sister, Rauchenara-Begum, death, and to his bloody he was put to was brought head when brought, he wiped and after ing, * and bury The which, it was the a-weeping, say- fell Ah, unfortunate man " ; with a handker- it he was satisfied very head of Dara, he youngest of his Aurangzeb, that he might see chief, a with a tur- dirty, ban of the same, and a wretched his was dress his all princes Take ! it away " it. ' family of Dara was disposed by death or by imprisonment. of either Sultan-Sujah fled to the sea-shore by the Ganges' mouth, and sufferings after his flight. incredible perished Shah Jahan was confined tual prison until his death. The in in a vir- walls of his The Mogul Emperors 282 apartments were covered with gilding, but them the monarch ordered be smeared to over with rough mortar as more suited to humbled his condition and ; his in last days he grew very devout. And " lust of reigning had brothers, four six years, left endeth this war, which the thus after among kindled had lasted it those five or from 1655 to 1660 or 1661, which Aurangzeb the peaceable possession in of this puissant empire." " To conclude, those of who will judge for getting I shall doubt not have read that my most history, ways taken by Aurangzeb the the empire very violent and horrid. " I pretend only desire not reflection unhappy custom plead for he before that condemned, to be him, but be altogether made of this state, on which, the leav- ing the possession of the crown undecided, exposeth est. a I little it am to the conquest of the strong- persuaded that those who weigh this whole take Aurangzeb for a history, will shall not barbarian, but for a Shah Jahan a?id Atirangzeb 283 and rare genius, a great statesman, great and a great king. " the beginning of his reign Aurangzeb At wisdom received with admirable who had come advancement. The his former to court expecting great tutor interview reported by is Bernier directly from the recital of one who was present. " ' What that is it you would have Can you reasonably make you one of the court me Let ? instructed me that desire I should chief noblemien of you, tell have nothing would have been more my had you if you should as me? of done, But just. where are those good documents you should have given me taught I know me In the ? that all not what greatest king first place you have Europe was nothing but little was he island, of of Portugal, which the and next he of Holland, and after him, he of England and as to the other kings, 3^ou them sented me telling to me as raphy ! have repre- our petty that they tremble at the of the kings of Indostan. You ; rajahs, names Admirable geog- should rather have taught me The Mogtil Emperors 284 exactly distinguish to their strength, their of fighting, their I names of ers of this me my You had empire. the Arabian tongue. much time upon lose so to whom him time is to mind a to am much I having made a language, as the son of a king should an honor to the grandsires, the famous found- to you, forsooth, for obliged inter- you have scarce learned of ests. if way governments, and customs, religions, me dijfferent and to well understand states of the world teach those all think it to be be a grammarian so precious for so ; he many weighty things, which he ought betimes to learn. instructed tial to Ought you not . . . me on one point, to have at least, so essen- be known by a king, namely, on the reciprocal duties between the sovereign and his subjects the art of Did you ever ? war, draw up an army me that I in battle ! Henceforth who thou to me in besiege a town, or array Happy ? for consulted wiser heads than thine on these subjects lage. how instruct art, Go let or what ! withdraw to thy vil- no person know either is become of thee.' Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb 285 And " thus did Aurangzeb resent the pedantic instructions of his tutor." * Bernier's narrative has great merit, and it has been given consecutively without interruption from other the In reasons. authorities, for place, first it which we can understand, since by one ourselves of — an is it several a recital written is He Occidental. was especially qualified as an observer, for he was the friend and pupil of the learned Gassendi, and fully acquainted with classic He and Western knowledge. sician was the phy- and friend of the most learned man of the court of the Great Mogul, and had special opportunities for knowing the events of the time. * I In one instance, at least, he am tempted to add in a foot-note the instructions given by the great Caliph Haroun-al-Raschid to his " Never undertake to teach anxious to give till all I me superfluity. of equity in my me When I do so, you see decisions, lead mentor Al-Asma'i. in public, Make advice in private. ask you, and when able to is give me it and do not be too your custom to wait a precise answer void of that I am departing from the way me back again with gentleness, and without harsh words or reprimands. such things as are most requisite for my Instruct me principally in public speeches, and never employ obscure or mysterious terms or recondite words." There spoke a tyrant who understood human nature and his own nature in particular. in general, The Mogul Emperors 286 a had private, in tlie emperor from the direct report of who was master which the conversation report At present. one of least emperor's letters which he quotes, actually saw he in the original. His work was written after his return to Europe, when he had no reason to He thing but the exact truth. to fear his tell any- had nothing from the displeasure, and nothing to hope from the favor, of the court. This cannot be said for the native historians of They wrote India. the for the eye and ear of monarch, and their narratives usually represent the official In certain cases view of past events. the native author has not published his history during his lifetime, but kept it secret, and has spoken freely. His family, in this case, suffered in his stead for the posthumous publication.* On the other hand, the native historians had the cfi'eat advantaofe of first-hand knowl- edge such as a foreigner could but rarely possess. The extracts which follow * This was notably the case of Bedauni. have been (See Chapter IV.) Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb chosen from Sir Henry Elliott's 287 invaluable collection, for the purpose of illustratino- the characters of the rulers and of their times. Little attention torical sequence of events. this sort has been must be sought histories, like those of ter, Mill paid and the his- to Knowledge for in of professed Elphinstone and Hun- Elliott. Shah Jahan. A glimpse of Shah Jahan when he was but crown-prince is given in the narrative of Sir Thom.as Roe, who says : settled a countenance, nor " never saw so I any man keep so constant a gravity, never smiling, nor in face showing any respect or difference of men, but mingled with extreme pride and contempt of all." He was then but twenty-five years old, cold, haughty, soldier, silent, an able administrator. " a competent He was flat- tered by some, envied by others, loved by none." The inevitable struggles for the succession to the throne of his father, Jahangir, brought him into sharp conflict with his The Mogul E^nperors 288 brothers, his father, and the Empress Nur- Mahal. The to tlie professional historian dreary task of following their wars and conquests if he wishes to understand the But these events course of political events. throw little on the character of the X\<A\\. Everywhere we personages. husbandman living in approach of at the condemned is find the Hindu and flying his village comers. all they are If on a peaceful mission, he must furnish provision for their beasts; war, his husbandman we have the the chief, king — all the over-lord, of for action," them Above ravaged. are fields they are bent on if the petty soldier, great and warriors, the noble, the "craving all Their expeditions were all alike, and the history could be prepared before- hand on one of two models was successful or not gems appear and so. — either the war The same reappear. On strata- the death of a king, his sons strive for the succession. The army of each pretender, at reenforced by those little to lose. The first who have much small, is to gain or unsuccessful princes fly Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb go on the pilgrimage to Persia, imprisoned for life, 289 Mecca, are to are blinded with hot irons, accordingf to the decrree of the discomfiture The or the mildness of the kincr's temper. of recital the events these of details monotonous a dormir debout; is unless, indeed, from time to time we can catch some glimpse of the real personality of the ruler, and hear his very accents or read his very writings. The reign eventful than respects. It none of his through the public Shah Jahan of that of even is Jahangir less these in was peaceful because he left It is memorable rivals alive. surpassing which buildings loveliness caused he the of to be erected. The Taj-Mahal, "a dream designed by Titans lers;"* the Pearl Mumtaz-i-Mahal, " beauty of the Indies, Mosque he never enjoyed any other she it of was raised Agra, "the in his wife, that extraordinary whom marble, and finished by jewel- * Bernier says of the Taj that Bibi, in honor of Taj- and celebrated he loved so passionately that woman it is while she lived, and that died he was in danger to die himself," said when The Taj has been described a thousand times, but never with more delicate insight than by M. Andre Chevrillon in the Revue des Deux Mondes, The Mogul Emperors 290 purest and loveliest house of prayer world ; the " of the palace mosque great same and exquisite constructions The reign famous forever. the ; the Delhi of royal city in — these noble make will his early period of cruelty to his enemies and extermination of the rival claimants to the throne was suc- ceeded by an era of peace, prosperity, and magnificence by which he alone now is remembered. The public buildings absorbed enormous The famous "peacock throne" was sums. alone valued at above sixty million dollars. * One of was rubies its breadths wide fingers' " upwards {sic) by two of in three length." This was, perhaps, the famous stone, " the tribute of the world," given by Shah Abbas The royal treasuries of Persia to Jahangir. overflowed with jewels and gold and civ, vol. she lived the king While liair ; page 91 (iSgi). she bore like to die world : ; this Mumtaz-i-Mahal has no public was held captive him many sons and daughters in her is all memory he in ; at history. the tresses of her her death he was raised the chief building of the her history, and it is round enough. * According to Tavernier, a French jeweller, India. silver. who travelled in Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb "In the course had come gems house, each into the the imperial jewel- These were given goldsmith chief mous valuable one of which might serve as an eardrop for Venus." to many of years 291 throne. make to was canopy Its the fa- literally covered with gems and was supported by columns twelve set with On pearls. the top of the canopy was a peacock wdth ex- tended three thick tail steps were with precious This throne remained the wonder stones. of India until Shah, incrusted The gems. with set in it \vas carried aw^ay 1739. -^^ is but displaced and dispersed. its to be still Teheran, chief by Nadir- jewels It is seen in have been even now valued at thirteen million dollars.