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 THE TURKS IN INDIA 
 
 CRITICAL CHAPTERS ON THE ADMINISTRATION OF 
 
 THAT COUNTRY BY THE CHUGHTAI, BABAR, 
 
 AND HIS DESCENDANTS 
 
 BY 
 
 HENRY GEORGE KEENE M.R.A.S. 
 
 JUDGE OF AGRA 
 FELLOW OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALCUTTA 
 
 AND 
 
 AUTHOR OF " THE MOGHUL EMPIRE " 
 
 LONDON 
 
 W. H. ALLEN AND CO, 13 WATERLOO PLACE 
 
 1879
 
 TO 
 
 SIDNEY OWEN, M.A, 
 
 IN ACKNOWLEDaMENT OF HIS 
 
 VAltTABLE CONTEIBUTIONS 
 
 TO OUE KNOWLEDGE 
 
 OF 
 
 INDIAN HISTORY 
 
 20G46:2
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAP. 
 
 PAOE 
 
 I. IXTEODUCTIOIT 1 
 
 II. The FoT7ifDATio]!f OF THE Chughtai Dynasty . 19 
 
 III. The Institutes of Akbas 52 
 
 IV. The Chaeactee of Jahangir .... 83 
 V. The Couet of Shahjahan- . . ' . . . 108 
 
 YI. India undee Afeungzeb 144 
 
 VII. Decay and Disintegeation 170 
 
 VIII. Decay and Disintegeation : II 200 
 
 IX. The Campaign of Panipat 228 
 
 Appendix 249
 
 The object of the folio wing pages is to show, in a 
 series of monographs, the character, epochs, and 
 incidents in the history of the Empire established in 
 Hindustan by the Chughtai Tartars. These chapters 
 cover the time from the invasion of Babar to the death 
 of Alamgir II., and the campaign of 1760-1. An 
 attempt has been made to show the state of the 
 country under Mughal rule, and the reasons why, with 
 many good qualities, the House of Taimur ultimately 
 failed to form a durable dominion. The first article is 
 devoted to a summary of the subject of the whole 
 study. The second gives a brief account of the origin 
 of the family, and the first foundation of their power 
 south of the Himala Alps. The third displays the 
 consolidation ; the fourth and fifth exhibit the equili- 
 brium ; the sixth describes the beginnings of weakness. 
 In the seventh and eighth are shown the hastening 
 decomposition of the unwieldy and ill-governed Empire; 
 while the account of the Campaign of Panipat furnishes 
 matter for the ninth and last. The whole will replace
 
 VI. 
 
 the first Book of the "Eall of the Mughal Emph-e" 
 by the same author, and the rest of that work will 
 serve to complete a popular statement of the History 
 of Hindustan for the three centuries next preceding 
 British rule.
 
 EXPLANATION OF THE MAP. 
 
 The accompanying map is an attempt to show, 
 approximately, the state of the Chughtai possessions 
 in Hindustan and the Deccan, when that Empire was 
 in its firmest and most compact condition, say, towards 
 the end of the first half of the seventeenth century, 
 when the principal European travellers (who form 
 our best authorities) were in the country. Candahar 
 was lost, all claims to Balkh and Bokhara were 
 practically abandoned ; but Aurangabad, Bijapur, 
 Bidar, and Haidrabad were being rendered tributary 
 towards the latter part, while still nominally under 
 other rulers, and the usurpations of the Mahrattas 
 had not yet begun to trouble the Western Deccan. 
 
 Originally the Empire, as described by Abul Euzl 
 in the 40th year of Akbar, consisted of twelve subahs, 
 besides later-acquired territory, which had not, at that 
 time, been completely organised with the Imperial 
 Cosmos. In later times, the number of these provinces 
 averaged twenty; for, though there are as many as 
 twenty-seven named in some lists, yet they are either
 
 Vm. THE MAP EXPLAINED. 
 
 produced by splitting lesser provinces, or such as Tvere 
 never held all at one period. The land revenue of the 
 twelve subahs is stated by Abul Fnzl to have aggre- 
 gated over nine krors of rupees, a sum which, in his 
 detailed lists, with the addition of land and sea- 
 customs and income derived from the inorganized 
 provinces of Sindh and Kashmir, he brings to nearly 
 one kror more, or say, Rs. 99,613,850. A large but 
 unascertained contribution must also be allowed in 
 the services of the Bumi (or " landwehr ") — a large ir- 
 regular militia of horse, foot, and artillery, assessed oq 
 the various districts independent of the levies main- 
 tained by the Mansahdars and the standing army of 
 the Crown. 
 
 It would be indecorous to omit the mention of 
 Mr. E. Thomas, P.E-.S. in this connection. That 
 distinguished scholar and numismatist has, on various 
 occasions (see his *' Prinsep," vol. ii., his " Chron- 
 icles," and "Revenue Resources"), made efforts to 
 bring the figures of the " Ain " into harmony with 
 estimates elsewhere derived. Finding, for example, 
 that an accountant of Akbar's estimated the total 
 revenue at 640,000,000 tankas, Mr. Thomas concludes 
 that this equals £32,000,000 sterling, and hence con- 
 cludes that Abul JFuzl has meant to state double the 
 figures that he has stated, and that this must be doubled 
 again, by the addition of what in modern Anglo- 
 Indian parlance is called " Separate Revenue." Four 
 times ten however would not yield thirty-two, but
 
 THE MAP EXPLAINED. IX. 
 
 forty — even if the exchange value of ten rupees to 
 one pound English could be proved to have obtained 
 in Akbar's time, of which there is no proof. Moreover, 
 the proposed emendation of the text (from -'three" 
 to "six" arbs of dams) does violence to all known 
 versions of the "Ain Akbari," and to the context 
 itself. The following is a strict translation of the 
 important words taken from Professor Blochmann's 
 Calcutta-text, iii., p. 386 : — " In the 40th year of his 
 reign, the Emperor Akbar had a decennial settlement 
 of his dominions, at the annual revenue of three arbs, 
 sixty-two krors, ninety-seven lakhs, fifty-five thousand 
 one hundred and forty-six dams, or rupees 90,749,881. 
 2. 5." 
 
 This tallies with other texts including the Lucknow 
 lithograph of Munshi jS'awal Kishor, which is highly 
 esteemed by native scholars. 
 
 Eour other provinces are mentioned by Abul Euzl ; 
 namely, those of Multan and Tattah, forming the 
 modern commissionership of Sindh, and part of the 
 I'unjab ; and Kashmir with Cabul, a mountainous 
 region, assessed chiefly in kind, and chiefly valued for 
 purposes of sport and luxury. 
 
 The following specification of each province is 
 abstracted from the same work compared with later 
 lists. I have not thought it necessary to add the 
 figures from the separate Taksim Jamas or detailed 
 rent-rolls, which, though not prepared apparently quite
 
 X. THE MAP EXPLAINED. 
 
 at the same moment as the descriptive parts, do not 
 exceed the estimates there given very seriously, seeing 
 that they contain some further items of separate 
 revenue. Each province was in area about equal to an 
 average European kingdom of those days. Of these 
 provinces the most eastern was Bengal, forming with 
 Orissa, a vast and fertile tract assessed at about one 
 and-a-half krors of rupees. The capital was at Gaur 
 or Lakhnauti. Bahar (often united with Ben gal under 
 the general title of " the Eastern Subas ") was the 
 very finest part of the Gangetic valley, both in cli- 
 mate and natural advantages. It had, both on the 
 north and south, fine mountain ranges for limits ; 
 abundant streams watered the soil. The name of the 
 capital is not given in the " Ain" ; it was probably at 
 Patna. The land revenue was over forty-three lakhs. 
 
 Allahabad and Audh, or Oudh, often held by the 
 same Subahdar, resembled Bahar in size, character, and 
 conformation. The capital of the one was at Prayag, 
 and derived from Akbar the name it communicated 
 to the entire district. The capital of the other, Audh or 
 Ajudhia, was near the site of the modern Eaizabad. The 
 aggregate land revenue was about a kror and-a-third. 
 
 Agra (formerly Biana) was a compact division, 
 extending from Kalpi to Bewari, and from Aligarh 
 to the southern boundary of Narwar. The chief city 
 was called Agra, and the citadel Akbarabad, after its 
 founder. Besides the metropolis, it contained Gwaliar,
 
 THE MAP EXPLAINED. XI. 
 
 and other walled towns, cities, and fortresses; the 
 land revenue was over a quarter of a million. 
 
 Malwa, a large province formed out of a" conquered 
 kingdom, stretched from the borders of Allahabad to 
 these of Gujarat, and was famous for its woods, waters, 
 wild flowers, and fine scenery. The climate was much 
 esteemed, and its fertility proverbial. Mandu was re- 
 garded as the capital ; the land revenue exceeded sixty 
 lakhs of rupees. 
 
 Khandes (named Dandes by Akbar, in honour of 
 his son Danyal) was a small but pleasant province 
 between the Nerbudda and Tapti rivers, intersected by 
 the Satpura hills, and having for capital the ancient 
 fortified city of Burhanpur, so often mentioned in the 
 history of mediaeval India. The land revenue was 
 about seven lakhs and-a-half. The local governor in 
 troubled times occupied the neighbouring fort of Aser- 
 garh, regarded as one of the strongest places in the 
 empire. 
 
 Gujarat, another old Mussulman kingdom, was of 
 great extent, and yielded a revenue — inclusive of 
 customs — which exceeded a kror of rupees. This 
 province was largely washed by the sea ; and, besides 
 the native capital, Ahmadabad, contained Baroda and 
 other large towns. The Portuguese had a settlement 
 at Surat, and made encroachments, towards the end of 
 Akbar' s reign, over the neighbouring districts. 
 
 The so-called Subah of Ajmir was one of the largest
 
 XU. THE MAP EXPLAINED. 
 
 provinces, answering nearly to the modern Rajputana. 
 It was divided into three principal chief ships : Mewar, 
 Marwar, and Harauti, corresponding to the modern 
 Rajadoms of Udaipur, Jodhpur, and Kota Bundi. 
 Other principalities, such as Dundar (Jaipur), were 
 not apparently thought of much importance hy Abul 
 Fuzl, as they are not named in his list. The country 
 was fine, the climate healthy, and the population 
 hardy ; but the revenue was nothing more than a 
 tribute estimated by Abul Euzl at 571,000 rupees, 
 and paid (when payment could be compelled) by the 
 Hindu chiefs, who had been there before the Mughals 
 came, and who very likely will be there after the 
 British are gone. The emperors were fond of the 
 town of Ajmir, where a famous stock of Persian dar- 
 vishes, or hermits (the Chistie), had taken root. They 
 also intermarried with the houses of Jaipur and Jodh- 
 pur ; but the province can only be reckoned nominally 
 among Subahs. 
 
 Delhi was a province of average size, with a capital 
 of the same name, and a revenue of one and-a-half 
 krors from land. 
 
 Lahore was a rather larger one, with a capital of 
 the same name, and a revenue of nearly the same 
 amount as Delhi. 
 
 MuLTAN was a long strip of sandy country lying 
 along the left bank of the Indus. Capital, Multan ; 
 revenue, nearly forty lakhs.
 
 THE MAP EXPLAINED. Xlll. 
 
 Tattah was the rest of the Indus valley ; the 
 revenue only about one lakh and sixty thousand 
 rupees. 
 
 Kashmir, "the happy valley," and the scarcely less 
 beautiful hills and dales of Cabtjl, were the Piedmont 
 of the Asian Italy, valued for their climate, sport, 
 and scenery. The revenue, given by Abul Euzl, is 
 estimated in sheep and rice, with the exception of 
 that of Cabul Sircar, which is stated at twenty lakhs. 
 Thomas estimates the total yield at no less than eighty 
 lakhs. The aggregate of these items amounts to a 
 little below ten krors ; but they include some Sayar 
 items, though how much cannot be determined. In 
 one or two instances in which these are stated 
 separately, they are from two to four per cent. 
 
 Such was the territorial constitution of the Chughtai 
 territory from the period of Akbar's consolidation 
 (about the fortieth year of his reign) down substan- 
 tially to the commencement of the conquests of 
 Aurungzeb. The authorities to whose descriptions I 
 am indebted for the means of comparing the facts of 
 this period, of about half-a-century of equilibrium, 
 differ enough to show that they were not absolutely 
 accurate ; but the Bddshahndma and Bernier agree 
 (writing about the end of the reign) * that there were 
 twenty provinces at the termination of the period, 
 
 * The Bddshahndma, adds Balkh and Badaksban, but the sway over them 
 was scarcely even nominal.
 
 XIV. THE MAP EXPLAINED. 
 
 and that the revenues were ahout twenty-two krors' of 
 rupees. 
 
 In the palmier days of Aurungzeb, the number of 
 provinces were ahout the same. The revenue for 1666 
 (according to Thevenot) was 375,750,000 Prench 
 livres ; according to Manucci, whom Mr. Thomas pro- 
 nounces "a competent witness at head-quarters," 
 317,935,050 rupees, an aggregate tallying with the 
 totals of other lists. Of these the mean is about 
 thirty- five krors, while his total, as we see, is nearly 
 thirty-two ; and there can be little doubt that this is 
 near the correct figure. It is not, however, so clear 
 what it represents in the modern figures. It is true 
 that the rupee of those days contained about the same 
 quantity of silver as does that of our own days ; but 
 we have the positive testimony of Manucci that the 
 exchange value of the rupee in the European cur- 
 rency of his day was " trente sols," or fifteen pence. 
 In this he is confirmed by Tavernier, who says that 
 fourteen rupees were worth twenty-one livres tournois. 
 Manucci's total, therefore, would be scarcely worth 
 twenty millions sterling. 
 
 It is a farther question, whether the separate 
 revenue was equal in amount, or nearly so ? The 
 answer seems to be that the separate revenue was 
 derived from sources too vague and fluctuating to be 
 so estimated. It chiefly came from escheats and fines 
 — to speak according to European usage — and the
 
 THE MAP EXPLAINED. 
 
 XV. 
 
 amount must have depended upon tlie character of 
 the sovereign, the longevity of incumbents, and 
 similar things, to an extent which would make it 
 impossible to make an approximation for any one 
 year. 
 
 Lastly, it is to be noted that, besides the provinces 
 named above, the empire had, for a few years of 
 Aurungzeb's reign, a claim — more or less practically 
 exercised — to parts of the Balaghat, and the Malabar 
 and Coromandel coasts. But these were never made 
 into regularly organised Subahs, nor did they ap- 
 pear upon the rolls, and they soon became totally 
 independent. 
 
 The following is Manucci's list of the provinces 
 
 at the beginning of the reign of Aurungzeb — the 
 
 numbering being brought into correspondence with 
 
 that of the annexed map : — 
 
 1. — Bengal, without Orissa, was assessed at over four 
 Tcrors (whicli is three times more than in the 
 other lists). 
 
 2.— Bahar Es. 1,21,50,000 
 
 3.— Oeissa (called by Manucci "Urcha") . 57,07,500 
 
 4.— OuDH (called " Rajmahal " apparently) . 1,00,50,000 
 
 5.— Delhi 1,25,50,000 
 
 6.— Agra 2,22,03,550 
 
 7.— Allahabad 77,38,000 
 
 8.— Lahore 2,32,05,000 
 
 9.— Cabl'l 32,07,250 
 
 10. — Ajmir (Rajputana, temporarily subju- 
 gated and heavily assessed) . . 19,00,000 
 
 11.— MuLTAN 50,25,000 
 
 12.— Malwa 99,06,250
 
 XVI. . THE MAP EXPLAINED. 
 
 13.— GujAKAT (probably includingCustoms) Es.2,.32,95,000 
 
 ]4.— Khandes 1,11,05,000 
 
 15.— Behar 1,58,07,500 
 
 16. — GoNDWANA (no assessment given in any 
 list but of Aurungzeb's reign). 
 ^17. — AuRUJfGABAD, Or a part thereof, (called 
 " Baglana " from Baghelana a hilly 
 tract in the heart of the Mahratta 
 country). Tallies with estimates of 
 Tavemier and Bernier. . . . 68,85,000 
 All Aurungabad or Daulatabad rated 
 much higher in native lists. 
 
 18.— BiJAPUB 5,00,00,000 
 
 19. — Haidaeabad (not named by Manucci, 
 
 probably included in " Golconda ") 5,00,00,000 
 ,20. — BiDAB (^. e. "Nanda " aggregate in other 
 lists running from 93 lakhs to over 
 two Tcrors) 72,00,000 
 
 Total . . Rs. 31,79,35,050 
 
 It will be seen that there are discrepancies, both as to names and 
 rating, between Manucci' s list and those derived from native sources. 
 But such, just a century after the completion of Abul Fuzl's record, 
 were the collections according to a European residing at the Imperial 
 Court in a position of trust. He does not name the Subahs always 
 as they are named in other lists that have come down to us ; and he 
 gives some names (such as " Bakar " and " Ujaia ") that are not 
 found elsewhere. 
 
 For some further details as to Revenue, see Note to 
 Chapter I. and Appendix A. 
 
 N. B. — This list is extracted from a paper of mine 
 read by the Asiatic Society of Bengal, and printed in 
 their Journal. 
 
 * These four represent the chief substantial acquisitions of Aurungzeb.
 
 NOTE. 
 
 This Work has not had the advantage of a revision hy its Author 
 whilst passing through the press. Mr. Keene is at his post in 
 India. It has not, therefore, heen possible to consult his ivishes 
 in the matter of transliteration, nor could they he always gathered 
 from the MS., which in parts had been transcribed hy an amanuensis. 
 In fairly familiar words, where no doubt as to pronunciation could 
 arise, popular spelling has been adopted, and diacritical points have 
 been omitted. 
 
 Mr. Keene has icished the folloioing intimation to be made : — 
 
 " It is not necessary to give a list of all the authorities that 
 have been consulted in this Work. Besides original records and 
 hooks in the Persian, French, English, and Spanish languages, 
 continuous and invaluable aid has been derived from the ^History 
 of India^ by Elliot and Dowson. This Work, in eight volumes, 
 contains copious translated extracts from all the best historians of 
 Mohamadan India, many of tohich are now accessible for the first 
 time. It may, indeed, be truly said that its completion puts the 
 subject upon an entirely neio basis, and forms the best justif cation 
 for the publication of the present chapters. The constant sympathy 
 and aid of the late Principal Blochmann, M.A., of the Calcutta 
 Madrisa, demand ivart)i acknowledgment. His death has caused a 
 blank in the ranks of Oriental scholarship that will not soon be 
 filled.''
 
 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 It has been ciistomarv amon£j historians to draw a 
 broad ethnological line between three classes of 
 peoples in the western parts of Central Asia — Tajiks, 
 TurkSj and Mongols. The first are, admittedly, pure 
 Aryans — handsome, of settled habits, and speaking an 
 Indo-Germanic language ; while the last are mere 
 nomad Tartars — an absolute contrast to the Tajiks. 
 But when it is asserted that there was originally a 
 third race, equally hostile to the Tajiks, yet differing 
 in every respect from the Tartars, speaking, indeed, a 
 form of the agglutinative speech, but from the first 
 handsome and disposed to civilisation, the evidence 
 is not so strong. The more the matter is looked into 
 the more likely will it appear that the distinction 
 between Turk and Mongol is not altogether a natural 
 distinction, but one proceeding from comparatively 
 recent and artificial causes— causes arising out of a 
 fusion, more or less complete, of Tajik and Tartar. 
 It may be going too far to conclude that a Mongol is 
 merely a Turk in embryo — a Turk little more than 
 
 B
 
 a THE TURKS IN INDIA. 
 
 a civilised and circumcised Mongol or Tartar ; but 
 Mongol in Turkish mouths becomes "Mogh61";* 
 the Persians, softening still further, turn it into 
 " Mughul," or "Mughal;" and thus the words 
 " Mughal Empire " — an evident misnomer — may 
 have come to be applied to the government of India 
 by Tartar conquerors, who had adopted Aryan manners 
 and a Semitic creed (assimilating themselves in both 
 respects to their Osmanli kindred in Eastern Europe), 
 and who had kept little or nothing of the old, wild 
 Muglial, or Mongol, either in features or character. 
 
 The seclusion of women was part of the institu- 
 tions (rather Semitic than Aryan, however), which the 
 Tartars had assumed before conquering India and Con- 
 stantinople, and this, being grafted upon the old 
 exogamy of the race, completed the change from 
 Tartar to Turk, and laid the corner-stone of a peren- 
 nial weakness, as well in India as in what is now 
 " Turkey in Europe." 
 
 Customs are more than blood, or even climate. 
 The antagonism between Darius and Miltiades is 
 still active. It is not merely a matter of longitude, 
 for Muscovy is, for the most part, east of Mecca, and 
 Morocco lies to the west of Madrid. It is not terri- 
 torial, for some of the so-called " Europeans " live in 
 Asia and America; some of the so-called " Asiatics " 
 live in Africa and Europe. It is not ethnological, for 
 some of the best races on either side spring from the 
 same stocks. The Tajik Persians are of kin to the 
 Prussians. The Magyars are Tartars by origin. When 
 chased through all these disguises the Proteus is there 
 
 * See Taimur's " Memoirs," quoted below.
 
 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 3 
 
 still, as real as ever, though as difficult of identifica- 
 tion. Perhaps it may best be described by saying 
 that there is a gulf fixed between races coming from 
 mothers versed in business, and races springing from 
 secluded and undeveloped females. It is possible that 
 this may be a diff'erence existing even between Turks 
 and Mughals, and one in which the advantage would 
 be on the side of the savages. 
 
 Certain it is that the founders of what is called 
 the " Mughal Empire " were in a peculiar manner 
 subject to this depressing influence. It may be 
 granted that they were descended from the free 
 barbarian nomads of the steppes, the habitual raiders 
 and slave-hunters, even in our own days still wandering 
 and robbing, who in the days of Changez (or Jenghez) 
 Khan exercised a sway of devastation over a tract of 
 country extending from the banks of the Vistula to 
 the shores of the Japanese archipelago. But their 
 wives were no longer found among conterminous 
 tribes of kindred habits. With a Turanian orisrin 
 
 o 
 
 they had, in the third generation from Changez 
 Khan, began to follow the faith of Islam, and 
 to take as wives or concubines girls entirely or 
 mainly of Aryan blood, often captured in predatory 
 excursions. 
 
 By such a series of connections these Turks, like 
 their modern congeners in the Byzantine Empire, 
 would ultimately lose their Mongolian features (if 
 ever they had them), and acquire the physical 
 character of their Aryan neighbours from, the western 
 slopes of Pamir to the eastern shores of the Caspian, 
 that tract which probably formed the cradle of what, 
 for want of a better name, is often called the " Cauca-
 
 4 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 
 
 sian " brancli of the human race. But the change, if 
 for the better physically, cannot be shown to have 
 improved the national character in all other direc- 
 tions. In certain respects, indeed, the Turks were 
 far from being the superiors of those ruder neigh- 
 bours whom they may have once resembled. 
 
 All zandna life must be bad for men at all stages 
 of their existence. In infancy and in boyhood it 
 must be injurious to be tended with the unreasoning 
 ignorance and weak indulgence of a mother knowing 
 nothing, and consulting with female dependants weaker 
 and more untruthful than herself. In youth it must 
 be ruin to be petted and spoiled by a company of sub- 
 missive slave girls. In manhood it is a no less evil 
 that when a man retires into private life his affections 
 should be put up to auction among foolish, foul com- 
 petitors, full of mutual jealousies and slanders. 
 
 We are not left entirely to conjecture as to the 
 effect of female influence on home life when it is 
 exerted under these unenlightened and demoralising 
 conditions. That is, plainly, an element lying at the 
 root of all the most important features that differen- 
 tiate progress from stagnation; or, in the customary, 
 if not quite accurate phrase. West from East. Woman 
 has done mischief, we must sadly acknowledge, undei 
 all forms of society ; but here is a poison working at 
 the very sources of human character and conduct. 
 And, if this defect be inseparable from the state of all 
 communities where unrestrained polygamy prevails, 
 how much must it be enhanced whenever it happens 
 that the inhabitants of the harem are not only women 
 who know little or nothing of the world, but also who 
 come from tribes or nations habitually contemned,
 
 THE TURKS IN INDIA. O 
 
 conquered, and made captive. Such cannot be tlie 
 mothers of true heroes. 
 
 All really great and good men have been ever ready 
 to acknowledge the obligations that they have owed to 
 their mothers. A wise and cultured mother makes 
 her son participator in all the best qualities of her 
 nature by the twofold channel of blood and breeding. 
 Born with the love of truth and freedom interwoven 
 in his tissues, he shows them daily developing under 
 her forming hand. 
 
 But the sons of such mothers as Turks have often 
 had, must necessarily have lacked both these kinds of 
 advantage. Among the peasantry, where a man can 
 afford only one wife, and where she has to join his 
 outdoor employments, the birth and training of the 
 young will proceed much as elsewhere ; but among 
 the families of the rich, the sons of secluded slave 
 mothers must needs be deficient in those attributes 
 that are feminine in the best sense. Equally necessary 
 is it that they should exhibit those qualities of woman's 
 unchastened nature which form her foible and dis- 
 credit. And this, accordingly, is what we find. While 
 the son of the well-born Russian or Hungarian (though 
 with much Turanian blood) gains as much from one 
 parent as from the other, and is in all points as de- 
 serving of respect as the purest Aryan, — the Turk, and 
 the Circassian (though the latter be pure Aryan on 
 both sides), mostly show nothing of their mothers but 
 faults, and never become quite civilised. When they 
 are brave, it is from fatalism inspired by impulse. 
 Their ability shows itself in cabals, lies, and ruthless 
 intrigue ; their taste inclines to extravagance and 
 ostentation. They love bodily pleasures, are facile.
 
 6 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 
 
 indolent, living au jour le jour. The traits in which 
 they are wanting are mainly those in which the ladies 
 of Christendom usually excel — perseverance, method ; 
 the power of resisting or shaping events, and of con- 
 structing and carrying out the efficient administration 
 of details. Where the sons of free and instructed 
 women make and maintain calm, far-seeing, benefi- 
 cent arrangements, those of the Turk are for the 
 most part thoughtless, procrastinative, and without 
 system. 
 
 The early Tartars were not exactly like this. They 
 wandered over the steppes and mountains; small, 
 yellow, flat-faced, filthy ; gabbling in monosyllables, 
 following a bold chief, like packs of wolves bent on 
 raven. Their dominion in Asia was the result of a 
 persistent action of want-spurring energy. That was 
 the vulgar impulse that has always hurled the human 
 deluge upon fat plains and crowded cities. It is the 
 movement of misery seeking for comfort; of hunger 
 yearning to be fed. 
 
 From the time of the terrible Changez (who died 
 1227 A.D.), to that of Tamerlane* (died 1405), for 
 nearly two centuries the " terrors of the Mughal 
 helmet " were never forgotten, either in the valley of 
 the Oxus or in mediseval Hindustan. One incursion 
 followed another, each marked by reckless slaaghter, 
 till the less barbarous sank in the weariness of the 
 unending conflict. 
 
 In 1289 A.D., the Delhi poet, Khusru, who was for 
 
 * Mr. Erskine admits that Taimur was "of the present Mongol origin," even 
 if his pedigree, as given in the " Turzak," bo not absolutely authentic (I. 69). 
 " His tribe had become Turk in language and manners from long residence 
 among Turks."
 
 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 7 
 
 some time in captivity with "the Mughals" thus 
 describes tlieir manners and appearance : — 
 
 " There were more than a thousand Tatars riding on camels, 
 great commanders in war, all with steel-like bodies clothed in 
 cotton, faces like fire, with caps of sheepskin on shaven heads. 
 Their eyes were so sharp, they might have bored a hole in a brass 
 pot ; their smell was more horrible than their colour ; their faces 
 were set on their bodies as if they had no necks ; their cheeks were 
 like empty leathern bottles, full of knots and wrinkles ; their noses 
 extended from cheek to cheek ; their mouths from ear to ear ; their 
 moustaches were of extravagant length, they had but scanty beards 
 about their chins ; their chests were covered with vermin, and their 
 skin rough like shagreen leather. They ate dogs and pigs." (Dow- 
 son's " Elliot," vol. ii., Appendix.) 
 
 These "Turks of Kai," as the poor poet calls them 
 {Kai meaning both "nausea "and the name of a Turkish 
 tribe), were called " Mughals " in India. But they 
 were not the people known in other parts of Asia as 
 Mongols, but were a derivative horde from whom 
 descended the Osmanlis, since settled in Eastern 
 Europe. The confusion seems to have arisen in this 
 way : Mongol being the best known of the barbarians, 
 and the western Tatar (or Tartar) tribes having ori- 
 ginally come from Mongolia, each new wave was 
 "Mongol" (= barbarian) to the people afflicted by 
 it, while the members of each in turn settling where 
 they had conquered, and often building or occupying 
 walled towns, intermarried with Caucasians, and ac- 
 quired some of the characteristic vices of their mothers. 
 Aiming, however, at what they observed of the attri- 
 butes of civilisation, they dropped the appellation 
 " Mongol " and applied it in a softened form as 
 " Mujjhal " to the horde next to their own borders. 
 And thus it would happen that after the grandsons of
 
 8 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 
 
 the filthy savages described by Khusru had become 
 the comparatively civilised followers of Taimur or 
 Timor, they would still be " Mughals " for the yet 
 softer peoples of India, though themselves dreading 
 and execrating the name. After Taimur's incursion, 
 the old Mussulman Empire of Delhi, itself thrown up 
 two centuries previously by an earlier northern wave, 
 never recovered from the shock. The Lodi dynasty 
 (a brief Pathan race) took up the crumbling fragments 
 in the fifteenth century. The Turkish Empire in 
 Central Asia broke up during the same period. Ever 
 since the Turks had been expelled from China in the 
 second century after Christ, they had been gradually 
 but slowly drifting westward; the Seljukian branch 
 went the farthest; the Kais followed them, and founded 
 the Osmanii Empire in Asia Minor. The Chaghatai 
 or Chughtai section, first under the son of Changez, so 
 named, and afterwards under Taimur, held sway in 
 Persia and Bokhara for about two hundred years, till 
 having become Aryanised and softened, it was in its 
 turn overthrown. In Persia the Tajiks recovered the 
 sway of their own land ; the Uzbeks, a separate Tartar 
 tribe, perhaps of mixed origin, occupied Bokhara and 
 drove the Turks forth to seek fresh fortunes. 
 
 In the following pages, therefore, I he word " Turk" 
 must be understood as meaning a Mussalman Tartar 
 who has become partly Aryanised in features and habits, 
 but has still clung to some survival of exogamous ten- 
 dencies in marriage, from which, indeed, Aryanisation 
 would not necessarily wean them. 
 
 In the introduction to Mr. Erskine's " History of 
 India " will be found a i^esume of almost all that is to 
 be learned from Oriental or European sources as to
 
 THE 'J'URKS IN INDIA. 9 
 
 tlie liistory of the Chughtais. For the purpose of 
 the present study, it will be sufficient to quote with 
 entire acquiescence the following sentences : — 
 
 " The Turks have in different ages extended their influence into 
 the more cultivated regions of the east, sometimes acting in bands 
 by direct force, sometimes individually, unaided except by the in- 
 herent powers of their minds. Several of their smaller tribes which 
 found their way to the south were at an early period entertained in 
 the service of the Arabian Khalifs of Bagdad ; and many private 
 adventurers sought wealth and distinction by taking service in the 
 armies of different Asiatic princes. Numbers of the hardy race were 
 even purchased as slaves by those monarchs and embodied as their 
 life-guards, or educated in their palaces as trusty and confidential 
 servants. Those in course of time rose to be their chief ministers, the 
 generals of their armies and governors of their provinces ; and in 
 the decline of the Khalifate, the principal revolutions effected in 
 the empire, whether in the palace or the field, were conducted by 
 them.* In a similar manner the kingdom of Gazni came into the 
 possession of Sabaktegin, a Turkish slave, whose son. Sultan Mah- 
 mud, not only extended his empire to the Oxus and the Caspian, 
 but carried his victorious arms many times into the centre of India, 
 
 " Few races of men at any period of the world have acted a 
 more distinguished part than the Turks, who, in one form or another, 
 for centuries ruled a great part of the old world ; and who, even at 
 the present day, influence directly or indirectly the government, 
 manners, and civilisation of mankind from the Straits of Gribraltar 
 to the deserts on the Tenesei, and from the limits of Hungary and 
 Poland to the farthest bounds of the empire of Hindustan. 
 
 " In India, the Turks never affected to monopolise all the au- 
 thority of the kingdoms which they obtained. The natives shared 
 in the administration of the country and in military commands. 
 They found a country already populous, and its territories fully 
 occupied by civilised inhabitants, as well as by a race of conquerors 
 of their own religion. They had none of the exterminating ferocity 
 of Chengez, and were not so insane as to have a wish to expel the 
 cultivators from lands, the value of which was solely owing to their 
 labour." 
 
 * That is to say, by the Mamelukes.
 
 10 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 
 
 To this it is only necessary to add that the system 
 succeeded so long as the natives of India were not 
 disturbed in their occupations or religious beliefs and 
 practices. But the great weakness of the energetic 
 Turkish character, its incapacity for patient construc- 
 tion and persevering attention to detailed business, 
 made itself peculiarly plain whenever they were 
 tempted to alienate the indigenous workers and to 
 undertake to do for themselves the executive work. 
 The decay of their architecture is a fair type of the 
 decline of their political administration. So long as 
 they confined themselves to making known their 
 wants and providing money to meet the estimates, 
 there was no want of skilful artificers to build 
 mosques, mansions, and mortuary monuments, such 
 as have never been surpassed. But, when they 
 cashiered the indigenous workmen and took in hand 
 to build for themselves, they produced works which 
 are onlv remarked for their vulorarity, and which are 
 absolutely contemporaneous with the fall of their 
 authority. {See Tergusson, " Indian Architecture," 
 page 602). 
 
 The following pages are ofi"ered as a further illus- 
 tration of the character of Turkish rule, especially as 
 shown in the empire founded in Hindustan by the 
 Chughtai Turks under Babar and his descendants. 
 It is admitted that the house of Taimur and their 
 followers were chiefly Mughal by descent ; but it is 
 important to bear in mind that the characteristics of 
 their system were not bloodshed and paganism (as 
 with the early Mughals), but a high degree of 
 Moslem civilisation, combined (as among the modern 
 Osmanlis) with elements of great sloth and inatten-
 
 THE TURKS IN INDIA.. 11 
 
 tion to business in regard to conquests won by the 
 display of equally great temporary energy. The 
 Mughals had become Turks. 
 
 It is this curious combination of refined manners, 
 brave promise and faineant fulfilment, that has been 
 the infirmity of Turks everywhere, and it is for this 
 reason that the " Mughal Empire " of Hindustan is 
 here spoken of as the sway of the Turks in India 
 rather than by the name under which it has been 
 usually known. 
 
 There had been earlier appearances of Turks in 
 that country, but it cannot be said that Turkish 
 administration had been introduced, except in some 
 obscure States in the south. First was Mahmud, the 
 son of Sabaktigin, who made many predatory incur- 
 sions from his kingdom of Ghazni, but returned there 
 at last to die. He is well known in Eastern literature 
 as the niggard patron of the Persian poet, Eardusi. 
 The son of a Mameluke, he continued the practice of 
 promoting distinguished Turkish slaves. These men 
 and their descendants, with the mingled energy and 
 facility of their race, always ended by amalgamating 
 with the races over whom they obtained power. 
 
 Mahmud died in 1030 a.d. At the end of about 
 one hundred and fifty years the dynasty that he had 
 founded gave way to an Afghan one, the House of 
 Ghor ; but the same system began again. Shahab- 
 ud-Din Ghori, the actual founder of the Moslem rule 
 in Hindustan, left his conquests there to be ruled by 
 a favourite Turkish slave, Kutb-ud-Din Aibak — he 
 from whom the famous tower,* known as the Kutb 
 
 * The building went on during the greater part of the first half of the 
 thirteenth century a.d.
 
 12 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 
 
 Minar of Delhi, is named ; and Kutb-ud-Din was 
 succeeded by another Turkish slave, Altamsh, of 
 whom several works remain in the neio-hbourhood of 
 the Kutb Minar, and also at Ajmere. The next 
 remarkable Turks in India are " The Porty ;" one of 
 whom, Balban, reigned from 1265 to 1286. Then 
 came Pathan rulers of the tribe of Khilji, the Turkish 
 element being for the time quite worn out. The great 
 Ghazi Malik, the founder of Tughlakabad, however, 
 revived the Turkish power. He was the son of 
 another slave ; and the House of Tughlak, founded by 
 him, endured from 1320 to the end of the fourteenth 
 century. One of them, Mohamad-ibD -Tughlak, was 
 one of the most cruel tyrants that history has 
 recorded, and was known as KJmni Sultan, or 
 " Bloody Lord." Another, Eiroz Shah, was a man of 
 mildness, rectitude, and great accomplishments, among 
 which was a warm and judicious love of architecture. 
 The empire, assailed by fresh incursions of Northern 
 Turks, and curtailed by the encroachment of new 
 kingdoms on the south, fell into the hands of feeble 
 indigenous Mussulmans until the great invasion of 
 Taimur, a soi-disani, and perhaps real, descendant 
 of Changhez Khan, who, however, only nominally 
 ruled India, and whose departure was followed by the 
 administration — over the dwindled remains of the 
 empire — of other native Moslems, who went on blun- 
 dering and quarrelling until the arrival of Babar. 
 
 Prom this date (1526 a.d.) we find the Turkish 
 power paramount in Hindustan and the adjacent lands 
 from Cabul to the Carnatic, and from the boundaries 
 of Berar to the banks of the Brahmaputra river. We 
 shall observe hereafter the foundation, consolidation,
 
 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 13 
 
 and equilibrium of the Cliuglitai power, unusually 
 fortunate so long as the natives were largely em- 
 ployed and their systems adopted as models ; while 
 manly adventurers from the hardy North continued 
 to infuse their energy into an administration which 
 they had not sufficient intelligence or ability to affect 
 organically either for good or evil. We shall see 
 something of the splendours of a court and camp far 
 too sumptuous for the state of the rest of the com- 
 munity, yet maintained without material hardship, 
 and therefore a source of pride to the people ; and 
 something also of a people fairly prosperous, though 
 rather in agriculture than in commerce, and some- 
 times disturbed by local wars here and there, yet on 
 the whole as happy as they have ever been or are 
 likely soon to he. We shall then come to a time 
 when ambition and fanaticism, going hand in hand, 
 had alienated the natives, and left business in the sole 
 hands of incompetent and debauched members of the 
 governing classes. And a glimpse will be afforded of 
 the coming cataclysm that was to prepare the way for 
 a new power, whose destinies are still uncertain, and 
 which may yet profit by studying the story of its pre- 
 decessors. 
 
 In the course of this study we shall find a state of 
 society not very easy to classify according to modern 
 notions. It was not savage, certainly, yet it does not 
 present the features which we are accustomed to asso- 
 ciate with the idea of civilisation. The king, or em- 
 peror, was not the member of the reigning family 
 who succeeded by divine right, hut the one who suc- 
 ceeded after conquering — and usually slaughtering— 
 all the others at the end of the previous reign. The
 
 14 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 
 
 nobility was not a hereditary body with fixed consti- 
 tutional privileges, resembling the strong aristocracies 
 who limited the arbitrary action of the sovereign in 
 mediaeval Europe ; it more resembled the Paladins of 
 Charlemagne, or the major-generals of Cromwell. 
 This absence of a strict law of succession had doubt- 
 less its advantages, making both crown and coronet 
 the prize of valour and ability rather than the result 
 of mere chance. But these advantages were a great 
 deal neutralized by the want of any honourable occu- 
 pation but a career of arms, joined to the povert}'' and 
 ignorance of the people at large. It may be safely 
 said that, after Akbar, no prince of the liouse of 
 Taimur ever ascended the throne who was not the 
 ablest of the competitors for the succession at the 
 time. And although many of them, after attaining 
 their object, yielded to the temptations of their posi- 
 tion and became more or less negligent of business, 
 their ministers were usually men who rose, in their 
 turn, by merit. But there was still ever lacking any 
 or^-aniscd opposition, either coDstitutional or other, to 
 maintain these ministers in a course of honesty and 
 virtue. The people might, here and there, raise 
 tumults, but they were usually of the nature of rebel- 
 lious movements in the interest of some designing 
 official who led them for personal and ignoble objects. 
 With the exception of the various Hindu revolts, 
 under which the empire ultimately crumbled, no 
 popular rising on a large scale was provoked by any 
 amount of tyranny or mal-administration. 
 
 This weakness of the community was due to a 
 combination of causes. The climate indisposed men 
 to exertion; the system of caste— while it sometimes
 
 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 15 
 
 favoured temporary intertribal combinations — led, in 
 the end, to chronic distrust, rivalry, and discord. Tiie 
 unlimited exactions of the officials led — except under 
 very exceptional rulers — to slovenly agriculture ; the 
 sequestration and locking-up of capital in the palace 
 and the treasury of the emperor, and in the buried 
 hoards of his wealthier subjects, paralysed commercial 
 enterprise. 
 
 The Emperor Babar, accustomed to the very 
 moderate civilisation of Central Asia, found his newly- 
 acquired country almost intolerable. Admitting the 
 abundance of resources and the many good gifts of 
 nature which Hindustan possessed, he disliked the life 
 almost as much as the most fastidious English exile of 
 the present day. 
 
 " The people," he said, "have no idea of the charms of friendly 
 society. . . or of familiar intercourse. They have neither genius, 
 intelligence, politeness, kindness, ingenuity, invention, skill, or know- 
 ledge of the arts. Ton cannot even get a decent light at night. The 
 greatest man, if he wants to see by night, has to call in a filthy fellow 
 with a torch, who stands close to his employer all the time that he 
 is using the light. The peasants and lower classes go about nearly 
 naked. They tie on a thing that they call a 'loin-cloth,' and the ends 
 of this knotted clout are all that they have to cover them." 
 
 He noticed with approval the prodigious numbers 
 of artisans exercising crafts, handed down from father 
 to son, but he commented bitterly on the almost total 
 absence of works of irrigation. 
 
 The varying details of the administrative system 
 will be found mentioned in the following chapters. 
 Its general characteristics were a mixture of insolence 
 and inebriety, arising from the peculiar temperament 
 of Turks, wherever they are dominant. Under 
 Akbar — and to a less degree under his son and grand-
 
 16 THE TURKS IN INDI\. 
 
 son also — these evils Trere much mitigated by the 
 extensive employment of the native races, both Hindu 
 and Mussulman, in the control as well as the details of 
 the administrations. In these earlier reigns, at least, 
 the taxation of the people was not heavy, and the 
 method of collection was simple, and not more oppres- 
 sive than is usual in eastern countries. In times of 
 calamity, suspensions, and even remissions of the 
 demand, were allowed, and moneys were sometimes 
 advanced to necessitous agriculturists. But there was, 
 it is much to be feared, a very faint appreciation of 
 the claims of individuals, either on grounds of equity 
 or of utility; and hence there must have been, among 
 the people in general, none of that "magic of private 
 property which turns sand into gold." The unlimited 
 potentiality of the few not only withheld the stimulus 
 to exertion so peculiarly needful in a country whose 
 natural fertility is only checked by occasional vicissi- 
 tudes of season, but it restrained the formation of 
 reserve funds, and the investment of money in profit- 
 able undertakings. Wealth was either ostentatiously 
 scattered or lost in secret hoards ; and those secondary 
 wants were undeveloped or restrained which are at 
 once the spring of industry among free populations, 
 and the cause of their material comfort and general 
 well-being. 
 
 Gradually, as the bonds of centralisation became 
 relaxed, while local institutions were not ready to take 
 their place, anarchy, confusion, disorder, rapine, and 
 bloodshed became more and more prevalent. It is 
 probable that no community was ever in a more 
 miserable condition than that of Hindustan when the 
 British power was first introduced.
 
 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 17 
 
 How many of the coils under which the people 
 then suffered have been removed or mitigated by- 
 Western conquest is to be seen by reference to modern 
 statistics. But misery still hovers over them like the 
 first vulture over the scene of a coming battle. Absit 
 omen ! 
 
 Note. — The Mughal fiscal system and its results have been treated with 
 much research by Mr. E. Thomas,* who has shown an agreement of contemporary 
 authority to prove that the Chaghtai Emperors took a great deal more from 
 their territories than has been taken by the British. At the same time, they 
 returned, it must be remembered, far less in the shape either of administration 
 or of public works, while the state of the sea-commerce gave but little scope for 
 the introduction of the precious metalsf. Thus, money was more scarce and 
 dear; yet, the amount raised (from a smaller number of tax-payers) was higher 
 in mere figures. Lastly,' the sum — averaging ten millions a year — that the 
 British receive from sea-customs and opium are a nett relief to the ordinary 
 native subject not enjoyed by his precursor. 
 
 Mr. Thomas draws his couclusions from the best sources. His tables refer, 
 for the earlier reigns, to the northern parts alone, while the figures for Aurangzeb 
 cover the Deccan also. His conclusion is as follows: — The land revenue, then 
 as now, formed about one half of the total receipts. Akbar got about seventeen 
 millions sterling by this item, assessing it on the northern provinces, including 
 the sterile and precariously held lands of Cabul. This Asiatic Piedmont, peopled 
 by a sparse, but hardy race of mountaineers, was less and less profitable ; to 
 Akbar it yielded a revenue of about eight hundred thousand pounds sterling, 
 which gradually dwindled down to two hundred and forty, and was then lost 
 altogether. Leaving this unprofitable region out of calculation, the provinces of 
 the Punjab, Hindustan, Gujarat, and the eastern Subalis, paid an aggregate of 
 thirty-two millions from all sources after Akbar had remitted a long list of 
 taxes. Tlie same countries may yield, nominally, nearly as much now. Jahangir 
 made some enhancements, so that Hawkins (who lived a long time at the Court 
 of Agra) makes the total revenue amount to no less than fifty millions — the 
 present income raised from the whole of British India. Under Shahjaban accu- 
 mulations and expenditure both increased, so that the revenue cannot have 
 diminished. Under Aurangzeb, the earlier ofiicial records show a nett revenue 
 
 * " Revenue Resources of the Mughal Empire," by Edward Thomas, F.R.S. 
 London, 1871. 
 
 t The importation of treasure into India during the decade ending 1876 
 amounted to more than ninety-five millions sterling, of which not much over 
 seventeen millions was exported, so that nearly eighty millions remained in 
 India, mostly added to the circulation. 
 
 C
 
 18 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 
 
 from the land of over twenty-four millions, increased to tbirty-four after the 
 conquest of the southern kingdoms. Following the estimates of European tra- 
 vellers (one of whom lived for many years at Court), the aggregate revenue of 
 the Empire rose at one time to close upon eighty millions a year. Whether all 
 this was collected is another question, which we have no sufficient power to 
 answer. 
 
 Mr. Thomas is so well-known as a scholar, numismatist, and antiquarian, 
 that his authority is hardly likely to be questioned. It is, however, to be added 
 that certain assumptions are necessary to support these high estimates ; thus, 
 for example, his estimate of Akbar's revenue is founded on a supposition that 
 the six hundred and forty krors of tankalis spoken of by Nizam-ud-Din Ahmad 
 the author of the " Tabakat," are equivalent to thii-ty-two krors of rupees, and 
 that Abul Fazl has understated them in the proportion of a little less than one 
 to three; for, according to the "Ain Akbari," the revenues of the Empire were 
 less than ten krors. The latter estimates proceed upon the hypothesis that the 
 rupee was always the tenth of the pound sterling ; though Tavernier says that 
 fourteen rupees were equal to twenty-one French livres, which would yield 
 nearly seventeen to the pound. All alike require the admission that the separate 
 revenue was always about the equivalent of that derived from land ; though Jean 
 de Laet, a contemporary Dutch author, says that Akbar's revenue was ouly 
 about half the number of tankahs assigned by Nizam-ud-Din, and says nothing 
 about any other sources of income. It would be very interesting to determine 
 the exact meaning of the word tankah, as used in the Tabakat. It was, appa- 
 rently, a copper coin familiar in those times ; and may possibly have borne the 
 same value as the modern pdi, the sixty-fourth part of a rupee. Some support 
 is given to this theory by Mr. Thomas himself: — 
 
 " Indian currency consisted of hybrid pieces of silver and copper, combined 
 in the proportions necessary to constitute the equivalent subdivisions of the 
 ruling silver tankah, which was never divided in practice by any other number 
 than sixty -four." 
 
