The History of Mughals PDF

Cornell Unitietaitg iEthranj
Stljara, Nem 'fork
CHARLES WILLIAM WASON

COLLECTION
CHINA AND THE CHINESE
THE GIFT OF
CHARLES WILLIAM WASON
CLASS OF 1876
1918
Cornell University Library
DS 461.K36
v.14
A history of the great Moghuls or A his
3 1924 023 223 641

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HISTORY OF THE GREAT MOGHULS
OR
A HISTORY OF THE BADSHAHATE OF DELHI
From 1605 to 1739 A.D
PRINGLE KENNEDY, ma., b.l
CALCUTTA
THAOKER, SPINK & CO
1911
ft.
PREFACE.
I had practically got this Second Volume ready for the

Press when the 30th of April 1908 deprived me alike of the
power and of the desire to do what little remained. On return-
ing from Europe towards the close of 1909 I took up the laid
aside manuscript and found but little that needed change. The
political atmosphere has altered considerably since the passage
concerning an invasion from the North- West was written, but this
atmosphere is no more unalterable than that of nature. It is not
many years ago since Mr. Joseph Chamberlain announced as
glad tidings of great joy that England had come to an agreement
with Germany, an integral part of which was the handing over to
the latter Heligoland and it is less than fifteen years ago that
the same gentleman talking of Russia remarked that one needed

-a long spoon if one supped with the Deil. England's present
relations with Russia are of the friendliest and so may they long
;
•continue ; but if to be an invasion of India from the

there is
outside in the future, it is probable that this will come as most

invasions have come in the past from the Beluch Afghan
border. Chinese armies have in the course of history indeed
more than once penetrated into India from the North-East
and North but nothing permanent has resulted therefrom and ;
save by way of peaceful penetration, it does not seem likely that

in this respect the future will be different from the past. Some
seventy years ago in Willis's Rooms Carlyle, lecturing on the
hero as poet, put the question whether England would rather
give up her Indian Empire or her William Shakespeare and
—
answered unhesitatingly the Indian Empire. I am not quite
sure whether he would not have more hesitation now.
William Shakespeare is the poet of England, but her Indian
Empire is one, as her Colonial Empire is the other, of her two
great National Epics in action. In this Indian Epos during
IV PKEFACE.
its course there have been not only successes and triumphs but
disappointments and failur-es ; England's statesmen have at times-
devised foolish things, her administrators have been neglectful,
her soldiers have failed ; but in spite of temporary and tem-
all
poral discouragements the march has steadily been forwardand ; .
whenever the last book of this great poem in action comes to be

written, in all human probability it is still far distant, still we
know alas all things here pass, if the English race be as true to*
themselves and to England as they have been in the past, the
English domination in India will take its place in history amongst
the greatest of the world's deeds.
I have to admit the justice of various reviewers as to a
want of proportion in the. first volume of this work. My one
excuse is, that it, as well as this volume, has been written at odd
times amidst the pre-occupations of an engrossing profession. I
have 'also to. admit that the proofreading might have been more
carefully done this was mine and not my publishers' fault.
; I
am afraid I am not as good a proof reader as I should be. I have
to thank the Madras. Times for pointing out a .stupid mistake in.
a foot-note giving Sale's translation of the first Sura as a trans-
lation of. the Muhammedan Kalima. This was one of those
unaccountable mistakes for which I have nothing to say in my.
defence. This historj^ has been written chiefly for the man in the
street, for those who know but little, but who desire to know
something of Medieval Indian history and who are not able to
find exactly what they want in other books. I have had the
pleasure of "being thanked by more than one of this class for being
so helped, and such thanks I consider a great reward.
Mozdfferpore, PRINGLE KENNEDY.

January, 1911.
HISTORY OF THE GREAT MOGHULS.
VOLUME II-
JAHANGIK.
By the time of the death of Akbar* the Moghuls may be con-
sidered to have fairly established themselves in Hindustan.
Before and after Taimur there had been Turks in the service of
the Afghan Kings of Delhi ; but it was only with Baber that the
Moghuls or Chagatai Turks as they are ordinarily described by
Eastern Writers, first became the permanent Masters of any part
of Hindustan. Foreigners, as much so in many respects as the
English themselves, coming from inland countries far beyond the
gigantic snowy masses of the North-West frontier, they were
never to be compared in numbers with the races of India whom
they conquered or even with the Afghans, the previous rulers of
this country and when Sher Shah chased Humayun beyond the
;
Indus, it seemed that theirs was only one of the many invasions
of India, in which the conquerors have come and seen and con-
quered and then disappeared. But it was not as in other cases
with the Moghuls back they came and mainly by the genius of
;
one man, Akbar the Great, settled themselves permanently in

India, so much so that their chief Administrative methods have
been followed by their English Successors. Their predecessors
the Afghans, as I have already pointed out in my first Volume,
never really got beyond tribal rule. It was Akbar who created
a Civil service reaching from the throne down to the pettiest
official which was bound together by being
in regular sequence,
subjected to one imperial centre. Caste, locality these have always—
had great influence over matters Indian. It was Akbar/ s life
* A. B. 1605.
K, HM 1
;
2 HISTORY OF THE GREAT MOGHULS.
struggle to lessen their influence and though his success was any-
thing but absolute, it was immense. First of all really in his
time was there a real Indian Government, and not a congeries of
local, almost equally powerful, petty states. Allah Ho Akbar, so
says the pious Musalman, God is great. Another translation of
the same is Akbar is God, and supreme in this Indian world Akbar
determined to be and was. How firm he lay the foundations of the
Delhi throne will be seen in the history of the following century.
Neither sensualist nor bigot could turn India back to the point
where it was when he became ruler. And when the cataclysm
came, when what with faineant Kings, rebellious feudatories and
wild Mahrattas the days of the Great Anarchy arrived, the basis
of the Administrative structure was so firmly laid, that another
foreign race, the English, found no great difficulty in stepping into
the shoes of the Moghul Government and in carrying on the task
of governing by Akbar's methods, although the Moghuls, deprived
of the virility that came by constant accessions from their native
home, had let drop from their feeble hands the reins of power.
There is one marked difference in the personal annals of the
Great Moghuls commencing with Jahangir and onward and those
of his predecessors. The brothers and close relations of the pre-
vious rulers, of Baber, Humayun and Akbar, had been often thorns
in the flesh to these rulers, but all the same the heads of the house
had uniformly treated these unruly members with great forbearance,
and even after the breaking out into open rebellion again and
again had received them anew into grace. It was only after
revolts innumerable that Humayun had Kamran blinded and

even this act was forced upon him sorely against his will. But
with Jahangir all this changed. He indeed only went half way ;
he imprisons his rebellious son Khusrao but does not kill him
but after Jahangir up to the end of my story fratricide became
the almost invariable accompaniment of a new accession. In
Turkey the putting to death of all the brothers save the Ruler
was for many a long day the rule, and this rule has been only too
faithfully imitated in Moghul India. It did not in the slightest
matter that the brother, nephew or cousin as the case might be,
JAHANGIR.
did not put up any claim to sovereignty. His blood was his crime.
He might be dangerous and therefore was treated as if he were so.
But we must not judge by crimes of this sort the general state
of civilization and morals in the Delhi Empire. Where reasons of
state were concerned and when brother murder had become an
axiom of state policy, the rulers But when such
were inexorable.
reasons did not exist, although the rulers from the Emperor at
Delhi down to the lowest foujdar invested with power, had but
little care for human life, for in the East it must be remembered that
Napoleon's saying " Fhomme n'est qu'un chien," a man is but a

dog, is almost universally held by those in power to be true —and
although we occasionally read of terrible arbitrary acts, as the
story told by a European traveller of how a local governor had eight
dancing girls beheaded because when called they did not appear
on the whole during the greater part of the
sufficiently quick, still
period concerning which I write, justice was, on the whole, fairly

administered, though punishments were, if judged by present stand-
ards, severe. Compared, however, with the English Code a century
ago, the Moghul Criminal Code will fairly stand the test. The lands
of the Moghuls too were on the whole well policed. The numerous
European travellers, Doctors, Merchants and others could not
have travelled as freely and as safely as they did, if it had not been
that their lives and their properties were properly protected, and
there is no reason to believe, in spite of the occasional vapourings
of Jahangir whose Memoirs are prodigies of exaggeration, that
human life and property were less secure in India at this time than
at any other previous time ; indeed, these were probably more secure
than in a great part of Europe during the middle ages.
—
Jahangir Salim as he was known before his accession—was the
only son of Akbar that survived him. In my first Volume I have
told my readers how he fell out of the good graces of his father —who
more than him and how he caused Abul
half wished to disinherit
Fazl, Akbar's greatest personal friend amongst the Ministers to be ,
murdered. Jahangir has left behind him Memoirs purporting to

be written by himself. Naive to a degree, they chiefly strike the
reader by their enormous exaggerations. Thus, for instance,

when writing of the wealth accumulated by his father he tells a

story how an officer was directed by Akbar to find out how much
gold was to be found in the treasury at Agra. " This officer ob-
tained from different tradesmen in the city four hundred pairs of
scales, which for a period ofmonths he kept at work both day
five
and night, in weighing the coin and precious metals. At the end
of that period my father sent to inquire how many maunds of gold
had been brought to account. The reply was, that although for
the whole of the five months a thousand men, with four hundred
pairs of scales, had been night and day unceasingly employed in
weighing the contents of one only of the treasuries, they had not
yet completed that part of their work. On which my father des-
patched to desire that matters might be left as they stood ; to
return the metals to their places, to secure them under lock and
seal, and repair to the presence. This, it is to be observed, was the
treasury of one city only."*
Or again speaking of the establishment of elephants main-
tained by him he states that it was maintained at an annual
expense of not less than four hundred and sixty lakhs of Ashrafis
exclusive of what was incurred in supervising it. Examples of this
sort may be multiplied indefinitely. Wherever he gives figures
as to his Court, his throne, his revenue, or the income of other
persons, the figures are childish in their obvious distention. And
this being so, it is at least improbable that the imperial writer did
not exaggerate where money was concerned alone. It is almost
certain that he does so in other respects, for instance, as to his vices,
as well as to his virtues. The amount of wine he drank according
to himself would have probably consigned him to a grave in six
months ; instead of which he reigned almost twenty-four years.
And as to his executions, the number of persons put to death by
him on account of rebellion and sedition also probably appear
tenfold more than they actually were. Writing as to these, he
'
says : ' And here I am compelled to observe, with whatever regret,
that notwithstanding the frequent and sanguinary executions which
* Jahangir's Memoirs, p. 45.

JAHANGIR.
have been dealt among the people of Hindustan, the number of

the turbulent and disaffected never seems to diminish ; for what
with the examples made during the reign of my father, and sub-
sequently of my own, there is scarcely a province in the empire in
which either in battle or by the sword of the executioner, five and
six hundred thousand human beings have not, at various periods,
fallen victims to this fatal disposition to discontent and turbulence."
If this be taken literally, more provinces than one would both
in his father's and in his reign have been almost absolute deserts.
From other sources we know that they were nothing of the kind.
Still, although these Memoirs are very unreliable authorities for
sober history, both on account of the spirit of exaggeration per-
vading them as well as on account of the Oriental tendency to
fulsome flattery (even of one's self), still they are extremely valu-
able to the student of the time both as showing what Jahangir
wished the world to believe him to be and what he actually was.
They begin by stating twelve reforms which he on his accession
introduced into the Empire. These related to the remission of
certain forms of revenue, the effectual policing of the provinces,
the due administration of justice, freedom of commerce, the
inheriting by children of the properties of their parents, the aboli-
tion of cruel punishments and checks on administrative oppres-
sion, which, if carried out in their entirety, would have placed the
Government of Hindustan as high in the scale of civilised powers

as the foremost Western powers of the present day. But I am
afraid that all we know about shows that most of these
his reign
orders were either totally neglected or but partially carried out.
Amongst these twelve regulations are two —
for both of which much
may be said — but which read oddly amongst the others. The first
is a prohibition during his birth month, Kabi-ul-Awal, of the use of
animal meat and a further prohibition as to the slaughtering of
animals on Thursdays and Sundays as well as on certain other
fixed days. He quotes his father in support of this rule and
doubtless the Hindu feelings which swayed his father were also
very potent with him. The second regulation is the prohibition
of the sale of wine throughout his dominions.
It is under the reasons given for this rule that he tells, us of

his own use of wine, as to which he admits that he was in the habit
of taking it to such excess, thatif he were but an hour without it,
his hands would shake and he would be unable to sit or rest. He

states he has reduced the daily amount of drink but he naively
adds " as drink seems not less necessary than meat for the sus-
tenance of man, it appears very difficult if not impossible for me to
discontinue altogether its use." Still he hopes by God's help
that when he comes to the age at which Humayun renounced it, he
may also do the same. A strange person this to forbid the sale of
wine! add that under no circumstances could such
I need only
a prohibition be efficient in India, where the manufacture of intoxi-
cants is so easy and that the only result of such an order would
increase the company of those, against whom the Koran uses so
many words of reproach, the great company of the hypocrites.
The twelve regulations are not the only instance in the Memoirs
of self -laudation ; but the point to be noted is this, and it speaks
much for these Memoirs having been written by Jahangir himself or
at least under his supervision, that he gives reasons for praising
himself which others would consider as grounds for disapprobation.
No woman could be fonder of gems and precious stones than he
shows himself to have been ; no child more credulous than he.
His stories as to what jugglers did in his presence surpass all
belief. At the same time he is a keen observer of nature.

Unfortunately the Memoirs cover only a part of his reign, but as
I have indicated above, they are far more valuable as a picture of
himself than as an account of his deeds. To these Memoirs I

shallhave occasion from time to time to refer.
There is a tradition in Rajput records, given by Tod, that
Akbar died by self-inflicted poison. Wishing to get rid of Raja
Man Singh of Ambur, the nephew of his Rajput wife, and one of
the chief Nobles of his Court, he handed to him a poisoned pill,
keeping as he thought the innoxious portion ; but unfortunately

for himself he made a mistake and so died of the poison he had
desired to give another. The story is not a very likely one. Man
Singh was, since the death of Abul Fazl, the most trusty of his
: s
JAHANGIR.
servants, and the one who had the greatest personal interest in
the prosperity of the Empire for his sister was one of Jahangir's
wives and also the mother of Khusrao, who, it had been suggested
to Akbar, should be the successor to the throne instead of the
drunken Salim. In Jahangir's Memoirs we read that while in a
state of bad health it had been suggested to Akbar in the Harem
that he might eat some fruit, that in his enfeebled state of health
this entirely upset his stomach and that from this stomach
attack he never recovered. Whatever may have been Akbar'

feelings towards Jahangir, his only surviving son while in health,
now that he was sick, he conversed kindly with him. He warned
him how he entered the Palace and always to be
to be careful
guarded by his own men. This hint Jahangir took, whereupon
the Palace attendants who were adherents of Khusrao, shut the
gates against him. Akbar, considering that Jahangir had wilfully
abstained from visiting him, broke out into reproaches, but in spite
of all that his attendants could do to make him nominate
Khusrao for the succession, he persisted in the choice of Jahangir.
The Memoirs tell this part of the story thus
" To this the sick monarch replied, '

the decree is God's
decree, and of him alone is sovereignty. For my own part, with
one mind I retain a thousand hopes. Surely, in giving loose to
such language in my presence, you have abandoned me to the
jaws of death. Nevertheless it may happen that I have still some
portion left in this life. If, however, the awful crisis be at hand,
if the hour of departure be arrived, can I have forgotten the
military promptitude, political sagacity, and other qualities indis-
pensable to the successful exercise of sovereign power, which at

Allahabad I witnessed in Salim Shah 1 Neither do I find that
the love and affection which I have ever borne him has for a moment
been diminished. What if, through the misguidings of the evil
one, he should for an instant have been led astray from his filial
duty, is he not my eldest born, and, as such, the heir to my throne ;
to that throne which by the institutes of my race belongs to the

eldest son, and never descends to him who is in years the
younger But the

? six months' wide territory of Bengal I bestow
upon Khusrao."*
After this Jahangir was again permitted to visit the palace at
his father's request, and as the latter was lying on his death-bed
he girt himself with the Emperor's favourite scimitar. Then the
father addressed the son in these terms :
" My dear boy (baba), take this my last farewell for here we
never meet again. Beware that thou dost not withdraw thy pro-
tecting regards from the secluded in my harem, that thou con-
tinue the same allowance for subsistence as was allotted by
myself. Although my departure must cast a heavy burden upon
thy mind, let not the words that are past be at once forgotten.
Many a vow and many a covenant have been exchanged between
us; break not the pledge which thou hast given me> — forget it not.
Beware ! Many are the claims which I have upon thy soul. Be they
great or be they small, do not thou forget them. Call to remem-
brance my deeds of martial glory. Forget not the exertions of
that bounty which distributed so many a jewel. My servants
and dependants, when I am gone, do not thou forget, nor the
afflicted in the hour of need. Ponder word for word on all that I
have said —do thou bear all in mind; and, again, forget me not."|
Thereafter the attendant Muhammedan Imam repeated the
Kalimah, the profession of Muhammedan faith'—which the dying
Monarch in a clear voice repeated after him. Thereafter some
chapters of the Koran and then the end. Hater of Muhammedan
theology, opponent of Muhammedan orthodoxy as he was, Akbar
still found comfort in supreme hour, as many a heterodox
the
Muhammedan or Christian has found before and after him, in a
simple confession of trust in the Father of all whether this be found
in the formulas of Islam or in the Lord's prayer.
Jahangir succeeded to the vacant throne without a struggle. Plans
to place Khusrao on the throne vanished into mid air. Everywhere
his father was proclaimed Akbar's successor. Whether Man Singh
t Jahangir's Memoirs, p. 77.

JAHANGIR.
had the belief that his influence would be greater with Khusrao
as Emperor than with Jahangir or not he did nothing to promote
the son's succession. Khusrao was placed in semi-confinement
and for some months it seemed as if Jahangir's right to the throne
was uncontested. But this state of things did not last long. The
Imperial Court was at Agra. Khusrao, on pretext of visiting his
grandfather's tomb some miles out, started towards the North-
West with a small company of retainers, beating up recruits on
his way. Jahangir tells us that he was in doubt at first whether he
should pursue his disobedient son or leave this to his Generals. His
good fortune led him, so he says, to decide that he should go him-
self, an advance force starting ahead under Shaikh Earid. At
Muttra, Khusrao met Hassan Beg Khan Badakshi with two to
three hundred men. Making this Hassan Khan as his Command-
ant, the latter a true Turkoman took to his occupation kindly,
understanding it to be his duty to loot wherever he could. Every ''
one whom they met on the road they plundered, and took from
him his horse or goods. Merchants and travellers were pillaged,
and wherever these insurgents went, there was no security for the
women and children. Khusrao saw with his own eyes that a culti-
vated country was being wasted and oppressed, and their atroci-
tiesmade people feel that death was a thousand times preferable-
The poor people had no resource but to join them. If fortune had
been at all friendly to him, he would have been overwhelmed with
shame and repentance, and would have come to me without the
least apprehension."* Although such people may be forced to
join an army, they are of no use to it, and so Khusrao's course
was one continuous flight, past Delhi, past Panipat, to Lahore.
This city he fruitlessly attacked, the Imperial army ever swelling
in numbers, now being close. At the bridge of Grundwal the two
forces met. At first the royal troops were largely outnumbered,
but numbers count for little in and amongst
Eastern fighting,
Jahangir's troops were the well-known Sayads
fighting clan, the
of Barha. Khusrao's troops were hopelessly defeated and he
* Elliott, Vol. VI, p. 293.

himself surrendered. On the 3rd of Mohurrum 1015, so says the

Memoirs, he was brought into the royal presence, trembling and
weeping. He was put into strict The Memoirs tell us
custody.
" that in sorrow for his past misconduct the unhappy Khusrao
neither ate nor drank for the space of three days and three nights,
which he consumed in tears and groans, hunger and thirst, and all
those tokens of deep repentance, peculiar only to those on earth
who have sustained the character of prophets and saints, but who
have, nevertheless, found that a slight daily repast is still necessary
to the support of life. It may be superfluous to remark, that an
abstinence carried to the extremity of an entire fast for three days
and three nights together, would inevitably have sent him on the
fourth day to the bosom of mercy."*
The remark is typical of the writer. Of the prisoners

last
taken many were impaled on sharp stakes set up in the bed of the
Ravi in front of the city of Lahore.
Khusrao never again escaped a number of years later on it
;
was thought that the Emperor was inclined to take him into
favour ; but this thought was shortly followed by his death, caused,
it is hinted, by poison, administered at the instance of a brother
who later on became Emperor under the name of Shah Jahan.
Jahangir had four sons besides the ill-fated Khusrao. Their
names were, Kharram, Parvez, Shahriar and Sultan Bukht. Of
these Parvez was at the time of the succession in the Deccan where
he had his hands full by reason of the unsettled state of the
Ahmednuggur kingdom, which though it had been subdued by
Akbar and his generals, had never been really incorporated with
the Delhi Empire, and where scions of the Nizam dynasty were one
after the other set on the throne by Malik Ambar, an Abyssin-
ian who by reason of merit had raised himself to a leading position
in that state. This Deccan war lasted practically throughout the
whole of Jahangir's reign and to it I shall refer again. At present
it is only necessary to state that one of the royal princes was
almost all through the reign engaged therein, and that for many
* Elliot, Vol. VI, p. 274.

,
JAHANGTR. It
reasons —largely on account of the unwillingness of the Imperial

Governors to undertake any energetic action, they being either
too lazy or influenced by corrupt motives the war was never
allowed to come to a head. A school for the training of soldiers it
was, yes, but a worse school could hardly be imagined. Indeed
nothing had a greater share in causing the gradual deterioration
of the Moghul soldiery than the never-ending Deccan wars through-
out this seventeenth century. There was always something to
be done there ; unfortunately it never was done. As long as the
foewas the Muhammedan of the Deccan but little harm ensued.
The Muhammedan Deccan rulers cared as little that the something
necessary should be done as the Moghul generals. But when the
Mahrattas came on the scene with a very clear comprehension
of what should be done and how they should do it, things became
very different. A story told by Jahangir as to the cleaning of
muskets would seem to indicate that the methods in the army
in his time were very primitive. " On the first day of every
month, it was the rule with my father to set the example to his
Amirs by discharging his musket, and this was followed by the
whole from the highest dignitary to the lowest stipendiary
train,
enrolled in the service of the state, whether cannoneer or match-
lockman. But this discharge of artillery and musketry never
occurred but on that single occasion unless, of course, in battle.
;
In imitation of the same example I have continued the practice,

a shot from my gun Darustandaz being followed by one from
every individual in my armies, high or low." Probably, however,
the whole is but an instance of the ruler's childishness. He had
many experienced officers trained in Akbar's wars who probably
saw to the Artillery and guns of the Boyal force being kept in order
in a very different way from what the royal author suggests.
Of all the Moghul rulers, none were so fond of camping as
Jahangir. All these rulers indeed inherited from their Central Asian
ancestors the love of wandering but none of them had it to the
same degree as Jahangir. Aurangzeb was a dweller in tents indeed
for many years before his death, but this was with a view to warlike
operations and not simply through love of wandering. A Moghul
Emperor's camp was much in the nature of a city under canvas.

The royal apartments alone occupied many acres of ground and
was guarded by a force similar to that which guarded the royal
palace at Agra. Everything was in duplicate so that when the
Court arrived after a journey, it had not to wait till tents were
pitched. These were always on the spot waiting for them.
Royal visits in Europe in the middle ages were a means frequently
adopted by rulers to impoverish their great subjects ; the royal
encampments in India ruined as a rule not only the great men but
too often also the poor cultivator of the locality. There seem to
have been attempts made by the Delhi rulers, even by Jahangrr,
notably by Sher Shah and Akbar, to minimise these evils, but none
who know India are ignorant of the fact that the strictest orders
forbidding the hangers on of a camp from plundering the people
amongst whom a camp is pitched, and directing the payment of
all supplies, are but seldom efficacious, even under the British
Raj. Much would they be in Moghul times. Occasionally
less so
an example, a severe example would be made but this would do ;
but little to check the evil. A description in the Memoirs as to

how Jahangir visited Ahmedabad, even after it be stripped of all ex-
aggeration, will suffice to show what a nuisance a royal progress
'
was. The royal author says ' that he visited this city in winter
when the trees were bare of blossom, leaf or fruit. The hostess
was the daughter of a great nobleman.
" In the course of five days, by employing various artificers
of Ahmedabad, to the number of four hundred individuals, in dif-
ferent branches of decoration, she had so effectually changed the

appearance of the gardens, by making use of coloured paper and
wax, that every tree and shrub seemed as abundantly furnished
with leaf, and and fruit, as if in the very freshness and
flower,
bloom of spring and summer. These included the orange, lemon,
peach, pomegranate and apple and among flowering shrubs, of
;
every species of rose and other garden flowers of every description.

So perfect, indeed, was the deception produced, that when I first
entered the garden it entirely escaped my recollection that it was no

longer the spring of the year, nor the season for fruit, and I
JAHANG1B. 13
unwittingly began to pluck at the fruit and flowers, the artificers

having copied the beauties of nature with such surprising truth
and accuracy. You might have said, without contradiction, that
it was the very fruit and flower you saw, in all its bloom and
freshness. The different avenues throughout the garden were at the
same time furnished with a variety of tents' and canopies, of velvet
of the deepest green ; so that these, together with the verdure of the
sod, contrasted with the variegated and lively tints of the rose
and an infinity of other flowers, left altogether such an impression
on my mind, as that in the very season of the rose I never contem-
plated in any place, garden, or otherwise, anything that afforded
equal delight to the senses.
From the scene of fascination and enchantment I was not
permitted to withdraw myself for three days and as many nights ;.
during which, independently of the delicious repasts on which we

feasted, the females of my harem by whom I was accompanied,
to the number of four hundred, were each of them presented with
a tray of four pieces of cloth of gold of the manufacture of Kho-
rasan, and an ambertchi, or perfume stand, of elaborate work-
manship and considerable value none of which presents could
;
have been estimated separately at less than three hundred to-

mauns. What the begum presented to myself on the occasion, in
jewels, pieces of the richest fabric for my wardrobe, and horses of
the highest value for temper and speed, could not have amounted
to a less sum than four lakhs of rupees. In return, I presented her
with a chaplet of pearls of the value of five lakhs of rupees, which
had been purchased for my own use, and a bulse of rubies worth
three lakhs more ; added one thousand horse to the dignity
I also
already possessed by her father. In conclusion, what was thus

exhibited in one short week, and in the very depth of winter, for
my recreation, by the daughter of Khan Khanan alone, could
scarcelyhave been accomplished by the united genius and skill
of any hundred individuals of the other sex, choose them where
you may."
When it is remembered that the artisans and labourers neces-
sary to bring about this result, were all procured by a system of
forced labour without payment, the evil of such an entertainment

can easily be comprehended.
Of all places that Jahangir visited, there was none as to
which he had an affection similar to that which he had for Kashmir.
Most lovingly does he describe the beauties of that wonderful
country. Akbar had been there before him, but Akbar had ever
hismain eye on business. Jahangir was what I might term the
royal stroller par excellence, and for a stroller what land is compar-
able to that wonderful valley with its great central river, its hun-
dred and one lesser streams, its picturesque lakes, its glorious
woods, and its majestic surrounding wall of mountains. Nature

is to be seen there in her loveliest as well as in her grandest
forms, and there no doubt of the reality of Jahangir's love for
is
nature's loveliness, if not for her grandeur. Time after time did
he. visit the valleys, and all over the valley has he left in the shape
of gardens or buildings his mark.

A journey to Kashmir was very different then from what it is
now. There were no roads, and the hill side had to be traversed
as best one could. And it is to be remembered that Jahangir
marched, even though much of the camp was left behind,
heavy. Elephants, royal pavilions, harems, all had to be got
through. Loss of life both of men and cattle was but too common,
but mere loss of life never has troubled a real Moghul. Jahangir's
delight at everything, at the flowers, at the trees, at the saffron
cultivation, his noticing the ways of living of the Kashmiris, con-
stantly crop out in his Memoirs. And it is not in Kashmir alone
that his curiosity as to men and their habits breaks out. He is
fond of frequenting the society of Jogis (mendicants) though

generally he is disappointed. Oh one occasion when near a famous
place of worship he went to find if possible some fakir from whose
society he might derive advantage ; but as he adds — * " such a man
is as rare as the Philosopher's stone or the Anka
and all that I ;
saw was a small fraternity without any knowledge of God, the

sight of whom filled my heart with nothing but regret." On
» Elliot, Vol. VI, p. 314.

; ; :
JAHANGIR. 15
another occasion he goes and sees a Darvesh at Multan, having

heard that on every Friday throughout the year showers of gold
mohurs fell on his head. This Darvesh in the first instance took
no notice of the Emperor. On being pressed* " at last he con-
descended to open his mouth, and his first words were these :
'
I
serve that King who sustains, rambling about the earth, many
such kings as thou To this observation the Emperor replied
art.'
by a request that he would favor him with something that might

remind him of the admonitions of the wise and good. ' Strive for
the repose of God's creatures committed to thy care,' said he, and '
do thy pleasure, for the virtue of this will be a cover to thy sins.
Be not offensive. In the Agents whom thou mayest employ in the

different provinces of the empire, be it thy study to reject such
as are tyrannical and rapacious. Whilst thou hast power, cherish
and respect the gray-beard and the Darvesh." He then recited
which the following is the substance
six lines of poetry of
Scoff not at the aged man weighed down by the hand of
affliction
Kindle not the flame which consumes the broken hearted.

Be not at one time a trifler, at another grave.
Art thou full 1 Give not words of wind.
Be not evil-minded lest thy words be evil
Be not slanderous if thou wouldst avoid a name of re-

proach.
This part of the story is well fitted to point a moral or adorn
a tale, but Jahangir cannot stay at any moral height for any lapse
of time and so after all this advice, we get back to the material
again. After evening devotions gold fell from the sky upon the
Darvesh's head and this the mendicant proceeds to distribute.
Jahangir believed in his miracle worker implicitly ; others of his
cortege, however, were not so credulous. Amongst others the son of
the Khan Dauran had the audacity to turn the whole matter into
ridicule. Let us listen to the Emperor's story. •'
How childish, ' said

he, '
in the Emperor, to be magic-blinded by his visit to this canting
* Jahangir's Memoirs, pp. 129 — 130.

Darvesh.' I must here observe, that if I had not received the

proof, to which I have referred, of his power of penetrating into the
secrets of the mind, the miracle of the golden shower would have
found but little credit with me ; but the disrespectful language in
which this person presumed to express himself could not be entirely
overlooked ; I therefore commanded that one side of his head
and face should be flayed of the skin, and he in that state was
led round the encampment, proclamation being made at the same
time that such was the punishment which awaited those who
dared to apply disrespectful language to him, who was at once
their sovereign and benefactor. My severity on this occasion
seemed to be further warranted by the fact, that this same son
of Khan Dauran, on a previous visit to the Darvesh, had demeaned
himself very contemptuously and the Darvesh resenting such con-
;
duct, ventured to tell him that he should not go so far as to take

his head, his youth and rashness being beneath his notice, '
but/
said he, '
I will have thee scalped.' And thus was the saying of
the Darvesh pointedly In truth, persons of this des-
fulfilled.
cription have at all times a claim to be considered as divinities, yet

are they not very far apart from the Deity."* Laughing at Kings
has never been a profitable pursuit, and in the East its results are
generally disastrous. If the Khan Dauran's son scoffed again, he
did so probably privately to himself.
Like Moghuls Jahangir was passionately fond of hunting.
all
He once ordered a list of the animals to be made which he had

killed in the chase. Up to the eleventh year of his reign he states
it was calculated that he had killed 23,532, two-thirds of these
being either grass-feeding animals or birds. On his reaching the
age of fifty he gave up shooting
His Hindu envi- altogether.
ronment was probably responsible for this step.
The main event in Jahangir' s life was his marriage with Nur
Jahan. This lady was the daughter of a Persian immigrant who
had been the Superintendent of Akbar's household. In taking
bribes we are told this Persian was very bold and daring, and in

7
JAHANGIR. 1
after life, when his daughter was Jahangir's chief wife and ruled the
Empire, he had plenty of scope in this line. Nur Jahan was
married in Akbar's time to Ali Kuli Beg, who got the name of
Sher Afghan. On Jahangir's accession, this man was sent to
Bengal. was the story of David and Uriah's wife over again.
It
The royal Governor of Bengal was requested to arrange for a
divorce and for Nur Jahan to be sent to Court. The husband
naturally enough objected. At a meeting of the Governor and
Sher Afghan the latter stabbed the former and was himself imme-
diately cut down. Nur Jahan was sent to Court. First of all she
refused to have anything to do with Jahangir whom she rightly
considered her husband'smurderer, but finally she consented to
marry him and from that time she was supreme.
" Day by day her influence and dignity increased. First of
all she received the title Nur Mahal,
of ' Light of the harem,'
but was afterwards distinguished by that of Nur Jahan Begam,
'
Light of the world.' All her relations and connexions were
raised to honour and wealth. No grant of lands was conferred
upon any woman except under her seal. In addition to giving
Emperor granted Nur Jahan
her the titles other kings bestow, the
the rights of sovereignty and government. Sometimes she would
sit on the balcony of her palace, while the nobles would present
themselves, and listen to her dictates. Coin was struck in her

name, with this superscription By order of the Bang Jahangir,
: '
gold has a hundred splendours added to it by receiving the im-

pression of the name of Nur Jahan, the Queen Begam.' On all
farmans also receiving the Imperial signature, the name of '
Nur
Jahan; the Queen Begam,' was At last her
jointly attached.
authority reached such a pass that the King was such only in
name. Repeatedly he gave out that he had bestowed the sovereignty
on Nur Jahan Begam, and would say, '
I require nothing beyond a
sir of wine and half a sir of meat.' It is impossible to describe
the beauty and wisdom of the Queen. In any matter, that was
presented to her, if a difficulty arose, she immediately solved it.
Whoever threw himself upon her protection was preserved from
tyranny and oppression and if ever she learnt that any orphan
;
K, EM 2
girl was destitute and friendless, she would bring about her mar-
riage, and give her a wedding portion. It is probable that during
her reign no less than 500 orphan girls were thus married and por-
tioned."*
Her father, who was given the name of Itimad-ud-Doulah, be-
came Prime Minister, her brother who was given the name of Itmad
Khan became Master of the Ceremonies. The rule of the whole
Empire fell into the hands of her relations and herself. From
another source than that which I have quoted, we learn that she
used actually to sit at the Jharokha, the window where the Moghul
Emperors daily seated themselves in order to be seen by their sub-
jects and to administer justice. Jahangir's statement given above
is repeated in this authority thus that he only wanted a bottle of
:
wine and a piece of meat to keep himself merry and that Nur Jahan
was the real ruler of the Empire. In spite of all the panegyrics
written in her favour, there is but little doubt that her influence
on the whole was bad. The finances of the Empire were plunder-
ed by her and her relations and the old nobles were disgusted
by the authority wielded by this little gang. Afterwards we will
see how this was the cause of the great revolt of the reign.
Plague (waba) is mentioned in the Memoirs. Whether this
was cholera or the modern plague it is difficult to say, probably the
latter.' It appeared at different times, coming and then vanishing.
There were no railways in those days and thus one great means of
propagation was absent.
There were wars in Bengal where the Kings of Arakan gave
trouble and where the old Afghan families now and again caused
small internal disturbances, but these were of little moment. Far
more important were the wars with the Rana of Udaipur which
continued for several years. As in the previous wars against this
state we have accounts from both sides, the Rajputs representing
themselves as ever victorious, whereas the Muhammedan records
are largely silent, only recording the final result of the warfare.
Umrao Sing was the Rana of Mewar at the time. Rajput story
Elliot, Vol.'-VI, p. 405.

.JAHANGIR. 19
tells us that when called on by: Jahangir 's emissaries to submit and
pay tribute he wavered long, till the chief of Salombra having
hurled a brass vessel against a grand mirror adorning the room of
the palace in which the deliberations were Carried' on, shouted 'to
horse chiefs, and preserve from infamy the son of Pertap.' De-
feated in his first attack Jahangir found a rival to Umrao in his
uncle Sugra, whom he established as Rana while encamped by
the ruins of Chitor. however did not avail, and after seven
This,
years of nominal sovereignty Sugra returned to the Imperial Court
where he slew himself. The old tactics in Rajput wars were pur-
sued. On the one side the plains were wasted on the other the
;
Rajputs retiring to their hills, would suddenly burst on Moghul

hosts and do them much damage. On one occasion in particular, -
at the Pass of Khamnor, Prince Parvez with a large army got

entangled and had to fly leaving a great part of his army behind.
Prince Kharram succeeded Parvez. According to Jahangir he was
more successful than his elder brother. In his Autobiography we
find the following passage :
" Pleasing intelligence arrived of the intention of Rana Umrao

Sing to repair and make his obedience to me. My fortunate son
Kharram had established my authority and garrisons in divers
strongholds of the Rana's country, which owing to the malign
influence of the air and water, its barrenness" and inaccessibility,
it was deemed impossible to bring under subjection ;
yet from the
perpetual overrunning of the country, without regard to the heat
or the rains, by my armies, the capture and imprisonment of the
wives and children of many of the men of rank of the country, the
Rana was at length reduced to acknowledge the despair to which
he was driven, and that a further continuance of such distress
would be attended with utter ruin, with the choice of captivitv
or being forced to abandon the country. He therefore determined
to make, his submission,and sen^ two of his. chiefs^ Sup Karan
and Haridas Jhala, to my son Kharram, to represent that if he
would forgive and take him by the hand, he would pay his res-
pects to him, and would send his eldest son Karan to attend to
serve the Emperor, as did other Hindu princes but that, on ;
account of his years, he would hold himself excused from attending

in person. Of these events my son sent a full relation by Shukar
Oolah Afzul Khanee.
was greatly rejoiced at this event happening under my own
I
reign, and I commanded that these, the ancient possessors of the
country should not be driven from it. The fact is, Rana Umrao
Sing and his ancestors were proud, and confident in the strength
and inaccessibility of their mountainous country and its strong-
holds, and had never beheld a king of Hindustan, nor made sub-
mission to any one. I was desirous, in my own fortunate time,
the opportunity should not slip my hands instantly, therefore, :
on the representation of my son, I forgave the Rana, and sent a

friendly firman, that he might rest assured of my protection and
care, and imprinted thereon, as a solemn testimony of my sincer-
ity, my "five fingers " (Punja) ; I also wrote my son, that by any
means by which it could be brought about, to treat this illus-
trious one according to his own heart's wishes."*

Peace was the result. The Rana's grandson, Karan Singh,
visited the Imperial Court as the representative of his grandfather
and father and was treated with all favour. Tribute rather a —
present of elephants, horses and jewels as to which a suitable
—
return was made was paid by the Rana, he thereby acknowledging
himself one of the feudatories of the Empire, but beyond this
the Moghuls exacted nothing —neither territory nor the right to kill
kine nor any of the hundred and one humiliations commonly de-
manded by Victors. From this it is very clear that the Rajputs
were not badly worsted in the fight ; but still all the same from
the day of this peace, Mewar's greatness was at an end. In future
she was a part of the Empire and her history is that of the Empire.
Long before this war was finished the great Man Sing died.
Though he had fifteen hundred wives, so says Jahangir, he left
only one surviving son, Bhao Sing, who inherited none of his
father's qualities and whose name does not appear amongst the
doers of deeds in this or the next reign.
* Todd, Vol. I, pp. 304-305.

JAHANGIB. ^1
Really the greatest Rajput, as judged by action in this reign

was Mahabat Khan, the son of the Sugra whom I have named
above, who became Muhammedanism. He is found
a convert to
fighting against the Rajputs in Mewar and greatly distinguish-
ing himself he is also almost the only Moghul general who
;
accomplished anything in the Deccan and we shall find him later

on taking prisoner Jahangir himself.
In the Deccan wars the chief antagonist of the Moghuls was
Malik Ambar, an Abysinnian Eunuch. Prince Parvez, one of Jahan-
gir's sons, was for a long time in nominal command of the royal
troops and so for a time was Prince Kharram. But the real leaders
;
of the Moghul troops were great nobles of the Court, the Khan
Khanan, son of Bahram Khan, Abdullah Khan and others. In
these wars there were always three parties concerned, the Im-
perial troops, the Adil Shahis of Bijapur and the Mzam Shahis.
The capital of these latter Ahmednuggur had been taken by
Akbar and the dynasty had seemingly come to an end but still ;
the province was seething with disaffection. Tactics in the

Deccan have ever been the same, whether practised by Muham-
medans or Mahrattas the avoiding of regular actions, the wearing
;
out of one's opponents by destroying all local stores, the laying

of ambushes, the inducing of the enemy's troops into impassable
localities, such have ever been the leading features of a Deccan
campaign. And at all these Malik Ambar was a past Master. In

1610 A. D. the Imperial troops marched under the Khan Khanan
into the Balaghat— the lands between the Western Ghats and the
'
sea. There the grain was exhausted and none was to be ob-
'
tained for money. The men were reduced to distress, and there
was no means of carrying the matter further. Horses, camels
and other quadrupeds sank exhausted. So he patched up a
sort of peace with the enemy, and conducted Sultan Parvez and
the army back to Burhanpur."*
Complaints against the leader were poured into the Imperial
ear. One General, Khan Jahan, wrote and said: " All the dis-
» Elliot, Vol. VI, p. 323.

asters have happened through the bad management of Khan

Khanan ; either confirm him in his command or recall him to Court
and appoint me to perform the service. If 30,000 horses are sent
as a reinforcement, I will undertake in the course of two years to
recover all the Imperial territory from the enemy, to take Kanda-
har and other fortresses on the frontier and to make Bijapur a
part of the Imperial dominions. If I do not accomplish this in
the period named, I will never show my face at Court again."
Notwithstanding this boaster's promises the Moghuls were closely
besieged in Ahmedabad and eventually after a prolonged defence
capitulated. In 1612 A. D. other disasters followed. Eaja Man
Sing was then still alive and out of his experience gave much sound
advice, which was not taken by the Muhammedan Nobles who
were jointly with the Raja in command of the royal forces.
Jealousy between the leaders was everywhere evident in their
actions. Abdulla Khan pushed on below the ghats. There
Malik Ambar who had in his pay large bodies of Mahrattas har-
assed him on all sides and he was forced to make a most dis-
graceful retreat. A saying of one of his chiefs taken prisoner by
Malik Ambar survives. To a person attending who said " Vic-
tory is in the hands of heaven," he replied ''Truly victory is with
heaven but the battle is for men."*
In A. D. 1615 Jahangir's troops obtained a victory over
Malik Ambar, but though the royal author is very boastful as
to the same, little ground was gained. The enemy, contrary to
had fought a pitched battle. The next day all trace of
practice,
them disappeared. After this Jahangir travelled himself to the
Deccan,and at Kambay, saw that wonder of wonders to the Moghuls,
the sea. While there he ordered the customs duties to be reduced
to two and a half per cent. —
a very moderate charge indeed.
I need hardly say that goods had to pay much more than this on
account of the corruption and greed of the customs' officers. All
the travellers in the East agree in grumbling at the local governors,
and at the governors of Kambay and Surat in particular, on

:
JAHANGIR. 23
account of the greed they displayed where merchandise was con-

cerned and of their seizing whatever took their fancy. If- report,
however, do not what the Moghul rulers in these days did,

lie,
is much what at some of the Russian ports, officials do at the
present day. Trade in spite of this drawback seems to have

greatly flourished.
About Mokarram Khan, an Imperial General, made
this time
an important conquest on the Eastern coast, i.e., of the territory

of Khurdah. Of all India this Eastern coast has ever kept the
most free from Muhammedan The Golkonda Kingdom
influence.
touched the Bay of Bengal at places but save for this Hindu ;
Rajas and Hinduism reigned supreme from Cuttack to Cape

Comorin until the eighteenth century.
A little later while Prince Kharram was in nominal command
in the Deccan, the enemy became so strong as to be able to drive
the Imperialists from' Burhanpur, A. D. 1621, but reinforcements
reaching the Prince, he was able to drive off his opponents and things
seemed brighter than they were for years when all of a sudden
everything was clouded by his revolt from his father. The cause
of this rebellion is said to have been his seizing some of the jagirs
of Nur Jahan and Prince Shahriar. There is no doubt that he
was not beloved of Nur Jahan, and that under her influence Jahangir
assumed a very hostile attitude towards this son of his. In
the Memoirs the Emperor naively says " When Kharram's
—
son was ill, I made a vow that, if God would spare his life, I would
never shoot an animal again with my own hand. For all my love
of shooting I kept my vow for five years to the present time but
now that I was offended with Kharram, I resolved to go out
shooting again."*
Kharram determined on the offensive. The Khan Khanan
joined him on which the Emperor sententiously remarks
" Khan Khanan who held the exalted dignity of being my
tutor, had now turned rebel, and in the seventieth year of his age
had blackened his face with ingratitude. But he was by nature

—
24 HISTORY OF THE GREAT MOGHOLS.
a rebel and traitor. His father, at the close of his days, had acted
in the same shameful way towards my revered father. He had
but followed the course of his father, and disgraced himself in his
old age.
*' The wolf's whelp will grow a wolf,
E'en though reared with man himself."
The objective was Agra. Prince Parvez was the

of the rebels
nominal leader of the royal forces, Mahabat Khan being in real
command. Without a battle Kharram' s forces melted away.
Mahabat was profuse of promises, which on the whole were kept
and soon the rebellious son found that he had to retreat south of
the Nerbudda. There this Prince's first action was to seize the
aged Khan Khanan, whose fidelity he doubted. Fearing even to
remain in this remote corner of the Imperial territory after stay-
ing two or three days at Asir, he, with only three of his wives, his
children and a small escort, fled from there, having left the fortresp
in charge of Gropal, a Rajput. As to the Khan Khanan he took
him out of confinement "* and bound him by an oath upon the
Koran to be faithful. To give force to the oath and agreement,
Kharram took the Khan Khanan into his female apartments, and
giving him the privilege of a near relation, presented to him his wives
and children, and, with tears and great earnestness, said, " Incase
of evil falling upon me, I trust myself and the honour of my family
to you something must ba done, tnat I may proceed no further
;
in this wretched and miserable course. "f

The Khan Khanan was not long in hesitating what he should
do. Within a very few days of Kharram 's flight he surrendered
to Mahabat Khan, who treated him with all courtesy. The
rebellious Prince went to G-olkonda territory from whence he pro-
ceeded to Orissa and Bengal. There he gathered together a con-
siderable force and managed to get as far as Allahabad. De-
feated in action by the ever watchful Mahabat Khan, he was forced
again to flee. Betaking himself again to the Deccan, he joined
Malik Ambar in an attack on Burhanpur. This nearly suc-
t Elliot, Vol. VI, p. 388.

JAHANG1K. 25
ceeded, but not quite. On the arrival of Prince Parvez and

Mahabat Khan in relief of this fortress, Kharram made his way
to the inacessible Balaghat. Malik Ambar had been kept in check,
in the Deccan, may be noted while Parvez and Mahabat Khan
it
were fighting at Allahabad, by the troops of the Bijapur Sultan

with whom very wisely Mahabat had made an alliance while pur-
suing Kharram in the first occasion on the Deccan. But this
alliance was disastrous to Bijapur, as Malik Ambar in a pitched
battle, not far from Ahmednuggur, completely routed the Bijapur
troops. All the same his attention being drawn towards his
enemy to the South, Malik Ambar effected but little against the
Moghuls. Not long after this final victory he died A. D. 1625-
In the Memoirs we read " This Ambar was a slave, but an able
man. In warfare, in command, in sound judgment, and in ad-
ministration, he had no rival or equal. He well understood that
predatory (kazzaki) warfare, which in the language of the Dakhin
is called bargi-giri. He kept down the turbulent spirits of that
country, and maintained his exalted position to the end of his
life,and closed his career in honour. History records no other

instance of an Abyssinian slave arriving at such eminence."*
The chief proof of his greatness was that after his death there
ceased to be any vigorous organised opposition to the Moghuls.