* Tavernier the jeweller has his word to say of the Taj-Mahal. one sees Jahan is "Of all the tombs which at Agra, that of the wife of the most splendid. It is at Shah the east * There were six other thrones, Tavernier says, and the native historians describe one which was also ornamented with peacocks, arranged two and two. See a paper by Dr. Ball, on the engraved gems of the Moguls, in Proc. R. Irish Acad., vol. iii., p. 3S0. The Mogul Emperors 292 end of the town, by the side of the a great square surrounded by square is river, In This walls. a kind of garden divided into com- partments like our parterres, places where we put and black marble. but gravel there ... in the white is witnessed the I commencement and accomplishment of this great work, on which they have expended twenty-two years, thousand men worked Shah Jahan began which during twenty incessantly. to build his . . . own tomb on the other side of the river, but the war which he had with his sons interrupted his plan, and Aurangzeb, who reigns disposed to complete at present, is not Tavernier has it." also left an expert's opinion on the crownjewels, at which he was permitted to examine leisure. The curious in such matters should consult his Travels in India, edited by V. Ball. Shah Jahan's entertainments were on a magnificent scale. The festival given on his accession, together with the presents to his ofihcers, cost eight million dollars. gifts to the two sacred cities His were on a Shah Jahaii and Aurangzeb corresponding of this year Among " scale. was the despatch stick studded with tomb of the Q-ems 293 the events candle- of a the to revered Medina), on whom be the greatest favors and blessings." The Prophet was candlestick (in amber, of about eighteen pounds, and covered gems, with and it weighed was literally a monster including diamond from Golconda, which alone was valued at " lars. over seventy- five thousand dol- One taxed to a holy cities of peace)." provinces was subject provide magnificent gifts besides, and ant the of special embassy was sent to the under the charge of a descend- the All Prophet these whom (on and other were dispersed when the sacred be the splendors were cities despoiled by the Wahabees. This lavish expenditure was the mark of a peaceful and prosperous reign. was not oppressive, and grew to be kind ; in his later the revenue was and the surplus was devoted government works. popular with The king He was his officers, to years plenty, immense certainly very especially in the Mogul Emperors 294 T^^^^ latter part of his reign. most that to It is be noted Shah Jahan of the anecdotes of which have come down to us represent the king as always worsted an exchange of in repartee. Rai Bhara Mai says that happy times the prosperity greatly increased of domains which that ; Shah Jahan's the land was in Akbar's reign yielded but three in now lacs, yielded ten, and that this was the rule with some few " exceptions. Notwithstanding the great area of the country, complaints were few that so only Wednesday, was one fixed istration of justice; day upon and in week, the for the admin- was rarely even it then that twenty plaintiffs were found." The subordinate courts districts full seem to liberty of cases of blood in the country have been organized with appeal, so feuds that and finally concerning only reli- gious matters came directly to the king. Aurangzeb. Bernier has given strong evidence to the great qualities of Aurangzeb. The native Shah Jahan and Atirangzeb own way, each in his writers, judgment. 295 confirm the have extracted a few para- I graphs from the very complete histories of this and reign, own emperor's some have given letters almost in full the of ; but I — The Ruin refer to the succeeding chapter of Aurangzeb" — for a masterly picture of the " whole career of the puritan emperor, from his austere of his youth to the troubled ending power. The Habits and Manners of Aurangzeb. " Be known it going to describe refined monarch, morals his own Almighty the worthy of this according them with of the work is a correct manner the In excellent character, the Emperor to the readers of this humble slave that this the as he habits, and most virtuous has witnessed eyes." The emperor, a great worshipper of God by natural propensity, is remarkable " for his rigid attachment to religion." regularly prayers, makes fasts, the and appointed vigils. He ablutions, Several pages The Mogul Emperors 296 devoted to a are " In acts. of list sacred his backbiting or falsehood no word of court is must have been a blessing allowed Under the " which ; a country of in and a glaring novelty intrigue, " meritorious his in courts. dictates of anger or passion " Islam he never issues orders of death." is everywhere triumphant, and the Hindu tem" All the ples are destroyed." the mosques in empire are repaired at the public ex- A pense." works digest all the theological the royal library was ordered to in be prepared, The very any inquirer might on the points of orthodoxy. essence —was of strancje that so satisfy himself leit-motiv of the of long reign — its the return from the worship Islam. (rods to "The emperor himself is perfectly ac- quainted with the commentaries, traditions, and law ; and he learned the heart after ascendino: the throne. made two copies of it with his which he sent to the two holy " So long Kuran by He even own hand, cities." as nature keeps the garden of the world fresh, may the plant of the pros- Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb perity of honor continue dignity and garden preserver of the this of of The fruitful." four daughters of Aurangzeb were One 297 all pious. them knew the Kuran by heart. Another was an Arabic and Persian scholar in and poetry, and learned prose Muhammadan been having law, in the taught under the emperor's own eyes. It is interesting to take note of the effect of intermarriages upon the purity of blood of Mogul emperors. the (so-called) Babar was the sixth in direct descent from Tamerlane, and was line. pure Turki stock of His mother, Mogul, a Babar was, partly Mogul. descendant One of pure a Chengiz-Khan. partly and ; his Turki and wives was to Humayun, was her Babar, every reason was the male a relation of Sultan Husein Mirza of Herat of of therefore, Maham-Begam, cessor however, in believe mother was pure Turki. son. suc- There is Humayun's that Her the father was a direct descendant of Tamerlane. Humayun made a rash marriage of incli- nation during the period of his misfortunes ; The Mogul Emperors 298 and wanderings At (a.d. 1541). his brother, camp he married Prince Hindal's, the young daughter of Hindal's preceptor, Sheikh Ali Akbar Jami she was not fourteen years of ; age, and far below the emperor rank, in al- though she was a descendant of the Prophet, and counted least at one among saint her Her father's family was from Her name was Hamida.* Khorassan. Akbar the Great was the son of Hamida ancestors. and his son Jahangir was born of Akbar's marriage with the daughter Bihari rajah, Shah Jahan, Mal.f was the son cessor, a of of Jahangir's Hindu his first sucwife, Maldeo the granddaughter of the Rajah of Jodhpur. Shah mother Jahan's of all queen favorite his sons and the was Mumtaz-i-Mahal, the niece of Nur-Mahal (Jahangir's queen), daughter the of Asaf-Khan, the grand- daughter of Mirza Ghiyas Beg, a Persian. Aurangzeb, the emperor, was * Her Mary, t was Maryam Makani — dwelling with son of the Virgin She was not a Christian. Her period. title the title was the Maryam uzzamani — Mary of the age, of the Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb and Mumtaz-i-Mahal, little Turk! blood acters of the In had, but therefore, The veins. his 299 char- male ancestors are well known. Of the female we know next to nothing, excepting always the famous Empress NurMahal. way In a general blood of strain Hindu the effect of the not difficult to trace is in the characters of the successive monarchs as we follow the line from the frank, bold, generous Babar, through the humaner, and though not Jahangir, the down king, youth less to indolent The to to self-indulgent in his very model of a magnifi- aristocratic Hindu. chief characteristics are reign and and Akbar, Shah Jahan, who was, at least, the cent, cold, adventurous, be of attributed Aurangrzeb's more Muhammadanism than to perament. When we consider that bio-oted to tem- his all his these kings are of the stock of Chengiz-Khan and of the Amir Timur, savage that blood the gradual thinning of by the richer, luxurious Hindu and Persian streams serves least this brief digression. at more de- The Mogtd Emperors 300 On as Aurangzeb could be occasion, Timur When Sambha himself. as cruel and Kab- kalas were taken prisoners, and were abusive to him whil^ chains before the throne, he in ordered their tongues to be cut out, " that they might no longer speak disrespectfully." " After that their eyes and finally they, death with were were to be torn out," with ten others, were put to a variety of " infidels Hindus, These tortures. Muhamma- (not " dans), however. Shah Jahan was kept at end the of his closely in the citadel reign, and Aurangzeb communicated with him only by one of them he states his letters. position apparent humility, and, recounting his tories over his brothers, hopes " with vic- soon to be " It is clear to free of this business." In your Majesty that Almighty Allah bestows his trusts upon one who discharges the duty of cherishing his people. It is that a wolf is subjects and protecting the manifest and clear to wise not fit for a shepherd, men and that no poor-spirited man can perform the great duty of governing. Sovereignty signifies Shah Jahaii and Atcraugzcb 301 protection of the people, not self-indulgence and Thus libertinism." proudly, though in outwardly respectful form, he his justifies who course to his captive father and king, had been a wolf and not a shepherd. His crafty letters to spirit appears Murad Bakhsh, where he have not the slightest liking take any deceitful is, that part in, may make I for, my ; the " When Murad sincere or wish to of this only desire (to you may conand friend was a prisoner was necessary in ally." Aurangzeb's to send secretly, for fear of a rescue. him away Four elephants were prepared, and were sent under escort On four different directions. the I But whatever course you may take me your it his : pilgrimage against our brother (Dara), camp, says the government and unstable world Mecca). sider one of in captive prince was one of these placed, but his on which one, and partisans could not tell dared not attack four. all in Though Aurang- zeb was endowed with every kind of courage, physical and moral, he was ever crafty and suspicious. It was not in his nature to be The Mogid Einpcrors 302 frankly bold like Babar ; but as age came on he grew kinder and more indulgent to erring human of though no nature, distrustful less it. He journeyed with Wariness, and where he halted There Wariness halted herself, his comrade. We have a picture of the king a Neapolitan traveller. though the year of his age, by Gemelli, seventy-sixth tion, in is it It is worth quota- but a superficial and trivial The Neapolitan portrait at the best. could not comprehend a nature like the emperor's. " Soon the king after, came in, leaning on a staff forked at the top, abundance of courtiers going before him. vest, a He had on a white turban of the same white tied with a gold web, stuff, on which an emerald of a vast bigness appeared amidst four ones. A hano-intj the silk the His shoes were after fashion, without hose. flies little sash covered the Indian dagger at the left. Moorish and Two and his legs servants put naked, away the with long white horse-tails; another, at same time, keeping off the sun with green umbrella. The king was a of low stature. Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb 303 with a large nose, slender and stooping with age (he was now seventy-six years The has been said). old, as whiteness of his round beard was more visible on his olive-colored When skin. he was seated, they gave him down Then he his cimeter and buckler, which he laid on his left side, within the throne. made a si^jn O wdth his business to draw near two for those that had who being come up, hand ; secretaries, standing, took their petitions, which they delivered to the king, their contents. them with and by his I admired to see telling him indorse own hand, without his cheerful, smiling him spectacles, countenance seem pleased with the employment." After the audience of the grandsons and the great sons and kingf's was over, officers the king retired, and the court returned to their tents, led by the provost-marshal, w^ho was preceded by a great trumpet copper eight spans long. trumpet made me " That foolish made a our swine-herds make laugh, because noise much" like that of green it to call together their swine at nieht." In the fiftieth year of the reign, when he The Mogul Emperors 304' was eighty-eight years seriously for old, Aurangzeb fell His son, Azam-Shah, wrote ill. leave to visit him, urging that the air his station did not agree with his health. of " This displeased the emperor, who replied that he had once written a letter of exactly the same effect to when he was ill, answer that every and that Shah Jahan, he was told in air (Jiawa) was suitable to his father, a man, except the fumes {Jiawd) of ambition." Aurangzeb writes To before his death. " Health to thee I came a stranger stranger what I I depart, his My ! Old age has arrived two sons not long to his heart heir he says is near thee. weakness subdues me. ; into and a this world, knowing nothing of myself, am, or for what am I instant which has passed in only sorrow behind it. I The destined. power hath valuable time has been passed vainly. ments I my may be left have not been the guardian and protector of the empire. a dread for : I My have salvation and with what tor- punished. Though I have strong reliance on the mercies of Allah, yet regarding my actions fear will not quit me. Shah Jahari and Aurangzeb Come, what may, then, my grandson, whom ter) appears afflicted To thoughts of foolish Farewell." younger and most beloved my nearest to heart. it the fruits of profit my own none of the ! I came here Be cautious will arise), upon my head. death come fast upon me. however It is deceitful, yet that or that their The agonies of The courtiers, must not be ill-treated. necessary to gain your ends by gentle- ness and art. am I ever good or evil you. alone, faithful are slain (in the troubles which he foresees fall and imperfections. sins ... depart. depart a my own insignificance, me ? I carry with me Surprising Providence I I son, My son, " : Now . . . and lament what does miseries the only is the Prince Kam-Bakhsh, he writes and alone daugh- (his nothing but disappointment. Farewell. his stranger, but the see, but Allah ; my prayer to last cannot I The judge of hearts. Farewell. my The Begam desire affects me. women produce have launched I Give vessel in the waves. 305 . . . No I going. . have done, . . it Whatwas for one has seen the departure The Mogul Emperors 3o6 of own his soul, but I see that mine is departing." To him that all the moral of his long reign was Abdulrahman years have of time I He, vanity. is old, in : " Fifty reigned, and in so long a course I count but fourteen days which have some vexation." the emperor was nearly ninety years and had reigned to the Caliph the Spain, might say of not been poisoned by When like mercy fifty years, He of Allah. left a letter he renounced the magnificent tomb. " dust quickly to the Carry first he departed a will ; pomp and of a this creature of burial place, and consign him to the earth without any useless coffin," His funeral expenses he wrote. were paid from money which he had himself earned by transcribing the Kuran, and they were limited to the smallest possible sum. According to the will of the king, his mortal a tomb con- remains were to be deposited in structed during his lifetime. **A red stone three yards in length, two a few inches in depth, tomb. On this stone is in width, and only placed above the was hollowed out a Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb 307 place for the reception of earth and seeds, and odoriferous herbs there diffused their fragrance round about." One of Aurangzeb's high nobles has left us an affecting account of the emperor's death. " My attachment to his majesty was so great observing his life to be drawing to a that, close, did not wish to quit the presence. I The emperor called me to him and said Separation now takes place between us, and : ' our meeting again uncertain. is Forgive, whatever wittingly or unwittingly then, I may have done against thee, and pronounce the words Iforgive, three times, with sincerity of heart. As thou hast served me long, I also forgive thee whatever knowingly or otherwise thou mayst have done against me.' Upon hearing these words sobs became like my a knot in speak. At throat, last, edly pressed me, the words by heavy made I I forgive, sobs. me I had not power to after his majesty had repeat- a shift to pronounce three times, interrupted He peated the words, ordered and shed many and, after to retire." tears, re- blessing me, The Mogul Emperors 3o8 Khafi-Khan, writes of who knew Aurangzeb him that well, " of all the sovereigns of the house of Timur, no one has ever been so distinguished for devotion, austerity, and justice. In courage, and long-suffering, sound judgment he was But, unrivalled. from reverence to the injunctions of the law, and he did not make use of punishment ; without punishment the administration of a country cannot be maintained." plan and project that he " So every formed came (finally) to little good." He was the last of the can be called great. Mogul kings who .^ M'l AURANGZEB The Ruin of Aurangzeb CHAPTER THE RUIN OF AURANGZEB VIII ; OR THE HISTORY OF A REACTION Sir William By 309 * Wilson Hunter, LL.D., K.C.S.I., C.I.E., ETC. When Dr. Johnson wanted a modern ex- ample of The Vanity of Huma7i Wishes, he But took the career of the Royal Swede. during the same period that witnessed the glories brief Charles of Twelfth the in Europe, a more appalling tragedy of wrecked ambition was being Within a year of Aurangzeb, the last set out with Within India. * his enacted the' East. in Charles's birth of grand army for Southern year of Charles's a William Wilson is Hunter, the author of by whose kind permission circulate fatal necessary to explicitly say in this place that the British It is in 1681, the Great Mughals, copyright in this chapter duced in this it in it, the property American book ; of Sir it is repro- with the authority, however, to England and the Colonies. Edward S. Holden. ; The Mogul Emperors 3IO march army i/oS, Aurangzeb's grand to Russia in by a quarter lay shattered and defeat of victory was dying ; of old age of a century Aurangzeb himself and a broken heart while his enemies feasted around his starv- ing camp, and prayed heaven for long life whose obstinacy and de- to a sovereign in The spair they placed their firmest hopes. Indian emperor and the Swedish king were men alike highest able of severe simplicity of courage, and personal The memory will. of both life, of is of the indomit- stained by History can never forget that great crimes. Charles broke an ambassador on the wheel, and that Aurangzeb imprisoned and murdered As emperor fought and conquered so grander was lines, father his brethren. But here the analogy ends. arena, his character his and the Indian in laid his catastrophe a mightier scale. He knew how a wider out on came on to turn back the torrent of defeat, by commanding his elephant's ground swift in yet the legs to be chained to the thick of the battle, with a deliberate valour which Charles The Ruin of Aurangzed might have envied. He meshes of a homicidal could 311 spread the intrigue, enjoying all the time the most lively consolations of gion and he could pursue a ; humane repugnance with reli- State policy the necessary to crimes, yet with an inflexible assent to them, From which Richelieu would have admired. the meteoric transit of Charles the Twelfth history learns its highest purpose when he used point a moral, or adorn a ruin of sturdy English probably put that vainglorious career satirist to The little. tale.' Aurangzeb the downfall Empire dates, it From of the and the history of * to the Mughal modern India begins. The house of Timur had brought with it to India the adventurous hardihood of the steppes, Tartar dian in and the unsapped tent. the vitality of Babar, the founder of the In- Mughal Empire in 1526, was the sixth descent from Timur, and during six more own dynasty proved prolific marked types. Each succeeding generations his of strongly emperor, from father to son, was, for for good, a genuine original man. In evil or Babar The Mogul Emperors 312 himself, The literally Lion, dynasty had produced Humayun, knight-errant gee man and Akbar, in ; its hero epic its and royal its It Auranofzeb stigmatise now was a as bring to whom ruler a in ; refu- drunkard talented magnificent palace-builder Jahan. Mughal consolidator and states- its Jahangir, in ; its the Shah in forth in hostile writers and cold-hearted usurper, whom Muhammadan ; historians venerate as a saint, Aurangzeb was born on the night 4th of November 1618, and before he reached the age of ten, his father, succeeded to the of the Shah Jahan, had throne of his ancestors. His mother, The Exalted of the Palace, was the last of the great queens directed the fortunes of a who shared and Mughal Emperor. Married when just out of her teens, she bore thirteen children to her husband, giving birth to a fourteenth. years of wedded sorrowful. infancy life Of her in Her nineteen had been splendid but children, or childhood. band raised and died eight died Her bereaved in hus- to her, in sight of his palace, the The Ruin of Aurangzeb most beautiful tomb the marble, with its bears her Persian a ; crowns title far countries in cupolas floating upwards like bubbles into the sky. Palace It bank of the Jumna, a dream lofty silver in the world. 