 If the copper (or " black ") tankah was the divisor of the silver (or " white ") 
 tankah, it would thus seem to follow that it must have been the sixty-fourth of 
 a rupee. In this case, six hundred and forty krors of murddi tankahs would 
 have been the equivalent of ten krors of rupees, and the estimate of Nizam-ud-Din 
 would be substantially identical with that of his contemporary and brother officer, 
 the author of the " Ain," as we should naturally expect. ( Vide " Appendix A.")
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE FOUNDATION OF THE CHUGHTAI 
 DYNASTY 
 
 {Commonly called ^^ The Mughal Empire"). 
 
 It may not at first sight appear difficult to account 
 for the name popularly given to the empire founded 
 in India by the house of Taimur. " Moghul " or 
 " Mughal " is a corruption of Mongol, and Taimur 
 asserted that he was a collateral relation of 
 Changez Khan, who was a famous Mongol leader. 
 The difficulty arises when we observe that Babar, 
 the descendant of Taimur, by whom the Empire was 
 founded, was anxious to repudiate what his ancestor 
 had been anxious to claim, and that the family hence- 
 forth adopted the name of " Chughtai Turk " as 
 antithetical to " Mughal," which last became almost 
 a term of opprobrium in Babar's mouth. How did 
 such a change happen in the short space of one 
 hundred years ? It seems like Totila pretending not 
 to be a Goth. 
 
 There was no doubt, in Central Asia, a tribe, or 
 set of tribes, which at one time called themselves
 
 20 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 
 
 Turks, in contradistinction to the Mongols. Hence, 
 probably, arose the fabulous foundation of the gene- 
 alogy, mentioned inTaimur's autobiography, which calls 
 Japhet (the third son of Noah) the parent of Turk, 
 Tartar, and Mongol. Taimur says that his father used 
 to relate that he had heard from his ancestors that 
 Japhet " Abu-Turk " had five sons, the fifth of whom 
 had two SODS by one mother, of whom one was called 
 Tartar, the other Mugbol.* But they and their off- 
 spring forgot Abu-Turk and his doctrines, and became 
 blasphemers and savages, till they were quite sepa- 
 rated and dispersed by constant quarrels. Karachar 
 Nuyan, the first of the race to become a true believer 
 (Musulman), was great grandson of Kachauli Baha- 
 dur, whose brother was great grandfather of Changez 
 Khan. This Karachar married a daughter of Chugh- 
 tai, son of Changez ; and Taimur's father was the 
 fifth in descent from their son Gor Khan. (These 
 particulars are abstracted from a MS. in possession of 
 the writer, which purports to be a translation from 
 the Turkish, made or copied about a.d. 1652, and 
 once the property of Saadat Ali Khan). If the latter 
 part of this be a true pedigree, then the Amir Taimur 
 was a Mongolian on both sides — or, at least, he 
 united both branches ; and Babar, whose grandfather 
 Abusaid was grandson of Taimur's third son, was 
 equally Mongolian, as his mother was descended from 
 Chughtai. 
 
 On the other hand it is stated by Vambery that 
 Taimur's tribe (that of Barlasf) was Turk, as distin- 
 
 * As to the genuineness of these Memoirs, see Dowson's " Elliot's Historians 
 of India," vol. iii., page 389, and f.f. ; also the " Apiiendix." 
 
 t Earlas is given by Taimur as the son of Kachauli, the grand-uncle of 
 Changez.
 
 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 21 
 
 guislied from Mongol. He adds, that " the opinion 
 entertained by "Weil, Hammer, and many other Orien- 
 talists on the authority of Mirkhond and Sherefedin, 
 that Timour was of Mon^rolian oris^in involves a 
 double error. The history of Timour's descent from 
 Karadja Xuyan is a pure fable. That 'i'imour should 
 have been ever taken for a Mongolian can only be 
 explained by the circumstance that the Persians long 
 regarded the Khanate of Tchaghatai, on the further 
 side of the Oxus, as an integral part of the Mongolian 
 Empire " (" Bokhara," p. 163.) 
 
 Now the Chughtai " Khanate " or principality 
 Avas the territory seized upon by the descendants of 
 Changez Khan's second son of that name when the 
 empire of the great conqueror broke up. It is men- 
 tioned as such in Colonel Yule's very learned intro- 
 duction to " Marco Polo's Travels," p. 10. That terri- 
 tory, therefore, was clearly Mongolian, and there is no 
 doubt but that, even if Taimur's genealogy be in- 
 correct, foreigners might have been well excused for 
 regarding him as a Mongolian ruler after he had be- 
 come possessed of it. 
 
 On the other hand, it must be remembered that 
 Turks have been usually regarded as but barely and 
 remotely, if at all, kinsfolk of the Mongolians ; and 
 that in practice there were many instances, both be- 
 fore and after Taimur, when races bearing those names 
 were almost as hostile as ever were Turan and Iran 
 in the days of Hustam and Afrasidb. The Western 
 Osmanlis own no modern connection with the Mon- 
 gols, saying that it was the latter who, with the aid of 
 the Chinese, drove them into the " Golden Moun- 
 tains." It might be curious, as a side light upon the
 
 22 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 
 
 nationality of Taimur, to enquire what he was called 
 by Ilderim Bayazid about the time of the battle of 
 Angora. 
 
 At all events, whether " Taimur the Tartar " was 
 himself a Turk or a Mongol, it is very certain that 
 the empire founded by him acquired a Turkish cha- 
 racter, adopting the Turkish language and the com- 
 paratively civilised manners of the Persians on its 
 west and south. Even taking it as a continuation of 
 the Mongol conquest, the substructure must have 
 been furnished by the resident population, who had 
 been Turkish for perhaps nearly a thousand years. 
 It is therefore, as Mr. Erskine justly observes, " one 
 of the strangest caprices of fortune that the empire 
 which Babar founded in India should have been 
 called, both in the country and by foreigners, the 
 empire of the Moguls, thus taking its name from a 
 race which he detested." The emperor's own account 
 of the Mughals is that " they have uniformly been the 
 authors of every kind of mischief and devastation." 
 It is, however, to be borne in mind that Erskine has 
 shown that Taimur was of purely Mongol descent, 
 though he and his tribe had become Turks in habits 
 and appearance. 
 
 The following are the pedigrees given to them- 
 selves by the Amir Taimur and Sultan Babar in their 
 respective autobiographies : —
 
 THE TURKS IN INDIA, 
 
 23 
 
 TtTMAN Khan. 
 
 Kibla Khan. 
 
 I 
 Barma Bahadur. 
 
 I 
 Kabia Bahadur. 
 
 I . 
 
 Changez Khan. 
 
 I 
 Chughtai. 
 
 Kachauli Bahadur. 
 
 Ardamji Barlas. 
 
 Souii. 
 
 , J 
 
 Karachar Nuyan. 
 
 (Said to have embraced Islam and m. 
 grand-daughter of Changez Khin.) 
 
 Daughter mar. Karachar. 
 
 Teanbugha Khan (4th from Chughtai). 
 Tughlak Taimur Khan. 
 Khizr Khwaja Klian. 
 Khwaja Khan. 
 
 Wais Khan. 
 
 I , 
 Yenis Khan. 
 
 Anjil Nujan. 
 
 I 
 Amir Tungri Bahadur. 
 
 Amir Baigul Bahadur. 
 
 Amir Turaghai. 
 
 Amir Taimue, called Tameelane. 
 
 I 
 Mirza Shah Eukh. 
 
 I 
 Sultan Mohamad Mirza. 
 
 Sultan Abusaid. 
 
 Qutlak Nikar Khanam = Omar Shekh Mirza. 
 
 Ahmad Mirza. 
 
 Mohamad Zahieuddin, called Babab. 
 
 Prom this it is evident that the founders of the 
 Imperial House did not disdain Mughal — or Mugh61 — 
 ancestry; and their successors only objected to the 
 word, which had acquired a dyslogistic sense, not only 
 meaning " barbarian," but also " heathen." The wilder 
 Musjhals had made an end of the Khalifate, that old 
 Moslem Papacy ; they were themselves at that time 
 either Buddhists or common fetish-worshippers. We
 
 24 THE TUBKS IN INDIA. 
 
 see Taimur blaming liis own forefathers for "forgetting 
 Japbet and bis God," and boasting of tbe acceptance 
 of tbe true faitb by Karacbar Nuyan. It was tbus, 
 no doubt, tbat in Central Asia tbe word " Mugbol " 
 (as Taimur spells it) came to liave a dyslogistic mean- 
 ing. Under Akbar, wben tbe empire bad become a 
 firm result of successful war, tbe word recovered its 
 prestige, and — ^like tbe name of " Gotb " in Spain — 
 came to indicate "a noble conqueror," or tbe descend- 
 ant of one. 
 
 Tbe following passage from Kbafi Kban, for wbicb 
 I am indebted to tbe kindness of tbe late Professor 
 Blocbmann, bears out tbis view : — 
 
 " Tlie flourishing, condition of Mughalistan commenced with 
 Mushol Khan, who was a great king. Although from the time of 
 Akbar the word Mughol has been applied to the Turks and Tajiks 
 of Iran (Persia) to such an extent that even the Sajyids of Iran and 
 Khorasan were called Mughols,yet in reality the word is the proper 
 term for those Turks who belong to the descendants and house of 
 Muo'hol Khan ; and it was used in this sense in the time of the earlier 
 (Moslem) kings of Dehli. The pedigree of the descendants of Mughol 
 Khan reaches down to Changez Khan and the Amir Timur ; but the 
 descendants of the Mughol Khan were firmly attached to idolatry 
 .... as you may see from the chronicles of ilei'at, where it is 
 recorded that hundreds of thousands of Mussulmans were slain by 
 the Mughols." 
 
 The writer also notices tbat tbe second vowel ougbt 
 to be written and pronounced long, as, indeed it is 
 written in Taimur's memoirs. So tbat, of all tbe 
 spellings, Mogul, Mongol, Mugbal, and Mugbol or 
 Mugbol, it is tbe last only tbat is quite correct. Tbe 
 poet Kbusru, too (Arc. 1300), makes tbe word rbyme 
 witb Arabic words of tbe conjugation /a«i/. 
 
 As to language, Yilmbery says tbat tbougb tbe 
 Turkisb vocabulary was chiefly Mongolian, tbe structure
 
 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 25 
 
 of tbe languages differed. But there is no evidence 
 that I know of that the Mughals of Babar's time 
 spoke anything but Turkish — not of course that of the 
 Levant, but a language structurally resembling it. In 
 later years and more southern latitudes the word 
 " Mughal " was applied to all northern immigrants and 
 their descendants ; and hence the term was naturally 
 adopted by Europeans. 
 
 It is fair to add that these genealogies may not be 
 correct. Tsanbugha may not have been the father of 
 of Tughluk Taimur, nor Kliizr Khwaja his son. On 
 the other side, as Yambery suggests, the kinship of 
 Karachar Nuyan with Changez may be a fable in- 
 vented by some flatterer in the days when Taimur was 
 aiming at independence. All that can be said is that 
 these are the only genealogies that are forthcoming, 
 and that, if they prove nothing, they serve to show 
 that in public estimation Babar was a pure Mughal 
 by both his parents. 
 
 Of his mother's father an interesting picture has 
 been preserved, showing how the Mughal passed into 
 the Turk. " I had heard," said a holy man s«it to 
 Yunis Khan, when he ruled in Mughalistan, " I had 
 heard that Yunis Khan was a Mughal, and I con- 
 cluded that he was beardless, with the rude ways of 
 an inhabitant of the desert. But I found a handsome 
 man, with a fine bushy beard, of elegant address, 
 most agreeable and refined manners and conversation, 
 such as are seldom to be met with even in the most 
 polished society."* The wife of this chief was a 
 
 * Vide Erskine's " History of India," i. 60, In the introduction to this work 
 will be found a very learned account of the tribes and their countries. See also 
 " Appendix A " of the same work.
 
 26 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 
 
 woman of tlio utmost spirit and resolution, who cut 
 to pieces, with the help of her maids, a bridegroom 
 who had been forced upon her by the fortune of war. 
 They were fond of Umar Shekh, Babar's father, and 
 gave him their second daughter to wife. Umar Shekh 
 himself, if we are to believe the records of the time, was 
 equally of Mughal birth. From the pedigrees given 
 above, taken from Babar's " Memoirs " and Taimur's 
 (now generally accepted as genuine), it appears that 
 the Amir claimed to be ninth in descent from Toman 
 Khan, great-great-grandfather of Changez Khan, the 
 mightiest of all leaders of the Mongols. He died 
 A.D. 1405, and was succeeded in his conquests by 
 descendants who became gradually less and less able 
 to cope with their hardy northern neighbours, and 
 who — though not foregoing a nominal claim to the 
 sovereignty of Hindustan and the Panjab — had to do 
 all they knew to maintain any show of authority in 
 the valley of the Oxus. But in 1482 was born a 
 member of the family who was destined — and while 
 losing his hereditary possessions — to realise the most 
 ambitious dreams of his ancestor in other quarters. 
 
 Mirza Zahir-ud-Din Mohamad Babar was the 
 grandson of Abusaid, Taimur's grandson, and his 
 mother was a free Mughal lady, descended from 
 Chughtai, son of Changez. To her wild Tartar blood 
 he probably owed the restless energy and cheerful 
 easiness of his disposition. His father, Umar Shekh 
 Mirza, inherited, of all the vast possessions of his 
 house, nothing but the small principality of Farghana, 
 a portion of the upper Jaxartes, now known as 
 Kokand. This, though but a narrow tract, was fair 
 and fertile, inhabited by a peaceful Aryan race, and
 
 THE TUEKS IN INDIA. 27 
 
 abounding in woods and streams', orchards and foun- 
 tains, to wliicii Babar looked ])ack fondly from all the 
 subsequent summits of his adventurous career. 
 
 At twelve years of age Babar found himself, by 
 the death of his father, left to defend his poor but 
 pleasant heritage against the designs of the brothers 
 of both his parents. So successful was he in doing 
 so that he turned the tables on his unnatural uncles, 
 and in 1497 overran the district of Samarkand and 
 temporarily occupied the capital. But he afterwards 
 encountered in the Uzbeks a more formidable foe, 
 and was at length driven, not only from his acquired 
 territory, but from that which he had inherited from 
 his father. He left Earghana in the twenty-third year 
 of his age, and never again beheld his beloved native 
 home. 
 
 Babar's first movement was on Bokhara, which 
 had belonged to his cousin, until a faithless minister 
 murdered him and seized the power. Passing on 
 towards Cabul, he found that this country also had 
 fallen out of the hands of his family and had been 
 taken possession of by the Arghan tribe of Turks. 
 
 Babar's conquests in Bokhara were lost almost as 
 quickly as they were acquired, and fell into the 
 possession of the celebrated leader of the Uzbeks, 
 Shaibani Khan, who was more than a match for the 
 young prince. But, in compensation, he acquired 
 without trouble the greater part of what is now called 
 Afghanistan in 1504. 
 
 Ba'iar was now king of Cabul, of Candahar, and 
 of some outlying territory ; and the following very 
 brief annals will supply all that is requisite for our pre- 
 sent purpose as to the events of his life during these
 
 28 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 
 
 years. In a.d. 1505 he obtained complete possession 
 of the capital and surrounding country, bounded on 
 the north by the chain of the Hindu Kush. In 1506 
 his brother, Mirza Jahangir, went into revolt; and in 
 the following year the movement was joined by the 
 Mughals in the army, who set up a kinsman as a rival 
 king. These acts of rebellion were quickly but leni- 
 ently subdued. The young man's name was Abdur- 
 ruzak, and by descent his pretensions were better than 
 Uabar's. The Uzbeks, Babar's old foes, created con- 
 fusion by attacking him from the side of Herat, and 
 Candahar was lost for some dozen years. But the 
 great leader of the Uzbeks died in 1510 ; and hence- 
 forth they caused Babar but little trouble in the rest 
 of his new territory, though they maintained a suc- 
 cessful war against him in Bokhara, and mostly kept 
 him within his own limits. In 1522 he recovered 
 Candahar, and two years later invaded the Panjab. 
 He was at first unable or unwilling to move on fur- 
 ther, or even to remain where he was ; but in Decem- 
 ber of the following jear he returned in greater force, 
 and in 1526 became master of Upper India, and vir- 
 tually laid the foundations of the Empire of the 
 Mughals (more properly of the Chughtai Turks), 
 which lasted for the next two centuries. 
 
 The state of the peninsula at that time may be 
 thus briefly described : — Delhi was the nominal capital, 
 but the federal bond — if such it can be called — which 
 had existed under some of the Pathan Emperors, was 
 worn to a thread. Babar says : " At the period of my 
 invasion five Musalman Kings and two Pagans exer- 
 cised royal authority . . . one of these powers was 
 that of the Afghans. [By this he means the soi-dlsant
 
 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 29 
 
 empire of the Lodis enthroned at Delhi] . . . Jaun- 
 pur had been held by Sultan Hasain Sharki. [This 
 kingdom was often a bone of contention between the 
 Delhi Empire and the successful adventurers]. After 
 Eiroz Shah's death [1388, really not till 1394], his 
 servants gained possession of the kingdom of Jaun- 
 pur . . . the Lodis seized the throne of Delhi as well 
 as that of Jaunpur, and reduced both kingdoms under 
 one government [1478]. The second ruler was Sultan 
 Muhamad Muzafar in Gujarat (this kingdom was also 
 a fragment broken off from the Delhi Empire about 
 the end of the fourteenth century, in which an able 
 minister founded a hereditary dynasty). The third 
 kingdom is that of the Bahmans, in the Deccan. [This 
 had, in fact, split up into three, namely : — Bijapur, 
 founded by Adil Shah ; Ahmadnugur, by Nizam 
 Sliah ; and Golconda, by Kutb Shah, all of which were 
 carved out of the old possessions of the Moslem ruler 
 of the Deccan about the time wlien Babar overthrew 
 the power of the Lodi Pathans in the north]. The 
 fourth king was Sultan Mahmud, who reigned in the 
 country of Malwa, which they likewise call Mandu. 
 [This was the kingdom founded by Dilawar Ghori, at 
 the break-up of Eiroz Shah Tughlak's Empire, at the 
 end of the fourteenth century. By the time of which 
 Babar writes, this beautiful country was being fought 
 for by the Eana of Udaipur on one side, and the 
 Moslem ruler of Gujarat on the other.] The fifth 
 prince was Nasrat Sluih, in the kingdom of Bengal." 
 [This is the kingdom whose capital was at Gaur, or 
 Lakhnaoti, a ruined city of the vast extent of over 
 30 square miles on the left bank of the Bhagirati, in 
 the district now called Malda.]
 
 30 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 
 
 *' The most powerful of the Pagan princes, in point 
 of territory and army, is the Raja of Bijayauagur [this 
 Eaja continued to be one of the great powers of the 
 South until he was overthrown and slain by a Moslem 
 confederacy, in the battle of Talikot, in 1565] . Another 
 is the E.ana Sanka " [This was the famous hero of 
 Mewar,nowUdaipur. He is called Sung Ram, or Sanga, 
 by Tod — "the finial on the pinnacle of Me war's glory." 
 he died in 1530, and his dynasty declined from that 
 date. We shall hear more of hini anon]. 
 
 Babar makes no account of the remaining? rulers 
 and chiefs of the country. It need only be mentioned 
 that there were several small principalities in Berar, 
 Bidar, Marwar, Jesalmir, and others of still less im- 
 portance. 
 
 Such was the land invaded by our Bohemian hero 
 — a mixture of Henri Quatre and the Hoi d'Yvetot — 
 whose naif autobiography has made him the darling 
 of native historians. Though the son of a Mughal 
 mother, and by the father's side sixth in descent from 
 the bloody and bigoted Taimur, all his tastes and 
 manners were such as Europeans sympathise with ; 
 and he laid himself out for alliances among his Aryan 
 neighbours, the Persians, rather than among the tribes 
 of his own natural kin. He was now in the forty- 
 fourth year of his age, and had entered upon an ex- 
 pedition which — as with a peaceful conqueror of more 
 modern times — had been "the dream of his life." 
 Prom the time of his first settlement in Cabul, Babar 
 tells us he had " always been bent on subduing Hin- 
 dustan." ..." Sometimes," he adds, " from the mis- 
 conduct of my amirs, and their dislike of the plan, 
 sometimes from the cabals and opposition of my
 
 THE TUUKS IN INDIA. 31 
 
 brothers, I was prevented from prosecuting the ex- 
 pedition." The brothers thus mentioned were two, 
 Jehangir Mirza and Nasir Mirza ; one of whom we 
 have seen in open revolt in Cabul. They weve the 
 sons of different mothers; neither seems to have been 
 a man of much ability, and neither gave much trouble 
 after the conquest of India. Babar had four sons, 
 Humayun, Kamran, 'Askari, and Hindu], of whom the 
 first was in his nineteenth year at the time of the 
 conquest. 
 
 The decisive action was fought in the neighbour- 
 hood of Paniput — where so many great Indian battles 
 have taken place — on the 21st April, 1526. Babar 
 represents the Hindustanis as outnumbering him ten- 
 fold ; but attributes his victory — under Providence — 
 to the use of his guns, protected by fascines, chains and 
 fieldworks (his Tartar ancestors had been accustomed 
 to fortify their encampments in this way). 
 
 The Hindustani leader, Ibrahim Lodi, dying in the 
 fight, the throne was left without an occupant. The 
 conqueror took possession of Delhi and Agra, and his 
 court was established at the latter place, though appa- 
 rently on the opposite side of the river to that on 
 which stand the present fort and city. V 
 
 " When I first arrived in Agra," writes Babar, 
 " there was dislike and a strong hostility between my 
 people and the natives." Besides a number of the 
 Hindu chiefs, there were native Mussalman nobles who 
 had been in chronic opposition to the late king, and 
 who were by no means willing to accept the sway of 
 his successor. " When I came to Agra the hot 
 weather had begun. All the inhabitants fled from 
 terror, so that we could not find provisions, either for
 
 N 
 
 32 THE TTIRKS IN INDIA. 
 
 our horses or ourselves. The villagers had taken to 
 rebellion, thieving, and robbery. The roads became 
 impassable. I had not yet been able to divide the 
 treasure, or to send proper officers to take charge of 
 the outlying districts." It also happened, unfortu- 
 nately, that the heat that year was of unusual severity, 
 and many of Babar's northmen fell victims to apo- 
 plexy. A number of his officers now lost heart, and 
 began to make preparations for returning to a more 
 agreeable and congenial climate. Babar harangued 
 them, like Henry V. in Shakspeare — " Let not any 
 one who calls himself my friend ever in future make 
 such a proposal. But, if there be any one among you 
 who still cannot give up his purpose, let him depart." 
 One chief alone had tbe face to leave his master after 
 this appeal. The frank monarch forgave him, and 
 he was sent in charge of the treasure to be distributed 
 among those who had remained behind at home. 
 
 In the midst of these troubles — and with Kanauj, 
 Etawa, Dholpur, Gwalior, Biana, strong places, all in 
 the vicinity of the capital, held by hostile garrisons — 
 Babar was threatened with an immediate attack by 
 Sanka, or Sanga, the formidable Baua of Udaipur. 
 The historian of Eajastan, who had his portrait, thus 
 describes this Hindu Don Boderic : — 
 
 " Sauga Eana was of the middle stature, but of great muscular 
 strength ; fair in complexion, with unusually large eyes, which 
 appear to be peculiar to his descendants. He exhibited at his 
 death but the fragments of a warrior ; one eye Mas lost in a broil 
 with his brother, an arm in action with the Lodi king of Delhi, 
 and he was a cripple owing to a limb being broken by a cannon- 
 ball in another, while he counted eighty wounds from the sword or 
 lance on various parts of his body." 
 
 Such was the doughty champion who, in the second
 
 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 33 
 
 year of the conquest, advanced to contest with the 
 Turks the possession of the land of Hind.* The 
 year appears to have been passed in alternate gains 
 and losses. The Rajput confederacy, under Sanga, 
 gained some places held by friends of Babar, but the 
 latter obtained the fort of Gwalior, and his son, 
 Humayun seized Jaunpur and other places to the 
 eastward. In the month of October, 1527 (Tod says 
 1528, but this is a palpable error), hearing that the 
 Hindus were besieging Biana, Babar set out from 
 Agra to attack him. 
 
 By comparison of the nari'ative in "Babar" with the 
 Ilajput account, as given by Tod, it appears that some 
 time was now w^asted in negotiation. Sanga had been 
 in the habit of correspondirjg amicably with Babar, 
 so long as the latter was, like himself, the enemy of 
 the Lodi dynasty; and others of the Hindu chiefs 
 were intriguing separately for their own profit and 
 advantage still. The Mussulman army was at first 
 CDcamped in Sikri — one of the villages now enclosed 
 in Akbar's well-known park — about twenty-two miles 
 to the west of Agra. One day, a young officer named 
 Aziz, being in temporary command of the advanced 
 guard, precipitated matters by marching forward 
 about ten miles at the head of a small force of less 
 than fifteen hundred men, who were immediately 
 attacked by an overwhelming body of the enemy's 
 horse. Confusion ensued; a horse-tail standard was 
 captured, and many of the Turks with it ; Babar 
 
 * Mr. Wheeler has advanced the theory that the founders of the " Moghal 
 Empire " were Vedic Aryans, but we learn from Tod that they were regarded in 
 Hindu legend as the hereditary foes of the solar and lunar races, and tleir 
 destined supplanters in the Southern lands, of which they were loth alike 
 invaders. 
 
 D
 
 34 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 
 
 hurried forward reinforcements, and the retreat was 
 covered by a superior officer named Mohamad Ali 
 Jang, the emperor also bringing up some guns 
 to support. Bahar now resolved on making a com- 
 plete entrenchment and protecting his precious guns : 
 at the same time be reflected seriously on his sins, 
 and — to use a modern, but quite correct expression — 
 " took the pledge." The whole of the plate used in 
 wine-parties was broken up, and the fragments given 
 to the poor. This public act so increased the de- 
 spondency of the Turks that desertions followed, and 
 Babar found himself compelled to have recourse to 
 the most solemn appeal at his command. Having 
 sworn his companions on the Koran to conquer or 
 die on the field, he ordered a general advance on 
 Tuesday, the 12th of March — the first day of the 
 Persian year — and finding that the enemy was ad- 
 vancing on his side, Bal)ar threw up fresh entrench- 
 ments near a village called Kanhwa, two marches 
 from Biana, dra\\ing up his cavalry on either side of 
 his batteries, and placing his musketeers and infantry 
 in the rear. After a successful skirmish and some 
 more negotiation, the Turks moved out of their 
 lines in the above order on the morning of Saturday, 
 the IGth, headed by the emperor in person. The 
 Bajputs were mowed down by the fire of the artillery, 
 which they could neither answer nor attack ; the 
 Hindu chief who led the van deserted ; Sanga fled ; 
 and l^abar found himself victor. Great slaughter 
 occurred in the first pursuit, but it was not followed 
 iqi, an omission for which Babar blames himself in his 
 memoirs. 
 
 This action determined for the time the fate of
 
 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 35 
 
 that part of the country properly called Hindustan, 
 and consolidated the empire of the invaders. Alwar 
 was next reduced, and made over to the heir-apparent, 
 Humayun. In the following year Chandairi — one of 
 Sanga's acquisitions — was taken by storm in spite of 
 a desperate sally by the besieged, who, after slaying 
 all their women, rushed out s'vord in hand, naked, 
 according to a well-known E-ajput custom called 
 johar. 
 
 The conquest of Bahar and of Audh next took 
 place, whereby the Hindustani Moslems — or Pathans 
 — were for the time reduced to submission. In 1528 
 a treaty was made with E,ana Bikramajit, the son 
 and successor of Bana Sanga, who had not long 
 survived his disastrous defeat at Kanhwa. Another 
 campaign followed in Bahar, where the Pathans had 
 once more broken out. In this enterprise Babar was 
 assisted by his son 'Askari, and especially by the light 
 and heavy guns under Ustad Ali Kuli. But the 
 health and spirits of the adventurer were by this 
 time undermined by hard work, and, it is sad to 
 say, by indulgence in wine; for the charming 
 memoirs by his own pen break off abruptly, and 
 finally on the 3rd Moharam, 936, corresponding to 
 8th September, 1529. Next year Babar died, in the 
 fiftieth year of his age. His death took place at 
 Agra, on the 20th December, 1530, and his son, 
 Humayun, succeeded peacefully. The dominions of 
 tlie family were of great extent, including Badakshan 
 and Kunduz beyond the Hindu Kush ; together with 
 Cabul, Ghazni, and Kandahar, with the plain country 
 round them ; and all the Panjab, Hindustan, and 
 Bahar. His body lay for some time in a garden near
 
 36 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 
 
 Agra,* and was thence conveyed to Cabul, where the 
 tomb is still to be seen. 
 
 Judged by his own inimitable " confessions," 
 Babar was a typical Turk, amiable, social, enduring, 
 fond of all pleasures — fighting included — witli scant 
 sense of duty, and neither taste nor talent for adminis- 
 tration. The following is the testimony of an able 
 contemporary, while resident in Babar's camp, as to 
 the capacity of the Turks of those days : — " If luck 
 and fortune favour me," said Sher Shah, " I will 
 expel the Mughals from Hind, for they are not 
 superior to the Afghans in battle or single combat ; 
 but the Afghans have let the empire slip through 
 their finders by means of their dissensions. Since I 
 have been among the Mughals, and observed their 
 conduct, I see that they have no order or discipline ; 
 and that their rulers, from pride of birth and station, 
 do not i^ersonally supermtend the administration , hut 
 leave affairs and all the business of state to chiefs and 
 ministers, in ivhose sayings and doings they blindly 
 trust. These grandees act on corrvpt motives in every 
 case, whether it be a soldie^^'s, a cultivator's, or a re- 
 bellious Zaminddr's. . . . From this lust of gold they 
 make no distinction between friend and foe.'" f 
 
 The shrewd observer who made this diagnosis was 
 a Pathan, or Indian Afghan, named Sher Khan. He 
 lived to make good his boast, and to show that it is 
 not impossible for a devont son of Islam to be a just 
 and laborious administrator, when he is neither spoiled 
 by Turkish habits, nor served by Turkish subordinates. 
 
 It only remains to remark that no doubt whatever 
 
 * Vide note in fin. 
 
 t Ab1ias Khan apvil " Dowson " (vol. iv.)
 
 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 37 
 
 exists as to the genuineness of the book that has been 
 referred to as the " Memoirs or Confessions of the Con- 
 queror." " TheWakiat-i-Babari," originally written by 
 Babar in the Turki language, were translated into 
 Persian by Mirza Abdurrahim Khan, one of Akbar's 
 generals, about sixty years after Babar's death. 
 They have been also translated into Erencli in our 
 own day, by M. Pa vet de Courteille ; and there are 
 two excellent works in English, chiefly founded upon 
 the Persian translation, by the late Mr. W. Erskine. 
 The writer of these pages has had access to a fine illus- 
 trated manuscript copy of Abdurrahitn's version, 
 which once belonged to the Emperor Shah Jahan, 
 and is supposed, from a statement in the fly-leaf, to 
 have been transcribed by his Majesty's own hand. 
 An excellent analysis of the work will be found in 
 *'Dowson " (vol. iv., p. 219 and pf.) 
 
 It has been said above that Humayun succeeded 
 Babar peacefully. He did so in respect of his own 
 family ; but the peace was soon disturbed. Sultan 
 Mahmud, the last of the Lodis, was stirring to the 
 eastward ; and a more formidable rival was appearing 
 in the same neighbourhood in the person of the bril- 
 liant adventurer above mentioned, Sher Khan. An 
 elaborate biography of this celebrated man was written 
 by order of Akbar, who had sufficient generosity to 
 desire the preservation of the memory of one with 
 whom his father had coped without success. The 
 autbor. Abbas Khan, was an Afghan of the Sarwani 
 tribe, connected with his hero's family, and writing 
 about forty years after the beginning of the period 
 with which he deals. Copious extracts are given in 
 " Dowson," and the opinion of Sir H. Elliot is recorded
 
 38 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 
 
 to the effect that the latter portion of the work is par- 
 ticularly valuable for the means that it affords of 
 gauging the character and talents of the hero, and the 
 state of anarchy to which he succeeded. The extracts, 
 which are translated \Aith great spirit, will be found 
 in " Dowson," vol. iv., pp. 305-433. We need only note 
 here a few particulars calculated to show what good 
 qualities can be displayed by a Hindustani Mussulman. 
 The future monarch was born at Hissar, the grand- 
 son of an immigrant from the Afghan province of 
 Eoh, on the spurs of the Salaimau range, well-known 
 afterwards from giving its name to the Robillas aud 
 the country occupied by them, in the decline of the 
 empire, between the Ganges and the Kamaon hills. 
 The date of his birth is nowhere stated ; but it must 
 have been about a.d. 1480. He was thus nearly con- 
 temporary with Eerdinand of Spain, Louis XI. of 
 Trance, and Henry VII. of England. Like all these 
 rulers he was ambitious and crafty, more inclined to 
 cherish the poor than to pamper the rich. His name 
 was originally Earid, and his mother was a free 
 Afghan lady. Having proceeded to Jaunpur for his 
 education, he soon gave proofs of unusual ability; 
 and, on obtaining charge of a distrct in Bahar, at once 
 proceeded to lay the foundations of that system of 
 settlement which afterwards bore such splendid fruit 
 in the " Institutes of Akbar." Summoning to his 
 presence the collecting officials, the village accountants, 
 and the heads of the cultivating class, he announced 
 his intention of strictly limiting the payment of each 
 occupier of the land to the proportion — payable either 
 in cash or kind at the payer's pleasure — that might 
 be fixed on his lands after proper measurement. " I
 
 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 39 
 
 will be lenient," he arlded, " in assessing, but will 
 collect with the utmost strictness; but so long as you 
 pay punctually you may bring all your complaints to 
 me. I will take care that no one oppresses you." 
 
 The man who devised these things at the outset of 
 his public life remained such as he was throughout, 
 never giving way to that sloth and carelessness which 
 he saw to be the danger of the Turks. Eamily troubles 
 drove him for a time from home, and he went to Delhi 
 and Agra. Shortly before the fall of the Lodis he lost 
 his father ; but he was appointed to the charge of the 
 country about Sahsaram, in Bahar, by the favour of 
 Daulah Khan, a noblemau at court, whom he had 
 served. About this time he acquired the title of " Sher 
 Khan," by which he was henceforth known, lie must 
 now have been approaching his forty-fifth year. He 
 at first maintained the Lodi cause in Bahar, but in 
 1528 joined Babar. At the court of the conqueror he 
 soon attracted a somewhat anxious attention. Per- 
 ceiving his aspiring and energetic character, Babar 
 contemplated his arrest; but the wary Pathan anti- 
 cipated the intention, and retired to Bahar, where he 
 soon made himself master of the whole country, and 
 liad ere long effected a substantial lodgment in the 
 neighbouring kingdom of Bengal, Avhere he advanced 
 as far as Gaur, the capital city before alluded to, to 
 which he laid siege. 
 
 Humayuu, the eldest son of Babar, was about 
 twenty-two years of age at the time of his accession. 
 Sher Khan amused him with professions of obedience 
 as long as it suited his own purposes. But the new 
 emperor, warned no doubt by the councillors of his 
 late father, turned upon the dangerous adventurer as
 
 40 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 
 
 soon as leisure offered, and the opportunity of tlie 
 engagement of the latter in an arduous enterprise 
 seemed a fit one. Humayun, too, had the prestige 
 of conquest, and of the possession of the capital cities, 
 besides the command of a seasoned army of hardy 
 northmen. But, in truth, the odds were rather in 
 favour of his enemy than of himself. The kingdom 
 of Cabul, whence his supplies of men and ofi&cers were . 
 to be drawn, was in the hands of his brother, Kamrau, 
 who was jealous and unfriendly. The actual con- 
 querors had already become fine gentlemen, after the 
 fashion of Turks who prosper. The emperor himself 
 was young and inexperienced, with the heavy dis- 
 advantage of having been born in the purple. He was 
 no more a match for the strenuous and ripened adven- 
 turer, than a Bourbon prince would have been for 
 Napoleon. After a nine years' war, in which the 
 emperor showed all the courage and endurance of his 
 race, the fortune of the Pathan and his superior abilities 
 so prevailed that Humayun had no choice but to quit 
 India. After a series of toilsome and dangerous wan- 
 derings, of which the story is pathetically detailed by a 
 faithful servant, Humayun found a stormy asylum 
 with Shah Tahmasp, the Shia king of Persia. These 
 troubles lasted four years — from 1540 to 1544 — during 
 which time Slier Khan, under the title of Sher Shah, 
 completely consolidated his power in Hindustan. 
 
 The Avhole of the adventurer's conduct, both up to 
 his accession and subsequently during his short reign, 
 was pervaded by the principle of unity. It was the 
 dissensions of the native Mussulmans that had caused 
 their weakness ; it was in consolidation tliat their hopes 
 were to be hereafter moored. This conviction, though
 
 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 41 
 
 it could not be handed down to weaker minds, is 
 worthy of our attention, because it was destined to 
 bear fruit in the government of Akbar ; and it is pro- 
 bable that the strength of the Indian Turks — so long 
 as their strength lasted — was due to their empire 
 being based upon the example of Sher Shah. A devout 
 Moslem : he never oppressed the Hindus. Disputes 
 among his own followers he suppressed with all the 
 energy of his nature. " He employed himself," says 
 the chronicler, " in personally discharging the adminis- 
 tration of his kingdom ; he divided both day and night 
 into portions for each separate business, and suffered 
 no sloth or idleness; 'for,' said he, ^ it behoves the 
 great to he always active . . . they should consider no 
 affairs of State to be small or petty, and should repose 
 no undue confidence in subordinates. The corruption 
 of ministers of my rivals was the means of my acquiring 
 the kingdom.' " Here, no doubt, as in his earlier 
 speech in Babar's camp, he showed a just appreciation 
 of the inherent weakness of Turkish rule. Like the 
 advancing tide, it may be strong for destruction, but 
 it creates nothing. 
 
 In tbe first hour after sunrise, Sher Shah always 
 performed his devotions, and immediately turned his 
 attention to business, mustering his troops and con- 
 versing with the recruits. He then went over his 
 accounts, and gave audiences. After two hours and 
 a half of such work he breakfasted, always in the 
 society of learned and piaus men ; immediately after- 
 wards returning to business. After the noon-day 
 prayer he rested for a short time ; on rising he read 
 the Koran, and then fell to work again. He divided 
 his territory into 11Q,000 pat^ganas, or fiscal unions of
 
 42 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 
 
 townships, in eacli of whicli he employed five officials, 
 of whom one at least was a Hindu accountant, and 
 another a judicial official, to mediate hetween the 
 officers of the crown and the actual representatives of 
 the people. A complete civil and criminal code took 
 the place of the law of Islam. His settlements were 
 for one year, based on an annual measurement of the 
 cultivated areas and the nature of the produce. No 
 official was allowed to remain in the same place more 
 than two years ; the inlying districts were disarmed. 
 " From the borders of Oudh to the Satlaj river the 
 land had peace," as Slier Shah himself remarked. A 
 royal highway ran from the shores of the Bay of 
 Bengal to the new Rohtas, the great fort that Sher 
 Shah had built near the banks of the Jhelam, and 
 named after his earlier strong place near Sahsaram, 
 in Bahar. At intervals of four miles all along this 
 road were caravanserais for the accommodation of 
 travellers ; the sides were bordered by wells and 
 fruit trees. Another similar road ran from Agra to 
 Burhanpur, on the borders of the IJeccan ; a third, 
 from Agra also, traversed the whole breadth of Eaj- 
 putana ; a fourth connected the cities of Lahore and 
 Multan. Daily posts carried the news along these 
 roads from one end to the other. He finished the city 
 begun by Humayun on part of the site of the ancient 
 Indrapat, near Delhi, and announced his intention, if 
 life were spared, of building a fortified place of refuge 
 in every district. It is impossible to avoid the observa- 
 tion, that no government — not even the British — has 
 shown so much wisdom as this Pathan. 
 
 In the midst of these labours Sher Shah met with 
 *' the petty fortress and the dubious hand " that
 
 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 43 
 
 conquerors aod heroes cannot reckon on escaping. 
 He died at the siege of Kalinjar in Bandelkhand, on 
 the 22nd of May, 1545, from injuries caused by the 
 explosion of a magazine near which he was standing, 
 and which was struck by a chance shot from the 
 enemy's batteries. He was buried at Sahsaram, where 
 — before the opening of that section of the East Indian 
 Railway — travellers by " The Grand-Trunk -Road " of 
 his European successors have often paused to admire 
 the beautiful mausoleum, prototype of the Agra Taj 
 Mahal, standing on an island in the middle of a piece 
 of water, faced with cut-stone walls. 
 
 Sher Shah's second son succeeded to his vast power 
 under the title of Islam Shah, and reisrned nine vears. 
 The codes of his father were so wise and serviceable 
 that in civil matters he ought to have had nothing to 
 initiate. He maintained the fame of his family for 
 public works, but being unable to let well alone, he 
 introduced changes into the administration which had 
 the effect of alienating the nobility ; and ho was per- 
 sonally arbitrary, and even cruel. The old contentious- 
 ness of the Pathans revived ; the whole reign was 
 consumed in fruitless quarrels and a systematic de- 
 pression of the Pathan chiefs. Islam Shah died in 
 November, 1554. His son was murdered by the brother 
 of his wife, the boy's maternal uncle ; fresh broils 
 and rebellions followed. Finally, Humayun, who liad 
 wrested Cabul from his rebellious brother, Kamran, 
 profited by these troubles, occupied in succession 
 Lahore and Sirkind, and took possession of Delhi and 
 i\gra in the autumn of 1555. 
 
 The Sur family still possessed a tower of strength 
 in the extraordinary talents of a Hindu officer named
 
 44 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 
 
 Hemu, who was at this time engaged on a campaign 
 in Bengal. But the weary Humayun seems to have 
 thought himself justified, under all the circumstances, 
 in taking a brief repose. He held the Pan jab, and in 
 a sort of way Hindustan as far as Agra. To the east- 
 ward, the Surs and other Afghan tribes were still pur- 
 suing their selfish feuds. What may have been the 
 state of the people, exposed to the daily devastations 
 of bodies of needy armed men, having no feeling in 
 common but contempt and hatred for their blood and 
 creed, and lust for their women and their goods, can 
 only be conjectured. 
 
 The restored emperor may well have felt like one 
 newly roused from a troubled sleep and anxious to 
 sleep again. He was not yet an old man, and what 
 changes he had seen ! The despised Hindustani plebeian 
 driving him out, at last, almost without a blow ; the 
 indigenous administration entirely replacing his for 
 half a generation, while he was wandering in the 
 wilderness ; and now his return to the capital, almost 
 as easy and as sudden as his departure. Like an earlier 
 royal wanderer, he may have said in moments of 
 devotion: "Even like as a dream when one awaketh so 
 shalt thou make their image to vanish out of the city." 
 
 Our last glimpse of this much- vexed monarch is in 
 the attitude of worship. There is, in the city begun by 
 Humayun and finished by Sher Shah, an octagonal 
 building of three storeys, said to have been used as a 
 library, and showing traces of having been once orna- 
 mented with mural painting. It is within earshot of 
 the mosque of Sher Shah, that last and loveliest work 
 of the third Pathan period of architecture. Here, as 
 the newly-restored emperor was resting one winter
 
 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 45 
 
 afternoon, he heard the muazziris cry to prayer from 
 the neighbouring place of worship. He rose suddenly 
 to obey the call, but the end of his staff slipped on 
 the polished pavement as he leant upon it to help him 
 in rising. He fell upon the stair-liead, and was preci- 
 pitated down one flight of steps. He does not appear 
 to have suffered much external injury, for he walked 
 home to his apartments in the Eort. But he had been 
 hurt inwardly, and he died, after a short illness, on 
 the 26th January, 1556, in the forty-ninth year of 
 his age.* 
 
 It is necessary to examine briefly into the causes \ 
 of the chief vicissitudes of this short but dramatic 
 period of Indian history. Some have been already 
 hinted; but it is startling to find them operating with 
 such rapidity. It could scarcely have been expected 
 that Babar's hardy Turks could have been so utterly 
 demoralised in ten years as appeared at the rout of 
 Kanouj, by vliich, for a time, the empire was lost. 
 And it is not less strange to find their conquerors 
 equally feeble when they returned in triumph after a 
 scarcely more important interval. But the truth is, that 
 Hindustan is a treacherous mistress, who slays with 
 smiles all who rest upon her bosom with too much 
 confidence. The rout of Kanouj, as described by a 
 Turkish leader who was engaged there, presents a most 
 astounding picture of the deterioration by luxury of 
 a body of men who had fought not many years before 
 so gallantly against overwhelming odds at Panipat. 
 Twenty-seven horse-tail standards, says Haidar Mirza, 
 were concealed that morning because the amirs were 
 afraid to display them. Each amir was attended by 
 
 * Keene's "Handbook for V^isitors to Delhi," p. 35.
 
 46 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 
 
 hundreds of pampered pages and followers, who got 
 into the way of the soldiery, and hampered all their 
 manoeuvres. The chiefs fled at the first onset, and 
 before a drop of blood had fallen ; the only deaths 
 were those of oflicers and men drowned in retreat by 
 the weight of their own armour. Such was the army 
 of Babar under the command of his son. Of the army 
 of Sher Shah, under his son's successor, we may form 
 some conception when, we find him glad to give the 
 command to a Hindu corn-cuandler. One can best 
 describe such a state of things by imagining Jena to 
 have heen fought a few years after Roshach, and to 
 have been closely followed by Sedan. Of such short 
 endurance are the best systems when they rest upon 
 the casual merits of a despot, and not on the general 
 virtues of the community. 
 
 It is proper to add, that, according to Erskine, 
 Babar's veterans had been much reduced in number 
 during the campaigns that preceded the above event, 
 and that the men who would not fight at Kanouj 
 were to a great extent raw recruits. The misconduct 
 of Humayun's brothers intercepted his supplies of 
 good men and officers too, and weakened him in 
 every way. Kamran, in particular, at this period held 
 Cabul and the Panjab in almost open hostility to 
 the Emperor. 
 
 His own character, as drawn by his kinsman 
 Haidar, is worthy of note as one of the causes of his 
 trouhles : — 
 
 " I have seen few persons possessed of so much natural talent 
 and excellence ; but, by reason of having dissolute and sensual 
 servants, and having intercourse with them, and with men of mean 
 and profligate character .... he coatracted certain bad habits —
 
 THE TUUKS IN INDIA. 47 
 
 such as the excessive use of opium — and the business which, as a 
 prince, he should have managed, he left entirely to them." 
 
 (A complete contrast in this respect to his rival, Shcr 
 Shah, will here be remarked). 
 
 " Nevertheless he had many good qualities. In battle steady 
 and brave ; in conversation he was ingenious and lively ; and at table 
 full of wit. He was kind-hearted and liberal. He was a dignified 
 and magnificent prince, and observed much state ; so that .... in 
 his broken fortunes, when .... his pomp and style were no longer 
 what they had been, yet when the army was marshalled for the 
 Granges campaign, at the time when its superintendence devolved 
 upon me, the number of artizans that attende'1 him was seventeen 
 thousand — from which may be conjectured the scale of his w^hole 
 establishment." 
 
 A witty, voluptuous, opium-eating prince, with a 
 showy establishment, in which the camp followers 
 far outnumbered the combatants, was no match for 
 Sher Shah ! 
 