What was under the son of Malik Ambar and under the last
there
•of the Nizam Shahis was of a very feeble description. When the
North-West Deccan again became the scene of warfare, the Mah-
rattas and not Muhammedan claimants are the protagonists to the
Moghuls.
Before Malik Ambar's death Mahabat Khan had rebelled.
He too was driven to this owing to the enmity shown him by Nur
Jahan's family. As a Muhammedan author says, speaking of his
'
recall from the Deccan ordered by Jahangir This recall was

: '
owing to the instigation of Asaf Khan, whose object was to bring

him to disgrace, and to deprive him of honour, property, and life. "j
* Elliot, Vol. VI, pp. 428—429.

t Elliot, Vol. VI, p. 420.
This Asaf Khan was Nur Jahan's brother. The ostensible

cause of the royal displeasure was his betrothing his daughter
without the Emperor's consent ; the real cause I have stated. On
Mahabat's returning from the Deccan he was forbidden to appear
at Court. With Mahabat came from that country a band of
Rajputs, some thousands strong. The Court was then on tour
near the river Jhelum. by birth and in
Mahabat, a Rajput
—
heart was determined not to stand by meekly while his enemies
ruined him, and he resolved on receiving the command to enter
the Royal encampment to seize the Emperor. Everything
favoured his attempt. When he arrived near the Court, a part
of the tentsand most of the troops had already crossed the river,
and only a small retinue attended on the Emperor, who had stayed
behind. The story of the seizure is thus told by the Muhamme-
dan author, who is the Annalist of the latter part of the reign:
" The writer of this Ikbalnama at that time held the offices of
bakshi and mir-tuzak ; therefore he had not gone over the river,
but passed the night in the antechamber. After prayers, and
saying goodnight to his comrades, he went round to inspect. A
cry arose that Mahabat Khan was coming, and the thought occur-
red to me that perhaps he had gone to the door of the private apart-
ments. Then it was said that he had left the private apartments,
and had come to the state apartment, to give expression to his
feelings. On reaching the entrance of my ante-room, he enquired
how matters stood. When his voice reached my ear, I drew my
sword, and went out of the tent. When he saw me, he addressed
me by name, and asked after His Majesty. I saw that he had
with him about 100 Rajputs on foot, carrying spears and shields,
and leading his horse in the midst of them but the dust prevented
;
me from any one's face

seeing distinctly. He hastened to the
chief entrance, and I entered the by a side door.
state apartment
I saw a few men of the guard in the state room, and three or four
eunuchs standing at the door of the apartment. Mahabat Khan

rode to the door of the state room, and alighted. When he pro-
ceeded towards the bathroom, he had about 200 Rajputs with him.
I then went forward, and in ray simplicity exclaimed: 'This
JAHANGIR. 2T
presumption and temerity is beyond all rule ;

if you will wait a
minute, I will go on in, and make a report."* He did not trouble
himself to answer. When he reached the entrance of the bath-
room, his attendants tore down the boards which the door-keepers
had put up for security, and threw them into the middle of the
state room. The servants who were in attendance on His Majesty
informed him of his daring action. The Emperor then came out
and took his seat in a palki which was in waiting for him. Mahabat
Khan advanced respectfully to the door of the palki, and said
" I have assured myself that escape from the malice and implac-
able hatred of Asaf Khan is impossible, and that I shall be put to
death in shame and ignominy. I have therefore boldly and pre-
sumptuously thrown myself upon your Majesty's protection. If
I deserved death or punishment, give the order that I may suffer
it in your presence." The armed Rajputs now flocked in, and

surrounded the royal apartments. There was no one with His
Majesty but Arab Dast-ghaib and a few other attendants. The
violent entrance of that faithless dog had alarmed and enraged
His Majesty, so he twice placed his hand on his sword to cleanse-
the world from the filthy existence of that foul dog. But each
'
time Mansur Badakshi said : ' This is a time for fortitude, leave
the punishment of this wicked faithless fellow to a just God ; a
day of retribution will come." His words seemed prudent, so
His Majesty restrained himself. In a short time the Rajputs
occupied the royal apartments within and without, so that no one
but the servants could approach His Majesty. The villain then
said " It is time to go out riding and hunting
: ; let the necessary
orders be given as usual, so that your slave may go out in attend-
ance upon you, and it may appear that this bold step has been
taken by your Majesty's order." He brought his own horse for-
ward, and urged the Emperor to mount it ; but the royal dignity
would not permit him to ride upon his horse. So he called for
his own horse and ordered his riding garments to be taken into-
the private apartments. But that shrewd villain would not allow
him to go inside.
* Elliot, Vol. VI, pp. 421—423.
"28 HISTORY OF THE GREAT MOGHULS.
They waited a little until the horse was brought. His Majesty
then mounted and rode to two arrow-shots distance from the tents.
An elephant was brought forward, and Mahabat Khan said that
there was a crowd and uproar. His Majesty had therefore better
mount the elephant, and so proceed to the hunting ground. The
Emperor, without any observation or occupation, mounted the
beast. One of the most trusted Rajputs took his seat in front,
and two others behind the howda. Mubarak Khan now came
forward, and to satisfy him, took a place in the howda with the
Emperor. In the confusion, Mubarak had received accidentally a
wound in the forehead, from which a good deal of blood had run,
and covered his bosom. One of the personal attendants of His
Majesty, who had charge of the wine, and carried the royal wine
cup in his hand, now came up to the elephant. The Rajputs
seized their spears, and with their hands and arms tried to prevent
him but he seized fast hold of the howda, and as there was not
;
room for three persons to sit outside, he supported himself by

holding the middle of the howda. After going about half a kos,
Gajpat Khan, the master of the elephant stables, brought up the
Emperor's own elephant. He was seated in front, and his son
behind. Apparently this roused Mahabat Khan's suspicion, and he
gave the sign to the Rajputs for killing these two innocent men."
Nur Jahan, however, had got away, and so Mahabat' s work
was but half done. An attempt to rescue the Emperor by force
was made, but failed. The attempt was on the face of it unwise,
for if the troops, headed by Asaf Khan, had succeeded in routing
Mahabat Khan's Rajputs, doubtless some of these latter would
have despatched the Emperor rather than have abandoned him.
What force could not do, craft succeeded in doing. Nur Jahan
joined the Emperor, treated Mahabat Khan so that he ceased to
have any suspicion concerning her and eventually managed to
escape with Jahangir to the Punjab Rhotas. Mahabat Khan felt
himself outwitted. He had still Asaf Khan in his hands, but
thought it wiser to hand him over to Nur Jahan. Thereafter he
affected to obey the royal orders which directed him to pursue
Kharram who had fled from the Deccan to Sind where he was
JAHANGIR. 2&'
trying to seize the strong fortress of Thatta. In this, owing to the-
loyalty of the Governor, he failed, and thinking that the game was
now altogether up, determined to proceed to Persia when the news
of the death of Prince Parvez his elder brother and his most for-
midable rival as regards the succession caused him to change his

mind. A reconciliation with Mahabat Khan, nominally his pur-
suer, followed, and he was again in a position to enforce his claims

to the throne. But of further fighting there was no need, for
shortly after these events his father after a short illness died A.D.
1627. Jahangir's tomb is on the banks of the Ravee at Lahore.
Shortly before his death died the last of the great men of Akbar's
reign, the Khan Khanan, full of years and in spite of all the stories
of his tergiversations, full of honour.
Jahangir's character needs but few words. The decay of the
race with him had already begun. In his early life he was wilful
to a degree ; later on he was ever under some influence or other,
and as I have already said, the influence of his wife Nur Jahan,
the most enduring of all such influences, does not seem to have
been for his good. Boastful, extravagant, drunken, still we feel,
when we read of him that he was not all bad, that he was good
natured, and good intentioned. Fortunately he was the son of
his father ; his way had been smoothed for him by his father's
wisdom in administration ; and the broad territories under his sway

were accordingly peaceful. On the whole the lands under his rule
seem to have been contented and prosperous, and this is what
cannot be said of the rule of many abler kings, much abler
and more conscientious than Jahangir ever was.
No account would be complete without men-
of Jahangir's reign
tion of the European settlements on the coast of Peninsular India
and of Sir Thomas Eoe's embassy to the Imperial Court. The history
of the foundation and growth of these settlements is not within the
scope of this work and so a very few words concerning the same
will The Portuguese found their way round the Cape
suffice.
while Baber, still a very young man, was fighting with destiny in
Transoxiana. From being merely traders they became a political
power under the great Viceroy Albuquerque, who acquired the
island ofGoa at a time when the Bahmani dynasty only existed

as a name and the Adilshahis of Bijapur, -within whose territory
Goa was, had not yet reached the power to which they afterwards
attained. Consequently Goa proved an easy conquest. From this
centre the Portuguese stretched their power far and wide over the
Indian Ocean, Mozambique on the African coast, Ormuz in the
Persian Gulf and Malacca on the Malay peninsula being its out-
works. In a very different way from what any piratical ruler
had done before, they claimed the lordship of the Indian Ocean.
:Ships in the Arabian Sea only sailed by their leave. Their preten-
sions and acts of violence on the sea incensed not only Akbar but
-other Muhammedan rulers of the East against them, particularly
as many from the various countries adjoining the Arabian Sea went
by sea rather than by land when on pilgrimage to Mecca.. St.
Francis Xavier, one of the founders of the Jesuits, came to India,

so too did the Spanish Inquisition. Unlike the Eastern Rulers of
India in the sixteenth century and particularly unlike Jahangir,
who allowed absolute toleration for persons of all religions at a
time when such a doctrine was unknown in Europe, the Portuguese
were fiercely intolerant. As almost their only converts were their
slaves, they soon got themselves thoroughly hated over the East
both as brigands and as bigots. Portugal's union with Spain and

the war between Spain and Holland led the Dutch to the Eastern
seas. On the East coast they founded a flourishing factory at
Masulipatam ; in the south they seized the seaports of Ceylon and
everywhere became a terror to the Portuguese, who had made the
fatal mistake of attempting to maintain an Eastern Empire without
ever renewing the material of the same with Western blood. More
than a hundred and some years after
years after the Portuguese
the Dutch, came the English. The port where they first began to
trade was Surat in Gujarat belonging to the Delhi Empire. The
Portuguese had got ports higher up at Daman and Diu, but neither
of these were of much importance, whereas Surat had for many
years been the chief port in the Upper part of the Western Coast
of India. Besides the perils of the sea, two great difficulties stood
in the way of English trade, the determination of the Portuguese
JAHANGIR. 31
to keep out the other European nations and the exactions of local
officials. As regards the latter they had recourse to Jahangir
himself. First Captain Hawkins, a commander of one of the
East India Company J s ships, and then afterwards Sir Thomas
Roe as ambassador from James I visited the Imperial Court. It
isworthy of notice that even by their time, there were quite a
number of Europeans to be found inland. Most of these were
runaways from boardship or deserters from the Portuguese
settlements to be found in the artillery of the native Princes,
for even then the Eastern chiefs had a great idea of the Western
as a fighting man, but some were of a different type. An eccen-
tric scholar, such as Tom Corryat, was to be found, who had walked
the whole way from Aleppo, on little more than a penny
subsisting
a day other merchants had

; come overland from Persia, for the
overland route was then in common use, and men such as William
Finch, who was with Captain Hawkins, preferred to return through
Cabul rather than round the Cape. Of course, there were also
Jesuit missionaries be found, striving wherever they could to
to
find converts. Both Captain Hawkins and Sir Thomas Roe had
to complain of the procrastination, of the vacillation, of what
Dickens calls the way not to do it, of Eastern Courts. Sir Thomas
Roe has special complaints against Prince Kharram, the future
Shah Jahan, on account of his pride and his dislike of Christians,
and there is no doubt that he had reason, for with Shah Jahan
begins a very different regime as far as toleration was concerned.
Both this Capt. Hawkins and Sir Thomas Roe described partly with
wonder, and partly with the contempt, that unfamiliarity often
generates, the doings at the Imperial Court, the daily appearances
of Jahangir at the Jharokha, the animal fights in his presence, the
Khana and
executions, the private levees at night in the Ghusal
the discussion of state matters therein. Thomas Roe in addi-
Sir
tion tells what hardships he underwent when Jahangir went into

camp journeying from Agra to Mandu, how often he found the
greatest difficulty in obtaining decent accommodation or even
drinking water. In one of his letters he gives this graphic des-
cription of the customs of the land, as he understood them.
" They have no written law. The King by his own word
ruleth, and his Governors of Provinces by that authoritie.
Once
a week he judgment patiently, and giveth sentence for
sitteth in
crimes, Capitall and Civill. He is every man's heire when he dyeth,

which maketh him rich and the Countrey so evill builded. The great
men about him are not borne Noble, but favourites raised : to whom
hee giveth (if it be true) wonderfull meanes. They are reckoned
by Horses that is to say, Coronels of twelve thousand Horses ;
which is the greatest, whereof are four, besides his sonnes and his
wife : so descending to twentie horses ; not that any of these are
bound to keepe, or raise any at all. But the King assigneth them
so much bound to maintaine so many Horses as a rent,
land, as is
each horse at five and twentie pounds sterling by the yeere,

which is an incredible Revenue given away so many, (that is, :
almost all, but the Ploughmen, Artificers, and Tradesmen in

towns) living upon it. But as they die, and must needs gather, so it
returneth to the King like Rivers to the sea, both of those he gave
to, and of those that have gained by their owne industry, But
for the most part he leaveth the widowes and children their horses,
stufie, and some other stocke and then putteth them into a Sig-
:
niory (if the fathers were of six or seven thousand horses) perhaps
of a thousand or five hundred and so setteth them to begin the
:
world anew, and advanceth them as they deserve of him. They

all rise by presenting him, which they strive to doe both richly
and rarely : some giving a hundred thousand pounds in jewels

at a time. He hath one beloved wife among foure, that wholly
governeth him. He received lately a present from the
King of
Bisampore, to obtaine peace, (whose Ambassadour knocked his
head three times against the ground) of six and thirty Elephants,
of two whereof the chaines and all tackles were of beaten gold,
to the weigght of foure hundred pounds, two of silver, of the same
fashion ; the rest of Copper ; fiftie Horses richly furnished and ten
Lackes of Rupias in Jewels, great Pearles, and Balasse Rubies.
Every Lacke is an hundred thousand Rupias every Rupia two ;
shillings sixe pence sterling: so tenne Lackes is a Million of

Rupias.
:
JAHANGIR. 33
His Territorie is than the Persians, and almost

farre greater
equall, if not as great as the Turkes. His meanes of money, by

revenue, oustome of Presents, and inheriting all mens goods, above
both. His Countrey lyeth West to Sind, and so stretcheth to
Candahar, and to the Mountains of Taurus North. To the east as
farre as the utmost parts of Bangala, and the borders of Ganges
and South to Deccan, it is two thousand miles square at the least,
but hath many pettie Kings within, that are Tributaries."*
Jahangir's being weighed on certain days of the year, viz. y
his birthday and Nouroz, and then weights of gold, silver, and
other articles being given away struck Sir Thomas with surprise
and also with incredulity, at least as far as the more precious

were concerned. On one occasion Jahangir tried him
articles
by asking whether he would buy two juvenile malefactors con-

demned to death. Sir Thomas replied that he would pay the
money but then would them free. This he did, but he has a
let
long grumble at the King, who so treated an Ambassador. Still

Sir Thomas on the whole obviously liked Jahangir, the lattex's
facility,good nature and tolerance all making a favourable im-

pression on him. As to his grumbling at having to give presents
here, there and everywhere, this has always been the way of the
East, and not in India alone ; it is not I fancy unknown in the West.
Sir Thomas Koe finally obtained permission for English merchants
to trade, paying 3| per cent, as customs duties. Such a rate com-
pared favourably with most custom rates at the present day, even
with the present Indian Government's 5 per cent. Doubtless the
Customers, as Sir Thomas Eoe calls the Custom Officers, got also
their own share, but still trading was and continued to be through-
out the country an exceedingly profitable pursuit to the English

engaged in it.
* Purehas, Vol. IV, p. 437.
K, HM
SHAH JAHAN-A. D. 1627—1658.
At the time of Jahangir's death Shah Jahan, who had retraced

his steps after having been joined by Mahabat Khan, was in the
Deccan. Of all the possible claimants to the succession, there
was not one to be compared with him either in ability or experience.
This, Asaf Khan, Nur Jahan's brother, the chief minister and
greatest man at the time in the state, well knew ; and so he de-
clined to listen to his sister's proposal to put Shahriyar, a younger
son of Jahangir, on the throne. Nur Jahan's idea was thus to
prolong her own reign, but her brother, who saw further than did
this beautiful inmate of the Harem, at once perceived the perils of
such a course — perils arising on the one hand from the probability
that in any conflict for empire Shah Jahan would gain the upper
hand and that Khan, and his family would
in consequence he, Asaf
on the other hand, that there was no telling
be utterly ruined, and,
as to how long the faineant ruler would be a tool in the hand
—
of Nur Jahan's faction for the trouble of faineant Kings has ever
been the facility with which they are gained over from one interest
to another. So Asaf Khan decided to declare for the one capable
claimant. Shah Jahan was indeed far away, but a fast runner
was immediately sent by the minister to inform him of what had
happened. In the meantime Jahangir was interred with all due
ceremony at Lahore in a garden which Nur Jahan had laid out,
and Dawar Buksh, the son of Khusrao, was brought out of con-
finement and placed by Asaf Khan on the throne. The historian
of the time tells us that Dawar Buksh was loth to believe the wily
Persian and only yielded to his and his fellow conspirators' words
when they bound themselves by the most stringent oaths,
which, however, were not kept nor meant to be kept. We read
*
when the nobles and officers of the State became aware that Asaf
Khan had resorted to the stratagem of proclaiming Dawar Buksh,
in order to secure the succession of Shah Jahan, and that Dawar
SHAH JAHAN. 35
was, in fact, a mere sacrificial lamb, they gave their support to

Asaf Khan, and did whatever he said. So the Khutba was read
in Dawar Buksh's name near Bhimbar, and then they started for
Lahore. Asaf Khan was not at ease in respect of Nur Jahan, so
he kept watch over her, and would allow no communication with
her. The Begum's wish was to raise Shahriyar to the throne.
Shahriyar was in Lahore when he heard of the Emperor's death,
and urged by his intriguing wife, he assumed the royal title. He
seized upon the royal treasure and everything belonging to the
State which was in Lahore. To secure troops and supporters, he
gave to everyone what he asked for, and in the course of one week
he distributed seventy lacs of rupees among the old and young
nobles, in the hope of securing his position. Mirza Baisinghar,
son of the late Prince Daniyal, on the death of the Emperor, fled
to Lahore, and joined Shahriyar. He took command of the
and led them over the river.* The fight between Asaf
forces,
Khan and Shahriyar was but of short duration. Defeated, the

latter fled into the female apartments of the late Emperor. From
thence he was brought out by a eunuch, bound and blinded. In
the meantime Shah Jahan was slowly approaching the capital.
When news arrived that he had left was approach-

the Deccan and
ing Agra, the farce of Dawar Buksh's came to an end.
sovereignty
The Khutba was read at Lahore in Shah Jahan' s name and Dawar
Buksh was thrown into prison. Shortly afterwards orders came
to Asaf Khan to put to death all the princes that remained of
Akbar's race. Dawar Buksh, his brother Garshasp, the two sons of
Prince Daniyal, Akbar's second son, Shahriyar, all were put to death.
At length the Delhi sovereignty had copied to the full the custom
of Constantinople. In the first century of the Moghul rule,
shown by Baber, Humayun and Akbar.
brotherly affection was ever
Even Jahangir, Khusrao had long
though greatly provoked, for
been a rival, contented himself with blinding and had fits of
tenderness to his son. But from now henceforth, the full blight
of Eastern sovereignty, the deadening of all natural affection rules
the Delhi Empire in full force. Shah Jahan himself, as we shall
afterwards see, suffered by the law of retribution. He steps to the

throne through the murder of a brother, of nephews and of cousins ;
his reign will come to an end and he will end his days as a captive
through the conduct of his own sons. With Jahangir's death we
come to an end of royal authors. No longer shall we learn from
books written by themselves what sort of men they were or what
they wished the world to consider them to be. Henceforth we
shall have no such help. With Shah Jahan, indeed, we have help
of another sort. Whatever else he was, Shah Jahan was a builder
on the grandest scale. The greatest monuments of Moghul
architecture in Northern India, the Taj Mahal at Agra and the
Juma Musjid at Delhi are his work. It does not concern us here
to discuss, how far extraneous, particularly Italian workmanship
was employed in the first building, or who actually were the
architects of these two wondrous piles. Only a sovereign with
boundless resources and with ideas both of the grand and the
beautiful, could have directed and superintended these glorious
buildings. Muhammedan architecture, as regards both mosques and
mausoleums, is largely uniform and one mosque or mausoleum is
more or less the type of all others, but in spite of this general uni-
formity, diversity has ample scope in such and Shah

creations,
Jahan's great works are incomparably the most striking and the
most artistic in India. Inferring from the buildings to the man,
we are constrained to pay homage to the grandeur of his concep-
tions and to his having had the artistic sense strongly developed.
Otherwise he was not an As far as outer
amiable character.
events were concerned, the period 1627 to 1656 was the golden
period of Moghul rule. Foreign wars were but few and unimpor-
tant, at home there was peace and plenty, and the royal treasury
was ever full to overflowing. But in the midst of it all is Shah
Jahan, an imperturbable and incomprehensible character, proud as
Lucifer as Sir Thomas Roe describes him, cruel to a degree or
rather absolutely indifferent to human suffering, and never, as far
as history tells us, doing a generous or noble act. A sensualist of
the Eastern type, in one matter he shows himself in a pleasant

light, i.e., in his great affection to his wife Mumtaz Taj Mahal, the
SHAH JAHAN. 37
mother of his many children, who, while living, was his constant
companion and to whom, when dead, he raised the loveliest of
tombs. Taj Mahal, whatever she may have been as regards beauty
and personal attraction, was a far inferior character to Nur Jahan,
whose niece she was. In cruelty and pride she seems to have
been much on a par with Shah Jahan himself. Another of the
Emperor's traits, which as years rolled on, became more and more
pronounced, was his avarice, until in his latter days we get the
repulsive picture of an old decrepit miser of an Emperor, sitting
amongst his jewel and money bags and hugging them as dearer than
life itself. Altogether when we get to this Emperor, we feel we
have left the typical Moghul of the Steppes behind us al-
together. No more joviality, no more spontaneity and man-
liness ; instead we have reached the. age of automata. Once more
in the Emperor, in Aurangzeb, we will find a monarch
bigot
who, whatever else he was, was essentially a man, but already we
have stepped on to the road of decay, out of the breezes into the
miasmic marsh.
Shah Jahan' s have already pointed out, was one
reign, as I
of great prosperity. The Rajputs had become loyal servants of
the Empire. Since Jahangir's treaty with the Rana of Mewar,
Rajput independence had come to an end. During the remaining
days of the Empire they and their rulers are ever to be found
fighting as soldiers of the Empire (save indeed when Aurangzeb
tries to interfere with their religion and their personal liberties at
which time many of them rise in revolt) ; no longer does the Rana
claim to be a sovereign on terms of equality with the ruler at
Delhi ; all that he asked for, is to be enrolled as one of the great
nobles of the Empire and to be treated as a great noble should be
treated. As regards the North-Western part of the Empire,
Kandahar in this reign becomes finally Persian, but Cabal is and
indeed continues to be till well into the eighteenth century an
integral part of the Empire, as quiet and as contented as any other
part of the Empire.
The slow process of filtration continues in the Deccaa. Ah-
medabad, without the help of the able Malik Ambar, finally becomes
—
a part of the Empire, and the two remaining Muhammedan states,
Bijapur and Golkonda, become weaker and weaker.

The first distant rumbles of the Mahratta troubles that will
finally lay the Empire in the dust, are to be heard, but at present
all their effect is to weaken the state of Bijapur. The Portu-
guese power is on the decline and no other European power takes
its place. So on every side the position is one of prosperity.
Eastern writers are ordinarily not to be trusted on account of their
excessive servility ; but at the same time the reports of Western
travellers, although of the greatest use, must not be taken alone,
as giving a full and impartial account of any Eastern Government.
Such writers necessarily take more note of extraordinary than of
ordinary occurrence. Being absolute strangers, everything to
them is strange, and their reports are rather as to what strikes
them as most strange than as to the regular course of administra-
tion. They indeed do report, and there seems no reason to doubt
the correctness of their report, that the Emperor was famed for
his justice. Few, however, dared or cared to appeal to him. In
a Muhammedan account of his reign we read'
" Notwithstanding the great area of the country, plaints were
so few that only one day in the week, viz.,Wednesday, was fixed
upon for the administration of justice ; and it was rarely even then
that twenty plaintiffs could be found to prefer suits, the number
being generally much less. The writer of this historical sketch on
more than one occasion, when honoured with an audience of the
King, heard His Majesty chide the darogha of the Court that,
although so many confidential persons had been appointed to
invite plaintiffs, and a day of the week was set apart exclusively
with the view of dispensing justice, yet even the small number of
twenty plaintiffs could but very seldom be brought into Court-
The darogha replied that if he failed to produce only one plaintiff,
he would be worthy of punishment.
In short, it was owing to the great solicitude evinced by the
King towards the promotion of the national weal and the general
tranquillity, that the people were restrained from committing
offences against one another and breaking the public peace. But if
SHAH JAHAN. 39
offenders were discovered, the local authorities used generally to try

them on the spot where the offence had been committed according
to law, and in concurrence with the law officers, and if any indivi-
dual, dissatisfied with the decision passed on his case, appealed to
the Governor or the diwan, or to the kazi of the suba, the matter
was reviewed, and judgment awarded with great care and discrimin-
ation, lest it should be mentioned in the presence of the King
that justice had not been done. If parties were not satisfied with
these decisions, they appealed to the chief diwan. or to the chief
kazi on matters of law. These officers instituted further inquiries.
With all this care, what cases, except those relating to blood and
religion, could become subjects of reference to His Majesty ?
"*
The same writer speaks of the general prosperity of the time
thus :
" The means employed by the King in these happy times
to protect and nourish his people to punish all kinds of oppressive
;
evil-doers his knowledge on all subjects tending to the welfare

;
of his people his impressing the same necessity upon the revenue
;
functionaries, and the appointment of honest and intelligent

officers in every district his administration of the country, and
;
calling for and examining annual statements of revenue, in order to

ascertain what were the resources of the empire his showing his ;
royal affection to the people, and expressing his displeasure when

necessary ; his issuing stringent orders to the officers appointed
to the charge of the crown and assigned lands, to promote the
increase and welfare of the tenants his admonishing the disobe-
;
dient, and constantly directing his generous attention towards the

improvement of agriculture and the collection of revenues for the
state ; all these contributed in a great measure to advance the
prosperity of his empire. The pargana, the income of which was
three lacs of rupees in the reign of Akbar (whose seat is in the
highest heaven) yielded in this happy reign, a revenue of ten lacs.
The collections made in some districts, however, fell short of this
proportionate increase. The chokladars who, by carefully culti-
vating their lands, aided in increasing the revenue, received marked
consideration, and vice versa.
* Elliot, Vol. VII, p. 173.

:
Notwithstanding the comparative increase in the expenses

of the State during this reign, gratuities for the erection of public
edifices and other works in progress, and for the paid military
service and establishments, such as those maintained in Balkh,
Badakshan, and Kandahar, amounted at one disbursement only,
to fourteen crores of rupees, and the advances made on account of
the edifices only, were two crores and fifty lacs of rupees. From
an idea may be formed as to
this single instance of expenditure,
what the charges must have been under others. Besides in times
of war large sums were expended, in addition to fixed salaries and
ordinary outlay. In short, the expenditure of former reigns, in
comparison with the one in question, was not even in the propor-
tion of one to four ; and yet this King, in a short space of time,
amassed a treasure which would have taken several years
it for
his predecessors to accumulate."*
Much of this may be exaggeration. The great expenditure
in buildings and their adornment, in the maintenance of the
Imperial Court, in the construction of the Peacock throne and
in a hundred other ways, must have been at the expense of the
general prosperity of the kingdom. Corvees for public works
during Shah Jehan's reign must have been as troublesome as
was in Egypt the Pharaohs' employment of forced labour
to build the Pyramids. But still India is a very big country
a great part of the country is fertile to an extraordinary degree,
the persons directly affected by the corvoe were in proportion
to the total population but small, and provided peace and a
certain amount of and both existed in this reign, the
security,
inhabitants could be comparatively to what they were in other

times, well off in spite of all the imperial waste. I have mentioned
the Peacock throne. This was of enormous -value being said to
be worth millions. It was composed largely of gold and precious
stones, and was so called inasmuch as each pillar was surmounted
by two peacocks. The Koran forbids the representation of human

and animal forms, much in the spirit of the second commandment,
lest the worshipper should bow down to the created rather than
""
SHAH JAHAN. 4 I
the creator and these peacocks were against the strict letter of
Islam, though casuists were to be found who were able to prove
that there was nothing in them inconsistent with the precepts of
the Prophet. But Shah Jahan had been reared in a harem where
Hindu women occupied a large place and was the son of a Hindu
mother. Although with him may be said to begin the return of the
Delhi rulers towards Islam, still Hindu feelings largely influenced
him, and no Koranic precept restrained him from following his
own wishes in a matter as to which there might be doubt. The
jewel-loving Emperor was not to be kept from displaying his
wealth of diamonds, emeralds, rubies and pearls in what he consi-
dered the most artistic fashion. The throne remained in existence
as long as the Moghul Empire flourished, but in its decay it was
seized and broken up by Nadir Shah as we shall see later on.
The forts at Agra and Delhi —'both magnificent specimens of
Moghul fort building and with architectural treasures within them,
such as the Moti Musjid at Agra and the Diwan-i-Khas at Delhi, were
both built in this reign. The present Delhi indeed, known by
Muhammedan historians as Shah Jahanabad, was the creation of this
sovereign standing as it does North-West of the older Delhi of the
time of Baber and Akbar. An old disused canal in the environs
constructed by Furukh Shah who reigned a
Khilji, ruler of Delhi,
few years before the invasion of Timur, which had become blocked
up and which had only been partially repaired by Akbar's governor,
was cleaned out and made afresh, receiving the appropriate name
of Nahr-i-Bihist, the canal of Heaven. To sum up this part of my
story, it was in Shah Jahan's reign that Agra and Delhi, as we
now know them, really came into existence. No Delhi monarch
before or after him has ever equalled him in the matter of build-
ing. As to this be, of Indian rulers, rules supreme.
Shah Jahan's reign did not commence without a rebellion.
Khan Jahan Lodi, a great Afghan Chief, who had been left behind
in the Deccan, entered into an alliance with the last of the Nizam
Shahis and surrendered to the latter the Balaghat, he himself
marching to Mamdu to await events. Summoned to Agra and being
deserted by the numerous Bajput chiefs, whose troops formed a
considerable part of his army, he resolved to obey and proceeded

there. Fearing his arrest, however, he took with him a large body
of armed Afghan followers. The usual stories got about of plots
to seize him, and although the Emperor sent him a letter on the
subject, disavowing any such project, his suspicions were not to be
lulled and after short stay off he went. After him followed Khwaja
Abul Hassan and a small body of Imperial troops. Overtaking him
at Dholpur by the Chambal River, the latter forced on a combat. As
the historian pithily says, " The fugitives saw their road of escape
was closed, for the waters of the Chambal were before them, and the
fire of the avenging sword behind. So they posted themselves in
the rugged and difficult ground on the bank of the river and fearing
to perish in the waters, they resolved upon battle. The result
was that the Imperial troops were held back and Khan Jahan
with his Afghans was able to cross. The Khwaja's forces were
tired, the fighting had been severe, and so he was able neither to
prevent the crossing nor to follow himself. Consequently the

fugitives got safe away into the Bundela country A. D. 1628.
There he was favoured by the eldest son of the reigning Raja and
eventually reached the Deccan.Having reached that country
he joined with the forces of the last of the Nizam Shah Dynasty.
That Prince had become practically a robber on a large scale,
holding no certain territory, but ever on the look-out for loot and
plunder. Most of his Chief Lieutenants were Mahratta Hindus.
Khan Jahan Lodi seems to have been more sought after by the
Imperial troops than this Nizam Shahi Prince. Cut off by an
energetic General, Khan Jahan only escaped with the loss of one of
his sons and Then separating from the Deccan prince,
his equipage.
he determined to do what other rebels had done before him, i.e., raise
the Punjab. He was never able, however, to reach that country.
The Bundelas now turned round on him and hindered his progress.
Defeated, losing in fight more sons and his chief supporters, at
last it seemed clear to him that he could not escape. Thereupon he
met his end with dignity and calmness A. D. 1631."* The—
story is thus told " Khan Jahan was much afflicted at the loss of
:

SHAH JAHAN. 43
his sons and hope of escape was cut off ;

faithful followers. All
so he told his followers that he was weary of life, that he had
reached the end of his career, and there was no longer any means
of deliverance for him ; he desired, therefore, that every man
should make off as best he could. A few determined to stand
by him till the last, but many fled. The advanced forces of the
royal army under Madhu Singh now came up. Khan Jahan, with
his son Aziz, who was the dearest of all, and Aimal and the
Afghans who remained constant, placed their two remaining ele-
phants in front, and advanced to meet Muzaffar Khan. They
made their charge, and when Khan Jahan found that they were
determined to take him, he alighted from his horse and fought
desperately. In the midst of the struggle Madhu Singh pierced
him with a spear, and before Muzaffar Khan could come up the
brave fellows cut Khan Jahan, his dear son Aziz, and Aimal,
to The title of Khan Jahan was conferred on his con-
pieces."*
queror Muzaffar Khan. After his death, until the end of the reign
and the war between Shah Jahan's sons, no rebellion of any con-
sequence disturbed again the Empire's tranquillity.
All this time and indeed all through the reign war with the
Deccan princes went on. In its course the Nizam Shahi Dynasty
came to an end, the country over which they governed coming
almost entirely under the Imperial authority at least in name
(Bijapur acquired a small part) and the kingdom of Golkonda and
Bijapur were much weakened."
In 1629 A. D. we read for the first time of an actual invasion
of the Golkonda territory. This stretched up the Eastern coast
of India as far North almost as Orissa. Bakir Khan, the Imperial
governor of this province, attacked in the cold weather of this year
the fortress Mansurgarh which was built commanding a pass
through the Orissa hills. In spite of its name which means the
fort of on an assault being imminent, took
victory, the garrison,
grass between their teeth as is the manner of that country, so says
the chronicler, and begged for quarter. This was the commencement
of the encroachment of the Delhi government on the Golkonda
* Elliot, Vol. VH,p. 21.
—
44 HISTORY OF THE GREAT MOGHTJLS.
Kingdom. Another general in the same year, Nasiri Khan, reduced

the fortress of Kandahar in Telingana, then the North-Eastern
Province of the Kutb Shahi Kingdom (which must not be con-
founded with the Afghan Kandahar). More important, however, were
the wars against the Bijapur Adil Shahis and the wandering Nizam
Shahis. Azam Khan was at this time (1630-40) the imperial
general. A minority in Bijapur caused the real power to fall into
the hands of a slave, Daulat, originally a minstrel, ennobled by
the last King under the name Khan, and now the chief
of Daulat
of the state. He took to himself the title of Khawas Khan. The
real head of the Government was a Brahmin Mahratta, Murari
Pundit. A siege by the Imperialists of the strong fort of Parenda
failed owing to the inability of the besieging army to obtain
fodder. this year there was a most disastrous famine in the

In
Deccan. The Muhammedan historian tells its story thus :
"During the past year no rain had fallen in the territories of

bhe Balaghat, and the drought had been especially severe about
Daulatabad. In the present year also there had been a deficiency
in the bordering countries, and a total want in the Dakhin and
Gujarat. The inhabitants of these two countries were reduced to
the direst extremities. Life was offered for a loaf, but none would
buy ; rank was to be sold for a cake, but none cared for it ; the
ever-bounteous hand was now stretched out to beg for food ; and
the feet which had always trodden the way of contentment walked
about only in search of sustenance. For a long time dog's flesh
was sold for goat's flesh, and the pounded bones of the dead were
mixed with flour and sold. When this was discovered, the sellers
were brought to justice. Destitution at length reached such a
pitch thatmen began to devour each other, and the flesh of a son
was preferred to his The numbers of the dying caused
love.
obstructions in the roads, and every man whose dire sufferings did
not terminate in death and who retained the power to move wan-
dered off to the towns and villages of other countries. Those
lands which had been famous for their fertility and plenty now
retained no trace of productiveness."*
SHAH JAHAN. 45
In those days as well as now there were methods of famine relief,

the giving away of food and money and the lessening of taxation.
"
The Emperor in his gracious kindness and bounty directed
the officials of Burhanpur, Ahmedabad, and the country of Surat>
to establish soup kitchens, or alms-houses, such as are called langar
in the language of Hindustan, for the benefit of the poor and
destitute. Every day sufficient soup and bread was prepared to
satisfy the wants of the hungry. It was further ordered that so
long as His Majesty remained at Burhanpur 5,000 rupees should be

distributed among the deserving poor every Monday, that day being
distinguished above all others as the day of the Emperor's accession
to the throne. Thus, on twenty Mondays, one lac of rupees was
given away in charity. Ahmedabad had suffered more severely
than any other place, and so His Majesty ordered the officials to
distribute 50,000 rupees among the famine-stricken people. Want
of rain and dearness of grain had caused great distress in many
other countries. So under the directions of the wise and generous
Emperor taxes amounting to nearly seventy lacs of rupees were
—
remitted by the revenue officers a sum amounting to nearly eighty
krors of dams, and amounting to one-eleventh part of the whole
revenue. When such remissions were made from the exchequer,
it may be conceived how great were the reductions made by the
nobles who held jagirs andmansabs."*
In A. D. 1631 two matters of importance happened. Malik
Ambar's son, Fath Khan seized the nominal ruler of the Nizam
Shahis and placed him in confinement, and Azam Khan having
taken Kulburga laid siege to Bijapur itself. The consequence was
that the Adil Shahi ruler offered to make terms. It was proposed
that he should send tribute to the value of forty lakhs of rupees
in jewels, valuable elephants and money, and should promise to
remain ever faithful to Shah Jahan whom he was to recognize as
his master. It turned out, however, that these proposals were
being made simply with a view of gaining time. In this they were
successful. All the country had been wasted by the Bijapur
troops before the arrival of the Imperialists. No food or fodder
~~
* Elliot, Vol. VII. p. 24.
'
was to be had. As the historian puts it ' man and beast were
sinking, " and so there was nothing but a retreat. This they
made, plundering wherever they went.
In A. D. 1632 Fath Khan submitted to the Emperor and was
awarded certain districts in the old Nizam Shahi Kingdom,
including the town of Daulatabad. This offended Sahuji, the
Mahratta, the father of the famous Sivaji, and so with a band of
Adil Shahis this chieftain advanced against Daulatabad. Fath
Khan, whose only idea seems to have been to get what he could,
on promises of cash made by the Bijapur general and of the
retention by him of the fortress, went back from his submission to
the Emperor and began to fortify himself for a siege. Against him
thereupon came the Khan Khanan (Mahabat Khan) and his son
who had Obtained the title of Khan Zaman. Trenches were formed,
mines were charged, and after a fierce conflict the outer works
were carried. It is stated that the Khan Khanan, a true Rajput,
wished to head the storming party himself and was with great
difficulty dissuaded. After the outer fortress two more remained to
be carried, the Mahakot and the Kalikot. The latter was carried by
a storming party. Then at last Fath Khan offered to surrender.
He was granted favourable terms, being allowed to retire
with his family and property and being granted carriage for his
goods and a large sum in cash. Such terms show us the Rajput
nature in the Khan Khanan again. And so Daulatabad came again
into the imperial possession. The historian of the time thus
describes the fort :
—
" The old name of the fortress of Daulatabad
was Deo-gir, or Dharagar. It stands upon a rock which towers to
the sky. In circumference it measures 5,000 legal gaz, and the rock
all round is scarped so carefully, from the base of the fort to. the
level of the water, that a snake or an ant would ascend it with

difficulty. Around it there is a moat forty legal yards (zara) in
width, and thirty in depth, cut into the solid rock. In the heart of
the rock there is a dark and tortuous passage, like the ascent of a
minaret, and a light is required there in broad daylight. The
steps are cut in the rock itself, and the bottom is closed by an
iron gate. It is by this road and way that the fortress is entered.
—
SHAH JAHAN. 47
By the passage a large iron brazier had been constructed, which,

when necessary, could be placed in the middle of it, and a fire
being kindled in this brazier, its heat would effectually prevent

all progress. The ordinary means of besieging a fort by mines,
5J
sabats, etc., are of no avail against it. * Fath Khan, we are told,
was subsequently sent along with the Nizam Shah, faineant King,
to Agra. —
The former was pardoned' this was doubtless on account
of the promises of the Khan Khanan —the latter sent to the
Gwalior state prison.
Soon after the great Khan Khanan died, A. D. 1633. The
war still lingered on ; another Nizam Shahi faineant ruler was set up,
but the Ahmednuggur Kingdom had come to its final end. Hence-
forth it ceased even to be a name. In a treaty of peace concluded
with Bijapur in A. ~D. 1635 Shah Jahan confirmed to the ruler of
that state whatever territory he had seized from the Nizam Shah
State as well as the whole of the Konkan, a part of which had once
partially belonged to the ruler of Ahmedabad.
A little before these events the Portuguese Factory at Hugli
came to a violent end. Shah Jahan unlike Jahangir hated Chris-
tians and his favourite wife Taj Mahal hated them if anything
more than her husband. They had not helped Shah Jahan in his
days of revolt, on the other hand, they had always been friendly
with his father. Now that his day of triumph was come, he was
determined to strike and to strike hard. Most of the European
factories being on the- sea-coast were hard to reach, but the Portu-
guese factory of Hugli was well within his power. No sea-going
vessels were necessary for its capture. It was built two miles
above the mart of Satgam and complaints were made to the
Emperor that the Portuguese had fortified themselves in their
factory and had driven away the trade from Satgam. Further
complaints were that the Portuguese had proselytised at a great
rate and sent numbers of the converts off in ships to Europe
presumably to work as slaves. Our historian remarks "In the :
hope of an everlasting reward, but in reality of an exquisite torture.

they consoled themselves with the profits of their trade for the loss of
rent which arose from the removal of the cultivators. These hate-
were not confined to the lands they occupied, but they
ful practices
seized and carried off every one they could lay their bands upon
along the sides of the river."* Shah Jahan, we are told, had no-
ticed all this before he came to the throne. In reality, when on
his wanderings during his rebel days, the Portuguese had declined
to give him and his wife shelter, and consequently be bad deter-
mined on revenge. No sooner was he secured on the throne than
he gave to Karim Khan, the Governor of Bengal, tbe necessary
orders. A flotilla was constructed ; false stories were put about
as to its destination ; the Hugli. has an endless network of offshoots
down which large boats can proceed, which offshoots commu-
nicate with the river lower down, and so it happened that Hugli
was cut off from the sea before the Portuguese knew that the
Moghuls were about to attack them. When they did learn this,
they held out bravely. It took months before the place was taken.
The final capture was brought about by draining certain water-
courses which the Portuguese used for their boats. One great
ship was blown up by its defenders (for to Hugli in those days
large ships could come) ; so were many smaller vessels ; many of
the defendants were drowned. The rest were taken prisoners and
sent to Agra. Before they reached there Taj Mahal was dead.
•It was reported that it was fortunate for them that she was so, as
she had vowed to have them all killed. In any case their lot was
not a happy one. The younger women were taken into the
Emperor's and the chief nobles' harems. Others had their choice
of Islam or death. With this tragedy ended Portuguese territorial
rule in Bengal. About sixty years more and the English will found
another city, Calcutta — destined after many vicissitudes to become
the capital of their Indian Empire.
Taj Mahal, as I have already said, was dead before Hugli was
taken, she having survived Shah Jahan' s accession to the throne
for only three years. All this Emperor's sons, who at the end of
his reign contended for the throne were hers. In all she had eight
* Klhot, Vol. VII, p. Ai.

SHAH JAHAN. 49
sons and six daughters, quite a record for one wife to bear to an
Eastern ruler. Henceforth Shah Jahan gave himself up to the ordin-
ary courses of an Eastern King and we no longer read of any one
woman having control over him. An. exception has to be made,
however, as regards one of his daughters, Begam Sahiba, with whom
the scandalous chronicles of the time say that in latter days his rela-
tions, were incestuous. Certain it was that she had great authority
in court, that countries, governors, strangers, foreigners, everyone
who wanted to obtain any favour from the Court found it neces-
sary to win her favour by the payment of a large sum of money.
It was a little after Taj Mahal's death that Shah Jahan publicly
showed his bigotry by ordering that all the temples throughout his
Empire and particularly in Benares, which had been begun, but
were unfinished, should be thrown down. Such an order could onlv
very partially be carried out, but the fact of such an order being
given, shows that we are departing from Akbar's days and ways.
In the next reign the regression to intolerance will become complete.
The Bundelas gave Shah Jahan much trouble. I have already
related how a prince of this tribe had aided Khan Jahan Lodi in
his escape through their country, and how afterwards when he
returned, they had obstructed him, This race living on the South
and Western side of the Ganges and out of the main line of traffic
and of civilization along the river, amidst forests and hills, were
largely addicted to robbery. They -were Hindus of a sort, having
Rajput names, but their Hinduism would hardly have been acknow-
ledged in Benares or Udaipur. Their chief, Jajhar Sing, had been
sent by Shah Jahan on service to the Deccan, Leaving his son with
the Imperial troops there, he returned home and signalized his home
coming by attacking a neighbouring Zemindar, Bim Narain, whom
he treacherously killed and whose fort Chouragarh, a Central Indian
fortress of considerable strength, he seized. On this being known
at court, he was ordered to give up a part of his booty. This he
determined not to do. Summoning his son to escape from the
Imperial forces in the South, he broke out in open
rebellion. The
son, Bikramjit, with great difficulty, managed to reach home, having
been pursued and having lost in a fight the greater number of his
k, hm 4
followers. Under the nominal command of Prince Aurangzeb, but

really under Khan Dauran, the royal army entered the Bundelkund
forests. Everywhere there was opposition, more indeed caused by
nature than by the Bundelas themselves. "At one fort Dhamuni
which the r,oyal troops carried by storm, a gunpowder explosion
destroyed a large number of the attacking forces. At last, however,
the country was subdued, Chouragarh was abandoned, and Jajhar
and his troops made a bolt, carrying with them his treasure, for the
Golkonda kingdom. Pursuit was close. When overtaken we are

told that the fugitives had not even time to perform the Jaubar
rites. Rani Parbati, the chief wife of the leader, was left on the
ground badly wounded other of the women were killed
; by the
fugitives. Many of the Bundelas were slain, a son and a grandson
of Jajhar escaped only to fall into the hands of some Gonds, an
aboriginal hunting tribe of the Western Vindhyas who put them
cruelly to death. Two sons managed to reach Golkonda, but the
Kutb Shahi Prince ruling there thought it no part of his duty to
afford a refuge to Kafirs of this sort, and surrendered them to
the Imperial authorities, who sent them to Court. On reaching

there they were offered the choice of Islam or death, and in choosing
the latter were in the choice language of the Muhammedan historian
sent to hell. The Bundelas did not give the Imperial authorities
very much trouble for many a long year. In A. D. 1637 we read
of expeditions to Kuch Behar and Assam. Thick jungle had not
prevented the earlier Aryans from crossing in numbers the Kosi
river and settling themselves beyond in Northern Bengal, but
modern Kuch Behar and the country round it had hardly been
troubled by the Muhammedan conquerors, who in Bengal and near
it had kept very much to the neighbourhood of the great rivers.
The Kuch Behar ruler Lachmi Narain submitted to the Imperial
rule, and from this time his lands became a part of the Empire.
With Assam, however, the case was different, an expedition, a victory,

the destruction of some such seems to have been all the work
forts,
done., The Assam rulers did not become feudatories.

Far more important were the events which happened in this
L
reign at Kandahar and in Badakshan. Kandahar had become
SHAH JAHAN. 51
Moghul in the reign of Akbar. In Jahangir's reign itwas seized by

the Persians Shah Jahan, desiring to recover it,
;
sent an emissary
to Ali Mardan Khan, the Persian Governor, with instructions to try
and bring about its surrender. Ah Mardan Khan was seduced from
his allegiance by this man's gifts and promises, and the place became
for a short time a part of the Empire of Shah Jahan. In the year
A. D. 1648 it fell again into the hands of the Persians, who under
their King Akbar the Great had marched against it and the neigh-
bouring fortresses of Bast and Zamindawar. At places these latter
forts stood out stoutly for some time but Daulat Khan,, the
;
Governor of Kandahar, as soon as he found himself really pressed,

does not seem to have thought a moment as to whether he could
make a successful defence till succour came, but only how he could
make terms for himself. As soon as the snow was off the ground
the Imperial Forces besieged Kandahar from which place Abbas
had retired, only leaving a garrison. After a three and-a-half years'
siege, finding they had made no impression in the place and that
food was growing scarce in their camp, they abandoned the under-
taking. The Imperial Commander was Prince Aurangzeb. I might
here say that Ali Mardan Khan on his arrival in India was amply
rewarded by Shah Jahan and was given the highest position in the
State. The Ravi Canal near Lahore was his work. JLe seems to
have been a personal friend of the Emperor's and the latter
mourned much his death which took place shortly before the
brothers' war at the end of the reign. In Badakshan also there was
fighting. This country was for a long time debateable land. The
ruler Nazar Mahammad had attacked Cabul and had been driven
back. In revenge for this an Imperial army under Prince Murad
Buksh, one of the Emperor's sons, marched into the country.
Badakshan is like many other hill countries; easy to overrun, diffi-
cult to retain. Murad wished to rettirn

Prince ; so did his chief
officers ; thereupon the Emperor recalled Murad in disgrace and
appointed Sadulla Khan as his temporary successor until the
arrival of PrincB Aurangzeb, the new Governor, A. D. 1646. This
Prinee reported that, owing to the dearth ©f provisions and the
discontent of the troops, a return was advisable. So a treaty was
O'-J HISTORY OP THE GREAT MOGHDLS.
entered into with Nazar Mahammad restoring the country to him

and the troops were ordered to return to Cabul. This they did
after much Marauders hung everywhere on their rear
difficulty. •
stragglers were murdered treasure had to be abandoned in the

;
snow, and finally after a loss as estimated by the Muhammedan

historian of 5,000 men, a remnant of the army managed to reach
Cabul in safety. In future Badakshan is not a scene of Moghul
warfare.
In all this Kandahar and in Badakshan the Raj-
fighting at
puts seem to have been foremost. The real mainstay of the mili-
tary power of the Delhi Kingdom had become its Rajput contin-
gent. A wonderful instance is this of what has so often happened
;
wise management turning foes into the best of friends. The Rajput,
though he claimed never to have yielded to the Moghul sword, had
been conquered by Akbar's and Jahangir's generosity. They be-
came true to the Empire, devoting to it the same loyalty of service
that formerly they had paid to their local chiefs.
Little Tibet also was raided by the Imperial Army A. D,
1646. Lying next to Kashmir, where Shah Jahan after the manner
of his father spent several summers, in spite of its secluded position,
it excited the greed of the Emperor ; but the effects of this raid
were by no means permanent and became a part of

it really never
the Delhi Empire. A campaign there, much as a campaign in

Greater Tibet, is only feasible during a very few summer months,
and in the absence of roads winter communication is impossible.
The Deccan wars continued off and on during the whole of
the reign. Every now and again we read of an Imperial army
marching into Bijapur territory; sometimes it is in pursuit of Sahu,
who was ever trying to carve out some sort of principality for him-
self on the borderland between the Ahmudnuggur Kingdom and that
of Bijapur, sometimes it is attacking the Bijapur state itself, but

the story is ever monotonously the same. After a time the hot
weather or rains prevent further action, the food supplies are
exhausted, a nominal submission is tendered and accepted and a
hurried retreat accompanied by much suffering, leaves the Imperial
troops, where they were before the opening of the campaign. With
;
SHAH JAHAN. ;
53
Golkonda, till towards the conclusion of the reign, tie wars were of
but little importance : they, onlytouched the outskirts of the
Golkonda kingdom and earn ;
hardly by any force of language be
termed anything more than. border raids.
In the meantime the King is building, ever building.' His
Court at Agra, his Harem, became the mdst magnificent ever seen
in India. Stories were held within this
are told that; bazaars
Harem at which the wives of the great Amirs attended. These
noblemen would naturally be profoundly disgusted at this and ;
it may help to explain how at the end of the reign, when Shah
Jahan most wanted help, no help came. As the King gets older
and older his passion for hoarding becomes greater and greater
and accordingly the latter years of his reign are less notable for
.great public works save for buildings than his earlier. In A. D. 1650
he was excused the Ramazan fast.
Muhammedans as a rule fast to a much greater age than sixty,

and it is only in the case of very bad health that they omit this
practice. Old age, save extreme, seldom interferes. But Shah
Jahan was broken down. His Kingdom is for years almost without
annals, a sign of things going well, but for this the broad adminis-
trative rules laid down by Akbar
more to be thanked, than
are
the personal supervision of the King. At last he breaks down
utterly, and this breakdown is the occasion of the most violent
•civil war that ever took place in the annals of Muhammedan
India. Before entering into its story, a description of the main
actors is necessary.
—
Shah Jahan had four sons Dara Shikoh, Shujah, Aurangzeb,
and Murad Buksh who grew up to manhood. I have named
them in their order of age. Of them the eldest, Dara Shikoh ,
generally stayed with his father. He had the reputation of being

in religious matters much of the same mind as his great grand-
father Akbar. Muhammedan Ulema lamented his laxity of
belief and practicej and the toleration which he showed towards
the professors of other religions. The Jesuit priests had hopes

that he might turn a Christian. _
He seems not to have been over-
careful in what he said or did of other people's susceptibilities, and
54 HISTORY OP THE GREAT MOGHDLS.
to have also been inclined to be too free with his tongue and to
have utterly despised all advice. Prince Shujah, the second son,
had a much less distinctive characters Personally he was brave
and seems to have been a capable Governor in Bengal but his ;
individuality does not come cut prominently in the histories of

the time. He affected Shiism for the reason, as Bernier suggests,,
that he might thereby gain the favour of the Persians, who were
always very strong at court. Prince Aurangzeb, the third son,,
who subsequently became Emperor, on the other hand, stands out

very distinctly. I shall subsequently, in the part of this book
which relates to his reign, try to depict his character in detail. At
present all I need say is, that he was a man of the most rigid Sunni
orthodoxy, and of the highest capacity, that he knew how to keep
hismouth shut and that personally he was inclined to asceticism.
Murad Buksh, the was a regular swash-buckler, one
youngest,
glorying in his physical strength and in the attributes he had in
common with an animal. Such were the four brothers about to
fight for the Empire.
At the time to which we have got, A. D. 165?, Dara Shikoh
was at Agra, Shujah in Bengal, Murad in Gujarat and Aurangzeb'
in the Deccan. The three last were Viceroys of the various pro-
vinces in which they were resident Dara Shikoh, though nomi-
;
nally the Viceroy of Cabul, was

carrying on at Agra as his
really
father's deputy the central Government.
In the two years preceding events had happened in the Deccan
which had a profound influence on the coming civil war. My
readers have been told that during this reign off and on there were
hostilities with Golkonda, but that these were of a very minor
character. In this state a Persian Mir Jumla had little by little,
by intrigue and gifts, risen from a subordinate position to that

of Chief Minister and had become enormously rich by reason of
his successfully farming the diamond mines of the State. As
Chief Minister he extended the State's boundaries by his conguests-
along the Eastern coast, particularly in the Carnatic where Taver-

nier, a French diamond merchant, met him. Before his time the
Muhammedans had practically no hold over this part of India;.
j
;
SHAH JAHAN. 55
The King finally considered him too powerful a subject and deter-?
mined to deprive him alike o( his power and his wealth. To this
he was largely urged by scandalous reports as to this Minister's
relations with the Royal. mother. Mir Jumla, however, was too
quick for the King, and suspecting the latter's motives escaped
to Moghul territory. There he was hospitably received and
through the influence of Prince Aurangzeb, whose fast friend he
became, was granted a position of high rank amongst the Moghul
nobility. Directions were sent to the Golkonda King to allow
Mir Jumla's son and dependants to follow him. The King showed
no inclination to comply. Though Mir Jumla had escaped, much
of his wealth was left behind and the King had no intention of
giving this up. Prince Aurangzeb, on receiving a negative reply,
was prompt in action. His son, Prince Mahammad Sultan, was
sent with an advance force to seize Golkonda, if possible by sur-
prise. The troops, which had been warring on the Bijapur fron-
tier, were ordered to join Prince Aurangzeb as soon as possible
and he, with these troops and his own men, was to march forward
to support Mahammad Sultan. The King of Golkonda was
completely surprised. Mir Jumla's son was released by the King.
They met Mahammad Sultan about 25 miles from Haidarabad
(which is close to Golkonda). This town was taken almost without
a struggle. Presents showered in from the Golkonda King with
requests for terms, but all the time messages were being sent to
the Adil Shahi King for help. It needed a sharp fight and the
arrival of the main army to bring the King to terms. A krore of
rupees (ten million), jewellery, elephants, and the marriage of the
King's daughter to Mahammad Sultan, such were the price of
peace. Mir Jumla's family rejoined him and hence his fortunes
were bound up with those of Aurangzeb. The latter had the
title of Muazzam Khan conferred on the wily Persian, who passed
for good into the Imperial service. Shortly after these events
the ruler of Bijapur died, and consequently in A. D. 1657 when the
civil war began, there was no foe with whom to contend in the
Deccan. On the other hand, the power of Aurangzeb bad been aug-
mented by the great wealth of Mir Jumla, which was at his service
56 HISTORY OP THE GREAT MOGHULS.
and his reputation had "been enhanced by his recent successes. In

this year Shah Jab an fell very sick* It is said that his illness was
caused by strong aphrodisiacs. In any case he did not appear
for a time at the Jharokha and the word spread everywhere that
he was dead. Even when it was learnt that he was not dead, it
was everywhere believed that his illness was mortal. Dara Shi-
koh's actions seemed to indicate this. Posts were stopped ; every
step was taken to prevent any information of what had happened
in Agra getting abroad ; troops were called together ; arms were
manufactured and everything pointed to big events. Throughout
Hindustan it was known that in case of Shah Jahan's death there
Would be no quiet succession. Primogeniture had not established
itself as the rule governing the Delhi throne. Each brother was
prepared to fight for the crown ; there was no fraternal affection
amongst and there was

the brothers to act as a restraining force ;
no overwhelming influence which could bring about a quiet succes-

sion. As it happened there was no waiting for the Emperor's
death ; he recovered to live eight years longer, for the greater part
of the time a prisoner in the fort he had built; the iumour of his
death was sufficient to precipitate the contest. We are indebted
to a French physician, Bernier, who some years after
resided for
Aurangzeb's succession in the Imperial Court, to an account of
the civil war that ensued. By this time Muhammedan historians
have, in studying the art of flattery, largely lost the art of graphic
writing ; and there is a strong contrast between the life-like
descriptions from the sixteenth century historians and the

we get
correct and polished phrases of the historians of this and the
succeeding times from these latter it is difficult to gain any life-
:
like delineation either of the events or the actors therein. Hence