313 title, To this The Exalted day it of the which travellers from many have contracted into the Taj Mahal. She left behind her four sons and two Her daughters. eldest surviving child the Princess Imperial, of the World ; The the Ornament a masterful but affectionate and not girl of seventeen, frailties. named was Princess free from feminine Imperial succeeded to her mother's place in her father's heart. During the remaining twenty-seven years of his reign, she guided his policy trolled his palace ; and during and con- his last eight years of dethronement and eclipse, she shared his imprisonment. travellers at Delhi The great rest-house for was one of her many splendid charities. She died with the fame of her past beauty still the age of sixty-seven. to a saint's and to a fresh, unmarried, at Her grave poet's, in lies close that cavipo 314 1^^^<^ Mogul Emperors santo of marble latticework, and exquisite and embroidered canopies carving, and gold, near the of Flail beyond the Delhi Pillars, of silk the Sixty-four But only a walls. piece of pure white marble, with a grass little piously watered by generations, marks the Let no rich canopy sur- princess' grave. mount my * was her dying resting place,' junction, inscribed on the headstone. grass in- This ' the best covering for the grave of a is lowly heart, the humble and transitory Orna- ment of the Man of Chist, the daughter of the World, the disciple of the holy Emperor Shah Jahan.' But the magnificent mosque of Agra is the public memorial of the lady who lies in that The Palace, modest grass-covered grave. eldest son of The Exalted One year younger than the Princess Imperial, he became the object of her ardent affection through troubles that were to devoted was an the and the heir apparent to the empire, was Prince Dara. she of herself fall to life. upon the family his cause. open-handed, high-spirited contemptuous of advice, In the Dara prince, and destitute of The Ruin of Auraiigzeb He self-control. had a noble and dignified except when bearing, 315 he At such moments he would temper. his lost burst out into a tornado of abuse, insulting and menacing the ereatest grenerals and officers of State. The observances of Islam, with rigid petual round of prayers and were all And seraglio. wards Christianity and fasts, he had madan, and Hindu to choose from, Court and the per- Muham- Christian, religions. rival long its distasteful to his nature. the its in the Dara leaned to- Hinduism. contemptuously continuing Muhammadan, he concocted in While externals a an for himself easy and elegant faith from the alternate teaching of a Brahman philosopher and French Jesuit. He shocked good Mussul- mans by keeping an establishment Hindus to a of learned translate their infidel scriptures He into Persian. even wrote a book himself to reconcile the conflicting creeds. His next brother Shuja was a more creet young prince. nobles, courageous well-laid plans, Conciliatory to dis- the and capable of forming he might also have been able The Mogul Emperors 3i6 to execute them, but for his love of pleasure. In the midst of critical he would sud- affairs, denly shut himself up with the ladies of his palace, and give days and nights to wine, and song, and dance no minister of State ; Like his elder daring to disturb his revels. brother, he too fell Suni the of faith away from the orthodox Muhammadans. Indian But Shuja's defection was due to deliberate He policy. sia, adopted the Shia heresy of Per- with the hope of winning the Persian adventurers, then powerful at Court and in the army, to side his in the struggle which he foresaw must take place for the throne. Next to him named The in the family Brilliant less talented Lady ; than her elder came the princess less beautiful sister, and but equally ambitious, and fonder of gifts and of display. She attached herself to the cause of the third brother Aurangzeb, after herself. born fourteen months The youngest of the four brethren was Prince Murad, six years younger than Aurangzeb. Muhammadan Murad grew up knight ; generous, a model polite, a The Riiin of Aurangzeb 317 despiser of Intrigue, and devoted to war and the He chase. boasted and that secrets, sword to win he his looked way he that had only to no his But as to fortune. years passed on, his shining qualities were tar- nished by an increasing indulgence at the table, him, and the struggle for the throne found still a brave soldier indeed, but also a glutton and a drunkard. In the midst of this ambitious and voluptu- ous Imperial family, a very different character was being matured. silently Aurangzeb, the third brother, ardently devoted study. heart, In after-life he and his knew memory was himself to Kuran by the a storehouse of the literature, sacred and profane, of Islam. He had himself a facility for verse, and wrote a prose style at once easy and dignified, run- ning up the complete literary gamut from pleasantry to pathos. to his Sons, thrown ofT His Persian Letters in the camp, or on the march, or from a sick bed, have charmed Indian readers during two centuries, and sell in the Punjab bazaars. he transmitted in still His poetic faculty a richer vein to his eldest The Mogul Emperors 3i8 whose verses survive under her daughter, norn de But plume literary graces margin of a led Incognita. man and sombre learning. of into the ethical which still form the too exclu- Muhammadan orthodox an the stern religion of Islam. tion of one unseen prayer personal and grammat- His whole nature was education. His of the old scholastic philosophy, ical subtleties basis merely formed the illuminated solid him deep sive The the case of Aurangzeb, poetry and in tutor, a of God, five crowded celebrations Its its filled with pure adora- calm pauses for each times day, its of public worship, and those exaltations of the soul which spring from fasting and high-strained meditation, formed the Aurangzeb. youthful which he pleasures, on his realities the to outer world its in and pageants was merely an irksome intrusion inner life. to brotlier scornfully a The moved, with him wishing To existence of We turn shall hermit. presently see His eldest nicknamed him The young Muhammadan prince devout temper the outer world was Saint. of this at that The Ruin of Aurangzeb time full of The sadness. 319 heroic soldiers of the Early Empire, and their not less heroic had wives, place given to vicious a and The ancestors of Aurangzeb, who swooped down on India from the North, were ruddy men in boots. The courtiers among whom Aurangzeb grew delicate breed of grandees. up were pale persons in the founder of the empire, had river swum every which he met with during thirty years campaigning, of Babar, petticoats. including Indus and the the other great channels of the Punjab, and the mighty Ganges herself twice during a ride 160 miles in two days. of The luxurious lords around the youthful Aurangzeb wore skirts made of innumerable folds of the white muslin, and went to war On a royal march, in finest palankeens. when not on duty with the Emperor, they were carried, says an eyewitness, ease ' till stretched as on a bed, sleeping at they reached their next tent, where they are sure to find an excellent dinner,' a duplicate kitchen being sent on the night before. A hereditary system of compromise with 320 Mogul Emperors TJie strange gods had eaten the heart out of the Aurangzeb's rehgion. State great-grand- father Akbar, deliberately accepted that sys- tem of compromise the as Akbar discerned empire. Muhammadan of rulers basis that all the of previous had India crushed between two opposite forces been be- ; tween fresh hordes of Mussulman invaders from without, and the dense hostile masses of Hindu population the within. He con- ceived the design of creating a really national empire in India, by enlisting the support of He the native races. married, and he com- pelled his family to marry, the daughters of Hindu princes. He abolished the Infidel Tax on the Hindu population. He threw open the highest highest offices in the State, commands the in and the army, to Hindu leaders of men. The response made ciliation in forms the most instructive episode One Hindu Indian history. dued to this policy of con- for Akbar Bengal and Orissa provinces of and organised, as his the ; general sub- great finance minister, the revenue system of the The Ruin of Aurangzcb Mughal Another Hindu general Empire. A governed the Punjab. southwards two command madan rising A Calcutta. went thus for Muham- a not his far from led an imperial and was Akbar's dearest whose death the emperor twice While Hindu leaders mourning. into down districts field, from miles Brahman bard division in the friend, thousand in was hurried third Kabul, to put in 321 commanded the armies and shaped the policy of the empire, formed the backbone Hindu revenue of its officers administration, and the Hindu military races supplied the flower of confederation Hindu, that lono; as troops. its it It was on Mussulman and the Mughal Empire rested, so of interests, endured. Akbar had not, however, been content He believed it must be with a political confederation. that if this political the empire was to last, based on a religious coalition of the Indian races. He accordingly constructed a State religion, catholic be acceptable to scheme of a enough, as he thought, to all his subjects. Such a universal religion had, during The Mogul Emperors 32 2 two hundred years, been the dream of Hindu reformers and the text of wandering preachers throughout India. On the death of the Bengal saint of the fifteenth century, the Muhammadans and Hindus contended for The saint suddenly appeared in his body. their midst, and, commanding them under the shroud, vanished. to look This they did. But under the winding sheet they found only a heap of beautiful flowers, one-half of which the Hindus burned with holy rites, while the pomp by the In Akbar's time, many sacred Mussulmans. places had become common shrines for the other half was buried two faiths : with the Mussulmans venerating the same impression on the rocks print of their prophet, as the which the foot- Hindus revered as the footprint of their god. Akbar, the great-grandfather of Aurangzeb, utilised this tendency towards religious coalition as an instrument of political union. He promulgated a State religion, called the Divine Faith, which combined the mono- theism of Islam with the symbolic worship of Hinduism, and with something of the spirit The Ruin of Aurangzeb He of Christianity. 