 The death of Ilumayun was the signal for the 
 return from Bengal of Hemu, the warlike chandler, 
 to whom Adel Shall Sur had entrusted the command 
 of his army. This extraordinary man had found his 
 way to court, simply on business, probably of a muni- 
 cipal nature ; and at first attracted favour in connec- 
 tion with money-matters about a.d. 1533. A local 
 chief having broken into rebellion in the following 
 year, Hemu, who Mas conscious of peculiar talents 
 for the organisation of details, undertook to put him 
 down if he were trusted Avith a small force. His pro- 
 posal was accepted, and he set otf for Biana, the scene 
 of the rebellion, with about four thousand horse and 
 four elephants. The rebel sent his head groom against 
 him, and went out hunting in another direction. 
 Hemu flattered the Afghan captains, who made easy
 
 48 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 
 
 work of the groom and his army. Then the chief 
 had to come in person. His force consisted of 8000 
 cavahy and 3000 foot, with ten fighting elephants 
 and a train of guns. Seeing himself overmatched in 
 point of force, Hemu succeeded in persuading his 
 followers to make a night attack upon the enemy's 
 camp. The scheme — usually accounted so difficult — 
 was carried out without a hlunder : the rehels, at- 
 tacked in the deep sleep of " the small hours," were 
 slaughtered or put to flight. Hemu appeared hefore 
 the throne with folded hands while the prize was pre- 
 sented. A dress of honour was ordered for him ; hut 
 the wily Hindu said that " he was hut a poor trades- 
 man ; the victory was due to the exertions of the 
 soldiers ; let his Majesty's bounty light first on them." 
 Ey conduct like this the hearts of soldiers are won ; 
 and it was thus that military men and Moslems 
 learned to be subject to one who was neither the one 
 nor the other. 
 
 On the Turkish side was a leader equally con- 
 spicuous by an elevation due to his own merits — the 
 celebrated Bairam Khan, a Turk of the Kara Kuinlu 
 branch,* born in Badakshan, but ejirolled while still 
 young under the banners of Humayun. Having joined 
 Humayun in his wanderings he gained the favour of 
 the fugitive monarch, and was now in charge of the 
 youthful Akbar, with an army engaged in pacifying 
 the Panjab. On the 15th of Eebruary, 1556, the 
 news of the emperor's death arrived in camp, and 
 Akbar assumed the succession at Kalanur, a few miles 
 north of Amritsur, on which occasion Bairam was 
 
 * These are the celebrated followers of the " Black Sheep,' a laiiner which 
 carried terror through Persia and as far as Baghdad in earlier days.
 
 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 49 
 
 appointed prime minister, both for war and peace, 
 with the titles of Vakil-i-mutla'k and Klidn-hlidnan, 
 meaning " plenipotentiary " and " lord of lords." 
 
 Hemu advanced upon Agra, which was evacuated 
 without resistance by the Turkish forces. Under the 
 walls of Delhi he routed the Turkish governor, and 
 entered the city, where he is said to have pro- 
 claimed himself sovereign by the title of " llaja 
 Bikram Aditya." He then marched northwards, 
 till he found himself confronted by the northern 
 army at Panipat ; the same place where north and 
 south had met in hostile array thirty years before, 
 and where they were destined again to meet for the 
 decision of an equally fatal issue after the lapse of 
 more than two ceuturies. 
 
 Details of the battle will be found in " Elphinstone," 
 but he does not seem to have any clear idea of the 
 reasons which gave the victory to Akbar. The Turks 
 appear to have been persuaded to do their duty both 
 by the words and by the deeds of Bairam — for he 
 slew, on his own authority, Jardi Beg, the chief who 
 had fled from Delhi; and he reminded the other 
 leaders, in a grand durbar, that they had no further 
 refuge if beaten, " for their homes were a thousand 
 miles off." * On the other side, the Hindustani Mussul- 
 mans appear to have been alienated by Hemu's late 
 arrogance, and to have ceased all opposition as soon 
 as he sank down wounded in his howdah. The date 
 of this battle is 5th November, 1556. 
 
 The valiant chandler was brought into the tent of 
 Akbar, senseless from an arrow-wound in his fore- 
 
 * Ahmad Shah's Vazir used the same argument in the later hattle at the 
 same place {Tide Inf. Chap, ix.) 
 
 E
 
 50 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 
 
 head. Bairam, having vainly tried to make the 
 generous boy flesh his maiden sword upon the dying 
 man, cut him down in his presence. The head was 
 sent to Cabul and the body exposed over one of the 
 gates of Delhi. 
 
 The rest of Hindustan was then occupied without 
 farther difficulty. The Panjab cost one more brief 
 campaign. Adil Shah Sur died soon after in Bengal ; 
 and Akbar, only in his twelfth year, found himself 
 master of all India north of the Nerbudda. 
 
 Note. — The first Mussulman settlement at Agra was that made (a.d, 1505) 
 by Sikandar Lodi, in the neighbourhood of the place called after him, Sikandra, 
 about four miles on the road to Delhi. The Lodis had a fort to command the 
 river, but their buildings were more or less ruined by a terrible earthquake. 
 Babar and Humayun appear to have occupied a tract on the left bank of the 
 Jumna, opposite the present Fort of Akbar and the mausoleum called " the 
 Taj." The remains of an enclosure there are to be seen, bearing the name of 
 Char bagh ; and not far off, in the village of Kachpura, is a mosque founded by 
 Humayun, as a still existing inscription testifies, in the year of his father's 
 death. (" Transactions of the Archaeological Society of Agra," January to June, 
 1875, pp. 7, 14. See also " Cunningham's Eeports," vol. iv. p. 89 pf.). 
 
 Erskine (founding his statement on Babar's own relation) confirms this : — 
 " Babar began to build a palace and to lay out a garden on the left bank of the 
 Jumna, opposite to Agra, and encouraged his nobility to imitate his example ; 
 these improvements soon grew into a fine suburb." (Ibid. p. 451). 
 
 The illustrations to the old MS. of "Babar's Memoirs," once the property of 
 Shahjahan, shew many traits of the manners of the adventurers ; their use of 
 mounted bowmen, their gilded armour, their kettle-drums, shawms, and rude 
 artillery ; their bivouacs on the snowy mountains, and their picnic parties and 
 drinking bouts in sunny gardens ; their men with pointed moustaches, and fair 
 women with faces unveiled in domestic life. The pictures are not unlike those 
 of medieval Europe in old copies of Froissart and Monstrelet. 
 
 NOTE TO CHAPTEES I. AND II. 
 
 Note. — Many arguments for and against the theory assumed in this and the 
 preceding chapter might be adduced ; but the purpose in view would hardly 
 justify a discussion wliich, before exhausting the subject, might well exhaust the 
 patience of the most indulgent reader. That purpose is simply to explain the 
 title of the present work, and to do so it has been thought convenient inciden- 
 tally to assume the hypothesis that Turks and Moghuls (or Mughals) may have 
 had a common origin. It should also be mentioned that the writer is aware
 
 THE TUKKS IN INDIA. 51 
 
 that he has not used the words " Tartar," " Turk," or " Mongol " (Mughal) in 
 any definite scientific sense. In the same spirit of pi-ovisional supposition he 
 has employed Tartar to mean — what it generally, perhaps, does in popular use — 
 Turanian (or flat-faced) nomads wherever found. " Turk," means a group of 
 tribes with the tendency to move south and west, affecting Islam, the seclusion 
 of women, and some approach to civilised urbaii life ; while " Mongol " is under- 
 stood to apply to that portion of tlie Tartar clans to which Changez belonged, iu 
 their native condition of wandering, almost savage, fighting shepherds. 
 
 Erskiue,* quoting from the " Shajrat-ul-Atrak," says that the story was that 
 " Turk," the son of " Yafith," was the progenitor of Tatar and Moghul. Abul- 
 ghazi, of Khwarizm, is represented as saying that he wrote his book "in the 
 Moghal or Turki language." Altogether, the subject seems sufficiently con- 
 fused to justify one in adopting (of course under correction) the theory that is 
 the most convenient. The fact remains, in any case, that the people of India 
 were accustomed to call their northern invaders Mughals, and that those in- 
 vaders were for the most part both pliysically and mentally what are usually 
 called Turks. 
 
 * Though Erskine's book was published so long ago, his authorities (Sharf- 
 ud-din and Abulghazi) are still the best known as to the history of the Mughals 
 of High Asia.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE INSTITUTES OF AKBAR. 
 
 In a short lecture upon modern Persia, delivered at 
 the United Service Institution of Simla, on the 12tli 
 July, 1877, it was well said by the lecturer, Major A. 
 B. St. John, H.E., that *' the Turks have many 
 admirable qualities, . . . But, partly from inveterate 
 pride of race, and partly from avarice, they are the 
 worst governors in the world of subject races, looking 
 upon every other being as created for their sole use 
 and benefit. The early Turk sovereigns of India, 
 Persia, and Byzantium, recognised this defect in 
 themselves, and used natives of the countries they 
 conquered in all public offices." " Except the army," 
 added the lecturer; but in the illustrious example 
 now before us we shall find that the army was no 
 exception. It was because Akbar employed all 
 classes of the natives in all branches of the public 
 service, without any exception, that the "Mughal 
 Empire" took root in India under him, and was a 
 domestic institution of the country — not a mere 
 superficial dominion like so many before him, and, 
 alas ! like that of his present successors.
 
 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 53 
 
 At the time of his father's death, Akbar was in. 
 his fourteenth year, having been born on. the 15th 
 October, 15^2. His mother's name was Hamida 
 Begam, a lady of Persian extraction, with whom 
 Humayun fell so desperately in love, on his way 
 through Sindh, that marriage was the only possible 
 cure. This lady henceforth bore the name of Maryam 
 Mahali, "our Lady of the Palace." 
 
 The young sovereign was at first dependent for 
 advice and aid partly on his military governor, Bairam 
 Khan, the Turkish leader, to whom he owed the victory 
 over Hemu, which had opened Hindustan to his arms ; 
 and partly to a lady who had been his nurse, and who 
 was called Maham 'Anka. Bairam's family had 
 settled in Badukshdn, and his father joined the army 
 of Babar when that Prince supplanted Amir Khusru 
 in Kunduz, August, 1504. The young Bairam had 
 entered the army of India, and was one of those who 
 escaped from the rout of Kanauj (1516). He was 
 about this time married to Humayun's sister ; and he 
 appeared before the world as atctlik (governor) of the 
 new monarch, with the titles of Vakil and Khdn- 
 khdndn ("Lieutenant of the Empire and Captain- 
 General"). He was in the prime of life, able, and 
 with every advantage that prestige and real merit 
 could confer. He made over the land revenue to a 
 Tm^k of arbitrary character, named Muzafar Khan ; 
 but the selection was amply justified by the results, 
 for the officer not only made an attempt at an accurate 
 and sensible assessment, but had the still greater merit 
 of training Todar Mai, his more celebrated successor. 
 Of other proteges of Bairam, no less than twenty-five 
 ultimately rose to the rank of Fanj Hazdri (** com-
 
 54 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 
 
 mandcr of five tliousand ") the hij^liest rank in Akbar's 
 peerage below princes of the blood. 
 
 But Bairam's power did not last long. The boy- 
 emperor was probably warped by his female guardian, 
 and was perhaps easily deceived at an age when the 
 openness of a frank temper has not had time to be 
 taught caution. No doubt the minister also dis- 
 played arrogance. Muzafar's fiscal reforms had not yet 
 begun, and the resources of the country were wither- 
 ing under the blight of hosts of military grantees. 
 Distrust arose on both sides, till at last the minister 
 was worried into open rebellion. Akbar took him 
 prisoner, and pardoned him on condition of his going 
 on a pilgrimage. He departed, but was assassinated by 
 a Pathan on his way to the port of embarkation. 
 These events occurred in the fifth year of the reign. 
 
 The young emperor was now approaching the age 
 when a ruler is held capable to manage his own afiairs. 
 Accordingly, we shall henceforth have to notice him 
 as the founder of the institutions and methods of a 
 reign which gave peace and prosperity to millions of 
 the human race, and which covered Hindustan with a 
 glory that has never passed away. In this reign of 
 forty-seven years — one of the longest in Eastern his- 
 tory — many intrigues and wars took place, which are 
 recorded in Elphinstone's admirable work, and the 
 account of which need not be repeated. The object 
 of the present pages is to show only such things as 
 affected the welfare of the people — the social, fiscal, 
 and artistic events and movements of the time. 
 
 The reign of Akbar, from the fifth year to the end, 
 forms three periods. During the first, which lasted 
 about fifteen years, he was much occupied with war,
 
 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 55 
 
 field sports, and building ; and the men by whom be 
 was ultimately influenced were still at that time 
 young, like himself. Opinions were forming; terri- 
 torial and administrative operations were in hand. 
 About 1576 began a second period, marked by the 
 arrival of certain shias and other persons of heretical 
 opinions from Persia, and by the growth of their in- 
 fluences over Akbar. At the same time, the emperor, 
 now in the maturity of his intellect, turned his atten- 
 tion to the Hindus, and to the amelioration and 
 establishing of the revenue system by which they 
 were so much afi'ected. This period lasted for about 
 fifteen years, and was followed by that sadder period 
 when — as must happen, except under exceptional cir- 
 cumstances — men in power grow old without having 
 found competent successors. In such conditions 
 originality drivels into cant, and caution withers into 
 decay. One by one the reformers — a few years since 
 so full of hope and vigour — drop into senility, or, 
 more fortunate, into the tomb. No one is left but 
 some lover of letters who, wiser than the rest, retires 
 betimes into the shade to prepare the record of de- 
 parted greatness. 
 
 The circumstances of Bairam's fall are not clearly 
 known, but they have generally been held to have 
 originated in the intrigues of Maham'Anka; "that 
 pattern of chastity," as the chroniclers politely call 
 her, being jealous of the warrior's ascendency, and 
 anxious to provide for her own illegitimate son, Adham 
 Khan. The retribution that awaited this family was 
 tragical, but appropriate. 
 
 In 1562, Akbar proceeded on a pilgrimage to the 
 shrine of Shekh Muin-ud-din Chisti, at Ajmir. On
 
 5G THE TURKS IN INDIA. 
 
 the Avay lie ^vas met at Sanganir (now a station on the 
 Eajpntana State Railway) by Eaja Bibari Mai, the 
 ancestor of the present reigning family of Jaipur, 
 wbose daughter the emperor married, raising the 
 raja at the same time to the command of " Pive 
 thousand; " Tod states that he had held this rank 
 under Humayun. He adds that the marriage of his 
 grand-daughter to Jahangir was tlie first matrimonial 
 alliance between this family and the house of Taimur ; 
 but this is only one of the inaccuracies of that, in 
 many respects, interesting writer. The marriage of 
 Akbar to Bihari's daughter is mentioned by contem- 
 porary chroniclers.* The raja died soon after at 
 Agra. 
 
 As this lady was the first Hindu who became the 
 wife of a Turkish emperor, and as she was, most 
 likely, the mother of the next emperor (and the 
 JIarydm Yamani usually supposed to have been a 
 Christian lady), the marriage is in every respect worthy 
 of notice. The Mongols w^ere, in all probability, in 
 old times disposed to exogamy, and although the 
 Turkish branch by whom the Indian Empire was 
 founded did not maintain the practice in its exclusive 
 purity, the feeling that underlies it seems to have had 
 great influence upon their race characteristics, and to 
 have linorered amoni? them in the form of a survival 
 to later days, Akbar and his successors turned it to 
 a political purpose. 
 
 The original and fundamental feeHng was perhaps 
 one of which the source is to be found in the low 
 estimate of the female character, and in the state of 
 
 * See, for example, Dowson's " Elliot," p. 274. See also Blocbmann's " Ain 
 Akbari,'' vol. i. p. 329, and " Calcutta Review," vol. y. p. 329.
 
 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 57 
 
 war that was normal in High Asia. Traces of it have 
 been even supposed in such distant couni ries as Sweden 
 and Scotland (see for example Scott's ballad of " Young 
 Lochinvar ") and amongst many Tartar tribes. Even, 
 now, in parts of Asia it is said that a pretended capture 
 of the bride is still observed, which points to a time 
 when the young warrior, accompanied by his " best 
 men," proceeded to carry off his bride from the en- 
 campment of a neighbouring tribe, whose attempt at 
 resistance and rescue may be still symbolised in modern 
 Europe by the throwing of shoes, often practised there 
 at the present day. Among the ancient Turks, habitual 
 slave-hunters, the practice must have been customary ; 
 and, when their habits became settled, it is to be sup- 
 posed that the acquisition of wives elsewhere than in 
 the tribe would still continue. Under the impulse so 
 derived, much mixture of blood occurred, often greatly 
 to the advantage of the Turks, who may have acquired 
 in this way their handsome forms and features, and 
 also the civilised habits of which they were so much 
 in need.* Akbar's mother had been a Persian ; and, 
 although — probably under tlie diametrically opposite 
 influence of Islam — he took a Turkish lady of his 
 own family for his first wife, the desire for foreign 
 wives became very strong. Besides the daughter of 
 the raja just mentioned, the emperor, at different 
 periods of his reign, also took to wife an Armenian 
 lady, and a Princess of Marwar. No attempt seems 
 to have ever been made to interfere with the 
 religious belief of these inmates of the imperial 
 Zanana. 
 
 About this time occurred the first of those cam- 
 
 * Vide Sup. chap. i.
 
 58 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 
 
 paigns in the south-west, by which Akhar ultimately 
 consolidated his Empire on the Nerhudda river, and 
 opened a communication with the Indian Ocean, with 
 the Holy Places, and with Europe. The command 
 was entrusted to Adham Khan, the son of " the 
 pattern of chastity," Maham 'Anka, by what father is 
 unluckily not known. The country of Malwa was 
 then in the hands of an adventurer named Baz Baha- 
 dur, and his capital was at Sarangpur, on the Kali 
 Sindh river, about midway between Goona and Mhow. 
 The imperial general was successful, but his triumph 
 was stained by the violence offered to the poetess 
 Eup Mati, whose suicide entitles her to the character 
 of the Lucretia of Malwa. Not content with this, 
 Adham Khan appropriated two other ladies of Baz 
 Bahadur's family. The emperor heard of it, and 
 ordered them to be taken from him ; but the mother, 
 Maham 'Anka, had the barbarity and insolence to kill 
 the innocent girls lest they should make known the ill- 
 treatment they had met with from her son. This 
 event greatly displeased the young sovereign, who, 
 though he did not punish the offence of his friends, 
 issued orders that no prisoners of war should in 
 future be made slaves. " Eor though," says Abul 
 Euzl, in mentioning this edict, " the chastisement and 
 suppression of rebels is one of the duties of rulers, 
 . . . yet the persecution of their innocent wives and 
 children is unlawful." About the same time other 
 orders were issued remitting the hateful jlzya^ or poll- 
 tax on Hindus, and also the tax that had hitherto 
 been levied on them when going on pilgrimage to 
 their various sacred spots. Thus was the young ruler 
 already preparing an united Hindustan, and that
 
 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 59 
 
 " peace among men of good-will," wliicli was to have 
 been one of the blessings of a milder creed than his 
 own. 
 
 The repression of high-handed tyranny among the 
 dominant class was a necessary step in this direction. 
 After the misconduct of Adham Khan became known, 
 he had received no further command, but had con- 
 tinued to reside at Agra. Brooding ov^er his well- 
 merited disgrace, he persuaded himself tliat it was 
 due to the intervention of the husband of the em- 
 peror's wet-nurse, named Shamsuddin, Atgdh (or "the 
 foster-father "). Adham consorting wdth other nobles 
 who were jealous of the favour shown to this old 
 family friend, was easily taught by them to plan his 
 removal. One night, when the emperor had gone to 
 bed, a number of the courtiers were sitting together 
 in the palace-hall, when Adham entered violently 
 W'ith a train of Uzbek followers. All rose to salute 
 him ; but he struck the Atgah, and turned with a scowl 
 to the Uzbeks, by whom the outrage was completed. 
 The victim staggered out into the courtyard of the 
 palace, and fell down bleeding and dead at the gate 
 of the emperor's quarters. As these were surrounded 
 by a high wall, Adham was unable to enter ; but he 
 apparently meditated an attack upon the emperor 
 himself, for he knocked violently at the door of the 
 gateway. The emperor being roused, ran out in his 
 dressing' gowai, catching up, as he went, the sword of 
 one of the sentries. " What is this, you son of a 
 
 ? " cried Akbar, as he saw the bloody corpse, and 
 
 the panting ruffian standing over it. " Hear me ! " 
 answered Adham, laying hold of the emperor's hand. 
 The emperor struggled, and in the struggle lost his
 
 GO THE TURKS IN INDIA. 
 
 sword ; but his hand was freed, and he knocked 
 Adham down with his clenched fist. At a signal 
 whicli he gave, the culj)rit was forthwith carried up to 
 the top of the wall and thrown to the ground twice, 
 the second fall breaking his neck. His mother, hear- 
 ing vaguely of a fracas, hastened over from Delhi, 
 where she was then residing. On hearing the facts 
 she bowed her head. " His Majesty has done well," 
 she said ; but her heart was broken. In little more 
 than a month she died. Akbar buried mother and 
 son in a tomb, which is still to be seen near the 
 famous Kutb Minar of Delhi. 
 
 Other repressive measures against members of the 
 immigrant aristocracy followed ; and then the emperor, 
 freed from all the ties with which his birth had bound 
 him, found himself, now in his twenty-second year, 
 alone with his destiny and the demon in his own 
 breast. It must be allowed that he bore manfully 
 that ordeal which awaits all high ambitions, and is 
 most trying in proportion to their height. In 1564-5 
 he had to encounter another attack upon his life, 
 perhaps stimulated by the old troublers ; for he was 
 shot with an arrow discharged from a college founded 
 by Maham 'Anka at Dehli. This is the last instance 
 we have of Akbar in danger from the hand of an 
 assassin. He was not seriously hurt, and presently 
 proceeded to Malwa, where he pacified the country ; 
 and on returning to Agra laid the foundation-stone of 
 that fine red sandstone castle, which, still in perfect 
 preservation, commands the passage of the Jumna 
 from the Duab towards Kajputana. The work was 
 begun in 1565, being entrusted to Kasim Khan, the 
 head of the navy, and it was completed in eight
 
 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 61 
 
 years. An account of the interior of Akbar's fort 
 will be found in Purclias's "Pilgrims"; the existing 
 disposition having been the result of changes intro- 
 duced by Shahjahan. The same year is noticeable for 
 the first appearance in Akbar's service of Todar Mai, 
 to whose subsequent revenue administration is due 
 much of the civil glory of the reign. This distin- 
 guished statesman was of the Khatri caste, a tribe of 
 great consideration in the Panjab, where he was born 
 about the time of Babar's invasion. Originally in 
 the service of Sher Shah, he had imbibed that ruler's 
 wise policy of benevolent assiduity ; and being trans- 
 ferred into the office of Akbar's first finance minister, 
 Muzafur Khan, he aided that officer in revising the 
 hasty revenue arrangements of the late Bauam Khan. 
 The first very important expedition in which 
 Akbar personally exercised the command was directed 
 in 1567 against Chitor, then the capital of the country, 
 now knowm as Udaipur ; and it was while thus en- 
 gaged that another of the great men of the time was 
 first introduced to his service. This was the well- 
 known poet, Shekh Paizi, the elder brother of the 
 still more celebrated Abul Puzl, the favourite friend 
 and admiring biographer of the emperor. Then" 
 grandfather was a man of Arab descent, who came 
 from Seistan and settled at Nagore. During the reign 
 of Humayun their father, Shekh Mubarak, removed 
 to Agra. His religious opinions were unsettled ; but 
 he was a learned man, who gave his sons the best 
 education that the time and place aff'orded. Prom 
 this time Paizi was regularly attached to the court, 
 holding the nominal command of " Pour Hundred," 
 and the post (also titular) of '• King of the Poets."
 
 62 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 
 
 Chitor was taken, aud the Rajputs performed their 
 horrible national rite of joliar. In Tod's enthusiastic 
 description it is difficult to realise the hard facts of 
 the case ; but there is no doubt that the slaughter and 
 havoc of the sack were equal to the obstinacy of the 
 resistance. The town has never recovered itself ; but 
 Akbar lived to conquer the Rajputs in a milder way 
 than the destruction of their towns. 
 
 In 1568-9 was begun the extraordinary group of 
 buildings which still attracts so many visitors to 
 Fathipur-Sikri : and that place, about two and twenty 
 miles from Agra, long continued to be Akbar' s 
 favom'ite residence. It is noticeable here as the birth- 
 place of the heir-apparent. Salim, who ultimately 
 succeeded and reigned under the title of Jahangir, 
 was born in the house of Shekh Salim, still shown 
 at the back of the great mosque, on 30th or 31st of 
 August, 1570. 
 
 The next event of importance connected with the 
 formation of Akbar's character and career was the 
 commencement of his intercourse with Europeans. 
 This was probably begun, and subsequently stimulated, 
 by the occupation of the sea-board of Gujarat, which 
 occurred about this time ; and henceforth the presence 
 of Europeans at court is frequently mentioned, and 
 the effects are manifest in several ways. The art of 
 painting was much affected by it. There are still at 
 Eathipur the dim remains of a picture of the Annun- 
 ciation, and Manrique saw a Madonna in the gateway 
 of Akbar's tomb at Sikandra. Sculpture, too, acquired 
 a Christian character, as may be seen by the marble 
 statue of the Virgin now in the portico of the Agra 
 Bank. Invocations to the founder of Christianity are
 
 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 63 
 
 cited by Badaoni, and E. F. Eirmilian and Aquaviva 
 are mentioned by name. The smoking of tobacco* 
 also was introduced by these travellers — than which 
 no greater social change ever occurred in the un- 
 changing East. The orthodox were much opposed to 
 this last-named novelty, and some rigorous Sayids are 
 still against it. But Akbar, with his customary libe- 
 rality, ordered that a fair trial should be made of the 
 alleged virtues of the plant; *' for," said he, " all the 
 good things we have must have been new once." He 
 smoked a pipe himself ; but it did not please him, for 
 he did not repeat the experiment in his own person. 
 
 Baja Todar Mai was sent to appraise the assets and 
 limit the demand of government in the province of 
 Gujarat in 1574-5, during which years the court was 
 chiefly at Eathipur, where the works on the new 
 palace proceeded rapidly. The emperor continued to 
 make visits toAjmere; and we are assured that on 
 these and on all his other progresses, he adopted the 
 strictest precautions to reduce to a minimum the 
 trouble given to the cultivators, through whose lands 
 his camp passed. Yasdiouls (lictors) were stationed 
 round the encamping-grounds to protect the fields 
 from spoliation ; and trustworthy officers, with money 
 in their hands, went along examining claims and 
 awarding compensation. 
 
 It would be difficult to convey to those who have 
 not seen it an adequate idea of the palace at Eathi- 
 pur- Sikri It is, like Versailles and the Escorial, the 
 country-house of a great monarch ; but it is unlike 
 these residences in having no overpowering grandeur 
 of design, unless we except the part dedicated to 
 
 * KJee final note.
 
 64 THE TUEKS IN INDIA. 
 
 religion. This consists of a quadrangle, raised upon the 
 rock and bounded by cloisters, of which the south wall 
 is some seventy feet from foot to parapet. On a flight 
 of lofty steps stands the main gateway, towering to a 
 height of one hundred and thirty feet. This opens on 
 the quadrangle, nearly eighteen thousand square yards 
 in area, and paved with flagstones. On the west is the 
 great mosque, accounted by Pinch " the goodliest of the 
 East," and still among the three or four finest. The 
 remainder of the buildings cover the rest of the rock, 
 about three hundred and fifty thousand square yards, 
 in an irregular trapezium, and including a variety of 
 structures more or less decayed, and of which the 
 ■uses are in most cases obscure. It is, however, 
 evident that when a vast lake spread on the north, and 
 a green and wooded park on the east, while the summit 
 glittered with marble turrets, red galleries, and 
 enamelled roofs — when the courtyards were copiously 
 watered and hung with gorgeous awnings — when the 
 baths of painted stucco, the chiselled dwellings, the 
 porticoes glowing with gilding and fresco, were all in 
 full throng and pomp, the general eff'ect could hardly 
 have been much inferior to that of the grandiose 
 edifices with which it has been compared. 
 
 It is in this framework that we ought to try to 
 see the form of Akbar, when, on his return from his 
 successful campaign in Bengal (a.d. 1575), Eaizi 
 presented his brother. Abul Euzl, then about eighteen 
 years of age, destined as time advanced, to influence 
 the character of the emperor, as well as to per- 
 petuate to all succeeding ages "Institutes" which 
 must be regarded as their joint work. About this 
 time the emperor had built in the northern side of
 
 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 65 
 
 the palace courts, that curious building now known 
 as the Diivdn-i-KJids {vide Max Miiller's " Science of 
 Religion," p. 83). Prom the floor rises a short 
 thick stone-pillar, the capital of which — supported on 
 deep pendentives — branches into four pathways, each 
 leading to a gallery. One of these was set apart for 
 each class of religioni.sts, and every Thursday night 
 discussions took place while the emperor sat in the 
 middle where all the paths met, or passed along them 
 from one school to another. It went ill then with the 
 Ulamds, those licensed Scribes and Pharisees of the 
 court. Unaccustomed to contradiction, they wrangled 
 and even resorted to blows till the evident disgust of 
 the emperor prepared their fall. Charges of corrup- 
 tion, extortion, and tyranny arose on all sides, into 
 which Akbar held personal enquiries. He also proved 
 their bigotry and narrow-mindedness by searching 
 questions on points of life and morals. Discomfited 
 alike in casuistry and in practice these clerical lawyers 
 gradually lost both their influence and their posts. 
 About this time (1575) the Western Turks obtained 
 great successes in Persia, and the Shia King of that 
 country was murdered and succeeded by a Sunni. 
 Accordingly a number of heretical teachers from the 
 southern shores of the Caspian Sea, were driven to 
 take refuge in India, and their conversation still farther 
 disturbed the orthodoxy of the active-minded emperor, 
 already so much shaken. In the following year the 
 Kalma (Mussulman doxology) disappears from the 
 coins of the empire, replaced by a formula embracing 
 his Majesty's names, Jaldluddin Akbar. 
 
 This event (1577) marks a distinct epoch. The 
 laws of Islam were not formally renounced for three 
 
 F
 
 QQ THE TURKS IN INDIA. 
 
 years more ; but this, the twenty -first year, is the 
 conclusion of the first period into which the reign has 
 been divided. 
 
 Akbar was now in apogee. All rival rulers had 
 been conquered or consolidated, ail turbulent barons 
 had been suppressed, and the emperor was absolute, 
 for srood or for evil, in the wide tracts and over the 
 varied populations of an empire extending from the 
 cliffs of the Nerbudda to the banks of the Oxus, and 
 from the Bay of Bengal to the Indian Ocean. Todar 
 Mai was the Vazir ; the supreme command of the 
 army was entrusted to Mirza Abd-ur-rahim, son of the 
 late Bairam, Akbar thus showing that he bore in 
 mind the merits rather than the faults of the de- 
 parted. The youug man had indeed been brought 
 up in the royal household, and for several years past 
 had given proofs of skill and daring. It cannot be 
 too often mentioned, as some set off to the faults of 
 the Chughtai Turks, that no man among them ever 
 owed his advancement merely to his birth, though 
 that circumstance may have had its influence in 
 affording opportunity. Abd-ur-rahim had won many 
 battles, in Gujarat and elsewhere, before attaining 
 the rank which he now held. He had also found time 
 to translate Babar's "Memoirs" from the Chughtai, 
 in which they were originally written. 
 
 But a higher ambition than that of mere material 
 sovereignty was rising in the emperor's breast. He 
 desired to be the leader of men's opinions also. Not 
 by force — no one was ever persecuted during his reign 
 for mere opinion, and many of his friends maintained 
 their own convictions without losing favour — but 
 because he knew that he saw clearer than most men
 
 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 67 
 
 into the conditions of spiritual well-being, and desired 
 to impart his freedom to others; a generous dream ! 
 Abul Fuzl was at hand, with his strange mixture of 
 imagination, good sense and wit, to minister to this 
 desire. In 1579 the question was openly mooted at 
 the Thursday* evening meetings. European readers 
 can imagine it by thinking of the somewhat similar 
 movement then going on in England, by which the 
 sovereign became supreme head of the Church ; only 
 the Indian attempt Avas higher and less purely poli- 
 tical. "Thus," sneers the orthodox Budaoni, "a faith 
 based on some elementary principles, traced itself on 
 the mirror of his Majesty's heart . . . the conviction 
 that there were sensible men in all religions, mode- 
 rate thinkers and men with miraculous powers among 
 all nations." And it became his object to spread such 
 a belief. His large charity as a man was warmed and 
 kindled by his enthusiasm as the father of an alien 
 people — 
 
 " On learning further how much the people of the country- 
 prized their institutions, he began to look upon them with affec- 
 tion . . . The differences among the Moslem doctors . . . furnished 
 his Majesty with another reason for apostacy . . . Learned monks 
 came from Europe, bringing the gospel . , . His Majesty firmly 
 believed in the truth of the Christian religion . . . and charged 
 Abul Fuzl to translate the New Testament . . . Birbal impressed 
 upon the emperor that the sun was the primary origin of every- 
 thing . . . Fire- worshippers also had come from . . , Grujarat, and 
 proved to his Majesty the truth of Ihe Zoroastrian doctrine . . . 
 who ordered Abul Fuzl to arrange that sacred fire should be kept 
 burning night and day after the manner of the ancient Kings of 
 Persia." 
 
 At last, in September, 1589, appeared a covenant 
 
 * So Blochmann ; but Abul Fuzl says " Friday," which is psrhaps more 
 likely, as Friday is the Moslem Sabbath.
 
 68 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 
 
 intended to reconcile these various tenets in an eclectic 
 faith, of which the emperor should be High Priest 
 and controlling authority. Swayed, no doubt, by 
 years of ridicule and by the hope of future peace, 
 many of the learned and highly placed Mussulman 
 doctors signed this strange document — unique, says Pro- 
 fessor Blochmann, in the " History of the Mohamadan 
 Church" — of which the purport is abstracted in 
 *' Dowson " (vol V. p. 382) — 
 
 " We have decreed and do decree tliat the rank o£ a Just 
 EuLER is higher in the eyes of God than the rank of a Chief of 
 tie Law. Farther we declare that the Sultan o£ Islam, &c. &c., 
 Abu 'l Fath JalIlu 'd Din Mohamad Akbar, Padshah GhAzi, 
 is a most just, wise, and pious king. Therefore, if there be a 
 variance among the doctors upon religious questions, and his 
 Majesty . . . should give his decree for the benefit of mankind . . . 
 we do hereby agree that such decree shall be binding on us and on 
 the whole nation. Further, we declare that, should his Majesty, 
 in his wisdom, issue an order (not being in opposition to the Koran) 
 for the benefit of the people, it shall be binding and imperative on 
 everyone ; opposition to it being punished with damnation in the 
 world to come, excommunication and ruin in the present life." * 
 
 In spite of the traces of compromise, the compli- 
 ments to Islam, which linger in the text and preamble 
 (not given above) one sees that this was the covenant 
 of a new creed. In pursuance of it the emperor 
 proceeded in state to the great Mosque of Pathipur 
 already mentioned, and mounted the pulpit for the 
 purpose of conducting the service. The inaugural 
 hymn, composed for the purpose by Paizi, was to the 
 following effect : — 
 
 " The Lord to me the kingdom gave, 
 He made me wise, and strong, and brave, 
 
 * Blochmann'a "Ain Akbari," vol. i. p. 186.
 
 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 69 
 
 He girdeth me in right and ruth, 
 Filling my mind with love of truth ; 
 No praise of man can sum his state — 
 Allahu Akbar ! — God is great." 
 
 But the emotions aroused by the scene were too much 
 for the overstrung nerves that never flinched before 
 the enemy. The heart that had been calm in 
 every danger now beat too fast ; the voice that rang 
 above the din of battle now broke, like a girl's. 
 The imperial apostle had to descend from his ele- 
 vation before he had articulated the first three lines. 
 The rest of the service was entrusted to the court 
 chaplain. 
 
 The new system, called the Divine Faith, appears 
 to have been a kind of eclectic monotheism. No 
 complete summary of the tenets has been preserved ; 
 it probably contained more practice than doctrine. 
 Even in Budaoni's pessimist account, one traces the 
 germs of much social and political reform. All food 
 was lawful, so that excess was avoided. Prostitution 
 was licensed and taxed, seduction punished. Youthful 
 marriage was forbidden, polygamy reproved. Sati 
 (widow burning) could only take place by the un- 
 doubted and persistent desire of the victim. The 
 Hijra era was discontinued, and official computations 
 dated from the year of Akbar's accession; the solar 
 year and months of the ancient Persians being restored 
 to use. Strange to say, the new system found more 
 favour among Moslems than among Hindus, although 
 the prejudices of the latter were much deferred to. 
 Out of eighteen recorded members of the elect, only 
 one, Birbal, is a Hindu. The rest are poets, historians, 
 and a few lawyers, all of the conquering class. Todar 
 Mai and the emperor's brother-in-law, Raja Bhagwan
 
 70 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 
 
 Das, positively refused to join, but Akbar showed no 
 resentment. 
 
 So long as the emperor lived, the results of his 
 religion had some vitality, though its absolute pro- 
 fession was thus limited. It led to an indiscriminate 
 employment of persons of all creeds and classes in the 
 public service, regard being had only to their merits. 
 This example is even stated to have spread to Persia. 
 In 1587, fresh edicts were issued, among others one 
 containing the rule, " One God, and one wife." Causes 
 between Hindus were not to be taken before Moslem 
 judges, but to be decided by pundits appointed for 
 the purpose, who, no doubt, administered the Hindu 
 law. In the following year Akbar tried to convert 
 Man Sinb, the nephew, adopted son, and successor 
 of Eaja Bhagwan Das. The spirited rajput answered, 
 •' If joining your Majesty's school only means willing- 
 ness to sacrifice life, I think I have already given 
 sufficient proof that I am a faithful follower. But I 
 am a Hindu ; your Majesty does not ask me to become 
 a Mussulman. I know of no third faith." The 
 emperor pressed him no more. Other regulations 
 continued to be issued, and converts made ; the last 
 notice of such things being in 1596. 
 
 Such, in a very concise statement, was Akbar's 
 religious reformation. Those who are curious for 
 further details, will find them in Professor Blochmann's 
 very learned and laborious notes on the *'AinAkbari" 
 (Calcutta, 1873). 
 
 Akbar had no parliament to register for future 
 observance his articles of religion or the enactments 
 of himself and his council. Nor was there any 
 hierarchy or administrative machinery to whom the
 
 TEE TURKS IN INDIA. 71 
 
 working of the system could be bequeathed, as in a 
 bureaucratic country. Consequently the best portion 
 perished with liim. The power of the church, how- 
 ever, broken as it was by his reforms, never recovered 
 itself; but this was probably far from an unmixed 
 gain. An arbitrary, bigoted, spiritual tyranny is what 
 few will approve ; but a blind physical tyranny is as 
 bad ; and, where one exists, it is probably better for 
 the people that the other should exist too, to check 
 its vagaries. There was never afterwards in India 
 any limit to the power of the Crown, but the rebellion 
 of the chiefs and their followers. 
 
 Akbar's other reforms are also described in the 
 " Ain," or " Institutes," published by Abul Euzl, in 
 1596-7, the forty-third year of the "Divine Era," or 
 reign of the emperor. The most important part of 
 them is that relating to the revenue; but there is 
 scarcely any subject too minute to escape the notice 
 of this combination of Boswell and Blackstone. Thus 
 in the Eirst Book, Abul Euzl treats of the Household ; 
 the Treasury; the Mint; Statistics of Prices; the Arts 
 of Peace and War ; the rules for Elephants, Camels, 
 Horses, and Oxen ; regarding Etiquette, Elavours, and 
 Perfumes; and, lastly, on Heligion. In the Second 
 Book is mention of Military Regulations, the Ad- 
 miralty, and the Chase. Among all these are inter- 
 spersed encomiastic anecdotes of his Majesty's sayings 
 and doings, and recipes for cookery. The Third Book 
 is devoted to the department of Einance ; beginning 
 with an account of the Computations of Time in use 
 among various nations ; then follow chapters on Tri- 
 bute and Taxation, on Measurements of Land, and of 
 the famous " Settlements " of the Land-revenue under
 
 72 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 
 
 Todar Mai. The Fourth is a sort of Gazetteer of India 
 and a treatise on various subjects of interest con- 
 nected with its inhabitants. The Fifth is a collection 
 of Akbar's teachings. The whole volume forms one 
 of three devoted to the history of the empire and its 
 ruler under the general title of " The Akbarnama." 
 
 In the maturing of the *' Divine Faith " and settle- 
 ment of revenue, the second period of Akbar's reign — 
 from the 21st to the 37th year — passed away. Birbal 
 died in a fruitless campaign against the Yusafzais, in 
 February, 15S6, deeply lamented by his master, whose 
 grief was intensified by suspense. The body was never 
 found, and more than one pretender to Birbal's name 
 disturbed the healing of Akbar's wound. Todar Mai 
 died four years later, preserving his Hindu orthodoxy 
 to the last. Kext year was the 999th of the Moslem 
 era ; and that which followed closed the hopes of a 
 millennium which were at the time widely enter- 
 tained. In 1592 Abul Fuzl was promoted to the rank 
 of a commander of two thousand horse, and took his 
 place among the peers and lords of the council. In 
 the same year his brother Faizi was sent as ambas- 
 sador to the Deccan. 
 
 In 1593 the father of these two favourites, Shekh 
 Mubarak, died at Lahore. All things now combined 
 to announce the beginning of the end. The failure of 
 millennial expectations ; the comparative ill-success of 
 the new creed ; the death of some valued adherents, 
 the absence or failing strength of others, all whispered 
 to Akbar thatj in the language of Sadi of Shiraz : — 
 
 " The world, oh mv brotlier, remaineth to none." 
 
 Faizi died 5th October, 1595 — barking like a dog
 
 THE TUEKS IN INDIA. 73 
 
 according to the austere Badaoui — but really weak 
 and speechless. Akbar saw him at midnight; sup- 
 porting his friend's head he said gently, " Shekh ji, 
 here is a doctor, will you not speak to me ? " One 
 fancies the faint look of the closing eye, but no word 
 escaped the lips; the emperor threw his head-dress 
 on the ground and wept aloud. The gentle poet's 
 literary remains were published two years after by his 
 more energetic brother ; the same year saw the com- 
 pletion of the " Akbarnama." In 1597-8 Abul Tuzl 
 went on active military service for the first time and 
 acquitted himself well in every way, as a brave, 
 loyal and incorruptible servant. When the King of 
 Khandes, who was his brother-in-law, offered him rich 
 gifts to procure his favour he refused them, saying 
 gallantly, that the emperor's favour had extinguished 
 in his mind all feelings of avarice. Next year he took 
 the famous fort of Asirgarh ; but on his return was 
 waylaid, as he marched towards Agra with a small 
 escort, and was murdered bv a Hindu freebooter set 
 on by the jealousy of Jahangir, the heir-apparent. 
 This event occurred on the 12th August, 1602. 
 
 It was after the conquest of Khandes — which in 
 honour of his son Danyal (or Dainel) the emperor 
 called " Dandes " — that Akbar put up the well-known 
 inscription on one of the jambs of the great gateway 
 at Fathipur : — " H.M. the King of Kings, Heaven of 
 the Court, Shadow of God, Jalal-ud-Din Mohamad, the 
 Emperor. He conquered the Deccan and Dandes, 
 which was formerly Khandes, in the Ilahi year 46, 
 corresponding to the Hijra year 1010." After some 
 self-praise the strain is modulated into the following 
 pathetic minor : " Said Jesus (on whom be peace !)
 
 74 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 
 
 The world is a bridge, pass over it but build no house 
 there. He who hopes for an hour hopes for an 
 eternity. The world is but an hour : spend it in de- 
 votion, the rest is unseen." 
 
 The emperor died four years after, and, perhaps, 
 as his clouded end approached, his mind recalled that 
 inscription, and he may have thought with little pride 
 of the houses that he had built upon the short bridge 
 of life. 
 
 And so ended the Round Table of Hindustan. The 
 popularly believed story that Akbar died a convert to 
 the tenets of that superstition which in the strength 
 and health of his judgment he had deliberately re- 
 jected, is of no importance. Such things are commonly 
 said of great reformers, and perhaps are sometimes 
 true ; but they prove nothing except the tenacity with 
 which a failing mind may clutch at early impressions. 
 But Professor Blochmann contradicts the story flatly. 
 
 The memoirs of Jahangir say nothing of such a 
 change (excepting the spurious copy translated by 
 Major Price), and no other contemporary writer, with 
 whom I have any acquaintance, has a hint of such a 
 thing.* 
 
 Akbar died on Tuesday, 27th October, 1605, 
 conscious to the end, and to the end maintaining his 
 statesmanship by sending for his ministers and pub- 
 licly naming the crown prince as his successor, so as 
 to obviate the dangers of civil war so liable to happen 
 on a demise of the crown in countries under Turkish 
 rule. He was in the 60th year of his age, the 47th 
 of his reign. 
 
 Mr. Elphinstone has devoted great care and ear- 
 
 * See Blocbmann's " Ain," p. 212 ; and Note.
 
 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 75 
 
 nestness to the portraiture of Akbar ; hia estimate is 
 high, and what has heen recorded here confirms it. 
 We have only now to give a very brief account of 
 his administration, especially with reference to that 
 branch, all-important in India, which deals with the 
 assessment and collection of the revenue derived from 
 land. 
 
 There is no subject round which experts have 
 thrown such repulsive clouds of dulness as this. 
 Yet, if the reader will bear in mind one or two very 
 simple facts, it ought not to be either dry or difiicult. 
 Land, being regarded by primitive communities as 
 one of the elements of nature, comes to be looked 
 upon — by all but merely nomad tribes — as the com- 
 mon source of national wealth, and is not exposed to 
 those forcible methods of appropriation which form 
 the ultimate basis of personal ownership. A savage 
 may use his bow and spear for the protection of his 
 own dead game or his own live stock, but he cannot 
 survey and fence off more land than that on which 
 his hut may stand. The ruling power of the tribe or 
 nation, therefore, generally undertakes two things : 
 to guarantee the possession of the clearer or occupier, 
 and to exact from him a return in the shape of a 
 service or a portion of the produce in commutation. 
 As society becomes more complicated, other interests 
 and pursuits come into being, other sources of revenue 
 are opened up ; but it has not been so in the East; 
 and theory and practice have still continued to 
 coincide in treating the occupant as the tenant of 
 the whole community. A monarch may assign the 
 State's interest in the surplus produce to a victorious 
 commander — or perhaps to a favourite minion — but
 
 7G THE TURKS IN INDIA. 
 
 tlie grant, even if declared in terms to be perpetual, is 
 always treated as temporary, and is liable to resump- 
 tion by the grantor's successor. 
 
 Sber Shall first saw the importance of leaving a 
 margin between the gross produce and the State's de- 
 mand, which (upon the above stated principle) was 
 theoretically without any limit but the expenses of 
 cultivation. Trained under him, Todar Mai learned 
 that this margin should be ** settled" upon the person 
 most interested in making the most of the land. He 
 organised an ofiice for the purpose, and he proceeded 
 to make a singular political use of his department. 
 Professor Blochmann has shown (" Calcutta Review," 
 vol. lii., p. 320) that up to the middle of Akbar's 
 reign rent rolls and accounts in the Hindu character 
 were maintained by Hindus, and the argument by 
 w^hich Akbar defended the practice is given in the 
 article. But when Todar was appointed finance 
 minister, he issued orders that all revenue records 
 should henceforth be kept in Persian. " He knew," 
 observes the learned reviewer, " that notwithstanding 
 the generous policy inaugurated by his master, the 
 Hindus could not long maintain a successful com- 
 petition with the conquering class unless they became 
 proficients in their language." 
 
 Hence, too, it came to pass that Abul Euzl was 
 able to give a complete account of the revenue system, 
 together with detailed rent-rolls of all the provinces, 
 for the benefit of Persian readers. The following is 
 the upshot of what he records : — 
 
 A fixed standard of mensuration having been pro- 
 vided, the land was surveyed and classified, according 
 to whether it was waste, fallow, or cropped. The last
 
 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 77 
 
 was taken as the basis of assessment — that wliicli pro- 
 duced cereals, vetches, or oil seeds, paying one- third of 
 the gross produce to the State, while two-thirds were 
 left to the occupant. But Akbar had endeavoured 
 to introduce cash payments among his establishments : 
 therefore sugar, cotton, and other crops grown for 
 commercial purposes, were assessed in money at tlie 
 same rate. This was a complete departure from the 
 law of Islam, since it made no difference between the 
 demand from Musalmans and that from "unbelievers." 
 Care seems to have been taken that in no district a 
 larger proportion should be taken than what had been 
 fixed by Sher Shah. 
 