Bernier is doubly welcome. The most reliable Muhammedan
authority is Khafi Khan who wrote many years afterwards. In
the main his and Bernier's accounts tally.
The first to move Avas Shujah from Bengal. He got as far

as Benares, Here he was attacked by Sulaiman Shikoh, Dara
Shikoh's eldest son, with an army of which the main strength was
;the Kajput contingent under Raja Jai SingL Shujah was taken
SHAH JAHAN. 57
by Surprise, his troops were cut in pieces, and he was forced to

retreat to Bengal, Stories were about that Raja Jai Singh could
easilyhave captured Shujah but purposely forbore to do so. Pro-

bably there was considerable truth in thist What to do with him
would have been the difficulty. To give him over to Dara would
have been to cause himself to be detested by the father. We find
that throughout this war no one of the leading generals was willing
to burn his boats. They ever behaved so that if fortune did not
favour the brother whose cause they espoused, they could join a
second brother with a hope of being accepted by him.
After Shujah came Murad. With his Gujarat troops he be-
sieged Surat and after a considerable siege took it. His hopes
of finding great treasure therein were, it is said, disappointed.
Anyhow he found enough pay his soldiers and sufficient to keep
to
them together. In the meanwhile a comedy had been, played
between Mir Junda and Aurangzeb. The former was the richest
man of the time, and the troops which he led, were in comparison
with the other soldiers of the day, in a state of exceedingly good
discipline. His co-operation was necessary for Aurangzeb's success.
The latter could not possibly move North and leave him behind
in the Deccan Avith a force which might act in a manner hostile
towards him. At the same time Mir Jumla's family were at Agra.
They had gone there, really had been sent there, as hostages for
Mir Jumla's conduct. If he openly joined Aurangzeb, it was to
be feared that they would get but short shrift. Accordingly
Aurangzeb suggested that Mir Jumla should consent to his being
thrown into prison, so that Dara and Shah Jahan might believe
that he continued faithful to the old Emperor and was opposed to
the action of Aurangzeb. The rest of the story is told by Bernier
thus: " Aureng-Zebe being no sooner gone, but the great Master
of the Artillery was seen to approach with some fierceness to the
Mir, and to command him in the name of Aureng-Zebe to follow
him, locking him up in a chamber, and there giving him very good
words, whilst all the soldiery, that Aureng-Zebe had thereabout,
went to their Arms. The report of the detention of Mir Jemla
was soon spread, but a great tumult arose ; and those, whom he
had brought along with him, although astonished, yet put them-
selves into a posture of rescuing him, and with their Swords
drawn ran to force the Guards, and the Gate of his Prison which ;
was easy for them to do For Aureng-Zebe had not with him
:
sufficient troops tomake good so bold an Enterprize ; the only

name of Mir Jemla made all tremble."
The whole commotion was/ however, easily quieted by the
chief officers of Mir Jumla's army, who had been informed of
the inwardness of the transaction and his troops joined those of
Anrangzeb. Aurangzeb in the meantime had been in communica-
tion with Murad.
In his letters he wrote :
" I have not the slightest liking for or
wish to take any part in the government of this deceitful and un-
stable world, my only desire is that I may make the pilgrimage
to the temple of God. But whatever course you have resolved
upon in opposition to the good-for-nothing and unjust conduct of
our disgraceful brother (biradar-i-be-shukoh), you may consider me
your sincere friend and ally. Our revered father is still alive,
and I think that we two brothers should devote ourselves to his
service, and to the punishment of the wilfulness of that haughty
one and the presumption and conceit of that apostate. If it be

possible, and we are permitted to see our father again, after
exerting ourselves to put down that strife and insurrection, we
will entreat the King to forgive the faults of our brother, who
has involuntarily been impelled to such a course of action. After

setting the government in order, and punishing the enemies of the
State, our brother must be reclaimed, and he must go to pay a
visit to the holy temple. It is important that you should allow
of no delay in your movements, but should march, at once to chas-
tise that presumptuous infidel Jeswant Singh. You must con-
sider me on your side of the Nerbudda, and must
as having arrived
look upon my numerous army and powerful artillery as the means
of securing your victory. You must know that I make the Word
of God my bail for this treaty and compact, and you must by all
means banish suspicion from your mind."*
Elliot, Vol. VII, p. 217.
SHAH JAHAN. 59
Murad was won over by these fine words and the two princes'
armies combined at Berhampur on their Northern march. After
a month's delay they set out from this town and met no opposition
until theywere in the neighbourhood of Oojein where they fell in
with Dara's army commanded by Kasim Khan and Kaja Jes-
want Singh. The former, it was universally believed, hated Dara.
A great Noble about the Court, his wives had been at Shah Jahan's
bazaars, and so he did not love the father either. Before the
battle Aurangzeb tried negotiations. He sent to Jeswant Singh a
Brahmin " Kab, who had a great reputation as a Hindi
called
poet and master of language, to the Raja with this message '
My :
desire is to visit my father'. I have no desire for war. It is
therefore desirable that you should either accompany me, or keep

away from my route, so that no conflict may arise, or blood be
shed."*
No replycame and both sides prepared for battle. There is
little doubt that Kasim Khan's troops and he himself both be-
haved very badly. Jeswant Singh's Rajputs, however, fought
magnificently and were cut to pieces. Only five or six hundred
of them escaped. Amongst them was the Raja. When he reached
home, his wife refused to receive him. She declined to accept his
excuses, that he had done his best. A Rajput, she eaid, especially
a Rajput of his lineage, should conquer or die. Then she directed
a funeral pyre to be made and declared she would ascend it as a
Sati, as her husband was already dead. Only after many days
did she consent to receive the defeated Raja.
The Battle of Oojein took place in March 1658. In spite of

the hot weather, which is very severe in the country round about
Agra, the force of the Princes proceeded North East until it reached
the Chambal. There it met a part of the Imperial force under
Khalilullah Khan. By the aid of a Bundela Prince it managed
to pass the river unmolested. Khalilullah Khan fell back on
Dara's which was encamped close to Agra. Mahammad
force
Shikoh and Raja Jai Singh had not yet returned from the war with

60 HISTORY 01? THE GREAT MOGHULS.
Shujah and Dara's wisest advisers counselled him to wait until their
arrival. •
Dara Shikoh, however, would not listen. He had by far the

larger force and beyond all things he feared that Shah Jahan him-
self would recover sufficiently to take the field in which case it
was very possible that there might be an accommodation between
the brothers. On the other hand, a successful battle would make
him master of the Empire and free him for ever from all fear
of either of his brothers as rivals. 'To Shah Jahan he went and

declared bis intention whereupon the old man is said to have given
him his blessing :
'
Well, Dara, since thou art resolved to follow
thine own will, go, God bless thee, but remember well these few
words *.
If thou lose the battle, take heed of ever coming into my
presence." This battle which was to decide the fate of India
took place on the 12th of May 1658 within a very few miles of Agra.
One notable point in it and in the subsequent campaigns of the
Moghuls is the number of so-called Europeans to be found in the
Artillery of the Moghul forces. Most of these were probably either
of mixed races, or in the case of Portuguese very often pure natives,
who had simply taken the name of some Portuguese patron or
master, but inasmuch as we find besides Portuguese mention of
various English, French, Dutch and German Gunners, there
must have been even at that early time employed in the Native
Armies a fair number either of Europeans or semi-Europeans, pro-
bably chiefly deserters from the Factories on the Coast. We are
too apt to think that the only Europeans at the time in the land
were the writers or professional men concerning whom we get
detailed notices. But there was probably many an obscure soldier
who left his bones somewhere in Hindustan or the Deccan con-
cerning whom we knew nothing.
Dara's Artillery contained quite a number of these Feringees.
His army wap arranged for the battle thus : the cannons were placed
in front chained together behind them a number of light camels on
;
each of which was fastened a double musket then came the ;
rest of the armv. This as far as it consisted of Moghuls was

almost entirely mounted, their weapons being chiefly bows, arrows
:
SHAH JAHAN. 62'
and swords; besides Dara had a chosen body of Rajputs whose

favourite weapon was the sword. The other side was arranged
very much in the same way, though Bernier mentions that in the
midst of Auransfzeb's mounted men some small field pieces were
hidden. The discharge of cannon on both sides commenced the
battle. Rustam Khan, an old and experienced Deccan soldier,
attacked Aurangzeb's guns. After a fierce onslaught be
was
driven back. Then came the main fight. The Rajputs under
Raja Ram Singh charged right up to where Murad Bux was
encouraging his troops on the back of an elephant. When quite
close to this Prince an arrow, said to have been shot by Murad
himself, stretched Ram Singh dead. Most of the Rajputs
Raja
who were with the Raja also fell. As regards the attack on
Aurangzeb, which was led by Dara himself, at first all was success on
the side of the eldest brother. Little by little Aurangzeb's soldiers
were pressed back. Dara was ever amongst the foremost, striving to
get within an arm's length of the brother whom he well knew to
be his greatest rival. The Rajputs here specially distinguished
themselves by their reckless courage. The Muhammedan His-
torian writes thus
" The fierce Rajputs, by their energy and desperate fighting,
made their way to the centre (which was under the command of
Aurangzeb himself). One of them, Raja Rup Singh Rathor,
sprang from his horse, and, with the greatest daring, having washed
his hands of life, cat his way through the ranks of his enemies
sword in hand, cast himself under the elephant on which the
Prince was riding, and began to cut the girths which secured the
howda. The Prince became aware of this daring attempt, and in
admiration of the man's bravery, desired his followers to take the
rash and fearless fellow alive, but he was cut to pieces."* Still
victory seemed to favour Dara in spite of Murad' s escape. His.
troops had been forced back and everything seemed going well,
Aurangzeb to encourage his men had his elephants chained so that
it might be understood that he was determined to conquer Dara
* Elliot, Vol. VII,,

p, 123.
-62 HISTORY OF THE GREAT MOGHULS.
or die, but still the battle. pressed nearer and nearer him. All of
a sudden changed in a way which would
the whole state of affairs
only be possible in an Eastern Army. Kbalilullah Khan, who
bad been strongly suspected of treachery as regards the passage
•of Chambal, and wbo certainly seems to have played the traitor on
this occasion, since he did not allow the Moghul troops under his
command to take any part in the combat, rode up to Dara and
'
addressed him according to Bernier thus : ' Mobhareck-bad,
Hazaret, Salamet El-hamd-ul-ellah, God
save your Majesty, you
have obtained the Victory ; what will you do any longer upon your
elephant ? Is it not enough, that you have exposed yourself so
long \ If the least of those shots, that have been made into your
dais, had reached your person, what would have become of us %
Are there traitors wanting in this Army ? In the name of God

come down quickly, and take horse. What remains more to be
done than to pursue those run-away s ? Let us do so, nor let us
suffer that they should escape our hands."*
Dara foolishly listened to his advice, got off his elephant and
.got on his horse then when he was no more
; to be seen as a con-
spicuous signal to his force, a cry arose that he had been killed.
Panic seized the army. There seemed to be nothing more to
tight for, and within a very short space of time the victorious armv
turned into a mob of fugitives. Aurangzeb had won the day and
Hindustan. We
might note here, that already the military de-
crepitude of the Moghul armies has become very apparent. The
troops which marched with Baber or with Bairam Khan in the
first and second battles of Panipat would have hardly lost cohesion
or turned to flight even if their commanders had been killed, but
with the exception of the Rajputs, the rest of Dara's army, in
this, like to other Moghul armies at the time, was neither more or
less than an undisciplined mob ; keen enough when they were

getting the advantage, but without resource at the slightest repulse.
No wonder the Empire was on the highway to decay, and that when
the French and English in the following century began to employ
* Bernier, p. 123.
SHAH JAHAN. 63
and drill native troops they found the ordinary armies of a Moghul
ruler absolutely incapable of opposing them.
Dara fled to Agra, and from thence after a few hours stay set
off to Delhi. Shah Jahan was left behind in the Agra fort. The
aged Monarch invited Aurangzeb to see him within the imperial
Harem, but the son was wary thus to give himself into
far too
the hands of his aged father. Of his two sisters the elder Begam
Sahiba had been a great supporter of Dara Shikoh, but the younger
Roshenara Begam was equally devoted to Aurangzeb. This
Princess sent the Prince word that if he once entered the Harem
he would be seized and probably murdered by the female guards.
A great Moghul's Harem is a complete town in itself, and besides
the royal concubines and their servants there was a regular body
of armed Tartar women whose duty it was to defend the roj^al
quarters. Aurangzeb accordingly temporised. First of all he took
possession of town and then when he found himself secure there,
the.
sent his son Mahammad Sultan to wait upon the old Emperor.
The young Prince was directed to take troops with him and to
seize the strong places in the fort. This he did, and Shah Jahan
became from that day for the rest of his life a prisoner therein.
Some of his women and much of his treasure remained with him
until death. As regards his jewels which he as an old miser kept
about himself, he threatened to have them all broken up if there
should be any attempt to seize them and this threat seems to have
been effectual but his reign was at an end. Bernier says that he
;
tried to win over Mahammad Sultan by promising to place him on

the throne instead of any of his sons, but if he did so try he did
not succeed.
By this victory Sulaiman Shikoh was cut off from his father,
he being below Agra and Dara above that town fleeing towards the
North-West.
Aurangzeb now sent word to Raja Jai Singh who had attended
the young Prince on his campaign against Shujah to seize him. This
Raja Jai Singh would not do, but he let Sulaiman Shikoh clearly
understand that he must not further expect his support. Conse-
quently with much difficulty the unfortunate Prince found his way
to Srinagar, the capital ofmodern Garwal, and there was given a

refuge by the Eaja Garwal was not a Muhammedan country
;
nor under the Moghul Empire, so for some time Sulaiman was
allowed to reside there in peace. In the meantime at Agra,
Aurangzeb still gave out that he intended to retire and seat his
brother Murad on the throne. The two together started in pursuit
of Dara towards Delhi. Much advice was given to Murad largely
by eunuch Shah Abbas that Aurangzeb intended treachery,
his chief
but the foolish young Prince would not listen. At Muttra a

great feast was given by Aurangzeb in his own Murad
tent to which
:£
was invited. As soon as he was come, Aurangzeb who ex»
pected him, and had already prepared all things with Mir Khan
and three or four of his most intimate Captains, Was not wanting
in embracements, and in redoubling his courtship, civilities and
submissions, in so much as gently to pass his handkerchief over his
face, and to wipe off his sweat and dust, treating him still with the
title of King and Majesty, In the meantime the table is served,

they sup, the conversation grows warm, they discourse of
various things as they used to do and at last there is brought a
;
huge bottle of excellent Chiras wine, and some other bottles of

Gaboul wine for a debauch. Then Aurangzeb, as a grave serious
man, and one that would appear a great Mahumetan, and very
regular, nimbly riseth from table, and having with much kindness
invited Murad Bakche to be merry with Mir Khan, and the other
officers that were there, withdrew as if he would a little repose
himself. Murad, who loved a glass of wine very well, and who
relished the wine that was served, scrupled not to drink of it to
excess. In a word, he made himself drunk, and fell asleep. This
was the thing that was wished; for presently some servants of
his that were there, were commanded away, under a pretence to
let him sleep without making any noise ; and then his sabre and
poniard were taken from about him. But Aurangzeb was not
long, but came awakened him. He entered into the
himself and
chamber, and roughly hit him with his foot, and when he began
to open a little his eyes, he made to him this short and surprising
reprimand. What means this, saith he 1 What shame and what
SHAH JAHAN. 65,
ignominy is this, that such a King, as you are, should have so little
temper, as thus to make himself drunk ? What will be said both

ofyou and me ? Take this infamous man, this drunkard ; tie him
hand and foot and throw him into that room to sleep out his wine.
No sooner said, but it was executed, notwithstanding all his appeal

and outcry five or six persons call upon him and fetter his hands
;
and feet."*
Aurangzeb's emissaries were busy during the night winning
over Murad's and men, and so although there was a little
officers
disturbance at the time, by next morning the whole of the two

armies with one voice acclaimed Aurangzeb as Padshah. A force
of elephants were sent off in different directions with covered
howdas to baffle pursuit in case any of Murad's adherents should
attempt to rescue him. He himself was taken first of all to Selim^
garh at Delhi and afterwards to the State prison at Gwalior.,
There he was kept for a considerable time, but he was too dangerous
even in a prison to be left alone. Accordingly a charge was brought
by the children of a Sayad of Gujarat against him of having when
in Gujarat murdered their father. The charge was probably true,
but I need hardly say it could only have been brought at Aurang-
zeb's suggestion. According to Bernier the Muhammedan Law
of retaliation was followed. The children of the Sayad were granted
the head of Murad and the necessary orders were sent to Gwalior
for him to be executed by them. According to another story
there was a regular trial in which he was found guilty and was in
consequence bitten to death by a cobra, a favourite method of

Moghul execution.
Aurangzeb with an army proceeded to Delhi. He did not
enter into that town but camped in the Shulimar garden outside
the walls. There, on the 16th of July 1658, he took his seat on the
throne as Padshah, without troubling himself as to the elaborate
ceremonies which ordinarily attended the accession of a new ruler
on the Delhi throne. The Khutba was still said in his father's
name and the coinage still bore the inscription of his father. It
* Bernier, pp. 158—61.

K, HM 5
66 HISTORY OF THE GREAT MOGHCLS.
was only after his second coronation at Agra later on, that the
Khutba began to be said in his own name and that he commenced
having his own name stamped on the coins. Dara made no stay
at Delhi and before Aurangzeb had got there, was at Lahore. But
even there, he found no resting place. An advance force of
Aurangzeb' s army pushed on during the rains and compelled him
with his remaining forces which were in a great state of disorganisa-
tion to hastily evacuate that place. He took the road to Multan, the
same that Humayun had taken more than 100 years before, and this,
according to the opinion at the time, was the cause of his final ruin,
for if, instead of proceeding to Multan, he had proceeded to Cabul
where Mahabat Khan, a well-wisher of his, was the Governor, he
might easily have recruited with the treasures which he
still had
a fresh force, and as experience has shown that the physi-

so often
cally weaker men of Hindustan but rarely have made a successful

resistance against the hardy Pathans and Turks of Central Asia,
the odds were that with such a force he would have been even then
more than a match Not only was Mahabat Khan
for Aurangzeb.
a well-wisher of Dara's but his master to whom he had ever been
faithful, Shah Jahan, had written him a long letter pressing him
to join his force with those of Dara Shikoh. This he certainly

would have done if only the latter had given him a chance. But
no, he must away to Multan. The old Moghul feeling of love for
the steppes seems to have been extinct in this unfortunate Prince.
He dreaded the rigours of an Afghan winter and preferred to stay
in the warmer lands of Hindustan. Finding that Aurangzeb was
still on his track, Dara found himself compelled to desert Multan
also,and proceeding down the Indus, made for the fortress of
Thatta. Of this place of arms he took possession and appointed as
its Governor a eunuch, leaving in that place a great part of his
treasure and a number of his artillery men (Bernier says that amongst
them were a good number of Feringees Portuguese, English,—
French and German), and then crossing the desert, seized Ahmed-
abad, the Governor of which place found it expedient, although he
was the father-in-law of Aurangzeb, the latter having married one
of his daughters, to submit to him. In the course of a little over
SHAH JAHAN. 67
a month, Dara began march to the North having full assur-

his
ance that Raja Jeswant Singh would again join him against the
rigid Mussulman. In this, however, he was m istaken. Through
the mediation of Raja Jai Singh, Jeswant Singh received plenary-
pardon from Aurangzeb, and consequently, most unlike indeed the
chivalrous race to which he belonged, determined to have nothing
to do with poor Dara. News of his defection reached Dara on
his arrival at Ajmere. Bernier graphically describes this Prince's
miserable plight thus :
" And now what could this poor Dara do ? He seeth himself
abandoned, and frustrated of his hopes. He considers, that to
turn back safe to Amedevad (Ahmedabad) was impossible, in

regard that was a march of thirty and five daies that it was in
it ;
the heart of summer that water would fail him that they were
; ;
all the Lands of Rajas. Friends or Allies of Iesseigne or Iessom-
seigne that the army of Aurangzeb which was not harassed b'ke
;
his, would not fail to follow him. 'Tis as good, saith he, to
perish here, and although the match be altogether unequal, let us

venture and give battle once more."*
all,
According to Bernier, it was hardly a battle at all. But the

Muhammedan Historian Khafi Khan tells us quite a different
story, for three days Aurangzeb tried and tried in vain to carry
Dara's works, and on the fourth day only was by Teason of a it
vigorous attack, pushed home by some Rajput troops that Dara

Shikoh was finally routed. Bernier also suggests that Dara's- chief
adviser, Shah Nawaz Khan, was a traitor and disclosed all his plans
to Aurangzeb. Khafi Khan, on the other hand, states that he
was the soul of the advance. Which story is true, it is difficult
to say, though as Aurangzeb had married Shah Nawaz's daughter

it is very possible that the statement made by Bernier is correct.
On the other hand, Shah Nawaz Khan died in the battle, which
would seem to support Khafi Khan. Dara Shikoh, with only a very
few attendants* and a few of his women, fled in the direction of
Ahmedabad. This battle at Ajmere took place in the cold weather
* Bernier, pp. 203-2 U-t.

of 1658-1659. Evidently Dara Shikoh had stayed near Ajmere a

considerable time. When Dara got close to Ahmedabacl he found the
gates of that fortress shut against him. Close to this town he met
Bernier andmade him for a short time in the absence of any
Native Hakim his Physician, but as he set off North again on his
travels and had no means of transport for the French Physician,
the latter to his great delight was left behind. Bernier himself
went to Ahmedabad and from thence subsequently to Delhi.
Dara struck for Thatta only to learn that the garrison was at its
last extremity. Instead of throwing himself into it, or making an

attempt to strike for Persia, in which he would probably have suc-
ceeded, he determined largely at the solicitation of his wife, not to
give up the struggle for the crown, and consequently proceeding
NoTth, entered the country of Malik Jiwan, the Zamindar of Dhan-
dar. Here his wife died, and as the Muhammedan Historian says
mountain after mountain of trouble thus pressed upon the heart
of Dara, grief was added to grief, sorrow to sorrow, so that his mind
no longer retained its equilibrium. Without considering the conse-
quences, he sent her corpse to Lahore in charge of Gul Muhammad.
to be buried there. He thus parted from one who had been
faithful tohim through his darkest troubles. He himself remained,
attended only by a few domestic servants and useless eunuchs.
At last he determined on flight to Persia, but alas it was !
too late. He was seized along with his grandson Sipah Shikoh;
As soon as they had started on their flight both grandfather and
grandson were seized by the traitor Malik Jiwan, chained and
mounted upon an elephant and thus taken first of all to the Army
at Thatta which town shortly after surrendered, and then brought
to Delhi. Aurangzeb and his Counsellors thought it necessary
that they should be publicly paraded through the principal bazaars

of that town in order that there might be no doubt of Dara being
really the person captured. Consequently both grandfather and
grandson were marched through the Ohandni Chowk. Bernier

who was at Delhi at the tirii'e was surprised at this measure, inas-
much as he considered the guard round Dara insufficient to
keep him a prisoner provided there was any attempt at rescue.
SHAH JAHAN. <39
There was, however, none, although on every side was to be heard

great lamentations for Dara who had been a very popular Prince.
Malik Jiwan, who had received the title of Bahadur Khan, entered
the town two days afterwards. He met a very unpleasant re-
ception.
" The idlers, the partisans of Dara Sbikoh, the workmen and
people of all sorts, inciting each other, gathered into a mob, and,
assailing Jiwan and his companions with abuse and imprecations,
they pelted them with dirt and filth, and clods and stones, so that
several persons were knocked down and killed, and many were
wounded. Jiwan was protected by shields held over his head,
and he at length made his way through the crowd to the palace.
They say that the disturbance on this day was so great that it
bordered on rebellion. If the Kotwal had not come forward with
his policemen, not one of Malik Jiwan's followers would have
escaped with life. Ashes and pots full of urine and ordure were
thrown down from the roofs of the houses upon the heads of the
Afghans, and many of the bystanders were injured."*
Dara Shikoh only survived this degradation a very few days.
Condemned to death in accordance with a decision of the Chief
Lawyers as an Apostate from Islam, he was forthwith executed.
The head was carried to Aurangzeb, who presently commanded
it and that water should be fetched which
to be put in a dish, ;
when brought, he wiped off with an handkerchief, and after he

had caused the face to be washed clean, and the blood done away,
and was fully satisfied that it was the very head of Dara, he
fell a-weeping, and said these words :
" Ah ! Bed bakt ! Ah !
unfortunate man ! Take it away, and bury it in the sepulchre
of Humayun."!
This was in September 1659. Sixteen months had only
elapsed since he had dismounted from his elephant on that fateful
day before Agra which had deprived him for ever of the crown
of Hindustan. Dara Shikoh's son Sultan Shikoh did not long
stay at Srinagar. Eventually the Raja of that place gave him
* Elliot, Vol. VII, pp 245-246.
f Bernier, p. 234.
tip, and he was sent to Aurangzeb who sent him to the State for-
tress at Gwalior. State prisoners I may say at that fort did not
long survive. When for any reason it was not desirable to put
such a prisoner to an immediate death and his death was all the
same desired, it was customary to force the unfortunate captive
to drink a large cup of Poust, a concoction fronv opium, every
morning before he was allowed to take any food. The conse-
quence was speedy idiocy and a lingering death.
I have told the story of Dara Shikoh without break, though if
,
the events of this war were to be treated chronologically, I
civil
should have had to break in more than once by recounting the

fortunes of Prince Shujah. This person after his defeat by Sulaiman
Shikoh had retreated to Bengal, but on the defeat of Dara and on
the melting away had been commanded by Sulai-
of the force which
man Shikoh, again advanced up the Ganges and took both Allah-
abad and Benares. It was this which forced Aurangzeb to return
from Multan up to which place he had pursued Dara Shikoh. The
decisive battle took place at the village of Kora. Jeswant Singh,
who was with Aurangzeb's him
forces here, acted as treacherously to
as he did a little later on to Dara when the latter marched to
Ajmere. A large body of Rajputs under his command, the night
before the battle', set about plundering the royal camp and having
done this, as he thought satisfactorily, marched towards Agra
without taking any- care of the battle which was about to take
place. On reaching Agra Jeswant Singh set rumours afloat that
Aurangzeb had been defeated, and in consequence trouble threaten-
ed to break out on this account. The news, however, of what had
really happened reached Agra very shortly after these trouble-
some Rajputs, and consequently all fears of disturbances in the
capital disappeared. In the battle the Sayads of Barah took a
leading part, as indeed they did in all the battles of that time. For
a long time victory seemed doubtful. According to Bernier,
Sultan Shikoh owed his final defeat to having dismounted from
bis elephant just as Dara had done before Agra ; but whether this
be so or not (Khafi Khan does not mention it) after a fiercely con-
tested field Sultan Shikoh's troops were routed. This was at the
SHAH JAHAN. 71
beginning of 1659. The defeated Prince was forced to retreat to

Bengal: Aurangzeb did not himself pursue him, but returned to
Agra. The rest of the story as regards this Prince may shortly
be told. Mir Jumla whom we
have seen locked up at the begin-
ning of the Civil War by Aurangzeb, was released as soon as his
family was out of danger by reason of Dara's flight from Agra
and was sent along with Prince Muhammad Sultan, Aurangzeb 's
eldest son, to drive Prince Shujah out of Bengal. They experienc-
ed much the same difficulty that Humayun had more than a
hundred years before in his campaign against Sher Shah owing to
the flooding of this Province during the rains. Muhammad Sultan
who seems to have been ever an object of suspicion to his father
was seduced by Shujah's emissaries and deserted the Imperial
Standard, allying himself to his uncle by a marriage with the latter 's
daughter. He did not, however, get on well with his new father-
in-law and after a short time returned to his allegiance. This did
not, however, protect him from Aurangzeb's wrath. Sent to
Court, he was like any other dangerous political prisoner sent to
the State fortress at Gwalior where he subsequently died. Shujah
himself was finally routed and driven out of the country by Mir
Jumla. Escaping to Arakan he at first managed to win the
graces of the King of that country. But subsequently quarrels
broke out : the King wanted to marry one of Shujah's daughters,
an unpardonable insult to a Mussulman of Shujah's position. On
the other hand, this Prince's followers entered into a conspiracy to
kill King and
the seize the The consequence was a
country.
slaughter of most of Shujah's followers and his own escape into
the trackless forest between Arakan and Pegu where it seems he
perished. Anyhow nothing was further heard of him. Shujah was
finally driven from Bengal at the end of 1659 A. D., and disap-
peared altogether in 1660. At last Aurangzeb was free from the
rivalry of his brothers, but his old father survived and until
still
his death the Emperor always seemed to have been fearful that
Shah Jahan would be released from his prison and be set again on
the throne by those that for any reason did not wish him (Aurang-
zeb) to reign over them. Thence for the first few vears a strict
72 HISTORY OF THE GREAT MOGH0LS.
guard over the aged ex-Emperor was a cardinal point in Aurangzeb's

politics.
Aurangzeb's second coronation took place early in May 1659,

and it was from this date, that he began those innovations in
administration which eventually contributed so largely to the

overthrow of the Moghul power in India. His first step was inno-
cent enough, but still was a forecast of what was about to follow.
The solar year which since the time of Akbar had been the official
year of account was abolished, inasmuch as it was the year of the
fire worshippers and not a Muhammedan era. In its place the old
Hejira year was introduced both for Revenue and other purposes
and all the festivals of the solar year were abolished. Khafi Khan,
a good Muhammedan himself, remarks :
" c
Mathematicians, astronomers, and men who have studied
history, know that the recurrence of the four seasons, summer,
winter, the rainy season of Hindustan, the autumn and spring
harvests, the ripening of the corn, and fruit of each season, the
tankahwah of the and the money
jagirs, of the mansabdars, are
all
dependent upon the solar reckoning, and cannot be regulated by

,
the lunar still his religious Majesty was unwilling that the nouroz
;
and the year and months of the Magi should give their names to
the anniversary of his accession."*
This was only the first of the many steps by which Aurang-
zeb attempted to turn the Empire of Hindustan into a Muham-
medan State in which Hindus and other non-believers were only
to exist on sufferance, and were not to be treated as having any
rights against the followers of Islam. Unfortunately these Hindus
and other non-believers were the majority of his subjects and
naturally resented any such methods of administration. The
consequence was that his reign of nearly fifty years was a reign of
disintegration, and that at his death the Moghul Empire of Hindus-
tan was tottering to its fall.
- Kllior, Vol. VII, pp. 241-242.

AURANGZEB.
Aueangzeb's reign takes up the greater part of the second half
of the seventeenth century. When it began, the Moghul Empire
was, in spite of the vices of the Court and the laxity in some high
places and oppression in most palmy state. When he
others, in its
died in 1.707 A. D., although the Moghul Empire had largely in-
creased towards the South by the accession to it of the greater part
of the Indian peninsula, decay The arches had
had already set in.
cracked, the beams were strained, and the building showed every-
where signs of imminent fall. What was the cause of this change ?
Aurangzeb was a great man, much greater in intellect and also in
moral force than either his father or grandfather. In his personal
life he was abstemious, save as regards women, to an extreme degree,
and even as regards the pleasures of the Harem he was extremely

moderate. He was a hard worker, even the second Philip of Spain
was not a more laborious toiler. To this ruler, indeed, he bore a
considerable likeness ; but in his intellect he was far keener, in his
statesmanship saner and in his religious bigotry more intelligent
than the monarch wbo threw back Spain for ever from the great
nations of the earth. He had indeed a very different situation to
deal with from that which confronted the Spanish Monarch. Philip
had to deal with two great sets of opponents, those which struggled
against his desire for Politic Absolutism and the Protestant
Reformers. The latter at the start were but a small body, and as to
the former, though many in number, most would have been content
with a small amount of concession. It was his steady refusal
to yield in the slightest to either, that caused the revolts in the

Low Countries and the endless wars there, which ruined Spain.
Aurangzeb had, on the other hand, no members of a new creed, few
in numbers and strong only in zeal, with which to contend. But,
on the other hand, he had to deal Avith a large majority of his sub-
jects, the followers of an old religion, one which exerts the greatest
—
power over and which enters into every act of their

its followers,
dailylife. A direct attack was accordingly impossible. It was only

by gradual sap and mine that progress could be made. Throwing
down the temples in cities, such as Benares and Muttra and building
mosques in their place, the granting of high honours to converts,
the gradual substitution of Muhammedans for Hindus, wherever
commands, the putting down of .customs dear
practicable, in high
to Hinduism as repugnant to Muhammedanism, all these were
measures by which this Muhammedan missionary desired to convert
the people of Hindustan into a Muhammedan community. Add
that he also looked on Rajputs with a jealous eye as having more
political independence than be desired, and we can easily understand
why the Hindus did not love Aurangzeb. But with all this, it is
doubtful whether he would not have been far more successful than
be was, and whether he would not have handed down the Imperial
edifice practically unimpaired, had not there arisen at the time a
Hindu of as iron a resolution and of as intrepid a genius as his
own. It would be idle to compare Sivaji in many ways with
William the Silent, but from one point of view they have a strong
resemblance. Whether Sivaji ever was a great lover of his race
may be doubted, but his deep affection for his ancestral religion
stands without the shadow of a doubt. First of all, as in the case
of William the Silent, he was willing to remain a vassal of his
Suzerain, but when he found out that Suzerain's plans both as
regards himself and his religion, he not only determined on, but
organised resistance and did this latter so effectually that in spite
;
of Moghul endeavour, the Mahrattas became an ever increasingly

all
powerful community, which nothing could crush and which ulti-

mately very nearly succeeded the Moghul in the Lordship of India.
We have few estimates of Aurangzeb's character from Muham-
medan writers of the time. One from Khafi Khan written after
his death is short ; another written during his reign is necessarily
of the nature of a panegyric and is very long, but both are too illu-
minating to be omitted. The first runs thus:

— " Of
all the sov-
ereigns of the house of —

Timur nay, of all the sovereigns of Delhi
no one since Sikander Lodi has ever been apparently so distinguished
AURANGZEB. 75
for devotion, austerity and justice. In courage, long-sufferings,

and sound judgment, he was unrivalled. But from reverence for
the injunctions of the Law he did not make use of punishment, and
without punishment the administration of a, country cannot be
maintained. Dissensions had arisen among his nobles, through
rivalry. So every plan and project that he formed came to little
good ; and every enterprise which he undertook was long in execu-

tion, and failed of its objects. Although he lived for ninety years,
his five senses were not at all impaired, except his hearing, and that
to only so slight an extent that it was not perceptible to others.

He often passed his nights in vigils and devotions, and he denied
himself many pleasures naturally belonging to humanity."*
My readers will note with surprise that Aurangzeb was slow

to punish, but the history of his whole reign shows that, save in cases
where he feared for his throne, particularly from his relations, he
was exceedingly lenient. Pyramids- of skulls had no fascination
for him. We read nowhere in his reign of massacres, nor of cruelty
such as is to be found in the annals of the earlier Moghuls. On the
other hand, it would have been better for him and for India, indeed,
if at times he had shown a little more hardness, especially to his
own officers, who constantly neglected or disobeyed his orders. The
other estimate of Aurangzeb's character is much more elaborate.
"Be it known to the readers of this work that this humble slave of
the Almighty is going to describe in a correct manner the excellent
character, the worthy habits and the refined morals of this most
virtuous monarch, Abu-1 Muzafiar Muhi-ud-din Muhammad Aurang-
zeb, Alamgir, according as he has witnessed them with his own eyes.
The Emperor, a great worshipper of G-od, by natural propen-

sity, is remarkable for his rigid attachment to religion. He is a
follower of the doctrines of the Imam Abu Hanifa (may God be
pleased with him), and establishes the five fundamental doctrines
of the Kanz. Having made his ablutions, he always occupies a
great part of his time in adoration of the deity, and says the usual
prayers, first in the Musjid and then at home, both in congregation
* Klliot, Vol. VII, p. Sit).

and in private, with the most heart-felt devotion. He keeps the

appointed fasts on Fridays and other sacred days, and he reads the
Friday prayers in the Juma Musjid with the common people of the
Muhammedan faith. He keeps vigils during the whole of the sacred
nights, and with the light of the favour of God illumines the lamps
of religion and prosperity. From his great piety, he passes whole
nights in the mosque which is in his palace, and keeps company with
men of devotion. In privacy he never sits on a throne. He gave
away in alms before his accession a portion of his allowance of law-
ful food and clothing, and now devotes to the same purpose the in-
come of a few villages in the district of Delhi, and the proceeds of
two or three salt-producing tracts, which are appropriated to his
privy purse.The princes also follow the same example. During

the whole month of Eamazan he keeps fast, says the prayers
appointed for that month, and reads the Holy Koran in the as-
sembly of religious and learned men, with whom he sits for that
purpose during six, and sometimes nine hours of the night. During
the last ten days of the month, he performs worship in the mosque,
and although on account of several obstacles, he is unable to pro-
ceed on a pilgrimage to Mecca, yet the care which he takes to pro-
mote facilities for pilgrims to that holy place may be considered
equivalent to the pilgrimage. From the dawn of his understanding
he has always refrained from prohibited meats and practices, and
from his great holiness has adopted nothing but that which is pure
and lawful. Though he has collected at the foot of his throne those
who inspire ravishment in joyous assemblies of pleasure, in the shape
of singers who and clever instrumental per-
possess lovely voices
formers, and in the commencement of his reign sometimes used
to hear them sing and play, and though he himself understands
music well, yet now for several years past, on account of his great
restraint and self-denial, and observant of the tenets of the great

Imam (may God's mercy be on him), he entirely abstains
(Shafi)
from this amusement. If any of the singers and musicians becomes

ashamed of his calling, he makes an allowance for him or grants
him land for his maintenance. He never puts on the clothes pro-
hibited by religion, nor does he ever, use vessels of silver or gold.
AURANGZEB. 771
In his sacred Court no improper conversation, no word of back-

biting or falsehood, is allowed. His courtiers, on whom his light
is reflected, are cautioned that if they have to say anything that

might injure the character of an absent man, they should express
themselves in decorous language and at full detail. He appears
two or three times every day in his court of audience with a pleasing
countenance and mild look, to dispense justice to complainants who
come in numbers without any hindrance, and as he listens to them
with great attention, they make their representations without any
fear or hesitation, and obtain redress from his impartiality. If
any person talks too much, or acts in an improper manner, he is
never displeased, and he never knits his brows. His courtiers have
often desired to prohibit people from showing so much boldness, but
he remarks that by hearing their very words, and seeing their gestures,
he acquires a habit of forbearance and tolerance. All bad characters
are expelled from the city of Delhi, and the same is ordered to be
done in all places throughout the whole Empire. The duties of pre-
serving order and regularity among the people are very efficiently
attended to, and throughout the Empire, notwithstanding its great
extent, nothing can be done without meeting with the due punish-
ment enjoined by the Muhammedan Law. Under the dictates of
anger and passion he never issues orders of death. In consideration
of their rank and merit, he shows much honour and respect to the
Sayads, saints and learned men, and through his cordial and liberal
exertions, the sublime doctrines of Hanifa and of our pure religion
have obtained such prevalence throughout the wide territories of
Hindustan as they never had in the reign of any former king.
Hindu writers have been entirely excluded from holding public
offices, and all the worshipping places of the infidels and the great
temples of these infamous people have been thrown down and des-
troyed in a manner which excites astonishment at the successful
completion of so difficult a task. His Majesty personally teaches
the sacred kalima to many infidels with success, and invests them
with khillats and other favours. Alms and donations are given by
abundance, that the Emperors oi
this fountain of generosity in such
past ages did not give even a hundredth part of the amount. In
78 HISTORY OS THE GREAT MOGHULS.
the sacred month of Ramazan sixty thousand rupees, and in other

months than that amount, are distributed among the poor.
less
Several eating houses have been established in the Capital and other
cities, at which food is served out to the helpless and poor, and in
places where there were no caravanserais for the lodging of the
travellers, they have been built by the Emperor. All the mosques
in the Empire are repaired at the public expense. Imams, criers to
the daily prayers, and readers of the khutba, have been appointed
to each of them, so that a large sum of money has been and is
still laid out in these disbursements.

In all the cities and towns
of this extensive country pensions and allowances and lands have
been given to learned men and professors, and stipends have been
fixed for scholars according to their abilities and qualifications.
As it is a great object with this Emperor that all Muhammedans
should follow the principles of the religion as expounded by the
most competent law officers and the followers of the Hanifi
persuasion, and as these principles, in consequence of the different
opinions of the Kazis and Muftis which have been delivered with-
out any authority, could not be distinctly and clearly learnt, and
as there was no book which embodied them all, and as until many
books had been collected and a man had obtained sufficient leisure,
means and knowledge of theological subjects, he could not satisfy
bis enquiries on any disputed point, therefore His Majesty, the
protector of the faith, determined that a body of eminently learned
and able men of .Hindustan should take up the voluminous and
most trustworthy works which were collected in the royal library,
and having made a digest of them, compose a book which might
form a standard canon of the law, and afford to all an easy and
available means of ascertaining the proper and authoritative inter-
pretation. The chief conductor of this difficult undertaking was
the most learned man of the time, Shaikh Nizam, and all members
of the society were very handsomely and liberally paid, so that up
to the present time a sum of about two hundred thousand rupees
has been expended in this valuable compilation, which contains

more than one hundred thousand lines. When the work with God's
pleasure is completed, it will be for all the world the standard
AURANGZEB. 79
exposition of the law, and render every one independent of Muham-

medan doctors/'*
After due deductions for the long hyperboles of Eastern flattery
the picture drawn is on the whole true. Aurangzeb was in many
ways a typical Muhammedan religious king. With him religion
was always the first thought. His method of gaining the throne
was indeed crooked to the extreme and pleas of religion were in this
case, indeed, but an excuse for worldly gain. His objections to his
brothers as irreligious, however sincere, were not the motive forces
in his conduct, and the ruling motive in the wars conquering
the throne, was without a doubt self-aggrandizement. Even when
Emperor, no blood relationship was sacred if he had the slightest
suspicion of such blood relation aiming at the throne. After he bad
obtained the throne too and ruled in peace and safety, as far as
an Eastern Sovereign ever can or could, he still preferred the crooked
rather than the straight course was full of trickery and deceit and
;
did not hesitate where he thought it desirable to poison or get rid

of any person whom he thought were plotting against him. But
granted all this, save as regards his retention of the Imperial power,
there is no doubt that the glory and spread of the Muhammedan
religion was ever foremost in his thoughts. Like many another
was thoroughly persuaded that the cause, of
ruler too, probably he
his religion and own interests were identical, and that no other
his
person save himself could be so helpful on the throne of Delhi
to the spread of Islam. It will be noted in the extract which
I have quoted from Bakhtawar Khan that though he loved music
he kept from it on account of his following in this respect the
teaching of the great Muhammedan Doctor, Shafi. He carried his
religious objections to it so far that at last he passed a prohibition
'
against singing and dancing alike. One day a number of singers
'
and minstrels gathered together with great cries, and having fitted
up a bier with a good deal of display, round which were grouped
the public wailers,-}- they passed under the Emperor's jharokha-i-
darsan, or interview window. When he inquired what was intend-
f Note. — Public wailers are prohibited in the Koran, but practically the habit which pre-
vailed before the days of Muhammad, has never ceased in Muhammedan countries.
ed by the bier and the show, the minstrels said that music was dead,
and they were carrying his corpse for burial. Aurangzeb then
directed them to place it deep in the ground, that no sound or
cry might afterwards arise from it."*
One great service Aurangzeb did to Muhammedanism, the
benefits of which has come down to this day and this was the direc-
tion to codify the Muhammedan Law as expounded by the school

of Hanifa. The work then compiled is known as the Fatwa Alam-
giri. This is what English lawyers would call a digest, a vast num-
ber of concrete cases with the opinions (Fatwa) of Muhammedan
lawyers on them and the reasons for the same.
A story is told by Bernier and also by Manucci a Venetian —
physician many years at Shah Jahan's and Aurangzeb's Court of an
old tutor of Aurangzeb's having presented himself to his former
pupil in hopes of obtaining preferment by reason of Aurangzeb's
having ascended the Imperial throne. Bernier tells us that for
three months the Emperor took no notice of him and that when be
did, he addressed him in a long speech which he gives at length.
I reproduce it, though it be long, as if it does not represent
Aurangzeb's own thoughts, it represents what the author of the
speech thought that he should have thought.
"What is it you would have of me, doctor % Can you reason-
ably desire I should make you one of the chief omrahs of my Court?
Let me tell you had instructed me as you should have done,
you if
nothing would be more just For I am of this persuasion, that a

:
child well educated and instructed, is as much at least obliged to

his master as his father ? But where are those good documents
you have given me. In the first place, you have taught me that
all Frangistan (so it seems they call Europe) was nothing, but I
know not what little Island, of which the greatest king was he of
Portugal, and next to him he of Holland, and after him he of Eng-
land ; and as to the other kings as those of France and Andalusia,
you have represented them to me as our petty Rajas ; telling me
that the kings of Hindostan were far above them all together, and
that they were the true and only Houmayons, the Ekbars, the
AURANGZEB. 81
Jehan-Guyres, the Chali-Jelians, the fortunate ones, the great

ones, the conquerers and kings of the World
and that Persia, ;
and Usbec, Kach-guer, Tatar and Catay, Pegu, China and Mat-
china did tremble at the names of the kings of Indostan admir- :
able geography. You should rather have taught me exactly to

distinguish all those different states of the world, and well to under-
stand their strength, their way of fighting, their customs, religions,
governments and interests and by the perusal of solid history to
;
observe their progress, rise, decay, and whence, how and by what
accidents and errors those great changes and revolutions of Empires
and Kingdoms have happened. I have scarce learned of you the
name of my Grand Sires, the famous founders of this empire ; so
far were you from having taught me the history of their and
life,
what course they took to make such great conquests. You had a
mind to teach me the Arabian tongue, to read and to write I am ;
much obliged to you forsooth for having made me lose so much time
upon a language that requires ten or twelve years to attain to its
perfection as if the son of a king should think it to be an honour
;
to him, to be a grammarian, or some doctor of the law, and to learn

other languages than those of his neighbours, when he cannot well
be without them ; he, to whom time is so precious for so many
weighty things, which he ought by times to learn. As if there were
any spirit some
that did not with reluctancy, and even with a
kind of debasement, employ itself in so sad and dry an exercise, so
longsome and tedious, as is that of learning words."* " Know you
not, that childhood well governed, being a state which is ordinarily
accompanied with a happy memory, is capable of thousands of good
precepts and instructions, which remain deeply impressed the whole
remainder of a man's and keep the mind always raised for
life,
great actions ? The law, prayers, and sciences may they not as
well be learned in our mother-tongue as in Arabick ? You told my
father Chah-Jehan, that you would teach me philosophy. 'Tis
true, I remember very well, that you have entertained me for many
years with airy questions, of things that afford no satisfaction at all
to the mind, and are of no use in humane society, empty notions,
* Bernier, p. 78.
K, HM 6
82 HISTORY OE THE GREAT MOGHULS.
and meer phancies, that have only this in them, that they are very
hard to understand, and very easie to forget, which are only capable
to tire and spoil a good understanding, and to breed an opinion that
is unsupportable. I still remember, that after you had thus amused
me, I know not how long, with your fine philosophy, all I retained
of was a multitude of barbarous and dark words, proper to be-
it,
wilder, perplexand tire out the best wits, and only invented, the
better to convey the vanity and ignorance of men like yourself,
that would make us believe that they know all, and that under those
obscure and ambiguous words are hid great mysteries, which they
alone are capable to understand you had seasoned me with : If
that philosophy, which formeth the mind to ratiocination, and

insensibly accustoms it to be satisfied with nothing but solid reasons ;
if you had given me those and doctrines which

excellent precepts
raise the soul above the assaults of fortune, and reduce her to an
unshakeable and always equal temper, and permit her' not to be
lifted up by by adversity if you had taken
prosperity, nor debased ;
care to give me the knowledge of what we are, and what are the
first principles of the things: and had assisted me in forming in
my mind a fit idea of the greatness of the universe, and of the ad-
mirable order and motion of the parts thereof; if, I say, you had
instilled into me this kind of philosophy, I should think myself
incomparably more obliged to you than Alexander was to his Aris-
totle and believe it my duty to recompense you otherwise, than he
;
did him. have taught me some-

Should not you instead of flattery,
what of that point, so important to a king, which is, what the reci-
procal duties are of a sovereign to his subjects, and those of sub-
jects to their sovereign ? And ought not you to have considered,
that one day I should be obliged with the sword to dispute my life
and the crown with my brothers ? Is not that the destiny almost
of all the sons of Indostan ? Have you ever taken any care to
make me learn, what it is to besiege a town, or to set an army in
array ? For these things I am obliged to others, not at all to you.
Go, and retire to the village, whence you are come, and let no body
know who you are, or what is become of you."*
* Bernier, p. 83.
AURANGZEB. 83
The whole speech shows undoubted signs of having been edited

if not entirely invented by some European. No Muhammedan, no
orthodox, devout Muhammedan, such as Aurangzeb could possibly
have uttered the tirade against Arabic that is set forth in this
speech. The references to European states is not in the least like
what any haughty Moghul prince, and least of all one like Aurang-
zeb would have uttered nor are the references to a literary tutor
;
instructing his pupil in the arts of war what any sensible person
would have said and the Emperor at least had sense. The whole
speech savours of a lively French invention ; it is what we might
expect from a Frenchman living in the same half century as Fene-
lon and the other moral authors of Louis XIV's Court, but beyond
the fact that the tutor did not get what he wanted and was sent
away without having been shown any favour, it is not safe to accept
any other part of the story. Bernier has indeed only used the same
licensewhich other ancient and medieval writers have used, i.e.,
of putting into their hero's mouth what they think they should
have said without knowing in the least what they actually did say.
One great difficulty in writing the history of the reign of
Aurangzeb is the fact that in the tenth year of his reign he forbade
any history of his time being written. This prohibition was issued
suddenly. Previous to it encouragement had been given to
Muhammad Kazim, who' might be styled the Imperial Historian, to
write an official account of the reign ; an Alamgirnama. The con-
sequence is that although much nearer our time, we have much less
complete information concerning this period as regards the general
affairs of the Empire at least —than we have concerning the days of
Akbar. There are here no series of writers to compare with each
other, such as Budaoni, Nizam Uddin and Abul Fazl. One Muham-
medan historian alone, Hasbim Ah Khan, gives us a consecutive and
detailed account of the forty-nine years of Aurangzeb's government.
This author's history was published during the half century which
followed the Emperor's death. He was employed in public duties
by the Emperor during the later part of his reign, and there is no
reason to doubt his authority in all its main lines. The later Muham-
medan historians use the terms of flattery without stint when there is
—
anything to gain by so doing, they have also a great love of fine

absurdly fine, we English think it writing. —
This style of composi-
tion is indeed almost universally prevalent in Indian historical writers
who use the Persian language ; a history without a reference to a
nightingale or a garden is hardly to be met. But all the same the
kernel of veracity, the desire to tell what is true,and the trouble to
find it out, are everywhere to be found in our Indian Muhammedan
historians. They have the practical historical sense strongly
developed, and their accounts are to be preferred to those of any
European traveller when one wishes really to study the history of the
times. European visitors to India may be taken to truly report what
they themselves have seen but a great part of their writings is
;
taken up with what they have heard and much of this must have been
from their own servants, the most unreliable of all native sources.
On the other hand, the Muhammedan historian is nearly always a
Court official, generally of some standing, so were our great histori-
ographers of Akbar's time and so was Hashim Ali Khan, who is
;
better known as Khafi Khan. Whether he got the name Khafi,

inasmuch as his writings were Khafi (concealed) during Aurang-
zeb's time, or whether it was because he came from Khaf near
Nishapur in Persia, matters but little. In any case be tells us in his
great work the Muntakhab-ul-Lubab, the method how he came to
put together his work.* "After the expiration of ten years (of the
reign), authors were forbidden to write the events of this just and
righteous Emperor's reign. Nevertheless some competent persons
(did write),and particularly Musta'idd Khan, who secretly wrote
an abridged account of the campaign in the Dakhin, simply detailing
the conquests of the countries and forts, without alluding at all to
the misfortunes of the campaign and Bindraban, who wrote an
;
abridged account of the events of some years of the second and

third decades. But I have never seen nor obtained any history
that contains a full and detailed account of the forty remaining
years of the reign. Consequently, from the eleventh to the twenty-
first year of the Emperor's reign, I have not been able to relate the
events in the order, in which they occurred, giving the month and
AURANGZEB. 85
year ; but after this year with very great labour and pains, I col-
lected information from tbe papers in the public offices, and by

inquiry made from truthful persons, the confidential and old servants
of the Emperor and old eunuchp. This, and whatsoever I myself
observed, after attaining years of discretion, for thirty or forty

years I laid up in the strong box (of my
memory), and that I have
written. And since I heard that Bindraban Das Bahadur Shahi,
who was long a mutasaddi of Shah Alam during the time he was
a prince, had compiled a history, and had included in it an account
of upwards of thirty years, being exceedingly anxious to see it,
I made great search for it. Subsequently when, after great trouble,
I obtained a copy, and examined it carefully from beginning to
«nd, in the hope that I might gather the rich fruits of his labours,
I discovered that his work did not contain one-half of what I had
•collected and included in my own history."
In another place he tells us how he got his material together.
"The attempt to write an epitome of the fifty years' reign of this
illustrious monarch is like trying to measure the waters of the sea
in a pitcher. The affairs of the last forty years in particular are a

boundless ocean, which authors have shrunk from committing to
the thread of narrative. But for all this, the writer of these pages
has resolved that to the best ofhis ability, and with the most active
exertion, after the most exhaustive enquiry and complete investi-
gation, he will narrate some events capable of narration which he
has heard from the tongues of men advanced in years, which he has
fully verified by inquiries from men in office and from writers of
official despatches, and by evidence of his own eyes during this

period of time."*
The result is a history, which if not abounding in detail through-
out, such as some of the earlier histories give, is still a very clear
account of Aurangzeb's reign. From it we can clearly understand
how the disruptive forces, which after Aurangzeb's death broke
asunder the Moghul Empire, gathered force in this reign, and how
Aurangzeb's policy helped rather than restrained them. Other
sources of the history of the time are Eajputs and Mahratta annals
• Elliot, Vol. Vll, p. 2i2.
and documents and also the records of the