323 worshipped the sun as the most glorious visible type of the Deity and he commanded the people themselves representative. set himself before the Divine The Muhammadan lawyers as The Muhammadan Majesty. discovered that which as repugnant to Hindu human body. of Poets glorified the new faith Hindu Christian gospel the of birth ; in ; learned men and the scriptures Roman Jesus men medical sentiment, was hurtful to the the his beef, the eating Akbar had renounced translated to prostrate to a decision supporting their seal ; priests exhibited waxwork, and duced the doctrine of the intro- The Trinity. Muhammadan beard was shaved the devout Muhammadan salutation was discontinued the Muhammadan confession of orthodox ; ; faith disappeared Muhammadan Hindu. At of calendar gave coinage place ; to the the length, a formal declaration of apostasy was religion from the drawn up, renouncing Islam for the Divine Faith the of the Emperor. The Emperor was technically the elected The Mogul Emperors 324 Muhammadan head of the congregation, and God's viceoferent on earth. Pope had nounce A ' called was It the to re- upon Christendom terms the religion of Christ. in set Persian historian declares that when these he effective letters of damnation,' as them, issued, if as ' calls the heavens might have rent asunder and the earth opened her abyss.' As a matter of fact, Akbar was a One cessful religious founder. men retired surrection from was his Court, had no apostolic successor. talented or two grave and a drunkard, while he local in- But Akbar quelled. easily fairly suc- His son, the continued to exact the prostrations of the people, revived the externals of Islam at Court, and restored the Muhammadan coin. confession of faith to the Akbar's grandson, the palace-builder, abolished the prostrations. At the same time he cynically lent his countenance to the Hindu worship, took toll on its ceremonies, and paid a yearly allowance to the Hindu high-priest at Benares. But neither the son nor the grandson of Akbar could stem the tide of immorality The Ruin of Aurangzeb 325 which rolled on, with an ever-increasing vol- ume, during three generations of contemptuous half-belief. One Akbar's younger of sons had drunk himself to death, smuggling in his liquor in when the barrel of his fowlingpiece, wine was cut his supply of quarter of Delhi known Devilsville, dates from Akbar's tide of immorality of superstition. off. The Shaitanpara, or as reign. brought with it The the lees Witches, wizards, diviners, professors of palmistry, and miracle-workers thronged the capital. physician at the ' Here,' says a French Mughal Court, poor person his fortune A for a ' they tell halfpenny.' Portuguese outlaw sat as wisely on his of carpet as the rest, practising astrology means of an old mariner's a bit by compass and a couple of Romish prayer-books, whose pictured saints and virq-ins he used for the sisfns of the zodiac. It was on such a world of superstition immorality, and unbelief that the austere young Aurangzeb looked out with sad His silent aoostates reflections around on the him must eyes. prosperous have been a ; The Mogtd Emperors 326 sombre monotone, passages in breaks ' But them.' Hke that fierce which refrain upon the Easter evening psalm, in in it, ominous perhaps with name young the of the Lord, A prince in this I will destroy mood was a rebuke to the palace, and might become a danger to the throne. his courage No one could doubt indeed he had slain a lion set ; from the intervening nets usually em- free ployed in At the royal chase. the age of seventeen, his father accordingly sent him to Southern India, where the govern Hindu Marathas and two independent Muhammadan kingdoms professing the Shia heresy, might afford ample scope for his piety and valour. The imperial auspices, took army many eight Aurangzeb, years at of and time the country. But viceregal the age his for a forts, effected a settlement of after under of the south, of splendour, twenty-five, re- solved to quit the world, and to pass the rest of his father life in seclusion and prayer. angrily put a stop to recalled him to Court, this stripped His project him of The Ruin of Aurangzeb and deprived him his military rank, But next year personal estate. another of province of his was found it expedient to employ Aurangzeb ernment 327 in the gov- two and ; years later he received the great military com- mand On of Balkh. swarmed like locusts attempt to beat them enemy camp. The his arrival, the upon his off lasted till the hour of when Aurangzeb calmly mounted from his horse, kneeled down in evening prayer ; dis- the midst of the battle, and repeated the sacred The opposing ritual. general, awed by the religious confidence of the prince, called off his troops, saying man is to * that to fight with such a seven years of wars and sieges tan, of about After destroy oneself.' in Afghanis- Aurangzeb was again appointed Viceroy Southern India. In 1657, his eldest brother, firmly planted in the Imperial Court, and watching with impatient eyes the Emperor, determined He failing health of the to disarm his brethren. procured orders to recall his youngest brother Murad from western coast ; and to his viceroyalty strip on the Aurangzeb of his The Mogul Emperors 328 power Auranorzeb cal These mandates found the south. in besieoring^ Muhammadan one of the two hereti- Southern India. capitals of Several of the great nobles at once deserted He him. leaguered patched up a truce with the be- and extorted a large sum of city, money from He boy-king. its had pre- viously squeezed a great treasure from the other independent Muhammadan kingdom Thus armed, the south. at the cost of the war, Shia heretics, with the sinews of marched north father, Emperor, from deliver to the of his counsels evil he the the of Prince Imperial. For the Emperor, now sixty-seven years of age, stricken lay The poor with a disease. terrible knew old palace-builder well the two essential conditions for retaining Mughal throne less to his — namely, to be perfectly kindred, and health himself. In the to be in the piti- perfect early days of Empire, the royal family had been knit gether in bands of warm affection chivalrous founder had given his his son's. ; own the to- and its life for Babar, runs the story, seeing his The Ruin of Aurangzeb 329 son sinking under a mortal disease, walked three times solemnly round the bed, and im- plored God own life and few moments of to take his After a the prince. prayer, he suddenly exclaimed, it away that ; I have borne moment his it * and from ' ! began son silent have borne I away spare recover, to while the Lion Babar visibly declined. But during three generations, the Mughal dynasty had lain under the curse of bad sons. Aurangzeb's Emperor, the stricken father, had been a rebel prince. He left not one male alive of the house of Timur, so that he and his children mio-ht These children were now the Empire. Amid prove his perdition. excruciating- be the sole heirs of disease, his to the pangs of his son eldest grasped the central government ; Dara while the next son. Prince Shuja, hurried north from his Viceroyalty of Bengal to seize the im- perial capital. Prince Shuja was driven back. But there was a son advancing from the south whose steps could not be stayed. been forced by Aurangzeb had his eldest brother's intrigues The Mogul Emperors 330 to assume the defensive. It seems doubtful first, he aspired to the throne. His sole desire, he declared, was to rescue his father from whether, at This longing for the from the world. retire religious life had led to when a young and then to evil counsellors, prince : degradation his public asserted it itself amid At mask the splendours of his subsequent reign. the present crisis served him for a it was genuine, : as to whether it and perhaps entitle him to the later life On benefit of a doubt. firmly of his for a made up his mind his previous one point he had : that the apostasy two elder brothers disqualified them Muhammadan He throne. accordingly resolved to join his youngest brother, whose viceroyalty lay on his although a drunkard orthodox A in his five years' Each one way north in ; and who, private life, was public belief. war of succession followed. of the four brethren knew that the stake for which he played was an empire or a grave. The eldest brother, Dara, defeated by Aurangzeb and betrayed into his hands, was condemned by the doctors of the law for The Ruin of Aurangzeb his apostasy to Islam, hunted out of swamps the of Arakan, The of him is last Shuja, was brother, Bengal into his viceroyalty of barbarian king with shelter. to death as a and put The second renegade. 331 and outraged by the whom he had sought authentic glimpse we get mountain into the flying across a woods, wounded on the head with a stone, woman and three The destiny of followers to share his end. the youngest brother, Murad, with whom and with only one faithful Aurangzeb had joined time hung in his forces, for the balance. The some tenderness with which Aurangzeb, on a memorable occasion, wiped the brother's face, assumed. sweat and dust from his was probably not altogether But the more Aurangzeb saw of the private habits of the young prince, the At less worthy he seemed last, one night, Murad awoke from a drunken of the throne. sleep to find himself Aurangzeb's prisoner. His friends planned have safely ress, let his escape himself ; and he would down from the fort- but for an alarm caused by the weeping of a lady who had shared his confinement The Mogul Emperors 332 and from whom saying farewell. He was not allowed another Aurangzeb had him chance. nally for an old mitted he could not part without tried — nomi- murder which he had com- when Viceroy —and executed. Having thus disposed of his three brothers, Aurang- zeb got rid of their sons by slow poisoning with laudanum, and shut up his aged father in his palace Then was till let he died. loose on India that tremen- dously destructive force, a puritan madan monarch. In 1658, in mer that witnessed the death the Muham- same sum- of the puritan Protector of Enorland, Aurancrzeb, at the ao^e of forty, seated himself Mughals. The half a century is on the throne of the narrative of his long reign of the history of a great reaction against the religious compromises of his predecessors, and against their policy of concilia- He tion towards the native races. himself three tasks : he resolved to reform the morals of the Court Hindus to to their crush kingdoms the set before ; to bring proper place as two heretical of southern India. down infidels ; the and Muhammadan The Ruin of Aurangzeh The 333 luxurious lords soon found that they had got a very different master from the old Aurangzeb was an austere palace-builder. compound of the emperor, the soldier, the saint and he imposed a on all ; around him. Of like austerity humble a and silent demeanour, with a profound resignation to God's will in the height of