 The organic difference between this system and 
 that of the British is that the latter do not found 
 their estimate on the productive power of the cultur- 
 able area alone, but on an assumed valuation of 
 possibilities during the coming thirty years, thus 
 discounting the future. Todar Mai seems to have got 
 as much revenue, but in a more rational manner 
 learned from Sher Shah. 
 
 It is curious and instructive to remark how Akbar, 
 and the Pathan predecessor, whom he copied, resembled 
 each other in the two principles of unity of interest 
 and continuity of system. While every other Moslem 
 ruler of Hindustan had drawn distinctions of creed 
 and colour, (which have not been entirely avoided 
 even by their British successors), these two alone 
 devoted their utmost efforts to welding all their subject 
 races into a patriotic whole. While almost every other 
 Moslem ruler has built his own capital city, and carried 
 out in general his own policy of administration, these 
 two lived where their predecessors had lived and main-
 
 78 THE TURKS IN INDIA.. 
 
 tained their institutions, so far as tliey justly could, 
 contented if they could improve, without destroying 
 or ahandoning, what they received from those who had 
 gone before. 
 
 Akbar, it has been observed, made great efforts to 
 pay his establishments in coin. The " Akbarnama " 
 gives rates of pay for almost every post, down to a 
 simple musketeer or archer. Some of the high vassals, 
 no doubt, wore paid, \Yholly or in part, by territorial 
 assignments which tliey had a direct interest in 
 diverting to their own private purposes. But all 
 Mohamadan history shows that there was at and after 
 this period a constant tendency to decrease their con- 
 tingents, and consequently their fiefs, and to increase 
 proportionately the Imperial forces, who were always 
 paid in specie, and formed the nucleus of a standing 
 army {vide Blochmann's *' Ain," p. 238 f.f.) 
 
 The " Sazdri,^' or *' commander of a thousand," 
 was " the Baron," or lowest peer. He was not 
 expected to keep up more than two hundred and 
 fifty troopers. The standing army was estimated at 
 two hundred thousand, the horses being branded — 
 another institution taken from Sher Shah. 
 
 Thejizia, or capitation-tax on "unbelievers," was 
 a tribute leviable in Mohamadan conquests upon those 
 of the people who refused to embrace the creed of 
 Islam. Some of the Pathan kings took it without 
 stint or limit ; but it was entirely abolished by Akbar 
 soon after Bairam's fall, and not again imposed till 
 the twenty-second year of Aurangzeb, when it is said 
 to have been levied in the form of a property-tax at 
 the rate of six and a-half in the thousand.* It was 
 
 * Tide Elliott's " Glossarj," in voce.
 
 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 79 
 
 again remitted when Ratan Chand, a Hindu, became 
 finance minister, in the reign of Mohamad Shah, 
 about A.D. 1722. Akbar remitted fifty-seven other 
 vexatious imposts. 
 
 The following anecdote is thus related in the 
 article in the " Calcutta Review," already quoted : — 
 
 " The Mohamadans were not slow to appreciate the 
 danger to their class from the competition of the 
 patient painstaking people of the country. "When 
 Todar Mai rose into exceptional favour they remon- 
 strated with Akbar against his being appointed finance 
 minister. The emperor, with his usual good temper, 
 merely asked in reply, * Who managed the estates of 
 the nobles who were addressing him ? ' ' Sir, our 
 Hindu stewards,' was the answer. *Very well,' said 
 Akbar, * then please allow me, too, to employ a Hindu 
 steward to manage my estates.' " 
 
 The Hindus from this time took eagerly to Persian 
 education, and have ever since continued to hold 
 their due proportion of the ministerial posts in which 
 it is still of use. To the higher posts they have not 
 yet been generally admitted ; but the time cannot be 
 far off when the gracious promise made by her Majesty 
 in 1858 will be found capable of practical fulfilment. 
 All the natives yet selected for high employment have 
 been Hindus, though Mohamadans have held a fair 
 share of subordinate j udicial appointments ; and 
 whenever the time comes for the general admission of 
 natives, it will assuredly be found that the Hindus 
 will hold their own. 
 
 The revenues of the empire — which, it must be re- 
 membered, did not extend south of the Nerbudda — are 
 stated by De Laet to have amounted to seventeen
 
 80 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 
 
 millions and a-lialf sterlinj^, and this estimate has the 
 approval of Mr. Thomas.* This sum is in itself large, 
 and Tvith reference to the purchasing power of money, 
 very large. The American hullion could hardly have 
 yet found its way to India in any very great amount; 
 and the prices that have come down to us in the 
 writings of the day are enough to show this. Un- 
 skilled lahour was paid a little over a penny a day ; a 
 musketeer — the most skilful kind of private soldier — 
 was paid little more than double. According to Abul 
 Fuzl, wheat sold at the rate of, say, sixpence a bushel; 
 barley and millet were still cheaper ; a good sheep 
 could be bought for three shillings ; sugar was three 
 half- pence a pound. The revenue was assessed and col- 
 lected in half-pence ("Thomas ut sup.,") and the whole 
 of it was laid out in the administration and civil list. 
 Akbar was free from the Turkish vices of acquisitive- 
 ness and accumulation. In regard to his character 
 generally, enough has been shown in our sketch to 
 give the means of forming a pretty correct opinion. 
 It is only necessary to add that he was abstemious and 
 continent, observing days of fasting and mortification 
 prescribed by himself; recklessly brave, having, for 
 example, several times encountered tigers on foot, and 
 only armed with a sabre. He was fair of feature and 
 large of limb, with a complexion that seemed blond, 
 even to Europeans. 
 
 In his artistic tastes he showed the same judgment 
 as in everything else. He studied the languages of 
 the country and assisted in the translation of sacred 
 Sanscrit texts. In his buildings he endeavoured to 
 
 * " Eevenue Resources of the Mughal Empire," p. 20.
 
 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 81 
 
 assimilate indigenous design and practice, and made 
 but sparing use of special Saracenic features, like 
 the arch and dome. 
 
 Akbar began to build for himself a mausoleum in 
 the garden of Bihishtabad, near the old Lodi Palace of 
 Agra, about five miles up the Dehli road. Here he 
 was buried in a vault 38 feet square; and round 
 the tomb were placed the armour, raiment, and books 
 that the deceased had been wont to use, ready to hand 
 when the time should come for him to rise. A 
 brocaded covering has been placed over this tomb in 
 recent times by the graceful munificence of a British 
 Viceroy, Lord Northbrook. The mausoleum — which 
 is kept in repair by the British Government — is a 
 well known and splendid product of Mughal art ; but 
 its completion belongs to the next reign. Pinch, an 
 English traveller of that time, says that the tomb w^as 
 " much worshipped both by Moors and Gentiles, all 
 holding him for a great saint." 
 
 It only remains to add that the authorities for the 
 above study have been found in Professor Dowson's 
 valuable edition of Elliot's *'Mohamadan Historians," 
 occasionally compared with the originals ; and above 
 all, in Professor Blochmann's translation of the " Ain 
 Akbari," the notes to which are a monument of 
 research and judgment. 
 
 Notes. — AsadBeg, a Kazwini Turk, who wrote an account of his adventures 
 beginning after the death of Abul Fuzl, relates the first introduction of tobaccj- 
 smoking at Akbar's court. 
 
 " I prepared a handsome pipe . . . the stem . . . was three cubits in length, 
 beautifully dried and coloured, both ends being adorned with jewels and enamel. 
 I happened to come across a very handsome mouthpiece of Yaman cornelian, 
 oval-shaped, which I set on the stem ; the whole very liandsome ... I filled a 
 bag with very fine tobacco. I arranged all nicely on a silver traj. I had a 
 silver case made for the stem, and it was covered (or lined) with purple velvet. 
 
 G
 
 82 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 
 
 His Miijestj was asking me how I Lad collected so many curiosities in so short a 
 time, when his eye fell upon the bag containing the pipe ... be enquired what it 
 was and where I had got it. The Nawab Khan Azara spoke : 'This is tobacco, 
 a well known drug, which this learned m«n has brought for your Majesty's use.' 
 His Majesty ordered me to prepare a pipe for him, and began to smoke it, when 
 his physician came up and forbade him. His Majesty said he must try it to 
 please me. After a few whiffs he handed it to Kliau Azam, who did likewise. 
 He asked his druggist what were the peculiar qualities of the herb, who answered 
 that it was not mentioned in liis books, being a new invention ; but the European 
 doctors praised it. The physician objecting that it was a dangerous novelty, I 
 replied, 'The Europeans are no fools, their wise men seldom make mistakes. 
 Try a thing first before you condemn it, and let us decide according to facts.' 
 The doctor answered, ' We do not need to take our customs from the Europeans.' 
 I replied, ' Every custom in the world lias been new in its time' . . . When the 
 Emperor heard my arguments he was surprised. Be gave me his blessing, and 
 said to Khan Azam, ' Do you hear Asad's wise speech F It is true that we must 
 not reject a thing that has been adopted by wise men of other nations merely 
 because it is not in our books, or how shall we progress ? ' " 
 
 Akbar, after due trial, did not adopt the use of the pipe; but the stnry is 
 worth attention as a sample of his candid nature. Many of the courtiers took it 
 up ; and thus it was introduced into India, a habit which has done more for the 
 Bolace of the masses than any they have ever learned. 
 
 Akbar was led, by his position as a conqueror, to give most of the higher 
 employments to his Turkish and Persian followers. But he never excluded the 
 natives from any office, how high soever. Thus, Todar Mai was, next to the em- 
 peror himself, the first man in the State, combining the direction of the finances 
 with the general control of the whole civil administration as vazir, or chancellor. 
 Bhagwan Das, Man Sinh, and Birbal commanded armies. In the first grade, 
 "five thousand," there were two Hindus out of thirty, in that of "four 
 thousand" two out of nine ; in that of "three thousand," out of seventeen 
 grandees eight were natives ; of the entire ofliijial peerage fifty-seven were 
 Hindus, besides Hindustani Mussulmans. The policy became constitutional, and 
 the libro d'oro of Shahjahan shows that the number of Hindu officials had nearly 
 doubled in his time.* The notion of confining power and rank entirely to 
 members of the conquering class never entered the minds of these rulers. In 
 Aurangzeb's reversal of the policy — fatal as it may have been — we only see the 
 conduct of a man blinded by religious pedantry. It was not as natives of India 
 that he excluded Hindus, but as followers of what to him seemed a blasphemous 
 and puerile superstition. Even under Aurangzeb, Jai Sinh I. held the highest 
 offices, military and civil, until his death in A.D. 1667. 
 
 * Mahabat, the great general of Shahjahan (and the De Montfort of bis 
 father) was of Cabidi origin, but with Hindustani affinities and associations, so 
 that Tod thought that he was a Eajput.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE CHAEACTER OF JAHANGIE. 
 
 Peofessor Blocumann in 1869 contributed to the 
 " Calcutta Review " a very valuable article on the 
 character of Jahangir, and some connected topics, 
 in which he abstracted the result of an exhaustive 
 bulk of learned information. He drew but an 
 unflattering picture of the fourth emperor of the 
 house of Taimur. The " Memoirs of Jahangir," says 
 the professor, " do not contain one grand thought — 
 not a trace that the author ever realized his exalted 
 position. Of all Mohamadan rulers Akbar best under- 
 stood his duties as a ruler. During his reign feuds 
 were healed, distrusts minimized, and the ideas of 
 patriotism raised into influence. Akbar believed that 
 he had a sacred mission, and was responsible to God 
 for the manner in wliich he exercised it. In order to 
 perform the duties of this mission, the ruler, he felt, 
 must enter into every detail of his government." (Sher 
 Shah had laid down the same rule). " Every minute 
 spent in comprehending small things is a minute 
 spent in the service of God." Jahangir was the very 
 reverse of all this in his theory and practice, and the
 
 84i THE TURKS IN INDIA. 
 
 leading idea of bis "Memoirs" is tliat details are 
 derogatory to the royal dignity. Shahjahan, to the 
 benefit of the empire, returned to Akbar's mode of 
 ruling by the mastery of details ; and hence the 
 prosperity of the country reached under Shahjahan 
 *' a point to which it never before, nor ever after- 
 wards, attained under a Mughal emperor." 
 
 It is not strange that Jahangir should compare 
 unfavourably with Akbar. Most rulers would. It 
 is rather the likeness that is puzzling. Jahangir 
 resembled his father in a hundred ways. Only one 
 feels in passing from the reign of Akbar to that of 
 bis son as if the curtain bad risen for a burlesque 
 after the drama. Jahangir is a comic Akbar, repro- 
 ducing his father's features in the form of a cari- 
 cature. In him indulgence became negligence, and 
 reform ran riot. Eclecticism in religion, instead of 
 growing into a practical system of belief and practice, 
 took the shape of a successive acquiescence in each 
 creed, one by one. And when the follies of this lord 
 of misrule brought their natural fruits into existence, 
 bis notion of repression showed itself in barbarous 
 and grotesque sentences. 
 
 That Jaliangir should have been such a zany 
 strikes one as a drawback from the greatness of 
 Akbar. Something he may have owed to the 
 peculiarities in the character that he inherited from 
 bis Hindu mother, or in the training (or no traininsj) 
 that be received from her. But his son, Shahjahan, 
 also had a Hindu mother, and he was able and dig- 
 nified. Akbar must have chosen his son's tutors ill. 
 
 There is also reason to suppose that he himself 
 did something to spoil his heir. Jahangir — or Salim
 
 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 85 
 
 — was the child of miracle. Tradition relates that the 
 daughter of Amber was childless, and that Akbar, on 
 his pilgrimage to Ajmir in the fourteenth year of his 
 reign, left her in charge of Shekh Salim, the hermit of 
 Fathipur — where as yet no palace was — and that the 
 child was born in the house of the holy man, and in 
 answer to his prayers. He was named Salim, after 
 his godfather ; and his royal father gave liim the pet 
 name of Shekhu Baba. His wet nurse was the wife 
 of the saint's son. Born and nursed in these surround- 
 ings, it is not strange if the boy grew up wilful, super- 
 stitious, and ignorant of the world. It does not appear 
 to have fared better with either of his brothers; at least, 
 both died of delirium tremens during their father's 
 lifetime. Jahangir also for many years indulged im- 
 moderately in wine ; but, whether it was that his 
 strength was greater, or that the opium which he 
 likewise abused acted as an antidote, he lived to 
 nearly the same age as his father, and died of asthma, 
 having for some time reduced his habits of drinking 
 within reasonable limits. 
 
 His accession was peaceful. "When Akbar lay at 
 the point of death, there was but one prince of the 
 blood likely to give trouble, namely — Sultan Khusru, 
 Salim's eldest son. Salim himself had long given his 
 own august father signs of scant love and honour, and 
 had lately caused the death of his justly esteemed 
 companion of many great and happy years, Abul 
 Fuzl. But the emperor knew better than to yield at 
 such a moment to indignation that might fall upon 
 his people. He publicly named Salim, his heir, three 
 years before his death ; * after this Salim returned to 
 
 * Vide Note in fin.
 
 8G THE TURKS IN INDIA. 
 
 Allahabad — where lie was Governor of the Suhah or 
 province, and whence he had gone to Agra at the 
 summons of the emperor — and there he passed some 
 time correspondiDg respectfully with his father. But 
 he continued his irregular conduct, indulging in 
 excessive drinking, and embezzling the revenues. 
 About this time, Salim's wife — the sister of the cele- 
 brated Amber chief, Man Sinh — took poison while 
 her husband was out shooting. She appears to have 
 been an excitable, half-crazy creature, who was dis- 
 tracted by the family quarrels ; for not only was her 
 husband at variance with his father, but still more 
 with his son Khusru, whose mother the unhappy lady 
 was. This event did not improve Salim's temper ; on 
 the contrary, Inayut Ullah, the continuator of 
 " Akbarnama," says that he became so furious that 
 people in his presence were struck dumb with terror. 
 The aged emperor therefore determined to visit his 
 wayward son, and set off for Allahabad for the pur- 
 pose. But his own mother — who had always mediated 
 between the two — died at this juncture, and Akbar 
 returned to the capital which he never left more. 
 Salim hearing bad accounts of his father's sinking 
 health, hurried to Agra. Man Sinh tried in vain to 
 organise an emeute in favour of Khusru, and Akbar 
 died, after an illness of three weeks, having once 
 more acknowledged Salim as the successor to his 
 throne, which he accordingly ascended (under the title 
 of Mohamad Nur-ud-Din Jahangir) on the 13th 
 October, 1G05. 
 
 A most interesting account of the intrigues of the 
 time, and of the overthrow of Man Sinh's attempt by 
 an appeal to the just feelings of the Turkish nobility
 
 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 87 
 
 Las been preserved by Asad Beg,* and will be found 
 in Dowson's "Elliot," vol. vi., p. 169, f.f. The 
 chiefs were collected in the ante-room while the em- 
 peror was breathing his last. Man Sinli presided. ** The 
 emperor does not really love Sultan Salim," he said, 
 " let us all agree to place Khusru upon the throne !" 
 But an illustrious Mughal named Sayid Khan, con- 
 nected by birth with the imperial house, replied hotly, 
 " What is this that the heir should be passed over in 
 favour of his son ? This is contrary to the laws and 
 customs of the Chughtai Tatars, and shall never be," 
 Having thus pronounced himself he left the meeting, 
 joined by those who were of his opinion, and the rest 
 of the assembly dispersed without agreeing to any- 
 thing. Man Sinh and Khusru fled that night, and 
 Salim visiting his father's bedside was invested with 
 the imperial purple by orders of the dying emperor. 
 
 The subsequent revolt of Khusru, and the cruel 
 punishment of his followers, while he and Man Sinh 
 were forgiven, are matters of history. We need only 
 pause to note that the hereditary clemency of the 
 house of Taimur, shown on this, as on so many 
 occasions, was confined to the higher classes of 
 ofi'enders, and was not usually practised towards the 
 poor. We see the like in mediaeval Europe. 
 
 In Jahangir, good nature and mercy were not 
 absent, but they were like all his qualities, fitful and 
 odd in their exercise ; hence he had that worst quality 
 of a despot, an arbitrariness on which his subjects 
 could not depend. He was also often unscrupulous 
 in compassing his ends. The way in which he 
 quenched the light of his father's reign, by causing 
 
 * Vide Note to last Chapter.
 
 88 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 
 
 the murder of the good and able Abul Fuzl, he admits 
 in his written confessions. The motives by which he 
 was led to cause the death of Sher Afkan, whose 
 wife he afterwards married, have been usually con- 
 sidered equally clear and equally wicked ; but they 
 do not, in this case, rest upon quite as good testimony. 
 It is certain that Sher Afkan was killed in a tumult in 
 which the Governor was also slain, but the details vary. 
 As it is usually believed that Jahangir deliberately 
 caused Sher Afkan to be assassinated, in order that he 
 might possess his wife, the following contemporary 
 account, abstracted from the narratives of Mohamad 
 Hadi and Mutamad Khan,* may be fairly consulted. 
 Mr. DoAvson calls the latter "a valuable history." 
 The removal of a political foe is, in many states of 
 society, regarded as venial; but even in the east, it 
 has always been considered discreditable to kill a man 
 in order to obtain his wife ; and it is to be observed 
 that neither Jahangir nor any of his contemporaries 
 admit that he did so. 
 
 Sher Afkan, then, was an Istajlu Turk, originally 
 named Ali Kuli, who had passed into the service of 
 the Taimurides from that of Shah Ismail of Persia. 
 He obtained a command under Akbar, and the hand 
 of the daughter of Mirza Ghias-ud-Din, of Teheran, 
 who was high in the civil service of the same monarch, 
 and eventually became the prime minister of Jahangir 
 with the title of Itimad-ud-Uaula. Sher Afkan, in 
 Akbar's days, was a comrade of the heir apparent, 
 
 * Mutamad Kban, the author of the " Ikbalmama," was a high official during 
 the reign, but his work was written after the emperor's deatli ; thus, though a 
 contemporary, he may be considered impartial. Hadi, though a later writer, 
 wrote from contemporary sources.
 
 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 89 
 
 who obtained for bim tbe district of Bardwdn, in 
 Bengal, where he still was, when Jabangir succeeded 
 to the throne. In tbe second year of bis reif]jn, 
 Jabangir received unfavourable accounts oihis protege, 
 and on sending a viceroy to the eastern provinces took 
 the opportunity of recommending him to ascertain 
 tbe facts, and if be found Sher Afkan insubordinate 
 to send him to court. This new viceroy was one 
 Shekh Khubu, a son-in-law of the late Shekh Salim 
 Chisti, of Patbipur, and foster-brother to the em- 
 peror ; his title was Kutb-ud-Din. On taking charge 
 of his government, Kutb heard confirmation of the 
 bad accounts of Sher Afkan, and sent for him to 
 explain them. Sher Afkan refused to obey the sum- 
 mons, on which the viceroy proceeded in person to 
 enforce his mandate. He reached Bardwan and went 
 at once to the house. In front he was met by the 
 recusant oflicer, armed and mounted. Leaving their 
 attendants, the chiefs met to parley; suddenly, Sher 
 Afkan was seen to draw bis sword and run the 
 suhahddr through the body; tbe followers of the 
 latter then charged, and Sher Afkan was cut down. 
 His family were sent to court, and the widow remained 
 there four years, a guest in the apartments of the 
 empress dowager, a lady of the house of Taimur, 
 named Sultana Rukya Begam. 
 
 " On a New Tear's Day festival, ste attracted the desire and 
 affection of the emperor, and was soon made the favourite con- 
 sort ... by the title of Nur Jahan Begam . . . for some time she sat 
 in th.Q jharoJcha (balcony), where the officers came to receive her 
 orders. Coins were struck in her name, and the seal on imperial 
 patents bore it also. By degrees she became supreme in the 
 emjnre ; the emperor used to say that she was capable of con- 
 ducting all affairs, and that all he wanted was a joint and a bottle
 
 90 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 
 
 tokeej) himself merry." — (Motamad Iladi,* " Wakiat-i- Jahangiri," 
 vide " Dowsou," vol. vi., p. 398.) 
 
 These are the facts as stated hy the best authorities ; 
 let those who please give them an uncharitable inter- 
 pretation. In pny case no conclusion unfavourable 
 to Nur Jahan can be fairly drawn from them. If the 
 emperor had loved her before her husband's death, 
 her four years' widowhood shows that she was in no 
 hurry to benefit by that occurrence ; if the delay was 
 only due to her not having attracted the emperor's 
 admiration before, then the whole supposed crime 
 must be a pure invention. Certain it is that she was 
 in other respects an ornament to her high position. "In 
 her hour of greatness she won," soys Hadi, " golden 
 opinions from all sorts of people, being just and bene- 
 ficent to all. She is supposed to have provided out 
 of her private purse, dowries for the marriage of as 
 many as five hundred portionless damsels. She like- 
 wise brought forward in the public service her very 
 able brother, Asaf Khan, and also the brilliant Pathan 
 general, Mohabat Khan, by both of whom, however, 
 her patronage was but ill-requited." f 
 
 The emperor himself, though weak and debauched, 
 is yet by no means a figure without interest. On the 
 contrary, it is "a touch of nature," when we find this 
 remote despot so very human. His own naif con- 
 fessions are to be found in various forms, and an essay 
 
 * Hadi was not a contemporary ; he edited and completed the " Memoirs of 
 Jahangir " a hundred years after they were written. He was old enough at 
 that time to have conversed with some of Jahangir's contemporaries. 
 
 t Nur Jahan, when the emperor married her, had reached the mature age 
 of tliirty-four. That she should have maintained her influence to the end of the 
 life of her hushand, shows that he had the power of appreciating charms that 
 were not wholly physical.
 
 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 91 
 
 upon the most correct and complete text is given in 
 Professor Dowson's sixth volume, beginning at page 
 276. As reference Las been made by several writers 
 to an old translation by Major Price, it may be as 
 well to mention here that the professor, with the con- 
 currence of Sir II. Elliot, looks upon that version as 
 spurious. The original work is described as " a plain 
 and ingenious record of all that its author deemed 
 wortliy of note. . . . Assuming that Jahangir is 
 mainly responsible for its authorship, it proves him to 
 have been a man of no common ability. He records 
 his weaknesses and confesses his faults with candour, 
 and a perusal of this work alone would leave a favour- 
 able impression both of his character and talents. 
 Like his father he was fond of jewels, and estimated 
 their value as a true connoisseur. He was a mighty 
 hunter, and took pleasure in sport, even in the later 
 years of his life. He was a lover of nature, both 
 animate and inanimate, and viewed it with a shrewd 
 and observant eye. He mentions the peculiarities of 
 many animals and birds, and shows that he watched 
 their habits with diligence and perseverance. Trees 
 and fruits and flowers also come under his observa- 
 tion, and he gives his opinion upon architecture and 
 gardening like one who has bestowed time and 
 thought upon them." 
 
 No reason is known for doubting these '* Memoirs '* 
 to be authentic. They were suppressed, as far as pos- 
 sible, in the time of Jahangir's son and successor, and 
 attention seems to have been first drawn to them 
 many years later by Mohamad Hadi. There is, be- 
 sides the *' Memoirs," another most valuable contem- 
 poraneous record of the state of Hindustan under
 
 92 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 
 
 Jaliangir, in the narrative of Captain Hawkins, an 
 English mariner who visited India in this reign. We 
 have also writings hy other travellers, especially the 
 narrative of " the great Elchi " of those days, Sir 
 Thomas Roe, M.P. 
 
 Roe w^as one of those statesmen who seem the 
 peculiar product of the climate and the social condi- 
 tions of England. Accomplished and prudent, he 
 was at the same time of the strictest honour, combin- 
 ing the wisdom of a later civilization with the chivalry 
 of the middle ages. Knighted by James I. soon after 
 that monarch came to England, he was presently 
 selected to accompany Henry, Prince of Wales, in a 
 voyage to the West Indies. In 1609 he had been to 
 the shores of the Amazon, in 1614 we find him taking 
 part in the debates of the House of Commons, and in 
 the following year he was sent as Ambassador to the 
 Court of Jahangir in order to further the objects of 
 the East India Company, then in its infancy. Sub- 
 sequently appointed British Envoy to the Sublime 
 Porte, he remained for some years at Constantinople, 
 and was afterwards also Ambassador at Vienna. The 
 Queen of Bohemia called him her " honest Tom;" 
 Gustavus Adolplms, ^^ stremium consultatorem ;" the 
 emperor said, " I scarce ever met with an ambassador 
 before." 
 
 Such was the envoy chosen for the first mission 
 to an Asiatic court that was undertaken by the nation 
 destined to be the greatest of Asiatic Powers. An 
 account of this mission will be found in " Elphinstone." 
 Captain Hawkins was a less cultivated specimen of 
 the Englishman of those days, and was, perhaps, on 
 that account, a favourite with the " Bohemian " em-
 
 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 93 
 
 peror ; another, and a special recommendation, being 
 his knowledge of the Turkish language. Hawkins 
 had learned it in the Levant ; and he found, to his 
 own satisfaction, and that of his majesty, that the 
 Chughtai form was near enough to permit of free in- 
 tercourse between them ; such, we may fancy, as an 
 educated American Indian of the present day could 
 hold with the residents of Xew York. Jahansrir 
 speaks distinctly of his own knowledge of Turkish, say- 
 ing that he wrote some addenda to Babar's " Wakiat ; " 
 for '^although," he says, " I was brought up in Hin- 
 dustan, I am not deficient in knowledge of Turki.* 
 Hawkins died soon after his visit to Jahangir; his 
 narrative is to be found in " Purchas." 
 
 Erom all these sources considerable knowledge of 
 Jahangir is to be acquired, and the result will be a 
 judgment perhaps milder than Professor Blochmann's, 
 yet not altogether opposed to his. The emperor was, 
 by nature, sensible, observant, and amicable ; but his 
 moral nature had been so neglected that he could 
 neither control nor incite himself, and his occasional 
 activity was as lawless and harmful as his habitual 
 idleness and neglect were. 
 
 Of his good nature we have abundant proofs, be- 
 sides the clemency that he showed to Man Sinh and 
 Khusru. It is thus that he notices the loss of his 
 Hindu wife, the mother of the latter, sister of the 
 former : — 
 
 " How cau I record her excellence and goodness of disposition ? 
 She had a bright intellect, and her affection for me was such that 
 she would have given a thousand sons or brothers as a ransom for 
 one hair of mine. She often wrote to Khusru urging upon him 
 
 * In 1638 Mandelslo found Turkish still the Court Ian 'uage.
 
 94 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 
 
 proofs of my love and kindness ; but in vain. And then, seeing to 
 what lengths he was going, her Rajput pride was wounded, and she 
 set her heart on death." 
 
 He gives the date of her death, caused, he says, hy 
 opium taken in a temporary fit of insanity, and adds, 
 pathetically, " She was my first hride, and the wife of 
 my youth." 
 
 After this, the undutiful Khusru was detected in 
 a conspiracy for his father's assassination. The un- 
 happy but easy Jahangir spared him once more. This 
 was in the second year of the reign. On the first day 
 of the third the emperor went to his father's tomb at 
 Sikandra; he performed the pilgrimage on foot (a 
 distance of about five miles). " Would," he cried, 
 *' that I could have gone there on my head ! " During 
 the course of the same year he repeated the visit. He 
 disapproved of what had been built. During his 
 absence in the expedition against Khusru, the builders 
 had followed their own fancy, and had departed from 
 the original design. The work had been in hand over 
 three years, so that it uiust have been begun in 
 Akbar's lifetime. The money allowed for it had been 
 all spent. Jahangir pointed out all the parts that he 
 disliked, and had them taken down. The tomb was 
 then rebuilt on a grand scale, with a garden and a 
 great gateway, as we see it now, under the emperor's 
 personal directions. The work, according to the 
 '* Shahjahannama," took twenty years to complete. 
 Hawkins, who came to Agra in 1G()9, said it had been 
 already fourteen years in hand, which appears an ex- 
 aggeration. Hawkins was received with great favour. 
 He was admitted to close intercourse with the emperor, 
 invested with a title and stipend, and finally offered
 
 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 95 
 
 " a white maiden from the palace " if he chose to 
 marry and settle in India ; and to such an extent did 
 the favour to Christians rise, that some of the princes 
 of the hlood were publicly baptized in the church at 
 Agra, ^oing there in procession, " escorted by all the 
 resident Christians, to the number of sixty horse. 
 Captain Hawkins being at their head with St. George's 
 ensign carried before him in honour of England" 
 —(Pinch). 
 
 No picture of Jahaugir would be complete without 
 the wine-cup. In his youth, he tells us, he used to 
 drink as much as six quarts of spirit in a day : " No 
 one dared to expostulate with me ... At last I sent 
 for a doctor, and placed my case before him. Willi 
 great kindness and interest he spoke to me without 
 concealment, and told me that if I went on in this 
 way, in six months my state would be beyond the 
 hope of cure. His advice was good, and life is dear. 
 Prom that day I began to decrease my allowance of 
 liquor." Elsewhere he says that he got down to 
 a pint a day ; but now {JEt. sues 47), took twelve 
 grains of opium daily. From an account of his 
 annual weighing we find that at this time he turned 
 the scale at twelve stone four pounds. 
 
 It is at the same time that we are brought face to 
 face with Jahangir by the narratives of Sir T. Roe 
 and the Rev. E. Terry, his chaplain, an Oxford scholar, 
 and a shrewd observer. Roe and his staff landed at 
 Surat, and came up to Ajmere, where the court then 
 was, by way of Burhanpur, Mandu, and Chitor. He 
 waited on Jahangir on the lOtli January, 1617, and 
 was very respectfully, and, indeed, graciously treated. 
 He thus describes the habits of the emperoi : —
 
 96 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 
 
 " He comes every morning to a window looking into a plain 
 before his gate, and sLows himself to the common people . . Under 
 him, within a rail, attend the men of mark ... At afternoon he sits 
 in his durbar. At eight, after supper, he comes down to the Ghusal 
 Khdna, a fair court, wherein in the midst is a throne of free-stone 
 (marble ?) whereon he sits. None are admitted but [men] of 
 great quality, and few of these without leave, where he discourses 
 of all matters with much affability . . . This course is unchangeable, 
 except sickness or drink prevent it, -nhich must be known ; for as 
 all his subjects are slaves, so is he in a kind of reciprocal bondage, 
 for he is tied to obey these hours and customs so precisely, that if 
 he were not seen one day, and no sufficient cause rendered, the 
 people would mutiny . . . On Tuesday he sits in judgment— never 
 refusing the poorest man's complaint — where he bears with patience 
 both sides." 
 
 On the 24th Roe had another interview. Jehan2:ir 
 seeing him in the crowdj called him up to the side of 
 the throne. The commercial treaty which Eoe 
 desired was promised ; but the ambassador remained 
 three years in attendance before his task was accom- 
 plished. It is evident that there was no lack of g-ood 
 nature or goodwill on the part of Jalidngir, but the 
 heir-apparent was unfriendly — Nur Jab an and her 
 brother were grasping, and thus the business became 
 a sort of Penelope's web. On one occasion we have 
 a scene — E-oe remonstrating, and Asaf Khan trying to 
 silence the interpreter : ** but I held him, suffering 
 him (Asaf) only to wink and make unprofitable signs. 
 The king hereat grew suddenly into choler, press- 
 ing to know who had wronged us. . . . The king, 
 hearing his son's name, conceived I had accused 
 him, saying, ' Mio figlio, mio figlio !' Asaf Khan 
 trembled, and all of them were amazed. The king 
 chid the prince roundly, and he excused him- 
 self." When the debate ended — and it had been
 
 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 97 
 
 stormy — Jabangir rose ; but as he did so, he called 
 Roe to stand by him. On anotber occasion, about 
 ten at night, the ambassador received a sudden 
 summons after he had gone to bed : Jabangir sent to 
 say that he had heard that Roe had a picture which 
 had not been exhibited. The ambassador hastened 
 to the presence, carrying with him the miniature, 
 which was a portrait of a lady that he had loved and 
 lost. Jabangir and his courtiers were drinking to- 
 gether when Roe entered ; and on his producing the 
 painting, was asked by the emperor to give it bim. 
 Roe at first demurred, but ended by offering the 
 desired gift, and a curious scene ensued, in which the 
 two vied with each other in generosity. The emperor 
 asked in admiration if such a woman ever lived -^ 
 " Yes," replied the ambassador, " only the picture 
 does her no justice." "Well," said the emperor, 
 " since you have so freely given me this, I will take it 
 inside to the ladies and will bave copies made. If, when 
 you see them, you can pick out your own, you shall 
 take it back." Roe said, '* No ; that he had indeed 
 given the gift freely, and hoped it would not be 
 returned ; " but Jabangir stopped his protestations by 
 declaring that he loved him the better for loving the 
 remembrance of his friend. This is surely as charm- 
 ing an idyll, and as pretty a vignette of Eastern and 
 Western chivalry as was ever conceived in fiction. 
 One of the presents sent by James I. on this occasion, 
 was a London-built coach, to which Jabangir thus 
 alludes under 1616 : — 
 
 *' I marched in sound health from Ajmero in a 
 European carriage, drawn by four horses, and I 
 ordered several nobles to make up carriages like it." 
 
 H
 
 98 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 
 
 E.oe, describing" this departure, says that Jahangir got 
 into his coach, which was driven by an English 
 coachman, " dressed as gaudily as any player, the 
 horses being trapped and harnessed all in gold." 
 
 Another sketch is given after Jahangir had heard 
 fresh complaints of the interference of the heir- 
 apparent, and sent for Eoe to apologise. " The good 
 king fell to dispute of the laws of Moses, Jesus, and 
 Mohamet ; and in drink was so kind that he turned to 
 me and said, ' I am a king, you shall be welcome.' 
 Christians, Moors, Jews — he meddled not with their 
 faith ; they came all in love, and he would protect 
 them from wrong . , . and this he often repeated, 
 but in extreme drunkenness he fell a weeping and to 
 divers passions, and so kept up till midnight." But 
 he was as good as his word in the sober morning 
 hours, telling E.oe that he should be always welcome, 
 even if he came empty-handed. To Mr. Terry, he 
 said, " Fadre, you are very welcome. This house is 
 yours ; esteem it so." 
 
 In all this we cannot but find confirmation of the 
 estimate of Jahangir otherwise arrived at ; an indo- 
 lent toper, but not a bad fellow. To such an extent 
 did he push his contempt of business, as never, in the 
 whole course of liis memoirs, to make the slightest 
 mention of the English or their embassy. But it is 
 clear that, in his lazy way, he was kind and hospitable 
 to them during their stay.* 
 
 It is curious to find Jahangir, in 1617, issuing his 
 "Counterblast against Tobacco," like his contemporary 
 
 * A watch, with the name and date of " Steir, London, 1613," was found some 
 years ago in the Agra Palace. — " Transactions of the Arch. Soc. of Agra," 1873.
 
 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 99 
 
 James. His brother, Shah Abbas, had done the same, 
 he says, in Persia, but inveterate smokers could not 
 obey. He says that he issued this order from a sense 
 of the mischief that smoking caused the health ; it is 
 evident indeed that, with all his own bad habits, he 
 never regarded himself as other than a virtuous 
 and pious ruler. On new year's day (10th March, 
 1618, wben the sun entered Aries), he writes in a 
 cheerful strain of devout gratitude that would have 
 done credit to a saint : *' This day brought to a close 
 the twelfth year [of the reign] of this humble servant 
 of God, which had been passed in happiness. And 
 now a new, auspicious year began. . . . May the 
 remaining years of my life be passed in occupations 
 consistent with the will of God, and may no moment 
 pass without reflection on his greatness ! . . . The 
 Almighty has always and everywhere extended his 
 assistance and protection to this his humble creature." 
 But his mind was steeped in frivolity quite unbecom- 
 ing his age and station. He relates with pride that 
 about this time it occurred to his unaided imagina- 
 tion, that instead of the name of the month his coins 
 should bear the figure of the sign of the zodiac, in 
 which the sun might be at the moment of minting. 
 He fell ill, and by the advise of his physicians left off 
 liquor and took farinaceous food. His complaints are 
 bitter : " Trom the time when I had arrived at years 
 of discretion I had never, so far as I can recollect, 
 drunk such broth, and I hope I may never be obliged 
 to drink it again." He gives us a specimen of his 
 poetry : — 
 
 " A cup of wine, with her we love, before we go to sleep, 
 The clouds are gathering, and the time has come for drinking deep."
 
 100 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 
 
 This bold ejaculation he compares with the beautiful 
 line of Jami — 
 
 " To have one rose we suffer from a thousand thorns." 
 
 He desires that one of his sons who had offended him 
 may always be known as *' The Wretch." He gives 
 an evil name to "Wednesday because some calamities 
 had befallen him on that day. 
 
 Some of his ordinances were silly, some were 
 worse ; his punishments were cruel and unusual. 
 Jahangir boasts of having ordered caravanserais, 
 etc., to be placed all along the roads of his empire ; 
 but contemporary travellers give an account of the 
 dangers of travelling, which lead to the conclusion 
 that his measures did but little towards either the 
 comfort of travellers or their safety. Hawkins, early 
 in the reign, wrote, '* the country is so full of thieves 
 and robbers that one can scarcely stir out of the house 
 without a guard; almost the whole people are in 
 rebellion." Roe, later on, had to delay his despatches 
 for a month till he could send them with a caravan 
 accompanied by a sufficient escort. He forbade the 
 sale of liquor ; but hear an account of his practice — 
 *' It was during the night that he gave himself up to 
 intoxication in the society of his friends. All the 
 Europeans in Agra, of whatsoever nation, were 
 allowed free access to the palace. He would drink 
 with them to daybreak " (Catron, " Histoire des 
 Mogols"). Like Nero, he burned down his own 
 cities, yet he issued an edict against persons using the 
 houses of others. He had people convicted of robbery 
 trodden to death by elephants. A girl of his house- 
 hold being found kissing a man, was buried up to her
 
 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 101 
 
 shoulders, and left two or three days with her head 
 exposed to the sun's rays and the dews of night. A 
 man — this is told by himself — being ordered for 
 execution, was afterwards deemed so far an object of 
 mercy that the emperor sent word only to cut his feet 
 off ! But it was too late ; the head was gone. The 
 absurd despot then made a rule that no one was to be 
 executed at once, nor any sentence of death con- 
 sidered final till night. Some of his nobles who were 
 so imprudent as to allude to an overnight debauch, 
 were scourged to death. Terry says of justice, as he 
 saw it administered, "The trials are conducted quickly, 
 and the sentences speedily executed ; culprits being 
 hanged, beheaded, impaled, torn by dogs, destroyed by 
 elephants, bitten by serpents or other devices ... in 
 the public market-place." A young man of rank, 
 whose language was thought disrespectful, had half 
 his head and face skinned, and was led round the 
 camp in that condition. He " ordered that the offi- 
 cers of government should not forcibly take possession 
 of the lands of the subjects, or cultivate them for 
 their own benefit." But travellers found an anarchy 
 prevailing in which the subjects could only hold as 
 much as they could protect by open resistance to 
 authority. Roe reports, " since everything has be- 
 come vested in the king, no person takes care of any- 
 thing, so that in every place the spoil and devastation 
 of war appear." There is no reason for supposing 
 that the administration improved after Roe's de- 
 parture. 
 
 Sir H. Elliot gives a list of these ordinances with 
 commentaries, showing that they were all puerile and 
 mostly without practical enforcement. An unpre-
 
 102 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 
 
 jadiced observer, however, "will add, that they gene- 
 rally show good intentions. 
 
 In the sixteenth year of the reign Jahangir suffered 
 from a terrible attack of asthma, the disorder of which 
 he subsequently died. On the present occasion he 
 tried to alleviate the distress of his chest by being 
 constantly drunk, but Nurjahan, as he informs us, 
 took him in hand. " Her sense and her experience 
 exceeded that of the j)hysicians, and in kindness and 
 devotion she exerted herself to reduce the amount of 
 my potations and to supply me with suitable reme- 
 dies. . . . My hope is, that the Great Physician will 
 grant me a complete cure." These are the tones of a 
 really amiable man ; and amidst all our blame, it is 
 not possible to refuse sympathy to an absolute sove- 
 reisjn who takes us thus into his confidence. " When 
 the news of my illness reached Parwez, that dutiful 
 son hastened to see me. ... I took his hand, drew 
 him to my side, and pressed him affectionately to my 
 bosom. . . . May his life and prosperity be pro- 
 lons^ed ! " 
 
 Parwez was more fortunate and better conducted 
 than Khusru, the eldest, who, after repeated attempts 
 on his father's life and power, had now been blinded 
 and given into the charge of his third brother, Shah- 
 jahan. About the end of the sixteenth year came 
 tidinscs that he had died of cholic in the Deccan. His 
 body was sent to Allahabad, where his tomb is still to 
 be seen in a fine garden near the railway station of the 
 E. I. R. The monument is a handsome building, and 
 the walls are covered with the remains of very pretty 
 paintings. The epitaph is a fair specimen of Persian 
 tomb-poetry. The name of the author is not given. It
 
 THE TUUKS IN INDIA. 103 
 
 may have been by Jabangir himself; it must, at least, 
 have had his approval. It is to the following pur- 
 port : — 
 
 " Ah me ! that in high heaven's award caprice should conquer right, 
 'Twas even so that came the woe when justice took to flight; 
 When life beyond the bounds of bliss her canvass house unfurled, 
 Because corruption undermined the pillars of the world. 
 The world has felt heaven's terrors, for where'er the flames have spread, 
 The very ashes out of sight are altogether sped. 
 Autumn, we know is coming, when the fullest bloom is seen, 
 Yet wisdom he forswore to be the Bulbul of the green. 
 But what aTails the verdure when the thorn of death at last 
 Its hundred steel points through the folds of silken robes hath cast ? 
 Or how shall I the truth deny with lips that sighing burns, 
 While the globe rolls her freight of souls — the burden that returns ? 
 'The flower that sprang, the bird that sang, have died among the thorns, 
 For whom the earth laments below, the heaven above them mourns.' " 
 
 The unhappy mother of an ill-fated son had been 
 buried in the same garden fifteen years before. There 
 is no ground for doubting that Jahangir's sorrows in 
 both cases were severe. 
 
 Among some curious anecdotes preserved by an 
 anonymous but contemporary writer, from whom 
 Elliot made extracts, it appeared that after Khusru 
 had been blinded, Jahangir sent for him to Agra, and 
 was so moved by his penitence and his sufferings that 
 he took measures to have the eyes treated, which 
 succeeded in partly restoring the use of one of them. 
 The physician was honoured and rewarded. 
 
 About this time a formidable opposition arose, 
 headed by the celebrated Path an General, Mahabat 
 Khan. The influence of the Empress Nurjahan and 
 her brother amounted to a monopoly of the whole 
 administration ; and Mahabat Khan, though originally 
 brought forward by them, was unable to submit to 
 the eclipse into which their predominance threw him.
 
 104 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 
 
 He first attempted remonstrances ; but, as might 
 have been expected, they were of little avail against 
 the increasing influence of private life. The result is 
 matter of history. The emperor was seized ; and 
 though treated with great respect, was deprived of 
 the two things he most esteemed — his wine and his 
 wife. 
 
 How the heroic woman endeavoured, at the risk 
 of a violent death, to rescue her husband ; how she 
 then shared his captivity, and finally broke his bonds, 
 Elphinstone has told in the most interesting manner. 
 Mahabat went off to join Shahjahan in the Deccan, 
 where that prince was residing in disgrace. Prince 
 Parwez died in 1628, and Shahjahan became un- 
 doubted heir. The brief remainder of Jahangir's life 
 was passed in peace, the hot months among the 
 scenery of Cashmere, and in the company of his loved 
 companion and consort ; the winter at Lahore. 
 
 On the 11th March, 1627, Jahangir celebrated the 
 twenty-second new year's day of his reign in camp 
 on the banks of the Chenab, returning towards Cash- 
 mere. But the festival was clouded, the sick eye of the 
 jaded monarch took no more delight in gold, and 
 gems, and brocade ; his tired ear loved no more the 
 voice of singing men and singing women. Opium 
 ceased to soothe, or wine to charm. He hurried on- 
 wards, hoping for restoration from the air of the 
 happy valley. But it was too late. The mountains 
 had lost their power for his exhausted constitution ; 
 his health only grew worse daily. 
 
 He had now only two sons left — Shahjahan, who 
 was far away, near Poena ; and the beautiful Shah- 
 rydr, wlio had married the empress's daughter by her
 
 THE TURKS III INDIA. 105 
 
 former husband. At the approach of winter the 
 emperor and empress returned to the plains, intending 
 to pass the cold season at Lahore. On reaching 
 Bairamkila, Jahangir ordered an antelope-drive, and 
 stationed himself with his gun at the foot of a steep 
 hill-side. While he stood here waiting for the herd 
 to pass, a beater approaching too near the edge of the 
 cliff lost his footing, and fell over the precipice, being 
 shattered and slain almost at the emperor's feet. The 
 shock was too much for Jahangir' s enfeebled nerves. 
 Hurrying to camp, he sent for the poor man's mother, 
 and attempted to console her and himself by a gift of 
 money : '* but his mind found no rest. The ghastly 
 face of the deceased was for ever before him;" and 
 he was haunted by the notion that the whole accident 
 had been a vision, in which Azrael had taken the 
 form of the dead man. Prom that hour the emperor's 
 health declined apace. He pushed on to Raj or. On 
 the road he called for wine, but put it from him in 
 disgust before it had been tasted. Next morning he 
 died (28th October, 1627), in his fifty-ninth year. 
 The body was sent to Lahore, where it was buried in 
 the mausoleum which still exists in the garden of 
 Shahdara. This garden had belonged to Nurjahan. 
 She retired from public life at her husband's death, 
 and wore the white weeds of a Mughal widow for 
 nineteen years. She died a.d. 164i6, and was buried 
 by the side of her husband.* 
 
 It is easy to see the faults of this man, half Turk, 
 half Hindu, indulged and ill-educated in youth, un- 
 contradicted and un counselled in manhood, a wine 
 
 * " Blochmann," "Calcutta Review," and Motamad Khan's "Ikbalnama."
 
 106 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 
 
 bibber like Eabar, without Babar's manly energy ; a 
 sceptic like Akbar, without the earnest love of truth 
 and right which inspired Akbar's scepticism. But he 
 is a creature of flesh and blood, not a mere lay-figure 
 in royal robes. His vices are more natural than the 
 virtues attributed to others. His life and death are 
 essentially human, and his " droppings of warm 
 tears " are heard across the gulf of centuries, mentem 
 mortalia tangunt. 
 