European Factories on
the coast, particularly of the English Factory at Madras. But all
these relate almost entirely to local matters and the history of the
Empire as a whole we can only get from Khafi Khan.
II.
Aurangzeb, known commonly in Oriental history as Alamgir,

was born in 1619 A. D. at Dhud in the Deccan, where his father Shah
Jehan was at the time Subahdar. He reigned from A. D. 1658 till 1707
A. D. being nearly eighty-eight at the time of his death, an age which
but few Bangs of the West have ever exceeded. Indeed cf rulers of
modern times, who have also been makers of history I can only
name two, William the First of Germany and Pope Leo the XIII.
I have already told the tale of how Aurangzeb gained the Empire
His sister Roshanara was supposed to have great influence over
him and certainly helped him in various ways to get the Crown.
She was not however an .influence at Court for long. Scandalous
stories about her amours are repeated by European writer? and it
is certain that after the first few years of the reign she disappears
from history. Her elder sister Begam Sahiba stayed with Shah
Jahan to the last. For a long time she would have nothing to do
with Aurangzeb, but eventually there seems to have been a recon-
ciliation between them. For long she opposed Dara Shikoh's
daughter who was with the grandfather in the Agra Fort being
given in marriage to Akbar, Aurangzeb 's. third son but after a
;
time this opposition ceased, and would seem that after Shah
it
Jahan's death she on more occasions than one successfully interceded

with Aurangzeb. Other women of the harem whose names are
mentioned as having influenced affairs are Fakhrun Nissa, Aurang-
zeb 's eldest daughter, and Udaipuri, a Georgian Christian, first of
all a concubine of Dara Shikoh and afterwards of the Emperor him-
self. Neither of them seem really to have had much influence over
Aurangzeb, who throughout his reign, really ruled throughout as
King alone.
Aurangzeb celebrated his succession in the ordinary way of
princes, especially of princes who have succeeded after civil strife
AUBANGZEB. 87
to the throne. He reduced the taxes. "To comfort the people

and Emperor gave orders for the remis-
alleviate their distress, the
sion of the rahdari (toll) which was collected on every highway
(guzar), frontier and ferry, and brought in a large sum to the revenue.
He also remitted the pandari, a ground or house cess, which was
paid throughout the Imperial dominions by every tradesman and
dealer, from the butcher, the potter, and the greengrocer, to the
draper, jeweller, and banker. Something was paid to the

government according to rule under this name for every bit of
ground in the market, for every stall and shop, and the total
revenue thus derived exceeded lacs (of rupees). Other cesses,,
lawful and unlawful, as the sar-shumari, buzshumari, bar-gadi,

the charai (grazing tax) of the Banjaras, the tuwa'ana, the
collections from the fairs held at the festivals of Muhammedan
saints, and at the jatras or fairs of the infidels, held near
Hindu temples, throughout the country far and wide, where
lacs of people assemble once a year, and where buying and selling
of all kinds goes on, the tax on spirits, on gambling-bouses, on

brothels, the fines, and the fourth part of debts
thank-offerings,
recovered by the help of Magistrates from creditors,—these and
other imposts, nearly eighty in number, which brought in krores
of rupees to the public treasury, were all abolished throughout
Hindustan. Besides these, the tithe of corn, which lawfully brought
in twenty-five lacs of rupees, was remitted in order to alleviate the
heavy cost of grain. To enforce these remissions, stringent orders
were published everywhere throughout the provinces by the hands
of mace-bearers and soldiers (ahadis)."* But our author tells us
that in spite of these remissions, save as regards the pandari which
was collected chiefly in the large cities, the abolition had no effect.
Local governors did not hesitate to collect the abolished taxes in

spite of all orders to the contrary. "Firstly, because throughout
the Imperial dominions in the reign of Aurangzeb, no fear and
dread of punishment remained in the hearts of the jaghirdars,
faujdars,and zamindars secondly, because the revenue officers,
;
through inattention or want of consideration, or with an eye to

profit, contrary to what was intended, made deductions (for these

cesses) from the tankhwah accounts of the jaghirdars. So the
jaghirdars, under the pretext that the amount of the cesses was
entered in their tankhwah papers, continued to collect the rahdari
and many others of the abolished imposts, and even increased
them. When reports reached the government of infractions of
these orders, the offenders were
punished with a diminution of
mansab, and the delegation of mace-bearers to their districts.
After a while, the offenders, through their patrons or the manage-
ment of their agents, got their mansab restored to its original
amount. So the regulation for the abolition for most of the
imposts had no effect.
The rahdari in particular is condemned by righteous and just
men as a most vexatious impost, and oppressive to travellers, but
a large sum is raised by it. In most parts of the Imperial territories
the faujdars and jaghirdars, by force and tyranny, now exact more
than ever from the traders and poor and necessitous travellers.
The zamindars also, seeing that no enquiries are made, extort more
on roads within their boundaries than is collected on roads under
royal officers. By degrees matters have come to such a pass, that
between the time of leaving the factory or port and reaching their
destination, goods and merchandize pay double their cost price
in tolls. Through the villainy and oppression of the toll-collectors
and the zamindars, the property, the honour, and the lives of
thousands of travellers and peaceful wayfarers are frittered away."*
Nowadays under the British Government such acts on the part of a
Local authority would not be possible. But let not my readers
think, that even with the British Government, orders in such matters
and obedience same thing. The West is still the West and
are the
the East is still the East, and as regards the taking of something
beyond the legal demand, in spite of all the British Government can
do, the thing is carried on to this day. Taking a present is unknown
amongst the upper classes of public servants in India at present,
but amongst the lower classes whether it be the petty station master,
who obtains a present from the merchant to whom he allots a
;
AURANGZEB. 89
wagon for his goods or the Police subordinate officer for his assist-
ance in trouble, the practice, if not universal, is very common and
can only be cured not by law but by opinion, and such opinion does
not at present exist. As regards rahdari, there are octroi taxes
levied by certain of the municipalities of Upper India to this day
if goods pass only through there is a refund given, but I have often
heard it stated that merchants would prefer a small tax and no
refund, so troublesome is it to get the same, chiefly through the
necessity of satisfyingsome one concerned with a present.
For the first few years after his succession Aurangzeb sate at
the Jharokha, as his predecessors had done, but after a time he dis-
continued this practice. Although religious reasons were given for
this, as indeed for almost everything he did, there is very little
doubt that other reasons prompted Aurangzeb. It was often very

inconvenient for one thing, —again if the Emperor did not appear
at the fixed hours, stories of his illness, and if he stayed away succes-
sively for several days, of his death got about. Aurangzeb was on
various occasions in the early part of his reign seriously indisposed
and had to forego for a considerable time attending at the window.
Hence much confusion had more than once happened. Then I
fancy for a statesman like Aurangzeb this daily appearance was dis-
tasteful inasmuch as it involved a great waste of time. All the same
this discontinuance seems to have been impolitic. It did away with
the personal link between ruler and subject, forged by the fact that
once a day at least the former was seen by, and was ready to listen
to the latter.
Shortly after Aurangzeb 's accession came embassies to him
from Mawar-un-Nahr, the Dutch Eastern Colonies, the
Persia,
Sharif of Mecca, the Prince of Bassora, and Abyssinnia. The last
consisted of two Ambassadors, one a slave dealer and the other an
Armenian merchant. Bernier's description of it is very amusing.
The Abyssinnian King, in spite of his profession of Christianity, was
much more of a savage than the Muhammedan rulers whose coun-
tries were near his. A large portion of his presents consisted in
slaves, boys fit to be made eunuchs, another portion was purchased
by the sale of slaves consigned for the purpose to Mecca, a third
part consisted of two elephants' tusks filled with civet, horses and a
zebra. Only a small part of this wealth reached Delhi. The slaves
sold badly at Mecca, a number of those intended as a present to
Aurangzeb died on the way, so did several of the horses and the
zebra, and while they were at the port of Surat, Sivaji, the Mahratta,
came and looted the town and with the town most of their goods.
So they came to Delhi in a miserable plight and were told by the
people of that town that they were lucky in -having so good
an excuse as the sack of Surat to hide their nakedness and
that by reason of this excuse they were able to beg for provisions
and clothes. All the same Aurangzeb duly received them in
audience, made them considerable presents in cash which they
spent in India mainly in the purchase of cloth, which article
was in those days at a great premium in Abyssinnia and sent

them away contented. Bernier wanted to buy the Armenian's
illegitimate son from him, to which the father at first consented
but subsequently broke his word, demanding a much higher
price than he had first asked. This seems to have lessened
the friendship between the two, and Bernier complains of the ambas-
sadors having promised Aurangzeb to intercede with their King to
allow a broken down mosque to be rebuilt, and also for their having
asked for a Koran and other Muhammedan religious books for their
—
Master matters which at the present day would not be subject
to adverse comment. As to the Mecca and Bassora Embassies,
these, Bernier says, obviously came only for the sake of the
present to be given in return so but little notice was taken of
;
them. The Dutch Embassy which was well appointed and well
served, came in order to obtain orders from Aurangzeb to the
local officials not to molest them in their trade and in this they
were fairly successful, but it was at the expense of Monsieur
Adrican, their ambassador's secretary, who died at Agra, as also
did various of the retinue.
More important in the eyes of the Court were the Embassies

from Mawar-un-Nabr and from Persia. Bernier was present at the
reception of the first and so describes it.
AURANGZBB. 9t
"They made tlieir reverence at a considerable distance from

him after the Indian custom, putting thrice their hands upon their
heads, and as often letting them down Then they
to the ground.
approached so near, that Aurangzeb himself might very well have
taken their letters immediately from their hands but yet it was ;
an Omrah that took and opened them, and gave them to him. He
forthwith read them with a very grave countenance and afterwards ;
commanded, there should be given to each of them an embroider'd

Vest, a Turban, and a girdle of silk in embroidery, which is that
which they call Ser-Apah, that is, an habit from head to foot. After
this their presents were called for, which consisted in some boxes
of choice Lapis Lazulis, divers Camels with long hair, several
gallant horses, some camel-loads of fresh-fruit, as apples, pears,,
raisins, and melons ; for 'tis chiefly Usbec which furnishes these
sorts of fruit, eaten at Delhi (all the winter long), and in many loads
of dry fruit, as prunes of Bokhara, Aprecocks, Kaisins without any
stones that appeared, and two other sorts of Eaisins, black and
white, very large and good. Aurangzeb was not wanting to declare
how much he was satisfied with the generosity of the Khans, and
much commended the beauty and rarity of the Fruit, Horses, and
Camels ; and had a little entertained them of the state of
after he
the Academy of Samarkand, and of the fertility of their country,
abounding in so many rare and excellent things, he desired them to
go and repose themselves, intimating withall, that he should be very
glad to see them often."* Bernier remarks that they had no objec-
tion to make their reverence after the Indian custom though it had
something of slavish in it. Throughout the East extreme profes-
sions of humility are not despised as they are with Englishmen
and what seems to the latter as beneath the dignity of man is to the
Eastern but a respectful salutation. Although the Uzbeg Ambassa-
dors were thus received with due honour, they were not allowed to
depart in a hurry. To have permitted this would have been totally
opposite to Eastern Court practice, where so far from punctuality
being the politeness of Kings, no one is considered as being possessed
of dignity, who does not show it by keeping others waiting. The
* Bernier, JI, p. 3.
Ambassadors had to stay in Delhi four months and during that

time there was much sickness amongst them, caused so Bernier tells
tis chieflyby their filthy method of living and their poor eating.
He went to dine with them once and found that their main food
was horse flesh. They hardly talked at all during their meal, in
this resembling other Easterns, but after dinner bragged much of
their skill with the bow and of their women. These latter they
praised not for their beauty or their skill in keeping the house but
for their prowess as warriors. At last they were let go and carried
off very valuable presents both in cash and kind, the latter consist-
ing chiefly of embroidered cloth. Last of came the Persian
all
Embassy. The Persian Kings, ever since there commenced to be a

national dynasty, had always considered themselves to be the
greatest Kings of the East and under their great King Shah Abbas
who reigned the first half of the seventeenth century and who died
only shortly before Aurangzeb's accession, had a good claim to be
so considered. Such a kingdom could not be expected to be over-
speedy in the despatch of an Embassy, nor when despatched could
it be over speedy in its movements. Majestically it came majesti- ;
cally it was received. Bernier describes the reception thus "Mean-

time, on the day of the Entry, this Ambassador was received with
all possible respect The Bazars, through which he passed, were
:
all new painted, and the Cavalry attending on the way for above
the length of a whole league. Many Omrahs accompanied him with

Music, Tymbals, and Trumpets, and when he entered into the
Fortresse, or the Palace of the King, the Guns went off. Aurang-
zeb received him with much civility, and was content that be should
make his Addresse to him after the Persian mode, receiving also,
without any scruple, immediately from his hands the Letters of his
King which out of respect he lifted up even to his head, and after-
;
wards read them with a grave and serious countenance Which :
done he caused an embroider'd Vest to be brought, together with

a rich Turban and Girdle, commanding it to be put on him in his
presence. A little after it was intimated to him, that be might
order his Present to be brought in, which consisted of five and
twenty as handsome Horses as ever I saw, led, and cover'd with
AURANGZEB. 93
embroidered and of twenty very stately and lusty

trappings ;
Camels, as big as Elephants Moreover of a good number of Boxes

:
said to be full of most excellent Rose-water, and of a certain dis-

tilled water, very precious, and esteemed highly cordial besides :
there were display'd five or six very rich and very large Tapisseries,
and some embroider'd pieces exceeding Noble, wrought in small
flowers, so small and delicate, that I know not whether in all Europe
any such can be met with. To all this were added four Damaskin'd
Swords, with as many Poynards, all cover'd with Jewels ; as also
five or six harnasses of Horses, which were much esteem'd, being

also very fine and rich, the stuff being raised with rich embroidery
and very fair Turcoises of the old Rock.
set with small pearls,
It was observ'd, that Aurangzeb beheld this present very
attentively that he admired the beauty and rarity of every piece,
;
and that several times he extolled the Generosity of the King of

Persia ; Ambassador a place among his chief Om-
assigning to the
rahs. And after he had entertained him a while with a discourse
about the inconveniences and hardships of his Voyage, he dismissed
him, and made instance, that he should come everyday to see him."*
There were no quarrels as to the method of coming to the royal
presence and of the method of salutation as there had been in Sbah
Jahan's days when the latter tried to force the Persian Ambassa-
dors to salute him in Indian fashion, but things do not seem to have
run altogether smoothly. Stories were about that the King of
Persia had written strong letters of reproach to Aurangzeb, com-
plaining of his conduct to his father, to his brother Dara Shikoh,
of his having taken to himself the title of Alamgir and the like.
This, Bernier rightly remarks, was not likely. Unless the Persian
King had wanted war he would not have sent such messages and ;
if he had so wanted, we may be sure that it would have come about.
But all the same Aurangzeb was not altogether pleased with the
—
Embassy for Bernier tells us that "Two or three daies after he
had dismissed him, he made a rumour to be spread abroad, that the
Ambassador had caused the ham-strings of the presented horses
to be cut and the Ambassador being yet upon the frontiers, he
;
* Bernier, p. 63.
— :
made him return all the Indian slaves which he carried along with
him, of which he had a prodigious number."*
—
Note. " They say, that Shah Jahan seeing that the Courtship and promises made to their
Ambassador were not able to prevail with him, so as to make him perform his salute after the
Indian mode, he devised this artifice he commanded to shut the Great Gate of the Court of
;
the Am-khas, where he was to receive him, and to leave only open the Wicket, through which
one man could not passe but very difficultly, by stooping and holding down his head, as the
fashion is when one maketh an Indian reverence, to the end that it might be said, he had made
the Ambassador put himself in a posture which was something lower than the Indian Salam
or Salute but that Ambassador being aware of this trick, came in with his Back foremost
;
And that Shah Jahan, out of indignation to see himself catcht, told him, Eh-Bed-bakt, Thou
Wretch, dost thou think' thou comest into a stable of Asses, such as thou art 1 And that the
Ambassador, without any alteration, answered Who would not think so, seeing such a little
:
door?" Bender's History of tint Revolution of tile Empire of Mogols, p. 72 (1671).
Aurangzeb's relations with states beyond the Indian Continent

were of very minor importance. His life's work was almost entire-
ly with Hindustan. And here, he had in the first instance to settle
what to do with Amir Jumla, whose help had so largely aided
in making him Emperor. We have seen that Amir Jumla had been
with Aurangzeb's son in Bengal in the pursuit of Shuja and that he
remained faithful when that son for a time revolted from his father.
With the recall of the Prince, Amir Jumla was the sole bead of the
Bengal Army and accordingly he was forthwith made Viceroy of
that province and given the title of Khan Khanau. His son, how-
ever, was kept with Aurangzeb. The Emperor had too much per-
sonal experience of intrigue to allow Amir Jumla the freedom that
an Eastern feels when he knows that none of his family are in his
superior's power. It is of this son that Bernier writes that though
amereUmra he is still so much respected as his father's son, espe-
cially on the Eastern coast, where his father when in the service of
the Golkonda Kings had been all powerful, that at Mazulipatam
his ships were allowed to come and go without paying any custom
due for the goods they brought —no imperial officers daring to de-
mand Amir
anything from them. Jumla himself did not live long
after he became Viceroy of Bengal, dying in A. D. 1662. His first
step after the final disappearing of Shuja was to invade Assam.

This country had been almost absolutely unaffected by the Muham-
medan invasions of India. Situated in the far East on the banks
* Bernier, p. 70.
—
AURANGZEB. 95
of a great river, with impenetrable forests, wooded hills and an

abnormal rainfall and there being almost no means of communica-
tion, its people had worked out a distinct national existence in which
an adapted form of Hinduism found its place but which was in ;
other respects almost entirely local. The burial practices as re-
ported by Khafi Khan remind one of the customs of the Scythians
of old (and indeed of many other of the earlier and less advanced
races). "When the Raja of that country or a great Zamindar dies,
they dig a large tomb or apartment in the earth, and in it they place
his wives and concubines, as also his horses and equipage, carpets,
vessels of gold and silver, grain, &c, all such things as are used in
that country, the jewels worn by wives and nobles, perfumes and
fruits, sufficient to last for several days. These they call the provi-
sions of his journey to the next world, and when they are collected
the door is closed upon them."*

Our author tells us that these funeral tombs were opened by
Khan Khanan's soldiers and that they obtained much booty
similarly to the case of ancient Egypt, such tombs have been from
time immemorial the hunting ground of the robber. The story
of the invasion is one common to many invasions where the
people are weak but nature strong. The defending forces are easily
brushed aside, the capital is reached, but there success ends. What
the defenders cannot do, nature does. In this case nature's work
was efficiently done by the rains. Amir Jumla's force had perforce
to go into cantonments and there suffered from the climate with its
various diseases and even from want of food. To such an extent
did discontent arise that the troops were prepared to leave Amir
Jumla to his fate and decamp. Learning this, he made a virtue of
necessity and ordered a retreat. The Assamese thereupon attacked
the Muhammedan forces, but these were still capable of fighting and
consequently the Assamese were defeated. This induced their
Raja to agree to a peace whereby he gave up a few frontier towns
and paid a considerable tribute to Aurangzeb. He also agreed, so
Khafi Khan tells us, "to present fifty elephants and one of his ugly
* Elliot, Vol. VII, pp. 264—65.

;
daughters to the Emperor." It was on the return march that Amir

Jumla died at Khizapur on the frontier of Kuch Behar.
Another great Muhammedan nobleman who, during the fraternal
wars, might have become a King maker was Mahabat Khan, the
Viceroy or the Prince of Kabul. He seems, however, to have
contented himself with protesting against Shah Jahan's captivity
and with getting its rigour alleviated. After Mir Jumla's death his
son Amin Khan was Kabul in place of Mahabat Khan to rule
sent to
the Afghans in their Native home, but he found it, as so many others
have since found it, anything but an easy matter to do. On one
occasion they took him by surprise in the Khaibar Pass, and so badly
handled him that he was glad to escape almost alone and leave his
troops to their fate. Mahabat Khan lived till well into the seventies
and died while about to visit Court. Popular rumour suggested he
was poisoned, but there is nothing really to substantiate this. With
him went the last of the great nobles of Shah Jahan's reign
Aurangzeb ever desired to reign alone, but there is little doubt that
his Empire by the loss of experienced Statesmen of
lost in stability
the rank of Amir Jumla and Mahabat Khan, who were almost
entirely independent in reality but who maintained rigorously
Moghul rule in the Marches of the Empire.
The early days of Aurangzeb's reign saw him more than once
seriously ill and indeed on one occasion it was not expected that he
would recover. In later years his health seems to have been better
or at least his fits of illness came less frequently and less severely.
In his early reign fear of his father kept him generally not far from
Agra, though he spent one summer in Kashmir. Later on he be-
came as great a wanderer as any of his ancestors, but his journeyings
were always South, towards the Peninsula which he ever hoped to

subdue, though never did he reach success.
II.
The Military History of the reign is chiefly^concerned with three
wars or properly speaking series of wars/ wars with the Rajputs,

owing to the Emperor's attempt to propagate his religion forcibly
amongst them, wars with the Muhammedan Kingdoms of Bijapur and
ATJRANGZEB. 97
Golkonda, which ended in their overthrow and finally wars with the
Mahrattas, which survived Aurangzeb and continued till the Empire
was ground down to the dust. I have already in my first volume
described briefly the states of Eajputana and the Rajputs I have ;
also said something about the Deccan Kingdoms of which Bijapur

and Golkonda were at the time of Aurangzeb's accession to the
Delhi throne, the sole survivors, but I have hitherto had no need
to say anything of the Mahrattas. Up to the middle of the seven-
teenth century the part they played in the history of India is quite
subordinate. But from this period on they gradually take a more
and more forward place, till by the middle of the eighteenth century
they were the foremost power in India. When they lost that pride
of the place it was not by reason of any other Indian race conquering
them. Foreign powers, first the Afghans, then the English, alone
were capable of performing this. Paniput fought in 1761 A. D.
between them and the Afghans dashed to pieces their hope of
establishing a Pan-Indian Mahratta Empire, and Assaye in 1803
power a whitefaced race to take the
established as the Pan-Indian
place which oncehad been held by the Chagatai Turks of Delhi
and which had become for many years vacant.
Maharashtra, the country of the Mahrattas, is situated in West-
ern India south of the Taptee and stretching almost as far south as
Goa. Its boundaries are indeterminate, but, broadly speaking,.
Maharashtra, the native land of the Mahrattas, is situated on the
eastern side of the Western Ghats in the north-western part of the
Peninsula, over the western half of its Between the Ghats
breadth.
and the sea is the Konkan in which the Mahrattas are only one of
the various races dwelling there. At the time of which I write in
the hills themselves and in the highlands to the east of them, the
people of the country, though Muhammedans were to be found
scattered here and there, were nearly all Mahrattas. The Ghats
are high hills with many* an isolated top and consequently afford
most excellent situations for forts wherever a water supply can be
had- This is not unfrequently obtained from local springs, and
where these do not exist, the rainfall from June to September is
sufficient to supply a small garrison with quite a sufficient supply,
K, HM 7
provided proper foresight as regards the preparation of cisterns

and the storage of water be observed. Khafi Khan speaks of Sivaji
as residing in a country where all the hills arise to the sky and the
jungles are full of trees and bushes. Such a land is eminently fitted
to rear a warlike and enduring race, and so the Mahrattas had long
before proved themselves to be. Tbey were to be found in great
numbers serving as the Deccan Muham-
light cavalry (Bargirs) in
medan Ahmednuggur and Bijanuggur, and
states, particularly in
•seem to have made excellent skirmishers. It was only in Aurang-

zeb's time that the race became self-conscious of its powers and
-stepped forward, not only to obtain its own independence but to
conquer far and wide. That it ever did this was almost entirely
the work of one remarkable man, of the National hero Sivaji.
Muhammedan historians tell us that he was descended from an
Udaipur Rajput who had formed a connection with a woman of
inferior caste and consequently had to leave his native home and
to emigrate to the Deccan. Whether there be any truth in this
story, it is hard to say, probably there is not. Anyhow the first
person to rise to importance in his family was his grand-father Mallaji

Bhonsla. This man entered King of Ahmed-
into the service of the
nuggur before that state was conquered by Akbar and thereby
obtained for himself some position and fortune. He is said to
have been a devout worshipper of Mahadeo, but, according to Mah-
ratta story, after his wife had not given birth to any children for
many two were born to him in two successive years owing
years,
and prayers of a Muhammedan Saint, Shah Sharif.
to the intercession
—
Hence the elder was called so the story ran Shahji ji being the— —
Hindustani honorific. It is also told that one Jadu Rao, a Mah-
ratta nobleman at the Ahmednuggur Court, having on one festive
occasion laughingly said to the guests that his little daughter and
Shahji would make a fine pair, Shahji being then five years old and
the couple playing about at the time, MaJJaji turned round to the
people there and claimed tbe girl as Shahji's future wife. Jadu
Rao was greatly annoyed at the upstart's presumption, but
all ithe
same the couple did eventually marry. Before this Mallaji grew
xich—^according to the legend by reason of Bhowani, the female
AUR^VNGZEB. ( 99
counterpart of the God Mahadeo, having shown to him the where-

abouts of a large treasure, more probably, as Duff in his history
suggests, by means of robbery in the troubled days at the end of
the sixteenth century in the Ahmednuggur state. The Goddess
in the story is said to have declared to Mallaji "that there shall be
one of thy family who shall become a King ; he shall be endowed
with the qualities and attributes of SSambh ;* he shall re-establish
and preserve justice in Maharashtra, and remove all that molest

Brahmins, and violate the temple of the gods, his reign shall form
an epoch, and his posterity shall mount the throne for twenty-seven
generations." 'f
Shahji rose to fame and to a considerable territorial position
in Ahmednuggur after Malik Ambar's death. At one time intrigu-
ing with the faineant Kings of the State, at another time with Bija-
pur, and again with the Imperial managed to fish not
authorities, he
unsuccessfully in the troubled waters of the time, and finally was

employed in the Bijapur service as second in command in an expedi-
tion to the Karnatic, where he obtained a large Jaghir and where
he remained for the greater part of the remainder of his life. Before
going there he had married a second time. By his first wife he had
two children, Sambha-ji and Sivaji the former he took with him
;
;
..the second was left behind along with his mother between whom
and the father disagreements seem to have sprung up, and who for
several years before the Karnatic expedition had ceased to live
with her husband. And so it was that Sivaji knew hardly anything
of his father. He was born in 1627 at the fort of Sheoneri about fifty
miles norljh of Poona. From 1630 to 1636 his mother was living
with her father separate from Shahji, and in the last named year
,she met him at Bijapur, where they both went to attend the mar-
riage of Sivaji who was married according to Hindu custom as a
;
child. A/fter this she returned to her own home and Shahji in the
following year started fqr the Karnatic. By the time he went on
,1jhis expedition, he had obtained a considerable quantity of landed
^property and in .particular was the Jaghirdar of Poona and Topa.
* A name of Mahadeo.
t Doff, Vol. I, p. 91.

This former place was not the town it now is, but from, its excellent
natural position at the head of the Ghats it must always have been
a place of considerable importance. Here it was that Sivaji and
his mother went to reside ; and here also lived Dadaji, Shahji's
headman, as regards his Maharashtra estates. This Dadaji seems

to have been honest and intelligent, and he brought Sivaji up in the
most approved Mahratta fashion. He did not indeed have him
taught reading and writing, for such teaching would not have been
according to Mahratta precedent, but Sivaji was brought up to the
use of arms, to a minute knowledge of the ritual of his religion and
to an understanding of the duties of his position both as landlord
and as petty feudal chief. All such teaching did Sivaji zealously
imbibe and in after years he showed himself alike a good warrior,
a good administrator (after his own methods) and a good Hindu.
He began his career at an age when boys in Western countries are
still at school. By attaching to himself a number of Nawahis, the
inhabitants of the Ghat Valleys, who did not belong to the higher
Mahratta castes, he with their assistance possessed one by one of
various none of which were at the time of great im-
hill-forts,
portance, but some of which were hereafter fortified so as to throw

the greatest obstacles in the way of an attacking force. The first
of these forts was Tama, which place fell into his possession peace-
fully in the year 1646. Close to this fort he built another, famed
hereafter as Rajgarh. In the next year or two he seized Kondaneh,
the name of which he changed into Singhar (the Hon fort) and
Purandhar. In none of these cases was there any fighting. Bribery
and treachery were the means used. In the case of Purandhar,
the holders of the fort were three brothers ; they quarrelled and
called in Sivaji as arbitrator. His method of arbitration was to
seize the fort himself. Stories are told of him, as of his father, that
he discovered much treasure by the aid of Bhowani. My readers
may believe as much of this as they choose.
Dadaji, his guardian, was much troubled by his ward's proceed-
ings and found himself totally unable to control him. He
; died,
however, before his ward had far advanced in his career. It is
told that shortly before his death, when he found that he was unable
ADKANGZEB. 101
to persuade him to live a life of obedience to the Bijapur rulers " he

sent for him and advised him to prosecute his plans of independence
to protect Brahmins, kine and cultivators to preserve the temples
;
of the Hindus from violation and to follow the fortune which lay
;
before him. '*

5
Messengers from his father arrived shortly after his guardian's

death. They came to demand the income of the Jaghirs. Sivaji
sent them away empty-handed and on fresh emissaries coming, after
various evasions, flatly told them that his father would get nothing
from his Jaghirs in Maharashtra, he must depend upon his Carnatic
properties for his income. At this time he was hardly over twenty
years of age. Like Akbar he developed very quick and very early.
The Bijapur ruler hardly took any notice of Sivaji at this stage
of his career. This Muhammedan ruler was busy building and
amusing himself at his capital and had no time to spare in order to
bother about a mischievous Jaghirdar, whose deeds were performed
in a corner of the kingdom, in a land about which the ruler cared
but little. And, in addition to this, Sivaji took care always to have
smart agents at Court, who did not hesitate to bribe freely all whose
business it was to look into his misdoings. Khafi Khan tells us
how at this time Sivaji whom he describes as "for craft and trickery
the sharp son of the devil, the father of fraud," seized three per-
gannahs belonging to an Arab immigrant Mullah Ahmad while
thisman was away on a visit to Shah Jahan. And this, says Khafi
Khan, "was the beginning of that system of violence which he and
his descendants have spread over the rest of the Konkan and all
the territory of the Deccan. Whenever he heard of a prosperous
town or of a district inhabited by thriving cultivators, he plundered
it and took possession of it. Before the Jaghirdars in those trou-
blous times could appeal to Bijapur, he had sent in his own account
of the matter, with presents and offerings, charging the Jaghirdars
or proprietors with some offence which he had felt called upon to
punish, and offering to pay some advanced amount for the lands
on their being attached to his own jaghir, or to pay their revenues
direct to the Government. He communicated these matters to
* Duff, Vol. I, p. 133.
the Bijapur, who in those disturbed times took but little

officials at
heed of what any one did. So when the Jaghirdar's complaint ar-
rived, he obtained no redress, because no one took any notice of it.
The country of the Deccan was never free from commotions and
outbreaks, and so the officials, the raiyats, and the soldiery, under
the influence of surrounding circumstances, were greedy, stupid and
frivolous ; thus they applied the axe to their feet with their own
hands, and threw their wealth and property to the winds. The
greed of the officials increased, especially in those days when the
authority of the rulers was interrupted, or their attention diverted.
In accordance with the wishes of this disturber, the reins of author-
ity over that country fell into his hands, and he at length became
the most notorious of all the rebels."*
Although Sivaji for a long time escaped notice by reason of his
exploits being performed far away from the capital and owing to his
astuteness and skill in bribery, he could not expect to be so for ever,
and when he began to seize seaport towns, the Bijapur Government
thought it time to put him down, and the step it took to do so was.
highly characteristic. Shahji was seized according to instructions
by another Mabratta, Baji Gborpuraik of Mundhaul, also serving in
the Carnatic, brought to Court and directed to stop his son's rebel-
lions. His asseverations that Sivaji was rebelling against him
as well as against the Bijapur ruler were not believed, and at last,
when his attempts to bring in Sivaji availed nothing, he was shut

up in a stone dungeon with only a small opening, and was informed
that if his son did not submit within a certain time, the opening
would be closed and he would be left to die of hunger. Sivaji on
learning of this did not, as he was advised to do, submit, but on the
other hand entered into Shah Jahan's service and it was at the
latter's instance that, we are told, Shahji was set free from the
dungeon ; all the same he stayed a semi-prisoner in Bijapur for
four years. At the end of this time he was allowed to return to the 1
Karnatic which had fallen into a state of great disorder and there
his eldest son Sambhaji was shortly afterwards killed. As soon as
Shahji was out of the clutches of the Bijapur authorities, Sivaji, who
* Klliut, Vol. VII, p. 257.
AURANGZEB. I OS
in the meantime had done nothing to compromise his father, began

again to give trouble. His first big attempt was against the Jowli
State, ruledby a Mahratta, Kaja Grander Kao, a feudatory of the-
Bijapur power. This Raja was invited by Sivaji to join him in
rebelling. On his declining, one of Sivaji's envoys finding him off
his guard, assassinated him, the Raja's brother being at the time
stabbed to the heart by another envoy. During the confusion that
followed Jowli was attacked on all sides by Sivaji's forces and after
a brief struggle passed into his hands. It was very shortly after
this event that Aurangzeb, then commanding the Imperial forces
in the Deccan, marched against Bijapur. Sivaji acted in this cam-
paign as an officer of the Moghuls or rather affected so to act, for he
did nothing or next to nothing for anyone save himself, and while
Aurangzeb was besieging Bijapur, took advantage of the absence
of theMoghul troops to sack Junk and to make an attempt which
did not succeed on Ahmednuggur. The civil wars on the North
soon called Aurangzeb away the State of Bijapur was governed
;
by a- minor, and internal dissensions were rife ; so by the year 165$

Sivaji found that he had a free hand to preserve whatever schemes
he might please. His first big attempt, however, was unsuccessful.
It was then, and. continued to be afterwards, a cardinal part of his-
policy to seize the Konkan, and particularly the seaports along ita
coast. The most important of these was Jinjira, which was ruled
by a semi-independent ruler, partly of African birth, known as the
Sidi ;Fateh Khan was the name of the Sidi at the time, and he
inflicted in 1659 the first real defeat that Sivaji's forces had exper-
ienced since he had become a power in the land, and this defeat
was so effectual that it was long before Sivaji was able to trouble
seriously Jinjira again.
Bijapur at this time A. D. 1659 had a temporary cessation
from internal strife and the rulers accordingly determined it was
time to put a check on Sivaji and his incessant raids. For this
purpose they chose Afzal Khan, a distinguished and courageous
officer, as Khafi Khan calls him, but vain, and contemptuous of a
wretched Kafir like Sivaji. He is said to have boasted on leaving

the capital that he Avould bring back the insignificant rebel and cast-
him in chains under the footstool of the throne. Afzal Khan seems
to have driven back some of Sivaji's troops at first,
but the diffi-
culties of thecountry made an approach to Sivaji's head-quarters
at Pertabgarh difficult, and he was led by messengers from the Mah-
ratta Chief to believe that the latter was about to surrender. In '
this belief Afzal Khan sent a Mahratta Brahmin in his service,

Pantoji Gopinath, to Pertabgarh where he met Sivaji and discussed
the terms on which the Bijapur Government would treat with him.
To Pantoji, Sivaji in darbar gave an evasive answer, professing to
be a faithful servant of Bijapur and to being only too desirous to be
restored to favour, but in the middle of the night he visited secretly
the Brahmin Ambassador and there poured out his real thoughts.
"All he had done," so he said, "was for the sake of Hindus and
the Hindu faith ; that he was called on by Bhowani herself to
protect Brahmins and kine, to punish the violators of their temples
and their gods, and to resist the enemies of their religion that it ;
became him as a Brahmin to assist in what was already declared by

the deity and that here, amongst his caste and countrymen, he
;
should hereafter live in comfort and affluence."*

In addition to this appeal to Pantoji's religious feelings, he
also appealed to his avarice, promising him in return for his aid
villages in Mau for ever. To this twofold appeal Pantoji yielded,
and it was through him that Sivaji managed to get Afzal Khan
to meet him at a solitary rendezvous, there to settle the terms of
submission which he would obtain from the Bijapur Government.
Afzal Khan fell To the place appointed he came
into the trap.
with one single armed servant and with no arms or armour himself
of any sort save the sword which was customarily worn out of doors
by a Muhammedan officer. Fifteen hundred troops of his troops
were left at Pantoji's suggestion some distance away and he ad-
vanced to the place of meeting and to his doom in an open palki.
Sivaji, on the other hand, had made all his plans. Before accom-
plishing them he obtained his mother's blessing and performed his
religious duties. Then he armed himself with chain armour and
concealed in his right sleeve a dagger and in his fingers a wagnak,
* Duff, Vol. I, pp. 169 to 170.
AURANGZEB. 105
a small stabbing weapon with, four points. All round the place of
conference he posted troops with orders to attack as soon as a horn
was blown and the Pertabgarh guns announced his safety. Going
to the place of conference also with only one armed follower, he
assumed an air of humility and submission so that Afzal Khan got
entirely off his guard. Then, all of a sudden jumping on Afzal Khan
with the fierceness of a tiger, he stuck the wagnak in the latter's
bowels, and though the Muhammedan was able to strike a blow with
his sword, yet the chain armour prevented any injury, and after a
short fight with the follower, who was cut down, Afzal Khan's head
was struck off and carried away by some of Sivaji's followers who
had by this time arrived. The horn was then blown, the Pertab-
garh cannon on its sound were fired and the concealed Mahrattas
attacked the royal troops. These without their leader were, as
Eastern troops too often are, in such cases, but a disorganised mob.
They were utterly routed, many were killed, the whole were scattered
and many threw themselves on Sivaji's mercy. This he showed, and
so it came about that many Mahrattas up to then in Bijapur service
became his best of followers. By this exploit his name amongst
his fellow Mahrattas became for ever glorious, the Muhammedan
historian, on the other hand, considering it as the basest treachery.
Whether they would have done so in case the positions had been
reversed is a matter of doubt.
In judging of an action of this kind, in order to come to a fair

decision, it is only right to remember the conditions of the time
and the average man of the time's opinion in such matters. Treach-
ery— which is simply trickery written large — has loomed large in
the history of the world and has in most places and times only met
with the faintest reputation. In early Greek History, the heinous-
ness of a breach of faith does not consist in the act itself, but in the
violation of the oath which accompanied it. It is the breaking of
the promise made and confirmed by a special ritual which brings
down the wrath of the gods. So we read in the Iliad, how the gods
were wrath at the Trojans breaking the truce between them and
the Greeks, though they were incited to do this by Athene and Zeus
himself. And the idea of the rightness of the keeping of one's word,
106; HISTORY OF THE GREAT MOGHULS.
irrespective of the imprecation, is one which has only gradually-

grown and impressed itself on the consciences of men. Scotland's'
great hero Eobert the Bruce slays the red Comyn in the midst of
a peaceful chat by the High Altar at Kircudbright.. And up to the
present day, shmness, smartness, if not praised, is highly resorted
to by diplomatists, the class of men who, as it has been wittily said,,
lie abroad for the sake of their country. And so we must not be
too hard on Sivaii. There does not seem to have been any oath
which he broke, and so the older idea of the taking of the holy name
in vain was not involved in his act. However base it may seem to
persons who have been trained to look on deceit as the greatest
of vices, to the Mahratta, and I may say to the Indians in general
of that age, who considered that all things were fair in war, it was
simply an instance of excessive slimness. Treachery of this sort
was indeed a constant means used in the India of the seventeenth
century and in this art the Mahrattas far surpassed any other class
of man. When summing up Sivaji's character later on, I shall have
something more to say on this head ; at present all that it is neces-
sary to say is that the peculiarity of the act was not the treachery,
but the wonderful success which attended it, the whole of the Bija-
pur force, which in open field could easily have crushed Sivaii, being
thereby disorganised and overthrown.
The war with Bijapur continued with varying results during
the next three years. At first all the advantage was with Sivaju
An army sent by the King under Rustom Khan was defeated, and
Sivaji seized various forts, including Panala Pandangarh and plun-
dered the seaport of Rajapur. In fine, as Khafi Khan says, " For-
tune so favoured this treacherous, worthless man, that his forces
increased,and he grew more powerful every day. He erected new
forts, and employed himself in settling his own territories, and in
plundering those of Bijapur. He attacked the caravans which

came from distant parts and appropriated to himself the goods and
the women. But he made it a rule that wherever his followers
went plundering, they should do no harm to the mosques, the Book
of God. or thewomen of any one. Whenever a copy of the sacred
Koran came into his hands, he treated it with respect, and gave it
AURANGZKB. 10T
to some of his Mussalman followers. When the women of any

Hindu or Muhammedan were taken prisoners by his men, and they
had no friend to protect them, he watched over them until their
relations came with a suitable ransom to buy tbeir liberty. AVhen-

ever he found out that a woman was. a slave-girl, be looked upon
her as being the property of her master, and appropriated her to
himself. He laid down the rule that whenever a place was plun-
dered, the goods of poor people, pul-siyah (copper money), and
vessels of brass and copper, should belong to the man who found,
them but other articles, gold and silver, coined or uncoined, gems,,
;
valuable stuffs and jewels, were not to belong to the finder, but were
to be given up without tbe smallest deduction to the officers, and
to be by them paid over to Sivaji's government."*
As to this latter point, further notice of it will be taken later
when we shall point out in detail how the organisation of plunder-
was the cardinal feature of Mahratta policy. After a while, how-
ever, fortune ceased to smile. Sidi Johur (not to be confounded
with any of the Sidis of Jinjira) marched against Sivaji. So did
Afzal Khan's son, Muhammad Khan. The former pinned
Fazl
Sivaji into the fort of Parn Panalla and there besieged him for four-
months. The Mahratta again had resort to artifice. Meeting;
Sidi Johur, he pretended to be treating for a surrender then having; :
lulled the Bijapur general's suspicion, he slipped through the be-

sieged at night and was far on his way to Eangna, his place of refuge,,
before his escape was discovered. His retreat was covered by some
of the bravest of his men many; of whom, including their leader
Baji Purviz, gave their lives for tbeir Chief. Again fortune came
to his aid. Sidi Johur got suspicious of the Bijapur ruler, revolted
and was slain ; and the Bijapur main forces instead of being direct-
ed towards the Konkan were despatched to the Carnatic. Sivaji
took advantage of this to suddenly attack and slay Baji Ghorepurai,
who had formerly betrayed his father Shahji to the Bijapur power..
This act greatly delighted bis father who returned about this time
from the Carnatic.
* Elliot, Vol. VII, pp. 260-61.

who was gradually becoming more and more rigid in his

Sivaji,
performance of the rites prescribed by the Hindu religion, received

his father with the greatest of respect, " went several miles to meet
him, dismounted from his horse and saluted him with the obeisance
due by a servant to his sovereign ; insisted on walking by the side
of his father's palanquin, and would not sit in his presence until
repeatedly commanded."*
Through the mediation of his father peace was made between
Sivaji and Bijapur A. D. 1662, the main term being that Sivaji was
left in undisturbed possession of the Konka-n from Kallian to Goa.
This peace was much, needed by Sivaji, for already the Moghuls were
pressing him hard. As soon as Aurangzeb had been fairly seated
•on the Imperial throne, his troops were set in motion against Sivaji.
Two years before this peace they had besieged and forced to sur-
render after two months' siege, Chakna, one of the Mahratta north-
ern forts. Already in this campaign they had experience of the
warfare which the Mahrattas were to carry on with the Moghul
troops for almost the next century. "The daring freebooter
and plunder the baggage of
Sivaji ordered his followers to attack
Amir-ul-Umara's army wherever they met with it. When the Amir
was informed of this, he appointed 4,000 horse, under experienced
officers, to protect the baggage. But every day, and in every
march, Sivaji's Dakhinis swarmed round the baggage, and. falling
suddenly upon it like Cossacks, they carried off horses, camels, men,
and whatever they could secure, until they became aware of the
approach of the troops, "t As to the troubles and hardships to which
the Imperial troops were put during the siege the Muhammedan
historian is quite pathetic. " The rains in that country last
nearly five months, and fall night and "day, so that people cannot put
their heads out of their houses. The heavy masses of clouds change
day into night, so that lamps are often needed, for without them
one man cannot see another of his party. But for all that the mus-
kets were rendered useless, the powder spoilt, and the bows deprived
of their strings, the siege was vigorously pressed, and the walls of
* Duff, Vol. I, p. 189.
f Elliot, Vol. 7, p. 261.

AURANGZEB. 109"
the fortress were breached by the fire of the guns. The garrison
were hard pressed and troubled, but in dark nights they sallied forth
into the trenches and fought with surprising boldness. Sometimes

the forces of the freebooter on the outside, combined with those in-
side in making a simultaneous attack in broad daylight, and placed
the trenches in great danger."-)- However, the siege ended favour-
ably and the Amir-ul-Umara, after capturing this fort and seizing
various others, finally took up his head-quarters at Poona. By this
time Sivaji bad made his peace with Bijapur and so could turn his
whole attention to the Moghuls. As usual, he trusted to cunning
and not to force. "A regulation had been made that no person,
especially no Mahratta, should be allowed to enter the city or the
lines of the army without a whether armed or unarmed, ex-
pass,
cepting persons in the Imperial service. No Mahratta horseman

was taken into the service. Sivaji, beaten and dispirited, had re-
tired into mountains difficult of access, and was continually chang-
ing his position. One day a party of Mahrattas, who were serving
as foot-soldiers, went to the Kotwal, and applied for a pass to .admit
200 Mahrattas, who were accompanying a marriage party. A boy

dressed up as a bridegroom, and escorted by a party of Mahrattas
with drums and music, entered the town early in the evening. On
the same day another party was allowed to enter the town on the
report that a number of the enemy had been made prisoners at one
of the outposts, and that another party was bringing them in
pinioned and bare-headed, holding them by ropes and abusing and
reviling them as they went along. They proceeded to the place
agreed upon, where the whole party met and put on arms^ At
midnight they went to the cookhouse, which was near the women's
apartments. Between the two there was a small window stopped
up with mud and bricks. They proceeded by a way well known
to them, and got into the kitchen. It was the month of the fast..
Some of the cooks were awake, and busy in preparing the vessels
for cooking, and others were asleep. The assailants approached
noiselessly, and, as far as they were able, they attacked and killed
unawares those who were awake ; those who were asleep they
+ Elliot, Vol. 7, p. 262.
»
110 HISTORY OF THK GREAT MOGHULS.
"butchered as they lay. So no great alarm was raised. They then

^quickly set to work about opening the closed windows in the palace.
The noise of their pickaxes and the cries of the slaughtered men
awoke a servant who was sleeping in a room next to the wall of
-the cookhouse. He went to the Amir-ul-Umara (Shayista Khan)
and informed him of what he had heard. The Amir scolded, him,
-and said that it was only the cooks who had got up to do their work.
Some of the maid servants then came, one after another, to say
that a hole was being made through the wall. The Amir then jump-
red up in great alarm, and seized a bow, some arrows, and a spear.
Just then some Mahrattas came up in front, and the Amir hit one
with an arrow ; but he got up to the Amir, and cut off his thumb.
Two Mahrattas fell into a reservoir of water, and Amir-ul-Umara
brought down another with his spear. In the midst of the confu-
sion two slave girls took Shayista Khan, Amir-ul-Umara, by the
hand, and dragged him from the scene of strife to a place of safety.
A number of Mahrattas got into the guard-house, and killed every
•one they found on his pillow, whether sleeping or awake, and said :
"This is how they keep watch Some men \" got into the nakar-
khana, and in the name of the Amir-ul-Umara ordered the drums
to be beaten ; so such a din was raised that one man could not hear
another speak, and the noise made by the assailants grew higher.
They closed the doors. Abu-1-Fath Khan, son of Shayista Khan,
a brave young man, rushed forward and killed two or three men, but
was himself wounded and killed. A man of importance, who had
a .house behind the palace of Amir-ul-Umara, hearing the outcry,
.and finding the doors shut, endeavoured to escape by a rope ladder
ifrom a window ; and somewhat resembled
but he was old and feeble,
Shayista Khan. The Mahrattas mistook him for the Amir-ul-

Umara, killed him and cut off his head. They also attacked two
•of the Amir's women. One of them was so cut about that her re-
mains were collected in a basket which served for her coffin. The
1other recovered, although she had .received thirty or forty wounds. v
The assailants gave no thought to plundering, but made their way

out of the house and went. off/'*'
* Elliot, Vol. 7, pp. 269— 271.
AURANGZEB. Ill
Raja Jeswant Singh was at the time jointly in command, though

nominally subordinate to the Amir-ul-Umara. The two leaders
entered into mutual recriminations after Sivaji's daring exploit,
a fact which did not make for mutual action. Aurangzeb deter-
mined to recall them both. Eventually, Jeswant Singh was left
in the Deccan, but the .Amir-ul-Umara transferred to Bengal. To
the Deccan was now sent in chief command Prince Muazzam, the
king's son ; along with this Raja came Jai Singh, the famous Raj-
put Chief and Dilir Khan. In the meantime Sivaji had again fallen
out with Bijapur and had again begun tc ravage this kingdom.
Once he embarked in February 1665 on a ship, one of his improvised
fleet,on a plundering expedition down the West Coast. " On this
voyage Sivaji was detained longer than he expected a strong gale- ;
drove him down the coast, and the north-west winds prevented
his return for many days. This delay was one of several circum-
stances by which his tutelary goddess is said to have shown
her displeasure at this expedition ; the only naval enterprise
on which he, in person, embarked."* The lesson was sufficient for
him. The sea was not his element. Before this his father Shahji
died A. D. 1664 in the Carnatic, and Sivaji, his eldest living son,
performed his funeral ceremonies with great pomp. His younger
brother took possession of the Carnatic properties to which,
however, Sivaji laid claim.
Sivaji in the year 1664 A. D. attacked, took and sacked Surat,
the chief seaport belonging to the Moghuls. The surprise was com-
plete ; was the loot only the
so ; British and Dutch factories
resisted him and so escaped plunder. About this time also his fleet
seized several ships, carrying pilgrims to Mecca, a proceeding

specially fitted to raise Aurangzeb ',s ire.
Jai Singh, unlike meant business. With his

Jeswant Sing,
coming to the Deccan there was no more of the make-believe which
marked so much' of the Deccan Mo ghul General's proceedings,.
His army was supposed to be intended for the purpose of attacking
Bijapur, but it attacked continuously the Mahratta. Purandhar
* Duff, Vol. I, p. SP2.

was first of all besieged and for a time it maintained a short resist-
ance, during which its commandant was shot by Dilir Khan with
an arrow. All round the country was harried.* At Sivapur, which ' '
was built by Sivaji, and at the forts of Kandana and Kanwarigarh,

not one trace of cultivation was left, and cattle out of number were
taken. But, on the other hand, the sudden attacks by the enemy,
their brilliant successes, their assaults in dark nights, their seizure
of the roads and difficult passes, and the firing of the jungles full of
trees, severally tried the Imperial forces, and men and beasts in
great numbers perished." All the same the pressure continued
until Purandhur surrendered. Sivaji's head-quarters, where his
wife and many of his relations were, was besieged, and it seemed
that at last he was fairly caught. So he thought, too, for after
receiving the promise of a safe conduct from Jai Singh —he would
hardly have trusted a Muhammedan after his treatment of Afzal
Khan—he surrendered to him. Jai Singh was suspicious of Sivaji,
and no wonder, and so at the place of meeting was sufficiently guard-
ed to prevent treachery. Before meeting Sivaji, Jai Singh had let
the former know the conditions on which he would treat, which

were that Sivaji should give up his forts and proceed to wait upon
the Emperor. While with the Emperor, Jai Singh assured him
that he would be security for his safety and freedom. At the meet-
ing the Raja embraced Sivaji and treated him with the courtesy
that ever distinguishes a Rajput Chief. Sivaji himself clasped Jai
Singh's hands and said: ' have come as a guilty slave to ask
I
forgiveness, and it is for you either to pardon or to kill me at your
pleasure. I will make over my great forts, with the country of the
Konkan, to the Emperor's officers, and I will send my son to enter
the Imperial service. As for myself, I hope that after the interval
of one year, when I have paid my respects to the Emperor, I may be
allowed, like other servants of the State who exercise authority
in their own provinces, to live with my wife and family in a small
fort or two. Whenever and wherever my services are required,
I will, on receiving orders, discharge my duty loyally, "j- Einally
* Elliot, Vol. 7, pp. 272-73.
t Elliot, Vol. 7, p. 274.

—
AURANGZEB. 113
it was agreed that Sivaji should retain twelve out of the thirty-five
forts which he held and that he with his son Sambhaji, then eight
years old, should proceed to Court. The father's attendance at
the Court was to be temporary but his son's was to be permanent.
He was to be enrolled as one of the nobles waiting on the Emperor.
And so in A. D. 1666 we find Sivaji and his son with a small escort
arrived at Delhi, there to pay Emperor in person.
their respects to the
When he reached there, Shah Jahan was dead, and Aurangzeb had
ceased to fear any rivals. He had not yet completed his plans against
Hinduism and many Kajput nobles were still amongst the most assid-
uous of his courtiers. Arriving near Delhi, instead of being met
by persons of the highest rank and office, Sivaji was received only
by Kunwar Earn Sing, the son of Jai Sing, and Mukhliz Khan, one of
the lesser Moghul nobles. Aurangzeb had him enrolled as a Panj-
hazari, but as his son Sambhaji was also given this rank and as
Nathuji, another Mahratta chief, also received the same, Sivaji
considered himself insulted and did not hesitate to say so. Nor
was by what happened when he was presented
his anger lessened
to Aurangzeb in Durbar. The Emperor who considered the Mah-

rattas an insignificant clan of mountain robbers, and to whom a
Hindu of importance meant solely a Rajput, hardly noticed him on
his presentation and allowed him to stay amongst the Panjhazaris
quite a considerable and not an over-distinguished body. Sivaji

loudly expressed his dissatisfaction to Kunwar Ram Sing and others
about the Court. Jai Singh had guaranteed him his personal
liberty and this does not seem to have been interfered with, but
all the same he was prohibited from coming to Court and a surveil-
lance more or less severe was put on his movements. This did not
suit Sivaji at all any idea he may have had of being considered by
;
Aurangzeb as the indispensable man for the Deccan left him, and
the one idea that obsessed him was a return to Mahratta land.
To effect this he had resort to stratagem. For a time he pretended
to be ill and. kept almost entirely to his bed. Then pretending to
recover he had large baskets made in which he sent presents of food
to various persons in authority as a thanksgiving offering on his
recovery. This custom is so common in India that it occasioned
K, EM 8
no remark. Then having got one of. biscompanions to he in bis

bed with bis ring on bis hand, so that if any prying eyes might peer
into his sleeping room they might be satisfied that be was there,
he and his son got into two of these baskets and were carried some
distance out of Delhi to a spot where their companions awaited
them. Swift horses were in readiness and long before the Emperor
heard of their escape, they reached Muttra. There Sivaji transform-
ed himself into a fakir and travelled as such, first of all to Benares,
where he visited the holy places. At length some months after his
escape he got back to the Mountains of his native land. Sambbaji
had to be left behind at Allahabad in charge of a Brahmin. This
man proved faithful to his trust and in course of time conducted
Sambhaji to bis father. Thus did Aurangzeb lose the best chance
he ever bad of quieting the Deccan. There is but little doubt that
Sivaji was afraid of the Imperial troops, and that if Aurangzeb had
only recognized him as what he really was, the most important man
of the Deccan, bewouldhave been contentwith his position. Joined
with an Imperial Prince he would have had but httle difficulty in
conquering both the States of Bijapur and Golkonda —a conquest

which Aurangzeb only effected nearly twenty years later and the
whole Deccan would have become, for the time at least, really a part
of the Moghul Empire. As it turned out, it was never so, for from
this time Sivaji ceased to have any confidence in the Moghuls and
Maharashtra became a practically independent kingdom ; and so
it was that when Bijapur and Grolkonda were at last conquered, the
Deccan was as far from being conquered as ever and remained up
to the end of the reign and indeed to the end of the Moghul days of
rule an endless sink of Moghul enterprise and Moghul valour.
Jai Singh in the meantime bad been doing his best to subdue
the Bijapur kingdom. He got as far as the capital which he belea-
guered in due form. But here his success ended. The Bijapur
Generals entered Moghul territory and began laying it waste.
"Others were sent to oppose the Eaja and attack bis baggage.
The embankments of the tanks were cut, poisonous matters and
carrion were thrown into the wells, the trees and lofty buildings
near the fortress were destroyed, spikes were fixed in the ground,
AURANGZEB. 115
and the gardens and houses on both sides of the city were so des-
troyed that not a trace of culture was left near the city. Kbwaja
Neknam, a eunuch, joined Sharza Khan, the commander of Adil
Khan's army, with a reinforcement of 6,000 horse and 25,000 in-
fantry, from Kutb-ul-Mulk. Every day there was severe fighting,
and the men and animals which went out from the Imperial Army
to forage were cut oflV'*
The effects of this laying waste of the country were that soon
scarcity, approximating to famine, began to make itself felt in the
Moghul camp. Jai Singh was forced to retreat. His colleague
Dilir Khan was recalled ; soon afterwards he himself was also sum-
moned to Court but died on his way. Prince Muazzam, who had
for the time beingbeen relieved of the government of the Deccan,
was again appointed Viceroy and Baja Jeswant Singh was made his
chief assistant. The change was all in favour of Sivaji, who had
by this time again begun to make himself felt. At first he professed
that he was acting on behalf of the King of Golkonda, who had been
unwise enough to aid him with guns and material, but very soon
he showed that he was entirely playing for his own hand. Jeswant
Singh was supposed, probably correctly, of more or less conniving
at Sivaji's doings, in this being absolutely unlike Jai Sing, who
djuring the whole of his Deccan career showed that he was in earnest
in his undertakings on behalf of his Master.
Prince Muazzam entered into negotiations with Sivaji and

obtained from the Government the title of Raja for him, and also
the confirmation of a Mausab as well as the grant of a Jaghir in
Berar for his son Sambhaji. The Mahratta historians suggest that
all thiswas done with the intention of entrapping Sivaji, but if so,
in vain was the net spread. Once bitten, Sivaji was too shy again
to entrust himself into Moghul hands. Even the force of the Dec-
can Moghul army being in revolt, failed to induce him to join them.
Aurangzeb had lost his chance forever on that Durbar
eventful
day at Delhi. Even up to this time it seems that the Emperor was
more interested in laying traps to find out who of his army chiefs

were unfaithful than in the catching of Sivaji. And of this the
latter took full advantage. He fortified afresh his old chief fort
Rajgarh and set to building on a more inaccessible hill—a still

stronger fort. The old name of this hill was Rahiri. The fort on it
is now known as Raigarh ; near it passes the high road to Surat.
Though at a considerable distance from the sea an inlet passed within
a few miles of its base.