success as in the depths of disaster, very plainly clothed, never sitting on a raised seat any vessel of in private, silver or gold, food by manual labour. nor using he earned his daily But he doubled the royal charities, and established free eating- houses for the sick and poor. day he took Twice each his seat in court to dispense jus- On Fridays he conducted the prayers the common people in the great mosque. tice. of During the month of hours a night assenibly of in as a boy, heart ; of faithful. He completed, the task which he had learning the sacred begun book by and he presented two copies of to Mecca, hand. he spent six to nine reading the Kuran to a select the when emperor, fast, He beautifully written with his it own maintained a body of learned men Mogul Emperors ^-^^^ 334 compile a code of the to Muhammadan law, at a cost exceeding- 20,000/. sterling. The players and minstrels were silenced on grants of land, better men But they were proclamation. royal The life. of prayer ; if settled they would turn to a courtiers suddenly the by ladies of the became seraglio took enthusiastically to reciting the Kuran. Only the poor dancers and singers made a They struggle. carried a bier with wailing On under the window of the Emperor. his Majesty's looking out and asking the purport of the funeral procession, they answered, that " Music was dead, and that they were bear- ing forth her corpse." " Pray bury her deeply," replied the that Emperor from the balcony, henceforth she may make " so no more noise." The measures seemed for a time to promise equal success. Aurangzeb to the of the taken against the Hindus at once stopped the allowance Hindu high-priest at Benares. Some most sacred Hindu temples he elled with lev- the ground, erecting magnificent mosques out of their materials on the same The Ruin of Aurangzeb sites. He 335 personally took part in the of proselytism. sian biographer, work His Majesty,' says a Per- ' ' the holy himself teaches confession to numerous infidels, and invests them with dresses He favours.' finally restored the He dan Calendar. Hindu ings at the and honour of other Muhamma- refused to receive offer- festivals, and he Hindu a large revenue from sacrificed shrines. He remitted eighty taxes on trade and religion, at a yearly loss of several millions sterling. The goods were of some for from duties ; the true indeed, believers, time altogether exempted and were eventually charged only one-half the rate paid by the Hindus. These remissions Aurangzeb to resort to his ministers the Hindu revenue compelled of new When taxation. remonstrated against giving up pilgrim-tax, he sternly declined to share the profits of idolatry, and proposed a general tax on the infidels That instead. hated impost had been abolished by Akbar in the policy previous century of — as part of his conciliation towards the Hindus. Aurangzeb revived the poll-tax on infidels, The Mogul Emperors 336 in spite of lation. They rent the air with lamentations When under the palace windows. of the faithful in the great choked with streets Emperor paused pliant his crowd to elephants open to Hindu was mosque, he found petitioners. moment for a advance, of rank, writes a met a menial commanded trampling The foot. unsparingly Persian If a historian^ his counte- So low were the nance instantly changed.' native races brought, issued forbidding any Hindu an * the detested enforced. of the tax-office, palankeen, or on The for the sup- then he ; wretched people under impost he went on Friday, to lead the prayers forth in state the Hindu popu- the clamours of the that a Arab proclamation ride to in a without horse, a licence from Government. While Aurangzeb dealt thus hardly with the Hindu population, his hand on the Hindu princes. membered nearly won and that that the He Hindu heavily fell vindictively re- Rajputs had the throne for his eldest brother, their most distinguished chief had dared to remonstrate with himself. ' If your The Ruin of Aurangzeb the brave wrote Majesty,' 337 Hindu Raja of places any faith in books by dis- Jodhpur, * tinction called you divine, will be there God is the God of all manGod of the Mussulmans alone. instructed that kind, not the In your temples to His name, the voice of prayer is a bell is raised ; in a shaken. house of images, where He is still Aurangzeb did worship.' the object of not venture to He quarrel with this great military prince. sought his friendship, and employed him the highest and most dangerous posts. on Emperor tried to seize The chivalrous blood of in But his death, the his sons. the infant Rajputs boiled over at widow and the orphan. lion ; this outrage on the They rose in rebel- one of Aurangzeb's ov/n sons placed himself at their head, proclaimed himself emperor, and marched against his father with 70,000 men. lowed,. A bitter war of religion fol- Aurangzeb, whose cause for a time had seemed hopeless, spared not the Hindus. He burned their homesteads, cut down their fruit-trees, defiled away their temples, and carried cartloads of their gods to the capital. The Mogul Emperors 338 There he thrust their faces downwards, below the steps of the images, with the helpless great mosque, so that they should be hourly trampled under foot by the The faithful. Rajputs, on their side, despoiled the mosques, burned the Kuran, and insulted the prayer- The war ended readers. Hindus sion of the ; submis- in a sullen but the Rajputs became thenceforth the destroyers, instead supporters, Having Hindus the of the Mughal Empire. brought thus of of the north, low the infidel Aurangzeb turned his MuhamIndia. The strength against the two heretical madan kingdoms of southern conquest of the south had been the dream of the Mughal dynasty. tions, each emperor had laboured, with more During four genera- To or less constancy, at the task. tere conscience of Aurano-zeb only an unalterable part of it the aus- seemed not the imperial policy, but an imperative religious duty. erew into the fixed best years of his enteen to forty, idea of his life. young manhood, from It The sev- he had spent as Viceroy of the South, against the heretic Shia kingdoms The Ruin of Aurangzeb and the infidel When Marathas. 339 the Vice- roy of the South became Emperor of India, he placed a son ing the in Dur- charge of the war. twenty-three years of his reign, first Aurangzeb directed the operations from But distant northern capital. sixty-three he realised that, at the forth, now capital, never to man, from his The remaining return. twenty-six years of his march, or set 1681, a white-bearded life armies his he Accordingly, in person. age of he was ever to if conquer the South, he must lead in his he spent on the the camp, until death released in him, at the age of nearly ninety, from his lonor labour. Already a great chilled the reigning,' sense Emperor's he said, ' is of heart. very shadow.' had been The slain, as art of that a awakened by His brothers and his accession to the his nephews a necessary condition of His own sons throne. were now impatient of of ' so delicate, king's jealousy should be had isolation his long reign. them had openly rebelled ; One the conduct of another was so doubtful that the imperial The Mogul Emperors 340 guns had to be pointed against The able Persian adven- who had formed the most trustworthy durino- a battle. tiirers, his division servants of Empire, the were nanced by Aurangzeb as Shia Hindus had been alienated one mighty force The infidels. But as Never had the troops mand. heretics. remained still discounte- at his of the com- Empire been more regularly paid or better equipped, although at one time better disciplined. Aurangzeb knew that the army alone stood between him and the disloyalty of his sons, between him and the hatred of the native He now races. resolved to hurl weiorht ag-ainst the two heretical its whole Muhamma- dan kingdoms of southern India. The military array sisted of a regular of army men, and a provincial high up as 4,400,000. the of about 400,000 militia The Empire conestimated as militia was made of irregular levies, uncertain in number, incapable of concentration, and whose services could only be period. The regular of contingents, relied on for a short army consisted partly whose commanders received The Ruin of Atiraiigzeb 341 grants of territory, or magnificent allowances for their support, partly of troops paid direct from the imperial treasury. The policy of Akbar had been to recruit from three mutually hostile classes —the Muhammadans Muhammadans from Suni of the Empire, the Shia beyond the north-western The Shia Hindu Rajputs. conspicuous for their skill, On for their valour. and the frontier, were generals the Rajput troops the eve of battle the Rajput warriors bade each other a cheerful farewell for ever ; not without reason, as in one of Aurangzeb's actions only hundred six Rajputs survived out of eight thousand. The alry, army strength of the 200,000 strong. lay in The pay was its cav- high, a trooper with only one horse, says Bernier, receiving not less than Rs. 25 (say 55 lings) a month —a large sum in shil- those days. Cavaliers with parties of four or more horses drew from vear, 200/. to nearly 1,000/. sterling a while a commander had an annual surplus of after defraying all of five thousand 15,000/. expenses. The sterling, sons of the nobility often served as private troopers, The Mogul Emperors 342 and the path of promotion lay open commander Originally a bound maintain to was cavalry of all. number equal of one-fourth of them to be match- infantry, lockmen and the matter of But, archers. rest as a the infantry were a despised fact, consisting force, an to of picked 15,000 men around the king's person, and a rabble of 200,000 to 300,000 foot soldiers and campfollowers men The on the march. matchlock- squatted on the ground, resting their pieces on a wooden fork which they on backs their Bernier, ; afraid,' their and, above says eyelashes or some Ji'ji lest all, should cause or evil spirit the musket to For every random shot which they burst.' fired terribly burning 'of long beards ' ; carried under these disadvantages, the cavalry discharged three arrows with a good aim, at their ease. The pay went as high The as balls a strong force swivel guns up on of to a matchlockman a month. consisted artillery throwing 44^'. of of a 112 pounds; 96 and field-guns camels ; siege-train, ; and 200 to 300 ornamental The Ruin of Aurarigzeb batteries of light guns, The artillery. known 343 as the stirrup- on a royal stirrup-artillery march numbered 50 or 60 small brass mounted on painted pieces, each drawn carriages, by two horses, with a third horse led by an At one time assistant driver as a relay. many or the gunners had been Christians of drawing Portuguese, The monthly pay mensejn. The importance be estimated from one of battle with army of left Kandahar cannon-balls, 30,000 fact, that about in on the may a after Aurangzeb his brothers, found 114 cannon native a of of the artillery the per sterling Aurangzeb was under artilleryman JOS. 22/. The field. 