 FiEST Note. — In the Agra Fort are two curious inscriptions commemorative 
 of the pardon of Jahangir, and his recognition as heir to the throne at the end of 
 his father's life. One is in a small guard-room in the " Delhi Gate." The fol- 
 lowing is tlie purport : — 
 
 " When the Lord of the World took his seat it rose so high, 
 That the carpet under its feet was the web of the sky, 
 And the ancient Heavens in ecstasy proclaim : 
 ' For ever endure his power aud fame ! ' " 
 
 The chronogram gives the date A.H. 1014 (a.d. 1606). 
 
 The other inscription is one of those beautifully carved upon the b'.ack stone 
 seat upon the terrace of the Dirtau-i-Khaj : — 
 
 " When Salim, the heir of the Seal and Throne, 
 Gave laws from this sovereign height. 
 His name as ' Lord of the World ' was known, 
 And his fame as ' Keligion's Light.' " 
 
 The line above, which belongs to another set of verses, however, bears the 
 date 1011 (three years before Akbar's death), with the name of Salim. 
 
 Second Note. — In Jahangir's reign, architecture became still more Hindu 
 than even under Akbar. The finest specimens are described in Fergussou's 
 " Indian Architecture " ; they are as follows : — 
 
 1. The Tomb of Akbar at Siiiandra. 
 
 2. The Temple of Gobiud Debi at Brindaban, near Muttra. 
 
 3. The Tomb of Itmad-ud-DauIa at Agra. 
 
 4. Jahangir's Tomb at Lahore. 
 
 Of the first, some mention has been made in this chapter. Padre Manrique, an 
 Augustin monk, who saw it in 1640, mentions that the portico was flagged out 
 " with white and glistening marble ;" and of the same opens " a wide and spacious 
 road by which one reaches a great rectangular terrace of beautifully-wrought
 
 THE TUEKS IN INDIA. 107 
 
 stone-work rising from the ground to a height of eight or nine palms, from 
 whose centre rises a moderate circular tower with a sumptuous vault for its 
 covering and roof." The corridors, on either side, he adds, were covered with 
 four cloisters arranged in apartments for the use of members of the royal family 
 ■when they come to visit the monument, or take their pleasure in the gardens. 
 Of the " portico," he says, that it was covered from ground to keystone with 
 various pictures, supporting a portrait of the Virgin Mary, " whom the Mussal- 
 mans honour, though not in her true glory, as the mother of God." 
 
 The second was built by Eaja Mau Sinh, Jahangir's kinsman, and has been 
 admirably restored by the present Government, at the instance and through the 
 instrumentality of the distinguished Hindi scholar, Mr. F. S. Grouse, M.A. 
 
 The third is one of the must lovely of the monuments of Agra, and stands in 
 a pretty and well-kept garden on the left bank of the Jumna. In it are the 
 tombs of Nurjahan's father, Mirza Ghaias-ud-Din, and his wife, who died towards 
 the end of the reign, Jahangir and Nuijalian visited him on his death-bed, and 
 the empress asking, " Father, do you not recognise his Majesty ? " The old man 
 answered with a couplet to the following effect : — 
 
 " Even if a mother-blind one happened to be present now, 
 He, be sure, would know and bless him, for the glory of his brow." 
 
 The fourth, the Shahdara Mausoleum at Lahore, consists of a rectangular 
 basement, with four minars crowned with graceful cupolas of white marble ; but 
 having been used by the Sikhs as a quarry for the materials of their " Godden 
 Temple " at Amritsir, it is not easy to make out its original proportions. On 
 the cenotaph is a Persian inscription which has been thus translated : — 
 
 " The illustrious resting place of his Majesty, the Asylum of Mercy, Nurud- 
 din Jahangir Badshah, A.H. 1037." A chronogram follows.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE COURT or SHAHJAHAN. 
 
 If we see in the reis:!! of Akbar the consolidation of 
 the Turkish power in Hindustan, and in that of his 
 son a kind of continuation of the process under less 
 earnest and dignified conditions, we must contemplate 
 Shahjahan's court as a picture of the outward and 
 visible signs of that empire's equipoise and prime. 
 It is here, if anywhere, that we must look for the 
 pomp and grandeur which fired the youthful imagi- 
 nation of Milton, and gave rise in Europe generally 
 to the prestige of " The Great Mogul." And we 
 shall not look in vain. 
 
 The Abbe do Goyon, making a precis of the ac- 
 counts of travellers of that day, declared that the 
 treasury of Shahjahan contained property of the value 
 of £180,000,000 sterling ; and that the emperor had 
 been seen to receive on one feast-day presents to the 
 value of 30,000,000 of livres. The regular annual 
 revenue was estimated at 782,000,000 (Erench money), 
 and the expenses were in proportion.* The body- 
 
 • See " Thomas' Revenue Eesources of the Mughal Empire," p. 32, for a 
 similar estimate (£27,000,000) /ro?» land alone!
 
 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 109 
 
 guard was said to consist of twelve thousand cavalry, 
 besides six hundred exempts— cavaliers of family who 
 were waiting for commissions, and who served as 
 cadets about the royal person. Two thousand ladies 
 are reported to have peopled the seraglio. Ice was 
 sent down from the Himalayas daily. All sorts of 
 rare and choice food were sought for everywhere to be 
 served at table. Progresses of the emperor and his 
 household devour the land at every change of season ; 
 the " abundance visible in the palace astonishes and 
 appears almost incredible." Tavernier — himself a 
 jeweller — valued the peacock throne at an amount 
 equal to nearly six and a-half millions sterling of our 
 modern money. 
 
 An European traveller of those days entering the 
 main gate of the palace would be conducted up a long 
 street, bordered on either side by splendid shops, dis- 
 playing gold and silver ornaments, mirrors, embroi- 
 deries, brocades, all the luxuries most dear to the 
 gorgeous Oriental taste. In the distance the guns were 
 slowly saluting the rising of the monarch, and the 
 barbaric band of the Naubat Khdna was discoursinsr 
 music which, when heard at a distance by accustomed 
 ears, was found to have in it " something majestical." * 
 On entering the great square, he saw on three sides 
 cloisters, in which sat a crowd of spectators sheltered 
 from sun and wind. In the place itself elephants and 
 fighting animals were being led across a long parade. 
 Gallant little troops of horse, magnificently equipped 
 and caparisoned, pranced behind them. In the back 
 ground stood many of the young exempts, ready to 
 attend muster or exhibit feats of arms. 
 
 * Bernier.
 
 110 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 
 
 On the fourth side was a long one-storied 
 pavilion, of which three faces were arcades, and the 
 fourth formed by the wall of tlie palace. Here, at a 
 height of about ten feet, was an alcove twenty feet in 
 breadth, veiled by brocaded curtains. The pillars of 
 the hall are hung with tapestries of purple and gold, 
 and the roof hidden by rich canopies ; a Shamidna 
 canopy of flowered tissue stands on silver poles in 
 front. The cloisters where the people sit are similarly 
 draped ; a balustrade fences off those who are not en- 
 titled to the ^/i^re'<?, and these unprivileged spectators are 
 pushed, cudgelled and pummelled, without mercy, by 
 the mace-bearers and messengers who throng the hall. 
 Within the rail stand the nobles, the ambassadors, 
 the high officials of the empire ; the premier, the 
 treasurer, the chief eunuch, the general of the 
 elephants, the controller of the wardrobe, all await- 
 ing the appearance of the sovereign with downcast 
 eyes, and hands crossed upon their breasts. Behind 
 gratings in the wall are audible the soft clashing of 
 bracelets and the prattle of ladies' tongues. ^ 
 
 The stir increases, the square fills with excited 
 animals and men, the musicians on the Nmihat Khdna 
 redouble their harmonious discords. At a sudden 
 signal all comes to an abrupt stop ; the brocaded cur- 
 tains open, the sovereign sun of this earthly firma- 
 ment has appeared. The emperor is seated on the 
 famous " peacock throne," and dressed in a robe of 
 white satin, embroidered with gold thread. His head- 
 dress is of cloth-of-gold, with an aigrette of large 
 diamonds, surmounting a topaz of unique size and 
 value. Kopes of enormous pearls seem to weigh 
 down his neck. His throne, raised on pillars of solid
 
 THE TUEKS IN INDIA. Ill 
 
 gold, is blazing with rubies, and emeralds, and dia- 
 monds. Two peacocks, all of jewels, the work of 
 Austin de Bordeaux, adorn this sumptuous seat. On 
 stools, at the foot, are the princes of tlie blood — one 
 gay and insolent, looking contemptuously upon the 
 scene and its occupants ; another with eyes bent upon 
 the ground, and telling his beads, like a priest. 
 Eunuchs stand behind, waving fans or driving off the 
 flies with long brushes of feather. All present bow 
 their heads. Shabjahan, on his succession, abolished 
 the kissing of the ground, except before God. 
 
 And now the music begins again, and again the 
 great ordnance is discharged ; and amidst this din 
 and racket, this pomp and circumstance, the emperor 
 transacts his business in the public manner traditional 
 in the East, where the ruler has ever been the man 
 who sat in the gate to do justice. Any person, however 
 humble his lot in life, however remote his place in the 
 assembly, had only to hold up his hand wdth a peti- 
 tion in it. As it catches the emperor's eye the peti- 
 •iioner is sent for ; and after the adversary has been 
 duly summoned, the case is gone into by the monarch 
 in person. Three times a week a still more formal 
 tribunal sits ; "and thus," notes Bernier, " these kings, 
 however barbarous esteemed by us, do yet constantly 
 remember that they owe justice to their subjects." 
 
 Such was a levee of Shahjahan, the fifth in descent 
 from the great conqueror Babar, who founded that 
 empire, of w^hich the shadow at least, endured to days 
 within the memory of most adults now living. It is 
 evident, from the manner in which the scene is de- 
 scribed by Europeans, that it produced an impression 
 even when compared with the splendid etiquette of
 
 112 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 
 
 the grand monorque. But one element was wanting. 
 Those lovely adventuresses and witty marquises that 
 gave such a charm to the court ceremonies of the 
 young Louis were absent at that of Shahjahan. 
 Ladies, though they might be guessed at behind the 
 lattices, were never visible at an Indian court cere- 
 monial. We shall, however, see that they appeared 
 on less public occasions. Indeed it is not to be ex- 
 pected that female influence, hidden though it may have 
 been, was not felt. Had this been so, the court of 
 Shahjahan would indeed have presented an exception 
 to the general character of courts, whether Oriental 
 or European. Shahjahan was in truth always under 
 the influence of women, first of his wife and then of 
 his eldest daughter. 
 
 The Emperor Shahjahan, originally called Sultan 
 Khurram, was the third son of Jahangir, his mother 
 being Jagat Gosayini, better known as Jodh Bai, the 
 daughter of Udai Sinli, "the fat" Kaja of Marwar. 
 He was born a.d. 1592, the thirty-sixth year of the 
 reign of the Emperor Akbar, his illustrious grand- 
 father. Not only was his mother a Hindu, but both 
 his grandmothers were so likewise. As the child 
 grew he became the favourite of his grandfather, and 
 was present at his bedside during his last illness. The 
 prince was then fourteen (by lunar computation). 
 His misguided brother Khusru fled northward, to at- 
 tempt to raise the country, and Jahangir ascended the 
 throne at Agra. In the 25th year of his age Prince 
 Khurram was sent to attempt the pacification of the 
 Deccan ; and here he succeeded in gaining the tem- 
 porary submission of Adil Shah and Malik Ambar. 
 Having left a large force there under approved lieu-
 
 THE TURKS IX INDIA. 113 
 
 tenants. Sultan Khurram waited upon his father at 
 Mandu, where he received the title of Shahjahan 
 ("lord of the world"), and was raised to the rank of 
 a Sihdydn, or commander of thirty thousand horse, 
 the highest grade in the Mughal peerage. In his 
 thirty-first year, however, he fell into disgrace ; his 
 elder hrother Parwez was declared heir-apparent, and 
 Shahjahan, as we must in future call him, went into 
 open rebellion in the same regions. Marching from 
 Mandu, he encountered his brother with an army and 
 was forced to retire to the eastward. Jahangir in his 
 memoirs, writing on this point, says : — "I directed 
 that thenceforward he should be called ' The Wretch ; * 
 and whenever the word occurs in these memoirs, it is 
 he who is meant." Eor some years the prince lived 
 an obscure life in Bengal. In his thirty-fourth year, 
 he again appeared in opposition in the Deccan, where 
 he found an ally in his old enemy, Malik Ambar, the 
 Abyssinian minister of the King of Ahmadnagar. 
 Burhanpur was obstinately besieged, and Shahjahan 
 led the stormers in person, but to no purpose, the 
 place being relieved by Sultan Parwez, and the 
 famous general, Mahabat Klian. Wandering south- 
 ward, sick in body and mind, Shahjahan wrote his 
 father a humble letter of submission : and Jahansir. 
 who, whatever his faults may have been, was indul- 
 gent and generous to his own family, pardoned him 
 on conditions which were accepted by the prince, who 
 retired to Nasik, near Bombay. For nearly two years 
 more he lingered in the Deccan, when two circum- 
 stances occurred which completely changed his pros- 
 pects. One was the rebellion of Mahabat Khan, the 
 other the death, from delirium tremens^ of Sultan 
 
 I
 
 114 THE TUBKS IN INDIA. 
 
 Parwcz. Maliabat was put to flight, as is well-known, 
 by the energy of the Empress Nurjahan, and her 
 brother ; and a contemporary historian, writing at the 
 time (viz., during the twenty-second year of the reign 
 of Jahangir), makes a notable observation: "Sultan 
 Khurram," writes Mohamad Amin, "remains in the 
 Deccan. We must wait to see what may happen to 
 him, and what course he may hereafter pursue." They 
 had not long to wait. At the end of the year the 
 emperor died in Kashmir. Great were the intrigues 
 that followed. Nurjahan had been scheming to ob- 
 tain the succession for Shahryar, the prince who had 
 married her daughter by her first husband. But her 
 astute brother, Asaf Khan, had willed otherwise; he 
 proclaimed the son of the deceased Khusru as em- 
 peror, and immediately sent off a trusty messenger 
 with his own signet ring as a token, to announce the 
 emperor's death and summon Shahjahan to the 
 capital. The runner left Kashmir as ordered, and in 
 twenty days reached Junir, in the neighbourhood of 
 Poena. Here he found Mahabat Khan in attend- 
 ance on the prince, to whom he had been reconciled 
 by common misfortune ; and to him he gave the 
 message and the ring of Asaf Khan. Shahjahan, after 
 a short mourning, set out for the north, having first 
 by letter called upon Asaf Khan to prove his fidelity 
 by putting to death the pretender, which, being done, 
 he proceeded to Agra, where he was at once univer- 
 sally recognised as emperor. These events occupied 
 the time from the 28th October, 1G27, a.d. (the day of 
 Jahangir's death) to the 6tli February of the follow- 
 ing year, when Shahjahan ascended the throne in 
 form at Agra.
 
 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 115 
 
 In the following year died his loved wife, the 
 daughter of Asaf Khan, over whom he built "the 
 Taj," a monument known all the world over for the 
 taste of its design and the sumptuousness of its decora- 
 tion. The favourite daugrhter before-mentioned sur- 
 vived both parents for many years, and when she died 
 her monument was of another sort, and, if it has 
 become famous, has become famous for very different 
 reasons. In the courtyard of the mausoleum of 
 the great Saint, Nizam-ud-Din, near Delhi, are 
 several minor tombs. One of these is described by 
 Mr. C. Stephen as " a casket-shaped monument orna- 
 mented with embossed traceries, hollow at the top, 
 and open to the sky ; the hollow is filled with earth, 
 covered with green grass .... at the end is a narrow 
 slab of marble, about six feet high, which bears an 
 inscription .... some verses of which are said to 
 have been written by the begum herself — (it) is to 
 the following effect : — ' Let nothing but the green 
 conceal my grave ! The grass is the best coverhig for 
 the tombs of the poor in spirit. The humble, the tran- 
 sitory Jahanara, disciple of the holy men of Chist, the 
 daughter of the Emperor Shahjahan.' " The date cor- 
 responds to 1682, A.D. 
 
 This is the eldest daughter of Shahjahan mentioned 
 by Bernier as "very beautiful, a great wit, passionately 
 beloved of her father." He proceeds to mention a 
 rumour regarding the nature of the emperor's passion. 
 But we have also a contemporary record in which is 
 to be found the instrument by which the cleansing of 
 the grass-grown grave of Jahanara may be instantly 
 effected. Manucci, the Italian physician of the Court, 
 thus expresses himself upon the subject : " The attach-
 
 116 THE TTTRKS IN INDIA. 
 
 ment she always liad for her father, and the profusion 
 of the avaricious Shahjahan towards his daughter, 
 caused a suspicion that crime might be blended into 
 their mutual affection. This was a popular rumour, 
 which never had any other foundation than in the 
 onalice of the courtiers." The writer proceeds to en- 
 force his opinion with several arguments ; but to all 
 who happen to have any personal knowledge of the 
 character of those who hang about regal households, 
 it is likely that no great amount of reasoning will be 
 required to show the possibility of Bernier's rumour 
 having no better foundation than Manucci* supposed. 
 It remains to be seen what were Manucci's own means 
 of knowing the truth, and what is the worth of his 
 authority. 
 
 Manucci's has l)een characterised as " the only 
 authentic narrative that has been preserved of the 
 reign of Shahjahan." It is true that there are other 
 contemporary works, both Persian and European, but 
 all are open to some objection or other. The difficulty, 
 however, is considerable ; and it arises in this way. 
 The narrative of Manucci is contained in " The History 
 of the Mughal Dynasty," by Eather Eran9ois Catrou, 
 of which an English translation was published in 
 London in 1826, the original having first appeared in 
 the beginning of the last century. 
 
 The direct authority of the reverend father is no 
 authority at all. At the same time a judicious use of 
 his work may some day prove of high importance to a 
 historian of the necessary tact and judgment. Catrou's 
 book evidently contains many interesting particulars 
 
 * This is the form of the physician's name sanctioned by Mr. Thomas. The 
 
 aptjlling of Catron is probably a French phonetic rendering.
 
 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 117 
 
 of the domestic life of the Court of Agra ; but they 
 have to he sought for like plums in a school pudding. 
 They are, indeed, imbedded iu a species of "duff," 
 which, though good enough for the demands of Europe 
 nearly two hundred years ago, has become quite uu- 
 suited to modern appetites. The problem before the 
 future historian will be to separate this from the 
 original facts concerning the Turks in India illustrative 
 of a certain period of their history. Por it has not 
 always been sufficiently borne in mind that Catrou 
 was a man without direct knowledge of his subject, 
 who dealt with his materials in a way calculated some- 
 times to excite the very gravest suspicion. The con- 
 sequences of following such a guide blindly, must be, 
 that you as necessarily make the same mistakes as a 
 Chinese tailor, who follows the old pattern to the extent 
 of sewing patches on a new garment. 
 
 The facts, so far as they can be ascertained, are these : 
 Father Catrou was the editor of the work of Signer 
 Manucci, and Manucci was a Venetian physician who 
 came to India about 1649, and resided there for the 
 long period of forty-eight years. On his return to 
 Europe he brought with him a treatise which he had. 
 composed there, partly from his own observations, and 
 partly from Persian MSS. This work was copiously 
 illustrated with portraits by the best native artists, and 
 was written in Portuguese. Palling — we are not in- 
 formed how — into the hand of an officer in the Civil 
 Service of the Prench East India Company (whose 
 name appears to have been Laudes), it was shown by 
 him to Pather Catrou, a Jesuit priest. He, finding 
 favourable mention made there of the efforts of 
 Catholic missionaries, judged that the publication of
 
 118 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 
 
 the book would serve ad majorem Dei gloi^iam. He 
 was also struck with the air of good faith and veracity 
 that lie found breathing through it. Eor the reigns 
 of Shahjahan and Aurangzeb, its authority, the fatlier 
 tells us, is such, that " a better account cannot be 
 expected." 
 
 Unfortunately, the father could not content him- 
 self with the humble office of translation, nor did the 
 state of his literary conscience require bim either to 
 indicate his additions or to get Dr. Manucci to vouch 
 for their propriety or correctness. Here are the 
 father's exact words as rendered by the English trans- 
 lator of 1826. Speaking of his author, he says : — 
 
 " I have not always rigidly followed him. I have not un- 
 frequently assumed a privilege which is not unjustifiable ... I 
 have even collected from other quarters materials in aid of the 
 brevity of the chronicle. Sometimes it is an English or French 
 writer ; but more frequently they are Portuguese or Dutch writers, 
 whom I have consulted ... I have even made no difficulty of 
 attributing the entire work to M. Manucci (or Manouchi, as he 
 spells it), and of iuscribing it with his name only, if I could be per- 
 suaded of his entire approbation of that necessary matter which I 
 have taken from other writers and engrafted upon his MS." 
 
 Manucci was then evidently alive and in Europe. 
 
 In the next paragraph, the father names the 
 authorities here referred to. The only Dutch writer 
 mentioned in the list is Jean de Laet, another com- 
 piler, who, like himself, had never been in India. 
 From such a fact, it may fairly be inferred that the 
 father would have done far better to have left his 
 author to tell his own story. The frankness of the 
 father's avowals saves us from the necessity of ques- 
 tioning his good faith ; but, it must be confessed that, 
 in the absence of any guide to the " accessory matter,"
 
 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 119 
 
 it is peculiarly difficult to know what is the exact testi- 
 mony of Manucci himself. Parther, it is apparent that 
 the paintings have disappeared, and that the " relation 
 of his own adventures," which the father tells us was 
 included in Mauucci's work, was not forthcoming 
 when the English translation appeared. The most 
 remarkable thing is that this unusual treatment was 
 practised upon an author who was alive at the time 
 of the publication (a.d. 1708) of Catron's book. 
 
 Nevertheless, such as the work is, we may well be 
 grateful for it, especially if we can, by internal or 
 other evidence, gain any clue to what is the actual 
 product of original observation on the part of one who 
 was an inmate of the imperial palace and furnished 
 w^ith peculiar opportunities of studying the domestic 
 life of the court. 
 
 Manucci came to Agra in or about 1649 a.d. He 
 is, therefore, not a direct witness as to the reigns of 
 Akbar and Jahangir ; and whatever he may report as 
 to the courts of that period is of no greater value 
 than the rest of Catrou's materials, nor would it be 
 worth while to endeavour to disentangle one from 
 another. But, giving the father's statement its due 
 value, the account of the Court of Shahjahan is appa- 
 rently the authentic testimony of an eyewitness. In 
 1649, Shahjahan had already been twenty-two years 
 on the throne. The tragedy of Amr Sinh* had passed 
 without any Hindu outbreak. The Taj Ilalial of 
 Agra was just finished, and the palaces there and at 
 New Delhi had been for some time completed. The 
 emperor's family had either died or grown up ; but 
 
 * Vide Note at the end of Chapter.
 
 120 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 
 
 no -warning had yet been given of tlie frightful dis- 
 sensions that were destined in a few years to end in. 
 the captivity of the father, and the slaughter of most 
 of the children. The emperor w^as about sixty years 
 of age, fond of pleasure, but artistic in his tastes, dig- 
 nified in his habits, and maintaining a not unsuccess- 
 ful war against the Persians. The sun of his power, 
 as a contemporary writer might have said, was slowly 
 descending in splendour, and no presage appeared in 
 the sky of the storms that were to obscure and render 
 terrible its swift decline. 
 
 The emperor had been virtually a widower twenty 
 years ; for, altliough availing himself of the Moslem 
 privilege of a plurality of wives, Shahjahan appears 
 to have been practically a monogamist. The mother 
 of his large family * — eight sons and six daughters — 
 was the famous Mumtaz-i-Mahal, in whose honour 
 the Taj was built, and whose official title was Nawab 
 'Aliya Begum. This lady was Persian by origin, the 
 daughter of Asaf Khan, prime minister in the pre- 
 ceding reign, and brother of the emperor's step- 
 mother, Nurjahan. At the date of Manucci's arrival 
 at Court, only eight of her children were living, their 
 mother having died in 1630, when Jahanara was 
 about fifteen years of age. 
 
 We learn from Manucci that the deceased em- 
 press, whom he had already learned to call by the 
 corrupt name {Taj Mahl) by which her monument 
 is now known, had a great prejudice against the 
 Christians, especially against the Portuguese. This 
 he attributed in part to the prepossessions derived by 
 
 * The " Shahjahannama " mentions one child — who died in infancy — by 
 another wife.
 
 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 121 
 
 the empress in her youth from the religious teaching 
 of her aunt, the Empress Dowager Nurjahan, but 
 partly also to the fact that the Portuguese of Hughli 
 had given shelter to two of her daughters whom the 
 Jesuits had converted to Christianity. Under such 
 influences, Shahjahan registered a vow to extermi- 
 nate Christians and to extirpate their faith from his 
 dominions. The year (a.d. 1631) having been dry, the 
 Ganges was very low, and the unfortunate Portuguese 
 at Hughli were unable to make much use of their 
 ships, either for defence or as means of escape. The 
 resources of treachery were joined by the besiegers to 
 the rigours of a strict blockade. A great portion of 
 the entrenchment was undermined and blown into 
 the air. An assault was at once delivered, in which 
 the Portuguese were worsted, with considerable car- 
 nage. The victorious leader of the imperial forces, 
 Kasim Khan, entered the town, where he destroyed 
 the fortifications and places of worship, and sent the 
 surviving inhabitants in captivity to the Court at 
 Agra. The women were made slaves ; the men were 
 circumcised or confined. Verroneo, the architect of 
 the Taj, is said to have, with diflB.culty, procured the 
 discharge of some of the priests, who were also de- 
 fended by Asaf Khan, after two had sunk under their 
 sufferings.* Thus did the fanatic vengeance of one 
 woman affect the happiness of thousands when she 
 had been in her grave twelve years. Nor did the 
 w^ork stop at this. Unmindful of the policy of his 
 liberal-minded predecessors, Shahjahan proceeded to 
 destroy " the best part of a very fair and large church 
 
 * This is confirmed by Manrique.
 
 122 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 
 
 at Agra that had been built by the favour of Jahangir, 
 and upon which stood a great steeple with a bell in it, 
 whose sound might be heard over all the town : " (so 
 Bernier, who must have had good means of informa- 
 tion on such subjects, though we may be disposed to 
 doubt his information as to what went on in the 
 private apartments of the palace). Bernier says, of 
 the treatment then experienced by Christians, that it 
 " was a misery and a desolation not to be paralleled, 
 a kind of Babylonian transmi strati on." He adds, 
 however, sufficient particulars about Bastian Gonsalvo 
 and his nest of cut-throats at Chittagong, to show how 
 naturally, if not justly, the Christian, name was dis- 
 credited in those days, and what just offence against 
 any sort of government was given by the Portuguese 
 authorities by whom such ruffians were encouraged. 
 " They are thus become," he concludes, " a prey to 
 their enemies, and fallen so low in the Indies, that I 
 know not whether they will ever recover there. 
 Whereas, formerly, before they were corrupted by 
 vice . . . they made all others tremble in these parts ; 
 for as much as then they were brave and generous 
 men, zealous for the Christian religion, considerable 
 for gallant exploits and for riches, all the Indian 
 kings seeking their friendship." Possibly, there was 
 some excuse for the attack upon them after all. 
 
 We have already seen how large a family Shah- 
 jahan had by the wife of his ;youth. This small 
 detail shows that even Manucci is not a perfectly safe 
 guide. When he arrived at court there were only six 
 or seven of these children left, whom he supposed to 
 be the offspring of various mothers. "The Mugals," 
 he says, pointing his moral from a mistake of facts,
 
 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 123 
 
 " the Mugals make no scruple of placing limits by the 
 most culpable practices to the fecundity of their 
 women. Thus the emperor's progeny was confined to 
 four princes." But the *' Badshahnama," a contem- 
 poraneous Persian chronicle, records the birth of no 
 less than fourteen of these princes and princesses, all 
 of them being the offspring of the Taj lady, and of 
 whom six at least attained maturity. 
 
 The description of the four best known of the 
 princes, those among whom the empire struggle took 
 place, and of the two surviving princesses, has been 
 given by Bernier, and repeated by Sleeman and other 
 modern writers. From Manucci we learn further 
 details which, as he was the family physician and 
 lived in the palace, are of great importance. It is 
 clear, for instance, that Dara, the eldest, endeavoured 
 to carry on that interest in the religion and manners 
 of the west, which had been so largely displayed by 
 his grandfather, and still more by Akbar. It is very 
 curious that Shahjahan, who was by birth only one- 
 fourth Mussulman should have been the most bigoted 
 of his race who had yet ruled in India, but the story 
 of the attack on Hughli seems to indicate that this 
 characteristic was due to the influence of his Persian 
 wife, whom he had so warmly loved and so magni- 
 ficently mourned. Dara had entirely emancipated 
 himself from this influence. It may be supposed that 
 this was partly the whim of an heir-apparent pleased 
 to lead a minor court in opposition to his sovereign 
 and sire. Certainly a similar attitude had been 
 adopted by Shahjahan himself in the lifetime of 
 Jahangir, and much does the English envoy of those 
 days, good Sir T. Boe, tell of the troubles that he en-
 
 124 TnE TURKS IN INDIA. 
 
 countered from the manner in which Shabjahan (the 
 crown prince of Eoe's time), backed by his father-in- 
 law, and the Empress Nurjahan endeavoured to 
 thwart the kindly feelings of the Emperor Jabangir 
 towards the Christians and their embassy. But the 
 curious thing in Dara's case is tbat he was not in 
 opposition, nor had he any female backer in the 
 family whose secret wishes were opposed to those of 
 its head. So far as our present lights go, we must 
 abandon tbe attempt to reconcile Dara's constant 
 favour at court with his equally constant kindness to 
 the Christians. Had he been in any doubt as to his 
 father's feelings, in any anxiety about the succession, 
 in any position of remote employ or honourable 
 banishment, one could readily understand his taking 
 up European ideas in order to annoy the mind of his 
 father, and thwart the designs of that father's policy. 
 But that a loved and trusted and openly recognised 
 .heir-apparent, always domesticated with his father, 
 and enjoying the strictest fondness of his eldest sister, 
 whose will was law in the household, should openly 
 maintain opinions and practices of which the emperor 
 disapproved ; this is indeed a mystery. 
 
 Eor, as to the fact, no doubt whatever can exist 
 after a perusal of this part of Catrou's work — evi- 
 dently taken from Manucci. Not only did Dara 
 patronize to the very last the Erench traveller, Bernier, 
 but he had acquired (so we are informed) all the 
 sciences, and most of all, the languages of Europe. 
 He had attracted to his service skilful gunners and 
 engineers from several European countries. His 
 cabinet council consisted of three Jesuit priests, a 
 Neapolitan named Malpica, Juzarte, a Portuguese,
 
 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 125 
 
 and, chief of all, Henri Buz6, a Pleming, who is 
 mentioned by Bernier as having enormous influence 
 over his mind. Most unfortunately, the result of all 
 this was not to produce the Christian virtues of 
 humility and gentleness, for to such a pitch of 
 arrogance and contempt for his less-cultured neigh- 
 bours did Dara proceed as to give offence in quarters 
 where to give offence was to sow the seed of almost 
 certain disaster. Of the other princes. Shah Shuja 
 was governor of the Eastern Subahs, Morad of Gujarat, 
 and Aurangzeb of the Deccan, corresponding roughly 
 to the present provinces respectively, of Bengal, 
 Bombay, and Madras. The remaining member of the 
 family, the Princess Boshanara, though less brilliant 
 thau her sister, possessed the same intriguing character 
 as her favourite brother, Aurangzeb, to whom she 
 served as a spy, and furnished him with intelligence 
 of whatever happened in the palace, whereby his 
 interests might seem likely to be affected. 
 
 To the " Badshanamas " of Kazwini and Lahori, 
 as to the " Shahjahannama " of Inayut Khan, all 
 must turn who would hope for a clear knowledge of 
 those days. Of Khafi Khan, too, it would be difficult 
 to speak too highly. All these authorities are highly 
 valued by those best competent to form an opinion. 
 Of Inayut Khan, Mr. Morley records that he had 
 talents and good qualities inherited from his father, 
 the governor of Cashmere — was witty, and of agreeable 
 manners. Of Khafi Khan, Professor Dowson speaks 
 as of a historian " of high and well-deserved repute." 
 Elphinstone and Grant Duff used his work. Sir 
 H, Elliot called his book " one of the best and most 
 impartial histories of modern India."
 
 126 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 
 
 By referring to these authorities, the notion of 
 Shahjahan being an indolent Hindu, absorbed in 
 pleasure and incapable of reigning, is soon dispelled. 
 So much has to be said here, though the present paper 
 is by no means intended to give a complete view of his 
 conduct as a public character. But the result of the 
 narratives above mentioned is undoubtedly to confirm 
 the view of Mr. Elphinstone, that the period of Shah- 
 jahan's active manhood is the zenith of the Mussulman 
 empire of India. 
 
 The best account, however, of the court life of 
 Shahjahan that has been preserved is to be found in 
 the " Itinerary " of Manrique, an Angus tinian friar, 
 who visited India in the reign of that emperor. 
 
 Manrique went to Agra, 24th December, 1640, 
 and proceeded to Lahore (where the court then was), 
 in the fourteenth year of the reign, when Shahjahan 
 was at the height of his prosperity, having just taken 
 Candahar from the Persians, and attached to himself 
 the celebrated commander and engineer, 'Ali Mardan 
 Khan. Shahjahan was at Lahore engaged in the 
 superintendence of the Bavi Canal, for the benefit 
 (as the " Badshanama " says) of "the cultivation of 
 the country through which it should pass." Asaf 
 Khan — the brother of the late emperor's widow, Nur- 
 jahan, and father of the empress, to whom the Taj 
 was raised — was prime minister, though near his end, 
 which happened lltli November, 1641 ; his nett salary 
 was equal to five hundred thousand pounds a year of 
 modern sterling; he had just finished building a house 
 at Lahore at a cost of nearly half that sum. 
 
 It was to confer with this minister that the friar 
 came to Lahore, and he records with gratitude the
 
 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 127 
 
 gracious treatment that he received. During his stay 
 he was present at the celebration of the emperor's 
 birthday, which he has amusingly described. (Shah- 
 jahan was born 6th January, 1592). 
 
 The day began with salvos of great guns from the 
 fort. Then came dances, and other spectacles, which 
 occupied great part of the short day. In the after- 
 noon the emperor visited his mother, with a great 
 train of lords and princes. Then, returning to the 
 palace, he gave a splendid collation to all the court. 
 At the end of which he repaired to a special and 
 richly furnished chamber, in the midst of which was 
 a pair of scales hanging from chains of gold, the scales 
 themselves being also of gold, encrusted with precious 
 stones of various colours. He himself was so laden 
 with jewels as to make Manrique think " more of the 
 troublesome load than of the brave adornment." 
 
 Seated in one of these scales the monarch was 
 weighed four times, once against bags of rupees, once 
 against bags of gold and gems, once against cloth of 
 gold and silver, with precious drugs and spices ; a 
 fourth and last time against dainty dishes and con- 
 fections. All was then devoted to the use of the de- 
 serving poor with a delicacy which made the friar 
 think of Matt. vi. 1-i, and wish it were equally 
 observed by Christians. 
 
 Yet so great withal was the emperor's parsimony, 
 that while spending all this money he gave nothing to 
 his courtiers in exchange for the splendid gifts they 
 brought him, excepting fruits, imitated in metal of 
 which one thousand were scarcely worth fifty rupees. 
 This, however, was part of Shahjahan's revenue 
 system.
 
 128 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 
 
 Still more curious is the following relation of a 
 bani][uet given by Asaf Khan to the emperor : — 
 
 " The banquet was given in the principal hall of the bath, * in 
 which, besides the fixtures, there were added on this occasion rich 
 carpets of silk, silver, and gold, which covered the floor, serving as 
 ground-tables, according to the native custom, as also for seats for 
 the guests ; and these coverings were useful, because in the four 
 corners of the hall were other similar tables, each of five steps, and 
 all enriched with Persian coverings of gold and silver, serving for 
 stands and dressers ; all covered with different vessels of gold in 
 Avhich the sight had full occupation, distinguishing in some the variety 
 of jewellery used, and in others,instead of it, the very fine and brilliant 
 enamelling varying the material, assimilated the colouring. This 
 superb display was accompanied bj'^ various and large perfume- vessels 
 and silver braziers of extraordinary forms placed in order all round 
 the hall, in which burnt very sweet perfumes composed of amber, 
 civet, and other blended pastiles which in their union delighted the 
 sense of smell. At the entrance of this beautiful hall the water-works 
 on one side delivered seven streams, whose silver pipes of admirable 
 make and considerable size, were adorned with thin plates of enamel, 
 which through their elevated heads discharged fine threads of scented 
 waters, which, falling in a large basin of the same material, kept it 
 always half full. Then, discharging by another part, what was 
 received was thus able to be always used for those washings of the 
 feet which in Mughal manners is one of the most essential parts of 
 ceremonial courtesy. In the middle of this was placed for the 
 occasion a ' dester chana^ f or 'table-cloth,' as we should say, of very 
 fine white tissue, in which were woven artificial flowers of gold and 
 silver. In the chief place of this table were two great and beautiful 
 cushions of cloth of gold and satin, on which were others, smaller, 
 of cloth of silver, also satin. This was all the display of the im- 
 perial table, including a want of napkins, which they do not use. 
 
 " At this, when the time came, arrived the emperor, accompanied 
 by a great train of beautiful and gallant ladies who came in front, 
 very richly dressed, in cloth of gold, blending with the rich and 
 
 * The ghusal khdna or bath-hall was the private apartment of a great 
 Indian Turk. 
 
 t Properly dastarkhwdn.
 
 THE TURKS IN INDIA.. 129 
 
 various work of coloured silk ; wearing on their necks collars of gold, 
 with ropes of pearls, and their heads dressed with silver garlands. 
 Behind this sightly feminine society came the emperor between his 
 mother-in-law and his daughter, having the one on his right hand 
 and the other on his left. Behind followed, presently, the Crown 
 Prince Sultan Dara Sheko, ha\^ng on his right hand his grandfather 
 Asaf Khan. 
 
 " Whilst this company was arriving, they presently began to play 
 in the neighbouring rooms many and various instruments until the 
 emperor w^as seated in the middle of the cushions that I have men- 
 tioned, ha^-ing at his shoulders two venerable matrons, who stood 
 with splendid fans to drive off the troublesome flif s — when suddenly 
 the hosts and their children fell on their knees before his majesty, 
 who, laying his hand upon his mother-in-law bidding her rise, and 
 calling her mother, seated her on his right hand — a favour which 
 both her husband and her sons so highly appreciated, that they 
 presently showed their estimation of the gracious act by the most 
 profound reverences to the emperor — who, to- enhance it the more 
 — made them also sit at the table, which they did not do till the 
 third command, when they took their seats at its extremity ; the 
 grandsire placing the princess between. AVhen all these ceremonies 
 were accomplished and everyone was seated in the above order, 
 there were presently heard most sweet voices singing of the victories 
 which his majesty had gained over his enemies. While this concert, 
 which was accompanied by instrumental music, was proceeding, the 
 arrangements for hand-washing made their appearance in the fol- 
 lowing order: — First entered four lovely girls related to Asaf 
 Khan, and daughters of great lords, who in complexion and bril- 
 liancy of hair might compare with the fairest daughters of the frigid 
 north, and not inferior in grace, elegance and beauty .... These 
 four beauties bore the instruments pertaining to his majesty's 
 hand-washing ; to whom approaching after the royal ceremonies, 
 one held before her a cloth of white satin, which he took up in his 
 hands, and another held up a rich vessel of gold, in which were 
 inlaid valuable jewels. These vessels are of quite superior invention 
 to ours, moreover, their being deep in the middle and being covered 
 with a grating allows the dirty water to disappear. This basin 
 being placed before him, another comes with an ewer of the same 
 material and value containing water with which he washed his 
 bauds, receiving fi-om the last of these ladies the towel on which to 
 
 K
 
 130 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 
 
 wipe them. When this was finished appeared twelve others, who, 
 although of lower rank than the former, might appear with con- 
 fidence in any presence. These having presented to the princes, 
 though with less ceremony, the lavatory for their hands, took their 
 departure, on which, by another door, the dinner was brought in, 
 with a loud sound of wind instruments, more confused and harsh 
 than our own brass bands. This banquet was served in rich dishes 
 of gold, borne by eunuchs gallantly attired in the Hindustani style, 
 with trousers of variegated silks and snow-white cloaks, at the same 
 time displaying the precious unguents with which they were per- 
 fumed, and also concealing their abject and darksome skins. Of 
 these the four chief ones placed themselves near his majesty, doing 
 nothing but handing up the courses which the other eunuchs brought 
 to two beautiful girls who were on their knees at the emperor's 
 side. These bring forward the food alternately, and in similar order 
 serve the drink and take away the dishes which are not used there. 
 .... At the end of the conversation, the banquet having lasted 
 four hours .... entered twelve dancing women, who performed 
 in a manner unsuited to Christian society ; after which appeared in 
 the midst three beautiful young ladies, in gay and costly garments, 
 bearing in their hands three large and splendid dishes of gold, filled 
 with precious diamonds, pearls, rubies, and other valuable gems." 
 
 The narrative concludes with reflections on Shah- 
 jahan's passion for riches and jewellery, and an ex- 
 pression of the author's satisfaction at seeing such 
 splendid and unusual things. 
 
 Leaving history to the historians, let us now take 
 a short view of the artistic doings of the time. In 
 the eighth year the celeh rated peacock throne was 
 constructed at a cost (it is said) of one hundred lahhs 
 of rupees, and set up in the palace of Agra.* In the 
 thirteenth the Havi was made into a canal to irrigate 
 the culturable land from the foot of the hills as far as 
 Lahore, under the direction of a Persian refugee, the 
 celebrated Ali Mardan Khan. About the same time 
 
 * Vide Note at the end of Chapter.
 
 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 131 
 
 were be2:an the works at New Delhi — still known to 
 the people by the name of Shahjahau>abdd. After 
 nearly ten years of work the fort and palace there 
 were completed, in a.u. 1658. About the same time 
 another canal was opened, from Khinyrabad to Delhi, 
 answering very nearly to the modern Western Jumna 
 Canal, and still under that name, a work of signal 
 usefulness. In the thirty-first year of the reign died 
 Ali Mardan Khan, the Amir-ul-Amra and architect, 
 to whose skill the emperor had been so much indebted. 
 His grief is recorded by a contemporary writer. 
 
 Shortly after his own health became seriously 
 affected, and the conspiracy that had been long 
 prepared by Aurangzeb and his sister, the Princess 
 Hoshanara Begam, broke out, ending, as we all 
 know, in the success of the conspirators, and the 
 death of all who opposed them openly. Manucci's 
 description of the fall of Shahjahan is very graphic, 
 and has all the air of being done from direct observa- 
 tion. "We only note the portion directly connected 
 with the palace at Agra. 
 
 Shahjahan, he says, after the defeat of Samoghar 
 had opened the way to the capital, perceived from 
 the loftiest tower of his palace that his citadel was 
 invested. Dara had fled northwards, but the sight of 
 immediate danger awoke in the old warrior a feeling 
 of indignation, and of the military energy that he had 
 displayed in earlier days. He opened fire upon his 
 rebellious sons, but eventually admitted a deputation 
 from them on finding that their artillery was hope- 
 lessly stronger than his own. The palace was accord- 
 ingly entered by Sultan Mohamad, the eldest son of 
 Aurangzeb, at the head of a considerable troop, and a
 
 132 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 
 
 scene of dreadful confusion and bloodshed followed — 
 soldiers, women, slaves, eunuclis, all that surrounded 
 the person of the sovereign, were overpowered and 
 put to the sword. After a hypocritical address from 
 his grandson, the emperor was deposed, and made a 
 close prisoner. He lived in captivity for seven years 
 more, tended by Jabauara, and then expired peace- 
 fully in tbe beautiful palace that he had built, on the 
 22nd June, 1666, in the seventy-fifth (solar) year of 
 his age. 
 
 The dying eyes of the detlironed monarch may 
 have dwelt on the lovely monument that he had 
 erected to tbe wife of his youth, and the completion 
 of which is recorded on the gateway to have taken 
 place in 1648, about a year before the date of 
 Manucci's arrival in India. Tbis, which is (as we 
 shall presently see) but one out of numerous monu- 
 ments of the taste and sumptuousness of this em- 
 peror, does not satisfy some modern tastes. They 
 find something meretricious in tbe towers and domes 
 and glacier-gleaming sides of a building where so many 
 pilgrims have been wont to bow. It is, according to 
 such critics, the appropriate monument of a mistress 
 rather than the tomb of a wife. Of such matters, 
 each of us must form our own judgment. Such as 
 the Tcij may be, we have only here to note that the 
 cold-blooded son thought it a fit resting-place for his 
 discrowned father, whom he laid \><' the side of his 
 other parent, placing over the grave a cenotaph upon 
 tbe upper storey, in which the last effort of Mughal 
 art is displayed in pietra dura. 
 
 Tbe Princess Jabanara, or " Begam Sahiba,'' as 
 she was commonly called, sbared, as we have seen.
 
 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 133 
 
 the captivity of the father who, in his prosperity, had 
 shewn her such complete indulgence. Manucci has 
 fallen into a most curious mistake as to the meaning 
 of this word Begam^ which he declares to mean " void 
 of care." It is in reality no more than a Persian 
 feminine from beg, the well-known Turkish word for 
 ''chief" or "lord," by which Mughals are still known 
 in India. In the same way, from the title Khan, 
 appropriate to Pathans in India, has been formed the 
 feminine Khcinam. 
 
 Of the space and population of the Agra palace, so 
 far as the ladies' apartments are concerned, Catrou 
 gives an exaggerated account, partly derived from 
 de Laet who, as already observed, had never been 
 in India. The vast courts, containing two thou- 
 sand ladies (which Father Catrou has adopted from 
 Manucci), consist in fact of one quadrangle 170 feet 
 by 235 feet (Pergusson), of which only three sides 
 could have been occupied by the ladies, and which 
 contain besides several halls and baths. It is true 
 that there are two storeys ; but even so, it is plain 
 that such a space (585 square feet in all) could not 
 possibly have held 2000 pampered women. Unfor- 
 tunately, Catrou has for once indicated the portions of 
 his description for which Manucci is answerable, and 
 there is no doubt that the Venetian doctor really did 
 give this extravagant number as that of the fair occu- 
 pants of the Zandna. But as his account of this part 
 of the palace is prefaced by the statement that nt re- 
 lates to a mystery only known to eunuchs, and as 
 moreover, it teems with other exaggerations, we may 
 be permitted to follow the evidence of our own senses, 
 which vShows us that the 2000 ladies could have had no
 
 13 i THE TURKS IN INDIA. 
 
 more real existence than the runninsr streams, shadowy 
 groves, and other romantic wonders which the Vene- 
 tian physician believed this part of the palace to con- 
 tain. These apartments are still extant, in as good 
 preservation, substantially, as when the emperor died 
 there ; and we are thus in a position to see what truth 
 there is under the gorgeous fables of Catrou. 
 
 The courtyard in question has long been known 
 locally as the " Atzguri Bagh,^^ or grape garden. It 
 is formed by the apartments facing the river, where 
 the emperor lived and died, and the three sides already 
 mentioned, which contain in all seventeen rooms 
 on the ground floor, and fifteen on the first floor, be- 
 sides arcaded halls, bath-rooms, and small closets. 
 Each of the chambers may average 15 feet by 10 feet, 
 and any one can judge how many ladies could have 
 been stowed away in thirty-two of such. 
 
 The precise set of apartments occupied by Jahan- 
 ara are not designated by tradition, but they may 
 possibly have been those in the western side, exactly 
 facing the Khcts 3Iahal, or withdrawing room of the 
 emperor. Here are to be found hamnidms, or Turkish 
 baths, marble floors, glazed tiles, and the remains of 
 richly-groined vaults. The intervening spaces of the 
 quadrangle are filled with flower beds, divided by 
 sculptured stone borderings ; and in front of the with- 
 drawing room is a large cistern containing some foun- 
 tain pipes still capable of sending up small Jets (Teau. 
 