"After the guns were mounted, and the place made safe, he
closed all the roads around, leaving only one leading to his fortress.
One day he called an assembly, and having placed a bag of gold
and a gold bracelet worth a hundred pagodas before the people, he
ordered proclamation to be made that this would be given to any
one who would ascend to the fort, and plant a flag, by any other
than the appointed road, without the aid of ladder or rope.
ADher came forward, and said that, with the permission of the Raja r
he would mount to the top of the hill, plant the flag, and return.
He ascended the hill, fixed the flag, quickly came down again, and
made his obeisance."*
A purse and gold bracelet was given to the adventurous Dher

and the path he had ascended was broken up so that no one in future
might clamber up that way. After this Sivaji again in A. D. 1671
plundered Surat. The English and Dutch defended their factories
manfully, and escaped without loss, but the town was plundered
and the loot included the property of a prince from Mawar-un-Nabr
on his way back from Mecca. Aurangzeb was again touched in
his most vulnerable point. He was not slow to show his anger by
removing Jeswant Sing and appointing Mahabat Khan in his place.
This chief was, however, of little use and was soon recalled and
with him went Prince Muazzam. The successor to the Deccan com-
mand was Khan Jahan Bahadur, formerly Governor of Gujarat,,
who became Viceroy of the Deccan in 1672 A. D. About the same
time Sivaji nearly obtained possession of Jinjira. Fatteh Khan r
its ruler, being hard pressed by the Mahratta and not being helped
by the Bijapur authorities, had made up his mind to yield when a

AURANGZEB. 117
rebellion headed by three nipped the plan in the bud. The

Sidis
Sidis agreed to hold Jinjira as a Moghul possession and were grant-

ed titles as Imperial Nobles. About this time A. D. 1672 the King
of Bijapur died, leaving as bis successor in that troubled and dis-
tracted kingdom an only son, Sidtan Sikander, who was at that time
but five years of The natural consequences followed— rival
age.
noblemen striving for supremacy, intrigue and anarchy everywhere
rampant. The end of the Kingdom was coming in sight.
While these events were going on in the Deccan, Aurangzeb's
policy was fast developing itself in the north. In the early part of
A. D. 1669 he directed the suppression of the Hindu theological
Temple of Bishnath
schools at Benares and in April of that year the
was destroyed in that town. On the site where it stood was built
a mosque known as the Mosque of Aurangzeb and so it has come
about that the best site along the river frontage at Benares is cover-
ed, not with a Hindu pile, as would be in accord with the spirit of
the Hindu holy city, but with a place of worship of a faith absolute-
ly alien In December of the same year was des-
from Hinduism.
troyed the great Hindu temple at Muttra. This had been erected,
we are told, by the Bundela Raja who had murdered Abul Fazl,
and who had, as a reward for this service, obtained from Jehangir
on his accession permission to erect this building. The author of
the Maasir-i-Alamgiri piously ejaculates : "Glory be to God, who
has given us the faith of Islam, that, in this reign of the destroyer
of false gods, an undertaking so difficult of accomplishment has
been brought to a successful termination. This vigorous support
given to the true faith was a severe blow to the arrogance of the
Rajas, and, like idols, they turned their faces awe-struck to the
wall."*
Hindus have in the past been long, very long, suffering ; but
though this is the case, still their tenacity is equal to their power
of uncomplainingly bearing sufferings for what they consider the
holiest, and the destroyer of temples at Muttra and Benares was
destroying at the same time the very foundations of Mussalman

rule.
118 HISTORY OF THE GREAT MOGHULS,
The next step of Aurangzeb in his march towards Muhammedan

ascendancy was the exemption of goods belonging to Mussalmans
from customs or transit duties.This, however, was found to be
impracticable ; then schemes of differentiation were adopted by
which goods belonging to Muhammedans were to pay only
half the rates paid for goods owned by Hindus. This also natural-
ly led to evasions and subterfuges and the onlyresult was absolute
confusion. About this time, i.e., the early seventies caused part- —
ly at least by Aurangzeb 's proselytising tendencies there occurred —
a most extraordinary outbreak of a sect of Hindu devotees
known as Satnamis. These people, though devotees, carried
on trade and agriculture on a small scale and prided themselves
alike on the correctness of their life and on their mutually assisting
each other in trouble. From small beginnings their rebellion took

formidable proportions. They captured the town of Narnal in
the Punjab, and proceeded thereto establish a Government of their
own. Troops sent against them by Aurangzeb were defeated and
dispersed.* "It was said that swords, arrows, and musket balls
had no upon these men, and that every arrow and ball which
effect
they discharged against the royal army brought down two or three
men. Thus they were credited with magic and witchcraft and
stories were currently reported about them which were utterly
incredible. They were said to have magic wooden horses like live
ones, on which their women rode as an advanced guard." The
rebels advanced close to Delhi. Aurangzeb's troops seem to have
been fairly frightened by them. Aurangzeb, partly probably
through superstitious motives and partly because he believed that
it would inspire confidence in his troops, wrote prayers with his
own hands which he directed to be sewn on to the banners of his
army. At last the rebellion was stamped out. Much blood was
shed and the Satnamis disappear from history. All this led up
to the great event of Aurangzeb's reign, which finally and com-
pletely alienated all Hindus from him, the reimposition of the
Jizya. This is a poll tax levied on non-Muhammedans. It was in
the early days of Islam a cardinal feature of Muhammedan
* Elliot, Vol. VU, p. 295.
AURANGZEB. 119
administration. Non-believers paid the Jizya ; believers were
exempt. On the other hand, the wars of Talam had to be carried

on by the followers of the Prophet who were bound, if so called
upon, to serve as soldiers. But times had changed since the days
of Omar, and a tax perfectly justifiable in his days, became un-
supportable at a time when Rajput soldiers formed a great part,
and possibly the best part of the Moghul Army. Allsections of
the Hindu community joined in the uproar that followed. Sivaji,

whose own methods of taxation hardly bear close investi-
gation, was as loud in the outcry as any one. Khafi Khan writes
as to the reception of it at Delhi thus :* " Upon the publication
of this order, the Hindus all round Delhi assembled in vast
numbers under the jharokha Emperor on

of the the river front of
and to pray for the
the palace, to represent their inability to pay,
recall of the edict. But the Emperor would not listen to their
complaints. One day, when he went to public prayer in the great
mosque on the Sabbath, a vast multitude of Hindus thronged the
road from the palace to the mosque, with the object of seeking
relief. Money changers and drapers, all kinds of shop-keepers
from the Urdu bazar, mechanics, and workmen of all kinds, left off
work and business, and pressed into the way. Notwithstanding
orders were given to force a way through, it was impossible for
the Emperor to reach the mosque. Every moment the crowd in-
creased, and the Emperor's equipage was brought to a standstill.
At length an order was given to bring out the elephants and direct
them against the mob. Many fell trodden to death under the feet
of the elephants and horses. Eor some days the Hindus continued
to assemble in great numbers and complain, but at length they
submitted to pay the Jizya." The trouble thus caused was inten-
sified by the death of Raja Jeswant Singh, which happened shortly
afterwards at Cabul of which place he was Viceroy. His death

was supposed to have been brought about by poison administered
at Aurangzeb's instigation. In any case it was the cause of much
sorrow to the whole of the Hindu community.! "The Hindu race
tTod, Vol. II, p. 50.
was in despair at the loss of the support of their faith. The bells
of the temple were mute, the sacred shell no longer sounded at sun-
rise : the Brahmins vitiated their doctrines and learned the Moslem
creed." '*
The exact date of the Edict imposing the Jizya is not very
clear but it was before Sivaji's death, which happened in the year
1680 A. D. Probably it was in the year 1679 A. D. though it may
bave been a year earlier. In any case in order to keep to anything
like chronological order it is necessary to return to Sivaji and his
turbulent Mahrattas. We left him trying in vain to seize Jinjira.

About this time be came in contact with a more formidable foe than
the Sidis in the person of the Governor of Bombay, which by this time
had passed, as the wedding portion of Catherine of Braganza on her
marriage with Charles the II, from Portuguese into English hands.
In the plunder of Hubli, a commercial town of considerable import-
ance in the Bijapur State by the Mahrattas, the English Factory
had shared the common fate. Mr. Gerald Aungier, the real founder
of Bombay, was then Governor there and in spite of Sivaji's denials
insisted on reparation. The Mahratta had already for various
reasons learned to respect English prowess, and so after much eva-
sionsand delay, concluded a treaty with the English Governor where-
by indemnification was to be given for past losses, the import tax
on English goods was fixed at 2J per cent, ad valorem, each power's
coin was to pass freely in the territories of both, and wrecks were
to be restored. Shortly before this treaty Sivaji was solemnly
enthroned as Raja at Rajgarh, and henceforward the Mahrattas
claimed that theirs, equally with the Delhi power, was a Kingdom.
The ceremony of enthronement was witnessed by Mr. Oxenden, the
British Envoy. The rites were tedious and long what seemed to:
have impressed Mr. Oxenden most was Sivaji's being weighed

against gold which was afterwards distributed amongst Brahmins.
What probably pleased the new King most, was his being recognised
as belonging to a high sub-class of the Rajputs. The Hindus of the
two holy rivers the Indus and the Ganges and those of the Rajput
desert think themselves commonly the only real Hindus of noble
caste in existence and look down on those that come from South of
AURANGZEB. 121
the Vindhya. Wealth has its way in India, however, as elsewhere,

and a judicious use of it enabled Sivaji, as it has enabled Hindus in
other parts, to rise with the Brahmin's blessing in the scale of Hindu
society. On his coronation the usual grand titles were given to his
chief officers, and outward sign of the revolution in Indian

as the
affairs that was coming abmit, the new titles were all Sanscrit and
not Persian.
The by the Historians
last six years of Sivaji 's life as related
is one confused melee of fights and stratagems. Every day the
Moghul power was pressing Bijapur and every day that power was
getting nearer its doom. Sivaji was generally at war with Bijapur
and always at war with the Moghuls. Occasionally he allied him-
self with the former power, but such an alliance did it no good.
The one strong point of the Bijapur Kingdom in its last days was
the strength of its capital. No besieging power could take the city
by storm, unless aided by treachery within, and though there was
always a Moghul faction in the capital, it was not sufficiently power-
ful nor sufficiently Moghul to absolutely betray its country. Other-
wise the State was in absolute confusion. Golkonda was in a bet-
ter way, but even there faction raged strong and it was only a mat-
ter of time, when the last assault should come. Sivaji allied him-
self to this latter power, promising much, and was thereby enabled to
proceed in safety to the Carnatic to which place he proceeded with
a great army to take possession of his father Shahji's lands, which
were mostly held by his half brother Venkaji. In this he succeeded
on the whole, though he did not settle his disputes with this brother
of his. In this expedition the Hindu ascetic side of his character
stood out prominently in the penances he performed at the sacred
shrine of Parwattam.
'At last," we are told, " he was worked up into such a state of
enthusiasm as to draw his sword for the purpose of sacrificing him-
self to the Deity, when it is pretended he was saved by the direct
interposition of the Goddess Bhowanee, by whose inspiration Sivaji
on this occasion, uttered one of his many prophecies and whilst the :
Deity, through him, declared the necessity of his yet remaining

to perform many great services for the Hindu faith, she announced
the splendid conquests that were to be immediately achieved in

the Carnatic."* On his return he heard that Venkaji had attacked
the troops he had left behind, whereupon he addressed a long letter
to him,-)- '
'in which he recapitulated everything that had occurred,
represented the extreme indiscretion of a conduct, which had com-
pelled him to take possession of the districts : and now, had obliged
by force of arms, that the slaughter
his officers to repel aggression
of the vile Muhammedans, who had joined in the attack, was not
to be regretted but he ought to reflect on the sacrifice of valuable
:
lives which it had occasioned. Sivaji, in his letter dwells much on

the necessity of union, and the propriety of peace which last he :
now proposes to grant, on receiving the whole of their father's

territorial possessions in the Carnatic, for which he promises, either
to allow his brother an equivalent in the Panala districts, or to ob-
tain a grant of territory from his ally Kootub Shah in some other
part of the country, equal to three lakhs of pagodas annually."
The two brothers shortly afterwards came to an agreement whereby
G-injee and the districts around remained with Venkaji as did a :
part of his father's wealth. The rest came into Sivaji's hands and
was the foundation of the Mahratta power in Southern India. His
position was confirmed by the Bijapur Government as the price
1
of his alliance. Venkaji again kicked and threatened to turn

devotee. Sivaji's advice to him was given in a letter which has
been preserved. It runs thus " Many days have elapsed without
:
J
my receiving any letter and in consequence, I am not in
from you :
comfort. Ragoo Punt has now written, that you, having placed
melancholy and gloom before yourself, do not take care of your per-
son, or in any way attend to yourself as formerly nor do you keep :
up any great days or religious festivals. Your troops are inactive,

and you have no mind to employ yourself on State affairs. You
have become a Byragee, and think of nothing but to sit in some
place accounted holy, and let time wear away. In this manner,
* Duff's Mahrattas, Vol. I, p. 278.
t Do., pp. 284-85.

I Duff's Mahrattas, Vol. I, pp. 291-95.
:
AURANGZEB. 12S
much has been written to me, and such an account of you has, given
me great concern. I am
when I reflect, that you have
surprised
our father's example before you, how did he encounter and sur-
mount all difficulties, perform great actions, escape all dangers by
his spirit and resolution, and acquire a renown which he maintained
to the last ? All he did, is well known to you. You enjoyed his
society, you had every opportunity of profiting by his wisdom and
ability. Even I myself, as circumstances enabled me, have protect-
ed myself and you also know, and have seen, how I have established
;
a kingdom. Is it then for you, in the very midst of opportunity,

to renounce all worldly affairs, and turn Byragee —to give up your
affairs to persons who will devour your estate- —to ruin your
property, and injure your bodily health ? What kind of wisdom is
this, and what will it end* in ? I am to you as your head and

protection : from me you have nothing to dread. Give up therefore
all this, and do not become a Byragee. Throw off despondency,
spend your days properly attend to fasts, feasts, and customary
:
usages, and attend to your personal comforts. Look to the em-

ployment of your people, the discipline of your army, and turn your
attention to affairs of moment. Make your men do their duty
apply their services properly in your quarter, and gain fame and
renown. What a comfort and happiness it will be to me to hear
the praise and fame of my
Raghunath Pundit is
younger brother.
near you, he is no stranger to you, consult him on what
is most ad-
visable to be done and he will consider you in the same light as my-
self. I have placed every confidence in him do you the same : —
hold together for your mutual support, and you will acquire celeb-
rity and fame. Above all things be not slothful do not allow :
opportunity to slip past without receiving some returns from your

army. This is the time for performing great actions. Old age is
the season for turning Byragee. Arouse ! bestir yourself. Let

me see what you can do. Why should I write more, you are wise."
No one will gainsay the wisdom of this Sivaji's farewell advice.
Shortly after writing it, the Mahratta national hero was dead. The
nation, which he made self-conscious, exists as such to this day.
The question naturally arises how has this change in its being come
;
about. The story of Sivaji's life seems but one of raids and plunder,
of sudden inroads and rapid flights, mixed with occasional feats
of the most dare-devil bravery and alas at, times v*ith the grossest
treachery. But if e had only been a successful marauder, he
1
could hardly nave left the mark on the time that he did. The
greatest marauder perhaps in the whole world's history, Atilla the
Hun, passed away and save in the way of ruins and devastation left
hardly a trace behind. Chenghiz Khan, of whom I have written in
the first volume, was much more than a mere robber chief. And
so was Sivaji. To judge the man right one must turn first to the
methods of governing and conquering which he practised. The
time was indeed much in his favour, but the time without the man
can do but little. It is necessary then in order to judge him aright
to understand the system of rule he introduced. The foundation
of this was the organisation of plunder abroad and of severe and
just government at home. His soldiers the best of whom the —
Mawali infantry were hillmen trained to a hard and abstemious
life —
were bound to account for all the plunder they might obtain.
. Every article carried off by them was supposed to be inventoried
and Sivaji's intelligence department was so complete that it Was
comparatively rare that plunder escaped notice. His soldiers had
always the right of purchasing any article they might have carried
off, but if they attempted to keep anything secretly for themselves
they were severely punished. No women were allowed in his camps.
Thus a Mahratta army was in striking contrast to a Moghul host
in the latter women, luxury, grandeur abandoned in the former :
abstinence, abstemiousness was the universal rule. It was but
little wonder that the heavy weighted Moghul found the light Mah-
Tatta an elusive and yet an undefeatable foe. As regards the in-

ternalgovernment of the lands under his rule, Sivaji's first care
was bis soldiers. Lands were given to them near the forts where
they were quartered for the support of their wives and families.
He put his face sternly against the curse of India, the tunkah (as
it is called) directing a village to pay certain sums of moneys to
an official for his own salary or for any other purpose. Such a
system is susceptible of the gravest abuses and Sivaji steadily set
AURANGZEB. 125
his face against it.*Payments were made in cash or by an order on

one of the Revenue Collectors. As far as the revenue came from
the land it was derived from a share of the produce' ordinarily —
two -fifths. The peasant knew what he had to pay and he seems to
have been able to pay this without any great oppression. Besides
the revenue he derived from his own States, and the plunder which
his soldiers brought from abroad, he claimed first of all from certain
limited districts in Bijapur, then from some of the Moghul territories,
and finally from any non-Mahratta land where his claim had any
likelihood of success, certain assignments of revenue known as
Chouth and Sirdeshmookhi (one-tenth). He first
(one-fourth)
obtained a grant of Chouth from Aurangzeb as Viceroy in the Dec-
can previous to his memorable journey to Delhi. The order was
on Bijapur and the Moghul Prince who gave it but little thought
what a terrible weapon he was putting into Sivaji's hand. The
demand for these assignments could be made a convenient excuse
for making war and plundering whenever the claimant of the
Chouth chose. For the right to this entailed the right to examine
and verify the accounts of the power from whom it was demanded,
and as such a right would only be conceded by a power at death's
door, there was an unfailing cause of dispute always ready for the
Mahratta. Add to this that the question as to what districts had
to pay Chouth was always in dispute, and it can be seen to what
trouble this claim was sure to lead.
The Muhammedan historian of the reign, though naturally in-
clined to paint the Mahratta chief in unfavourable colours, com-
ments thus on his character. "Sivaji had always striven to main-
tain the honour of the people in his territories. He persevered in
a course of rebellion, in plundering caravans, and troubling man-
kind: but he entirely abstained from other disgraceful acts, and
was careful to maintain the honour of the women and children of
Muhammedans when they fell into his hands. His injunctions
upon this point were very strict,and anybody who disobeyed
them received punishment, "f This coming from the source it does
* Later Mahratta rulers abandoned this rule,
f Elliot, Vol. VII, p. 305.

is really high, praise. Hindu authors, particularly Mahrattas, are

naturally enthusiastic. His faults were mainly those of the time :
his virtues were As the originator of a system which

his own.
sapped away the strength of the Moghul power, his name must ever
stand high amongst the great personalities of the East. At the same
time with wiser counsels at Agra and Delhi he would have accom-
plished but little. If he had lived in Akbar's time, his talents
would have been probably utilised by that great King as a warrior
and as an administrator, and instead of being the scourge of the
Empire he would have been one of its numerous pillars. But to
guess what might have been is ever a futile occupation. What was,
is the task of history and Sivaji may well be described as the first
of the destroyers of the Moghul power. His son Sambhaji succeeded

to his kingdom he turned out to be a profligate without anything
:
to recommend him save a certain amount of reckless bravery, and

the Moghul power in the Deccan had consequently a breathing
time of which, however, it did not make any use to retrieve its last
strength. Of this, more hereafter. We must now turn again to
Northern India.
"When Jeswant died beyond the Attock, his wife, the (future)
mother of Ajit, determined to burn with her lord, but being in the
seventh month of her pregnancy, she was forcibly prevented by
Ooda Koompawaut. His other queen and seven patras (concu-
bines) mounted the pyre and as soon as the tidings reached Jodh-
:
pore, the Chundravati queen, taking a turban of her late lord,

ascended the pile at Mundore. "* After the Rani's delivery of a boy,
who was named Ajit Sing, she and the Rajputs who had been the
late Raja's body-guard set out from Cabul homeward. They were
opposed at the Attock Fort by the guard there, who stated that they
had received orders not to let them pass, but brushing away this
obstacle, the Rajput troop reached Delhi. Here guards were put
over them, and, according to Rajput story, the infant Ajit Sing,
the heir to his father's possessions, was smuggled out of Delhi in a
sweetmeat seller's basket this perilous task being effected by a
:
faithful Muhammedan. Blood flowed in torrents in a fight between

* Tod, Vol. II, p. 50.
AURANGZEB. ] 27
the Kajputs and the Moghuls in the Delhi streets, but the baby Ajit
Sing found a safe retreat in one of the innermost and most inaccessible
recesses of the Aravali hills. Aurangzeb steadily refused to acknow-
ledge Ajit Sing as the legitimate child of Jeswant Singh and affected
to consider him as spurious. But Rajputs, at least, gave up all
suspicion on this score when a number of years Rana of

later the
Udaipur married him to his daughter. This the Rana would cer-
tainly not have done if he had the slightest suspicion as to the child's
paternity or legitimacy. Aurangzeb, baffled in this matter, for he
had hoped to hold the infant in his custody as a hostage for the
fidelity of the Rajputs, now came to the conclusion that the time
had arrived for the final subjugation of the Rajput race. From all
quarters of his Empire troops were collected together to crush

this obstinate and stiff-necked people. Raj Sing was then the Rana
of Mewar, which, as ever, was the centre of the Rajput opposition.
The campaign started in its usual fashion. After some unequal
fighting in which various bands of Rajputs devoted them-
selves to death, the plain part of Rajputana was overcome. There
Aurangzeb remained, but a large part of his army under his son
Prince Akbar and Tuhawar Khan entered through the hills into
the valley —the circle as it is called —in which the capital of Mewar
stands. "Not a soul interrupted his (Akbar's) progress to the city.
Palaces, gardens, lakes and isles, met his eye, but no living thing :
all was silence. Akbar encamped. Accustomed to this desertion,

from the desire of the people to avoid a licentious soldiery, and
lulled into a hardy security, he was surprised by the heir of Mewar.
Some were praying, some feasting, some at chess : they came to
steal and yet fell asleep, says the annalist, and were dispersed with
5
terrific and unrelenting slaughter. '* Retreat was cut off, annihila-
tion seemed the only prospect when the Rana's eldest son Jai Singh,
trusting to the promises of the Moghul chiefs to bring about an end
to the war, permitted the discomfited soldiers to proceed through
the dangerous defiles into a place of safety. At the same time
another Moghul Army under Dilir Khan, which had entered the passes
Tod, Vol. I, p. 325.

with the hope of extricating Akbar, was totally routed. Inspirited

by these victories, theEajputs proceeded to attack Aurangzeb him-
self, and after a hard fought encounter at Do bari forced him to retreat
with the loss of the Imperial standard, numerous elephants and
much of the Royal carriage.
At the same time Gujarat and Malwa were harried through

and through by Rajput bands. The Kazis were bound and shaved,
says the annalist, the Korans thrown into wells. Aurangzeb was
forced to call up the army of the Deccan with Prince Muazzam at
its head. This army also marched into the hill country but fared
but little better than the other Imperial armies had fared before.
The Rajputs now thought it time to make a strike for Empire.
Not that they thought of placing a Hindu on the throne of Delhi-
such thoughts had come into their minds after the first battle of
Panipat when Baber was still a stranger in the country and the
Afghan mle seemed for ever at an end, but now all that they
wished was a tolerant Muhammedan ruler, one who should hold the
Rajputs as his most faithful and loyal servants. Their thoughts
seemed first to have turned to Prince Muazzam, but his loyalty to his
father was not to be seduced. Aurangzeb did indeed suspect him,
so much so indeed that at one time he directed his guns to be trained
on his son's camp, but finding that, on his inviting Muazzam to visit
him alone, the son obeyed at once, his suspicions ceased. It was
otherwise with Prince Akbar. The same desire for sovereignty that
had animated Aurangzeb twenty -five years ago to snatch the throne
from his father now tempted Akbar to desert the Imperial army
and put himself at the head of the Rajputs. Tahawur Khan with a
small escort entered the Imperial camp with the ostensible object
of putting forward Prince Akbar's demands. Whether this was
his real object or whether he had made up his mind to assassinate,
if possible, Aurangzeb, one cannot say. Anyhow he attempted
to enter the royal presence, armed. Khafi Khan tells the story of
his end thus :
Khan demurred to putting off his arms, so Prince

" The
•Muhammad Muazzam made a sign to kill the unhappy man. It
was now stated to the Emperor that Tahawur Khan had come
AURANGZEB. 129
under the orders of Prince Muhammad Akbar, to make known his

pretensions and demands. On hearing this, Aurangzeb 's anger
blazed forth and he placed his hand upon his sword, and ordered
that the Khan should be allowed to enter with his arms.But one
of the attendants in an insulting way, placed his hand upon the
Khan's breast to stop him. The Khan struck him a blow on the
face and retreated, but his foot caught in a rope, and he fell
down. Cries of strike slay
'
! arose on all sides. Numbers fell
!
'
upon him, and he was soon killed, and his head was cut off. After
he was dead, it was found that he had armour tinder his clothes,
but there were various opinions as to what his real intentions
were."*
Prince Akbar was not fated to be as successful as his father had
been before him. From all we know of him, it would seem that he
had neither his father's craft nor his cleverness. Aurangzeb played
successfully the old trick. A was written
which Princf
letter in
Akbar was recommended for having befooled the Eajputs so suc-
cessfully by his pretended rebellion and giving instructions as to how
and when he should fall on and attack his friends. This latter fell,,
as it was meant to fall, into Rajput hands. From this moment all
confidence was gone the Rajput host, which had followed Akbar,
;
melted away. Without a battle, the greatest danger to which

Aurangzeb had been exposed since that fateful day before Agra, when
Dara Shikoh descended too soon from his elephant and thereby
changed* the history of the East, passed away. Prince Akbar found
himself left almost alone with Durga Das the lord of Drunara, who
true to the fealty he had sworn, preserved Prince Akbar from all
the dangers to which he was exposed and safely conveyed him to
the camp of Sambhaji in Mahratta. The haughty Moghul Prince
and the savage Mahratta chieftain had absolutely nothing in com-
mon, and after a short stay with the Mahratta, Prince Akbar left
him and embarked in an English ship for Muscat.
From there he proceeded to Persia where he lived for many
The war between Raj-
years, dying only shortly before his father.
put and Moghul lingered for some time, but without any positive
K, HM 9
;
result. Aurangzeb did not feel inclined again to attempt what no

Sovereign of India had ever accomplished before him, a complete
conquest of Rajput country. A treaty was made in which the Moghul
restored Chitor and the lands around it which his armies had occupied
and it wasdown that the practice of turning Hindu temples
laid
into Muhammedan mosques should be discontinued, but that what

had been could not be altered, the past, as the treaty says, not being
able to be recalled. As regards the Jiziya the treaty is silent, but as
a matter of fact its collection in Rajputana ceased. Once and
again there was war after this in parts of Rajputana during
Aurangzeb's reign, but it was never on a great scale.
From now for the rest of his reign, Aurangzeb's thoughts
were ever turned to the Deccan, and the history of the last twenty-
five years of his rule is almost exclusively concerned with lands
South of the Vindhiya.

i At this time, 1681 A. D., the two Kingdoms of Bijapur and Gol-
konda, the only remains of the old Bahmini state, were still in exis-
tence, though in the last stage of decay. On the other hand,
though
Sivaji was dead and though Sambhaji had no statesmanlike qual-
ities, the Mahrattas suffered but little from the want of unity or of
centralised leading. had taught them their strength and

Sivaji
the strength of their country. Time and the feebleness of their

opponents were to do the rest. The Emperor seems to have been
induced to proceed south largely by the fact that his son Akbar was
there, for though we have told how eventually the latter left India,
still this was not till A. D. 1682, considerably later than the con-
clusion of the great Rajput war. Aurangzeb's chief officer in the
Deccan, Khan Jahan, was both a feeble and corrupt officer. Sam-
bhaji had celebrated his accession in real Mahratta fashion by a
sudden inroad into Moghul territory, aiming at the provincial
capital, Burhanpur. This he did not manage to capture, but he plun-
dered its suburbs and got away safe with an enormous amount of
loot. Khan Jahan marched from Aurangabad in order to cut off
his retreat, but he moved leisurely, and when he did get an oppor-
tunity of coming to close quarters,
deliberately refused it. No
wonder that Aurangzeb waxed wrath and deprived him of his _
AURANGZEB. 131
honours. A Moghul Emperor had become in these days, the days of

Akbar having long gone by, too wedded to Oriental ceremony, ever
to move in a hurry, and though Aurangzeb was very abstemious and ,
simple in his personal habits, still as regards appearing in public in

royal state he was as particular as his father. And so it was that
the year A. D. 1682 had commenced before he reached Burhanpur.
From this time onward the rest of his life practically was spent
camping. The Moghul camp indeed resembled a considerable
town. The tents of the Emperor, of his seraglio, of his chief
nobles and their seraglios, and of the countless hangers on of the
Court took up as much room as a fair sized town, but it was a town,
never certain as to when it was to move, and hence on a bigger
and grander scale it was the old life of the steppes again. When
Aurangzeb reached Burhanpur, Prince Akbar was still with
Sambhaji, but fear on his score had almost entirely gone. More
troublesome were the Jiziya troubles. Officers in the Deccan had
been slack, if they had tried at all, to collect the same. But
with the Emperor's coming, this was all changed. The Jiziya
had to be enforced happen what might. And so even in the towns
there were disturbances.
As regards the external foe the first incursion by the
Emperor's troops into Mahratta land was unfortunate. The strong
fort of Salir in the Konkan near the sea was its objective. The
Muhammedan historian tells us how the staple grains of the
country were poor diet for the invading force, how the horses
and camels died so that Prince Azam, the head of the expedition
himself had to walk, how life at last became insupportable and how
the troops had to retreat. Force after force went against this fort-
ress in vain, but what force could not effect negotiation did. By
the end of the year Salir had surrendered. The story of the siege
of this fort was repeated in the siege of the Ramdarra forts. Here
again there was not much difficulty until the forts were reached.
Then troubles began. " The air of the place did not suit the in-
vaders. The enemy swarmed around on every side, and cut the
supplies. On one side was the sea, and on the other two sides were
mountains full of poisonous trees and serpents. The enemy cut
down the grass, which was a cause of great distress to man and beast,
and they had no food but cocoanuts, and the grain called hudun,
which acted like poison upon them. Great numbers of men and
horses died. Grain was so scarce and dear that wheat flour
sometimes could not be obtained for less than three or four rupees.
Those men who escaped death dragged on a half existence, and
with crying and groaning felt as if every breath they drew was their
last. There was not a noble who had a horse in his stable fit for use.
When the wretched state of the royal army became known to
Aurangzeb, he sent an order to the officers of the port of Surat, direct-
ing them to put as much grain as possible on board of ships, and
send it to the Prince's succour by sea. The enemy got intelligence
of this, and as the ships had
by their newly erected fortresses
to pass
they stopped them on their way, and took most of them. A few
ships escaped the enemy, and reached their destination but no ;
amir got more than two or three palas of corn. The order at length
came for the retreat of the army, and it fell back fighting all the way
to Ahmednuggur, where Aurangzeb then was."*
The story of these marches and sieges has now become mono-
tonous. Still the Moghul armies, containing as they did numerous
Turks, Afghans and Rajputs were the best fighting force in India
when was the question of a pitched battle. But organised as
it
they were, campaigns in anything like a difficult country could not

be successfully carried on. They ever sighed for the ease of their
great standing camps, and their leaders had no inclination for the
slow persevering work, which campaigning in such countries
demanded. Sambhaji in the meantime was engaged in fighting
the English and Portuguese. At one time it seemed quite probable

that he might obtain possession either by force or by treaty of Bom-
bay. But his rage eventually turned against the Portuguese. At
first these latter obtained some advantages and invaded his country,
but not venturing to advance, made a most disastrous retreat,

losing all their guns, stores and camp equipment and the victorious
Sambhaji was only stopped by the waters that separate the island

:
AURANGZEB. 133
of Goa from the main land. The war went on for years, the Mah-
rattas having on the whole considerably the better of it, storming
and plundering such Portuguese centres at Bassein and Daman
but still being not strong enough to eject the Portuguese from their
strongholds.
At last Aurangzeb was ready for the final advance against
Rijapur and Golkonda. He always had grounds of complaint
Government of both States on account of their helping
against the
the Mahrattas or on account of the hundred and one reasons
which a strong State can bring forward concerning frontier troubles
against a weaker. Aurangzeb, who was nothing if not orthodox,
always alleged religious reasons for his The prevailing
wars.
religion amongst both the Bijapur and Golkonda nobles was
the Shiah form of Muhammedanism. And to a rigid Sunni a Shiah
is considered but little better than an infidel. Add to this that the
sovereign of Golkonda had as his two chief ministers, two Hindus

Madana and Akana, and Aurangzeb found complete justification
wars he was starting against the two remaining Muham-

for the
medan Deccan states. Before attacking the King of Golkonda, a
message Avas sent to him demanding the balance of tribute (there
was always a balance of tribute in those days), and that two very
finediamonds should be sent in lieu of money. The historian naive-
ly says "Aurangzeb told his envoy confidentially that he did not
:
send him to obtain the two diamonds, which he did not at all want,
but rather to ascertain the truth of the evil reports which had
reached him."* These evil reports related to the kingdom being
ruledby Hindus and the King having given himself over to debauch-
ery. —
The reply was and it was probably true that there were —
no such diamonds. Thereupon a Moghul army advanced into Gol-
konda territory, having as its heads, for Aurangzeb always added
a General of his own if a Prince of the blood, however able,
commanded his Muazzam and Khan Jahan. The
troops, Prince
advance was only partially successful. Khafi Khan claims indeed
that the Imperial troops gained a victory over an enemy superior
in numbers, but however this might be, the armies did not
* EJliot, Vol. VII, p. 315-1
advance and to the vaunting despatch of the leaders, announcing

a great victory, Aurangzeb sent an angry reply. The leaders on
the other hand got offended and remained inactive for several
months. On the Emperor's insisting on action Khan Jahan and
Prince Muazzam sent a messenger into the Golkonda camp offering
peace if certain Parganahs on the Eastern Coast were surrendered.
The answer given was "That they had taken the Parganahs at the
point of the sword and spear, and were ready to fight for them."*
Fighting was resumed and the Golkonda troops were driven back
towards Golkonda. And then happened what so often has happen-
ed in Oriental history. The King's mind was poisoned against his
Commander-in-Chief Muhammad Ibrahim. He tried to seize him,
but fruitlessly. Off went Muhammad Ibrahim to the Imperial-
ists. On this being known the King incontinently fled into the
Golkonda fort.The consequence was what might have been ex-
pected. "When this fact became public, the stores of Abul Hussan
were plundered, as also was the property of the merchants, worth
four or five krors of rupees. The women of the soldiers, and of the
inhabitants of the city, were subjected to dishonour, and great dis-
order and destruction prevailed. Many thousand gentlemen being
unable to take horse, and carry off their property, in the greatest
distress took the hands of their children and wives, many of whom
could not even seize a veil or sheet to cover them, and fled into the
fortress. Before Prince Shah Alam got what was
intelligence of
passing, the ruffians and plunderers of the city began their work
of pillage and devastation. Nobles, merchants and poorer men, vied
with each other as to who, by strength of arms, and by expenditure
of money, should get their families and property into the fortress.
Before break of day, the Imperial forces attacked the city, and a
frightful scene of plunder and destruction followed, for in every
part and road and market there were lacs upon lacs of money, stuffs,
carpets, horses and elephants, belonging to Abul Hussan and his
nobles. Words cannot how many women and children of

express
Mussulmans and Hindus were made prisoners, or how many women
of high and low degree were dishonoured. Carpets of great value,
AURANGZEB. 135
which, were too heavy to carry, were cut to pieces with swords and
daggers, and every bit was struggled for. Prince Shah Alam ap-
pointed officers (sazawals) to prevent the plunder, and they did
their best to restrain it, The craven King sent a
but in vain."*
messenger begging humbly for peace A. D. 1686. This was granted
but under the most humiliating conditions. The Parganahs be-
fore demanded were to be surrendered, a crushing war indemnity
was to be paid and the Hindu ministers were to be imprisoned.
Above all the King was personally to beg for pardon from Aurang-
zeb. As regards that one of the terms which referred to the Hindu
ministers, this turned out to be unnecessary. Even before the nego-
tiationswere closed, they were barbarously murdered, probably at
the instigation of certain women of the harem who hoped thereby
to curry favour with the conquering Moghuls.
Their heads were cut off and sent to Prince Shah Alam. Before
the invasion of Golkonda, Imperial troops under the same Generals
had invaded the Kingdom of Bijapur. The rulers of that State had
followed their usual tactics. They had allowed the Imperial army
to reach the capital without much resistance, but when the army
got there, it found itself incapable of capturing the town and was
forced after suffering much want to retire. To add to the troubles
of the time, the Mahrattas had taken the opportunity it afforded
to them, by the absence of a large part of the Moghul troops further

south, to sack both Broach and Burhanpur. In A. D. 1686 Sultan
Azam again advanced. When he was near the capital, Bijapur
troops got between him and his base. This reduced him to great
distress and it was with great difficulty he was relieved. Ghazi-ud-
din Khan, who was to figure so greatly in the future history of the
Deccan under the name of Nizam-ul-Mulk, comes into notice in this

relief for the first time. Aurangzeb is said to have thanked him
more for his services then done than he had ever thanked any other
officer.The troops being reinforced again advanced and were
joined on this occasion by a part of the army which had returned
from the Golkonda war. Finally Aurangzeb joined it himself.
The garrison stood out manfully but the inevitable end at last came.

The young ruler was put in strict confinement in which he died

three years later, not without a suspicion of having been poisoned
by the Emperor.
"Bijapur," so the historian of the Mahrattas tells us, " hence-
and was soo n after deserted. The walls,

forth ceased to be the capital,
which are of hewn stone and very lofty, are, to this day, entire,
and being surmounted by the cupolas and minarets of the public
buildings, still present to a spectator from without, the appearance
of a flourishing city ; but within, — all is solitude, silence, and
desolation. The deep moat, the double rampart, and the ruins of
splendid palaces in the citadel, attest the former magnificence of
the Court. The great mosque is a grand edifice, and the tomb of
Ibrahim Adil Shah, already mentioned, is remarkable for its elegant
and graceful architecture, but the chief feature in the scene is the
Mausoleum of Muhammed Adil Shah, the dome of which fills the
eye from every point of view, and though in itself entirely devoid of
ornaments, its enormous dimensions and austere simplicity invests
it with an air of melancholy grandeur, which harmonizes with the
wreck and desolation that surround it. In the climate where Bija-
pur is situated, the progress of decay is extremely rapid, and until
lately nothing whatever was done to arrest its effects ; but when
viewed as mere ruins, the remains of that city, as they at present
exist, are exceedingly grand, and, as a vast whole, far exceed any-
thing of the kind in Europe."* Since this was written it has more
and more decayed, though Lord Curzon's archaeological zeal has
been instrumental in restoring in part the ancient buildings —the
only remaining evidence of its past glories.
After Bijapur came the turn of Golkonda. Aurangzeb had

only approved of the late treaty in order that he might complete
his work and now demand alter demand was pressed
at Bijapur,
on the unfortunate Abul Hussan. Khafi Khan gives one of the
Emperor's letters to this Prince, a most characteristic production.
The evil deeds of this wicked man pass beyond the bounds of
'
'
writing but by mentioning one out of a hundred, and a little out

;
* Duff, Vol. I, p. 340.

AURA.NGZKB. 137
of much, some conception of them may be formed. First, placing
the reins of authority and government in the hands of vile tyran-

nical infidels ; oppressing and afflicting the Saiyids, Shaikhs, and
other holy men openly giving himself up to excessive debauchery
;
and depravity indulging in drunkenness and wickedness night

;
and day making no distinction between infidelity and Islam, tyr-

;
anny and justice, depravity and devotion waging obstinate war;
in defence of infidels ; want of obedience to the divine commands

and prohibitions, especially to that command which forbids assist-
ance to an enemy's country, the disregarding of which had cast a
censure upon the Holy Book God and man.
in the sight both of
Letters full and warning upon these points had
of friendly advice
been repeatedly written, and had been sent by the hands of discreet
men. No attention had been paid to them moreover, it had lately
;
become known that a lac of pagodas had been sent to the wicked
Sambha. That in this insolence and intoxication and worthlessness,
no regard had been paid to the infamy of his deeds and no hope
shown of deliverance in this world or the next." When the King
saw that war was meant, he prepared for the worst and set his
capital in as complete a state of defence as he could. The siege
lasted for a month. During it Prince Muazzam fell under the sus-
picions of Aurangzeb who on his appearing in obedience to his orders
alone in his presence, ordered him and his effects to be seized.

The reason, which seems to have been the cause of this harsh
treatment was, that he had tried to obtain favourable terms from
the Emperor for Abul Hussan. Anyhow he was kept in confinement
for six years after which he was sent to Cabul, as Viceroy, where he
stayed away from his father for the rest of the reign. Aurangzeb
himself was present during the whole siege. "Both besiegers and
besieged severely suffered from hunger. The scarcity and dearness
of grain and fodder (within the city) was extreme, so that many men
of wealth were disheartened who then can describe the position
;
of the poor and needy 1 Throughout the Dakhin in the early part
of this year there was a scarcity of rain when the jowar and bajra
came into ear, so they dried up and perished. These productions
of the autumn harvest are the main support of the people of the
Dakhin. Rice is the principal food of the people of Haiderabad,

and the cultivation of this has been stopped by war and by scarcity
of rain. The Dakhinis and the forces of the Hell-dog Sambha had
come to the assistance of Haiderabad, and hovering round the Im-
perial forces, they cut off the supplies of grain. Pestilence (waba)
broke out and carried off many men. Thus great numbers of men
were lost."*
An attempt at escalade failed owing to the barking of a dog.
This animal is said to have been compensated by the King's giving
him a gold collar and a plated chain. Attempts to carry the
town by mining equally failed. On one occasion one of the mines
exploded doing more injury to the besiegers than the besieged. On
another it was found that the besieged had cleared out the powder
and cut the match. But what force could not effect, treachery did.
One by one the Golkonda nobles left their King and joined the Im-
perial troops. One chieftain alone is mentioned, Abdur Razaq
Lari, who stuck honourably to the falling cause. At last all was
over.
The gates were opened ; Abdur Razaq was desperately wound-

ed in a fight in which he was almost solitary, and the King, assuming
the dignity which so often distinguishes a high bred Oriental in ad-
versity, accepting the inevitable, surrendered in a most dignified
manner to the King's second son Prince Azam. The dethroned
ruler was sent to Daulatabad as a prisoner. The Kutb Shahi dynasty
was at an end. The Golkonda State under a new name with a new
capital Haiderabad, close by the old, has come again to life in Indian
history under a new dynasty, but the old Deccan sovereignties
had now come to an end for ever. Each new Muhammedan power
arising in future in the south was founded by adventurers from the
north and not by scions of the old Bahmini dynasty. Abdur
Razaq, the Bayard of the campaign, recovered from his wounds.
Aurangzeb wished him to enter his service ; he on the other hand
preferred to go to Mecca. He was not however permitted to go at
once, but forced to enter for a time the Moghul service. At last

AURANGZEB. 139
he was permitted, though grudgingly to make the sacred journey.

.History tells us nothing further of him.
The great Kingdoms had gone but, especially in the Glolkonda
;
State, a hundred minor principalities remained.

These had to be subdued by degrees, and though most of them
gave nominal obedience to the Moghul rulers, still such obedience
was often nothing but nominal. The south of India never became
a province of the Delhi power in the same way as Oudh or the Pun-
jab, not even indeed in the same way as Bengal or Berar. And
besides these numerous petty powers, there still remained the Mah-
rattas. Aurangzeb had considered them as mountain rats, whose
power would come to an end whenever he chose, or if not, in any
case as soon as he subdued the Muhammedan powers, particularly
Bijapur which he considered behind them. Never was a ruler more
mistaken.
These mountain rats were destined to reduce the Empire of the
lordly Moghuls to a state of absolute anarchy and ruin, and it was
only by the entry into India of newer and more virile races that
the whole of India did not become Mahratta-ised. The Afghans
under Ahmad Shah Abdali in the first instance prevented this and
then the fair-skinned English from the West. But at the time of
which we write in the eighties of the seventeenth century neither
Mahratta nor Moghul had the slightest dream of the future.- The
former was quite content with independence and occasional loot,
the latter thought that his domination was secure and that however
troublesome the subjugation of the Mahratta might be, it was but
a matter of time. A vivid picture of the actual state of the country
south of the Vindhyas at this time is to be found in Grant Duff's
History of the Mahrattas. The Mankurees (Mahratta leaders),
whilst their envoys were in the Imperial camp professing "per-
petual obedience to Aurangzeb, the king of the world,"* frequently
sent their parties to plunder the Moghul districts ; and in case of
discovery, the Brahmin wukeel, who had secured the patronage
of some great man at Court by bribery, was ready to answer for
or excuse the irregular conduct of his master's followers. The
*.Duff, Vol. I, p. iJ5J.
140 HISTORY OP THE GREAT MOGHCLS.
Moghul Foujdars were instructed to conciliate the Mahratta chiefs

on condition of their agreeing to serve with fidelity. The chiefs
were negotiating with the Foujdar ;
their wukeels were intriguing at
Court ; theirown villages were secure ; and their followers, under
the general name of Mahrattas, were ravaging some other part of
the country. The Moghul officers who had Jaghir assignments
in the Deccan, soon found that they could raise very little revenue ;
their corruption was increased by poverty, and the offenders who

had, in the first instance, plundered their districts by purchasing
the connivance of the Foujdars, bribed the Jaghirdars at Court
with a part of the pillage. The hereditary rights, and the family
feuds which had been before usually applied as an instrument of
Government, now became, in the general confusion of this period,
a great cause of increasing disorder. The intricate nature of some of

the hereditary claims in dispute, and the ingenuity of the Brahmins,
who were always the managers, made every case so plausible that the
officers of Government found little difficulty in excusing, or at least
palliating many acts of gross injustice, to which they scandalously
lent themselves. Thus, the rightful owners had often good reason
for complaint ; they absented themselves with their troops, joined
the plunderers, and when induced or compelled to come in, they
boldly justified their behaviour by the injustice they had suffered.
When an hereditary office was forfeited, or became vacant in
any way, the Moghul Government selected a candidate on whom it
was conferred but the established premium of the exchequer was
;
upwards of six and a half years' purchase, or precisely 651 per cent,
on one year's emoluments, one-fourth of which wa,s made payable

at the time of delivering the deeds, and the remainder by instal-
ments ; but besides this tax, an and perquis-
infinite number of fees
ites were exacted by the clerks, all which lent encouragement to
confiscations and new appointments. The Emperor increasing in

years was soon overwhelmed in more important cases than the mere
details of business his ministers and their underlings were alike
;
negligent and corrupt, and even after deeds and papers were pre-
pared, years elapsed before the orders they contained were put into
execution."
AURANGZEB. 141
Such a state of affairs could only have one result, and a large
part of the remaining pages of this work will be filled with a descrip-
tion of how worked itself out.
this result
At first, however, it seemed that owing to the Mahratta's leader's

character their independence would soon come to an end. Sambhaji
was hopeless. He had as his chief adviser a Brahmin from the
north called Kalusha. Like master, like man, both were dis-
sipated to a degree, and many of the Mahratta chiefs were totally
alienated by their conduct. Listen for a moment to Khafi. Khan
on this point. He tells us that "When he was staying along with
Abdur Kazaq Lari near the fort of Eahiri, which Sivaji built, he
heard from the people of the neighbourhood that Sivaji, although
an infidel, and a rebel, was a wise man. The country round may be
called a specimen of Hell, for it is hilly and stony, and in the hot
season water is very scarce, which is a great trouble to the inhab-
itants. had a well dug near his abode. A pavement was laid
Sivaji
down round the mouth, and a stone seat was erected. Upon this
bench Sivaji would take his seat, and when the women of the traders
and poor people came to draw water, he would give their children
fruit, and talk to the women as to his mother and sisters. When
the raj descended to Sambha, he also used 'to sit upon this bench ;
and when the wives and daughters of the raiyats came to draw water,
the vile dog would lay one hand upon their pitcher, and another
upon their waist, and drag them to the seat. There he would handle
them roughly and indecently, and detain them for a while. The
poor woman unable to help herself, would dash the pitcher from her
head, but she could not escape without gross insult. At length the
raiyats of the country settled by his father abandoned it, and fled
to the territory of the Feringis, which is not far off." * The Feringis
here mentioned would be the Portuguese. It was obvious that a
ruler of this sort, in spite of his occasional reckless daring, could not
continue long. At first, however, he found as an ally, a power
before which the greatest powers in India tremble, the plague.
Aurangzeb's first general campaign against him was stopped by this
disease. The great standing camp at Bijapur to which place
Aurangzeb had to remove his head-quarters, had to be broken up. On

the troops being removed from the town and cantooned in the open,
the disease abated, a remedy as efficient then as now. Shortly-
after Sambhaji was captured by a clever coup de main. Mukarab

Khan, a Moghul cavalry leader, accompanied by his son Ikhlas
Khan and a small mixed force of horse and foot, marched with great
celerity from Kolapur to Sangameswar, where Sambhaji and his
Brahmin minister were spending their time in debauchery, and
took them completely unawares. A short fight ensued most of ;
Sambhaji' s followers managed to get away, but he himself, though

he attempted disguise, was seized and made a prisoner. Along with
him were captured his son Sahu, a lad of seven, and the obnoxious
Kalusha. Their conqueror received due honour for his daring
exploit. The chiefand the minister were brought before Aurang-
zeb in Durbar. There the indomitable spirit of the Mahratta and
of the Brahmin showed itself. On the pair being brought before
the Emperor, the latter made two rukaats as a mark of his gratitude
to the Almighty. The Brahmin on seeing this repeated certain

Hindee lines of which the following is a translation :
"0 Raja, at
the sight of thee the King Alamgir (Aurangzeb), for all his pomp and
dignity cannot keep his seat upon his throne, but has perforce
descended from it honour/'*
to do thee
After their capture it was suggested to Aurangzeb that their

lives might be preserved and they might be made instruments
whereby the Moghuls could take possession of the Mahratta fortres-

ses, now so numerous, all But Aurangzeb was not
over the Ghats.
inclined to fall and
in with such plans,
if he had been so inclined,
the language of Sambhaji would have prevented him carrying any
such plan out. On being asked whether he would become a Mussal-
man> Sambhaji replied that he would, provided that Aurangzeb
would marry him to his daughter. This was intended to be and was
a most unpardonable insult. Both Sambhaji and his minister
were put to death in public at Tolapur in August 1689. Sahu, the
son, remained as a hostage in Aurangzeb's camp. During the re-
maining years of the reign, though Raja Ram a young son of Sivaji,
AURANGZEB. 143
was nominally most of the time the nominal head of the Mahrattas,
they had really no one person as their guiding spirit. A number
of Brahmin ministers, working each for their own hand, superintend-
ed all Mahratta affairs. And perhaps it was just as well from a
Mahratta point of view that this was so. Their power now being
scattered all over the country, it was impossible for the Moghul
Generals to effectually put it down. There being no head, all blows
delivered ceased to vitally injure the body politic. Crushed in one
place, they reappeared in another. The story of the last eighteen
years of Aurangzeb's life down to his death in 1707 A. D. is in the
main nothing more than a story of futile skirmishes, of long and

tiresome sieges, of much country overrun, but of little retained,
and Moghul strength.
of the gradual draining of the
The various Mahratta Chiefs met together after Sambhaji's
capture to settle their mutual action in the future. Among them
were prominent Prilhad Niraji, the man of thought, and Santaji
Ghorepurai, the man of action. Raja Ram, the younger son of
Sivaji, was elected as the Mahratta Chief. It was settled' by his
advisers that he should not remain at any one place but move
about from one Western Ghat fort to another, and that if there was
any great fear of his being captured, he should move to Ginjee in
the Carnatic, away south, not far from the present Madras, where"
it was hoped he would be out of the range of the Moghul power.
The fortresses were put in a state of repair, provisions were stored
therein and Sivaji's rules as to the cutting and stacking of fodder
for the horses from the pasture lands under the forts were strictly
carried out. The Moghul army lumbering along, now besieged

one fort, now another, and after sieges generally prolonged, got
possession of several of the most powerful of these, including Rai-
garh itself. Thereupon Ramchander Punt was chosen by the
Mahrattas to take supreme control in Mahratta land, and it was
settled that Raja Ram should proceed to Ginjee. To get there
across a country swarming with troops of all sorts was no easy
matter, and it was only after various adventures that he with
several other chief followers disguised as Lingayat Brahmins
managed to reach that place in safety. As soon as he got there
144 HISTORY OB THE GREAT MOGHULS.
1
he formally sat on the throne and began to issue sanads and grants,
conferring lands not only in but outside the limits of Maharashtra
country to his adherents, and so started claims which though
shadowy at the time, afterwards became of the greatest practical
importance to the persons to whom they had been granted or to their
descendants. Aurangzeb about this time took to passing further
orders in his anti-Hindu crusade. No Hindu without special permis-
sion, so the edict ran, should ride on an Arab horse or be carried in
a palki. Other orders directing that the Hindi form of spelling
words such as Malwa, Bengala with a final h should be discontinued
and the Arabic form used show that the old man's
in its place,
desires to proselytise had degenerated into senile dotage. Under
a ruler so advanced in years and yet so desirous to do everything
himself it was hardly to be expected that the Moghuls would
gain much way. A large force of them under Zulfikar Khan indeed,
of whom we shall hear more than once again during the next twenty
years, sat down leisurely before Ginjee, which place was besieged
off and on for the next seven years. As to the army moving
through and through Maharashtra, wbat it gained one year it lost the
next ; a fort taken with much difficulty would fall without any
trouble again into Mahratta hands ; and what was worst of all for
the Moghuls, the Mahrattas were now beginning to think them-

selves capable of meeting the Imperial armies in the open field.
Aurangzeb in A. D. 1698 established his head-quarters at Brahma-

puri on the Beema. Here an enormous cantonment was built and
for years this obscure village was the seat of the Moghul Empire.
From here expeditions were sent out which but rarely effected
anything. Moghul armies trod upon,
Save the very ground the
no part of the Deccan seemed safe from the Mahratta raiders.
These persons now began to demand a third tax from the wretched
inhabitants whose countries they overran. They already were
demanding Chouth and Sirdeshmukhi. Now they began to take
from the inhabitants what they called ghas dana> a levy of money —
and kind for the purpose of feeding their horses. Everywhere
outside the Mahratta chiefs' domain was wrack and ruin. Fore-
most amongst these Mahratta chieftains was Santaji Ghorepurai
AURANGZEB. 145
whom I have already mentioned. Khan Khan writes of him

'
thus : ' Santa more especially distinguished himself in ravaging

the cultivated districts, and in attacking the royal leaders. Every-
one who encountered him was either killed or wounded and made
prisoner or if any one did escape, it was with his mere life, with
;
the loss of his army and baggage. Nothing could be done, for
wherever the accursed dog went and threatened an attack, there
was no Imperial amir bold enough to resist him, and every loss he
inflicted on their forces made the boldest warriors quake. Ismail
Khan was accounted one of the bravest and most skilful warriors
of the Dakhin, but he was defeated in the first action, his army
was plundered, and he himself was wounded and made prisoner.