1651 carried with 400,000 powder, and 14,000 rockets. gun- of lbs. it The war ele- phants were even more important than the artillery. Experienced generals reckoned one good elephant equal to a regiment of 500 cavalry or, ; matchlockmen, at if double that number. phants cost from io,ood/. downwards to 1,000/. kept being a 5,000 of by properly supported common these huge price. Ele: 500/. Akbar animals, ' in Mogtil Emperors '^^^^ 344 strength like ferocity lions,' mountain, a Under courage and in Aurangzeb, 800 elephants were maintained stables, besides the large on service and A pitched front, battle sometimes number employed commenced with a The guns were placed together with linked Behind them were ranged chains of iron. the the royal in the provinces. mutual cannonade. in in over with camel-artillery swivel-guns, ported by the matchlockmen ; sup- the elephants were kept as much as possible out of the first fire ; the cavalry poured in their arrows from either flank. The Emperor, on a lofty armour-plated elephant, towered conspicuous in the centre ful chiefs commanded the and right But there was no proper wings. enable the wincrs princes of the blood or power- ; Emperor and the had done its to rear. work staff After the cannonade of confusion, a tremen- and elephants being pushed on ; the horse in front from either flank to break the adverse euns. In to keep touch with the dous cavalry charge took place of left the hand-to-hand and line onset that The Rtim of A^irangzeb 345 followed, the centre division and each wing- fought on own account its ; and the com- mander-in-chief might consider himself nate one of if his fortu- win^s did not eo over to Emperor descended from the enemy. If his elephant, even to pursue the beaten foe on horseback, the own his troops might moment break away in panic, and won victory be turned into a defeat. With all its in the just disadvantao^es, the weic^ht of was such that no power then this array a India could, in the long run, withstand. weak point was not the disorder of its its in Its order of battle, but march. There was no complete chain of subordination between the A commanders. divisional locust multitude of followers ate up the country on either The camp formed an mense side. sometimes city five miles in sometimes seven and a half miles Dead ference. air. ' I for leagues in his action a destitute length, circum- beasts of burden poisoned the could never,' writes Bernier, which in words countryman Dupleix turned century of im- later, order, and into 'see these soldiers, moving with the The Mogid Emperors 346 irregularity how thinking a herd of easily without animals, of and twenty thou- five sand of our veterans from Flanders, under Conde or Turenne, would destroy an Indian army, however A left Bundela vast.' grand army has officer in the a journal of its operations, but without number mentioning the employed. Aurangzeb found two powers in southern India Muhammadan Bijapur ; previous of Golconda and Hindu Hindu Rajputs of the south had Hindu with During a hundred years, the sometimes with Muhammadan perial troops, kingdoms less sides ; north, toward success. Marathas had the independent against the im- sometimes with the imperial troops against the independent dan kingdoms the sovereigns tried a like policy Marathas, sided In of the Muhammadan the independent peas- Akbar was con- while century, distinct Marathas. the as troops of the heretical first, second, the fighting ciliating the the : kinofdoms known antry, total ; Muhamma- exacting payment from both and gradually erecting themselves The Ruin of Aurangzeb into a third of power years party which held the in south. ^^y the balance After several Aurangzeb subdued the two Muhammadan kingdoms, and set himof self to fighting, crush finally the Hindu Marathas. In 1690 their leader was captured scornfully ; but he rejected the Emperor's offer of pardon coupled with the condition of turning Mussalman. His eyes were burned in their sockets with a red-hot iron, and the toneue which had blasphemed the Prophet was cut out. The straw, was insultingly exposed throughout skin of his head, stuffed with the cities of southern India. These and similar atrocities nerved with an inextinguishable hatred the whole Maratha race. The guerilla war of extermination which followed during the next seventeen years has scarcely a parallel in history. The Marathas and finally first decoyed, then baffled, slaughtered the imperial troops. The chivalrous Rajputs of the north had stood up against the shock of the grand arm.y and had been broken by it. The Hindu peasant confederacy of the south employed a very The Mogul Emperors 348 They had no strategy. different Idea of bidding farewell to each other on the eve day on a pitched of a battle, or of dying next field. They unless they were sure to win word altogether meant victory for ' to ; to fight and their plunder the Their clouds of horsemen, scantily enemy.' clad, declined with only a folded blanket for a saddle, rode jeeringly round the imperial swathed in cavalry sword-proof wadding, or fainting under chain-armour, and with difficulty spur- ring their heavily caparisoned steeds out of a prancing amble. charged If in force, they pursued If the imperial cavalry they charged into thin in air. detachments, they were man by man. speared Mughal army the In the an object of contempt. fantry were among the world. Skilled was foot soldier The Maratha in- the finest light troops in marksmen, and so agile as almost always to be able to choose their own ground, they laughed cavalry camped of the Empire. at pleasure at The the heavy Marathas around the grand army, cutting off supplies, dashing in upon its line The Rtiin of Aurangzeb 349 march, plundering the ammunition-wag- of gons at river-crossings, wearied imperialists attacks. If and no allowing by sleep the night- they did not pillage enough food from the royal convoys, every homestead was ready to furnish the millet which was all and onions When they required. encum- bered with booty, or fatigued with fighting, they vanished into their hill forts and ; next morning fresh swarms hung upon the imperial line of march. and rains added northern troops. flowed the royal to The the tropical heats miseries of the One autumn a river overcamp at midnight, sweeping away ten thousand men, with countless tents, The destruction only ceased when the aged Emperor wrote a prayer on paper with his own hand, and cast horses, it and bullocks. into the rising waters. During these ten years disastrous headquarters' Aurangzeb directed operations, chiefly from cantonment. But his a head- quarters had grown into an enormous assemblage, estimated by an over a million persons. Italian traveller at The Marathas were The Mogul Emperors 350 now plundering the imperial provinces to the and had blocked the north, upper with nication Emperor, In India. and lean, commu- line of stooping 1698 the under the burden of eighty years, broke up his head- and divided the remnants of quarters, forces into One two corps d'armee. of his them he sent under his best general to hold the Marathas The check in the in open country. other he led in person to besiege their and cities The forts. hill corps d'armee of the plains was beguiled into a fruitless chase from province to province battles in ; months. six fighting nineteen It marched and counter-marched, writes the Bundela 3,000 miles in one continuous until the elephants, horses, utterly worn and camels were corps d'armce fared even Forty years before, for the throne, he the campaign, out. The Emperor's worse. officer, common in the struggle had shared the bread soldiers, slept on the of bare ground, or reconnoitred, almost unattended, several spirit leagues in front. flamed up afresh in The youthful the aged monarch. a The Ruin of Aurangzeb He marched 351 his troops in the height of the Many rainy season. lost their horses, of the nobles, having had to trudge through the Fort after fort mire on foot. despairing onslaught ; fell before his but each capture left army more shattered and the forces of At last his so-called the enemy unimpaired. his sieges dwindled into an attack on a fortified village of hemmed banditti, in within his during which he was own entrenchments. In 1703 the Marathas had surprised an imperial division on the strong, banks of the Narbada, 21,000 and massacred or driven it pell-mell into the river, before the troopers could saddle their horses. In even 1705 the imperial elephants were carried off from their pasture- ground outside the royal camp the convoys ; from the north were intercepted rose to fivepence a rate more than pound in ; the and grain army — ten times the ordinary price, and scarcely reached even in the severest when millions have died of starvation. The Marathas had before this begun to recover their forts. The Emperor Indian famines collected the wreck of his army, and tried to The Mogul Emperors 352 But the insolent exulta- negotiate a truce. tion of the plundered officer, enemy him no hope. left pleasure,' at says * Bundela the every province of the south ' a single They ; ' ' not person durst venture out of the camp.' In 1706, a quarter of a century since the grand army had capital, the set forth Emperor began accumulation of disasters. up within from the northern his camp in to sink under the While he was shut the far south, the Marathas had organised a regular system of extorting one-fourth of the imperial revenue from several of the provinces to the north. In the northwest the Hindu Rajputs were arms. north, the warlike Jat Still further in Hindu peasantry were up in revolt, near the capital. Aurangzeb had no one to quell this general rising of the Hindu races. hammadan The Mu- who had served him so prime of life, now perceived generals, well during his that the end was themselves. Of near, and began to shift for his four surviving sons, he had imprisoned the eldest during six years finally released him only ; and after eleven years The Ritin of Aurangzeb of The restraint. son so little 353 next and most favoured trusted his father that, after one narrow escape, he never received a from the Emperor without turning third son letter The pale. had been during eighteen years a fugitive in Persia from his father's vengeance, wearying the Shah for an army with which The to invade Hindustan. fourth son had known what it was to be arrested on suspicion. The finances had sunk into such confusion that the Emperor did not dare to discuss them with his ministers. With one last effort, he retreated to Ahmadnagar the ; Marathas insulting the standing aside to Emperor to pass, The only escape peror was to die. of line allow the in I of litter the an awed silence. left to ' march, but the worn-out came Em- a stranger into the world,' he wrote to one of his sons a few days before the end, I depart. save I brought nothing with me, and, my human away. I 'and a stranger infirmities, have fears for my I carry nothing salvation, what torments may await