 Bernier has preserved some scandalous stories of 
 Jahanara's love of pleasure and intrigue, and of the 
 fatal consequences wdiich sometimes followed the dis- 
 covery of a young male visitor in her apartments. 
 There is in particular a horrible narrative of a lover
 
 THE TUEKS IN INDIA. 135 
 
 whom the princess concealed in a bath at her father's 
 approach ; but the emperor having knowledge of the 
 affair, ordered the hypocaust to be heated, so that the 
 rash intruder was boiled to death. These tales may 
 not be true, but they may serve to show that Jahanara 
 was not more circumspect in her conduct than ladies 
 in her situation are wont to be. But over all these 
 details hangs the veil of Oriental seclusion, deeply 
 incrusted with the dust of centuries. Let us leave 
 idle guessing at what it conceals, and pass on. 
 
 "When the emperor was dead, Jahanara was easily 
 persuaded to leave the Agra palace. Tavernier de- 
 scribes having seen her departure.* She went to 
 Delhi, and there passed sixteen years in the company 
 of her more politic sister, Koshanara, the worshipper 
 of the rising sun. In about a.d. 1682 she died, pro- 
 bably in her sixty-sixth year, and was buried in the 
 tomb described in the earlier portion of this paper 
 under the touching epitaph that has appealed to so 
 many hearts since then. 
 
 Of her loved brother the fate was both swifter and 
 more strikingly tragical. Some writers of the period 
 have said that when his father's illness took place, 
 Dara caused him to be arrested and assumed the 
 sovereign power; but Catrou declares that Manucci 
 denied this, and stated on the authority of his own 
 observation that Dara always behaved to Shahjahan 
 with the respect to which he was entitled during the 
 dark days preceding the siege. When his brothers 
 approached Agra, Dara marched out of the gates for 
 the last time, at the head of 100,000 men, with a 
 
 * Vide Note in "Fin."
 
 136 THE TUUKS IN INDIA. 
 
 superb artillery manned by Europeans. But bis 
 fortune — probably bis faults, and consequent unpopu- 
 larity overvveigbed bis advantages — be was routed, 
 and fled. After a number of distressing wanderings 
 be was at lengtb delivered over to bis implacable 
 brotber. Kbafi Kban, tliougb writing wben Aurangzeb 
 w^as absolute lord of tbe empire, does not scruple to 
 record tbe attack made by tbe citizens of Delbi on 
 Jiwan Kban, tbe betrayer of tbe gallant victim — a 
 disturbance wbicb, says tbe bistorian, bordered on 
 rebellion. In September 1659, a fatwa was pronounced, 
 finding Dara guilty of beresy, and be was soon after 
 decapitated in prison. He bad previously begged for 
 an interview witb Fatber Buze, tbe Flemisb priest 
 mentioned before; and bis last words were "Mabommad 
 causes my deatb, but tbe son of Mary is my salvation." 
 Catrou gives tbis speecb in Persian, and may possibly 
 liave bad it from Buze, as tbere is no reason for 
 supposing tbat be bimself understood tbat language ; 
 ror are tbe words corrc^ctly given. 
 
 Sucb w^as tbe end of tbe builder of tbe Taj, and of 
 bis favourite cbildren by the wife of wdiom tbe Taj is 
 tbe monument. It is plain tbat- Sbabjaban's fall 
 was tbe consequence of bis peculiarities of character, 
 as indeed usually happens in buman affairs. Tbere is 
 no reason to doubt tbat in bis youtb be bad been an 
 able and warlike administrator, as was but natural in 
 a prince brought up in tbe scbool of Akbar and of 
 tbe stout Pathan IVlababat Khan, wbom Colonel Tod, 
 for no imaginable reason, represents to bave been a 
 Bajput.* As years advanced, age and a long tenure of 
 
 • He was a native of Cabul, originally named Zamanat Khan. — T^ide 
 " Tuzak-i-Jaljangcri," p. 10.
 
 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 137 
 
 power developed, first, a love of splendour, pleasure, 
 and art ; and, ultimately, an indolence, which led him 
 to leave all the duties of empire in the hands of Dara. 
 But the whole of the European authorities of the day 
 support the view of Catrou that the emperor never 
 neglected the duties of justice, as understood by 
 Oriental despots, nor the claims of clemency which 
 usually prevailed with the princes of his house. Even 
 in our own days, and in a part of the East so mucli 
 exposed to European inflaence as the Ottoman Empire, 
 we see how different are the ideas of Government 
 amongst Orientals from those entertained in Clu'istian 
 countries ; and it would be absurd to look for modern 
 European ideas in a Turkish ruler of India in the 
 seventeenth century. But it was the opinion of Mr. 
 Elpliinstone — surely no inexperienced observer or 
 incompetent judge — that India under Shahjahan 
 enjoyed as good government and as mucli prosperity 
 as did the Roman Empire in the time of the Em- 
 peror Severus. 
 
 Some reference has already been made to the 
 fondness of Shahjahan for gigantic public works. 
 These were of three kinds. There were palaces and 
 mausolea devoted to the glory of the imperial family ; 
 there were places of public worship ; and, lastly, 
 works calculated for the sole benefit of the people. 
 It may safely be said that as much care was devoted 
 to one class as to another; and on each and all has 
 been impressed the stamp of a taste at once refined 
 and sumptuous. The following is a list of the prin- 
 cipal works of each class constructed under the orders 
 of Shahjahan. 
 
 1. Tombs and Palaces. — Eirst in order of celebrity
 
 138 TKE TURKS IN INDIA. 
 
 is the famous Taj 3Iahal, or mausoleum of the 
 Empress Alya Begam, who died in the end of 
 A.D. 1629 at Barhanpur, in the Deccan. Like our own 
 Edward I., Shahjahan carried the body of his consort 
 to the metropolis, where it lay, in a spot still marked 
 out in a corner of the garden, until the completion 
 of the sepulchre. This magnificent tomb has been 
 described so often that little remains to be said 
 concerning it. Judged by the rules of European 
 architecture, the outlines may be condemned as stiff, 
 and the whole silhouette as cutting the sky with no 
 boldness. But, seen through the gateway, framed 
 in the farther arch, with the fronting avenue of 
 Italian cypresses, and the row of fountains waving 
 in the breeze their long and pliant plumes, the 
 glistening walls and softly-curving dome, have a 
 charm that few can resist. The colouring, the style, 
 the whole delicious harmony that goes to make up 
 the notion of " taste," give the Taj a distinction 
 which always fascinates, but which can, perhaps, only 
 be completely understood by comparing it with similar 
 buildings constructed just before or shortly after. Of 
 the other works of this class, we come next to the 
 marble portions of the Agra palace already mentioned. 
 Of these structures, Mr. Eergusson says that they are 
 " marked with peculiar elegance," and he repeats the 
 phrase twice again in the same page. These buildings 
 were begun in 1628, and fi.nished in a.d. 1637. 
 
 Next must be mentioned the palace in the fort 
 of Shahjahanabad, or New Delhi, said by the same 
 authority ("Eergusson," p. 591) to be less picturesque 
 than that of Agra, but to have had the " advantage 
 of being built on one plan, and by the most mag-
 
 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 139 
 
 nificent, as a builder, of all the sovereigns of India." 
 He says further on of the Dehli palace that it is, 
 " or rather was, the most magnificent in the East — 
 perhaps in tlie world." These buildings are later 
 than those of Agra. 
 
 Shahjahan appears to have been somewhat delicate 
 in health, and, finding the extremes of climate at Agra 
 too much for him, resolved in the twelfth year of his 
 reign to move his residence to Dehli. The Mughal 
 palace of that city was then the Din l^anali at 
 Indrapat; but the sumptuous Shahjahan required a 
 more splendid dwelling. After much choosing, the 
 site was fixed, and in 1638 the foundation-stone was 
 laid. The works occupied ten years, and in 1618 
 Shahjahan entered the fort by the river gate, and 
 held his first court in the ^Am Klids of the new 
 palace. The circuit of the fort is said to be about a 
 mile and a-half ; the river wall is 60 feet high ; and 
 the palace buildings are on a level with the summit. 
 On the land side the walls rise to a still greater 
 height, and are 15 feet broad at the base, with a ditch, 
 75 feet wide by 30 feet deep. Two barbacaus of the 
 height of 110 feet guard the entrances on this side : 
 two smaller gates open on the river face. Within 
 was a vast series of beautiful apartments, some of 
 which are still standing. A detailed description of 
 the chief parts of the palace, from a native pen, will 
 be found translated in the introductory chapter of 
 Keene's " Pall of the Mughal Empire." 
 
 2. Of religious buildings we have many specimens 
 of which it will sufiice to mention the three best 
 known. The Jama Masjid of Agra faces the Eelhi 
 gate of the fort, and was built in 1614-50; it is a
 
 140 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 
 
 handsome structure, and bears an inscription dedi- 
 cating it to the Princess Jahanara. In 1G53 was 
 completed the beautifully simple and chaste Moti 
 Masjid or "Pearl Mosque" of Agra, the lovely arcades 
 of which seem indicative of a European architect, 
 1658 is the date assigned to the Jama JIasJid of Delhi, 
 of which Eergusson expresses himself as follows: — "It 
 is raised on a lofty baseuKint, and its three gateways 
 and the frontispiece and domes of the mosque itself, 
 make up a design where all the parts are pleasingly 
 subordinated to one another, but at the same time 
 produce a whole of great variety and elegance." This 
 is very high praise for a building, and comes from an 
 undoubted authority. Nor should the size of this 
 enormous group be omitted from consideration ; it is 
 no cherry-stone carving, but a masonry work of scale 
 truly Cyclopean. It stands on a masonry terrace whose 
 area is 1400 square yards, and is approached by no 
 less than thirty-three steps. Tliree sides of the quad- 
 rangle are open colonnades; the SLctuaisanclum is about 
 260 feet by 90 feet, covered by three domes, and 
 flanked by two towers, each 130 feet in height. The 
 hall of worship is floored with black and white marble, 
 marking out prayer-places for 899 worshippers. The 
 pulpit is said to be cut out of one solid block of 
 marble. 
 
 3. The works of public utility were chiefly for 
 purposes of irrigation, and for supplying the inmates 
 of the city and palace of Delhi with potable water. 
 Koads and rest-houses already existed, and canals 
 were the only objects remaining to occupy the 
 emperor's care. These he undertook on a lavish scale, 
 as has been already partly described. The southern
 
 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 141 
 
 canals of SlialijaMn, with improvements due to the 
 improved knowledge and skill of our day, are still 
 traceable in the modern Jumna canals, which over a 
 vast tract of country, from the Himalayas to Hissar 
 on one side, and to the middle of the Duab on the 
 other, made the wilderness to bloom, and insured 
 many millions of human beings and cattle against 
 perishing from famine. 
 
 These are not the works of a frivolous voluptuary; 
 and none of his successors has yet surpassed the 
 artistic taste and tlie energetic expenditure of the 
 Emperor Shahjahau. 
 
 As a financier his talents or his care must have 
 been very considerable. After all the public works of 
 his reign, and after campaigns in every part of the 
 peninsula, from the frontiers of Golconda to beyond 
 Candahar, Shahjahan, at his fall, had his treasury filled 
 with large accumulations of coin, besides bullion and 
 jewels; the whole estimated (as we have already seen), 
 at one hundred and eighty millions sterling.* Judged 
 by Oriental standards, therefore, this monarch rises far, 
 far above the average, and is entitled to a place, if not 
 on the same step of the temple of fame as Solomon 
 and Saladin, yet not far below. 
 
 Note. — Baron Tavernier d'Aubonne, bred an engraver, but afterwards en- 
 nobled by Louis Quatorze, was an indefatigable traveller. Between 1651 and 
 1869 lie was three times in India, where he devoted himself chiefly to the col- 
 lection of jewels. Without any literary pretensions he kept careful notes, and 
 his book was translated into English by a Mr. Phillips soon after its publica- 
 tion. The copy from which the following extracts are made was published " by 
 John Starkey, at the ' Mitre,' in Fleet Street, near Temple Bar," in 1678. 
 
 Of the Peacock Throne -which he saw in the Diwan Aam of Delhi, he says, 
 
 * Elj^hinstone, however, adopts a far more moderate estimate.
 
 142 THE TURKS IN INDIA.. 
 
 that it was "a little bed, like one of our fieldbeds, six feet long and four broad."* 
 It bore one hundred and eight pale rubies, running up to two hundred carats ; 
 one hundred and sixty emeralds of less size, the canopy embroidered and fringed 
 with pearls and diamonds ; from the top hung a diamond of eighty or ninety 
 carats set in rubies and emeralds, so placed, that when the king was seated it 
 always met his eye. " The twelve pillars " (he says elsewhere " four columns") 
 " were set witli pearls, round, and of an excellent water." Round about, the 
 weapons of his majesty were hung, ready for use ; two large umbrellas, embroi- 
 dered and fringed like the great canopy, stood on each hard at the foot of the 
 throne. "This," concludes the baron, " is the famous throne which Tamerlane 
 began and Shahjahan finished, which is really reported to have cost 160,500,000 
 livres of our money." 
 
 The baron gives a hearsay account of the death of Amr Sinh, but he seems 
 to have confounded it with another story, for he makes out two Eanas and two 
 Musalman victims. The following account is taken from the " Sbahjalianama," 
 a contemporai'y Persian history:— "On (a date corresponding to) 26th July, 
 A.D. 1644, after sunset in the durbar of tlie emperor, Arar Sinh Bathor killed 
 Salabat Khan, the Mir Bakshi" (paymaster-general), "with a dagger. He was 
 slain, by order of the emperor, by Khallilullah Khan and Arjun. It was ordered 
 that three gentlemen of the bedchamber should convey his body to his own 
 people, who raised a disturbance at the . . . gateway." This was in the Agra Fort, 
 where a gateway still bears the name of Amr Sinh. He had been banished from 
 his own country (Jodhpur) on account of his violent character and gloomy 
 temper. 
 
 The baron saw Jahanara leave Agra after her father's death, and supposed 
 that her brother and sister intended to poison her. In a later chapter of his 
 work, however, he admits that she lived many years after, with the title of Shah 
 Begam, equivalent to " Princess Royal." 
 
 His testimony to the state of the people under Shahjahan is quite opposed 
 to the view for which he is cited as an authority by the modern pessimists. 
 " Shahjahan," says our baron, " reigned not so much as a king over Lis subjects, 
 but rather as a father over his family and children." 
 
 " This great king," he is called by Tavernier, " during whose reign there 
 was such a strictness in the civil government, and particularly for the security of 
 the highways, that there was never any occasion to put any man to death for 
 robbery." 
 
 Now this is the evidence of one of the best of the European witnesses ; one 
 who had been in the country, on and off, for eighteen years of the reign, and 
 who testiOes to the union of strictness and indulgence, which must needs form 
 the highest ideal of an absolute sovereign in an eastern country. 
 
 The rensoning of Mr. Elphinstone (p. 601) may also be compared. It is his 
 conclusion that " the native historians had good ground for their commenda- 
 tions." But it will be seen that the less unfavourable view of the rule of Shah- 
 jahan does not by any means rest on native testimony alone. Nor is the best 
 native testimony that of a writer who had any motive to flatter Shahjahan; for 
 Kliafi Khan wrote in the time of Aurangzeb, whose personal protege he was, and
 
 THE TUEKS IN INDIA. 143 
 
 his object would be rather to flatter the son at the expense of the father. 
 Elphinstone judiciously notes that both he and Bernier must be "looked into 
 closely," for they " wrote after Aurangzeb had been successful, and was cried up 
 as the Mussalman hero, and the greatest of emperors." Of Bernier, he observes, 
 that his account is " mixed with anecdotes that look like popular inventions."
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 INDIA UNDER AFRUNGZEB. 
 
 The story of the reign of Aurungzeb (or Alamgir I.), 
 has been often told ; it contains little to our present 
 purpose. The emperor was an exceptional man with 
 very little Chughtai blood in his veins, and very little 
 of the character of the family ; and his long reign, 
 with its obscure wars and fruitless labours, presents a 
 picture of unstable equilibrium that was neither rise 
 nor fall. In the half century of his reign he did little 
 more than substitute Moslems for Hindus in everv 
 species of employment. He also contrived to irritate 
 the Mahrattas and break down the Pathans' power by 
 whom they were kept in check. But if Aurungzeb, 
 with all his virtues and abilities, was not the great 
 ruler Mohamadans suppose, neither was he the cunning 
 and bloody despot that Hindus are apt to imagine. 
 The means by which he gained his crown were not 
 more nefarious than those practised by many European 
 princes, and apparently countenanced by Machiavelli. 
 And, when once his power was consolidated, he 
 manifested an unwearied devotion to duty — as he saw 
 it — which only wanted success to make it glorious.
 
 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 145 
 
 If we choose we can see now why he failed. But 
 there is no reason to suppose that his contemporaries 
 in general were different from him except in courage 
 and strength ; or that any spectator, either native or 
 European, down to quite the latter part of his reign,* 
 perceived that the empire had entered on a downward 
 path. His power, till near the end of his long life, at 
 least, resemhled a mighty arch, which looks eternal, 
 because we do not see the hidden springs which are 
 undermining the foundation of the abutments. 
 
 Instead, therefore, of following once more the 
 strenuous idleness of Aurungzeb's toilsome, but wasted 
 career, let us take this time as a point of observation, 
 whence we may briefly examine the rule of the 
 Turks in India in its most elaborate and ameliorated 
 form. 
 
 Ever since Voltaire showed how to write history. 
 it has been admitted that courts and camps do not 
 exhaust its purpose. It is a recognised duty now for 
 those who would study the past, to enquire what was 
 the condition of the people in the days with which 
 they deal. But that is unfortunately a subject as to 
 which we have unusually imperfect information in the 
 case of the empire of the Indian Turks. That the 
 house of Taimur usually produced easy-going, jovial, 
 sovereigns is admitted ; and even Aurungzeb, though 
 doubtless exceptional, by reason of his austere fanati- 
 cism and bis unscrupulous use of means when aiming 
 
 * It is true that, sharpened by Buffering, the Hindus gradually seemed to 
 get an inkling into the true state of affairs. See the remarkable letter given in 
 Tod's " Rajasthan " as addressed to the emperor about the year 1679 by Rana Raj 
 Sinh, and which, in Keene's "Fall of the Moghul Empire," is wrongly attributed 
 to Jeswant Sinh on the authority of Orme. 
 
 L
 
 146 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 
 
 at tlie succession, was not only of a conscientious 
 character generally, and very attentive to business, 
 but was, for all his latter life at least, opposed to the 
 shedding of blood. On the other hand, Bernier, in 
 an account of the country in the early part of 
 Aurungzeb's reign, which has been extracted in Mr. 
 Wheeler's bright, if somewhat fanciful volume,* has 
 drawn a far from favourable picture of the state of 
 the country under this comparatively excellent ruler. 
 The historians of the time, mostly Mussulmans of 
 position, are reticent on the subject, not from shame 
 so much as from indifference ; and the traditions that 
 one comes upon in conversation with the natives of 
 the present day mainly reflect no more than the aspect 
 of the times presented to persons whose forefathers 
 were in possession of rank and wealth. These powers 
 were limited by nothing but the powers of some still 
 stronger neighbour or colleague. 
 
 Still, when one looks at the present condition of 
 Turkey and Persia, or the recent condition of Oudh, 
 one can form some notion of the state of a population, 
 mostly of another creed, subjected to Mussulman 
 dominion. 
 
 There are three ways in which administration 
 chiefly acts upon the domestic life of the administered. 
 These are, 1st, those efi'orts of authority which cope 
 with the criminal passions of men, including justice, 
 preventive and punitive; the tribunals and the police : 
 2nd, the nature of the revenue, and the manner in 
 which it is raised ; and 3rd, the economy of adminis- 
 tration as shown in sanitation, poor relief, and public- 
 
 * "History of India," vol. iv.
 
 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 147 
 
 works. And on these three lines it may be possible to 
 trace the action of the Mughal empire — so far as it can 
 be traced — upon the somewhat inert and undeveloped 
 communities of India. But to realize what those com- 
 munities were, we must further make abstraction of 
 all the efiPects that we know, or may fairly suppose 
 to have been produced upon them by a century, more 
 or less, of British rule ; a rule professing to follow 
 civilised principles, and to have regard for public 
 opinion as manifested by the civilised world. 
 
 And first of all, before taking up these matters in 
 detail, it would be necessary to recall the fact that, for 
 those days yet more than for our own, India was far 
 from being one country. If, till quite recent times at 
 least, it could be said with truth that " Italy was a 
 geographical expression," with still more truth could 
 it be said of Turkish India. The emperor might be, 
 in some more or less practical way, the overlord of 
 the peninsula; but there were nations, yes, and crowns 
 too, that were independent, almost as much of him as 
 of each other. And further, the empire was divided 
 into provinces, over some of which the federal sway 
 was seldom anything but loose and light. There was 
 in the first place Hindustan, the "land of the Hindus,'* 
 of which the Jumna valley was the centre, and either 
 Delhi or Agra the metropolis. Then there was 
 Gujarat, a province of moveable frontier, roughly 
 answering to the modern Presidency of Bombay. 
 Next came the Deccan, to some degree corresponding 
 with " Madras." The " eastern subahs," Bengal, 
 Orissa, and Bahar, formed a fourth province. And 
 not only was each of these held by a viceroy who was 
 as independent and disobedient as he dared to be, but
 
 148 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 
 
 inside of the first were the ancestral chiefships of the 
 imconquered Eajpnts; and in the second, divers minor 
 feudatories and imperfectly mediatised rulers ; in the 
 third, hesides the rising power of the Mahrattas, also 
 felt in Gujarat, were the Patlian kingdoms of Bijapur 
 and Golconda, by whatever names known. The Jats 
 to the north, and the Europeans on the sea-coast were 
 also aiming at independence in their own respective 
 neighbourhoods. All these various ambitions and 
 aspirations would have taxed a more determined 
 centralisation than that of the Chughtai Turks. 
 
 Allowances made for these difficulties, the adminis- 
 tration was still inadequate, even in regions where 
 the imperial authority was unrivalled and without a 
 limit. To begin with police. It is evident from 
 the testimony of contemporary Europeans, that life 
 and property were not so well protected as in the 
 England of the Stuarts or the Erance of Eichelieu 
 and Colbert. In common with Europe the territories 
 of the Mughals swarmed with petty nobles claiming 
 indefinite powers over their people; while, unlike 
 Europe, it was without strong urban corporations, 
 capable of resisting the still more unscrupulous 
 tyranny of officials insecure in their tenure of office, 
 and anxious to make hay while their precarious sun 
 still shone. In the rural districts, doubtless, an 
 approach to municipal organisation existed in the 
 famous " village system," but it was one which 
 recognised a good deal of internal crime, and positively 
 encouraged predatory habits at the expense of neigh- 
 bours. Then, more even than now, the life of the 
 peasant, the life of the retainer, the life of the artisan, 
 were squalid, dull, and without horizon. The women
 
 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 149 
 
 carried loads, or sat in the sun, making cow-dung 
 into cakes of fuel and throwing them against the walls 
 of their cottages to dry ; while the men scratched the 
 surface-soil with a wooden coulter in the interval of 
 lifting each other's cattle, or breaking each other's 
 heads. And, whenever a man was killed, his wife was 
 expected to sacrifice herself to his manes, and to give 
 her living body to share the cremation of her dead 
 lord. To vary this existence there was an enormous 
 evil, which does not now exist, in the hands of out- 
 laws, discharged soldiers, brigands by profession, and 
 followers of petty chiefs, wandering over the country 
 at free quarters while awaiting the raising of some 
 rebel banner that should summon them to the more 
 organised criminality of civil war. All of these were 
 ready to plunder those who were not strong enough to 
 protect themselves. 
 
 In such a state of repression, or rather non- 
 repression, the tribunals would have no easy time of 
 it. Purely civil war, indeed, might not be very much 
 appealed to where men were all armed and habituated 
 to redress tlieir own grievances. But the penal courts 
 would have their hands full, even if they did not enjoy 
 a complicated procedure, and a garrulous bar. These, 
 indeed, were elements of civilisation from which the 
 subjects of the Mughal were free ; and perhaps some 
 superficial thinkers may be disposed to envy this 
 portion of their lot. But it must be added that the 
 procedure, if swift, was frightfully one-sided ; and that 
 the absence of lawyers in the body of the court was 
 more than balanced by the presence of lawyers on the 
 bench. To understand this we must briefly consider 
 the nature of the code which Aurungzeb undertook to
 
 150 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 
 
 revive, or to apply with increased rigour among liis — 
 for the most part Hindu — subjects. 
 
 The penal code of the Moslems has the incurable 
 evil of being derived from revelation. Imagine the 
 Central Criminal Court administering Leviticus , and 
 sentencing a costermonger to death for selling oranges 
 on Saturday. Even then but an imperfect idea would 
 be formed of the interfering nature of the legal system 
 of Islam, or of the terrible, though uncertain, severity 
 of its punitive sanctions. And this on the supposition, 
 probably not always justifiable, that the stern casuists 
 of these tribunals were as honest and impartial as they 
 were indifferent to human suffering. 
 
 To represent a code of human law as derived from 
 divine authority, is, indeed, to lay on men's shoulders 
 burdens too grievous to be borne. It is, in other 
 words, to bind to the a priori standard of a simple 
 age that which ought to be the gradual fruit of 
 experience. Practicable statutes cannot be written 
 for all time in unchangeable characters, however 
 immutable may be the fundamental principles of 
 right and wrong. The moral law may be engraved, 
 once for all, on stone tables ; but the details of 
 legislation, as we can plainly see, must, if they are 
 to work well, spring fresh and variable from the 
 varying needs of a society that usually tends to 
 become more and more complicated. But this, which 
 is a truism to us, was a notion of law that was not 
 likely to occur to wanderers in a desert with little 
 knowledge of a world beyond, either past or future, 
 west or east. Accordingly we find, pervading MoLa- 
 madan law, a general absence of provision for any 
 conditions of life but those in which it originated.
 
 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 151 
 
 while, at the same time, its supposed celestial origin 
 made all change a crime and a sacrilege. 
 
 Besides regarding all law as a direct emanation 
 from the Deity, the law of Islam regards some crimes 
 as penal because of their being olfences against the 
 Divine Majesty. It also ^classifies ofi'ences according 
 to whether they are punishable by (1) retaliation ; (2) 
 statutory penalties ; or (3) discretion of the magistrate. 
 Under the first came offences against the human body, 
 including murder, wliere the prosecutor was dominus 
 litis, and might accept or remit the price of blood. 
 Under the second were ranged offences against property, 
 drinking wine and committing adultery ; these latter 
 being ofi'ences against God, could not be compounded. 
 The third included punishments — extending from 
 riding backwards on a donkey, to death or mutilation 
 — for ofi'ences as to which there was a doubt regarding 
 the class to which they might belong. And murder 
 was not only regarded practically as less heinous 
 than drinking, but its definition depended not on the 
 intention to cause death, but on the instrument 
 employed. As to procedure, the like eccentricity 
 prevailed. Approvers were not recognised, nor was 
 the evidence of one witness, under any circumstances, 
 sufficient. In the testimony of witnesses the most 
 absurd technicalities existed, as in that question, on 
 which the Sheikhs so much differ, as to whether or 
 not it is a condition of testimony that the witness 
 should say, " It is incumbent on this defendant that 
 he should shorten his hand." 
 
 The trial opened with the praises of God; the 
 judge was bound to invoke the guidance of the Al- 
 mighty in a set form before pronouncing sentence.
 
 152 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 
 
 No wonder that Lord Cornwallis spoke of " tlie gross 
 defects " of a system of law under which such hairs 
 were pivots. The forms were only variable according 
 to the metliod or statement of the claim or charge. 
 Compensatory punishment might be inflicted where 
 there was no criminal intention. 
 
 But enough has been said on an unattractive sub- 
 ject to show that the penal code of Islam (even when 
 firmly enforced) was not altogether calculated to act 
 as a source of happiness to the people of the country. 
 But there were other ways in which an alien race 
 would be certain to suffer from the workings of a 
 system formulated by an apostle and interpreted by 
 commentators. Notably was this the case with those 
 laws that affected the realization of the revenue. This 
 will be readily understood by Europeans. The dis- 
 orders and disasters of the old Erench monarchy are 
 nearly all traced by de Tocqueville and other modern 
 writers to the inequality and unreasonableness of the 
 fiscal system ; and the same faults lay at the bot- 
 tom of Aurungzeb's reforms. Without accusing this 
 eminent statesman of blind fanaticism, it is evident 
 to us that he aimed at orthodoxy in his measures, and 
 that he sought to conform in all things to the type 
 formed in his own mind from the ideas of Islam. 
 
 The latitudinarian Akbar had followed a quite dif- 
 ferent system. Discarding the legal fiction of the 
 State's ownership of the soil (familiar in the East 
 from time immemorial), he confined his demand to a 
 share of the produce. This he took in kind, so far 
 as the poorer crops were concerned, making a de- 
 cennial settlement, according to the prices ruling on 
 an average during that period, upon those lands which
 
 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 153 
 
 yielded the more valuable commercial products, cot- 
 ton, sugar, and the like. The total sum collected in 
 this manner is estimated by Mr. E. Thomas at over 
 sixteen millions a year from the fifteen provinces into 
 which the empire was then divided. In addition he 
 estimates the pay of the militia to have fallen on the 
 provinces, so as to cost an aggregate of nearly twenty 
 millions more. And there were then two large in- 
 dependent kingdoms of the Deccan which are not 
 brought upon Akbar's rolls. In raising the revenue 
 in this simple manner, Akbar had remitted the odious 
 jizya, and all other miscellaneous imposts of which 
 no less than thirty-eight items are enumerated.* 
 
 This system, more or less faithfully administered, 
 continued to prevail under the two next emperors. 
 But when Aurungzeb ascended the throne won by his 
 boldness and lack of scruple, he seems to have thought 
 himself bound to make atonement by a resolute at- 
 tempt to purify the government according to the lights 
 of Islam. The followino: extracts from a work based 
 on his records will show what these were : — 
 
 " The JcTiiraj is closely connected in origin with another tax or 
 impost on the produce of land called the ooshr or tithe, and they are 
 commonly treated of under one head by the writers on the 
 Mahomedan law. The ooshr, however, is a branch o£ a more 
 general impost called the zukat, which is applicable to charitable 
 purposes. The first chapter of the following selections treats of the 
 ooslir and Jchiraj conjointly. In the second the ooshr is considered, 
 with reference to its nature as the ziiTcat on fruits and crops. The 
 tliird contains some extracts relating to the original imposition of 
 the ooshr and Jchiraj upon different lands. These two imposts are 
 taxes on the productive energies of the soil, but some things below 
 
 * "TheEcveuue Eesourcea of the Moghul Empire." London, 1871.
 
 154 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 
 
 its surface are liable to the deduction of a fifth. Accordingly the 
 fourth chapter treats of the Tchooms, or fifth, on metals and buried 
 treasures. It is the proprietor of the land who is liable for the 
 ooshr and hhiroj^ and in most cases for the khooms ; the question of 
 proprietorship in the land is thus of great collateral importance. 
 The fifth chapter shows how the proprietorship of waste land is 
 acquired by bringing it into cultivation. But a proprietor is not 
 always in possession of his own land, and the possessor of it may 
 sometimes be confounded with him. The last chapter, therefore, 
 treats of a peculiar contract called vioozdraut, by which the rela- 
 tions of proprietor and possessor, or landlord and tenant as they 
 would be called by us, have been commonly regulated in Mahomedan 
 countries. 
 
 ■a- ■» ^ ■H' ■» ^' 
 
 " The law on the subject may be briefly summed up as follows : — 
 It is founded on a supposed obligation of all mankind to embrace 
 what is called the true religion, or submit to the ' believers,' and 
 the counter obligation of the true believers to war upon all men to 
 the last extremity until they adopt one or other of these alterna- 
 tives. Before commencing a war for this purpose, it is the duty of 
 the Imam or head of the Mooslim community to invite the inhabi- 
 tants of the country which he is about to invade, to embrace the true 
 religion, and without this formality the war is unlawful. If they 
 accept the invitation, they are to be treated in all respects like other 
 Mooslims, and the ooshr, as a matter of course, is imposed upon 
 their lands. If they reject the invitation, they are next to be called 
 upon to submit to the jizya or capitation-tax, and become subjects 
 of the Mooslim power. If they accept these terms, they are ad- 
 mitted to the condition of zimmi, or infidel subjects, and are left 
 free to the profession of their own religion, but the khiraj is im- 
 posed upon their lands. The idolaters of Arabia were excepted 
 from their indulgence, and were called upon absolutely to embrace the 
 faith, with the only alternative of the sword for their men, slavery 
 for their women and children." The jizya, in fact, was a capitation- 
 tax imposed on the zimmi, who was the subject of a Mooslim power, 
 but professing a different religion. Submission to the^V^^a involves 
 submission to the hliiraj also. The leading principle in all cases is 
 still religion, which requires that unbelievers should pay the capi- 
 tation-tax in addition to the hliiraj on their lands, while the faithful 
 are generally liable for the ooslir only ; the jizya was also known
 
 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 155 
 
 as the hhiraj of the person, and the hliiraj, in like manner, was 
 sometimes called the jizya of the land." 
 
 The above abstract is taken from an English 
 edition of the "Fatawa Alamgiri," or, "Institutes of 
 Aurungzeb," by Mr. N. B. E. Baillie. Appended to 
 the work is a decree issued by that monarch which 
 shows how completely he had departed from the baser 
 policy of the predecessors. The jirmdn is dated in 
 A.D. 1688, and appears to have been addressed direct 
 from " the Home Office " to the provincial Diwdns or 
 accountants. It begins by reciting that it has always 
 been his majesty's great desire to rule according " to 
 the laws prescribed by the most excellent of created 
 beings," (Mohamad) and therefore he takes the 
 opportunity to inform the revenue oflScials throughout 
 his dominions " on all points concerning the tribute, 
 as to the quantity and mode directed in the enlightened 
 law of the bright and pure religion. . . . They shall 
 not require an annual renovation of this edict; but 
 may assure themselves that any deviation therefrom 
 will make them liable to temporal and eternal punish- 
 ment." 
 
 When revenue regulations were thus framed and 
 sanctioned it is not to be supposed that the people 
 were altogether happy in their operation. But whether 
 they paid only the khiraj or land-tax of one-third to 
 one-sixth of their gross produce — or whether they 
 also paid a capitation-tax, made a difference in their 
 burdens of about cent, per cent. The land revenue in 
 the palmy days of the reign, is shown to have risen to 
 double that raised by Akbar (besides about five 
 millions more from the conquered kingdoms of the 
 Deccan). So that there appears good reason to believe,
 
 156 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 
 
 that at one time (on paper at least) the total gross 
 revenues of Aurungzeb were eighty millions of pounds 
 sterling, a sum which, comparing the purchasing 
 power of money in those days with what it has now, 
 must be many times as much as the British Govern- 
 ment and the native states subordinate to it now raise 
 altogether. It is not wonderful if the imposition of 
 the jizya was resented by Aurungzeb's Hindu sub- 
 jects as a duplication of their imposts no less than as 
 a badge of subjection to a foreign yoke. 
 
 On the general administration, especially in regard 
 to famine relief and the control of epidemics, our 
 information is not sufficient to throw the light we 
 want. But it is evident that the impulses of a con- 
 quering horde were not of themselves a guarantee for 
 due care being taken of unrepresented and almost 
 unresisting subjects. The Chughtais meant well. In 
 every province were news-writers appointed by the 
 Government, whose duty it was to keep the central 
 authorities aware of what went on under the sub- 
 ordinate governments. 
 
 *' Those persons," says Bernier, " whom the Mogul sends into 
 the provinces to write to him whatever passes there do a little keep 
 the officers in awe, provided they do not collude together (as it 
 almost always happens) to devour all. As also, the governments 
 are not there so often sold, nor so openly, as in Turkey .... and 
 the governors ordinarily remain longer in their governments, which 
 makes them not so hungry, so beggarly, so deeply in debt .... 
 and consequently they do not always tyrannise over the people 
 with so much cruelty, even apprehending that they should run 
 away to the rajas, which yet falls out very often." 
 
 It was Bernier's opinion, after an extensive study 
 of Eastern lands, that in all the marks of civilisation
 
 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 157 
 
 the Indian Mu glials excelled tlie European Turks by- 
 reason of tlieir Persian element, but that the absence 
 of a sense of secure ownership in property — especially 
 as to land — was ruining the social system in both 
 these countries, and in Persia likewise. And not only 
 so — for property both in India and in Turkey to a 
 less degree, has become secure without immediate and 
 great social progress following — but the extreme 
 uncertainty of the climate must very greatly have 
 paralysed industry when no regular provision was 
 made against it. Bad sanitation, small-pox, malarious 
 fever, must have spread frightful evils. Beasts of 
 prey, even now very abundant in some parts of the 
 country, must have devastated villages bordering on 
 forest tracts, which were then numerous and exten- 
 sive. The traveller who escaped from the tiger fell 
 too often into the hands of the Thug ; children saved 
 from wolves were stripped of their little ornaments 
 and strangled by human beings not less cruel and 
 rapacious. 
 
 These and other signs of maladministration shocked 
 Bernier. He addressed Colbert, on his return from 
 India, in a long letter upon " the extent of the country, 
 the circulation of gold and silver, the riches, forces, 
 and justice, and the cause of the decay of the States 
 of Asia." In this he asserts that " throughout these 
 parts " (Asia generally) " we see almost no other 
 towns but (what are) made up of mud and dirt, 
 nothing but ruined villages, or such as are going to 
 ruin." He is not speaking here exclusively of India, 
 for he mentions in the same paragraph Mesopotamia, 
 Anatolia, Palestine, Syria, and Egypt. He also allows 
 that Persia and India were both more prosperous than
 
 158 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 
 
 Turkey, having large metropolitan cities where manu- 
 factures were carried on and trades practised, and 
 where, as he repeatedly observes, justice was adminis- 
 tered under the especial supervision of the Imperial 
 Government. The entire testimony of Bernier need 
 not he transcribed here ; it will be found — or at least 
 the more unfavourable portion will be found — ab- 
 stracted at the end of Mr. Wheeler's volume already 
 cited. But it is necessary to make two observations 
 regarding tlie letter in which this testimony is given : 
 1st, it was written for the evident purpose of pleasing 
 Colbert, and showing what a happy people the French 
 were under his administration; 2nd, Bernier had 
 undertaken a particular thesis, viz., to prove that the 
 assertion of the State's ownership in land was fatal to 
 the progress of society. 
 
 Kow, on each of these subjects there is some 
 allowance evidently due. It wiJl probably be admitted 
 that France, with its tailles and corvees, was not 
 particularly happy in the concluding reigns of the 
 house of Bourbon. And it must also be granted that 
 the theory of the State's ultimate rights in the soil is 
 one that has at no time been abandoned by Em'opean 
 jurists ; that it is still constantly eulogised in practice 
 among civilised communities, and that it is still at 
 the bottom of a part of the fiscal system of France, 
 where society is certainly not unprogressive, nor the 
 cultivating class unprosperous. It is not, therefore, 
 the mere assertion of an ultimate dominion of tlie 
 land for public benefit that is fatal, but the un- 
 limited cliaracter of the demand, and the uncontrolled 
 expenditure of the income. 
 
 From another portion of the letter we may see
 
 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 159 
 
 that the Turkish element in the Indian administration 
 was not only alleviated hy Persian influences but was 
 further neutralised by the necessity of employing 
 Hindus and native Mussulmans as a counterpoise to 
 the Persians. Shahjahan, for example, owed his 
 throne to the Pathan general, Mahabat Khan (who 
 was so Indianised that Tod represents him as a 
 converted Bajput), and the proportion of Hindus 
 among the grandees of that reign was larger than 
 under the eclectic Akbar. 
 
 To complete this sketch of the social system of 
 the time, a brief notice of these grandees, or peers, 
 may be here appropriate. The generic term 
 for the higher officials was mansabdav, the word 
 mansab meaning, conventionally, a military post of 
 dignity conferred by imperial patent; and the man- 
 sahdars (holders of mansahs) being graded according 
 to the force of men-at-arms that they were supposed 
 to maintain. Those above the grade of "five-hundred " 
 were distinguished as mnirs, or "lords," and the 
 highest grade of all — above "five thousand" — was 
 reserved for princes of the blood. Of the ranks 
 between these two limits there were 580 nobles, of 
 whom about one-fifth were Hindus. In the days of 
 Akbar they received large salaries, out of which they 
 were probably expected to provide, at least, the 
 minimum number of men appropriate to their grade ; 
 as also a proportionate number of elephants, horses, 
 camels, carts, etc. The chief grandee was called amir- 
 ul-umra or " lord of the lords." 
 
 So far, then, these nobles formed a sort of military 
 peerage, like the paladins of Charles the great, or the 
 Napoleonic marshals. But there were special limita-
 
 IGO THE TURKS IN INDIA. 
 
 tions. In tlie first place, no Moliamadan system 
 contemplates hereditary grandeur. A water-carrier 
 has often, in the East, risen to the command of the 
 army to whose wants he ministered ; an able palace 
 slave has become in his turn a sovereign. The sons 
 of deceased amirs would no doubt have some claims 
 to employment, but they would not obtain at once 
 their father's mansahs. They would begin life, as their 
 fathers had done, as aliadis, or unattached cavaliers, 
 with, perhaps, a slender following, which it would be 
 their object to increase, gradually, by doing good 
 service. Their father's property, too, was regarded as 
 official rather than personal, and escheated to the 
 crown by death. If the sons, on entering life, received 
 a small allowance until they had obtained lucrative 
 employment, that was as much as they could expect. 
 Bernier gives us the following details as to the position 
 of the grandees as he saw it in the early years of 
 Aurungzeb's reign : — 
 
 " The emperor determines the number of horses in actual service 
 which they are bound to entertain ; and it is this which, ordinarily, 
 makes their chief income besides what they can appropriate. . . . 
 For I saw that the noble, under whom I was — who was a panj- 
 Jiazdri, or one of five thousand horse — and who was obliged to 
 entertain five hundred [horses] in effect bad, after all his cavalry 
 was paid, a balance of five thousand crowns " (rupees ?) " a month." 
 
 He adds that this noble was paid in cash out of the 
 Treasury, but seems to think that those made larger 
 profits who were paid by grants of land. On this 
 point no statistics are available ; but it is presumable 
 that the system of territorial assignments was one 
 that became more and more usual, inasmuch as 
 minor fiefs swelling into so many hereditary principa-
 
 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 161 
 
 lities, did, in fact, help in the final disruption of the 
 empire. 
 
 Of these grandees twenty-five were expected to be 
 in waiting daily. The minor mansdbdars^ who were 
 not amirs, were dispensed from regular attendance 
 at council or levee, but were obliged to be present at 
 all musters and parades ; their pay ranged from 200 
 to 700 rupees a month. The pay of an ahadi or single 
 cavalier was from twenty-five rupees a month and 
 upwards, according to the number of his horses, all of 
 which bore the government brand and were ridden by 
 his men. 
 
 The artillery was numerous and divided into light 
 and heavy. Under earlier emperors the gunners had 
 been mostly Europeans or Indian Portuguese ; but 
 Aurungzeb, consistently with his high-flown ortho- 
 doxy, replaced these with Mussalmans, thereby intro- 
 ducing, as we can hardly doubt, another element of 
 decay into his power. 
 
 Having dwelt so much upon the bad impression 
 made on Bernier by the condition of the country, it 
 will be proper, in conclusion, to quote the more 
 favourable report of Signor Manucci, a contemporary 
 European, with similar opportunities and fewer pre- 
 possessions — 
 
 " Nothing can possibly be more uniform than the administration 
 of justice in the States o£ the Mogul. The viceroys, the governors 
 of provinces, the chiefs of the cities and towns, perform precisely in 
 the place of their appointment (subject always to the emperor), the 
 part acted by that [great] Mogul in Agra or in Delhi. They alone 
 administer justice, and decide causes which concern the property 
 and life of the subject." 
 
 He adds that there was, in every considerable place, a 
 
 M
 
 162 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 
 
 hotwcil^ or provost marshal, to look after the police ; 
 and a. kdzl, or ecclesiastical judge, for religious and 
 matrimonial causes. Power of life and death was 
 vested in governors alone. Justice was administered 
 promptly. Procedure was simple. Perjury and cor- 
 ruption were capital charges. " All that can be done 
 to remedy those evils is effected by this legal severity. 
 Unjust decisions are a universal grievance," as he 
 sagaciously remarks, which, as in other countries, 
 *' tediousness of procedure does not always correct." 
 Beaumarchais discovered this in France a century 
 later.* 
 
 " Such," concludes the Italian doctor, " are the 
 institutions of this great empire. They have not been 
 represented as free from defect, but exhibiting, rather, 
 a State in which barbarism is so qualified by the 
 equity which pervades the administration as to render 
 the government of the Mogul empire little inferior to 
 that of any other nation." 
 
 That is what it was in the earlier years of the reign 
 at least ; barbarism tempered by equity ; the rude 
 vigour of the Tartar camp, regulated by Persian 
 manners, and the laws of Arabia — the apogee of the 
 Indian Turk. 
 
 Manucci ends his account with a personal tribute 
 of admiration for the ability and energy of Aurungzeb, 
 a monarch of whom even prejudiced Bernier, is con- 
 strained to speak well at last. In finishing another of 
 his works — the " History of the late Revolution" — 
 the latter says : " I am persuaded that those who will 
 a little weigh this whole story will not take Aurungzeb 
 
 * Compare tbe Persian proverb — "Swift wrong is better than tardj right." 
 Bernier cites this adnge.
 
 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 163 
 
 for a barbarian, but for a great and rare genius, a 
 great statesman, and a great king." 
 
 It is noticeable that the weakness and final decline 
 of the Chughtai empire were not prepared so visibly 
 in the spendthrift insouciance or ostentatious cere- 
 monial of the early emperors, as in the orthodox 
 administration of this Moslem revivalist, the son of a 
 Persian lady, who lived on the proceeds of his own 
 manual labour. Nevertheless, we may gather from 
 the history of other Mohamaden monarchies that the 
 really fatal element of weakness was Tartar, and not 
 Arab. Bagdad fell before violence from without; 
 Cordova and Granada yielded to Gothic patriotism ; 
 in neither case is there any proof of inherent evils 
 caused by religion. Por anything we can see, a wise 
 ruler succeeding Shahjahan might have consolidated 
 the empire had it not been previously relaxed by the 
 habits of a Turkish camp inappropriately applied to 
 the affairs of a vast and heterogeneous empire. Still, 
 there can be no doubt that when the empire had become 
 what it was, the restless fanaticism of Aurungzeb preci- 
 pitated the catastrophe. A few personal traits that have 
 been preserved by contemporaries help to explain his 
 character. After his accession he adopted, according to 
 Ta vernier, a diet of the utmost asceticism, by way of 
 penance for the crimes by which he had obtained the 
 throne. He removed the Princess Jahanara— or the 
 Begam Sahiha — from Agra to Delhi after the death 
 of Shahjahan ; but it was not, as our baron thought 
 at the time, to poison, but to befriend and promote 
 her. The now mature spinster was created ShdJi 
 Begam — or "princess royal," — and lived for many 
 years on a handsome establishment in the palace.
 
 1G4 THE TUUKS IN INDIA. 
 
 In A.D. 1661 he followed the custom of his house 
 in obtaining a native bride for his ultimate successor, 
 marrying Sultan Muazzam to the daughter of Eaja 
 Hup Sinh. In a.d. 1666, at the intercession of Jai 
 Sinh I., the *' Mirza Haja " of Amber, he pardoned 
 and received the rebellious Mahratta Sivaji. On a 
 misunderstanding that ensued, the suspicious Mahratta 
 left the metropolis in disguise; but the emperor did 
 not alter his favour to Jai Sinh, who was an amir of 
 the highest grade, and constantly employed in offices 
 and enterprises of the greatest trust. In the following 
 year (10th July, 1667), Jai Sinh dying on service, a 
 viceroy of the Deccan,* Prince Muazzam, was nomi- 
 nated to the vacant command. About the same 
 period the emperor reformed the calendar, abolishing 
 the Persian computation, and substituting for the era 
 of Yezdegird the Sijri era, w^ith its lunar years. He 
 issued edicts against the fine arts, as tending to 
 frivolity and irreligion ; but the singers, actors, and 
 dancers offered a curious rebuke. There w^as in the 
 Mughal palaces a balcony at which the emperor was 
 expected to show himself daily to all passengers at 
 an appointed hour. One day Aurungzeb, being in his 
 ordinary place there, saw^ a funeral going on upon the 
 glacis beneath, and sent to ask whose it was. The 
 performers below sent back for answer that it was 
 Music that was dead, and that they (her servants) 
 were burying her. " By all means," cried the 
 sovereign, with austere humour, " and see that you 
 
 * Tod, who can see no good in Aurungzeb, states that the raja was poisoned 
 by his son, at the instigation of the emperor. No evidence is ofiered, and such 
 insinuations are too easy to be accepted without proof. — Vide Professor Bloch- 
 mann, " Calcutta Review," No. 104, p. 334.
 