After some months he obtained his release on the payment of a
large sum of money. So also Eustam Khan, otherwise called
Sharza Khan, the Rustam of the time and as brave as a lion, was
defeated by Santaji in the district of Sattara, and after losing
his baggage and all that he had with him, was taken prisoner, and
had to pay a large sum for his ransom. Ali Mardan Khan
otherwise called Husaini Beg Haidarabadi, was defeated and made
prisoner with several others. After a detention of some days,
they obtained their release paying a ransom of two lacs of rupees.
These evil tidings greatly troubled Aurangzeb. Further,
news came that Santa had fought with Jan Nisar Khan and Taha-
wur Khan, on the borders of the Carnatic, and had inflicted upon
them a severe defeat and the loss of their artillery and baggage.
Jan Nisar was wounded, and escaped with difficulty. Tahawur
Khan was also wounded and lay among the dead, but was restored
to life. Many other renowned amirs met with similar defeats.
Aurangzeb was greatly distressed, but in public he said that the
creature could do nothing for everything was in the hands of
God."*
-In the meantime the Emperor had drifted into war with both
the Portuguese and the English. The former were obnoxious to
him for many reasons. The Roman Catholic form of worship, so
K, HM 10
different from the simple and severe forms enjoined onMuhammedans

was displeasing to him; the Portuguese habit of making proselytes
from their Muhammedan subjects still more so and their having ;
taken possession of a considerable part of the old Bijapur Kingdom,

and that by no means the least important part, was also highly
resented by the aged Emperor. Add to this that their sea power,
though very different from what it was a century previous, was
still too much for theMoghuls to compete with and we have plenty
of occasion for Aurangzeb's dislike. The English, on the other
hand, cared no whit for making proselytes and did not aim at any
land power. On the other hand, they both sheltered pirates and
were, I am afraid, too apt to commit actions which would now be
termed piratical themselves. In particular they ruled the Arabian
Sea almost absolutely, a matter of special offence to Aurangzeb,
as this was for an orthodox Indian Sunni by far the most conve-
nient way to Mecca. Khafi Khan as to this remarks : "The total
revenue of Bombay, which is chiefly derived from betel-nuts and
cocoanuts, does not reach to two or three lacs of rupees. The pro-
fits of the commerce of these misbelievers, according to report,
does not exceed twenty lacs of rupees. The balance of the money
required for the maintenance of the English settlement
is obtained
by plundering the ships voyaging to the House of God, of which

they take one or two every year. When the ships are proceeding
to the ports of Mocha and Jedda laden with the goods of Hindustan
they do not interfere with them but when they return bringing
;
gold and silver and Ibrahimi and rial,* their spies have found
out which ship bears the richest burden, and they attack it/'-j-
Whether this is literally true or not, there is no doubt that the Eng-
lish adventurers in the Eastern seas in those days paid but little
obedience to the laws of nations if they found an opportunity of

loot. When they captured the Granj Sawai, the largest of the Moghul
ships proceeding from Surat to Mocha, their cup of iniquity in the
Emperor's eyes was full and he ordered their factory and their fac-
tors at Surat to be seized. These orders were but imperfectly
* Rial =1 U. S. Dollar.
t Elliot, Vol. VII, p. 354.

AURANGZEB. 147
carried out. The Muhammedan historian naively tells us that the

Governor of Surat knowing what a loss to the revenue a quarrel
with the English would be, made no serious attempt to put the
royal orders into execution. The English, on the other hand, acted
vigorously, and after a time Aurangzeb forgot his wrath and agreed
that things should go on as they did before. The English even
then were too good aids to the royal revenue by reason of their trade
to be lightly driven away, and they had already made Bombay a
fortress impregnable to land attack. With the Portuguese too a
peace was patched up, the Emperor's advisers telling him that
thereby he would be able to obtain cannon which he might use
against the Mahrattas. In the meantime the siege of Ginjee was
going aimlessly on. Aurangzeb had given the real command as
I have said to Zulfikar Khan, who with his father Asad Khan were
now the chief nobles of the Empire, but according to his ordinary
policy he had associated with them his son Prince Kambaksh. San-
taji fresh from his triumphs in the past burst upon the besiegers,
destroyed their forage parties, intercepted their supplies and defeat-
ed the troops sent against him. He spread also the news that the
old Emperor was dead. The result was striking. Zulfikar Khan
and his father, declaring that Prince Kambaksh believed this report
and was about to claim the throne, seized him and making a treaty
with their Mahratta opponents, raised the siege.
Aurangzeb was greatly displeased. The Prince was set at liberty

but not permitted to return to the army. Zulfikar was directed
to renew the siege, which he did in the same leisurely way as before.
It was not till early in 1698 A. D., that Ginjee was finally taken
and that only because Zulfikar Khan had become at last afraid of the
Emperor's serious displeasure, if he still protracted operations.
This general was all along suspected of taking bribes from his oppo-
nents, and certain it was that when Ginjee was taken most of the
chief Mahrattas and a great part of the wealth therein had gone.
The wives and family of Raja Ram were granted a safe conduct
to Maharashtra and were sent there by sea.
Previous to the capture of Ginjee the Moghuls had suffered
the worst defeat from the Mahrattas which they had hitherto ex-
perienced. In the Bijapur Carnatic not far from Chitaldrug stands

a small fort Dandin. Kasim Khan, the Foujdar of the Bijapur
Subah, marched out from his headquarters to put a stop to the end-
less Mahratta raids in and being surrounded on all sides
his district,
and without food was forced to take refuge in bis little fort, leaving
half his troops outside. To his rescue came one Himat Khan.
Santaji, who was in command of the Mahrattas, was vigorously-
attacked by this leader and forced to flee, but the Moghuls when in
pursuit were themselves attacked and a musket ball killing Himat
Khan, his troops dispersed. The troops at Dandin after suffering
great hardships surrendered. Kasim Khan is said to have commit-
ted suicide. The other chiefs were put to ransom. The whole of
the Moghul stores fell into Mahratta hands.

Their value is calculated by Khan Khan to have been more
than sixty lacs of rupees. This happened in A. D. 1696.*
Santaji did not long survive the capture of Ginjee. He is re-
ported to have been an austere man, very severe in his discipline

and his punishments. For a trifling offence it is said he would
cast a man under the feet of an elephant. And so the Mahrattas
did not love him, and Raja Ram, whose fame he overshadowed,
least of all. Thus it happened that he was deserted by his own
countrymen and hunted to death by the Moghuls. It was a Mahratta
Nagoji Manai Deshmukh of Muswar, whose brother had been
caused to be thrown by Santaji under an elephant, who finally
tracked him down and slew him, while bathing in a small stream,
alone and unarmed. His head was duly sent to Aurangzeb and
Nagoji was duly pardoned by Aurangzeb— for he was at the time
in rebellion —and restored to his old position.
The camp at Brahmapuri was, after the capture of Ginjee,

broken up. The cantonment indeed remained, but the whole of
the troops were ordered out on active service to the holy war, as
Aurangzeb considered it, and Khan Khan calls it. The first place
of consequence to be besieged was Sattara. The move on it was
sudden, and Ram Chunder, the chief Mahratta minister, was suspected
1
So Graat Duff. Elliot puts it earlier.
AURANGZEB. 149
•of having treacherously left the place unsupplied with the neces-
sary stores. However it took not only almost the whole of 1699
A. D., but the first part of 1700 A. D. to take it. The first attempt
at mining ended disastrously for the besiegers. A portion of the
rock was blown up, but instead of falling into the fortress, as was
expected, it came on the heads of the besiegers below. The
Emperor is said to have been much troubled by this result. When
he was informed of and the despondency of his men, "he mount-
it
ed his horse, and went to the scene of action as if in search of death.

He gave orders that the bodies of the dead should be piled upon
each other, and made to serve as shields against the arrows of calam-
ity ; then with the ladder of resolution, and the scaling-ropes
of boldness, the men should rush to the assault/'* Another
curious fact is reported by Khafl Khan about this misfortune. '
'A
great number of Hindu infantry soldiers had been killed all at once
(in the explosion), and their friends were unable to seek and bring
out their bodies. The violence of the shock had entirely disfigured
them, and it was not possible to distinguish between Mussalman
and Hindu, friend and stranger. The flames of animosity burst
forth among all the gunners against the commander of the artillery.
So at night they secretly set fire to the defences (marhala), which
had been raised at great trouble and expense against the fire from
above, in the hope and with the design that the fire might reach the
corpses of the slaughtered Hindus. A great conflagration followed,
and week served as a bright lamp both for besiegers
for the space of a
and besieged. A number of Hindus and Mussalmans who were
alive in the huts were unable to escape, and were burnt, the living
with the dead/'! Sattara surrendered on terms in April 1700. A
month previous to this Raja Ram died. Tara Bai, his senior wife,
as regent to her son, succeeded him as ruler of the Mahrattas.
This woman showed remarkable aptitude for rule and was a more
formidable opponent than either Sambhaji or Raja Ram had been
before her. Things in the Moghul Camp went on from bad to worse.
After Sattara another fort, Parli, was besieged and taken, and then
* Elliot, Vol, VII, p. 3B0.
t Elliot, Vol. VI 1, [.. Sill!.

when was thought of returning, as the rainy season was upon

there
them, it was found how much easier it is to march an army into
the hilly Western Ghats than to bring it back. The baggage animals
were skin and bone there were no means of conveying the stores
; ;
and to add to the misery, the Kistna River was found in full flood ;
many were drowned in the passage and when the army did at
length get across, it had shrunk into very small dimensions.
Aurangzeb still kept up hope but as for his officers and men,
;
probably their upmost wish was that the old man would die and
that their endless wanderings should have an end. But for six
years more he still remained alive, ever hoping, ever scheming but
never getting any nearer his aim.
The Mahrattas on their side were ever getting bolder, though
at the same time the wise methods of Sivaji were being gradually
abandoned, and a larger share of the loot, now so abundant, was
being approximated by the soldier and less by the State. Many of
these Mahrattas were in the Moghul service and these were as great
robbers as their enemies. It is said that these Moghul-employed
Mahrattas would pray jestingly for a long life for Aurangzeb,
knowing that as long as he lived they would not be disturbed in
their vocation The Emperor actually began to buy
of plunder.
the forts from commanders with the natural result of
their
increasing the wealth of the Mahratta leaders and of causing ever

new forts to spring up, the commandants of which were also only
too eager to be bought. Peace was suggested, and it was proposed
to release Sahu, Sambhaji's son, from his captivity and to allow
him to return to his countrymen ; but Aurangzeb, though at first
willing, finally declined.
As long had any life left, he was determined to continue

as he
in the old way. The record of these last few years is exceedingly
tedious and uninteresting. Siege after siege what the Moghul;
won one day, was regained the next by the Mahratta, but every-
where suffering, terrible suffering for the peaceful inhabitants of
the country. The last of the great sieges of the reign was that of
Wakinkera. This fort was defended for months by Parya Naik, a
low caste man, whose chief adherents were low class Muhammedans.
AURANGZEB. 151
Hired Mahratta troops approaching to raise the siege, the Moghuls

declined to meet them in the field. When at last Zulfikar Khan
with a large force approached, the besieged found occasion to pass
through the blockading lines and to join the Mahrattas. Only the
disabled and wounded were found in the fort A. D. 1704. This was
the last military act of any importance in the Emperor's reign.
An old man of ninety, he was more than once ill for months,
before his final fatal illness which took place in 1707 A. D. At
Ahmednuggur, at an age far exceeding that ordinarily allotted to
mortal man, the last of the really great Moghul Emperors died.
His last twenty years had been spent in the Deccan. The political
history of, Hindustan, India north of the Vindhyas, had during
this time been almost a blank.The Jats of Bhartpur had once or
twice given trouble but the Emperor had given up all attempts
;
to worry the Kajputs, and they on their part had ceased to worry
him. Matters seemingly went on smoothly, save for occasional
outbursts of petty rebellion and of some sort of retaliation. In
reality it would seem as if on the whole these were twenty years
of rest for the north. It was indeed subject to a constant drain
for the Deccan wars, but these did not reach its borders. Within
twenty years the Mahrattas will trouble as much in the north as
in the south, but for the present there was peace in this northern
land.
Shortly before his death Aurangzeb is reported to have written
to his sons the following letters : Unlike the speech to his
tutor reported by Bernier, these would seem to be really Aurang-
zeb's own. To his son, Azam Shah, he wrote "Health to thee, :
—
My heart is near thee. Old age is arrived weakness subdues me, :
and strength has forsaken all my members. I came a stranger into

this world, and a stranger I depart. I know nothing of myself,
what I am, and for what I am destined. The instant which passed
in power, hath left only sorrow behind it. I have not been the
guardian and protector of the Empire. My valuable time has been
JSotb. —Aurangzeb in A. D. 1668 forbade the writing of. the history of his reign. Khati
Khan himself surreptitiously put together his notes from which he framed his history after the
Emperor's death, and so it may be that this blank means only the want of a chronicler. But
if there had been events of any great importance, one may be certain that there would have
been order or no order, some account of them.
152 HISTORY OF THE GREAT MOGHDLS.
passed vainly. I had a patron in my own dwelling (conscience),

but His glorious light was unseen by my dim sight. Life is not
lasting, there is no vestige of departing breath, and all hopes from
futurity are lost. The fever has left me, but nothing of me remains
but skin and bone. My
son (Kaum Buksh), though gone towards
Bijapur is and thou, my son, are yet nearer. The
still near ;
worthy of esteem, Shah Alam, is far distant and my grandson ;
(Azeem Ooshaun), by the orders of God, is arrived near Hindustan.

The camp and followers, helpless and alarmed, are like myself, full
of affliction, restless as the quicksilver. Separated from their
lord, they know not if they have a master or not. I brought nothing
into this world, and, except the infirmities of man, carry nothing
out. I have a dread for my salvation, and with what torments
I may be punished. Though I have strong reliance on the mercies
and bounty of God, yet, regarding my actions, fear will not
quit me ; but when I am gone reflection will not remain. Come
then what may, I have launched my vessel to the waves. Though
Providence will protect the camp yet, regarding appearances, the
endeavours of my sons are indispensably incumbent. Give my
last prayers to my grandson (Bedar Bukht), whom I cannot see,
but the desire affects me. The Begam (his daughter) appears
afflicted ; but God is the only judge of hearts. The foolish thoughts
of women produce nothing but disappointment. Farewell. Fare-
well. Farewell."*
To Prince Kaum Buksh he wrote: "My son, nearest to my —
heart. Though in the height of my power, and by God's permission
I gave you advice, and took with you the greatest pains, yet,
as it was not the divine will, you did not attend with the ears of
compliance. Now I depart a stranger, and lament my own insigni-
ficance, what does it profit me ? I carry with me the fruits of my
sins and imperfections. Surprising Providence, I came here alone,

and alone I depart. The leader of this caravan hath deserted me.
The fever which troubled me for twelve days, hath left me. Where-
ever I look I see nothing but the divinity. My fears for the camp
and followers are great ; but, alas ! I know not myself. My back is
* Todd, Vol. I, p. 319.

—
AURANGZEB. 1 §3
bent with weakness and my feet have lost the powers of motion.
The breath which rose is gone, and left not even hope behind it.
I have committed numerous crimes, and know not with what
punishments I may be seized. Though the protector of mankind
will guard the camp, yet care is incumbent on the faithful and
my sons. When I was alive, no care was taken and now I am :
gone ; the consequence may be guessed. The guardianship of a

people is the trust by God committed to my sons. Azam Shah is
near. Be cautious that none of the faithful are slain, or their
miseries fall upon my head. I resign you, your mother and son, to
God, as I myself The agonies of death come upon me
am going.
fast. Bahadur Shah is still where he was and his son is arrived
near Hindostan. Bedar Bukht is in Guzarat. Hyaut-al-Nissa,
who has beheld no afflictions of time till now, is full of sorrows.
Kegard the Begam as without concern. Oodiporee your mother,
was a partner in my illness, and wishes to accompany me in death ;
5
but everything has its appointed time/ * These letters are full of
the deepest pathos. The dread of future punishment, the con-

sciousness of crime, of conscience disobeyed, of opportunity mis-
spent and the hope, the only half hope in the mercy of God.
Muhammedanism as professed by Aurangzeb was very much Cal-
vinism without Christ, the strong feeling of a merciful God ex-
pressed so often in the Koran disappears, and nothing is left but the
awful Judge.
'
Quando tremor est fu turns
Quando Judex est venturus.'
Hardly ever has the fear of judgment produced such a cry.

The Muhammedan historian writing of his character says :
"Of all the sovereigns of the house of Timur— nay, of all the sove-
reigns of Delhi —no one—since Sikander Lodi, has ever been appa-
rently so distinguished for devotion, austerity, and justice. In
courage, long-suffering and sound judgment, lie was unrivalled.
But from reverence for the injunctions of the Law he did not make
use of punishment, and without punishment the administration of a
* Todd, Vol. 1, p. 320.

;
154 •
HISTORY OF THE GREAT MOGHULS.
country cannot be maintained. Dissensions had arisen among his

nobles through rivalry. So every plan and project that he formed
came to little good ; and every enterprise which he undertook was
long in execution, and failed of its object. Although he lived for
ninety years, his five senses were not at all impaired, except his
hearing, and that to only so slight an extent that it was not percep-
tible to others. He often passed his nights in vigils and devotion,
and he denied himself many pleasures naturally belonging to
humanity. '*
5
What does history say of Aurangzeb ? Its almost unanimous

voice what Akbar built up, that Aurangzeb undermined, so that
is
its ruin was only a matter of time. And this judgment is just.
When Shah Jahan was dethroned, the Empire was still flourishing
compared with other Eastern Kingdoms, most flourishing. India
is very fertile, and though the royal state of Shah Jahan could not
be kept up without much expense, and though the great satraps

imitated him in profuse expenditure, we have no reason to believe
that taxation was unduly severe. Where carriage was so expensive
and uncertain, most articles produced on the spot, were consumed on
the spot. The Indian's wants as a rule are but few, and provided
the monsoon rains came with anything like punctuality, the ryots,
as far as we can learn, got enough to eat in this seventeenth century
and as far as their scanty requirements in the way of clothing were
concerned, they were probably as well off then, as far at least, as the
simplest sort of clothing was concerned, as they are now. Of any
thing like comforts, the average rustic Indian at present has none,
nor had he any then. In large towns indeed wants are greater.
Most of the large towns in those days were provincial capitals and
the fragments from the rich officials' tables there would naturally
come to the poor. The great want of India then, as indeed now,
was peace and peace during the seventeenth century Northern

;
India had but as the century grew to .its close this peace was affect-
;
ed by the constant demand of men and money for the Deccan.

The former demand Hindustan could well spare from its teeming
* Elliot, Vol. VII, p. 3S0.

;
AURANGZEB. 155
population ; but the latter demand drained the country of all its-
superfluous wealth.
has often been stated that Aurangzeb's cardinal error was
It
in his overthrowing the Muhammedan States of Bijapur and Gol-

konda and not letting them remain as a barrier against the Mah-
rattas, and an error it doubtless was. But as far as his army adminis-
tration was concerned, Aurangzeb's fundamental error was his
neglect of a sufficient supply of efficient soldiers from the North-
Western border and beyond. The soldiers from these lands had
been in the Moghul palmy days their great standby. It was only
with such troops, foreign indeed as the English now are foreign,
that a compact army could be brought together, capable of doing
the work required from it. Aurangzeb, though a great proselytiser,
seems not to have encouraged in any special way foreign Muham-
medans ; and so his army was full of Indian Muhammedans, of far
inferior strengthand virility. Early in the reign the great stand-
by Empire had been the Rajput auxiliaries but as the reign
of the ;
proceeded, less and less confidence could be placed in them, until

towards the close, the strong bond of fealty which had held them to
the Empire had almost snapped. And here we come to Aurangzeb's
crowning fault he had many virtues, temperance, perseverance,
;
where dynastic feelings were not concerned he was often merciful

he had also many vices of which dissimulation and ambition were the
chief, but vices, virtues, were all of less importance in influencing his
career than the fact that he was a bigot. What Akbar had gained,
what Jahangir and Shah Jahan with all their vices had retained, he
lost, viz., the affection of his Hindu subjects. That this can be ac-
quired for a Muhammedan ruler without doing injustice to his co-reli-
gionists has been shown over and over again in Indian History.
And no power that has not acquired the confidence of the Hindu com-
munity can be expected to last in India. Intolerance in Aurangzeb's
time meant intolerance in religious matters, but intolerance can,
and at the present day often does, extend to matters not religious.
Impatience at opposition, a belief that no one can be right save one-
self, a feeling of contempt for all that does not tally with one's own
ideas, all these are a form of intolerance and one that at times can
be seen in statesmen of the present days. But the warning of

history stands ever there, so that he who runs may read. The
English won India by pursuing the methods of Akbar, let them not
lose it by imitating those of Aurangzeb.*
* Note — By this I do not mean of course that England's policy should be guided by what
the Hindu— especially the more vociferous Hindu aslcs. Respect for Hindu ideas (prejudices if
you will), strict justice —

without respect of persons, taxation which does not unduly worry such
are much more important items in gaining the confidence of the most of our Hindu fellow-
subjects than any political concession.
BAHADUR SHAH.
Aurangzeb left three sons, Shah Alam who afterwards became
Emperor under the name of Bahadur Shah, Azam Shah and Kaum
Buksh. have already mentioned that Shah Alam had fallen
I
under his father's suspicion some 20 years earlier and had been for
years in captivity and also that on his release he had been sent as
Viceroy to Cabul. There he remained till the time of his father's
death. While there, he had the good fortune to attach to his
cause Munim Khan, the Dewan of the Province of Lahore. Ac-

cordingly when the news of his father's death came, he found at
his back both the soldiery of the Cabul and Lahore Subahs and
not only this, but also through Munim Khan's activity he had to
hand a fully equipped commissariat and ample transport. Two

of his sons were at the time Viceroys of Multan and Bengal res-
pectively, and so a large part of the country was already under his
control. The son at Multan joined his father as soon as he entered
Hindustan, and the other son made forced marches from Bengal
in order to anticipate any attempts made to cut him off from Upper
India.
Azam Shah, the second son, had been in attendance on his

father shortly before the latter's death. Aurangzeb, who ever
remembered the treatment he dealt out to his own father, would
not allow this son of his to remain with him during his last days
but directed him to proceed from the Imperial camp and take
possession of the Viceroyalty of Malwa. As soon, however, .as
this son heard that his father had breathed his last, he returned
to the Imperial camp, had the Khutba read in his own name and
ascended the Imperial throne. Kaum Buksh, the third and favour-
ite son of Aurangzeb, had also been sent away by his father about
the same time as his elder brother Azam Shah. According to the
wishes of his father, the Kingdom of Bijapur should have been his
appanage. It was stated indeed that Aurangzeb before dying,.
158 HISTORY OF THE GREAT MOGHDLS.
had expressed his wish that Shah Alam should become the
Emperor that Azam Shah should hold the Deccan save Bijapur
:
and that Bijapur should be the portion of his third son. However
this may be, the adage so often quoted in Eastern History again
turned out true. No country is big enough for two Kings, and thus
ithappened that each of the three princes made up their minds
or had their minds made up for them that one of them and one
alone should become Emperor of Aurangzeb's vast dominion.
Shah Alam indeed, it is said, was willing to allow his brothers the
shares in the Deccan left them by their father but neither of these
younger brothers were The first to encounter were Shah
willing.
Alam and Azam Shah. There was a race between these two, as
to v/ho should reach Agra first Shah Alam won. The Com-
:
mander who held the fort there, is said to have informed Azam
Shah that he would surrender it to the prince who was the first to
arrive, and so it happened that the whole of the treasure which
had been accumulated in that stronghold during the time of Shah

Jahan, and which had been left hardly touched by Aurangzeb,
fell into the new Emperor's hands. Azam Shah, although too
late, marched all the same straight towards the Imperial City. He
is said to have disgusted his adherents both by his stinginess and
by his pride and so many left him on the road. One thing which
he did do, deserves to be remembered and that was the releasing
of Sivaji (better known by his nick name Sahu (thief) given him by
Aurangzeb), Sambhaji's son who for many years had been
Aurangzeb's prisoner. The two armies met at Jhaju, about 15
miles from Agra, and although in a preliminary skirmish the troops
of Azam Shah obtained the advantage, still on the decisive day
the battle seems from the first to have gone against the younger
brother. Zulfikar Khan who was commanding on Azam Shah's
side, when he saw many of his valiant
that the day was lost, that
companions in arms were slain, and that Azam Shah's army was
pressed so hard that there was no hope of deliverance, went to the
Prince and said, '
Your ancestors have had to endure the same kind
of reverse, and have been deprived of their armies : but they did
not refuse to do what the necessities of the case required. The
:
BAHADUR SHAH. 159
best course for younow is to leave the field of battle, and to remove
to a distance, when fortune may perhaps assist you, and you may
retrieve your reverse.' Azam Shah flew into a rage, and said
'
Go, with your bravery, and save your life wherever you can : it
is impossible for me to leave this field : for princes there is (only
the choice of) a throne or a bier' (takht ya takhta)*

The choice was not long in coming, for as the Muhammedan
Historian says '
as the sun of his was setting an arrow struck
life
him and his existence came to an end.' Shah Alam was exceed-
ingly merciful after his victory. The children of Azam Shah were
not put to death, as had become the invariable custom, and
Zulfikar Khan wasreceived into the Imperial service. The next
year 1708 saw the end of the civil war. The Emperor was willing
to allow Kaum Buksh to retain Bijapur and also to add to this the
kingdom of Golkonda, but Kaum Buksh who was both proud and
cruel would not listen to his brother's conciliatory messagesand
really forced the Emperor to march against him. The result was
never in doubt, although in the battle which ensued Kaum Buksh
himself showed the most reckless bravery. He and his sons, who
were desperately wounded, were captured and taken to near the
royal tent. " European and Greek Surgeons were appointed to
attend them. Kaum Buksh rejected all treatment, and refused to
take the broth prepared for his food. In the evening the king
went to see his brother. He
sat down by his side, and took the
cloak from his own back, and covered him, who lay dejected and
despairing, fallen from throne and fortune. He showed him the
greatest kindness, asked him about his state, and said, '
I never
wished to see you in this condition.' Kaum Buksh replied, ' Neither
did I wish that one of the race of Timur should be made prisoner
with the imputation of cowardice and want of spirit.' The king
gave him two or three spoonfuls of broth with his own hands,
and then departed with his eyes full of tears. Three or four
watches afterwards, Kaum Buksh and one of his sons named
Pirozmand died.f Both corpses were sent to Delhi, to be interred
* Elliot, Vol. VII, p 399.

f A. D. 1708.
near the tomb of Humayun."* Shah Alam now reigned without

a rival.
Although of a merciful character and tolerant disposition the

new Emperor was but little fitted to sustain the burden of Sover-
eignty which had been thrust upon him. His generosity was
really lavishness. It is said that he could never refuse a request.
In any case within a very exceedingly short time the whole of the
late Emperor's treasure, which was stored up in the Agra fort with
so much care, had almost entirely vanished, and after his reign no
more do we learn of great Imperial Reserves. The Muhammedan
Historian who certainly desired to give this Emperor as good a
character as he could, tells us how, owing to his good nature and
his inability todeny requests, the ugly practice arose of giving the
same title to two or more persons. This of itself would show that
the rule of order in the Moghul dominions was coming to an end.
The Emperor's character is summed up by this Historian in
'these words :For generosity, munificence, boundless good
'
nature, extenuation of faults, and forgiveness of offences, very

few monarchs have been found equal to Bahadur Shah in the
histories of past times, and especially in the race of Timur. But
though he had no vice in his character, such complacency and such
negligence were exhibited in the protection of the state and in the
government and management of the country, that witty sarcastic
people found the date of his accession in the words, Shah-i be-khabr,
'
Heedless King.' He often sat up all night, and used to sleep to
the middle of the day ; so in marching his people had to suffer
great inconvenience ; for many poor fellows were unable to find
their tents in dark nights when the army and baggage were scat-
tered about, and had to pass the night in front of the royal tent,
or the drum room or offices or the bazars."-)- In other words, he
was by no means fitted to rule the Moghul dominions in the trouble-
some days which had now come.
Zulfikar Khan, his father Asad Khan and Munim Khan who
was made Khan Khanan, were the chief Ministers in this reign.
* Elliot, Vol.' VII, pp. 407—108.

'
BAHADUR SHAH. 161
Asad Khan himself was made Wazir, but he was by this time an
old man and although of great influence did really but little the —
mass of the work falling upon the other two. The Khan Khanan
was a Sufi and probably it was largely under his influence that the
Emperor became, if not a Shiah, still well affected to this form of
the Muhammedan faith. This he showed first of all by directing
'
that the word ' wasi '
(heir) should be inserted in the Kutbah
after the name of the Caliph Ali, the son-in-law of the prophet.
The Sunnis were up in arms. From all parts of the Empire, from
Lahore, Agra and Ahmedabad, came reports of opposition. In
the last named place the Khatib, who pronounced the Kutbah
with the innovation in it as ordered, was torn from the pulpit,
seized by his skirts and so severely stabbed that he died. At
Lahore where the Emperor was, the chief Muhammedan Doctors
of the place awaited upon the Emperor and stated their objec-
tions. After the method of Akbar's days the discussions
that followed took up several days. The Emperor finally yielded,
more probably on account of the fear of disturbances, than of con-
viction. The Mussulmans of Lahore were practically of one
accord in the matter and the obnoxious word had never, in spite
of the Imperial orders, been used in the pulpits. Finally, the
Emperor ordered that the Kutbah should be recited as it was in

the days of Aurangzeb, i.e., without the wasi. All the same the
Emperor showed his displeasure by imprisoning in a fortress the
leading Sunni Doctors.*
The Khan Khanan discharged his duties, as Wazir with great
justice and clemency. One matter he set right. He afforded a
relief rightly demanded by the Mansabdars (holders of Mansabs).
These men's Mansabs had been charged in the previous reign with
the support of the royal and the provincial officers' cattle. This
charge, by methods well known in the East, had been turned into
an intolerable oppression ; very often the whole income of the
Mansabdar was not nearly sufficient for the purpose. It can easily
be understood how the officer whose duty it was to enforce this
service, not only demanded that the cattle should be fed, but
* A. D. 1710.
K, HM 11
162. HISTORY .OF THE GREAT MOGHULS.
that they themselves also should be paid. The consequence too

often was the torturing of the Mansabdars and of their servants.
Complaints had been, frequently made to Aurangzeb, but he was
too merged in his political schemes to pay much attention. Now
the whole system was abolished ; a deduction of a money pay-
ment was substituted in lieu of the obligation to feed the cattle.
Such a change from kind into money had obvious merits but
is rarely acceptable to native officials, and very often is not so to
the person who has to pay.

A change, for it cannot be called a reform, of a very different
nature was also made at the time, by which the Emperor affixed to his
name on the coins, the title " Sayid." This word had since the
early days of Islam come to mean a descendant of the prophet.
None of the previous Emperors had claimed this honour and I am

afraid it would have been very hard to substantiate. However,
all things are possible with the Masters of Kingdoms.
The Khan Khanan died shortly before his master. He was one of
the last really good Ministers that the Moghul Emperors employed,
and yet Khafi Khan's description of him is sufficient to show how
the Moghul Statesmen had degenerated since the reign of Akbar.
" He was a man inclined to Suffism, and was a friend to the
poor. During all the time of his power he gave pain to no one.
But the wrong deeds. It
best intentions are often perverted into
entered the mind of Khan Khanan that he would build in every
city a sarai, a mosque, or a monastery, to bear his name. So he
wrote to the Subahdars and Diwans of different places about the
purchase of ground and the building of sarais, mosques, and col-
leges. He gave strict injunctions and also sent bills for large
sums of money. When his order reached the place, all the offi-
had regard to the high dignity,

cials and looking upon his order as a
mandate from heaven, they directed their attention to the build-
ing of the sarais in their respective cities. In some places ground

fit for the purpose was freely sold by the owners ; but it happened
in other places that although the officials were desirous of buying
suitable land, they could not obtain it with the consent of the
owners. Considering only their own authority, and the necessity
BAHADUR SHAH. 163
of satisfying Khan. Khanan, the officials forcibly seized upon

many houses which had been occupied by the owners and their
ancestors for generations, and drove the proprietors out of their
hereditary property. Numbers of Mussulmans, Sayids and Hindus
were thus driven, sighing and cursing, out of their old homes, as it
happened at Burhanpur and at Surat."*

The curse of all Eastern Kingdoms is here shown and the
desire to do some meritorious actions without considering the means
and ways by which such can be brought about.
As regards Bahadur Shah's dealings with his non-Muham-
medan subjects, three matters call for special mention. First of
all, the dealings with the Rajputs ; secondly, with the Sikhs, and
thirdly, the progress of the Mahratta power during As his reign.
regards the third, it will be more convenient to deal with it later on
when I finish my general history of the period of short reigns com-
mencing with Bahadur Shah and ending with the coming to the
throne of Muhammad Shah. As regards the Bajputs, the tyranny
of Aurangzeb had completely alienated them from the Empire.
We are told that Raja Ajit Singh, as soon as Aurangzeb died, for-
bade the killing of cows, prevented the Muazzim calling to prayer,
desecrated the Mosques which had been built, and began erecting
new temples. Accordingly Imperial armies marched through the
plain country of Rajputana again and again but finally chiefly
;
owing to the troubles with the Sikhs, the Emperor contented himself
with nominal homage and Rajputana seems from this time to have
become practically free from Imperial interference. Never again
could its princes be relied upon to support the Empire or the reign-
ing Emperor. The chief Rajas of the country, those of Mewar,
Ambar, and Marwar the modern Udaipur, Jaipur, and Jodhpur
;
joined into a triple league of mutual defence in which amongst

other terms was one that they would under no circumstances allow
their daughters to marry into the Moghul Imperial family. It was
also stipulated thatwhere the Raja of one of the States married
the daughter of the Raja of another, the eldest male heir of such
marriage should succeed although the Ra;a might have had an
~" "
* JSilior, Vol. VII, pp. 425-426.
elder child by another wife. This Tod justly remarks was the
cause of much subsequent trouble and disunion, inasmuch as
nowhere in the world have the laws of primogeniture been con-
sidered more sacred than by the Kajputs.
The troubles with the Sikhs who in this reign first began to
play a prominent part in the history of the Punjab call for a longer
notice. Before writing about them, however, it is desirable to give
some account of the tenets and the rise of this extraordinary
people.
The word Sikh means disciple and the main tenet of the Sikhs,
that which distinguishes them most clearly from all other Hindu
bodies, is their devotion to their spiritual preceptor, their Guru.
The first Guru Nanak was born at Tahwandi near Lahore in 1469
A. D. He fell in early life under the influence of Kabir, a Muham-
medan Mystic, who disgusted with the intolerance of his co-reli-
gionists, became a worshipper of Vishnu. This Vishnu, however,
was the one God of the Universe and not simply one of the many
gods of the Hindu Pantheon. The hardness, which characterises
the views of God put forward by many Christian and Muhamme-
dan theologians, finds no place in Kabir's teaching nor in that of
his pupil Nanak. The burden of the latter's teaching was " that
all men are alike in the eyes of the Almighty." He rejected the
authority of the Brahmans and the virtue of their incantations
and sacrifices, holding that salvation lay in repentance and in pure
and righteous conduct, rather than in the pharisaical observance
of a number of unintelligible rites. Like most Hindus, he believed
in transmigration, but held that the successive stages were but
means to purification, and that, at last, the soul, cleansed from it&
sin, returned to dwell with its Maker. He did not despise or
'
attack the Hindu or Muhammedan teachers ; he held, indeed, that

they too had been sent from God, but he preached a higher and
purer religion, embracing all that was best in both. He declared
himself a prophet, but claimed neither direct inspiration nor
miraculous powers. Nanak prescribed no caste rules or cere-
monial observances, and indeed condemned them as unnecessary
:
and even harmful ; but he insisted on no alteration in existing

BAHADUR SHAH. 165
institutions, and was content to leave the doctrine of the equality

of all men in the sight of God to work its own conclusion in the
minds of He respected the Hindu veneration of the
his followers.
cow and the Muhammedan abhorrence of the hog, but recommend-

ed as a higher rule than either, total abstinence from flesh. In
short, he attacked nothing, he condemned nobody but he sought ;
to draw men's minds from the shadow to the substance, to glorify

what was highest and best in the religion of each, and was content
to leave to all men, at least for a while, the outward and visible
signs to which they were traditionally accustomed. Nothing in
fact could have been more gentle or less aggressive than his doc-
trine."*
Nanak travelled through a great part of Upper India, visited
Mecca and died at Kantapur near Jullunder A. D. 1539. He was

the first Guru of the Sikhs. His disciples were entirely recruited
from the non-Muhammedan Jats of the Punjab. Nine Gurus in
apostolic succession succeeded him. The fourth Earn Das founded
Amritsar the fifth Arjun was the first to give the Sikhs a regular
;
organisation. He also compiled or had compiled for him the Adi

Granth, the holy book of the Sikhs in the vernacular tongue, and
made Amriisar the religious centre of the new body. Under his
succession the body became not only a religious but a military

organisation. Its aims may nominally have been the relief of op-
pression, but in reality it was becoming rapidly a body bound
together, as far as its non-religious side was concerned, by the hope
of plunder. Muhammedans were its chief victims. Hence the
Imperial authorities made many ineffectual efforts to put down
this new band of robbers. In Aurangzeb's time in particular they
were hunted down everywhere, much as the children of the Mist
in Scotland were some three centuries ago, and in spite of all per-
secutions, the Sikh like the Macgregor flourished. Tegh Bahadur,
the ninth Guru, was executed at Delhi in Aurangzeb's reign.
Three Punjabi sweepers, moved thereto by his last wishes, proceed-
ed to Delhi and carried off the dead body in the face of a Muham-
* Captain A. H. Bingley, Sikhs„p. 13.

166 HISTORY OF THE GREAT MOGHCI.S.
medan crowd. Sikkism, like Budhism of old, like Muhamniedanisrri

in theory, abolished caste. But in India, in spite of all such
abolitions, caste, hydra-like, has sprung up again and again. The
mass of Indian Muhammedans are almost as caste ridden as the
Hindus. These gallant Mehters were the origin of the Mazhabi
Sikhs. Once a Sikh, the sweeper, the lowest of the low in the
Hindu community, loses the pollution which hitherto was attached
to him, but still he is considered a class apart in the Sikh organ-
and the mark of caste still hangs, however lightly, to him.
isation
Tegh Bahadur's successor, Govind Singh, the tenth and last
Guru, was one of the most remarkable men of his time. The fra-
ternity was in his time finally organised as the fighting organisa-
tion, which many years later became England's most formidable
enemy. It is told that before his life work began he desired the
blessing of theHindu goddess Devi. She is said to have appeared
to him, after he had completed a course of austerities carried out
by him in order to appease her, and informed him that the price
of her protection was the sacrifice to her of a living human being,
preferably of one of his own sons. These their mothers declined
to give, but one of his friends volunteered and so was duly sacri-
ficed at the altar. Bloody thus was his initiation ; bloody also
was his life work. All without distinction of caste were admitted
into the fraternity, provided they underwent the initiatory cere-
mony (the pahul rite), which, though different in ritual, corres-
ponds in significance with Christian baptism ; the solemn Supper,
the Pershad, partaken by the initiated, from time to time,
in many, ways being similar in significance with the Lord's Supper.
A new religious book, known
Daswen Badshah ka Granth,
as the
was composed by this Guru or under his orders. The whole of
his lifetime was spent in incessant warfare, row and again with
the Hindu hill Rajas, generally with the Imperial powers. At
times his followers were almost annihilated, but they ever sprang
up again. When Aurangzeb died, Govind Singh joined his for-
tunes to Bahadur Shah's. This led him far away from the Punjab,
and while fighting, a novelty for him, on behalf of the Muhammedan
power, he was assassinated by an Afghan horse-dealer at Naderh
BAHADUR SHA.H. 167
near the Godavery. This place is known by the Sikhs to this day
as Abchalnagar, the town of departure, and has still a considerable
Sikh population, a curious instance of a colony in a far distant
land.
Govind Singh was succeeded by his chosen disciple, a Bairagi
ascetic, Banda, who is said to have been a native of the Deccan,
but who on his Master's death promptly returned to the Punjab.

It was with him that Shah Alam and his officers had to do and a
terrible foe they found him. The Muhammedan historian says
that Banda gave out that his master had been reincarnated in his
body in order to take revenge on the Muhammedans, one of whom
'
had been his murderer. ' This worthless dog, having published
this statement, stirred up disaffection in the sect, and raised the
standard of rebellion. By jugglery, charms, and sorcery, he pre-
tended to perform miracles before credulous people, and gave

himself the name of Sacha Padshah " True King."*
His first great exploitwas the capture of Sirhind. The
Foujdar of that place, Wazir Khan, attacked Banda and his Sikhs
but was defeated and slain. Sirhind then fell into their hands.
'
The Muhammedan historian writes : ' Sirhind was an opulent
town, with wealthy merchants, bankers, and tradesmen, men of
money, and gentlemen of every class and there were especially
;
learned and religious men in great numbers residing there. No

one found the opportunity of saving his life, or wealth, or family.
When they heard of the death of Wazir Khan, and the rout of his
army, they were seized with panic. They were shut up in the
town, and for one or two days made some ineffectual resistance,
but were obliged to bow to fate. The evil dogs fell to plundering,
murdering and making prisoners of the children and families of high
and low, and carried on their atrocities for three or four days with
such violence that they tore open the wombs of pregnant women,
dashed every living child upon the ground, set fire to the houses,
and involved rich and poor in one common ruin. Wherever they
found a mosque, a tomb, or a grave stone of a respected Mussulman,
* Rlliot, Vol. Vll, p. 413.

they broke it to pieces, dug it up, and made no sin of scattering

the bones of the dead."* This story takes us back to Uzbeg days.
The Moghuls of had left behind some of their savagery
India
in their native homes and even the Mahrattas rarely wreaked
their vengeance on women. Away from their cruelty the Sikhs'
methods were much those of the Mahrattas. They appointed Col-
lectors as the Mahrattas did to gather the rents and taxes of the
lands they had conquered. Like the Mahrattas too, these officers
were held strictly to account. Saharanpur, the Jullunder Doab,

in fact, all the country between Lahore and Delhi, were thoroughly
plundered by them. Everywhere the Jats, the backbone of the
agricultural population, The fortified town they
joined them.
but rarely attacked, but the open country was everywhere over-
run. Khafi Khan pathetically tells us " For eight or nine
:
months and from two or three days' march of Delhi to the envi-
rons of Lahore, all the towns and places of note were pillaged by
these unclean wretches, and trodden under foot and destroyed.
Men in countless numbers were slain, the whole country was
wasted, and mosques and tombs were razed. After leaving
Lahore, they returned to the towns and villages of Shahdara and
Karnal, the faujdar of which place was slain after resisting to the
best of his ability. Now especially great havoc was made. A
hundred or two hundred Hindus and Mussulmans who had been
made prisoners were made to sit down in one place, and were
slaughtered. These infidels had set up a new rule, and had for-
bidden the shaving of the hair of the head and beard. Many of
the ill-disposed low-caste Hindus joined themselves to them, and
placing their lives at the disposal of these evil-minded people,
found their own advantage in professing belief and obedience,
and they were very active in persecuting and killing other castes
of Hindus."f The Moghul was ever slow to recognise a new
enemy. The Mahrattas were to them only mountain rats at a
time when they were organising their power in such a way that
t Elliot, Vol. VII, pp. 419-20.

BAHADUR SHAH. 169
eventually it brought the Moghul domination to the dust. And

so the opportunities which occurred over and over again of crush-
ing the Mahratta power was allowed to go neglected. And so
with the Sikhs ; Shah Alam was somuch taken up with operations
against the Rajputs, who for many a long year had been never
dangerous outside their local limits, that he neglected attending
to a sore which was corroding the very centre of his Empire. It
was not until some years after his reign began that he made a deter-
mined effort to put the Sikhs down. In A. D. 1710, Muham-
med Amin Khan, one of his chief Generals, marched against
them.
After much fighting the Sikhs were driven at last into the
hills. There they were besieged in the fortress of Lohgarh. Little
by little their provisions failed, we are told, and from this it can
be easily seen how lax the Moghul military discipline had become,
that one of the ways by which the Sikhs got their provisions was
by purchasing grain from the grain dealers in the Imperial camp,
drawing up baskets containing the same over the walls into the
fortress. These enthusiasts were encouraged to action with promises
much like those which the Old. Man of the Mountain in former
days made to his disciples, the assassins of the middle ages, viz-,
that those who died in battle would in the new world inherit a
perennial youth.
same their position gradually became desperate. At

All the
last they managed to break through the besieging lines and g€t
themselves into the inner Himalayas. One of them, a tobacco
seller by trade, personated Banda and so when the fort was taken,
great was the rejoicing amongst the Moghuls to find the Guru still
there. They were soon, however, deceived and in their rage, took
prisoner the Ice Raja, as the ruler of the inner Western Himalayas
was then called, and put him into the same cage with the sham
Guru. The Sikhs were at last broken for the time, but still Banda
remained at large. We will learn hereafter that later in time
he too was captured. Then seemingly the organisation was finally
broken up. All the same it rose again and flourished. This prob-
170 HISTORY OP THE GIIEA.T MOGHCLS.
ably would not have been if the Empire had been either that of
Akbar or of Shah Jahan.
Not through Sikh outrages and Mahratta ravages was the
rapid decay of the Empire more clearly demonstrated than
by the story of the free-booter Pap Rai, a native of Warangal,.
in the Deccan. This Pap Rai, who was originally a toddy
seller, is said to have started life by torturing and plunder-
ing his sister little by little he got a small band around him and
:
having made a fortress for himself on the top of a small hill

began to plunder in the neighbourhood of Warangal. From small
beginnings he went on increasing till he actually attacked and plun-
dered the town of Warangal itself, then one of the most populous
places in the Deccan. At last it was necessary for the Subahdar
of the Deccan himself march against him. Even then a nine
to
months was necessary before his power was
siege of his fortress
brought to an end. Attempting to escape, he was wounded,
captured and executed, and his limbs exposed over the gates of
Hyderabad. The very fact that such a man could cause such an
amount of mischief, shows that the strong hand of the Moghul
was at last ceasing to operate and that Hindustan was reverting
to the condition into which it had fallen after Taimur's invasion.
Another few years and the anarchy will Very soon
be complete.
every man's hand will be against every man and the only rule
recognised throughout the country will be the rule of the stronger.
Shah Alam died suddenly in 1711 at Lahore. With all his faults
he is the last Moghul of whom we can say anything good. After
him there succeeded a series of effeminate Eastern Rulers, brought
up in the Seraglio with all the vices which spring from such bring-
ing up, and with no virtues to recommend them. The first of these,.
Jahandar Shah, was the son of Shah Alam. Three other brothers
contended against him for the crown and his obtaining it seems
to have been the result partly of the fact that one brother was
drowned in the river Ravi and that another brother was acciden-
tally shot. Zulfikar Khan, who was on his side, by his potent aid
also did much towards obtaining him the crown. It was related
that when this Jahandar Shah was informed of the death of his-
BAHADUR SHAH. 171
two brothers (the third one was subsequently killed) and of his
having been declared Emperor, he was found in a state of intoxi-

cation. In any case his short reign, which continued a little more
than a year, seems to have been one in which debauchery gained
universal sway in the Emperor's Court. A Courtesan, Lai Kuar r
obtained absolute ascendancy over him. Along with her he was
accustomed to make expeditions into the town of Delhi and get
drunk there on one occasion he got so intoxicated that when the
;
two were brought back to the palace in the cart in which they had
been masquerading, he could not be awakened and so was left
asleep at the bottom of this strange conveyance till morning. Such
conduct naturally disgusted the great officers of the Court. Lai
Kuar had a great friend in one Johra who, according to the
authority of the Sair Mutakherin, was a seller of vegetables in the
bazaar. This woman put on the airs of a great grandee and her
servants, like the servants of such people when they rise in life,
were wont to be most offensive towards all whom they might meet.
On one occasion her retinue met those of Chin Killich Khan, whom
we have already mentioned in the Deccan wars, and who was to
become under the name of Nizamul Mulk the future ruler of the
Deccan. They roughly ordered this general's men to get out of the
way. This the general directed his men to do, but when the woman
coming up on an elephant took to abusing him herself, Chin Killich
Khan lost his temper and ordered his men to attack her servants.
She herself was also soundly whipped by order of the irate
grandee. Complaints were promptly made to the Emperor, but
Zulfikar Khan who Avas at the time the real ruler of the State,
told Jahandar Shah that any attempt to interfere with Chin Killich
Khan would only lead to the Emperor's undoing. On another
occasion we are told that Lai Kuar's brother was appointed by
Jahandar Shah to the Subahdshipar-of Agra and that Zulfikar Khan
delayed drawing out the patent. The rest of the story I may tell
Khan's own Khan was

"''
in Khafi words. Zulfikar very free
spoken to Jahandar Shah, and he replied: 'We courtiers have got

into the bad habit of taking bribes, and we cannot do any business
unless we get a bribe.' Jahandar Shah smiled, and asked what
bribe he wanted from Lai Kunwar, and he said a thousand

guitar-players and drawing masters (ustadi nakkashi). When the
Emperor asked what he could want with them, he replied '' You :
give all the places and offices of us courtiers to these men, and so
it has become necessary for us to learn their trade." Jahandar
smiled, and the matter dropped."* Such a ruler could not possibly
Teign long. There have been rulers as great debauchees in India
as this young ruler, but hardly one whose debaucheries were so
patent to the outside world.
At this time Farokh Siar, the grandson of Bahadur Shah, was
the nominal ruler of Bengal. Jahandar Shah on his succession
had sent to Jafar Khan, who was the real ruler of that province, to
send the young man prisoner to Court. Jafar Khan had more
than half made up his mind to comply when he found that Farokh
Siar's cause was espoused by Husain Ali Khan, the Governor of
Patna. This man was one of the Sayids of Barah and he and his
brother Abdullah Khan were two of the most powerful nobles of
Hindustan at the time. The second brother commanded at Alla-
habad. An army was got together under these two Sayids which
rapidly marched up to the valley of the Ganges. Of fighting there
was but little. Both Jahandar Shah and his son who was defeated
before him seem to have been cowards at any rate, they were ;
not fit to lead an army of any size and their supporters seem to
have been but halfhearted in their support. After the last defeat
Jahandar Shah fled to Agra and there went to interview Asad
Khan, Zulfikar Khan's father, who was still the nominal Wazir
of the Empire. Father and son differed in opinion ; the son who
did not expect any favour from Farokh
Siar suggested that war
should still be. carried on. The on the other hand, thought
father,
that the correct course would be to hand over the incapable young
man to Farokh Siar who had by this time been placed on the royal
throne; They received from that Emperor through his chief
favourite Amir Jamla promises of protection, but these were only
made to be broken. On leaving the royal presence after his first
» Elliot, Vol. VII, i>.

rs-i.
BAHADUR SHAH. 173
interview Zulfikar Khan was brutally murdered, the father Asad

Khan was seized, imprisoned and deprived of all his properties.
The place of these two, who had for so long had the greatest influ-
ence in the Empire, was taken by the two Sayids. This turned
out to be the ruin of Farokh Siar, for he himself, in spite of all what
they had done for him, never trusted them. On the other hand,
he gave himself over to favourities such as Amir Jamla, men with
but little capacity of any sort, but full of cunning and cruelty, and
the consequence was that the whole of this reign was one long
series of assassinations and judicial murders and that finally the
Emperor himself came to an untimely end.
" Farokh Siar had no will of his own. He was young, inexperi-
enced in business, and inattentive to affairs of State. He had
grown up in Bengal, far away from his grandfather and father.
He was entirely dependent on the opinions of others, for he had
no resolution or discretion. By the help of fortune he had seized
the crown. The timidity of his character contrasted with the
vigour of the race of Timur, and he was not cautious in listening
to the words of artful men. From the beginning of his reign he
himself brought his troubles on himself." On the one hand were
the Sayids really powerful nobles and in their own way statesmen,
men who had made Farokh Siar King, with the full support of
most of the leading men at the Court at the time on the other ;
Amir Jamla and a band of parasites, without any real backing, save
the Emperor's favour, but interfering and intriguing to the last
degree. No reign consequently could have opened more unpropi-
tiously.
Syed Abdullah Khan became Wazir, Husain Ali Khan for

some time held no settled office, but was eventually appointed as
Subahdar of the Deccan. These two Sayids were at the head of
what might be called the Hindustani faction as against the foreign
or Turan Nobles, as these were called from the word Turan so
often used in Oriental literature as opposed to Iran and meaning
the North of the Oxus, of which Nizamul Mulk was the chief.
The appointment of Husain Ali Khan to the Subahdarship of

the Deccan was a direct insult to Nizamul Mulk inasmuch as he
174 HISTORY OF THK GREAT MOGHULS.
at the time held this post, and had for a very considerable time
l)een considered the chief authority there. The rivalry between
these two eventually led to the overthrow of the Syeds', but of
"this more hereafter.
In the first years of Farokh Siar's reign the most important
events were (omitting the Mahratta affairs concerning which I
shall deal hereafter and the quarrels between the various factions
of the Court) the ineffectual invasion of Rajputana ending in a
fresh treaty with Raja Ajit Singh, religious troubles in the various
parts of the Kingdom and the seemingly final suppression of the
Sikhs. As regards the first, nothing special need be said. It was
the old story of the devastation of the plain country and the re-
treating of the Rajputs to the hills, of ineffectual attempts of the
heavy laden Moghuls to follow them and of an eventual suspension
of hostilities, leaving things much as they were.
Religious Muham-
disturbances were two-fold amongst the
medan community, amongst themselves first of all, and then bet-
ween them and the Hindus. There is nearly always a latent
feeling of hostility between the Shiahs and Sunnis which only
needs a convenient occasion for it to burst into flame. The
Muhammedan community at that time as a body looked down
upon the Hindus, considering them as good servants but as
not having a right to aspire to be anything more. It was
from this fanciful Muhammedan superiority that the progress of
the Mahratta power was so rough an awakening. Inside the
territories,which were not only in name but in reality Moghul, the
rulers ordinarily attempted to protect their Hindu subjects. If the
latter were to be fleeced, it was to be for the benefit of themselves
personally or for the State ; but the Muhammedan community
at large could only be induced by
hand to look on matters
a strong
in such a light. A great outburst happened in 1713 at Ahmed-
abad when the Hindu " Holi " was in progress. This festival
which comes about the time of the Vernal Equinox, a time of year
which gives rise to festivals in all parts of the world, is always ac-
companied with intoxication and a great deal of indecency. The
essential, however, is the burning of the "holi " at various places,
BAHADUR SHAH. ] 75
particularly at cross roads. A dispute between the Muhamme-

dans and Hindus as to this burning gave rise in Ahmedabad to
the wildest riots. The Muhammedan rulers there were in favour
of the Hindus and to have given permission to a particular Hindu
to burn the ''
holi " in front of his house. The reason of this deci-
sion was that the Muhammedan ruler held that every man was
master of his own house and entitled to do what he liked therein.
A Muhammedan residing near a Hindu promptly retaliated by
killing a cow in front of his own house in full view of the Hindus.
These latter assembled, drove their Muhammedan neighbours

into their houses, slew the son of the man who had sacrificed the
animal and a number of others. This naturally excited the
Muhammedans who in their turn executed reprisals, and for days con-
fusion reigned unchecked in the city. The Government officials,
though Muhammedaus themselves, suffered badly at their co-reli-

gionists' hands. The Muhammedan community seems to have
had considerable grounds for complaint and it sent: two or three
of their number to Delhi on reaching the capital
to complain, but
they were promptly thrown into prison, the Hindus having managed
to bribe the Imperial officials, the Empire already being in a
state when everything was to be purchased.
Some years later much more serious disturbances broke out in
Kashmir. These originated in an agitation raised by a turbulent
fanatic named Mahbub Khan. Along with a number of his co-reli-
gionists he went to the Kazi and the Deputy Subahdar and demanded
that no Hindu should be allowed to ride on a horse, or to wear a coat,
or to put on a turban or wear it or go out on excursions to a field
or garden or bathe on certain days. In support of this demand
he quoted certain legal opinions (Futwaha). Muhammedan
Doctors have given a variety of Futwaha on the most various
subjects, and it was easy for Mahbub Khan to extract from them
a Fatwah concerning Kafirs which would make practically slaves
of them, but such decisions, save on the rare occasions that they
have been put some political purpose, have never had
in force for
any effect in any Muhammedan State.
practical The Moghul
Emperors, who had for their subjects more Hindus than Muhamme-
l/'b HISTORY OF THE GREAT MOGHULS.
dans, had been guided by certain rules concerning the treatment

of the former and these rules governed the Empire and not the
Futwaha of any obscure Muhammedan Lawyer it was to this :
effect that the Kazi and Subahdar Deputy answered Mahbub

Khan. The latter, however, raised the cry of religion, and pro-
nounced openly that he was going to teach the Hindus their proper
place. Matters came to a head when he attacked a respectable
Hindu, who was feasting a large number of Brahmins in one of his
own gardens, and killed a number of people there. The rioters then
proceeded to attack the Government officials, who, they considered,
had been too partial towards the Hindus. Mir Ahmed Khan the
ruler at the time got together a force, but was unable to drive the
rebels out of the streets in Srinagar where they were collected.
The rioters set fire to both sides of the street through which they
had passed, and from in front and from the roofs and walls of the
houses they discharged arrows and muskets and cast stones and
bricks. Women
and children flung filth, dirt and whatever they
could lay hands on." A fierce fight continued, in which a number
were and the Governor was obliged to ask for mercy, and
killed,
allowed to escape amidst the jeers and insults of the victorious

rioters. For months Mahbub Khan acted as the ruler of Kashmir.
Under his rule Hindus were killed and many others maltreated.
It was only after the death of Farokh Siar that news was received
that a new Governor had been sent to Kashmir. Thereupon
Mahbub Khan, on finding resistance unavailing, made his submis-
sion personally to one of the former officials, the Bakshi (Trea-
surer). As he was leaving this man's premises he was assassin-
ated together with his two young sons. It is said to have been
done by the Shiahs, for they as well as the Hindus had been out-
raged by his conduct. Further rioting between the Sunnis and
Shiahs accompanied by much bloodshed naturally followed. It
was only brought to an end by the arrival of the new Governor

from Delhi, who by severe measures succeeded in a short time in
restoring order.
The Sikhs, after their dispersion at Lohgarh and their retreat
to the inner Himalayas, taking advantage of the troublous times

BAHADUR SHAH. 177
that followed the death of Shah Alam, again became troublesome,

making their head-quarters the fort of Gurdaspur in the Punjab.
From this place they ravaged the whole of the Western part of
that province. Dilir Jung, the Subahdar of Lahore, with great,
exertions got together a force to march against them and after

much fighting drove them into this fort of theirs. It is said that
when hard pressed they offered to surrender on condition of their

lives being spared, and that as to this Dilir Jung advised them to
beg pardon of their crime and of their offences to the Emperor ;
but whatever he promised, the capitulation of the fort was follow-

ed by the most terrible butchery. Thousands were slain on the
spot ; two thousand heads of Sikhs stuffed with hay were sent by
the successful General show that his victory had
to Delhi to
been a reality. Along with these heads went a thousand prisoners

amongst whom was Banda, his son of 7 to 8 years old and his
Diwan. On their arrival at Delhi the prisoners had their faces
blackened and wooden caps put on their heads. Then they were
paraded on camels through the city, with the stuffed heads accom-
panying them, and so they were marched before the Emperor. After
whole of them were put to death in batches in the bazar.
this the
Last of all Banda himself was put to death after he had been
forced to own son. Stories are told of the devotedness
kill his
of these men and how great was their devotion to their Guru.
One of these is told by Khafi Khan in the following language.
" When the executions were going on, the mother of one of
the prisoners, a young man just arrived at manhood having ob-
tained some influential support, pleaded the cause of her son with
great feeling and earnestness before the Emperor and Sayad
Abdullah Khan. She represented that her son had suffered im-
prisonment and hardships at the hands of the sect. His property
was plundered, and he was made prisoner. While in captivity,
he was, without any fault of his own, introduced into the sect,,
and now stood innocent amongst those sentenced to death.