me. trust in God's mercy, yet terror 23 and of Although will I not quit me. my Mogid Emperors '^^^^ 354 But, come what may, barque on the waves. farewell The ! ' I have launched Farewell, farewell, fingers of mon- the dying arch kept mechanically telling his beads the last moment. He expired on the 21st in the 91st year of his February, 1707, of till age and the 51st of according to his reign the Muhammadan less by our reckoning of time. calendar or two years ; ' Carry this creature of dust to the nearest burying-place,' he said, ' and lay useless coffin.' expenses to ten it His the earth without any in will restricted his funeral shillings, which he saved from the sale of work done with his own hands. Ninety odd pounds that he had earned by copying the Kuran, he followers buried famous saint, left to His the poor. him beside the tomb near the deserted of a capital of Daulatabad. Never when the since the Assyrian Roman Emperor of the javelin wound night Julian lay dying in his side, perial policy of reaction a catastrophe. summer ended had an im- in so complete The Roman Empire was des- tined to centuries of further suffering before The Ruin of Aurangzeb it 355 passed through death into new forms of The history of Aurangzeb's successors The Hindu swifter record of ruin. life. is a military- races closed in upon the Mughal Empire Muhammadan viceroys carved out for them- kingdoms from selves independent membered A provinces. monarchs were set its ; its dis- puppet series of up and pulled down ; seven devastating hosts poured into India through the northern passes who would ; a new set of invaders take no denial landed from the Less than a century after Aurangzeb's sea. Lord Lake, on death, his entry into Delhi, was shown a feeble old captive of the Hindu Marathas, blinded, poverty-stricken, and half imbecile, whom he sitting ; canopy, compassionately saluted as Mughal Emperor. India under a tattered A new the rule succeeded in a rule under which the too rapid re- forms of Akbar, and the too obstinate reaction of Aurangzeb, are alike impossible. Periods of progress have alternated with periods of pause. But the advance has been steady towards that consciousness of solidarity, that enlightenment of the masses, and : The Mogtil Emperors 356 that capacity for political rights, which the growth of a nation. tion of native the Empire perished ; it It was by the races that the is Mughal and united people that the British rule will endure. And ye, that read these Ruines Tragical!, losse, to love the lozv degree; And, if that Fortune chaunce you up to call To Honour's seat, forget not what you be For he, that aliena- by the incorporation of those races into a loyal Learne, by their mark of himself is most Shall finde his state most fickle secure. and unsure. The Conquests of India —Appendix 357 THE CONQUESTS OF INDIAAPPENDIX Alexander the Great B.C., and with knowledge of entered India 327 his invasion the country our accurate The begins. empire of Chandra-Gupta was formed on the remains of Alexander's conquest, and endured from 316 to 292 B.C. His grandson, the mild and pious Asoka (264-223 Buddhism Ceylon. throughout An coins the of Tiberius have Rome (22-20 reigns madanism was India was to of Nero and India in when Muham- rising in Arabia. a.d., and Buddhism was superseded India at about the period died in 632 even B.C.), been found buried in recent times. in India, all Indian embassy was sent to Caesar Augustus in many b.c), established Muhammad and thirty-two years invaded by his followers later ; and and 977. The great Mahmud (977 to 10 10) conquered the country from again in 711 The Mogul Emperors 358 Persia the to Ganges, and established an which empire lasted when 11 86, till was overthrown by the Afghans Muhammad and one of existed The till i generals even till remotest about dynasty, 1400 second lak, the his capital from successful Kafur) regions successful revolt Tughlak the which was Allah-ud- whose Malik (specially A 1206, 288. (1294-1316), the India. capital at Delhi, its third great conqueror din-Khilji in a viceroy, founded his slaves, a dynasty, with Ghor. of Ghori was assassinated overran Southern of (1321) founded which endured Muhammad Tugh- A.D. the of Delhi removed house, Deccan. the to Gradually his subordinate kings threw allegiance their states. and set up date from about ment of the country 1336. of Bengal This dismember- favored of the fourth great invader, Timur's invasion was off independent The Afghan kingdoms ful victories it the progress Timur. in 1398. After fear- and slaughters, he returned to Samarkand, which was the central city of the The Conquests of India many —Appendix petty kingdoms parcelled out 359 to his ruled by descendants. was India by Afghan, by Turki Hindu, rajahs, and till Babar, war. and kings the from Timur, invaded sixth India in founded the Mogul Empire, so 1525, and called, at all descent in confusion, in left which theoretically lasted, the mutiny of 1857. at least, Its real unity power ended with the reign and Aurangzeb of in 1707, Babar's was the the all search in Humayun conquest of India invasions had previous razzias first of plunder. simply succeeded the empire ; his in ; been mere His not son losing grandson Akbar organized and consolidated the son and grandson of Mogul power. The Akbar (Jahangir and Shah Jahan) ruled over a magnificent and fairly homogeneous realm. With Aurangzeb's long reign the solidarity of the empire ended forever. The principal dates in the period referred to in this for book are collected in convenience. In what follows, most cases they are The Mogul Emperors 360 from simply copied Sir and Products People, History, Hunter's hidian Empire book, The admirable W. W. : Its (Triibner's Oriental Series). A.D. Irruption of Moguls under Timur (Tamer- the 1398-99 lane) Timur captures Delhi Babar — sixth in 1398 descent from Timur — born 1483 " becomes king of Ferghana i494 " conquers Samarkand i497 " conquers Kabul 1504 " invades India 1526 " dies 1530 Humayun " — Babar's son — succeeds 1530 capture of Lahore and occupation of the Punjab by his brother ** campaigns '* defeated by Sher-Shah, ruler of " finally in Kamran 1530 Malwa and Guzarat. Bengal ; . . . retreat to Agra.... an exile ; Sher-Shah as- cends the Delhi throne returns to India by is Akbar " 1539 defeated by Sher-Shah; escapes to Persia as " 1532 Afghan the his ; 1540 defeat of the Afghans young son Akbar ; and dies, succeeded by Akbar — son of Humayun—born at Amarkat 1556 in Bind 1542 succeeds to the throne under the regency of Bairani Khan , . . . . 1556 5 The Conquests of India —Appendix 361 A.D. Akbar^assumes dom direct management quells revolt of ; of the king- Bairam Khan.. . " invasion of the Panjab by Akbar's rival " subjugates brother Hakim, Avho is the Rajput defeated kingdoms 1566 the to Mogul Empire campaign and its annexation ^572-73 reconquest of Bengal, which nexed " 1561-68 in Guzerat, empire to the " to the 1560 is finally an- empire 1576 insurrection in Guzerat (1581-93) which finally is subjugated to the empire. . . . 1593 " conquest of Kashmir 1586 " conquest of Sind 1592 " subjugation of Kandahar, and consolidation of the Mogul Empire over all India north of the Vindhya mountains, as far Kabul and Kandahar as 1594 " unsuccessful " Akbar's campaign " annexation of Khandesh, and return of " dies at campaign of Akbar's son, Prince Murad, in the Deccan Akbar Jahangir 1595 Deccan ^599 Northern India to 1601 Agra — succeeds flight, 1605 his father rebellion, his eldest son " in the Akbar 1605 and imprisonment of Khusru Nur-Mahal Thomas Roe's embassy arrives 1 marries Sir court 606 1611 at his 16 1 — 1 The Mogul Emperors 362 A.D. — Kandahar captured by the Persians. Jahangir " " Rebellion of Shah Jahan, his son. Mahabet-Khan " recovers his and Shah Jahan " . . . 1627 in rebellion 1627 Nur-Mahal imprisoned " ascends the throne " Afghan uprisings 1627 1628 in Northern In- 1628-30 dia M " death of his wife " wars " Kandahar reconquered by " temporary invasion of Balkh by the in the umtaz-i- Mahal Deccan . . the Moguls 1637 Moguls 1645 Nur-Mahal " Balkh abandoned by the Moguls. Kandahar dies finally 1645 . . . war in the 1653 Deccan under Aurang- zeb " " Aurangzeb " ** 1647 taken and held by the Persians " 1630 1629-35 " " 1626 Mahabet-Khan ; dies Shah Jahan 162 1623-25 . emperor. seizes the liberty . ... 1655-56 disputes as to the succession to the throne between the four sons of Shah Jahan 1657-58 1666 dies — deposes Shah Jahan, his father Dara, his brother, executed Shuja, his brother, miserably flies 1658 1659 and perishes 1660 1 The Aurangzeb Couqttests of India —Appetidix A.D. — Murad, imprisoned and his brother, executed " 166 Maratha wars, under who Sivaji, rebels " war 1662-65 the in Deccan ; defeat of the Moguls " Sivaji 1666 makes peace, and obtains favorable terms " " " 1667 Sivaji ravages the Deccan 1670 Sivaji defeats the Mogul army 1672 the emperor revives the poll-tax on non-Muhammadans " war with the Rajputs " Maratha successes " the emperor in 1667 1679 in the Deccan 1672-80 person invades the Deccan " ** guerrilla wars 1683 with the Maratha wars ; the Marathas.. " " the 1692 successes of the Moguls " 363 Marathas successful 1699-1701 1702-05 retreats 1 and dies 1707 706 The Mogul Emperors 364 A GENEALOGICAL TABLE OF THE HOUSE OF TIMUR [abridged from professor blochmann's ain-i-akbari.] TiMUR, I. 1405) A.H. 736 (a.d. 1336) i>. Jalaluddtn Miran Shah II. A.H. 769 b. ? d. ; ? A.H. 830 d. ; 860 VI. ; d. ; (eldest son A.H. 937 d. 3. II.), son of III.), (eldest b. a.h. of V.), 1530) viz.: 2. b. a.h. 888 (a.d. buried at Kabul. ; Jahangir Mirza. Nazir Mirza. Humayun 1508) ; (eldest son of VI.), d. A.H. 963 (a.d. 1556) Humayun had three brothers, Mirza. Askari Mirza. VIII. (sixth son of (fourth son of IV.), (a.d. Babar had two brothers, VII. b. A.H. 899 (a.d. 1494). Babar 1483) I.), A.H. 873. Omar-Shaikh Mirza V. (third son of . Sultan Abusaid Mirza IV. a.h. 807 (a.d. A.H. 810. d. ; Sultan Muhammad Mirza III. d. ; buried at Samarkand. ; 3. Akbar 1542) ; d. buried at Delhi. ; viz.: 4. 1014 (a.d. 1605) 2. Kamram Mirza Hindal. (eldest son of VII.), A.H. a.h. 913 (a.d. b. b. ; a.h. 949 (a.d. buried at Agra. Genealogical Table —House of Timtir 365 Akbar had two brothers, viz.: 2. Mirza Muhammad Hakim, King of Kabul. 3. Sultan Ibrahim. IX. Jahangir (third son of VIII.), 1569) ; d. A.H. 1037 (a.d. 1627) Jahangir had and Husain four b. brothers, viz.: ; d. 1076 (a.d. 1666) A.H. b. 5. XI. Lahore. 2. Hasan 4. Sultan a.h. iooo (a,d. buried at Agra. ; Shah Jahan had four brothers, 2. Sultan Parwiz. Khusru. 2l\. i, (twins, died in infancy). MuRAD. 5. Sultan Danyal. X. Shah Jahan (third son of IX.), 1591) a.h. 977 (a.d. buried ; viz.: 4. i. Sultan Jahandar. Shahryar, Aurangzeb i6i8); abad. d. A.H. b. buried at Daulat- Aurangzeb had 6, ; eight brothers, of i. Dara Shikoh. Murad Bakhsh. need only mention tan Shuja. a.h. 1027 (a.d, (third son of X.), 1118 (a.d. 1707) : Finis whom we 2. 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