 THE TUUKS IN INDIA. 165 
 
 bury her deep, so that no sound ever reaches me from 
 the grave." His next step was to close up the 
 window, and he never again appeared there to the 
 multitudes to whom the darsan had been so long an 
 institution and an event. 
 
 About 1679 died Sivaji (whose death the Moslem 
 chronicler commemorates in the uncomplimentary 
 chronogram, " the infidel went to hell "), and an 
 almost equally formidable opponent, ^aj a Jas want Sinh, 
 the head of the Jodpur Rathors was removed soon 
 after. A disturbance in those territories followed, 
 which formed the occasion for imposing the hateful 
 jizya upon the Hindus. Also, about this time — say 
 nearly midway in the reign — the employment of 
 Hindus in high offices almost ceased, each vacant post 
 in turn being given to Moslems, mostly foreigners. 
 An expedition overran Rajputana, and a general 
 destruction of Hindu temples and persecution of the 
 faith of the people followed. The reply of the 
 Eajputs was a rebellion, in the course of which the 
 emperor's fourth son. Sultan Akbar, was set up by 
 them as his father's competitor. It was an ill-planned 
 movement ; and the young man had not the stability 
 of character requisite to justify his being chosen for 
 so dangerous a post. He took flight, and fled to 
 Persia in 1682 ; and in that country he died about the 
 same year as his father. 
 
 It was during this rebellion that a chief of the 
 unconquered state of XJdaipur wrote the emperor the 
 famous letter contrasting his unwise bigotry with the 
 clement and tolerant habits of his imperial ancestors. 
 In 1685-6 the old Pathan kingdoms of Bijapur and 
 Golkonda fell before the obstinate hostility of the
 
 166 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 
 
 Miighals, and with them fell, as soon appeared, the 
 last breakwater against the tide of Mahratta bold- 
 ness. Soon after the Jats broke out for the first time. 
 To the same period Khafi Khan assigns the issuing of 
 an edict, forbidding Hindus to ride Arab horses, or be 
 carried in litters. 
 
 Disputes with the English of Bombay, with the 
 Mahrattas, and with the princes his sons, troubled the 
 remainder of Aurungzeb's long reign. The spirit of 
 the old man never failed him ; and it is not possible, 
 amidst our censure of his central error, to withhold 
 admiration of this keen, earnest ruler, even when his 
 personal repose was vexed by the misconduct of his 
 offspring, or his camp insulted by the menaces of the 
 indefatigable foe. 
 
 At length the body, rather than the mind, gave 
 way. To the last appeared that singular remorseful- 
 ness of character that was Aurungzeb's constant 
 quality. How the voice of conscience — so often 
 stifled in extreme old age — rings through his last 
 letters to his sons. To one he writes : — " The instant 
 passed in power has left only sorrow behind. I have 
 not been the guardian and protector of the empire. 
 My precious time has been spent vainly. . . ." To 
 another — " I depart, and carry with me the fruit of 
 my sins. ... I came alone, alone I go. . . . Where- 
 ever I look I see nothing but God. ... I have com- 
 mitted numerous crimes, and I know not with what 
 torments they may be punished. . . . The guardian- 
 ship of the people is the trust by God committed to 
 my sons." 
 
 These cries uttered from a death-bed show anything 
 but a careless soul, or an ordinary standard of self-
 
 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 167 
 
 examination. We ought, in charity, to accept them 
 as symptoms of the inherent disposition of him whose 
 conscience was so sensitive at the age of ninety. 
 
 Anrungzeh died at Ahmadnagar, on Eeb. 21, a.d. 
 1707. His misfortunes are attributed by Mussalmans 
 to his dislike of bloodshed, and his lenience towards 
 his enemies. 
 
 An excellent account of the transactions of 
 Aurungzeb's reign, and a most able estimate of his 
 very peculiar character will be found in the admirable 
 " History of India," by Mr. Mountstuart Elphinstone. 
 The general conclusion is the same as here — namely, 
 that when a lax and puerile administration has intro- 
 duced into a great empire the elements of weakness 
 and disruption, their action is rapidly precipitated by 
 the accession of a cold, narrow-minded, suspicious, 
 centralising egotist. Had Aurungzeb succeeded Akbar 
 he would have done less mischief; had Bahadur Shah 
 succeeded Shahjahan he would have postponed the 
 catastrophe. As things happened the carefulness of 
 one ruler was as fatal as the levity of the other ; and 
 the qualities of each combined in unhappy co-operation, 
 like two compounds whose chemical union makes a 
 deadly poison. 
 
 It cannot be too often recollected that the failure 
 of Aurungzeb, though connected with his religious 
 tenets and convictions, is not so mucli a failure of 
 Islam as it is a failure of over government. He failed 
 much in the same way as Louis XIY. failed in Erance, 
 and as any rulers will fail who try to make their 
 personal feelings the measure of their subjects' rights. 
 "When such a method is applied to an empire in which 
 the outlying provinces have a good deal of lawless
 
 168 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 
 
 independence it is all the more conspicuous. If Louis 
 XIV. could have preceded Louis XL there would 
 probably be no such nation in Europe as what we now 
 call " France." 
 
 The testimony of the well-known historian, Khafi 
 Khan — a favourite of the emperor — is also deserving 
 of peculiar attention. He attributed much of 
 Aurungzeb's ill-success to the gentleness of his dis- 
 position. He particularly notes, so far back as the 
 second year of the reign, that the emperor ordered the 
 remission of many imposts, notably the pdndarl, or 
 town dues, and the tithe on wheat. He sent men of 
 his own body-guard into the provinces to see that these 
 remissions were carried out. But by reason of the im- 
 punity that attended disobedience, the local governors 
 generally revived the forbidden imposts for their own 
 advantage as soon as the imperial emissaries took 
 their departure. Erom the whole record it may fairly 
 be concluded that the emperor was one of those men 
 who combine a hot head with a cold heart; and having 
 all the courage and ambition to achieve greatness lacks 
 the unscrupulousness by which alone absolute power 
 can be permanently supported. 
 
 In regard to what has been said in the text of our ignorance of the actual 
 state of the people (especially as to dearths and scarcities), it is generally true 
 that there is silence among the chroniclers of Mughal India. But we know 
 that there was one very severe famine in the time of Aurungzeb, which was 
 described by Khafi Khan, probably from actual observation. He says that in 
 1660 a terrible drought took place, by reason of which many districts went 
 entirely to waste, and crowds of their inhabitants made their way to Delhi in 
 search of employment and relief. The measures of the emperor were both active 
 and judicious. He opened soup-kitchens for the poor, encouraged the movement 
 of grain by remitting transit duties, and largely suspended the collection of the
 
 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 169 
 
 revenue in general. It has been stated by a modern authority that he applied 
 large accumulations from his well-husbanded finances to the relief of want, and 
 that the foresight and administrative ability thus shown caused the area of this 
 famine to be much less extensive than that of the famine thirty years earlier. — 
 " Keport on Past Famines."— N. W. P. Allahabad : 1868.
 
 CHAPTEE VII. 
 
 DECAY AND DISINTEGEATIO]^. 
 
 Like most important institutions, tlie Chuglitai, or 
 "Mughal" Empire of India, had a beginning, a middle, 
 and an end. The beginning, under the jovial adven- 
 turer "who came from Furghana mth his booted 
 followers, a mixture of knight-errant and boon 
 companion ; King Cole in the panoply of Don 
 Quixote. The middle, in the prime of the sumptuous 
 Sbahjahan, when the Taj was first seen to glisten 
 against the pale sky of an Indian noon, and when 
 visitors from Europe gazed in wonder on the almost 
 fabulous prodigality of the levees in the am khds. 
 The end, when Shah Alam, a blind and half-starved 
 pensioner, received Lord Lake under a tattered awning 
 in that deserted area, and passed from the hands of a 
 Erench jailor into those of a British " Hesident." 
 
 But as there was a period of consolidation between 
 the first adventure and the mature glory, so there 
 was a period of weakness and a lapse between the 
 glory and the fall. The emperor was still the fountain 
 of honour, the asylum of the universe; only the 
 fountain was throwing muddy streams on an unweeded
 
 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 171 
 
 garden, and the asylum was harbouring nothing but 
 wild beasts and proclaimed offenders. 
 
 Naturally, the steps from one period to another 
 were not sharply defined to the eyes of bystanders, 
 and even now, in looking back upon them, one ob- 
 serves gradations like those by which one colour 
 passes into the next upon a rainbow. The reign of 
 Aurungzeb might appear to have been a time of 
 recovery if it had not been a time of falling ; and the 
 accounts of his death that have been preserved do not 
 show any feelings of despondency as to the future of 
 his empire in the mind of the dying despot. Nor 
 was the character or the position of his successor by 
 any means such as to give rise to any immediate 
 alarm among those well-wishers of the State who suy- 
 vived their sovereign. The emperor still gave audience, 
 and redressed grievances, seated on the peacock 
 throne ; and the rulers of all the provinces of the 
 peninsula were still either his vassals or his officials. 
 13ut the air was full of change. As Tod says : — 
 
 " It is important to study the events of tliis period, wliicTi 
 involved the overthrow of the Mogul power and originated that 
 form of society which paved the way to the dominion o£ Britain in 
 these distant regions. From such a review a political lesson of 
 great value may be learned which will show a beacon, warning us 
 against the danger of trusting to mere physical power unaided by 
 the latent, but more durable support of moral influence. When 
 Aurungzeb neglected the indigenous Rajpoots he endangered the 
 key-stone of his power, and in despising opinion, though his 
 energetic mind might for a time render him independent of it, yet, 
 long before his death, the enormous fabric reared by Akbar was 
 tottering to its foundation." 
 
 Tod admits, however, "the virtues of Bahadoor, the 
 son and successor of the fanatic tyrant," and " the
 
 172 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 
 
 short lustre of his sway." Let us take a note of the 
 circumstances of his accession, and the events of his 
 brief reign. 
 
 The members of Aurungzeb's family, of whom 
 contemporary history makes mention, were the follow- 
 ing ; as recorded in the " Alamgir-nama." 
 
 1. Mohamad Sultan (who was the agent employed 
 in dethroning Shahjahan). His mother (the " Nuwab 
 Bai ") was a Kashmirian, professedly of the Sayyid 
 class, though partly of Hindu extraction.* He was 
 born in 1019, Hijri (the thirteenth year of the reign 
 of his grandfather), and died at the age of thirty- 
 eight lunar years, in the nineteenth year of his 
 father's reign. 
 
 2. MuAZZAM, afterwards called " Shah Alam " 
 (who eventually ascended the throne, by the title of 
 Bahadur Shah), was the son of the same mother, 
 and was four years younger than the last, on whose 
 death he appears to have considered himself heir- 
 apparent. 
 
 3. AzAM, the offspring of the emperor's second 
 wife, a Persian lady, was ten years younger than the 
 last, having been born in 1063, Hijri, while his father 
 was still a trusted lieutenant of the empire, with 
 hands unstained with fraternal blood. 
 
 4i. Akbar was the son of the same mother, four 
 years younger than the last. In spite of his purely 
 Mussalman blood, he associated himself with the Haj- 
 puts, and rebelled, with the aid of Mewar, soon after 
 the death of his eldest brother. 
 
 5. Kam-baksh, son of a Rajputin — said by Tod to 
 
 * Vide Note at end of chapter.
 
 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 173 
 
 have been the son of a Jodpuri lady, not "XJdipuri" — 
 was born in 1077, Hijri, when his father had been 
 many years upon the throne. 
 
 Besides these there were five daughters, one born 
 as late as 1116 Hijri. 
 
 Mohamad Sultan, having died during his father's 
 lifetime, was saved from the coming troubles ; but the 
 first sigDs of them followed hard upon his death. The 
 second son, Muazzam, had been appointed Subhadar 
 (governor) of the Deccan in a.d. 1067, when he 
 was no more than a young man of twenty-seven, 
 and remained there for the next twelve years. 
 About the end of a.d. 1677, not long after Moha- 
 mad's death, and when the prudent Hajput, Jeswant 
 Sinh, had also passed away, the rebellious chiefs of 
 Raj put ana proposed to set up the fourth son Akbar, a 
 lad of twenty ; and created such confusion that 
 Muazzam had to be sent for from the Deccan and his 
 next brother Azam from Bengal. Azam came up 
 with all possible speed, making four months' marches 
 into one ; but the gentle elder wrote to his erring 
 brother, and perhaps prepared his mind for ultimate 
 submission. This, with some earlier occurrences, led to 
 the growth of suspicions of Muazzam on the part of the 
 emperor, his father, and a severe letter of reproof 
 and advice was accordingly received by the prince. 
 
 But the event soon justified him, though it was 
 not until the imperial forces had sustained a serious 
 defeat that Muazzam was once more summoned to join 
 the head quarters. He obeyed instantly and joined 
 his sire by forced marches, bringing with him his two 
 sons. 
 
 A trait like this — which is furnished by an excel-
 
 I7i THE TURKS IN INDIA. 
 
 lent contemjioraiy autliority, Kbafi Khan — shows the 
 mild and honest nature of the future sovereign. But 
 Sultan Muazzam had yet mucli to go through before 
 he could attain to that eminence. 
 
 An animated, though partisan, narrative of the 
 rebellion will be found in Tod's " Eajasthan," " Annals 
 of Marwar." It is there stated, that it was on this 
 occasion that the famous letter was written to 
 AuruDgzeb, in wbicli the Hindus justified their 
 hostility by contrasting the persecuting tyranny then 
 prevailing, with the tolerant administration of the 
 earlier Mughal emp(^rors. Tod ascribes the defection 
 of Prince Akbar, to a feeling of compassion and 
 sympathy with " the gallant bearing of the Eajpoots 
 in this unequal combat," alleging, that so late as 
 A.D. 1G81, the prince and Tahavar Khan (or"Tyber," 
 as he calls him), had been fighting on the imperial 
 side, for which they gained a great victory at Kadol. 
 But he admits that " ambition came to the aid of 
 compassion," which is very evident, for Akbar assumed 
 the rights of sovereignty while with the Rajputs, and 
 coined money in his own name ; but he seems to have 
 shown as much haste in retreating as he had evinced 
 precipitancy in aggression, and he was, ere long, in 
 full flight, followed — though without much eagerness 
 — by his brother. He (Muazzam) was next detached 
 into the Konkan, where he conducted a successful 
 inroad into a then almost inaccessible country. From 
 thence, he was sent to attempt the conquest of what 
 was then called Telingana, afterwards " the Nizam's 
 country," of early English warfare. Hence he turned 
 towards Bijapur, a kingdom then enjoying an indepen- 
 dent existence under a native Mussalman king,
 
 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 175 
 
 named Abu'l Hassan, where a competent general, 
 Khalilullah, was in command of the armies. Muazzam 
 advanced towards Haidarabad (which was then the 
 capital of the enemy), and offered terms, in accordance 
 with his character; but they were rejected, and a 
 force was sent against Khalilullah, under the command 
 of Khanjahan Kokaltash, whose efforts met with 
 considerable success. Muazzam, also, after an action 
 of three days, gained an indecisive victory ; and about 
 this time received from his father the title of " Shah 
 Alam," by which he continued to be known till his 
 accession. Haidarabad submitted ; but Aurungzeb 
 had once more to censure his son's clemency. '* He 
 made," says Khali, " no outward change in the 
 prince's rank and allowances, or in the honours due 
 to him as heir apparent, but his estrangement daily 
 increased." 
 
 Nothing, however, could divert the prince from the 
 exercise of his constitutional goodness. On further 
 reports of his favour to the hostile, but now ruined 
 sovereign, Abu'l Hassan, Shah Alam was once more 
 summoned to the emperor's presence, a call which, 
 though supported by the army, the prince immediately 
 obeyed. On this occasion his fiefs were sequestrated, 
 and even his family subjected to indignity. He 
 himself remained, for more than seven years in close 
 arrest. During this interval, his brother, Azam Shah 
 (who was, by blood, a pure Mussalman) commanded as 
 the emperor's lieutenant, and obtained great ascen- 
 dency over his father. In a.d. 1695 Shah Alam was 
 liberated : affairs were going ill with the emperor, 
 and the talents of the mild prince were apparently 
 missed. Though much against the will of his brother
 
 17G THE TURKS IN INDIA. 
 
 Azam, Shah Alam was sent to Agra, where his duty 
 was to coerce the Jats, a rising tribe of freebooters. 
 
 After a short time the prince was appointed 
 Governor of Cabul, where he appears to have 
 remained in the quiet discharge of his office for 
 about ten years. In the latter part of a.d. 1705, the 
 emperor being very old and weak at Ahmadnagar, 
 Azam presented himself at Court, making no account 
 of his eldest brother, and assuming the attitude of 
 an acknowledged heir. On the 21st February, 1707, 
 the old despot breathed his last, without having made 
 any definite arrangements for the succession. Azam 
 immediately assumed the crown, and marched upon 
 Agra. Shah Alam, on his part, was not idle, but 
 marched from Cabul to Lahore where he effected a 
 junction with his trusted deputy in the Panjab, 
 Munim Khan. At the same time, the eldest son of 
 Shah Alam was sent to occupy the fort at Agra. 
 The action of the pretender was crippled by unpopu- 
 larity arising from his avarice, and by the rivalry of 
 his son Bedar Bakht, who was in immediate command 
 of the army. Meanwhile, Shah Alam, at the head 
 of a considerable army of hardy northern warriors, 
 and with a powerful artillery, had advanced on 
 Delhi, which at once submitted to him, and where 
 he found considerable treasure. His next halt was 
 at Muttra, whence he sent a conciliatory message 
 to Azam, proposing an equal partition of the empire. 
 It rests on the authority of Iradat Khan, a confi- 
 dential equerry of Bedar Bakht, that this only 
 increased the arrogance and resolution of Azam, who 
 rejected the overtures and rapidly advanced. He 
 crossed the Chambal and encountered his elder
 
 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 177 
 
 brother at Jajau, about halfway between Dholpur 
 and Agra, on tlie 10th of June, 1707. 
 
 The following description of the battle is taken 
 principally from the narrative of Iradat, who informs 
 us that he only relates matters of which he was an 
 eye-witness. 
 
 While the armies were yet separated by an interval 
 of some miles, the baggage of Shah Alam was captured 
 by an advanced detachment of the enemy. Mushed 
 by this slight success, Bedar Bakht hastily assumed 
 that his uncle had fled, and he marched up the right 
 bank of the Jumna in loose order. Suddenly a vast 
 cloud of dust appeared on his right, in the direction 
 of Fatihabad near the river, the scene of Dara's 
 defeat more than half a century before. This time 
 the luck was to be changed. The sons of Shah Alam 
 opened a long front out of the cloud, and hurled upon 
 the advancing forces a tempest of artillery and small 
 arms, in which Bedar Bakht fell. Still pressing on 
 they continued to slaughter their bewildered and 
 disorganised opponents. A large part of the army 
 fled, but the headquarters stood firm till Azam 
 himself was struck by a musket ball, and decapitated 
 — probably with his own sword — by the commander 
 of the baggage-guard captured in the morning. He 
 then carried the severed head to the conqueror ; but 
 Shah Alam, instead of conferring upon him the 
 expected reward, shed genuine tears over his brother's 
 dishonoured countenance and dismissed the murderer 
 with reproaches. The body, with that of Bedar, was 
 sought for, and both were interred with respect,* 
 
 * Their sepulchres, with many others, are in the grand cemetery of their 
 house, in Humayun's mausoleum at Delhi.
 
 178 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 
 
 all tenderness being bestowed upon their helpless 
 families. 
 
 The honest soldier, Iradat Khan, who fought 
 zealously on the opposite side, yet bears warm testimony 
 to the virtue and prudence displayed by the prince 
 during this trying period. He was generous and 
 merciful, we are told — of a great soul, tempered by 
 affability, and discernful of merit. He had watched 
 the administrations of his father and grandfather, and 
 had been used to affairs himself for nearly half a 
 century. " It is a fact," adds this writer, " that the 
 deserving, whatever their calling or degree, received 
 an unprecedented attention from the throne.*' 
 
 Tiie first step of Shah Alam, on the day succeeding 
 the victory of Jajau, was to visit Munim Khan, who 
 received the titles of Khan Khanan, and " Paithful 
 Eriend," with a gratuity valued at a million sterling : 
 he was also appointed vazir, or prime minister of the 
 empire. Shah Alam himself ascended the throne at 
 Agra under the title of BA.HADrR Shah ; several of his 
 late competitor's principal friends, were at tlie same 
 time appointed to high ofl&ce, 
 
 Munira Khan at once instituted some wholesome 
 reforms ; while the new emperor, in spite of his 
 already advancing years, displayed a sumptuousness 
 which caused his court to rival the memory of Shah- 
 jahan's. Seventeen of his sons and nephews sate 
 around the throne, while a little farther off stood the 
 sons of conquered princes. The platform between the 
 silver rails was crowded with nobles, to whom the 
 emperor frequently distributed gifts. " How," cried 
 Iradat, " can I describe every particular of this 
 splendid scene ? " Tod, judging from the Hindu
 
 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 179 
 
 point of view is equally encomiastic ; saying that the 
 Emperor Bahadur Shah had many qualities that 
 endeared him to the Eajputs ; and, adding that, " had 
 he immediately succeeded the heneficent Shahjahan, 
 the house of Taimur, in all human probability, would 
 have been still enthroned at Delhi." Like Shahjahan 
 too, Bahadur was almost a pure Hindustani, and might 
 have looked for Rajput support on patriotic grounds. 
 But the bigotry of Aurungzeb had weakened the 
 loyalty of every Hindu ; and the lessons of rebellion 
 learned in that bad school could not be so soon 
 forgotten. 
 
 The Hindus have received in general parlance the 
 epithet of " mild ; " and, so far as the want of enter- 
 prise, engendered by a warm climate and a vegetable 
 diet may go, the epithet is not inappropriate. But 
 they worship jealous and cruel gods, and are by no 
 means wanting in a perverse spirit of smouldering 
 fanaticism that sometimes blazes into a dangerous 
 and destructive flame. So long as Aurungzeb was 
 strong, this feeling had been kept under, but it was 
 now in full and general activity. Mention has been 
 already made of the turbulence of the Rajputs and of 
 the marauding propensities of the Jats ; a new Hindu 
 power was forming in the Punjab which was 
 destined to become of more importance than either. 
 
 Nevertheless, it was not from open enemies like 
 the Hindus that Bahadur Shah's first troubles were 
 to arise. His foes were still of his own household. 
 Mohamad Kam Baksh has been already named as the 
 fifth son of Aurungzeb, and by a Hindu mother. At 
 the time of his elder brother's accession he was com- 
 manding in the province of Bijapur, whither he had
 
 180 THE TUEKS IN INDIA. 
 
 been sent with many marks of confidence by the late 
 emperor. Iraclat Khan, who was so well acquainted 
 with the princes, records that Kam Baksh had an 
 excellent memory, with many literary gifts and 
 accomplishments, but was withal flighty to a degree, 
 bordering on insanity. He had been a favourite 
 with the austere old man who was gone, for 
 Aurungzeb had found in this, his youngest son, a 
 contrast of character to his own which naturally 
 interested him. But lie seldom enjoyed a long period 
 of uninterrupted favour, being constantly banished 
 from court for some discreditable escapade, though 
 as often recalled. Among his other follies — to give 
 it no worse a name — was a senseless love of causing;; 
 pain, which ultimately degenerated into a cruelty 
 very inconsistent with the general character of his 
 family. Jealous of his brother, he failed to follow 
 the example of Aurungzeb, who had joined all 
 against one till the most powerful was overthrown, 
 and then subdued the others in detail. He did not 
 join the attempt of Azam ; and, after its failure, con- 
 sumed his opportunities in purposeless marching to 
 and fro, inflicting useless punishments on those whom 
 he deemed his enemies, and writing insolently to his 
 elder brother, who was by this time firmly enthroned 
 in Hindustan. At length, in a.d. 1708, the emperor 
 judged it proper to march against a brother who would 
 not listen to conciliation ; but he gave strict orders 
 to Munim Khan to take the prince without bloodshed. 
 It happened unfortunately for Kam Baksh at this 
 moment that an old general of Aurungzeb's, named 
 Zulfikar Khan, who was inimical to him, had an 
 independent command in the neighbourhood. With
 
 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 181 
 
 this lie attacked the prince, who on his part fought 
 with manful energy, and was not captured till he was 
 in a fainting condition from numerous arrow wounds, 
 and sixty- two of his staff had fallen round his 
 elephant. This took place a few miles from Haidara- 
 bad, where the emperor was encamped, and the prince 
 was at once taken to his brother's tents, and placed 
 under the care of European surgeons. The emperor 
 visited him in the evening and covered his bed with 
 his own mantle. " I never thought," said the 
 benevolent monarch, " to see my brother in this 
 condition." To which Kam Baksh sullenly replied, 
 " Neither did I think that one of the house of Taimur 
 would be taken prisoner in war." The proud prince 
 expired the same night, and his body was sent to 
 join that of so many others of his race at the mauso- 
 leum of Humayun, near Delhi. 
 
 The only special interest of this event in our day 
 is, that it was the rise of the fortunes of what have 
 been called by Europeans the " Nizams of Haidara- 
 bad." Eor the blind old Turk, Eiroz Jang, who had 
 commanded in the south, having tampered with the 
 abortive conspiracy of Kam Baksh, he was now sent 
 into honourable retirement in Gujarat ; and his able 
 son. Chin Kilich Khan, succeeding to his command 
 and influence, was placed in a position which he 
 ultimately improved to found a power in the Deccan 
 that still exists. 
 
 This, however, was not quite yet. Eor the 
 moment, the Government of the Deccan was placed 
 under Zulfikar, the general who captured the deceased 
 prince. He tried to conciliate the Mahrattas ; and 
 advanced to great honour a chief of that nation named
 
 182 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 
 
 Minaji Sindliia, who had taken part with him against 
 the late Kam Baksh. Soon after, a quarrel arising 
 hetween the Mahratta chiefs, about the allowance for 
 collecting land revenues, different sides were espoused 
 by Zulfikar and Munim. The good natured emperor 
 could not find it in his heart to reject definitely the 
 claims of either. In the midst of such disputes the 
 Mahratta chiefs — many of them little better than 
 Era Diavolos — made havoc of the Deccan. Mean- 
 while the grief, real and pretended, of the Rajputs 
 was ever growing, while the Punjab — heretofore a 
 secure seat of imperial power — became disturbed by 
 the new born turbulence of the Sikhs. 
 
 This denomination applied originally to a sect of 
 religious eclectics, chiefly Jdts and Khatris by race, 
 who seemed to have aimed at playing a similar part in 
 modern Hinduism to that enacted by the Buddhists in 
 early days. About the time of the emperor^s progress 
 to Haidarabad their plans had taken a new turn. Guru 
 Gobind, who had followed the court with a small 
 force, died, being assassinated by an impulsive 
 Pathan as he was blaspheming the Prophet. The 
 spiritual succession was claimed by one Bandu, who 
 pretended to work miracles, and called himself Sacha 
 Padshah, or " king of truth." He turned the 
 attention of his followers to plundering, raised a force 
 of eighteen thousand men among the hardiest 
 peasantry of that part of the world, and encountered 
 with success more than one of the imperial prefects. 
 These smaller triumphs ending in the overthrow of a 
 considerable force under the Foiijdar of Sirhind, 
 who was killed in the engagement, left the town of 
 that name open to the rapacity of the sectarian
 
 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 183 
 
 marauders. The sack was accompanied with needless 
 horrors; and the storm next fell on the adjoining 
 districts of Saharunpur, on the eastern side of the 
 Jumna. Here, also, great excesses were committed; 
 and the attack on Hindustan proper was only rolled 
 back by the vigour of the Pathaos of Jalalabad, in 
 the district now known as that of Mozafurnagur. 
 Baffled of their prey, by the courageous resistance of 
 the Mussulmans, the Sikhs retreated, after heavy loss, 
 and their next wave broke on the Jalandar Duab. 
 By this time their forces, irregularly armed and 
 organised, had attained the formidable number of 
 over seventy thousand men. But Shams Khan, the 
 local governor, was a man of resolution and judg- 
 ment. He collected the neighbouring gentry, and 
 encountered the Sikhs at a place called Bahun. 
 After receiving the fire of the enemy with great 
 sang frold. Shams Khan advanced upon them "with 
 his whole line. The Sikhs lost heart, and fled for 
 refuge into the fort of Bahun, w^here they were 
 immediately invested. Being unable to hold out 
 against a long siege, they presently made their escape 
 by night ; but, on Shams Khan following them, the 
 fort was re-occupied behind his back by a fresh party 
 of Sikhs. Encouraged by this new success, they 
 gathered fresh forces, and proceeded to threaten 
 Lahore, which was plundered up to the suburbs of 
 the city. Numbers of low-caste Hindus joined their 
 ranks ; and the Bajput rebellion distracting the 
 attention of Government, the rising soon attained 
 very formidable proportions. 
 
 About the beginning of a.d. 1710, Bahadur 
 Shah, finding that it was absolutely necessary that
 
 184 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 
 
 great efforts should be made for the suppression of 
 the Sikhs, resolved to conclude the Rajput difficulty 
 at any price ; he therefore took the unusual step of 
 sending one of his sons to summon to his presence 
 the Eajas of Ambar (Jaipur) and Marwar (Jodlipur), 
 to whom he conceded all their demands. What 
 these were on that particular occasion is not recorded, 
 but their general grievances are well known. They 
 were chiefly (1st) the jizya, or poll-tax in commuta- 
 tion of death, leviable by Moslem law on all 
 unbelievers ; (2nd) the slaughter of horned cattle for 
 beef ; and (3rd) the taking of Hindu princesses 
 to be wives of the emperors. Such was the class 
 of points in the Hindu charter, often granted, 
 and as often broken during the period of con- 
 fusion now under notice. The two chiefs, on 
 leaving the imperial camp, proceeded to Udaipur, 
 where, with the Rana of Mewar, they concluded a 
 triple alliance which, according to Tod, " laid pros- 
 trate the throne of Babar, but ultimately introduced 
 the Mahrattas as partizans in their family disputes, 
 who made the bone of contention their own." For 
 the present, however, the emperor's attention was set 
 free for the behoof of the Sikhs, whom he proceeded 
 to attack with the aid of the main army under his 
 most experienced lieutenants. The Sikh rebellion had 
 by this time made great prepress ; for the vanguard 
 of the imperial forces fought a doubtful engagement 
 with them at Shahdara, a few miles from Delhi, on 
 the 5th December, 1709. Munim Khan was then 
 sent on with reinforcements, and the Sikhs were at 
 length driven back towards what is now the territory 
 of the sub-Himalayan State of Kahan, and a strong
 
 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 185 
 
 party of them, under tlie personal command of the 
 Guru, took refuge in the fort of Lohgarh to the west- 
 ward. Being hard pressed, the emperor thought they 
 would surrender, and forbade an assault that would 
 in all probability cause much bloodshed. But 
 Munim, in his anxiety to strike a decisive blow by 
 capturing the Guru, stormed the fort. Changing 
 clothes with a devoted follower, the Guru fled during 
 the night by a postern ; the imperalists carried the 
 last of the defences after a short struggle, soon after 
 dawn, and entered the place sword in hand. The 
 false Guru was taken and brought before the 
 Mughal general, and the truth was presently made 
 out. A portion of the army was sent on into the 
 mountains of Sirmur, whither the true Guru was 
 supposed to have retired. The raja was caught and 
 sent to Delili in a cage of iron, but Bandu escaped 
 for the time. Munim Khan entered the capital with 
 drums beating and colours flying. But the mild 
 emperor was really roused at last. He sent out 
 orders to have the noise stopped, and to forbid the 
 bafl9.ed general his presence. Munim sickened, and 
 soon after died a victim — so Iradat Khan thought to 
 sensitiveness, of what he deemed royal ingratitude. 
 
 His death nevertheless was inopportune, and 
 caused confusion. The Prince Azimushan, who had 
 favoured the deceased, wished that one of his sons 
 should be appointed Captain- General of the Forces, 
 and the other Viceroy of the Deccan vice Zulflkar, 
 who was to have the vacant vazirship. But the latter 
 was unwilling to resign the Deccan, which was 
 fast becoming an independent sovereignty, so no 
 vazir was appointed, and the prince himself con-
 
 186 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 
 
 trolled the administration. Great jealousy appeared 
 to have existed between him and his brothers, but no 
 actual quarrel is recorded at that time. 
 
 The emperor was now advanced in years, and his 
 long labours were probably telling on his system. As 
 his strength failed his sons collected round him, as 
 birds of prey attend a dying ox. The two eldest, 
 Jahandar Shah and Azimushan, were sitting by his 
 bedside one day, the former, at that time considered 
 a warlike prince — took up his father's dagger, and 
 while examining it, drew it from the sheath. The 
 otlier brother was smitten with alarm, and in his eager- 
 ness to avoid an attack that was not intended, struck 
 ofiP his turban against the lintel, forgot his slippers at 
 the entry, and finally fell upon l^is face. His servants 
 were in waiting, and by them he was taken home. 
 
 Zulfikar, on hearing what had happened to his 
 patron, consulted the historian Iradat, and by his 
 advice wrote to offer his services to the prince, but 
 received a haughty answer, scrawled on a scrap of 
 paper. When it was delivered Iradat was still with 
 the minister, who shed tears and muttered complaints. 
 ** The errors of an ignorant favourite often endanger," 
 he said, "the very existence of his master." On the 18th 
 Eebruary, 1712, the mild and magnificent emperor 
 died.* Tod supposes that he was poisoned. His short 
 reign had not been conspicuously unprosperous ; but 
 his liberality had exhausted the exchequer, while his 
 obliging disposition lowered the prestige of the throne. 
 
 Besides the princes already named, two others 
 survived their father ; and when the funeral was over 
 they resolved to call in the aid of Zulfikar, and with 
 
 * See Note at end of Chapter.
 
 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 187 
 
 his help, effect aa amicahle distribution of the empire. 
 But the arrangement proved little more than nominal, 
 and Jahandar Shah, by the support of the experienced 
 minister, overthrew and slew his brothers, more by 
 luck than good management ; after which he was pro- 
 claimed emperor. He soon became known as an idle 
 voluptuary, effeminately careful of his person, and 
 completely in the hands of a concubine named Lai 
 Konwar and her friends. Khafi. Khan relates an 
 amusing anecdote bearing upon the contrast between 
 them and the ancient " Pillars of the State." 
 
 The brother of the favourite was appointed to the 
 SubaJi of Agra, but unexpected delay was experienced 
 in getting the patent made out. At last the emperor 
 spoke to Zulfikar, who controlled the Home Office. 
 " Delay," said the blunt old warrior, " yes, of course 
 there is. AYe courtiers do nothing without bribes," 
 The emperor, smiling, asked what bribe might be 
 expected from his mistress. *' One thousand of her 
 dancing and drawing-masters," was the reply. "Why, 
 what use would you make of such people ? " asked 
 the emperor. " I would become their pupil," growled 
 the other. " Since you give all preferment and honour 
 to such people, it is time for us nobles to learn their 
 trade." 
 
 The end was near. The emperor and his minister 
 both neglected their public duties, the former from 
 indolence, the latter from disgust. The Deccan was 
 administered in the minister's absence, by a coarse and 
 drunken, though valiant soldier, Daud Khan, who acted 
 as his deputy. The Sayyids of Barha were meanwhile 
 exciting Earukh Siyar, the son of the deceased 
 Azimushan to rebellion in Bahar, and the son of the
 
 188 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 
 
 old Turkman, Firoz Janj — also lately dead — was 
 fuming in neglect and disgrace at Delhi. Besides his 
 mistress and her friends, the emperor was under no 
 other influence but that of his foster brother Kokaltash 
 Koka and his family. These wretched creatures 
 combined to frighten him out of his poor wits by 
 insinuating into his mind suspicions of Zulfikar, and 
 the latter, taking alarm in turn, gave way to a terror- 
 born tyranny, and began to justify these intrigues by 
 violent reprisals. In the midst of this confusion the 
 Barha Sayyids with their puppet advanced from Bahar, 
 and the emperor, who was at Lahore, moved down 
 the country to meet them ; but on reaching Delhi he 
 yielded to the temptations of the capital. The min- 
 ister, unsupported by his master, could do but little. 
 The conspirators continued to advance. The imperi- 
 alist army was preceded by a large force under the 
 command of the emperor's eldest son, and a parasite, 
 named Khwaja Hassan ; but these two poltroons, on 
 Hearing danger, fled without a battle, leaving their 
 camp to be plundered by the enemy. The latter Avere 
 led bv two foremost members of the Barha tribe, 
 Sayyid Abdulla Khan and his brother Hosain Ali 
 Khan, men trained under Aurungzeb, and since his 
 death attached to his unsuccessful son and grandson 
 Azam and Azimushan. Under this patronage they 
 had obtained the Governments of Bahar and Allahabad; 
 and though their patrons had been overthrown they 
 had managed to retain them. They had now espoused 
 the cause of this son of their last patron, and, taking 
 advantage of the scandalous condition of affairs at the 
 head quarters, had resolved to aid him with all the 
 resources of their provinces.
 
 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 189 
 
 They began to cross the Jumna at Gasghat, a feny 
 or ford on the southern side of the city of Allahabad. 
 As the river was broad, Zulfikar Khan, who had by 
 this time arrived with the main army and the emperor 
 in person, resolved to attack them during the night, 
 and before their passage had been completed. Either, 
 however, from treachery in his army, or because the 
 enemy's forces were numerically superior, he did not 
 succeed in stemming the advance. The action began ; 
 the craven emperor mounted the elephant of his 
 mistress and left the field ; Kokaltash was killed. 
 The valiant veteran Zulfikar maintained the conflict 
 all day, but Chin Kilish Khan (the future Nizam) 
 withheld his support ; neither emperor nor crown 
 prince could be found to show for the encouragement 
 of the chiefs aud soldiers, and Zulfikar, towards even- 
 ing, reluctantly retired and followed the pusillanimous 
 emperor to Delhi. They both repaired to the same 
 place of refuge, the house of Zulfikar's father, Asafud- 
 daula. But all men were now weaiy of Jahandar and 
 his weaknesses. He was sent to the Salimgarh, and 
 the capital opened its gates to the victor, who ascended 
 the throne by the title of Mohamad Paeokh Sitae, 
 Ghazi on the 9th February, 1713. Jahandar was 
 put to death in his prison, and honours and titles cast 
 into the hands of the Sayyid kingmakers. Their first 
 step was to persuade Zulfikar Khan to wait upon 
 the new monarch under an oral safe conduct ; but he 
 was entangled in controversy after leaving the presence. 
 In the midst of acrimonious wranglings on the politics 
 of the past and present, the veteran was lassoed from 
 behind, and beaten to death by the attendants. His 
 body, and that of the late emperor, were paraded round
 
 190 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 
 
 the town on elephants, and then flung on the ground 
 before the palace-gate. A reign of the bowstring and 
 of terror ensued ; all power was given to a native of 
 Mnltan who had been a kazi in Bengal ; and the 
 Sayyids soon began to find that they had miscalculated 
 in bringing forward Parohh Siyar as their puppet. 
 
 The new emperor was indeed weak, timid, young 
 and inexperienced. But his great fault lay in his 
 habit of following any one who had the last word with 
 him. The kingmakers on their part either did not 
 perceive this, or, perceiving it, lacked the means of 
 counteraction : hence, their enemies were able to 
 separate them. Hosain Ali was placed in command 
 of the army, and sent on a campaign against the 
 Bajputs, while Abdulla, though nominally prime 
 minister, was excluded from the secret junto of the 
 new emperor. 
 
 Tod is remarkably reticent about this campaign ; 
 but declares that it originated in the expulsion of the 
 Mughals from Marwar by the Bahtor Baja Ajit Sinh, 
 and ended in a compromise between him and the Sayyid 
 general. Khafi Khan gives his account from the 
 Mughal point of view. Mir Jumla, the new favourite 
 mentioned above as a Multani was evidently bent 
 from the first on subverting the infl.uence of the king- 
 makers ; and it was probably owing to his instigations 
 that the expedition was planned. Hosain Ali was sent 
 against Jodhpur in the beginning of the second year 
 of the reign ; Ajit Sinh preparing for the worst, sent 
 away all the property he could command to distant 
 places in the mountainous parts of Bajputana ; and, 
 as in spite of the triple alliance, he seems to have been 
 left to meet the storm alone — at once sought to
 
 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 191 
 
 pacify the invaders. On his part the Sayyid leader 
 was, it so happened, equally ready to treat. The cause 
 Avas this — Mir Jumla, as already noted, enjoyed the 
 entire confidence of the monarch, who openly declared 
 " the word of Mir Jumla and the signature of Mir 
 Jumla were his own." Mir Jumla was an upright 
 puhlic servant who carried out the orders of his 
 master faithfully. This did not suit the vazir, who 
 lield that all patents and decrees should go through 
 his office and he signed hy himself. The courtiers for 
 the most part sided with their master and his faithful 
 servant ; so that the vazir became convinced that the 
 end of the reign of himself and his brother would be 
 sure and speedy unless their separation was put an 
 end to. He therefore wrote to the army explaining to 
 Hosain All how matters stood and urging his im- 
 mediate return. Under these circumstances the Sayyid 
 general hastened to accept the proffered submission 
 of Ajit : and this is the foundation of truth in Tod's 
 account of the trausaction. Ajit however must have 
 been hard pressed and seriously alarmed, for he 
 included in his capitulation a condition directly 
 opposed to the terms of the Rajput confederacy by 
 consenting that his daughter should proceed to Delhi 
 as the emperor's bride. 
 
 In the course of this year an arrangement was 
 effected at court in virtue of which Hosain Ali 
 accepted the government of the Deccan, on Mir 
 Jumla consenting to go as subahdar to Bahar. 
 Before departing however, the Sayyid warned the 
 emperor that if Mir Jumla should be recalled, or his 
 brother molested in the vazirate, he would in either 
 case be at court in force within three weeks' time.
 
 192 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 
 
 On arriving at his new post he found a serious 
 opposition awaiting him in the person of Daud Khan, 
 the deputy, who had administered the Deccan for 
 Zulfikar Khan, and who, since that minister's death, 
 had taught himself to cousider the province his own. 
 A serious action took place, in which the gallant old 
 wine hihber* was killed by a random shot. When 
 the emperor heard the news, he expressed in durbar 
 his regret at the fate of so renowned a warrior. "Ah, 
 sir ! " cried the vazir, who was present, " had it been 
 my brother that was killed, your majesty would have 
 felt far otherwise." 
 
 Early in a.d.J 715, the English settlers of Bengal 
 appear for the first time upon the scene of Delhi 
 politics. The Eastern Subahs were then under a 
 nobleman named Jafar (otherwise Murshid Luli)t 
 Khan, whose conduct was habitually harsh and 
 oppressive to all classes. The English sought for 
 permission to appear at the foot of the throne with a 
 petition of appeal and some rare presents. Their 
 application being graciously received, a mission was 
 despatched, consisting of two chief officials and a 
 Scottish surgeon named William Hamilton. On 
 arriving (which they did, 8th July, 1715), | tbey 
 found themselves received kindly by the emj)eror, 
 but constantly thwarted by the vazir, who was 
 probably in correspondence with their oppressor. 
 
 * He used to visit the Englisli at Madras when Mr. Pitt (father to Lord Chatham) 
 was Governor, and carouse with them to the sound of cannon. — Marshman. 
 
 t "Wheeler's Early Records," p. 64 and pf., where an account of the 
 mission will also be found. 
 
 X Khafi Khan antedates all these events, including the death of Bahadur 
 Shah ; but Iradat Khan corrects him ; and the EngUsh dates enable us to see 
 that the latter must be right.
 
 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 193 
 
 The emperor was afflicted with a disorder that pre- 
 vented his consummating his marriage with the 
 Jodhpm' princess ; a tumour on the hack, according to 
 Tod. Hamilton operated successfully, and, on being 
 asked to name his fee, with memorable public spirit 
 begged for the granting of the prayer which was the 
 object of his mission. The emperor assented, and, 
 after some delay, the mission obtaijied a patent con- 
 ferring upon the nascent presidency the right of 
 passing their commerce free of duty, and the pos- 
 session of townships to an extent which would make 
 them owners of land near Calcutta for ten miles on. 
 either bank of the river Hooghly, Intrigues at 
 court delayed the ratification, 
 
 Meanwhile the Sikhs had broken out again. The 
 emperor moved towards the Panjab with an immense 
 army, and the English envoys, whose patent had not 
 yet been signed, accompanied the camp. No less than 
 two years of time and large sums of money were spent 
 from their first arrival to the final delivery of the 
 farmdn. At length the appearance of an English 
 fleet off the coast of Gujarat hastened proceedings. 
 The deed received the sign manual ; but, when the 
 envoys reached Calcutta, with all formalities duly 
 completed, the influence of the suhalidar was still 
 such as to prevent their then obtaining the land. 
 Erom this specimen may be judged the condition of 
 the administration at this period. 
 
 The Sikhs had now greatly increased in numbers 
 and in boldness, and (a.d. 1716) had overrun the 
 country between Lahore and Umballa, in spite of the 
 efforts of the Subahdar Abd-us-Samad Khan and his 
 forces, who were at last forced to entrench their position 
 

 
 194! THE TURKS IN INDIA. 
 
 and defend it with heavy guns, though nominally 
 besieging the enemy. The latter made a most 
 obstinate defence, but, being strictly invested, they 
 yielded at last, though rather to famine than to force. 
 They surrendered at discretion; and the fierce Moslem 
 at once decapitated two thousand of them whose 
 heads were sent to Delhi with a thousand prisoners, 
 among whom was the Guru Bandu. On reaching the 
 capital, the living with the relics of the dead, were 
 exhibited to the populace, after which the former were 
 gradually massacred in cold blood in the Clianclni 
 Chciuk. The guru and his son were executed in the 
 Salim Garh, and it was reported that the father was 
 made to slay the son with his own hands before he 
 himself was put to death. 
 
 Next year Mir Jumla returned from his post at 
 Patna. The emperor, true to his character of siding 
 with the present against the absent — and perhaps not 
 unmindful of the threat of his parting general — was 
 more than cold to the former favourite. Mir Jumla 
 went to the vazir, offering abject submission and 
 begging for favour. ^Finally, Mir Jumla was deprived 
 of his government and sent to the inferior post of 
 Lahore, while Chin Kilich, the future "Nizam" was 
 despatched as Foujdar into Rohilkhand. A futile 
 campaign was waged against the Mahrattas, and an 
 attempt was made to reinforce the Hindu poll-tax. 
 Thus passed the year 1717. 
 
 The encroachments of the Sayyids continued to 
 increase, and the emperor gave himself over more 
 and more to the pleasures of private life, hunting, and 
 the society of ladies. The vazir could get no business 
 despatched for months together. To make matters
 
 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 195 
 
 still worse, not only was the hateful poll-tax once 
 more imposed upon the Hindus, but the official posts 
 filled by nobles of that class, were at the same time 
 threatened, their accounts called for, and their 
 emoluments diminished. In the Deccan the rebellion 
 of the Mahrattas became both violent and chronic — 
 inflamed, as was supposed — by secret orders from the 
 court, where the fall of the Sayyid Subahdar was ever 
 prayed for, though none dared strike an active blow 
 towards it. 
 
 It is not needful to enter into all the details of the 
 Mahratta politics here, where tlie only purpose is to 
 exhibit the gradual decay of the empire. Full parti- 
 culars are to be found in Grant Duff, who has done 
 for the Hindus of the Deccan all that the romantic 
 Tod has for their co-religionists of Hajputana, and 
 with far more of care and judgment. 
 