Furukh Siar commiserated this artful woman, and mercifully sent
'an officer with orders to release the youth. That cunning woman
arrived with the order of release just as the executioner was
K, HM 12
standing with, his bloody sword upheld over the young man's
head. She showed the order for his release. The youth then
broke out into complaints, saying, My mother tells a falsehood
'
'
;
I with heartand soul joinmy fellow-believers in devotion to the

Guru; send me quickly after my companions."*
The sect was now seemingly at an end ; the organisation was

broken up, their chiefs were killed or in exile and it seemed that
the Sikh heresy, as the Hindus would call it, would be known
simply as one of the many heresies which for many centuries have
ruffled the surface of the Hindu religion and then disappeared.
But the subsequent anarchy to which the Punjab was reduced and
the virility of the race which had adopted Sikhism as their faith,
prevented this from happening and after a very few years it again
showed itself in great strength every day increasing and increas-
;
ing, until towards the end of the century a Sikh Chieftain became
the ruler of the Punjab and established a power there, which became
the most formidable adversary which the British has ever had to
meet in Hindustan.
We now return from the outskirts of the Empire to Delhi
itself. The two Sayads, as I have already said, were all powerful
and the great offices of the Empire were concentrated in them.
They had placed Furukh Siar on the throne and could, so every-
body at the time was aware, if they so wished, set aside their puppet.
But Eurukh Siar, although a puppet, had no desire to be so, and
Court favourites, of whom Mir Jumla was the chief, were ever
urging on him to get rid of the two powerful Sayads. Nor were
Court favourites the only persons who were dissatisfied with the
rule of these nobles. I have already mentioned that Nizam-ul-
Mulk, the Chief Turanian noble at the time, had been grossly in-
sulted by the younger Sayad's appointment as Subahdar of the
Deccan and, Nizam-ul-M'ulk, although the chief, was only one of
his class. The foreign nobles generally were not pleased with
having the two Sayads of Barah, men, who although they
were descendants of the Prophet, had ancestors who for quite a
* Elliot, Vol. VI, p. 458

: —
BAHADUR SHAH. 179
number of generations had resided in India, as the all-powerful

authorities in the State, and so all the elements of discord were
present.
The Sayads were determined not to permit the Court favour-
ites tobecome too strong and so they forced Furukh Siar to send
away Mir Jumla to Patna. Husain Ali Khan was at the time
bound for the Deccan, but he is recorded before his departure to
have addressed the Emperor in the following fashion :
"If in my absence you recall Mir Jumla to your presence,

or if my brother, Kutb-ul-Mulk, Sayad Abdullah, again receive
similar treatment, you may rely upon my being here from the
Dakhin in the course of twenty days."*
Further stipulations which he made, gave to him the sole power
of appointing Commandants to the forts. Nizam-ul-Mulk was
not inclined to give up the Deccan without a struggle, but he did
not think it prudent to show his hand openly and so stirred up
Daud Khan Pani, the Subahdar of Ahmednuggur, to oppose Husain
Ali Khan. This Daud Khan, a typical fighting Afghan, acting
probably not only on the suggestions of Nizam-ul-Mulk but on con-
fidential requests from the Emperor, openly resisted Husain Ali
Khan. The consequence was a pitched battle near Berhampur
in which Daud Khan with a much smaller force of Afghans fought
with desperate courage against Husain Ali Khan's troops. Daud
Khan was, however, a swordsman rather than a General, and after
showing great personal prowess was killed by a stray cannon ball.
About this time died Asad Khan, the father of Zulfikar Khan,
who had been so brutally murdered. Furukh Siar is said to have
sent him a message in the days of his last illness to the following
effect
'
' We did not know your worth, and have done what we ought
not to have done to such a valuable servant of the State, but
repentance is of no avail ; still we hope you will give us your advice
about the way to treat the Sayads. "f

To this the old man is said to have replied as follows :
*'
The fault which you committed, contrary to the practice
of your ancestors, proceeded only from the will of God. I knew
that, when the office of minister went out of my family, ruin
threatened the House of Timur. But as you have placed your-
self and the reins of power in the hands of the Sayads of Barah,
the best thing for the State is, that you should, to the best of your
ability, deal kindly with them, and not carry matters to such a
pitch that strife and discord should increase, and you should lose
all power."*
Affairs ever grew worse between the Sayads and the Emperor.
Husain Ali Khan spent most of his time in 1717 and 1718 in the
Deccan ; at one time fighting with the Mahrattas and at another
entering into negotiations with them. Abdullah Khan, on the other
hand, spent his time, when he did not give himself over to pleasure,
for he was a licentious man, in quarrelling with the various offi-
cials of the Court and the Emperor himself. At one time matters
got so bad, that for months no papers whatsoever were signed by
him, although he being Wazir, his signature was necessary for the
current work of the realm. Husain Ali Khan finally entered into
a treaty of peace with the Mahrattas, the details of which I shall

write about hereafter, but which was considered by the Imperial
Court as highly derogatory to the Moghuls. The Emperor at
last made a serious attempt to get rid of the Sayads' control.
Inspired by a Court favourite, described as a Kashmiri of low origin,
and who is said to have been, according to the scandal of the time,
the Minister of the Emperor's not over-reputable pleasures, Furukh
Siar called in Sir Buland Khan, the Governor of Patna, Nizam-ul-
Mulk, who had been given a comparatively small appointment at
Moradabad, a town in what is now known as Eohilkund, and Kaja
Ajit Singh, the Rajput, to the capital, and proposed to them to put
an end to the Barah nobles' supremacy ; but as his first suggestion
was that the Kashmiri should be made Wazir in the place of Sayad
Abdullah Khan, these great noblemen did not show any great

BAHADUR SHAH. 181
desire to enter into the Emperor's plans. Husain Ali Khan in

the Deccan, however, had heard of them and so set his army on
march to the Court. In this march he was accompanied by a
force of Mahratta auxiliaries. Fort after fort he occupied on his
way without opposition, Nizam-ul-Mulk had already left Delhi in
disgust and gone to Moradabad. Sir Buland Khan who had put
himself to great expense and who was finding no means of recouping
himself, is said to have determined to
become a religious fakir, but
in any case his hostilities were disarmed by the Sayad Wasir, who
appointed him to the Subahdaiship of Cabul. Kaja Ajit Singh, the
third of the great men upon whom the Emperor relied, became
reconciled to the Minister, and so when Husain. Ali Khan reached
Delhi, there was not one of the great nobles or Generals of the
Empire that in any way opposed him. That Husain Ali Khan
had come with the intention to dethrone Eurukh Siar, was evident
from his having ordered his drums to be beaten loudly on his
approach to Delhi, for, according to the law of the Moghuls,
no drums were ever allowed to be beaten near the residence of the
Emperor. Eurukh Siar's conduct was what might have been
expected. " But the strangest thing was that the heedless
—
Emperor although he heard the sounds of the hostile drums and
—
trumpets, which rose so boldly' and publicly' and although at —
the sound of the drum other drums in every street and market
—
beat to arms even then he did not come to his senses. All
resolution and prudence was cast aside. Now raging with anger,
he rolled up his sleeves (for action) threatening vengeance against
the two brothers ; now taking a conciliatory turn, he sat behind
the curtain of dissimulation and opened the door of amity upon
the face of enmity."*
Such conduct could have only one termination.

Husain
Ali entered into the fort and the reign of Furukh Siar was over.
The night which ensued was one of dread and confusion through-
out the city, but all the same there was but little rioting, and when
next morning Rafi-ud-Darj ah, a youthful descendant of Aurangzeb,

182 HISTORY OF THE GREAT MOGHCJLS.
was put on the throne, the town settled down again to its ordi-
nary avocations. This happened in A. D. 1719. Whether Furukh
Siar was put to death at once, or whether he met his end a little
time afterwards is not certain. In any case there was with him
but one step from the throne to the grave. He was never seen
outside of his prison house again. The newly proclaimed Emperor
died after a reign of six months. After him another puppet,
also a descendant of Aurangzeb, named Rafi-ud-Doulah, succeeded
but he too died after a reign of three months. During the
reign of these two young men the rulers of the country were
the Sayads, though everywhere the local Governors had begun to
take all the real power in their hands. Another youthful puppet
followed, also descended from Aurangzeb, named Muhammad
Shah. His reign, unlike theirs, was prolonged for 29 years, but
its records are one long story of ever-increasing disintegration,
till at last on the sack of Delhi by the Persian Conqueror, Nadir
Shah, in 1739, the Empire itself as a governing institution may be
said to have come to an end.
The first year of Muhammad Shah's reign was the last of the
rule of The Turanian nobles everywhere were dis-
the Sayads.
affected and the chief of them, Nizam-ul-Mulk, broke out into open
revolt. The first matter which called the attention of the Sayads,
however, was not to put down the Muhammedan revolt but the
subjection of a Hindu nobleman. Chabila Ram, a Hindu of dis-
tinction, was Governor at Allahabad at the time of the accession
of the new Prince. His attitude was such that immediate pre-
parations had to be made to proceed against him, but before the
expedition started he was dead. His brother's son Girdhar
Bahadur, however, seized the vacant Governorship and declined
to submit the fort to the Sayads although they made great prom-
ises. Husain Ali Khan was in command of the besieging army.
The other brother, Sayad Abdullah, accompanied by the Emperor
had at first been in the besieging camp, but on Girdhar Bahadur
promising to surrender, this Sayad and the Emperor left and
startedon their way to On hearing, however, that the
Delhi.
promise had not been kept, they returned back. Finally Ratan
BAHADUR SHAH. 183
Chanel Dewan and met Girdhar and settled an arrange-

the Sayads
ment, the same being confirmed by an oath on Granges -water. The
result of this was that the Imperialists obtained possession of
Allahabad. But in the meantime their attention was .called to
the movements of Nizam-ul-Mulk. This crafty and experienced
nobleman had been sent away rom Delhi at the beginning of Rafi-
i
:
ud-Darjah's reign to Malwa, of which place he had been appointed

Subahdar. While there, he got messages both from the Emperor
and the Emperor's mother that the Sayads were bent upon des-
troying him. Abiding his time, he got large reinforcements from
the Deccan, where he had been employed for a number of years,
and at last considered himself strong enough to march to Delhi.
Burha,npur fell into his hand& without a struggle. Moving slowly
towards the North and West he defeated Dilawar Ali Khan, the
General of the Sayads, in May 1720, a few miles from Ratanpur.
Shortly afterwards he also defeated Alam Khan, the adopted son
of Husain Ali Khan, who had been appointed in succession to him
as Viceroy of the Deccan by the Sayads.
This news caused greai. consternation at Delhi ; there the
Sayads had alienated not only the Moghuls, but a great number
of Native Muhammedan noblemen by the great favour they had
shown to the Hindus, and Ratan Chand who vir-
particularly to
tually under them governed the kingdom. The state of feeling
in that city is graphically described by KhaS. Khan-
" There were a number of persons, old servants, attendants
and officials of the two brothers, especially of Sayad Abdullah,
who through them had risen to great honour and prosperity. But
the infamous murder of the martyr Emperor (Furukh Siar), the
sight of the indignities which the Emperor, the representative of
the House of Timur, had to endure, and the fact of the adminis-
tration being under the direction of a base-born shop-keeper
(Ratan Chand) had, under the guidance of the converter of
Hearts, so changed their feelings, that some of them often said,
'
Although we know that we shall suffer many hardships through
the downfall of the Barahs, still we hope that, through the blind-
ness of its ill-wishers, the House of Timur may again acquire
splendour'. Some of the relations and officials of the two brothers

often offered up their prayers to God, and said, The end of the '
lives of the two brothers, who have no children, is evident but ;
woe to all Barah Sayads, for we know what evil awaits our
children through the misdeeds of these two men/ "*
The two brothers determined between themselves that Husain

Ali should march against Nizam-ul-Mulk taking the Emperor with
him, while Sayad Abdullah should remain at Delhi. The Imperial
Army had not, however, got much beyond Agra, when the Sayad
brother accompanying it was assassinated by Mir Hyder Khan,
an Afghan. Great confusion followed pa.rtizans of the Sayads
;
attempted to seize the Emperor, but the rival faction in the camp
proved to be too strong for them and the Emperor found himself
freed from the control of his two powerful protectors. On this
news reaching Delhi, Sayad Abdullah put another scion of the
House of Timur on the throne as Emperor, getting together a
fresh army to which the Jats contributed a very large number.
This army set out very slowly to meet the Emperor's force which
were mainly the troops of Husain Ali. It is mentioned by the
historian that this newly got up army seems to have been alto-
gether without discipline.
'Notwithstanding all the lavish distribution of the money

which had been collected by cartfuls from house to house, and
which had been extorted by bribery or with violence by Ratan
Chand from the wretched rayats, and laid up for a time like this,
the old soldiers wanted two months* pay in advance, that they
might free themselves from the bankers, and
their liabilities to
provide themselves with warm arms and harness. They
clothing,
were satisfied with the promise of one month's pay, and at last
money for the pay of ten days of Mohurrum was somehow raised,
but they could not get the balance."!
The leaders of the royal army, on the other hand, had won the
hearts of the soldiers by promising them their arrears of pay. The
- Elliot, Vol. VII, p. 501.

t Elliot, Vol. VII, p. Oil.
:
BAHADUR SHAH. !85
battle which followed was fought at Husainpur, a place between

Agra and Delhi. According to our Chronicler, Sayad Abdullah s
—
troops fought magnificently only the royal army fought better.
However, this may be, the battle on the first day
was not settled ;
on the second, when the Imperialists attacked Sayad Abdullah, he

was foolish enough to dismount from his' elephant. The conse-
quence was a dispersal of his army and his being taken prisoner.
The puppet of an Emperor set up by him was pardoned, a rare thing
in those days. Sayad Abdullah's captivity did not last long
he died in 1722, probably poisoned, and Nizam-ul-Mulk who had not
been present at the decisive battle but who arrived some time
afterwards at Delhi, received the appointment of Wazir of the
Empire.
We now get to the last chapter of the history of the Empire
before complete anarchy set in ; but before proceeding further
it is necessary that we should hark back and what the Mah- tell
rattas had been doing during the troublesome years between the
death of Aurangzeb and the point at which I have now arrived.
I have already stated that when Azam Shah set out on his
march to Agra in order to contest the possession of the Imperial

throne with his elder brother Bahadur Shah, he set at liberty Sahoo,
the son of Sambhuji, who for many years had been kept by Aurang-
zeb as a prisoner about his Court. At this time Tarabai, the widow
of Earn Raja, the younger brother of Sambhuji and accordingly
grandson of Sivaji, was the nominal head of the Mahratta power ;
she being a woman of much ambition was not at all disposed to

yield to Sahoo without a struggle. In this she was encouraged
by the leading Mahrattas at her Court, whose ambition was more
effectually served by service under a woman than it would have
been by obedience to a man. Sahoo accordingly did not obtain
possession of the headship of the Mahratta race without a struggle,
and even when he did take possession of Sattara, the capital of the
Mahratta lands, Tarabai and afterwards one of her sons (he was
at this time very young) continued to hold a rival court at Kolapur.
Sahoo himself had, during the many years that he had been in the
Imperial Court, lost much .of the virility and activity which char-
acterised a Mahratta, and as a consequence, although he obtained

the titular headship of the race, the real power departed else-
where, largely into the hands of his Brahmin Ministers, but also
in part to the leading generals some of whom, such as Scindia,
Holkar and the Gaekwar founded dynasties which have survived
to the present day. Of these Nimaji Scindia was the most con-
siderable. Like Guru Govind of the Sikhs, he found it to suit his
interest to take the part of Shah Alam and in the decisive battle
against Kaum Buksh was to be found fighting on the Imperial
side. An extraordinary story
is told as to the origin of another
of the great Mahratta families which in the days of the anarchy

exercised so great an influence in Central India. Sahoo had to
storm a small village, the people, of which had taken the side of
Tarabai. During the fight a woman with a boy in her arms rushed
towards the Mahratta Chief, threw the child down, and shouted
that she devoted the child to the Raja's service. Sahoo accepted
the child, named the lad Fateh Singh and treated him as his own
son. This Fateh Singh was the founder of the Bhonsla family
which reigned up till 1852 A. D. in Nagpore.
was in these contests between Sahoo and Tarabai that
It
Poona became the real head-quarters of the Mahratta power. The

Governor of Poona, known as the Suchew, was the partizan of
Tarabai and held the place nominally for her. Sahoo moved to
attack him in A. D. 1711, but before the two parties joined issue
the Suchew committed suicide by a process known as the Jalsa-
mad (voluntary death by water). "Itby placing a
is effected
wooden platform upon serveral earthen pots, with their mouths
turned down, to which planks are fastened, and small holes are
bored in the earthen- vessels the whole is placed in deepwater,
;
on some river accounted holy, and the devotee seats or ties him-
selfon the platform, which gradually sinks with him."*
Balaji Vishvanath was a Brahmin, and he and his descen-
dants were known as the Mahratta Peshwas within a very few ;
years they became the acknowledged heads of the Mahratta con-
• Dnff, Vol, I, p. 424.

BAHADUR SHAH. 187
federacy and Poona originally Balaji's appanage, became the

capital of the race. Tarabai's son died of smallpox in 1712. Con-
sequently the son of Tarabai's co-wife was put on the Kolapur
guddi. The Brahmin Ministers carried on the administration as
before, but Tarabai was confined and lost all influence in the Kola-
pur State. While Zulfikar Khan was the Governor of the Deccan,
he managed by judicious arrangements and by allowing the Mah-
rattas to collect a certain amount of chouih to keep the country
more or less quiet. On the death of Shah Bahadur and on the
cessation of Zulfikar's power in the Deccan, things again reverted
to their former condition.
Everywhere the Mahrattas were to
be found robbing and plundering, sometimes under the pretence
of collecting the legitimate dues of the Mahratta ruler, and at
other times without any pretence at all. Nizam-ul-Mulk, who
succeeded Zulfikar Khan
Moghul ruler of the Deccan for a
as the
short time, favoured the Kolapur regency all along, and by his
influence that power gained considerable ground. On the other
hand, by this time Balaji Vishvanath had made his influence felt
in support of Sahoo, and as he was a man of much energy and
vigour, the Sattara State still remained the stronger. When
Nizam-ul-Mulk was withdrawn from the Deccan and one of the
Sayad brothers was appointed Subahdar in his place, the Kolapur
power became almost a negligible quantity. This was in no way
due to Sahoo himself. His character is thus described by Grant
''
Duff. Sahoo was not destitute of ordinary ability, he was
naturally generous, liberal to all religious establishments, observant
of forms enjoined by Hindu faith, and particularly chari-
the
table to Brahmins. The Ghaut Mahta and the rugged Concan
were his birthright, but unused to climb Ghauts, or wander and
live in the wilds of the mountain-forest, like his hardy grand-
father, Sahoo 's childhood was spent within the enclosure o
the imperial seraglio, and it is not surprising, that seduced by
the pomp and luxury of which he partook, his habits should
continue those of a Muhammedan. He occasionally showed all
the violence of the Mahratta character, and for the time,

anger overcame his indolence, but in general he was satis-
lo» HISTORY OF THE GREAT MOGHULS.
fied with the respect and homage paid to his person, and the
professions of obedience invariably shown by the ministers
to his commands ; he was pleased at being freed from the
drudgery of business, and in following his favourite amusements
of hawking, hunting, and fishing ; he did not foresee that he was
delegating a power, which might supersede his own. As legiti-
mate head of the Mahrattas, the importance of that nation was

increased by the manner in which he was courted by the Moghuls,
and the dignities and rights conferred upon him in consequence of
his situation, gave an influence and respect to the name of Sahoo,
which, under other circumstances, he could never have attained.
Both the sons of Sivaji followed the example of their father,
from the period when he mounted the throne, and always declared
their independence ; but Sahoo acknowledged himself a vassal of
the throne of Delhi, and whilst styling himself King of the Hin-
dus he affected, in his transactions with the Moghuls, to con-
sider himself merely as a Zamindar, or Head Deshmukh of the
Empire."* Husain Khan, the Say ad successor of Nizam-ul-
Ali
Mulk, pressed as he was by the Court rivalries which threatened
to deprive him of his power, found it necessary to come to terms
with the Mahrattas. His treaty with them, which he negotiated
through Balaji Vishvanath, although not ratified at the time by
the Delhi Court, may be considered as a turning point in the history
of the Deccan. By it certain territories known as Swuraji was
granted to Sahoo and his successors in territorial sovereignty,
only the suzerainty of the Moghul Empire being preserved. This
territory consisted of the greater part of what is known as the
Mahratta country. Outside of this the Mahrattas were granted
chouih (one-fourth of the revenue) in the six Moghul Subahs of
the Deccan —the condition being simply the maintenance of 15,000

horse for the purpose of assisting the military Governors in pre-
serving tranquillity. A further grant of Sur-desh-mukhi or 10
per cent, of the revenue of the Deccan was granted also in per-
petuity to the Mahratta rulers, for what services, it is not very
* Duff, Vol. I, p. no.

BAHADUR SHAH. 189
clear,though presumably it was for help to the Moghul Governors.

As to this, the Mahratta treasury had to pay down in advance a
fee of 6J years income as Peshkush. All throughout India where-
ever long leases are given or grants of a similar nature are made,
it is customary to take besides the reserved rent a very consider-
ableamount of money in advance as a premium under different
names such as Salami or Peshkush. Sur-desh-mukhi was not in
terms a hereditary grant but as the fee was charged as if it were,
the Mahrattas had substantial reasons for claiming it to be such.
Besides these rights they also claimed some rights of tribute over
both Gujarat and Malwa, but these were never reduced to writing,
and probably only existed in the Mahratta Statesmen's desires.
This treaty, as I have said, was originally made by Sayad Husain
Ali and was not confirmed at the time by the Imperial Court, but
Balaji Vishvanath accompanied this Sayad on his march to Delhi
which terminated in Furukh Siar's deposition and in the earliest
days of Muhammad Shah's rule this arrangement was confirmed.
Balaji Vishvanath died almost immediately afterwards in A. D.
1720. The consequence of this agreement was twofold. First
of the Mahratta power thereby became supreme South of
all,
the Vindhya Mountains, and the Moghul power throughout the

greater part of Southern India became reduced to more or less of
a shadow. Secondly, with the rule of the Mahratta, came the rule
of unlimited license. No man in Southern India knew how far
his property was safe and to what exactions he might have to
submit or how much he might have to pay. During the Moghul

sovereignty, law in theory at least ruled everywhere, and in spite
of the numerous local exactions, the Moghul subject ordinarily
was only taxed within certain limits recognised by the law. One
may say indeed, that in spite of all its defects, the Moghul rule
was the rule of law. But with the Mahrattas all this finished.
Law no more had any say. Hosts of tax gatherers, each of them
a law to himself, took the place of the ordinary tax collector of the
Moghuls. The consequences were inevitable. Within a very few
years the countries which were overrun by the Mahrattas fell
into a state of destitution and ruin ; and though the governing

power at Poona tried its best to collect within its own treasury the
greater part of the moneys extorted from the miserable inhab-
itants of the countries in which these taxes were collected, their
attempts had but very partial success. Everywhere military chiefs
collected on their own account, and it must be remembered that

besides the great chiefs there were a large number of petty military
bands amenable to no one which did only what seemed best in the
eyes of the petty chiefs who commanded them.
Nizam-ul-Mulk did not stay long at Court. When he arrived
there, he found matters in a great state of disorder ; the Imperial
authority had been slighted at Ajmere by the Rajput Governor
and although preparations had been taken to punish this man,
yet owing to quarrels between the chief noblemen at Court, nothing
had been done and the matter had been seemingly passed over.
Similar news came from other parts of the Empire, besides inces-
sant stories of wrongs committed by the Mahrattas in the Deccan.
Nizam-ul-Mulk seemed to have had hopes of doing something to
remedy this state of affairs ; in order to do which a reform in the
Court would have been an absolutely necessary antecedent.
itself
Accordingly he gave advice to the Emperor how he should behave

in public and in private how he should assume, when abroad, an
;
air of gravity and seriousness, and should set apart certain hours
every day for public business and in particular for rendering

justice. He also advised him to reform his Court by preventing his
favourites (women particularly) from being supreme there. The

Emperor, however, was young, loved pleasure and had many ad-
visers at hand both amongst the Delhi noblemen and amongst the
women of the Seraglio, who everywhere obstructed Nizam-ul-Mulk.
In particular Khan Dauran, who had the chief power at Court before
the arrival of Nizam-ul-Mulk, was desirous to get rid of the latter,
who, he thought, was an obstacle in his way so did also a woman
;
Poki Padshah, one of the Emperor's Harem favourites, who used

all her influence with him to prevent Nizam-ul-Mulk' s advice from
bearing any weight. The new Wazir himself (Nizam-ul-Mulk) was

not perhaps the best person to reform a Court such as Delhi had
become, he being old, reserved in manners and inclined to stop all
BAHADUR SHAH. 191
amusements whatsoever. As regards specific points, Khafi Khan

tells us that Nizam-ul-Mulk advised the Emperor that the system of
farming the Khalisa lands ought to be stopped ; secondly, that the

bribes which were received under the name of Peshkush by the
Emperor and his- chief noblemen injured his good name and were
contrary to good policy, and thirdly, that the Jizya should be
reimposed. It is also stated that he advised the Emperor to help
Persia in its struggle against the Afghans who at the time were
conquering that country. As regards this last point, however,
thismay be taken as only a counsel of perfection.. The Moghul
Emperor had too much to do to maintain a resemblance of power
over a large part of the Southern dominions to attempt any
external conquests. As regards the third point, it will be seen
that Nizam-ul-Mmk wished to revive Aurangzeb's system, which
would have only brought the inevitable end of the Moghul power
sooner, but as regards the first two points if the Emperor had
listened to him, much might have been gained. An honest ad-
ministration by public servants of the Khalisa lands would prob-
ably have made the dwellers in them at least fairly contented,
and enabled these lands to provide a certain number of com-
petent soldiers to fight for the Empire. Letting such lands to
farmers meant that the cultivators in them would be fleeced of
everything that they had and that the lands themselves would
quickly go out of cultivation. Farming in India is commonly
only too prevalent. Every one in the country does it from the
Government down to the very small lessee of a very small landlord
and perhaps it cannot be prevented. At all times, however, its
evils are obvious, and in a time such as that of which we are now
writing, especially in the cause of these Khalisa lands, large in area

as they were, the result was inevitably disastrous. As regards the
taking of Peshkush, gifts have always been, in the East, made to the
rulers generally the lower an Empire has sunk, the larger has been
;
the amount of such gifts. It was idle of Nizam-ul-Mulk to wish that

these should be abandoned, especially at such a time when prob-
ably it was through them that the Emperor and his chief courtiers
chiefly got their ready cash. Anyhow, the Wazir, although given
a new title of Wakil Mutalik (supreme Lieutenant-G-eneral), felt
this journey to Delhi to be a Asking leave that he might

failure.
go out hunting, he set off to the Deccan where he stayed looking
after this Subah of which he was Viceroy together with the other
neighbouring governments, which he held from time to time.
There he remained till shortly before the time that Nadir Shah
invaded India, and the history of the Deccan and really of India
for the next few years is that of his intrigues, contests and agree-
ment with the Mahratta Generals and rulers. He was not allowed
however, to get back to the Deccan without obstruction. Letters
were sent privately from Delhi to the Governor at Military
Burhanpur, requesting him to attack the returning Viceroy and
promising him in case of success the reversion of the Vice-
royalty. A battle ensued between the two
which the Bur- in
hanpur Governor was and Nizam-ul-Mulk ironically wrote
killed
to the Emperor stating that this Governor had rebelled and that
he had chastised and killed him. He also sent the usual present
sent by victorious Generals to the Emperor under such circum-
stances ;
along with this he also sent the Governor's head.
Nizam-ul-Mulk's chief opponent was Baji Rao, the new Peshwa.
This man was as capable as his father and being able to act on a
wider scale, made for himself a great career during the first twenty
years of Muhammad Shah's reign. It was he, more than any one
else, who induced the Mahrattas to invade Hindustan and to
reduce it to the same state of anarchy
and suffering as that into
which the Deccan had, by reason of incessant Maharatta raids
already fallen. He did not, however, succeed in inducing Sahoo
and the other chiefs to accept this policy
without opposition. In
Council fears were expressed such a plan should be too great
lest
for the Mahratta strength, and should bring against them the whole
strength of the Empire including that of Nizam-ul-Mulk who, in
case the Mahratta forces were largely engaged in the North, would
probably take the occasion to attack their earlier conquests
in the South. But Baji Rao was more than a match for his op-
ponents. He had the rare faculty of being able to read the signs
of the times, and to one who had such a faculty it was obvious
BAHADUR SHAH. 193
that the Moghul Empire, although still nominally as large as in

the days of its glory, was really on the high way to dissolution. As
a matter of policy he also saw that the Deccan being already a
devastated country was necessary to keep the numerous Mah-
it
ratta bodies of horse engaged by employing them on excursions

in the field. One of the discussions is reported thus: " Now is '
our time/ said this gallant Peshwa, '

to drive strangers from the
land of Hindus, and to acquire immortal renown. By directing
our efforts to Hindustan, the Mahratta flag in your reign shall fly
from the Kistna to the Attock.' You shall plant it on the Hima-
'
laya,' exclaimed the Raja, you are indeed a noble son of a worthy
'
father.' Rao improved the opportunity by urging Sahoo

Baji
not to think of minor objects, and alluding to the Moghul Empire,
'
let us strike,' said he, '
at the trunk of the withering tree, the
branches must fall of themselves'."*
At the time of Nizam-ul-Mulk's return to the Deccan, Hamid
Khan, his uncle, was Governor of Gujarat, but before the former
got back to his government Sir Buland Khan was sent from
Gabul to supersede the latter. An appointment by the Court
of the Governorship of one of the outlying provinces had come
by this time to mean but little, the Governor so appointed having
to take possession of his appointment and this generally meant
fighting. Hamid Khan was not in a humour to submit without
a struggle. Aided by the Mahrattas he attacked Sir Buland
Khan, but although he obtained a signal victory at the start, he
was unable to maintain himself in his position, and Sir Buland
Khan managed to capture Ahmedabad the capital and to maintain
himself there for a time. But he had never been in high favour
of the Court and so within about three years the Rajput Raja Abi
Singh was sent to supersede him. This Raja first of all tried
to take possession of the province by means of a Deputy, but
the latter was defeated and driven away by Sir Buland Khan.
Then he arrived himself, and after an indecisive battle Sir Buland
Khan entered his camp alone, reminded him that their fathers
* Duff, Vol. I, p. 486.
K, HM 13
had been friends and appealed to his generosity. The result was
that Abi Singh took possession of the province which he held for
a time and then finally made it over to the Mahrattas. The prov-
ince of Malwa at the time was also governed by a Hindu, Raja
Girdhar. It also was invaded year by year by the Mahrattas, and
although help was called for from the Imperial Court no help
ever was forthcoming. After Raja Grirdhar's death and after that
of his successor, Malwa also fell into the Mahratta's hands. All
this time Nizam-ul-Mulk had been more or less looking on. We
are given indeed by Khafi Khan a panegyric on this Chief. "In a
short time the country was brought under the control of the Mussal-
•man authorities, it was scoured from the abominations of infidel-
ity and tyranny. Under former Subahdars the roads had been
infested with the ruffianism of highway robbers, and the rapa-
city of the Mahrattas and rebellious zamindars, so that traffic
and travelling were stopped but now the highways were safe and
;
secure. The Mahrattas exacted the chouth with all sorts of

tyranny from the jagirdars ; and in addition to it, ten per cent,
under the name of sur-desh-mukhi was collected from the zamin-
dars and rayats. By these means odious kamaish-dars were
removed and changed every week and month orders beyond all ;
the endurance of the rayats were issued, and annoyances and

insults were heaped upon the collectors of the jagirdars. Nizam-ul-
Mulk so arranged that, instead of the chouth of the subahof Hai-
darabad, a sum of money should be paid from his treasury ; and
that the sur-desh-mukhi, which was levied from the rayats at the
xate of ten per cent., should be abandoned. He thus got rid of
the presence of the kamaish-dars of the chouth, and the gumashtas
of the sur-desh-mukhi and the rahdari, from which latter impost
great annoyance had fallen upon travellers and traders."* There
is this much truth in the above statement that, as regards the part
of the country which Nizam-ul-Mulk himself effectively ruled, that
is roughly the present state of Haidarabad, he managed, by reason
of regular payments of the Mahratta demands, to save it from

BAHADUR SHAH. 195
incessant invasion ; otherwise, I am afraid the praise is undeserved.

A great intriguer, he attempted to bring again to the front the
rival claims of the Kolapur Kaja and proposed to be the arbi-
trator between him and Sahoo. He made the mistake in this
matter of suggesting that revenues paid under the head of chouth
and sur-desh-mukhi should be sequestrated until he had given his
award. The result was war between himself and the Peshwa.
Nizam-ul-Mulk possessed a powerful park of artillery, but his troops
had none of the mobility of the Mahrattas and so after an ineffec-
tive campaign, he found himself in great straits and was forced
to negotiate. The treaty which followed, stipulated that security
should be afforded in the future for the collections of the Mahratta
revenues and that all made good. There was
arrears should be
also a request that the Kolapur Eaja Sambhaji who was in

Nizam-ul-Mulk' s camp should be surrendered, but this the Muham-
medan Chief refused to grant. An amusing story is told of this
Sambhaji. " He requested at the conclusion of an interview to
say a word in private to Nizam-ul-Mulk, and when he got him alone
begged of him not to give any money on account of the subsidy
to his Karkoons (agents) as they would defraud the troops. At
the same time the Brahmins by another representation, also
private, represented that Sambhaji would spend the whole on
dancing girls ; dissipate it in drinking and debauchery and leave ;
them to starvation, and the troops to revolt."*

was in the next two or three years between 1729-1732 that
It
Gujarat and Malwa may be said to have finally come into the
Mahratta's hands. Having now obtained these provinces, the
Peshwa was in a position to enforce his views to strike for the
sovereignty of Hindustan itself. The opposition which he had
met in the early days of his Peshwaship still troubled him, and
although the chiefs, the ancestors of the two great families of

Scindia and Holkar, on the whole, stood by him, he was never
supported by the Bhonslas who subsequently became the ruling
power in Nagpore ; this family never indeed cordially united with
* Duff, Vol. I, p. 502.

the other Mahrattas in pushing towards Northern India. Bundel-

kund was the first country to be invaded. Muhammad Khan
Bangash, a Bohilla, had recently established himself there by dis-
possessing a couple of Hindu Bajas who were at the time in semi-
independent rule of this province. The Mahrattas
employed
and brought Muhammad Khan
their usual tactics, cut off supplies,
into great straits, from which he was only rescued by a force of his
own clan, headed by his only son. He had, however, to retreat to
Allahabad and leave the Mahrattas in possession of the province.
The Bajputs fared hardly better Mewar and Jodhpur were both
;
overrun and forced to pay tribute. The cohesion, if not the gal-
lantry of this race, seems not to have been the same as it was in
the days of Akbar or even of Shah Jahan, when, as Imperial Gener-
als, they were foremost in the Imperial armies. The resistance
in Bajputana to the Mahrattas was but slight.
The Imperial Court during all this time was too engrossed in
debauchery and in intrigue to do anything. More than once, indeed,
an army was got together which was about to sweep these rascally
Mahrattas from the face of the earth, but after marching a few
stages and killing a few robbers,
would return quite pleased with
it
itself and the victorious General would obtain some one of the manv
epithets with which Eastern Muhammedan Monarchs have in

recent days been so fond of decorating their servants. The Seir
Mutakherin says as regards one of these great Generals that the
people in private repeated of him the following verse :
" You to
perform such a business. Is it so that the braves behave V* Up
from Bundelkund, further north struck the Mahratta hordes. The
only Generalwho seems to have been successful against them was
Saadat Khan, who had already made himself semi -independent
in Oudh.
The Court had, on the news of Baji Bao's march north, been
thrown into the greatest confusion and were ready to admit his
most exorbitant demands. A Mahratta is not particularly modest
in such matters and what they were then requesting, was virtu-
* Seir Mutakherin, Vol. I, p. 268.

T
BAHADUR SHAH. 19
ally that the whole of India South of the Chambal should be made
over to them. But while these negotiations were going on, Saadat
Khan in A. D. 1736 crossed the Ganges from Oudh and drove a
large body of the Mahratta troops across the Jumna. The news
of his success purled up the Imperial Court with an idea that the
Mahrattas were not so terrible after all, but Baji Rao very soon
disillusioned it. Marching rapidly north and avoiding the Im-
perial armies he encamped at the very gates of Delhi. He was
afraid, however, to maintain himself there as Nizam-ul-Mulk was
in the south and he was afraid lest the latter should take advantage
of his absence to collect the revenues of Malwa and generally to
injure the Mahratta power in the south. Accordingly, contenting
himself with 13 lakhs of rupees paid by the Imperial Government
and a promise of the Government of Malwa which indeed he already
efficiently held, Baji Rao retreated south. In the meanwhile,
Nizam-ul-Mulk appeared at last in Court and had the Governor-
ship of Malwa and Gujarat granted to him in the name of his
eldest son Ghazi-ud-din. On his side he promised to drive the Mah-
rattas out of these provinces. The consequence was a campaign
in what is now the modern State of Bhopal between the Peshwa
and Nizam-ul-Mulk. The same old mistakes were committed

by the latter. Instead of attacking, he fortified himself near
Seronj, and although the Mahrattas could not attack him with any
success owing to his artillery, they so straitened his supplies that
after attempts made to save him by his son by means of an army
from the Deccan had failed (no attempt was made in the Delhi
direction where the courtiers only talked but did nothing), he was
forced to come to an agreement with the Peshwa.
The main
terms of this treaty, were the grant to Baji Rao of Malwa and the
complete sovereignty of all the territory between the Nerbudda
and the Chambal. Nizam-ul-Mulk further agreed to obtain the
•confirmation of these terms and to use every endeavour to procure
a subsidy of 50 lakhs of rupees from the Emperor. The Peshwa
said he tried his best to get something out of the old man himself,
but Nizam-ul-Mulk, who was very fond of his money, declined and
Baji Rao did not press the point. |So by this year, 1738, the Moghul
Empire had ceased, save in name, to exist in the whole of South-

ern India (save in isolated places such as the port of Surat) and in
a very considerable part of Hindustan itself. In its place every-
where was to be found Mahratta rule, save where Nizam-ul-Mulk
had established his own dominions. In the part, moreover, which
.
still remained of the Empire, provinces such as Bengal, Behar,
Oudh and Cabul, were under Muhammedan Governors more or

less semi-independent. was in such provinces rather
Indeed, it
than in the remaining parts of the Empire that good Governors

were to be found, men like Saadat Khan and Ali Verdi Khan who
were on the whole strong rulers, not inclined to put up with
more disorder than they could help, whereas in the Provinces under
direct Imperial control every man did much as he chose. A Jat
chief of banditti named Churaman Singh established himself at
this time at Bhartpur and robbed right up to the gates of Delhi
and Agra. On the whole, if we are to judge by the fact that those
people are the happiest of whom history is the most silent, the people
of thePunjab would seem to have been the best off at the time, for
history as regards them is almost entirely silent. The Sikhs only rose
again after Nadir Shah's invasion and there was no sedition of any
moment during the first twenty years of the Emperor's reign.
In Delhi itself disturbances broke out from time to time. On one
occasion in a '
holi ' riot the mob took possession of the town for
days. Such was the state of things when Nadir Shah in the
latter part of 1738 invaded India and led his soldiery to the
attack and plunder of the Imperial Capital. About this Nadir
Shah and the kingdom of Persia I must now say a few words.
My readers will remember how at the beginning of the 16th

century Shah Ismail became the first ruler of the National Dynasty
over Persia after many centuries of subjection to the foreigner,
either Arab or Turkoman, and how his fortunes were connected
with those of Mirza Baber. When Humayun fled from Sher Shahj.
the Persian ruler was considered one of the greatest rulers in the
East and a few years later in the reign of Shah Abbas, commonly
known as Shah Abbas the Great, Persia rose to a position which
it has never since occupied. This great King, for he was really
BAHADUR SHAH. IS!*
great, and not only called so by way of flattery, died about the
same time as Jahangir and after his death, according to law which
governs almost all Oriental Dynasties, the Kingdom of Persia
began to decay it conquered indeed after
; much fighting Kan-
dahar from Shah Jahan, but all the same its history during the
greater part of the 17th century is one of constant decline. Then
came a foreign invader Mahmud, an Afghan, who led his country-
men against Shah Husain the effeminate descendant of the great
Abbas, who was then on the Persian throne, defeated him and
after a siege of Ispahan lasting many months in which the besieg-
ed suffered all the pangs of privation and semi-starvation, took
possession of this city in the early part of 1723. Mahmud was a
pure butcher ; his rule was nothing but one of a series of massacres
and when he died his cousin Ashraf found that the blood won con-
quest could not be maintained. Nominally under Shah Tah-
masp of the old dynasty, but really under Nadir Shah a robber
chief, the Afghans were driven headlong out of Persia A. D. 1727.
Nadir Shah did not belong to the Tajiks, the town dwellers, who
are Persians in the strict sense of the term, but sprang from one
of the many Turkoman Nomadic tribes which have wandered for
many a long year about the various plains of Persia and to one of
which the present ruling dynasty of Persia belongs. He signa-
lised the commencement of his rule by an attempt to change the
faith of the Persian from Shiah to Sunni Muhammedanism. In
this he failed, as indeed all attempts in this state to make such
a change, have failed. In political matters and in material matters
in general, the Oriental is very much a child, he can be led or
driven wherever a strong power wills, but once the question of
religion is touched, the child is found to be a grown man with
full
an indomitable will and so Nadir Shah found. He had other

work to do besides attempting to change the Persian religion. In
the first instance he had to restore the boundaries of Persia which
had been infringed on all sides. As regards these attempts at
restoration on the West and North against Russian and Turk this
history has nothing to do. Different, however, is the case with
his attempts in the East. In the case of the Afghans, first of a •
he had to drive these completely out of Persia, and secondly, the

found it necessary to capture Kandahar from an Afghan who
eventually had set himself as the ruler up there, and who was
plundering all round as far as Multan on the East, and Herat on
the West.
It was after his campaign at Kandahar that Nadir Shah came
in contact with the Moghul Empire. A number of the Afghans
in their flight had entered the Moghul dominions and Nadir Shah
demanded their surrender. Ambassadors were sent to the Im-
perial Court but no heed was taken of their representations, indeed
the officials whose arrogance was only equalled by their
there,
imbecility, would hardly allow them an audience. Nadir Shah on
his side was not a man with whom to trifle. First of all he
attacked Cabul, the Governor of which place at the time was Nasir
Khan. The latter had little stomach for the fight. Like so many
of the rulers of distant provinces he had constantly been demand-
ing money from the Court, but to none of his representations had
any attention been paid. In one of his letters he describes himself as
a rosebush withered by the blast of autumn and the soldiery as a
faded pageant, ill provided and without spirit. All the same no
money came, although promises were plentiful, andwhen Nadir
so
Shah attacked the town and province of Cabul he met with but
little resistance. He was fortunate also in another way. In-
vaders of India, as well as those who attempt to attack Afghanistan
and Beluchistan from India have constantly found the mountain
tribes along the Sulaiman range of hills as the greatest of obstacles.
The Delhi Court, from the days of Akbar's generals' campaigns
in Yusufzai lands, had found that the wisest as well as the cheapest
policy was to subsidize these tribes, in return for which they under-
took to keep some sort of order within this mountainous land.
Somewhat similar is the present policy of the Indian Government
which endeavours by enlistment and by pecuniary help in different
forms, to keep these tribes in a state of quietude. But the Delhi
Government had no money for anything of the sort, and so now
that Nadir Shah was coming, instead of these tribes acting as
obstacles in his path, they, on the other hand, welcomed him,
BAHADUR SHAH. 201
and followed in his train hoping to share in the plunder of Hindus-

tan. passed from Cabul to India by the orthodox road tra-
He
versed by so many conquerors before him, through the Khaiber,
crossed the Indus by boats at Attock and routed the troops sent
against him by the Subahdar of the Punjab near Lahore. This city
was spared, the Governor having paid Nadir Shah a large sum on this
account. By this time the Delhi Court was alarmed. A large army
under the command of Khan Dauran, an incompetent minister, who
for many years had done nothing but ruin the country, was gathered
together to arrest the invader. It marched as far as Karnal where
it encamped. Saadat Khan joined it shortly after its arrival there.
Nizam-ul-Mulk was in Delhi at the time with an army, but

he never seems to have intended to take any considerable share
in the fighting. At Karnal a battle was fought the losses on ;
the sides of the Persians were but nor indeed did the
trifling ;
Moghuls lose many more, but Khan Dauran was killed and Saadat
Khan taken prisoner. This determined the fate of the campaign.
Messages passed between the two armies with the result that
the Emperor visited Nadir Shah's camp. The Seir Mutakherin
•suggests that Nadir Shah was in the first instance willing to
make peace and return forthwith to his own country,
there
Taut that Saadat Khan who had become inordinately jealous of
Nizam-ul-Mulk, inasmuch as he believed that the latter had sup-
planted him in the Emperor's Council, sent word to Nadir Shah
that Delhi was close by, that there was nothing to oppose him,
and that this city was rich with wealth beyond the dreams of
avarice. Anyhow Nadir Shah determined on making no treaty
on the spot but to proceed along with Muhammad Shah to
Delhi. I may say here, that the story told that after the depar-
ture of the Persian King, that Saadat Khan and Nizam-ul-Mulk
mutually reproached each other as being the cause of the calami-
ties that had followed Nadir Shah's invasion, that both agreed to
take poison and that Saadat Khan did take it and died and that
Nizam-ul-Mulk, crafty old man that he was, took some innocuous
potion and lived, is hardly credible and may be dismissed from
1
sober history. Nadir Shah and Muhammad Shah together enter-

ed Delhi. was absolutely quiet then a rumour

First of all there ;
came through the town that Nadir Shah was dead, some saying
that he had died a natural death and some, that he had been stab-
bed by a Kalmuk woman of the harem. The consequence was an
uprising in the town and a massacre of all stray Persian soldiers.
Then the conqueror rose in his wrath and orders were issued for
an indiscriminate slaughter. The streets of the town ran red
with blood. The visitor to Delhi to this day is pointed out a low
mosque standing where the Hindu Jewellers' Street, known as the
" Dhariba," meets the stately Chandni Chowk, upon the balcony
of which it is said Nadir Shah sat on the fateful day of the great
massacre. As was to be expected, plunder went on as vigorously
as bloodshed, and as is common in such cases, fire completed the
work of destruction which blood and plunder had begun. Almost
three and a half centuries before, Delhi had been thoroughly
plundered by Timur's hordes, but since that time it had re-
mained untouched. Consequently even although Agra had been
the Court Capital during the days of the MoghuFs greatest power,
yet Delhi far more than Agra was the city in which the concen-
trated wealth of the Empire was. From this bloodshed and
plunder Delhi never really entirely recovered, and it is only now
at the present day, when it is becoming one of the great trade
centres of Northern India, that it is really again gradually finding
its old position. Great in reputation as being the centre of what
had been the Moghul power it continued to be, and so at the time
of the Mutiny it became the centre of all who dreamed that the
Delhi Empire might again be restored, but with the sack of the
town by Nadir Shah, its wealth and material greatness departed,,
and in the period which elapsed between the sack and its occupa-
tion by the forces of the East India Company, its greatness con-
sisted simply in its name. It had ceased to be the ruling capital,
in any sense, of India.

Nadir Shah returned to Persia with an enormous loot no ;
more than Timur did he intend to stay. All the contents of

the Delhi treasury consisting of money, both in gold and silver, as;
well as jewels and gold plate were carried off. Amongst other
BAHADUR SHAH. 203
spoils was the great peacock throne. As the Muhammedan

historian
—
remarks " in short, the accumulated wealth of three-
hundred and forty-eight years changed in a moment/' and not
only was the wealth of the Imperial Court carried away but strict
enquiries were made into the resources of the people. Everyone-

of any importance was forced to ransom himself according to a
scale which practically meant the taking away from the unfortu-
nate person his whole property. Thus having extracted all that
he could and having had his son married to one of the female-
descendants of Shah Jahan, Nadir Shah departed the way by which
he came, and with his departure the Empire of the Moghuls really
came to an end. For another few years Muhammad Shah and.
his successors still remained in Delhi, styling themselves as Moghul.
Emperors and ruled in name over some of the countries imme-
diately adjoining the capital. Still from time to time ambitious
Chiefs found the name of the great Moghul one wherewith to con-
jure ; but all the same the Moghul Empire from this time ceased
to exist. The whole of the South of India was either under the-
rule of the Mahrattas or of Nizam-ul-Mulk or of petty chiefs each

of whom did what seemed right in his own eyes, and as regards-
Upper India, the Viceroys (Subahdars) became practically inde-
pendent sovereigns. Sometimes one of these Viceroys would get
himself named as Wazir, sometimes this office was held by one of
the Delhi courtiers, but all power had passed away from the Imperial
throne. Within thirty years of this date, the representative of
the dynasty will be found under the tutelage of the East India
Company to which he is obliged to grant the Diwanship, really the
Government of Bengal, Behar and Orissa. Then, further on he-
will for a time pass under the tutelage of the Mahrattas, but never
again will he possess independent power. In the great struggles,
to come for the Lordship of India, neither he nor any troops com-
manded by his officers will take a prominent place. A little over
twenty years after Nadir Shah's invasion of India came another
invasion by Ahmed Shah Abdali the Afghan. The opposition to-
him was not from any Moghul force but from the Mahrattas of the
South. Against him on the historical plains, of Panipat in the year-
1761 A. D. was fought a battle on which depended the whole fate

of India. In that battle the Mahratta power was shattered, and
although the Afghans no more than the Persian obtained any per-
manent hold over India, it was the shattering of this Mahratta
power which made way for the English. If it had not been so,
and if the Mahrattas had won the fight at Panipat, the whole
history of modern India would probably have been altered. It is
the idlest of all idle thoughts to try and imagine what might have
been, but it is not a matter of surprise that a modern Mahratta in
his dreams looks back with regret to that fateful day and imagines
that if events had turned out differently he, and not the white-
.
skinned Englishman, would have been the Master of India at the

present day.
EPILOGUE.
After the return of Nadir Shall from Delhi set in what has-
been called the period of the Great Anarchy in Indian History.
Its advent had been approaching for fifty years previous to the
Persian ruler's invasion but only after this did it reign complete
and supreme. The Mahrattas had inaugurated its reign before the
death of Aurangzeb in the Deccan ; the Civil wars and the feeble
rule of his successors had helped it on in Hindustan in the thirty
years after this Emperor's death ; but now everywhere, except in
the corners where some more masterful despot than the rest ruled
with an iron hand, anarchy stepped forth, unabashed, undisguised
as King, everywhere rule became the rule of The
the strongest.
Governors of Great Provinces of the Empire, although their rule was
less nominal than that of the Emperor himself, were themselves by
no means absolute masters of their respective Governments. Petty

tyrants sprang up everywhere. Already the Peshwas had sup-
planted Sivaji's descendants and in their turn had been largely
supplanted by the military heads of the Mahratta people, Scindia,
Holkar, the Gaikwars, the Bhonsles and others. And the military
chiefs themselves were by no means supreme, without rivals,
within the lands over which they were supposed to rule. Smaller
men, village bullies everywhere sprang up, who spread terror all
around them and who only too often turned lands, which had been
spared by the regular armies into deserts. Now and again a real
ruler is to be found, such as Haider Ali in Mysore, who insisted
on obedience.
Some parts of India such as Bengal were too rich even for the
marauding Mahratta absolutely to despoil but on the whole India,
;
which was already far on the down grade before Nadir Shah crossed
the Sulaiman range, went down after his departure at an ever accel-
erated pace towards ruin. Nor did the first conquests of the Eng-
lish do much to change this state of things. They drove back in-
"206 HISTORY OF THE GREAT MOGHDLS.
•deed open anarchy, but at the same time they in their rapacity and
their ignorance of Indian life rather furthered than checked the
process of internal dissolution, until the latter years of the
eighteenth century, when the period of constructive administration
in the lands ruled by them began. What can be said for the
^British rule in its earliest stages is that by reason of its military
successes it made a subsequent building up of the administration
and a checking of internal disorder possible.
. The story of the
growth of this anarchy, of this long prolonged agony comparable
in English history to the reign of Stephen, when every man did
what was good in his own eyes, as far as his neighbour was not
•strong enough to prevent him, is to be gathered from almost all
the literature concerning India of the time. Nowhere is it to be

found more fully set forth than in the pages of the Seir Mutakherin.
Not that the writer of that book, Mir Ghulam Husain Khan, a
nobleman of the province of Behar, had any idea that the period
he was describing and in which he lived had the character which'
we have attributed to it. But rarely does it happen that he who
lives in a troubled or indeed in any period of the world's history
•can appreciate correctly its bearings with the past or foresee how
it will bear in the future, and this particular author, though he
sighs over the disorders of the times and regrets the incapacity
and cowardice of the chiefs, does not show the slightest appreciation
•of what all who study the epoch can see now, viz., that he was
living in a period of absolute disorder. As to the English, he

looks upon their arrival and conquest of the country as the worst
of all the troubles which had befallen unhappy Hindustan. Some
of his complaints, such as Englishmen's favouring of their own
countrymen, their not taking into Government service nor giving
sufficient important positions to Natives of India, of promotions
going by seniority, of the draining India of a great part of her
wealth and sending the same to Europe, of their listening to their
underlings and very often to their own private servants, have a
strangely modern sound. Similar complaints are not infrequent
not only in the ephemeral native journalism of the day, but in the
writings of temperate Indian writers of a much higher standard
EPILOGUE. 207
than the average journalist and have found their echo largely in
Europe. Other complaints such as the want of open durbars, of
the delays of justice, of entrusting too much power to the Zamindars
savour more of the time. There is no doubt that the author missed
alike the grandeur of. open courts and the quick justice of the
Moghuls. To him the license of abuse, allowed to disappointed
suitors at theend of an unsuccessful hearing, was a sign of mag-
nanimity, and the privacy of the English Courts as well as the
protractedness of their proceedings were abominations. But above
all stands out as his main objection to the English that whereas
the Moghuls, when they conquered, took the greatest interest in

maintaining or increasing the prosperity of the conquered country,
the English, on the other hand, thought only of seizing all its riches
for themselves. He tells how when Shah Alam of Delhi invaded
Behar in the early sixties of the eighteenth century the people first
favoured him, but finding his army a rabble given over to plunder
and the English troops under discipline transferred all their
'
sympathies to the latter. But he writes those people (the '
natives of Behar) feel nothing for them (the Englishman) now,

fully sensible that these new rulers pay no regard or attention to
the concerns of Hindustanies, and that they suffer them to be
mercilessly plundered, fleeced, oppressed, and tormented by those
officers of their appointing, and by their other dependants these ;
same people, I say, reduced now to despair, have altered their

language, and totally changed in their hearts, on finding that their
rulers had so far altered from what they had seemed to be."
II.
Muhammad Shah lived after Nadir Shah's departure for an-

other nine years ; his two successors, faineant Emperors, nominally
ruled one for six and the second for five years. The latter was put
to death by Prime Minister, a grandson of Nizam-ul-Mulk, a
his
monster of brutality even amongst the most brutal of the time,

and the next Emperor Shah Alam the II as he was named who
reigned in name for forty-seven years up to 1806 A. D., lived
to see the English Masters of Delhi. This last-named Emperor
never really was in power over any part of the vast Empire of
which he was the nominal overlord. It was very early in his
reign, 1761 A. D., that the Mahrattas, who in the years following
Nadir Shah's invasion had overrun and plundered most of Western
and a part of Eastern Hindustan, met the crushing defeat of
Panipat. The Afghan invaders under Ahmed Shah Adali shivered
the finest force the Mahrattas had ever put into the field into a
thousand fragments. As often before, so then it was shown that
the lighter native of India, active and courageous though he be,
is no match for the heavier built warrior of Afghanistan and
Central Asia. It was really Panipat rather than Plassey that

decided the fate of Modern India. With it was shattered for ever
the hope of a Mahratta Empire stretching from the Himalayas to
Cape Comorin. Never again do we find the Mahrattas really united
in any enterprise of moment. Thereafter more than half their
strength is expended in internecine conflict, one military chief
fighting with another. And most important of all, as far as the
English were concerned, after Panipat, Upper India was left alone
during the eventful years from 1761 on to 1782. The English in
India during those years had in their wars in Hindustan not to
deal with the Mahrattas, who alone at that time, away from far
distant Mysore, could boast of having an army worthy of the name.
On the other hand, the opponents of the English were almost
entirely a rabble which some Muhammedan Governor, himself too
often a poor Harem dwelling creature, could manage to get together
and which had no idea of fighting save as a preliminary to plunder.

The armies of Murshidabad and Lucknow alike were void of the
first elements of discipline or military cohesion and proved them-
selves no match for the handful of Europeans and Natives —such
—
were the early English armies who, on the other hand, were
properly drilled and handled. And so it happened that long before
the change was realised, the English had made themselves the
strongest power in Hindustan. When at the beginning of the
nineteenth century they had to meet a stubborn opposition in Upper
any Hindustani power but from the Mahrattas,
India, it came not from
whose home was the Deccan and who in a sense might be deemed
EPILOGUE. 209
foreigners in the land. It was not till the Sikh wars (omitting
the Nepal war as the Gurkhas can hardly be termed Hindustanis)
that the East India Company's mixed army of Europeans and
Natives met in Upper India a foe worthy of its steel. And it was
in these Sikh wars too that the insufficiency of the Native Sipahis
of the Ganges lands, however well drilled, to meet the hardier and
bigger soldiers of the Punjab, was first demonstrated. From these
wars the day of the Hindustani Sipahi as the Eastern fighting man
of the British Raj was at an end. The Mutiny only consummated
the change. British India was conquered mainly by a small
number of English troops supplemented by a much larger number
of Hindustani troops drilled and disciplined in English fashion.
British India, in fact India —for all India is •
British now- — is at
present guarded and protected by a large body of English troops,
supplemented- by a larger force of Native troops in which the Sikhs
and Muhammedans of the Punjab and the Gurkhas of Nepal take
the foremost place. If ever India is to be exposed to invasion in
the North-West, the protagonists on the British side will be the
soldiers just named. Instead of the invader from the N.-W.
meeting the Hindustani Sipahi as he would have done forty years
ago, he will encounter besides the British soldiers the Punjabi, the
hill men of the North-West and the Gurkha of Nepal.
Why these are better and more reliable soldiers is not far to
seek. Climate and race both explain. Hot dry summers, cold
winters — such climates — produce the hardier men. Witness the
tribes of Western Central Asia, the men who supplied Taimur and
Babar with their armies and who have ever shown themselves
as possessing the greatest endurance and courage. Even a hot
climate without much winter, if it be dry, produces a hardy race.
Witness the Arabs, who in the seventh and eighth centuries overrun
a great part of the known world. But the hot steamy valley of
the Ganges where heat is joined to excessive humidity is not a
climate fitted to produce such men. Many as the virtues are of
the races who inhabit what the Germans call Wet India —roughly
speaking the lands East of the parallel of longitude running through
Allahabad —keen thinkers as they may be, their native lands are
k, hm 14
not fitted to rear a powerful nation at arms. And not only climate
but race an ingredient in the breeding of such, a race. The
is also
Jat peasantry of the Punjab almost certainly at some not too far
—
distant period came from the colder and severer lands of Central
Asia. So probably at some more distant time indeed did the high
caste races of Oudh, Bihar and Bengal. The races who burst
through the hills that stretch from Rajmahal across Central India,
and settled in the Delta below must have been endowed with intrep-
idity of no common sort. But yet a land, in which it seemeth
always afternoon, in time will change (away from all questions of
change of food, in itself a most powerful faction in the formation of
character) any race characteristics and will in time lessen the active,
though it may increase the passive virtues.
When, however, all has been said, the history of the Indian
armies, from the time that Clive in the forties of the eighteenth
century defended Arcot, up to the siege of Delhi in 1857 and the
-capture of Lucknow in 1858, is one of the most wonderful in the
world's history. The English, absolute foreigners, managed to
attach men during these 110 years from various parts of India to
:serve under their flag in various parts of India and sometimes
beyond, with no further power of attraction than the promise of
regular pay. Mercenaries have been known throughout the world's
history : daredevils, with a dislike to regular industry, have
.always been found who have been willing to kill and be killed
'for a moderate remuneration. But it is only in days when the
ordinary means of industry and livelihood are hard to obtain, that
any considerable part of a population become willingly mercenaries.
In cases such as in the latter part of the Thirty Years' War, when
Germany had been turned into a desert, and when regular occupa-
tions were atan end, then naturally the younger and stronger turned
to the one occupation whereby a livelihood might be gained, i.e.,
the camp. And again in German History we read of the smaller
Princes forcibly making their subjects as soldiers and selling them
-to a foreign prince. Thus England hired Hessian troops in her
vain attempt to conquer her revolted American colonies. But the
.English in India did not get their soldiers in this last fashion. The
EPILOGUE. 211
reason why the English got whatever soldiers they wanted was large-
ly thesame which caused the contending powers in Germany
as that
from 1635 on to get as many men as they could pay, i.e., soldiering
was the only lucrative industry at the time. But in India too, be-
sides the fact that anarchy had driven many men from their regular
business, there was another reason which made the recruitment
of Sipahis not difficult. In the first instance, the fighting classes
in India, those who by caste rules and feeling, consider soldiering
the only fit profession for a gentleman, far exceed any such class in
Europe. They could indeed get service under a Native Prince, but
with him, however grand the promises, the chances of fulfilment
were precarious. Far otherwise was it with the East India Com-
pany, where as an almost universal rule, pay was punctual and
where once promised, was never afterwards withheld. Add to this
what we have said above, i.e., that soldiering according to prices
then prevailing was paid much better than any other profession,
which the professional soldier could ordinarily join, and the secret
how the Indian army was welded together is largely disclosed.
Without, however, a feeling of camaraderie and of confidence be-
tween the white officer and the native soldier all these reasons would
have been insufficient. It was this which completed the chain by
which the Company's armies were forged into one whole. It was
the lessening of this feeling of camaraderie and of friendship, which
was one of the main sources of the Mutiny. The officer got too far
apart from the soldier. The same complaint which is made
now often in Civil life that there is no real friendship between the
English administrative officers and the natives of the country was
much to be heard in the immediate pre-Mutiny days. And there
is no doubt that such a complaint implies something very wrong.
It is not well with any country, certainly not with India, when such a
complaint is true. And at the present day, the most important
factor in Indian administration sympathy and
is this feeling of
friendship. Without it the Indian Government would be only

what the Germans call Byzantismus. The administrative machine
moves on like the Car of Juggernath, crushing, flattening every-
where, but the result, even if it make for physical prosperity,
must be disastrous. Often it is said that the mass of work that

a European officer has to get through, the fact that he can now
spend all his leave owing to the quick passages procurable
to Europe, alike prevent him from getting to know and to like the
native as he did of yore. If this be so, and I believe, there is some
truth in it, it would be better to lessen the amount of work called
for from each officer, much of it of the purely mechanical sort which
can be done by a subordinate staff, to change leave rules so as to
ensure that officers should spend a part of their leave in India, than
to allow a system to continue, which an alienationmay result in
between the rulers and the ruled a state of things more likely to be
;
disastrous to India's peaceful progress than any other cause which,

in my opinion, is at present at work.
III.
As regards Administration, it is a cardinal point either in study-

ing the History of India in the past or in applying oneself to the
problems of India of to-day to remember that the present system
had really its origin in the days of Akbar. Sher Shah indeed may
have suggested by his acts much which Akbar and Todar Mull
worked out but these two latter are the reel founders of Modern
;
Administrative India. Previous to them we find nothing which

would correspond to a modern State. Village communities have
ruled themselves in India since days immemorial. Princes, both
Hindu and Muhammedan, have taken from these villages and from
the more complex townships, funds wherewith to hold a Court or
equip an army ; Afghan rulers and Rajput Rajas have established
on a large scale tribal rule ; at times, indeed, as with some of the
Afghan rulers of Delhi, this rule has extended over a great part of
Hindustan but the Administrative rule of modern days sometimes
;
half contemptuously called bureaucracy, stretching its web over

man's manifold transactions, really first came into existence with
Akbar. As in the ancient world, Monarchy after Monarchy, Assy-
ria, Babylon, Persia, Macedon, became one after the other for a
period world Monarchies, but the first that really entwined itself
round the various populations comprised within it, so that all felt
EPILOGUE. 213
bound by one common administration and law, was Eome, so in the

•case of India it was the Moghuls that first created Hindustan in
the modern sense a State. How strong the fetters were that were
forged, what lasting power they had, is to be seen from the fact
that when the Moghul Empire went into a thousand bits, when the
Emperors became puppets and the Governors of Provinces became
unable to put down the disorders which arose everywhere, the old
forms still existed, the old methods were still nominally pursued
and the old names and styles still endured. The English in India
really took up the Moghuls' work, making that a reality which for
the half century before them had been but a mockery. And in
spite of all that may be said against it, it is in the working out of
this bureaucratic administration that the future of India seems to
•depend. Constitutions, it cannot too often be said, are not common-
ly made ; they ordinarily grow by rules much the same as other or-
ganic growths. In no country less than India could there ever be a
tabula rasa, a going back to the state of things such as existed before
the days of Akbar. In Modern Europe we find two styles of Gov-
ernment, which may be termed the Prussian or bureaucratic and
the English or popular. In the former the State is managed much as
a wise proprietor would manage a private estate service in it is ;
almost universally paid, the work is economically and as a rule

well done, but it lacks the spontaneousness and the freedom of the
other system. Whether this lack is compensated by the. superior
efficiency of the work done, is a matter concerning which it is not
necessary here to say anything. The point is that for good or for
evil India has got no choice. The Prussian method of Government
is the only one possible for her. Modifications indeed may be made
in the popular direction, but the Government must be carried on,
if anarchy is not to come again, after the Prussian fashion ; and this
upon line and step upon step is the only policy which
"being so, line
the British Government of India can pursue. It was more than
three hundred years from the date when the first non-Italians were
made Roman citizens to the day that Caracalla gave that dignity
to all the subjects of the Empire. In less than a hundred years
from the days of Lord William Bentinck, the British Government
has made great steps in the direction taken by the Eoman Rulers
of old. Indians have been associated with the Administration, the
personal law governing ,the,. various races of India have been largely
codifiedand steps have been taken to give these races a voice in the
making of laws. And the process thus begun is still going or.
Where it will end no one can tell. The problem is, in some res-
pects, far more difficult than that to which the Csesars addressed
themselves. The English are fewer than the Romans were in the
provinces, the transition from race to race in the old world State
was gradual, here it is one great leap. The countries forming the
Roman Empire were geographically connected some thousands ;
of miles separate the shores of India from Great Britain. On the

other hand, the races of India are easier to deal with than most of
the races which formed the Roman Empire and ; steam has largely
annihilated distances of. space. And again the Romans had no
previous Governments- of world or continental States, save the
Hellenistic States to a small degree, from which to take advice or
warning. They worked out their administration and their civil-
isation in their own way and by their own unaided lights. And
in spite of its many defects, what a wonderful administration and
civilisation it was. Not only was Rome the mother of Modern
Europe, but a Semitic race such as the Arabs and an Eastern race
such as the Persians, were profoundly influenced by her. England
has in any case the example of Rome both for an admonition and
a warning ever before her. And we may say that even already
her administration has shown as wonderful results as Roman rule
ever did. The awakening of Asia is slow, but it awakens all the
same. Japan has been the fastest to move, but China as well as
India are rapidly proceeding on Western paths. And we may say
without exaggeration that this awakening is mainly, if not
almost entirely, the work of England. The United States and
Russia may have had some influence ; but even combined, their
influence has been, .if compared with English, insignificant. And
as to India itself, its railways, canals, roads, ports and on the
other side its universities, schools, educated men— all speak most
eloquently of the enormous influence of England on India. And
EPILOGUE. 215
yet it would be as wrong to exaggerate this influence as to depre-

ciate it. In spite of
England has done or taught, her influence
all
has not yet penetrated so deep that if her protecting hand were
withdrawn for fifty years, the probabilities are not great that
nothing of it would remain.
The Intellectuals in India have through-
out the country, even in some cases by the method of aversion, been
profoundly influenced by England. Of this there can be no doubt
whatsoever. Even more powerfully have the people at large been
moved by economic by the growth of communications, by
reasons,
the possibilities of selling what they may have to sell at a distance
from home and by the consequent demand for what they produce
by people from a distance-— all of which are results of English rule.
And yet by far the greater part of the population follow agricul-
tural pursuits ; excepting the Presidency towns, great towns,
which are not simply magnified villages, are few ; the great mass,
of the people never, save perhaps for a local fair, travel a dozen
miles from where they are born ; all the articles of their daily
consumption are still produced on the spot (cotton goods perhaps,
should here be mentioned as an exception) and to all outward
seeming they pass their lives, absolutely uninfluenced any by
foreign forces in the same way of life and with the same aims and
methods of thinking, that their ancestors had in the villages in
which their descendants now live two thousand years ago. E
pur si muove, still there is movement, though slow, and the foreign
leaven is working—working even in matters such as the tilling of
the soil — little by little strange methods are being introduced ;
strange implements, modified to meet local requirements, taking

the place of the older pure Indian instruments of work.
To sum up the whole matter, with the fostering care of England,
for another limited period of time, limited in relation to a nation's

history in which not years but tens of years and even fifties of years
stand as units, there seems to be, humanly speaking, a certainty
that the masses of India will be developed into something different
from what they were a hundred years ago, from what they are
now. If this fostering care should be withdrawn, if the people of
India were left to themselves to work out their own salvation, it
is impossible to prophesy what would be their future. The prob-

abilities are (I take it for granted that English rule is not super-
seded by some other foreign rule such as • Russian, German or
Japanese) that the warlike races of Upper India would seize the
land and put the Intellectuals' —who at the present day are mainly
to be found in the warmer parts of India near the sea into a posi-
tion of hopeless inferiority, using them for their purposes but by
no means being guided by them as to their methods of govern-
ment. That English influence is entirely for good, I do not think
any candid observer of matters of India can well maintain. But
that it is mainly for good I fancy almost every Indian will ack-
nowledge. Many of us look into misgivings on what seems to be

an inevitable result of English rule, the introduction of the eco-
nomic conditions of the West into the East. There is Capitalism
here true ; there is a proletariat, also true ; but at present there
is none of the class antagonism which is such an unpleasant feature
in the West The joint family among the Hindus in the
of to-day.
past is rapidly being undermined and with it the greatest resisting
power to the Western fierce individual all-pervading hunt after
wealth. That more capital is needed in India, that it will be
better for her if she can work up more of the raw products in which
she abounds into manufactured articles without having to send
them to a foreign country — all this is true. But such gain would
be dearly bought, if along with it came the turning of the Indian
peasant's life into one of dull unending blind labour, such as is
the lot of a large part of the manufacturing population of the

West. In India though the sun is most of the year hot, still it is,
almost always to be had ;

people live largely in the open air ;
and the change,• if the rustic is to become a denizen of great
towns, would be not one of unmixed advantage. Sun, air, wateT,

all are plentiful (some will say too plentiful, and so they may be
for the pale Western but not ordinarily for the acclimatised Eastern),
are all great blessings, and if the result of. .English rule were to rob
a great part of the population of their enjoyment of these, the loss
would be great indeed. It is to be hoped that neither the Govern-
ment by its legislation nor the leaders of the people ^by their
EPILOGUE. 217
influence, nor economic causes, which are stronger than either

Government or popular leaders, will bring about such a result.
'"
Better twenty years of Europe than a cycle of Cathay " may
be all very well for those with wealth and leisure, but for the
masses —given the choice between a Western factory with its gray,
never ceasing toiland the of an Eastern peasant — and
life most,
I think, would prefer the latter.
—;
INDEX.
Abdullah Khan became Wazir, 173; took Aurangzeb, a dweller in tents, 11 ; his letter
part with the besieging force at Allaha- to Murad, 58 wary in accepting his
;
bad, 182 ; placed another scion of the father's invitation to see him within the
House of Timur on the throne, getting Imperial Harem— his sister Roshanara
together a fresh army, 181 ; fought magni- Begam warned him against it, 63; took
ficently at Husainpur against the royal possession of the town in the Imperial
troops— his army dispersed and he was Harem, 63; gave out that he will seat his
taken prisoner— died in captivity in 1722 brother Murad on the throne —invited
A. D., 185. Murad which Murad drank
to a feast at
Abdur Razaq Lari, the only noble who was to excess — sent him to prison at Gwalior
faithful to his King to the last— Auvang- and executed him, 65 proceeded to Delhi
;
zeb forced him to enter his service, 138. took his seat on the throne as Padshah on
Abu-1-Fath Khan, 110. 16th July 1658— after his second coronation
Afzal Khan killed at the hands of Sivaji, at Agra Khutba said in his own name and
105. his own name stamped on the coins, 66 pub- ;
Ahmednuggur Kingdom— end of, 47. licly paraded Dara Shikoh and his grand-
Ahmed Shah Abdali invaded India— opposed son through the bazaars, 69 introduced ;
by Mahrattas of the South, 203. innovations which eventually caused the

Ajit Singh, son of Jeswant Singh, 127. overthrow of the Moghul power, 72 com- ;
Akana, one of the Chief Ministers in pared to King Philip of Spain, 73 ; his
Golkonda, 133. character, 71; his great leniency to his
Akbar the Great — his administrative subjects— his .panegyric, 75 ; his prohibi-
methods, 1 ; his death, 8. tion against singing and dancing, 79
AH Mardan Khan, Persian Governor of Fatwa Muhammedan
Alamgiri, a code of
Kandahar, 51. Law, made in his reign, 80 his speech to ;
Ali Verdi Khan, 198. h is tutor when he presented himself for

Amin Khan,; son of Mir Jumla, sent to rule some preferment, 80; .forbade, - in the
Kabul, 96. tenth year of his reign, any history of his
Amir Jamla, favourite of Farokh Siar, 172. time. being written, 83; on his accession
Amir Jamla, sole head of the Bengal Army to the throne ordered abolition of several
and Viceroy of Bengal, given the title of taxes, 87 embassies from Persia, Mawar-
;
Khan Khanan— died A. D. 1682-hi.s in- nu-Nahr, Dutch Eastern Colonies, Sharif
vasion of Assam, 94 burial practices of the
; of Mecca, Prince of Bassora, and Abyssi-
—
Assamese tribute of the Assamese to nia came to him, 89 ; his wars with the
Aurangzeb, 95. Rajputs, with Bijapur and with the Mah-
Amir-ul-Umara, 108. rattas, 97 ; sent troops against Sivaji soon
Arjun, the fifth Guru, 165. after he became Emperor, 108 destroyed ;
Asad Khan made Wazir by Shah Alam, 161 ; the temple of Bishnath in Benares, 117 ;
and deprived of all his

seized, imprisoned, the great temple at Muttra destroyed in
property by Farokh Siar— a series of his reign, 117 ;his exemption of Mussul-
assassinations in his reign, 173 ; his death mans' goods from customs dues, 118.
— Farokh Siar's message to him, 179. imposed the Jizya before Sivajfs death
Asaf Khan, his stratagem of proclaiming 1680 A. D., 120 ; Ins troops gained a victory
Dawar Bulish as Emperor in order to over an enemy superior in numbers in
secure the succession of Shah Jahan, 35. Golkonda, 1,33 joined the troops against
;,
;; — ;
220 INDEX.
Bijapur and was victorious, 135 laid siege ; Capt. Hawkins and Sir Thomas Roe at
to Golkonda, 137 in 1698 A. D. establish-
; the Imperial Court, 32.
ed his head-quarters at Brahmapuri on Chabila Ram, 182.
the Beema, 144 drifted into war with the
;
Chin Killich Khan, 171.
Portuguese and English, 145 his letters to ;
Chouth (one-fourth) revenue, 125.
his sons shortly before his death, 151
Churaman Singh, 198.
attacked at Dobari and forced to retreat by
the ltajputs, 128; his treaty with the
Rajputs, 130; his final advance against Dadaji, guardian of Sivaji, 100. ,
Bijapur and Golkonda, 133 his character, ; Dara Shikoh— lax in belief and practice of
153-; his death at Ahraednuggur in 1707 his religion— his character, 53 ; received
A. D., 151 released Sambhaji's
; son Shah Jahan's blessing before going to
Sahu, for many years Aurangzeb's pris- fight, 60; panic in his army, 62; his flight
oner, 158 ; laid siege to Bijapur, 45. to Agra and Delhi after Aurangzeb's
victory, 63 took possession of Thatta
;
Badakshan— fighting in, 51 Prince Murad seized Ahmedabad— met Aurangzeb's

;
commanding Imperial army in— recalled forces at Ajm^re and was routed, 67.
in disgrace, 51".
Daud Khan fouglit against Hnsain Ali Khan
Iiaji Ghorpuraik of Mundhaul, 102.
and was killed, 179.
Bnji Rao, Peshwa, 192 ; his successful march
Daulat Khan, Governor of Kandahar, 51.
Difficulties in snbjugatins the Rajputs, 19.
to the north— Court ready to admit his
most exorbitant demands, J 96 ; encamped DilirJung, Subahdar of Lahore, his suc-
at the very gates of Delhi, and contenting cesses against the Sikhs— thousands slain
himself with 13 lakhs of rupees, retreated

and taken prisoners, 177.
south, 197 Malwa and sovereignty of ter- Dilir Khan totally routed while trying to
;
ritory between the Nerbudda and the extricate Prince Akbar, 128.
Charabal given to him by Nizam-ul-Mulk, Durga Das, lord of Drunara, 129.
197. Dutch in Masulipatam and Ceylon— a terror
to the Portuguese, 30.
Balaji Vishvanath, a Brahmin, with his
descendants known as the Mahratta Pesh-
—
was acknowledged heads of the Mahratta English, in Surat— obstacles to their trade,
Confederacy, 186. 31 ; their factory and factors ordered to
Banda, successor to Govind Singh— his cap- be seized by Aurangzeb owing to the
ture of Sirhind, 167 ; made prisoner with largest Moghul ship having been captured
his son and Diwan, and paraded through by them, 146; Emperor agreed that the
—
the streets of Delhi his execution, 177. English should go on as they did before,
Battle of Oojein, 1658 A. 1)., 59. 147 ; their rule in India, 206 ; conquered
Begam Sahiba, ordered all the temples in India with a small number of British
the Empire to be destroyed, 49; her sup- troops, supplemented with a larger num-
ber of Native troops, 209 administration
port of Dara Shikoh, 63; stayed with ;
—
Shah Jahan to the last her reconciliation of India, 214 influence in India, 216.
;
with Aurangzeb, 86.

European settlements on the coast of India
Bernier, Physician to Dara Shikoh, 68
during the reign of Jahangir, 29.
his description of the Abyssinian Embassy Europeans and semi-Europeans in the
—his account of all the Embassies to Native armies, 60.
Aurangzeb, 90— 93. Fakhrun Nissa, Aurangzeb's eldest daugh-
Bijapur, Imperialists inarch into, but were ter, influenced state affairs, 86.
forced to retire after suffering much want, Farokh Siar put on the throne in place of
135 ; Bijapur, its ruler placed in confine- Jahandar Shah, 172; his invasion of Raj
—
ment where he died its ruins as at pres- putana— his treaty with Ajit Singh, 174 ;
ent existing are exceedingly grand its — religious disturbances in his reign, 174
ancient building restored in part by Lord his attempt to get rid of the control of
Curzon, 136. Sayads Husain Ali Khan and Abdullah
Bikramjit, 49. Khan, 180.
Bindraban Das, Bahadur Shahi, a historian, Fateh- Singh founded the -Btaonsla family-
84. story as to how Sahu adopted him as his
Brahmapuri, camp at, abandoned, 148. son, 186.
— ;
INDEX. 221
Fat.h placed in confinement the ruler

Khan India, her state after the departure o
of the Nizam Shahis, 45 submits to the ;
Nadir Shah from Delhi, 205.
Emperor— again fortifies himself for a Indian armies, 210.

siege— attacked by Khan Khanan and
Khan Zaman— surrendered, 46. Jahandar Shah, son of Shah Alam, succeed-
Fatteh Khan, 116. ed him as Emperor, 170 ; with his son
Fazl Muhamraed Khan, Afzal Khan's son, took the field against Husain Ali Khan
107. and Abdullah Khan— defeated, 172.
Forced labour, 14.
Jafar Khan, ordered by Jahandar Shah to
send Farokh Siar to Court, 172.
Jahangir, his exaggeration of his virtues and
Gerald Aungier, 120.
vices, 4 ; his exaggerated reforms, 5 his ;
Ghazi-ud-din, 197.'
Ghazi-ud-din Khan, known also as Nizam- Memoirs, 6 ; hisnomination to the throne
by Akbar, 7 his father's last words to
ul-Mulk— thanked by Aurangzeb for ;
him, 8; his accession to the throne, 8;

relief given to Sultan Azam, 135.
his love for camping, 11; his love of
Ginjee, siege of, 147.
Kashmir, 14 his fondness of the society
Girdhar Bahadur, 182. ;
of Jogis, 14 his visit to a Darvesh, 15

Golkonda, troops driven back by the Im-
;
his marriage with Nur Jahan, 16 his

its nobles left their King
;
perialists, 134 ;
passion for hunting, 16 tribute paid to

and joined the Imperial troops— the king- ;
dom lost by treachery, 138 King of, his ;

him by liana Umrao Singh, 20 reduced ;
the customs duties, 22 his character

flight into the Golkonda fort— pillage and
;
his death, 29 his weight in gold, silver

devastation in, 134 begged the ISmperor
;
;
D.—humilating condi- and other articles given away, 33 his ;

for peace, 16S6 A.
on him, surrendered interment at Lahore, 34.
tions imposed 135 ;
with great dignity to Prince Azam — sent Jai Singh, 111 ; did his best to subdue Bija-
pur but failed, 114.
toDaulatabad as a prisoner, 138.
Jajhar Sing, 49.
Govind Singh, tenth and last Guru, his
Jalsamad (voluntary death by water), 186.
Daswen Badshah ka Granth, 166; joined
Bahadur Shah's—assassin- Jeswant Singh acted treacherously to
his fortunes to
Prince Shujah, 70.
atedby an Afghan horse-dealer, 166.
Gujrat and Malwa. harried by Rajput Jiziya, its collection in Rajputana ceased,
130.
bands, 128.
Guru Nanak, the first Guru of the Sikhs-
died 1539 A. D., 165. Kambaksh, after his mistake in the siege of
Ginjee, set at, liberty, but not permitted
Hamid Khan, Sir Buland Khan sent to sup- to return to the army, 147.
ersede him in the Governorship of Gujarat, Kandahar, Imperial forces besiege, under
193.
the command of Prince Aurangzeb— after
Hashim Ali Khan, a Muhammedan histo- a three and a half years' siege abandoned,
51.
rian, wrote a history of Aurangzeb's forty-
nine years' reign, 83 ; better known as Karan Singh, Umrao Sing's grandson,
representative at the Imperial Court, 20.
Khafi Khan, 84.
Himat Khan, 148. Kasim Khan, 59.
Husain Ali Khan appointed Subahdar of Kaum Buksh and his son Firozmand died
the Deccan, 173; fighting with tbeMahrat-
wounds, 159.
of their
tas— entered into treaty of peace, 180

<-.
Khafi Khan, his remarks regarding the
;
Husain Ali Khan, marched to Court with English, 146.

Mahratta Khalilullah Khan, traitor to Dara Shikoh,
his troops, accompanied by
62.
—
auxiliaries put Rafi-nd-Darjah on the
Khan Dauran, 190.
throne, 181 marched against ChabilaRam,
;
Governor at Allahabad, 182; Husain Ali Khan Jahan Bahadur, Viceroy of the
Khan assassinated by Mir Hyder Khan, Deccan, 116.
184.
Khan Jahan Lodi, rebelled against Shah
Jahan— summoned to the Imperial Courts
41 ; escaped into Bundela country, 42.
Imperial troops under Khan Khanan in the Khan Khanan, discharged his duties in
Balaghat reduced to great distress, 21. Shah Alam's reign with great justice an
222 INDEX.
clemency, 161 ; abolished Mansabs, Malik Jiwan, traitor to Dara Shikoh, his
162. Dara Shikoh and Sipah Shikoh,
seizure of
Kharram, rebellion of, 24 ; defeated at 68 -eceived the title of Bahadur Khan,
;
Allahabad by Mahabat Khan, 21. 69.

Khusrao. Plana to make him Akbar's Mallaji, his wealth, 98 story of one of his
;
successor, 8 : placed in semi-confinement family becoming King, 99.

by —
his father his escape his revolt— his — Man Singh of Ambar, 6.
defeat by tho royal troops, 9 his sur- ; Manucci, a Venetian physician, 80.
render and imprisonment, 10. Mazhabi Sikhs, 166.
Kunwar Ram Singh, son of Jai Singh, 113. Mir Ahmed Khan collected a force to drive
the rebels out of Srinagar, in the reign of
Lai Knar, 171. Parok'n Siar, but failed, 176.
Little Thibet raided by the Imperial army, Mir Jumla, Chief Minister of Golkonda— his
52. conquests on the Eastern coast, 54 es- ;
Lord Cnrzon restored in part the ancient

caped from Golkonda and placed by
buildings of Bijapur, 136. Aurangzeb among the Moghul nobility,
55 received the title of Muazzam Khan
;
from Aurangzeb, 55 ; his imprisonment, 58.

Madana, one of the chief Ministers in Gol- Mirza Baber, 198.
konda, 133. Moghul Camp deteriorating in 1700 A. D.,
Mahammad Sultan advanced with a force to 149.
Golkonda, 55. Moghul disasters in wars in the Deccan,
Mahabat Khan, Rajput, converted to Mu-
a,
22 Empire on the highway to decay, 02
; ;
liammedanism, 21 ; rebelled owing to enmi- Empire ceased to exist in southern India

ty of Nur Jahan's family, 25 ; forbidden in 1738 A. D., 198 system of administra-
;
to appear at Court on his return from the tion adopted by the English, 213.
Deccan— several thousand Rajputs accom- Moghuls, the masters of Hindustan, 1 Frat- ;
panied him— seized the Emperor in camp, ricide by their Kings, 2 their adminis. ;
26 ; Governor of Kabul, died while about tration of justice, 3 ; their protection of

to visit Court, 96. travellers, 3 ; Deterioration of their
Maharashtra, the country of the Mahrattas, soldiery, 11; their love of wandering, 11.
97. Mokarram Khan, an Imperial General,
Mahbub Khan, caused religions disturbances conquered Khurdah on the Eastern
in Kashmir, 176 his assassination by the
;
coast, 23.
Shiahs, 176. Muazzam, sent in chief command to the
Mahmud, 199. Deccan, 111 his loyalty to his father, 128
;
;
Mahrattas, the foremost power in India in fell under the suspicions of Aurangzeb,
the middle of the 18th century, 97 their ; 137.
entry into Amir ul-TXmara's camp by strat- Muharamed Amin Khan broke the power of
agem, 110 sacked Broach and Bnrhanpur
; the Sikhs temporarily in 1710 A. D., 169.
while the Imperial troops marched into Muhammed Ibrahim, the King of Golkon-
Bijapur, 135; taxes levied by them, 141 ; da's Commander-in-Chief, went over to
granted chouth in the six Mogul Subahs of the Imperialists, 134.
the Deccan also Snrdesh-mukhi from the Muhammad Khan Bangash, 196.
revenue of the Deccan in perpetuity, 188 ; Muhammad Shah, the successor of the Em-
their power supreme south of the Vindhy- peror Bafi-ud-Doulah, reigned 29 years
as, 1S9; Gujarat and Malwa finally came until the sack of Delhi by the Persian con-
into their hands between 1729-1 732 A.I >., queror, Nadir Shah, in 1739 A. D., 182 ;
195; their power shattered in the battle disaffection of Turanian nobles in his
of Panipat against the Persians in 1761 reign, 182 proceeded with his army
;
A.D., 201; after Nndir Shah's invasion against tho Governor of Allahabad, 182 ;
overran and plundered most of Western freed from the hands of Husuin Ali Khan
and a part of Eastern Hindustan, 208. and Abdullnh Khan, 1S4.
-Malik Ambar defeated by Jahangir's troops Mukhliz Khun, 113.
— his victory over Abdulla Khan below Mullah Ahmad, 101.
the Ghats, 22; routed the Bijapur troops Munim Khan, Chief Minister of Shah
near Ahraednuggur shortly before his A lam, 160.
death— his panegyric in the Memoirs— Mnrad, his character, 54; besieged Surat,
his death, 25. 57.
—; .
INDEX. 223
Musta'idd Khan, a historian, 84. Panipat rather than Plassey decided the
fate of Modern India, 208.
Pantoji Gopinath, 104.
Nadir Shah, invaded India in 1738 A.D., 198 Pap Kai, attacked and plundered Warangal
attacked Kabul and met with but little re- —the Subahdar of the Deecan captured
sistance, 200 ; came to India and routed the and executed him, 170.
Moghul troops near Lahore— fought the Parli besieged and taken by the Moghuls,
Moghuls at Karnal — killed Khan Danran 149.
and took Saadat Khan prisoner— Emperor Parya Naik defended Wakinkera fo r
visited his camp— proceeded with the months, 150.
Emperor to Delhi, 201 ; rumour of his Parvez, in the J)eccan, 10 ; defeated at the
death caused a massacre of Persian sol- Pass of Khamnor, 19 with Mahabat ;
—
diers ordered indiscriminate slaughter Khan met Prince Kharram's forces, 25.
his sack of Delhi returned to Persia — Peace made with the Deecan, 21.
with enormous wealth, '202 among his ; Plague or Waba, 18.
spoils was the great Peacock Throne his — Poki Padshah, 190.
son married a descendant of Shah Portuguese, in Goa under the great Viceroy
Jahan, 203. Albuquerque — their lordship over the
Nagoji Manai, 148. Indian Ocean, 29 ; their intolerance of
Nasir Khan, Governor of Kabul, 200. other religions, 30 factory at Hugli
—
Nazar Mahammad treaty with, 52. came to a violent end, 47 peace made
;
Nizamul Mulk, 173; incited Daud Khan with them, 147.

Pani, Subahdar of Ahmednuggur, to Prilhad Niraji, 143.
oppose Husain AliKhan, 179; determined Prince Akbar, and Tuhawar Khan entered
to march from Malwa to Delhi— defeated the valley of Mewar but were dispersed
Dilawar Ali Khan in May 1720 A.D.— with terrific slaughter, 127 ; his desire to
defeated Alam Khan, adopted son of take the throne from his father, Aurang-
Husain Ali Khan, 183 ; appointed Wazir zeb, 128 deserted by the Kajputs his
; —
by Muhammad Shah, 185 when appointed ; embarkation for Muscat his death, 129. —
Moghul ruler of the Deecan, favoured the Purandhar besieged by Jai Singh and sur-
Kolapur regency and it flourished— on his rendered, 112.
withdrawal Kolapur was on the wane,
187 ;advised the Emperor on certain
reforms, 191 ; his Bhopalcampaign in
Rafi-ud-Darjah, succeeded Farokh Siar as
with the Peshwa— forced to come to an
Emperor, 181 his death after a reign of
;
agreement, with the Peshwa, 197 Gov- ;
six months, 182.
ernorship of Malwa and Gujarat granted
Rafi-ud-Doulah succeeded Rafi-ud-Darjah
to him in the name of his son Ghnzi-ud-
din, 197.
as Emperor— his death after three
months, 182.
Nur Jahan sent to Court by royal mandate
Raghunath Pundit, 123.
her and Anally her consent to
refusal
marry Raj Sing, Rana of Mewar, 127.
ahangir— rights of sovereignty
J
granted her— her supremacy as Queen
Raja Ajit Singh, after Aurangzeb's death,
forbade the killing of cows, prevented the
her love of justice— title of Nur Mahal
Muazzim calling to prayer and desecrated
and afterwards Nur Jahan Begam bes-
mosques, 163.
towed on her, 17 the real ruler of the
;
Raja Girdhar, 194.
Empire— her love of orphan girls, 18 her ;
Raja Jai Singh, 56.
father, Itmad-ud-Doulah, made
called
Raja Jeswant Singh, 119.
Prime Minister— her brother, called Itmad
Raja Ram, younger son of Sivaji, elected as
Khan, mode Master of Ceremonies at
Mahratta Chief, 1J3 his death, 149.
Court— plundering of Imperial finances ;
Raja Rani Singh shot dead in battle, 61.

by her and her relations, 18 saved Ja- ;
Raja Rup Singh Rathor, his daring prow
hangir from the hands of Mahabat Khan
ess in the battlefield, 61.
and escaped with him to the Punjab
Rajput wars, 19.
Rhotas, 28 her plans to place Shahriyar
;
Raja Ali appointed Governor of Gujarat
on the throne, 34.
193.
Rajputs the mainstay of the Moghul power
Oxenden, 120. 52 their triple alliance, 163 ; the tyranny
;
; ;
224 INDEX.
Aurangzeb completely alienated them

of his righteous and just administration of
from the Empire, 163. the country— great increase of revenue in
Ram Chunder, 148. his reign, 38 his reign one of great pros-
;
Ram Das, the fourth Guru, 165. perity, 37 ; his great expenditure on
Rana Umrao Sing submitted to Prince buildings, 40 ; war with the Deccan princes-
Kharram, 19. during his reign, 43 ; his invasion of

Rani Parbati, 50. Golkonda, 43; his munificence during the
Ravi Canal, 51. famine, 45; his expeditions to Kucfa
Roshanara Begam, Aurangzeb's affectionate Behar and Assam, 50 ; Kandahar a part
sister, 63. of his Empire, 51; Deccan wars continued
Rustam Khan, 61. during his reign, 52 ; bazaars held within
his harem— violent civil war in his reign,
53 rumour of his death precipitated civil
;
Saadat Khan, his success against Baji Rao war, 56 ; invited Aurangzeb to see him at
in 1736 A. D., 197. his Imperial harem, 63 a prisoner in his ;
Sadulla Khan, 51. harem, 63.

Sahu— his character, 187; territorial sove- Shah Nawaz Khan, father-in-law of Aurang-
reignty granted to him and his successors, zeb, died in battle in Ajmere, 67.
188 ; obtained titular headship of the Shahriyar, who was in Lahore, assumed the
Mahrattas, 186. royal title— fight between him and Asaf
Salir, his surrender to the Moghuls, 181. Khan—the former defeated, 35.
Sambhaji, enrolled by Aurangzeb as Shah Sharif, 98.
Panjhazari, 113; left at Allahabad by Shah Tahmasp, 199.
Sivaji, 114 ; celebrated his accession by an Shahji— story of his wife, 98 his rise to ;
inroad into Moghul territory— plundered fame, 99 allowed to return to the Kama-
;
arid carried away an enormous amount tic, 102 died in 1664 A. D., 111.
;
of loot, 130 : engaged in fighting the Sher Afghan, the husband of Nur Jahan,
English and Portuguese, 132 his inabil- ;
murdered, 17-
ity to ejectthe Portuguese from their Shujah, Governor of Bengal— his character,
; his
strongholds, 133 capture— his execu- 54 took Allahabad and Benares— Aurang-
;
•
tion at Tolapur in August 1689 A.D., 142. zeb pursued him decisive battle at Kora, —
Santaji Ghorepurai, the greatest Mahratta 70 forced to retreat to Bengal— driven
;
chieftain, 144 ; his death by the hand of out of Bengal— took refuge in Arakan,
Nagoji Manai, 148. 71 ; attacked by Sulaiman Shikoh, 56 %
Satnamis, their rebellion, 118. retreated to Bengal, 57.
Sattara, siege of— its surrender in April
SidiJohur marched against Sivaji and be-
1700 A. D., 149.
sieged him for four months in the fort of
Shafi, 79.
Parn Panalla, 107.
Shah Abbas the Great, King of Persia, 198. Sikhs, their religion, 164 ; their atrocities at
Shah Alam, became Emperor under the title Sirhind, 167of all the
; their plunder
of Bahadur Shah, 158 met Shah Azam's ;
country between Lahore and Delhi, 168 ;
army at Jhaju— the Emperor victorious, their head-quarters, the fort at Gurdaspur
158 received Zulfikar Khan into the
;
in the Punjab— their ravages. 177 ; their
Imperial service, 159 Kaura
; forced by
organisation broken up,. 178.
Buksh to march against him— showed the Sir Buland Khan, 180.
greatest kindness to him, 159 ; his charac-
Sirdeshmookhi (one-tenth revenue), 125.
ter, 160 title of "Sayid" affixed to his
;
Sir Thomas Roe, his Embassy to the Court
name on the coins, 162 his sudden death ;
of Jahangir, 29 his graphic description ;
at Lahore in 1711 A. D., 170, of Indian customs, 32 obtained permis- ;
Shah Alam II reigned for forty-seven years, sion for English merchants to trade,
207. 33.
Shah Ali, opposition of the Sunnis to his
adding the word " wasi " after the name Sivaji, made the Mahrattas a most powerful
of the Caliph Ali, 161.

race, 74 ; took possession of various hill
Shah Ismail, ruler of Persia, 198.
forts, 100 ; seizure by him of three per-
mak- gannahs belonging to Mullah Ahmad, 101
Shah Jahan, Asaf Khan in favour of
murdered Raja of the Jowli State and his
ing him Emperor, 34 proclaimed Emperor
;
his great monuments of brother and took the State, 103 his ;
at Lahore, 35 ;
character, 36 seizure of the Konkan, 103 his defeat by

Moghul architecture— his ;
;
INDEX. 225
Fateh Khan, ruler of Jinjira, 103 his war ; Taj Mahal, 48.
with Bijapur, 166 his attack and murder
; Tavernier, 54.
of Raja Ghorepurai, 107 ; peace between him Tara Bai, senior wife of Raja Ram, as regent
and Bijapur, 108 his attack and plunder
; to her son, succeeded him as ruler of the
of the Moghul troops, 108 ; entered Shah Mahrattas, 149; her struggle with Sahu
Jahan's service, 102 defeated by Amir-ul-
; for the headship of the Mahrattas— Sattara
Umara, 109 ; sacked Surat, 111 ; his sur- wrested from her by Sahu— her rival
render to Jai Singh, 112; enrolled by Court at Kolapur, 185 ; her son died of
Aurangzeb as Panj Hazari considered it — smallpox— the son of the co-wife put on
an insult, 113 ; his stratagem to return to the guddi, 187.
Mahratta land, 113 Prince Muazzam ob-
; Tegh Bahadur, the ninth Guru, executed at
tained for him the title of Raja,, 114 ; en- Delhi in Aurangzeb's reign, 165.
throned as Raja at Rajgarh, 120 on ; Turks in the service of the Afghan Kings
his coronation bestowed grand titles on his of Delhi, 1.
officers in Sanscrit, 121 ; allied himself to

Golkonda, 121 his letter to Venkaji, 122
; Udaipuri, a Georgian Christian, a concubine
under his rule his first care was his of Aurangzeb, her influence in Court, 86.
soldiers, 124his character, 125.
;
St.Francis Xavier in India, 30. Venkaji, 121.

Suchew, partizan of Tarabai, 186.
Wakinkera, besieged and taken by the
Sulaiman Shikoh, 56. Moghuls, 150.
Sultan Azam advanced into Bijapur in 1686 Wazir Khan, Foujdar of Sirhind, attacked
A. D. —
reduced to great distress by Banda, but was defeated and slain, 167.
Mahrattas getting between him and his
—
base relieved with great difficulty by Zulfikar —
Khan, laid siege to Ginjee finally
Ghazi-ud-din Khan, 135. took Ginjee in 1698 A. D., 147 ; one of the
Sultan Shikoh, son of Dara Shikoh, sent to chief Ministers of Shah Alam, 160 ; aided
Aurangzeb by the Raja of Srinagar— im- Jahandar Shah to obtain the crown, 170 ;
prisoned in Gwalior, 70. brutally murdered after his first interview
with Farokh Siar, 173 ; as Governor of the
Tahawur Khan, entered the Imperial camp Deccan, allowed the Mahrattas to collect
to put forward Prince Akbar's demands, a certain amount of chouth to keep the
128 ; slain in Aurangzeb's camp, 129. country quiet, 187.
Printed by thacker, spink & oo., Calcutta.

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Cornell Unitietaitg iEthranj

Stljara, Nem 'fork

CHARLES WILLIAM WASON

3 1924 023 223 641

the Cornell University Library.

There are no known copyright restrictions in

A HISTORY OF THE BADSHAHATE OF DELHI

From 1605 to 1739 A.D

PRINGLE KENNEDY, ma., b.l

I had practically got this Second Volume ready for the

the same gentleman talking of Russia remarked that one needed

•continue ; but if to be an invasion of India from the

outside in the future, it is probable that this will come as most

save by way of peaceful penetration, it does not seem likely that

poral discouragements the march has steadily been forwardand ; .

whenever the last book of this great poem in action comes to be

Mozdfferpore, PRINGLE KENNEDY.

one man, Akbar the Great, settled themselves permanently in

2 HISTORY OF THE GREAT MOGHULS.

revolts innumerable that Humayun had Kamran blinded and

Napoleon's saying " Fhomme n'est qu'un chien," a man is but a

period concerning which I write, justice was, on the whole, fairly

murdered. Jahangir has left behind him Memoirs purporting to

reader by their enormous exaggerations. Thus, for instance,

when writing of the wealth accumulated by his father he tells a

* Jahangir's Memoirs, p. 45.

have been dealt among the people of Hindustan, the number of

Government of Hindustan as high in the scale of civilised powers

It is under the reasons given for this rule that he tells, us of

his hands would shake and he would be unable to sit or rest. He

belief. At the same time he is a keen observer of nature.

himself than as an account of his deeds. To these Memoirs I

keeping as he thought the innoxious portion ; but unfortunately

attack he never recovered. Whatever may have been Akbar'

" To this the sick monarch replied, '

pensable to the successful exercise of sovereign power, which at

duty, is he not my eldest born, and, as such, the heir to my throne ;

to that throne which by the institutes of my race belongs to the

younger But the

* Jahangir's Memoirs, p. 74.

t Jahangir's Memoirs, p. 77.

* Elliott, Vol. VI, p. 293.

himself surrendered. On the 3rd of Mohurrum 1015, so says the

The remark is typical of the writer. Of the prisoners

* Elliot, Vol. VI, p. 274.

reasons —largely on account of the unwillingness of the Imperial

In imitation of the same example I have continued the practice,

Emperor's camp was much in the nature of a city under canvas.

an example, a severe example would be made but this would do ;

but little to check the evil. A description in the Memoirs as to

of Ahmedabad, to the number of four hundred individuals, in dif-

ferent branches of decoration, she had so effectually changed the

every species of rose and other garden flowers of every description.

entered the garden it entirely escaped my recollection that it was no

unwittingly began to pluck at the fruit and flowers, the artificers

during which, independently of the delicious repasts on which we

have been estimated separately at less than three hundred to-

already possessed by her father. In conclusion, what was thus

forced labour without payment, the evil of such an entertainment