 What is necessary to be observed is, that all these 
 quarrels among the Mussalmans rapidly developed the 
 influence of the Hindus, already sufficiently disposed 
 to give trouble. Hosain Ali made a treaty with the 
 agents of the Mahratta Eaja Sahu (called Shao by 
 Duff) ; but, on being reported at Delhi, the formal 
 ratification was refused, and the treaty repudiated. 
 An attempt was at the same time made to form a 
 coalition between the Mughals and the Eajputs ; but 
 the emperor's usual irresolution, combined with his 
 habit of yielding to private sycophants, weakened all 
 combinations, and the Sayyid vazir began to raise 
 troops on his own account, and summoned his brother 
 from the Deccan. At the same time he amused the 
 confederates by a pretended reconciliation with the 
 feeble monarch.
 
 196 THE TUEKS IN INDIA. 
 
 Hosain Ali advanced upon the capital with his 
 own army and — omen of evil for the empire — a strong 
 corps of Mahrattas, under an able general of that 
 nation, named Khandi. On his way he was joined 
 by several disaffected Mughal nobles, among them the 
 future Nizam.* 
 
 At the beginning of a.d. 1719, Hosain Ali reached 
 his last halting-place at Eirozabad, in Old Delhi; and, 
 as a sign of his intentions, contumaciously beat his 
 drums outside of the southern gate of the capital, so 
 as to be heard by the emperor and those with him. 
 Jai Sinh, the chief of the Eajputs of Amber (since 
 called after him, Jaipur), counselled prompt action. 
 But the emperor's head was " muifled," as the chroni- 
 cler says; he declined the spirited suggestion, and 
 many of the leading courtiers, despairing of such 
 a ruler, flocked out to the rebel camp to make their 
 own terms. Within the palace all was now con- 
 fusion. The vazh", in durbar, stormily stated his 
 brother's grievances, and demanded three immediate 
 concessions. Pirst, the dismissal of Eaja Jai Sinh; 
 second, the nomination of his brother's followers to 
 all posts of trust ; and, third, the surrender of the 
 fort and palace into their hands. The helpless 
 emperor consenting, sorrowfully dismissed his friends 
 and favourites, and so signed his own death-warrant. 
 His enemies took possession of his house and person. 
 They then returned to the emperor's apartment, and pre- 
 senting themselves in unceremonious guise proceeded 
 to read him a lecture on his real and imputed faults 
 and misdeeds. The spirit of the race of Taimur was at 
 
 * Tbe chronology of these events is confused and difficult. An attempt is 
 made to reconcile the discrepant authorities.
 
 TIIE TURKS IN INDIA. 197 
 
 last kindled ; Parukh Siyar made a haughty reply. 
 A stormy scene followed, which ended for the moment 
 in the retirement of the emperor into his private 
 chambers. That night peace was maintained in the 
 city by strong military patrols ; but with morning 
 disturbances began. Some of the courtiers took up 
 arms in the streets; the Mahrattas were expelled 
 beyond the walls, one of their leaders and fifteen 
 hundred of his men being slain ; barricades were 
 beginning to rise, when suddenly a herald issuing from 
 the palace proclaimed the beginning of a new reign, 
 and the music of a levee burst forth in the Naubat 
 Khana. In spite of an amnesty which was at the 
 same time announced, the citizens attempted to com- 
 municate with Parukh Siyar, and his amazons, 
 negroes, and Tartar guards prepared for a stout 
 resistance. But even in this supreme moment, no 
 resolution found place in that emasculated heart. 
 Dragged from a place of concealment in the female 
 apartments, Earukh Siyar was taken to a solitary cell, 
 and a son of Azimushan placed upon the throne. Order 
 was restored, spoils distributed, appointments made. 
 
 So things went on for two months. In the mean- 
 time the miserable Earukh Siyar attempted to intrigue 
 with his guards. On hearing of this the Sayyids put 
 poison into his food. His constitution resisted, and it 
 was found necessary to terminate his existence by 
 violence. The bowstring was thrown round his neck ; 
 he tore at it with his hands, which the executioners 
 beat with sticks till his hold relaxed. After a despe- 
 rate struggle he fell dead. 
 
 Thus perished the Emperor Parukh Siyar in the 
 38th year of his age, and the seventh of his nominal
 
 198 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 
 
 reign, reckoned from the death of Bahadur Shah. 
 His death was followed in four months by that of his 
 successor, and the brother of the latter became nominal 
 emperor. These two poor lads were both the merest 
 puppets ; and the second followed the first in little 
 more than three months. This brief period is chiefly 
 remarkable for the increasing boldness of the Hindus. 
 Jai Sinh threatened Agra, where a pretender was in 
 arms; Ajit Sinh, of Jodhpur, had the hardihood to 
 take away his daughter, the widow of Earukh Siyar. 
 The fort of Agra was secured, and the pretender put 
 in confinement ; the brother Sayyids disputed over 
 the treasure that was found in the Agra palace, the 
 property left by Nur Jahan and Mumtaz Mahl, her 
 niece ; the sheet of pearls that used to be spread over 
 the tomb of the latter in the Taj on every anniversary 
 of her wedding-day ; the jewels that had accumulated 
 since the days of Babar. Jai Sinh obtained terms, 
 and was made governor of Surat ; Ajit Sinh obtaining 
 Ajmere and Ahmadabad. Thus, as Khafi Khan says, 
 these two unbelievers held sway from the Indian 
 Ocean to within fifty miles of the capital. Churaman, 
 chief of the Bhurtpore Jats, held his part of the 
 country nearly to the walls of Agra. The Mahrattas, 
 as their reward for aiding in the overthrow of Farukh 
 Siyar, obtained the chauth or twenty-five per cent, of 
 the revenues of the Deccan, and a further grant of ten 
 per cent, more, with the independent sovereignty of 
 the heart of the ancient " Mahratta " country from 
 Poona to Kolhapur.
 
 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 199 
 
 Note. — From a reference, for -which I am mdebted to the research and 
 courtesy of Professor Blochmann, M.A., of the Calcutta " Madrisa," I learn that 
 Bahadur Shah, shortly after his accession, assumed the title of Sayyid in right 
 of his motlier. This lady was the descendant of a hermit named Sayyid Mir 
 Shah, who disappeared after marrying a daughter of the Eaja of Cashmere. 
 This Eaja adopted the children and brought them up as Hindus. Hence the 
 lady who, by a singular accident, became the wife of Aurungzeb in his youth, 
 was in one respect of Sayyid origin, though in another she might be looked upon 
 as Hindu. Her title, after her marriage, was Nuwab Bai, a mark, perhaps, of 
 her double nationality. 
 
 The following contemporary account of the confusion that followed the death 
 of Bahadar Shah, may help to show the disorganised condition of society at that 
 period : — " Loud cries were heard on every side. The amirs and ofScials left the 
 camp in the dark, and went to join the princes. Many persons . . . were greatly 
 alarmed and went to the city with their families. The streets were so crowded 
 that it was impossible to pass along them, aud houses could not be found to 
 accommodate the people. Several persons were to be seen taking refuge in one 
 shop. Friends and relations were unable to answer the calls made upon them. 
 Great disturbances arose in the armies of the princes, and none of the grandees 
 had any hope of saving their lives. The soldiers loudly demanded their arrears, 
 and, joining the private servants, used bad language and began to plunder. 
 Fathers could not help their sons, nor sons their fathers; every one had enough 
 to do in taking care of himself, and the scene was like the " Day of Judgment." 
 [From the " Tazkira Chaghtai," apud Dowson, vol. viii., p. 19, where the date 
 is erroneously given as 1615.] 
 
 All this bewilderment was one of the fruits of the incapacity of the Chnghtaia 
 for progress. They had no fixed law of succession in the deserts of Karakoram, 
 where it was needful that the leader of the tribes should be the most competent; 
 so, after forming a settled government, they allowed the same state of things to 
 continue, though circumstances had quite altered.
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 DECAY AND DISINTEGEATION. 
 
 II. 
 
 Disappointed in tlie line of Rafinshan, the king- 
 making Sayyids now found themselves under the 
 necessity of selecting a hardier scion. Their choice 
 fell upon Eoshan Akhtar, son of one of the brothers 
 of Jahandar Shah, slain in the battle near Lahore, 
 by which that prince consolidated his short-lived 
 sovereignty. The choice was apparently wise ; the 
 young emperor was handsome, intelligent, and gifted 
 ■with many good qualities. His mother was a woman 
 of experience, well known for intelligence and tact. 
 It is probable that the Sayyids expected to rule the 
 ruler, and to find a grateful and willing tool in the 
 lady, for they surrounded them with their own 
 creatures and confidants. 
 
 The first durbar* was held at Fathipur-Sikri, 
 14th September, 1719, when the new emperor took 
 his scat under tbe title of Mohamad Shah. Students 
 of history will note his reign as the period in which 
 were founded all the modern powers of the Indian 
 
 • See note at end of Chapter.
 
 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 201 
 
 peninsula. It seemed as though the empire, like 
 some of the lower animals, was about to reproduce 
 its life by " fissiparous generation." 
 
 Mohamad, however, soon showed that he was not 
 minded to be a mere puppet, and he found an active 
 encouragement in the daily discourse of his mother, 
 Mariam Makam. The surveillance in which they 
 were kept prevented their taking any immediate 
 steps ; but that surveillance could not be maintained 
 for ever. The first distraction was caused by the 
 rebellion of a Hindu official who had seized the Eort 
 of Allahabad, and attempting to hold the surrounding 
 country on his own account. Scarcely had this 
 difficulty been disposed of, by negotiation, backed with 
 a show of force, than a fresh trouble arose in the 
 south. 
 
 It will be remembered that Chin Kilich Khan, who 
 was spoken of in the last chapter as the future Nizam, 
 had been sent to pacify the Moradabad districts, 
 tracts between the Ganges and the Kamaon Hills. 
 Since his return he had been mostly leading a retired 
 life at Delhi. About the end of Earukh Siyar's reign, 
 he had been deputed by the Sayyids to the Govern- 
 ment of the beautiful and fertile plateau of Malwa, 
 where he established himself at Ujain in Pebruary, 
 1719. But the new subahdar was a dangerous tool, 
 a Turanian and a Sunni, able, discontented and restless. 
 In his new sphere he soon attracted to himself a body 
 of disaffected soldiers and gentry of his own class. 
 
 The emperor's mother, chafing under the bonds 
 in which she and her son were kept by the Sayyids, 
 saw her opportunity in the attitude of this valiant and 
 powerful clansman; and she began a secret corres-
 
 202 THE TUEKS IN INDIA. 
 
 poudence witli the Turkman, in wliicli, touchino: the 
 spring of hereditary loyalty to the Chughtai, she en- 
 gaged him to her cause. The Sayyids, on their part, 
 were not unaware of the rising danger, and they 
 endeavoured to make for themselves friends among the 
 chiefs of the Hindus. As soon as they fancied them- 
 selves strong enough to pick a quarrel with the Nizam 
 they ordered him to make over charge of Malwa, 
 giving him in exchange the choice of several inferior 
 appointments. As he demurred, he was summoned 
 to Delhi ; but the private instructions of the emperor 
 were quite opposite, warning him that there was no 
 time to be lost, and that what he had to do must be 
 done quickly — if it was to be done at all. From a 
 Hindu letter, preserved by Tod, it would appear that 
 early in the monsoon of 1720, the Nizam was known 
 to have left his capital and crossed the Nerbudda at 
 the head of a strong party of horse. Collecting fol- 
 lowers along his line of march, he presently obtained 
 possession of much of the country between the 
 Nerbudda and the Tapti. Burhanpur was the first 
 place of importance at the possession of which he 
 thought it necessary to aim, and inasmuch as he had 
 not sufficient force to besiege a place of such strength 
 and magnitude, he was obliged to have recourse to 
 negotiation. A faint-hearted leader surrendered the 
 defences, and the Nizam made his entry into this 
 important position in little more than a fortnight 
 after crossing the Nerbudda — some time in May. It 
 seems that it took over three months for the news to 
 reach the Eajputs. 
 
 Burhanpur was once one of Akbar's capitals, and 
 still contains the remains of a fine palace built by him.
 
 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 203 
 
 It is situated on the river Tapti at the foot of the 
 romantic scarps of the Satpura Hills. It Tvas in 
 those days the gate of the Deccan, being on the high 
 road to Aurangabad, and accordingly the Nizam 
 resolved to make it his first position. Here he found 
 some of the family of his enemy, whom he treated 
 with all respect, and forwarded under an escort on 
 their way to Delhi. Numbers of Mohamadan chiefs 
 flocked to his standard, and he began to form a park 
 of artillery. His next success was the capture of the 
 neighbouring fortress of Asirgurh (so well known to the 
 British by the valiant resistance that it offered to them 
 about a century later than the time we are now con- 
 cerned with, in the Pindaree war). Situated on a 
 solitary rock, seven hundred and fifty feet high, and 
 dominating the whole plain between the Tapti and the 
 Nerbudda rivers, it was at once indispensable to the 
 permanent holding of Burhanpur, and almost impreg- 
 nable to besiegers of those days. It fell into the 
 Nizam's hands by treachery, and gave him forthwith 
 the command of the whole country of Khandes. 
 Some Mahratta chiefs joined him. 
 
 It was now late in the summer of 1720, the second 
 year since the murder of Farukh Siyar. The Sayyids 
 were becoming seriously embarrassed. Abdullah — 
 whom we may note as the civilian brother — proposed 
 to retire to Delhi (they appear to have been at 
 Fathipur Sikri when the campaign began), while 
 Hosain Ali should set out for the Deccan with such a 
 force as he could improvise. The emperor, with the 
 begam, his mother, was first sent in one direction — 
 then in the other. 
 
 Meanwhile the Nizam had been all but caught
 
 204 THE TUEKS IN INDIA. 
 
 between two fires ; for Dilawar Ali, a partizan of the 
 brothers, after overrunning the evacuated province of 
 Malwa, was already over the Nerbudda, while their 
 nephew, Alam Ali Khan, with the local levies, was 
 advancing towards the Tapti from the side of Aurang- 
 abad. The Nizam resolved to deal with the northern 
 force first. Sending his family to the security of 
 Asirgarh, he advanced to the neighbourhood of a small 
 village called E-atanpur, about thirty miles north of 
 Burhanpur, whence he sent a messenger to endeavour 
 to open negotiations with Dilawar. That leader 
 rejecting his overtures, the Nizam awaited the attack. 
 It took place 10th June, 1720. The action was pre- 
 cipitated by a feint on the part of the Mughal leader, 
 which drew on a rash attack by the combined forces 
 of Dilawar and of several Rajput chiefs who had joined 
 the Sayyids. Tod mentions the Ranas of Kota and 
 Nirwar. The Sayyid general, leading on his men, in 
 the oriental fashion, mounted on an elephant, was shot 
 dead. His Mussalman followers lost heart, and were 
 defeated with the slaughter of nearly five thousand 
 men. The Eajputs, fighting better, got off with the 
 loss of over three hundred, and the Kota prince, who 
 was slain, fighting bravely to the last. The Nizam 
 then fell back upon Burhanpur, where he left a garrison 
 and proceeded southward, to the encounter of the 
 Aurangabad forces, under Alam Ali. 
 
 Meanwhile all was confusion at court. The 
 councils of the brothers were violently perplexed, 
 and not a week passed without a change of purpose 
 and a removal of camp. Now the emperor was 
 marched towards Delhi; now carried back to Agra. 
 The conspiracy against the brothers, already initiated
 
 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 205 
 
 by the Sultana, became more fully organised, and was 
 joined by the Subahdar of Biana, Saadat Ali — a shiah 
 like themselves — and by Haidar Kuli Khan, whom 
 they had placed in supreme command of the artillery, 
 a chosen corps, in whose ranks were many Europeans. 
 A violent earthquake, which overthrew part of the 
 walls of Delhi, and destroyed considerable life and 
 property, added to the trouble of the time. In the 
 midst of these distractions, worse news arrived from 
 the south. 
 
 Having made his dispositions for the defence of 
 Burhanpur, the Nizam, in spite of his past successes, 
 once more attempted to make terms with his enemies. 
 Writing to Alam Ali "a few noble words," as the 
 chronicler calls them, he advised his correspondent 
 to urge peace upon his uncles ere it was too late. 
 But Alam Ali refused to listen either to this generous 
 counsel or to the no less prudent warnings of his 
 Mahratta colleagues, who recommended him to occupy 
 Ahmadnagar, or else to return to Aurangabad, where 
 he might consolidate his power, while they, laying 
 waste the country, after the manner of their nation, 
 hampered or arrested the enemy's advance. 
 
 Eor the Sayyid was young and confident; no 
 more inclined to what he thought an unworthy war- 
 fare than to what might seem a truckling peace. 
 Descending the pass that led from Ajanta towards 
 the head of West Berar, he pitched his camp on the 
 right bank of the river Purna, which flows into the 
 Tapti a few miles below Burhanpur. This stream was 
 so swollen by the rains of an early monsoon as to ap- 
 pear more like a trackless marsh than a mere affluent 
 of another river.
 
 206 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 
 
 But the Mughal star was in the ascendant. Master 
 of the country, the Nizam had little difficulty in pro- 
 curing competent and trustworthy guides, hy whose 
 aid he found a ford some thirty miles higher up. Alam 
 Ali was much disturbed when he heard of the crossing, 
 but he sent a cloud of Mahratta horsemen to recon- 
 noitre, who soon retired, after a fruitless engagement 
 with the Nizam's advanced guard. The main army 
 of the latter was now encamped in a desert neighbour- 
 hood, between Akola and Burhanpur; and, if the 
 Sayyid commander had even yet been willing to fol- 
 low prudent councils, it would have suffered much 
 from the weather and the want of provisions. But 
 the Mahrattas on Alam Ali's side renewed their at- 
 tacks, and on the 1st August the Nizam was able, in 
 appearing to repel one of these onslaughts, to tempt 
 his enemy with an insufficient force, and so repeat 
 the tactics that had lately proved fatal to Dilawar Ali. 
 The Sayyid, too, renewed his colleague's mistake, 
 rushed upon the enemy, who promptly fled, and pre- 
 sently found himself surrounded by the whole force 
 of the Nizam. Streaming with bloody wounds, the 
 gallant youth stood upon his elephant, returning upon 
 the enemy their own arrows. But his strength at last 
 failed, and he sank lifeless on the bottom of his how- 
 dah. The Mahrattas retreated ; the Mussalmans 
 joined the Nizam. 
 
 The news of this fresh disaster reached Agra while 
 the ministers were engaged in making their last move. 
 Abdullah, the statesman, returned to Delhi. Ilosain 
 Ali, the more warlike brother, advanced in the direction 
 of the Deccan with the emperor and the emperor's com- 
 panions and mother, whose plans for his destruction
 
 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 207 
 
 were fast ripening. Late in September the camp was 
 pitched at a small village sixty or seventy miles beyond 
 Eathipm' Sikri. The chief conspirator was a Persian 
 noble named Saadat Ali (who should be noticed as 
 the future founder of the dynasty of Oudh, still repre- 
 sented by a pensioned "king" leading a private life 
 in Calcutta). 
 
 There was a Turkman attached to the suite of 
 Mohamad Amin Khan (one of the chief nobles of 
 the court), whose name was Haidar Khan. On him 
 the duty of striking the blow that was to liberate the 
 Mughals now devolved. The durbar had broken up ; 
 the emperor had retired to his private tent, the cour- 
 tiers had dispersed or were dispersing. Haidar Khan 
 approached the palanquin of the doomed minister, 
 and presented a mock petition which he had prepared 
 for the purpose. When he saw Hosain Ali engaged 
 in perusing the paper, the Tartar drew his long knife 
 from his girdle, and struck so swiftly, that his victim 
 was slain by the first blow. The assassin was at once 
 cut down, and the alarm became general, Mohamad 
 Amin, with his son Kamruddin and some hundred and 
 fifty chosen followers, hastened to the imperial tent ; 
 Haidar Kuli called out his gunners. On the other 
 side the relatives and partizans of the deceased 
 minister led out their forces. The strife rose his:h; 
 the camp followers, duly prompted, no doubt, 
 plundered and burned the tents of the Sayyids. 
 Their new leader, a nephew of the minister, was 
 shot in the melee, and the men who had been 
 desperately following soon fled when he was no 
 longer there to lead. On all sides arose shouts pro- 
 claiming victory and deliverance.
 
 208 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 
 
 The post of yazir was now conferred upon Moha- 
 mad Amin, and his son Kamruddin was made the 
 comptroller of the household. Haidar Kuli and 
 Saadat the Persian also received great promotion. 
 The surviving Sayyid, the ex-vazir Abdulla Khan, 
 heard the news upon his road, and with a heavy 
 heart pursued his way to Delhi. Arriving at the 
 capital after a troublous journey, he lost no time in 
 raising another pretender, a son of the late short-lived 
 Rafinshan. A counter court was created, and hasty 
 arrangements made for raising an army. By the 1st 
 November 90,000 horsemen had been enlisted, and 
 the force was swollen by the junction of the Bhurt- 
 pore Jats and other Hindus. On the other side, small 
 accessions of strength were received from the Eohillas, 
 Mewatis and other Indian Mussalmans, all of whom 
 were of the Sunni sect like the Mughals. Thus 
 reinforced, the imperial bands, under the command 
 of Haidar Kuli, tiu'ned off from their southward road, 
 and marched towards Delhi. The meeting between 
 the two hosts took place near Muttra, on the 3rd 
 November, 1720 ; and after a bloody battle, that 
 lasted two days, Sayyid Abdullah and his puppet 
 emperor were taken and their followers put to flight. 
 The emperor entered Delhi on the 10th, and was 
 received with welcome by all classes. 
 
 In the meanwhile the Nizam, freed from further 
 molestation, had established himself at Aurangabad, 
 and endeavoured, by a liberal display of favour, 
 to procure for himself the adherence of Mubariz 
 Khan, the administrator of Haidarabad. Having 
 made these arrangements, he proceeded to Delhi. 
 Mohamad Amin dying, for him opportunely, the
 
 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 209 
 
 Nizam was at once appointed vazir, and it seemed as 
 if the new reign, emerging from the clouds of its 
 morning, was about to open upon a calm and bright 
 existence. No one could then foresee the yet distant 
 storm that was destined to make it the most fatal 
 period of the house of Taimur. 
 
 Sayyid Abdullah died soon after his defeat ; 
 poison was suspected, but never proved. Saadat 
 Khan became Viceroy of Oudh. A Hindu was ap- 
 pointed Governor of Malwa; the poll-tax was taken 
 off the shoulders of the Hindus. Ajit Sinh, the 
 Prince of Jodhpur, was put in charge of the Subah of 
 Agra ; and an anecdote recorded by Tod serves to 
 show to what a pitch of boldness the Rajputs had by 
 this time arrived. The raja's son was presented at 
 the Court of Delhi on the occasion of his father's 
 promotion, and, as representing his father, claimed 
 the first place at the emperor's right hand. The 
 master of the ceremonies motioning him to his proper 
 place, he drew upon the courtier, and was only saved 
 from a repetition of the fate of Amr Sinh by the 
 Turkish tact and temper of the monarch himself. 
 Ajit Sinh did not long enjoy his good fortune, for 
 this same fiery youth was presently selected by some 
 remaining members of the old Sayyid cabal as a 
 means of removing his own father from the path of 
 his intrigues. This horrible crime was committed 
 under every circumstance of aggravation. Ajit Sinh 
 was murdered by his second son at the instigation of 
 the first, and in the arms of his wife. 
 
 Thus fell the father of an empress, the hereditary 
 ruler of Marwar, the Viceroy of Agra, the " Turk's 
 lance," as he is called in Rajput ballads. He was in 
 
 p
 
 210 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 
 
 his forty-sixth year, and for more than half that period 
 had been one of the foremost figures of the time from 
 his restless valour. At his funeral his six ranis, and 
 no less than fifty-eight concubines, burned themselves 
 to death T^'ith the body of their lord. 
 
 Meanwhile, the emperor and his young companions 
 at Delhi were indulging themselves in courses which 
 enormously precipitated the coming disasters. The 
 Nizam who had (as has already been mentioned) been 
 appointed vazir in February, 1721, was an austere and 
 orthodox Turk, brought up in the Court of Aurungzeb, 
 and much scandalised at the prevailing licence. He 
 remonstrated against the remission of the poll-tax on 
 unbelievers, and he desired to restore the etiquette 
 and ceremonial of the old Mughal Court. The cour- 
 tiers ridiculed the ancient warrior's punctilios as if he 
 had been a sort of Polonius. When he offered his old- 
 fashioned obeisance at durbar, they would say among 
 themselves, " See how the Deccan monkies dance." 
 The Nizam observed these petulances, but could not 
 take open notice of them. Such things caused con- 
 stant dissensions ; the young courtiers, having the ear 
 of their master, poisoned his mind against the faithful 
 old soldier ; the latter fretted himself into an illness, 
 and was granted leave of absence, which he employed 
 in hunting in his old districts at the foot of the 
 Kumaon hills. While thus engaged, he received in- 
 telligence of the Mahrattas having carried their 
 ravages into one of his southern provinces, and of 
 Mubariz Khan having rebelled in the other. Seeing 
 all these things, the Niznm evidently felt that his 
 place was not at court, and accordingly soon after- 
 wards departed for the Deccan, w^herc he founded
 
 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 211 
 
 the hereditary power which still subsists at Hai- 
 darabad. 
 
 Kamruddin Khan, son of the late minister, Moha- 
 mad Amin, became vazir, but all power fell practically 
 into the hands of Samsam-ud-Daulah Khan Dauran, 
 the paymaster-general and virtual commander of the 
 forces. The Nizam was propitiated witli letters, gifts, 
 and the patent of VaJdl-i-Mutlak — plenipotentiary 
 of the empire. 
 
 Miserable was the condition of his new province, 
 or principality, as we have learned to call it. The ex- 
 cellent contemporary historian, Khafi Khan, hitherto 
 our chief guide, leaves us here. His testimony at 
 parting is, that the Nizam's country was reduced to 
 such a state of wretchedness that the trading classes 
 left their native land, abandoning their ancestral 
 homes to wander in search of support in distant coun- 
 tries. But, thanks to the mercy of God, the cries of 
 the oppressed were heard, and the beneficent shadow 
 of Nizam-ul Mulk Bahadur was to fall upon the land 
 and restore its ancient prosperity. Under former 
 subahdars, the ways had been infested by ruffianly 
 robbers, and by the rapacity of Mahrattas and lawless 
 landholders ; but now, traffic and travel were once 
 more safe. But even this resolute and able ruler was 
 unable to break loose from the Mahratta yoke ; and 
 the best arrangement tliat, with all his prestige and 
 all his skill, he was able to effect was, that the tribute 
 should be paid to these Hindus by himself instead 
 of their collecting it from the people through their 
 own agents. As observed by Grant Duff, the two 
 great figures now remaining on the stage of Indian 
 affairs were the Nizam and Baji Rao, the Mahratta
 
 212 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 
 
 pesliwa. But we are not here conceraed with the 
 history of India, and have only to note events di- 
 rectly connected with the fortunes of the house of 
 Taimur. 
 
 The actual beginning of the Nizam's independence 
 is given by Grant Duff as July, 1724. Chronology is 
 not the forte of native historians, but this able writer 
 had other sources of information, and his dates are to 
 be relied upon as having been compared with the 
 records of the English factory at Surat. 
 
 The Mahrattas, on their part, full of the energy of 
 a young and prosperous nation, were resolved upon 
 doing their best to gain whatever the Mughals lost. 
 About the same time they resolved to gird up their 
 loins for the invasion of Hindostan. " Let us strike," 
 said the peshwa to his nominal master, " let us strike 
 at the trunk of this withering tree, the branches will 
 then fall of themselves." 
 
 On the other hand the Turkish element in the 
 Mughal administration was becoming more quarrel- 
 some day by day, and less efficient for the purposes of 
 administration. Thwarted by Mughal rivals, warring 
 with Mahratta foes, the Nizam wore out the next seven 
 years in the Deccan, but in August, 1731, he at last 
 consented to the invasion of Hindustan, w^hicli had 
 been long maturing, but which apparently could not 
 go forward but by his connivance. 
 
 Surprise will probably be felt that an ancient 
 soldier of the empire, who was not only a staunch 
 Mussalman, but a Tartar Bayard, and who, according 
 to Khafi Khan, had never deviated a hair's breadth 
 from the path of loyalty, should have adopted such a 
 course. The answer is that, by that time, Mughal 
 
 I
 
 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 213 
 
 politics had degenerated into mere selfishness, and the 
 only difference between the best and worst class of 
 politicians was, that the one sought their own ends 
 without any scruple or decency whatever, while the 
 other thought all permissible that did not trench upon 
 the person of the sovereign. The Nizam perceived 
 that by diverting his domestic enemy, the peshwa, 
 against the Mughal Court, he would be at once em- 
 barrassing his political rivals at that court, and freeing 
 his own provinces from danger, and he took the step 
 accordingly. 
 
 The first attack fell upon the once happy valley of 
 Malwa, where it was encountered strangely enough by 
 defenders, who were also Hindus like their assailants. 
 The governor, Abhai Sinh, the son and murderer of 
 the late Ajit Sinh, and his successor as E-aja of Jodhpur, 
 was driven out by the Mahrattas, and the conduct of 
 the war was reverted to another Hindu, Jai Sinh — the 
 well-known savant of Jaipur — who soon made terms 
 with the Mahrattas. Up to 1735 these conquerors 
 were occupied in consolidating their conquests ; but 
 in the beginning of the following year the troops of 
 Malhar Rao Holkar appeared in the country to the 
 south-east of Agra. Khan Dauran made preparations 
 to arrest their progress, but his preparations "com- 
 menced in bombast and ended in ridicule."* An 
 ineffectual campaign terminated in humiliating nego- 
 tiations ; the Turks about the court still voted for 
 war, but Khan Dauran maintained his influence over 
 the emperor, and only partially lost ground ultimately 
 by attempting reprisals upon the Nizam. The old 
 
 * Oranl, Duff.
 
 214 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 
 
 warrior, finding that a tribute from the provinces that 
 he had learned to regard as his own formed part of the 
 terms now being offered to Baji Hao, thought it time 
 to make his apj)earance at court in the character of 
 saviour. Saadat Khan at the same time moved up 
 from Oudh, and struck a blow at Holkar near Etawa. 
 On hearing of this the peshwa made a flank march 
 upon the undefended capital, and fought a successful 
 action on the Rewari side of Delhi with a small force 
 that had sallied from the city. But he was plainly 
 out-generalled. Saadat's force effected a junction with 
 the main army of the Mughal's under the vazir, and 
 Baji Eao decamped towards Gwalior with the inten- 
 tion of crossing the Jumna lower down and plundering 
 the Doab. 
 
 Meanwhile the Nizam had reached Delhi and 
 assumed the supreme command. He succeeded in 
 j)acifying the Doab, and then wheeled to the right and 
 crossed the Jumna for the purpose of arresting the 
 Mahratta tactics by a campaign to the southward. 
 But he was ill-supported at court, and was soon sur- 
 rounded and blockaded by the Mahrattas in Bhopal. 
 After an unsuccessful attempt to break their lines, the 
 old viceroy was forced to make terms, by which he 
 surrendered the whole of Malwa and of the adjoining 
 country between the Chambal and theNerbudda. This 
 negotiation is dated by Grant Duff, 11th February, 
 1738. 
 
 The famous Nadir Shah, who had usurped the 
 throne of Persia just two years before, was now extend- 
 ing his boundaries in the direction of Candahar and 
 Cabul, which then formed part of the Mughal Empire. 
 Elushed with almost uninterrupted successes against
 
 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 215 
 
 the OttomaD Turks, he now turned his arms against 
 their kinsfolk in the farther east. Nadir Shah was 
 one of those popular leaders who ultimately hecome 
 scourges of the human race, and like Jenghiz and 
 Bonaparte, seem at last only happy when pursuing 
 adventures at the expense of their followers' hlood. 
 He was born of Turkman parents, in the province of 
 Khorasan, about a.d. 1688 ; when seventeen years old 
 he was taken captive by the Uzbeks, where he remained 
 in slavery about four years. After escaping, he led a 
 life of adventure in his native country for some years, 
 until he found an opportunity of delivering Persia 
 from the yoke of the Pathans and restoring the Safavi 
 dynasty. Thus far his career had been that of a 
 patriotic champion of the type of Wallace and Scan- 
 derbeg. But his continued prosperity, and especially 
 the warm attachment of his soldiers, fired his ambition. 
 He imprisoned the sovereign that he had made and 
 became king himself.* 
 
 The autliority followed by Dow in describing the 
 invasion of India by Nadir was a Hindu gentleman, 
 Bai Baian, who held the post of secretary to the 
 emperor, Shah Alam, in the earlier years of that un- 
 fortunate potentate, and who may have been an eye- 
 witness of what occurred. Unable to believe good of 
 any Mussalman, this writer held that Nadir's invasion 
 of India was brought about by a letter jointly written 
 by the Nizam and Saadat Ali, the Viceroy of Oudh. 
 But there is no evidence assigned, and whatever may 
 be thought of the complicity of Saadat, who was him- 
 
 * Like all great commanders, Nadir was a strict enforcer of discipline. In 
 the early part of his career his system was justice of the rewarding sort, tempered 
 with severity. In the latter part severity prevailed.
 
 216 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 
 
 self a countryman of the invader, one would not wish 
 to suspect the old Turkman — who had nothing in 
 common with any Persian — of such foul treachery to 
 the monarch of his faith, and the friend and patron of 
 his family and himself. In any case Saadat was 
 evidently his rival and foe.* 
 
 Dow has preserved a circumstantial account of 
 Nadir's advance upon Delhi. The army of the em- 
 pire, under the personal command of the Emperor 
 Mohamad Shah, encountered the invaders on the 
 plains of Karnal, a few miles north of Panipat, in a 
 neighbourhood where the fate of Indian government 
 has been often decided. On the 24th of Pebruary, 
 1738, an action was fought in which Saadat Ali, the 
 Viceroy of Oudh, was taken prisoner — not without 
 suspicion of connivance — and Samsam, the khan 
 daurdn or captain-general, was wounded in the arm, 
 as it proved J mortally, f The Nizam now opened a 
 negotiation with Nadir, who appears to have been 
 surprised at the unexpected resistance of the Mughals ; 
 and it was agreed that the Persian army should depart 
 with a moderate pecuniary indemnity. But this did 
 not satisfy Saadat, who promised his countryman 
 better terms if he would remain and prosecute the 
 adyenture. In the midst of these negotiations, the 
 craven emperor — his mind poisoned with suspicion, 
 and having lost his most trusted friend — took the 
 sudden resohition of throwing himself into the hands 
 of the invader. Mohamad was carried to the Persian 
 
 * Dow's view is supported by another contemporary ■writer, but he, too, gives 
 no proof or authority for his statements. See note at end of chapter. 
 
 t This action must have been serious, if, as Fraser in a note asserts, the 
 Persians lost 7500 men.
 
 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 217 
 
 camp in his litter, or "travelling throne," with a small 
 personal following, and on arriving was well received. 
 Only, after he had been seated on the left hand of his 
 enemy, that rough but earnest warrior could not re- 
 frain from reading him a lecture on his want of spirit. 
 ^'Why," said Nadir, "what a ruler in Islam are you! 
 You not only pay tribute to those dirty Hindu savages 
 in the south, but when an invader comes against you, 
 as I have done, you give up the game without a single 
 honest struggle." He then ordered refreshments to 
 be set before the fallen monarch, and retired to another 
 tent to consult with his prime minister upon the terms 
 to be offered. On re-entering the audience-tent, he 
 found Mohamad calmly but seriously devoting himself 
 to the repast that had been served. " What a man is 
 this ! " cried Nadir, to his companion, " who can bear 
 thus easily the loss of power and liberty. But there 
 are only two ways of encountering trouble. Either 
 one must suffer patiently or act boldly : either despise 
 the world, or exert all the powers of the mind to sub- 
 due it. Mohamad chooses the first, my course must 
 be the second." He then informed his philosophic 
 prisoner that he had no quarrel wdth the house of 
 Taimur, but that it was absolutely necessary that his 
 forces should be refreshed by rest at Delhi, while he 
 himself was indemnified by the expenses of the war. 
 The Nizam being unable to resist alone, and Mo- 
 hamad being domesticated in the Persian camp, the 
 two armies united, and advanced on Delhi. On the 
 19th of March, the capital was entered, and however 
 inflammable the jarring elements, good order was for 
 a time preserved by means of the strict discipline that 
 had been established by Nadir among his troops.
 
 218 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 
 
 How the explosion of a petty provocation giren 
 to a private soldier led to an attack upon the Persians 
 by some armed citizens ; how Nadir went out at mid- 
 night and swept the streets with grape ; how in the 
 mornins: he was shot at while seated on the terraced 
 roof of the " golden mosque," still shown in Chandnee 
 Chauk ; how he tlien lost his temper, and ordered the 
 puuishuient of the city; how from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. a 
 methodical massacre went on under his eye till the 
 Dariba* ran with the blood of merchants and bankers; 
 how on the supplication of his own minister, inspired 
 by the gentle emperor, the invader as promptly par- 
 doned the surviving citizens, and returned to the 
 scabbard every sword that had been at its cruel work 
 for nine hours — all these startling facts are fully de- 
 tailed in all histories. One hundred and twenty thou- 
 sand persons are said to have fallen victims to this 
 stern act of vengeance, while the conqueror sat upon 
 the terrace of the mosque, and no man dared to 
 approach him, " for his countenance was dark and 
 terrible." 
 
 Nadir then returned to the palace, where the weep- 
 ing emperor was soon consoled, and where they sate 
 and took their coffee together — the last time that the 
 great peacock throne was ever used or seen at Delhi. f 
 Mohamad received his crown from the hands of his 
 unwelcome visitor, and became, for the time, a Persian 
 vassal. 
 
 Plunder followed upon carnage; the principal 
 Indian nobles were employed to levy the indemnity, 
 and then on the 25th May the Persians marched out of 
 
 ♦ The entry to the bazaar is still known as " The Gate of Blood." 
 t Sje note at end of Chapter.
 
 THE TUKKS IN INDIA. 219 
 
 Delhi. At tlieir departure for tlieir own country they 
 took with them the reputation of good soldiers, and 
 booty estimated at eighty millions of pounds sterling, 
 besides private plunder. Cabul and all the trans- 
 Indus provinces were at the same time ceded by 
 treaty. 
 
 The discipline then exhibited shows the system of 
 Nadir at its best, stern if you will, but rational and 
 prosperous. As years advanced his faults increased. 
 It seemed as though the blood of Delhi blinded him. 
 At length, tlie fear engendered by his vindictive 
 violence, turned his subjects, and even his soldiers, 
 from him. He was finally assassinated in his tent on 
 the 20th June, 1747, and all his family perished, 
 excepting one son w^ho wandered west, and eventually 
 died at Vienna under the style of Baron von Semlin. 
 
 The empire of the Indian Turks was shaken to its 
 foundation by this terrible series of events. Saadat 
 Ali, the Oudli A^iceroy, died at Delhi during their 
 progress.* He was succeeded in his viceroyship by 
 his kinsman Safdar Jang. Kamruddin, a Tiu'kman 
 and cousin of the Nizam, held the portfolio (or " pen- 
 case") of vazir ; the Nizam's son was appointed 
 captain-general and paymaster of the forces. The 
 Nizam at first settled at Delhi as general controller of 
 the state and plenipotentiary minister ; but the 
 Deccan continued to be the theatre of contests between 
 various Mohamadan chiefs among themselves, and 
 with the Mahrattas, and in the early part of 1741 he 
 returned to the Deccan, where he found himself 
 
 * Saadat is generally supposed to liave died of poison administered by his 
 own hand, in consequence of the contempt shown him by Nadir. Many suicides 
 marked these dreadful weeks.
 
 220 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 
 
 opposed by his own son, Nadir Jang. This rebellion 
 was put down — more by luck than management — and 
 the Nizam proceeded to settle the affairs of the Car- 
 natic, or south-east portion of the peninsula — wbere 
 the disturbances had been the greatest. In this 
 undertaking he remained absorbed till his death, at a 
 very advanced age, on the 19th of June, 1748. The 
 southern provinces were inherited by one of his sons, 
 and this may be regarded as the final disruption of the 
 empire. 
 
 About the same time a further loss was sustained 
 in the erection into an independent province of the 
 eastern Subahs (of Bengal, Orissa, and Balidr), under 
 another Turkman, Alivardi Khan. As for Cabul and 
 the Northern Provinces, they were now under the sway 
 of an Afghan adventurer from Herat, named Ahmed 
 Khan, by whose descendants or connexions they have 
 ever since been held. Nothing therefore remained to 
 be maladministered or wrangled over by the Delhi 
 Mughals but the Panjab and Hindostan, and even 
 here attempts were made, with more or less success, 
 to carve hereditary kingdoms from the decomposing 
 mass. 
 
 The unfortunate reign of Mohamad, begun under 
 such different auguries, was now to close. Ahmed 
 Khan Abdali came down from his mountains to seize 
 the Panjab, and renew the sack of Delhi. But he had 
 overestimated his forces. Tlie heir-apparent of the 
 Mughal emperor proceeded against him, and, with the 
 aid of the Oudh force and some of the Raj put levies, 
 defeated him in three successive actions. During this 
 campaign, Kamruddin, the vazir, died — being killed 
 by an Afghan round shot as he was praying in his
 
 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 221 
 
 tent. His death was the last drop in Mohamad's cup 
 of grief. 
 
 Wlien the news reached Delhi the much-tried 
 emperor retired to his chamber, where he spent the 
 night in solitary weeping. Next day he came out to 
 his durbar, and took his seat as usual in the diioani- 
 adm upon the dismantled throne, from which the 
 Persians had torn the diamonds, pearls, rubies and 
 emeralds that had been lavished on it by Shahjahan. 
 Nothing was heard in the circle but praises of the 
 deceased. The emperor listened, but it was with a 
 sinking courage. " The staff of my old age is broken, 
 is snapped," said the once cheerful prince ; " no such 
 faithful servant can I find again." As he was thus 
 lamenting, a convulsion, such as he had sometimes 
 before suffered, passed over his frame. When the 
 attendants went to raise him the emperor was no 
 more. This event occurred 8th April, 1747. 
 
 The new emperor returned from this campaign seven 
 days after his father's decease, and he was proclaimed 
 by the title of Ahmad Shah, without opposition. The 
 vacant vazirship was conferred upon Safdar Jang, the 
 Viceroy of Oudh, in whose family the title became 
 hereditary, but mostly titular. 
 
 Mohamad Shah was a typical Taimuride element — 
 easy going, personally brave, but morally irresolute. 
 A Mughal friend said of him, that his soul was like 
 the waters of a lake, easily agitated by a passing 
 storm, but settling at once so soon as the disturbance 
 was over. The curse of Heuben ! 
 
 The short reign of his successor is chiefly remark- 
 able for the rebellion of the Pathans of Rohilkund, 
 and for the rise of the Bhurtpore Jats. The emperor
 
 222 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 
 
 was entirely in the hands of Janid Khan, the chief 
 eunuch of his harem ; Gliaziuddin, the Nizam's son, 
 and chief of the grandees, having departed to the 
 Deccan to look after his father's inheritance. 
 
 The Pathans, by whom the states of Rohilkuud 
 were established in the decline of the empire, were 
 Mussalmans, originally of Afghan origin. During the 
 early part of the Mughal period, they had become 
 Indianized, and had endeavoured to retain a fragment 
 of their old empire in the Eastern Provinces, their 
 capital being Jaunpur, in North Babar. Bernier says 
 of them that they are a Mohamadan people, issuing 
 *' from the side of the river Ganges, towards Bengal, 
 who . . . are fierce and warlike ... a people that 
 despise the heathens and Mughals, and mortally hate 
 the last, remembering what they were formerly before 
 they were by the Mughals driven away from their 
 large principalities, and constrained to wander hither 
 and thither . . . into the mountains, where they are 
 now settled, and where some of them have made 
 themselves petty sovereigns." 
 
 Pursuing this policy, they had, about eighty years 
 after Bernier's time, attacked the governor of Batahir, 
 in the Subali of Moradabad, once the province of the 
 Nizam. Under their leader, one Ali Mohamad, they 
 occupied the country at the foot of the Kumaon hills, 
 about four years before the death of the Emperor Mo- 
 hamad; and it began to be well known by the name of 
 " Bohilkhand," which it still bears, after the name 
 "Bohilla," which distinguished the particular tribe 
 to which they belonged. 
 
 The Jats, who first began to attract attention 
 during Aurungzeb's reign, are believed by ethnologists
 
 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 223 
 
 to be descended from a horde of Getse, or Yu-cbi, 
 who came across the Indus at the breaking up of the 
 Grseco-Bactrian power, shortly before the Christian 
 era. Their leader, Churaman, first rendered them 
 formidable in the time of Earakh Siyar; and the town 
 of Bhurtpore (or Bharatpur) was fortified and made 
 a chief city and place of arms by Suraj Mai, who was 
 Churaman's grand nephew. 
 
 The two rival politicians of the day were the 
 nephew of Saadat of Oudh — a Persian and a shia 
 sectary, who is known in history by his title of Saf dar 
 Jang, and the grandson of the Nizam, Mir Shaha- 
 buddin, a Turkman and a Sunni, usually known as 
 Ghaziuddin IT. The latter, though very young, 
 obtained the command of the army, and was regarded 
 as a leader of the Mughals. The Persian went forth 
 as a leader of opposition, and rallied the Jats and 
 Mahrattas round his standard. It can hardly answer 
 any purpose to go into the details of the ignoble 
 struggles that ensued. Mir Mannu, son of the late 
 vazir Kamruddin, the last respectable Mughal leader, 
 maintained order, so long as he lived, in the Panjab. 
 Holkar and his Mahrattas, having temporarily driven 
 the Bohillas into the hills, occupied the southern parts 
 of Bohilkhand. The provinces of Lahore and Multan 
 were, on Mannu's death, surrendered to Ahmad Khan, 
 the Afghan chief. The hapless emperor, unwilling to 
 put himself entirely in the hands of his unscrupulous 
 young minister, and yet not daring to call in honestly 
 the aid of Saf dar Jang and his Hindu allies, encoun- 
 tered the proverbial fate of him w^ho tries to sit on 
 two stools. 
 
 In the beginning of I754i, Safdar Jang was com-
 
 224 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 
 
 pletely baffled in an attempt which, with the aid of 
 the Jats, under Suraj Mai, he had made to seize the 
 capital. He fled to Lucknow, while a Mughal general 
 laid siege to the strong places of the Bhurtpore 
 country. At the same time the Mahrattas, under 
 chiefs of the Sindhia and Holkar families, having 
 occupied Gujarat, marched northward, overran E-aj- 
 putana, placing both Eajput and Mughal territory 
 under contribution, and followed the example of the 
 Mugbals in attacking the Jats. 
 
 Mir Shahabuddin, the young commander of the 
 Mughal forces, moved out of Delhi to join the league, 
 and support his lieutenant, whom, shortly after his 
 arrival in camp, he ordered back to Delhi for a fresh 
 supply of ammunition. The emperor, urged by his 
 minister — another Turkman, who was jealous of the 
 talents and prosperity of the captain-general — refused 
 the stores, and wrote to Suraj Mai, encouraging him 
 in resistance. As soon as he could raise sufficient 
 force, he marched out of the capital in person, intend- 
 ing to co-operate with the beleaguered Jats, and catch 
 his too able commander between two fires. But the 
 letter written to the Jat chief fell into Shahabuddin's 
 hands, and he returned it to the emperor with open 
 and violent menaces. The latter, in great alarm, re- 
 treated upon Delhi, but the two forces entered the 
 capital together. The palace was stormed, the em- 
 peror and his minister were seized and murdered. 
 The events occurred in the summer of 1754. About 
 the same time died Safdar Jang, who was buried in 
 the mausoleum still existing on the road from Delhi 
 to the Kutb 3findr. The Shiah policy was taken up 
 by his able and energetic son Shujaa-ud-Daula, who
 
 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 225 
 
 succeeded liim as virtual ruler of Oudh, and here- 
 ditary vazir of the empire. 
 
 Anarchy was now complete. As Dow says — 
 transcribing, doubtless, from his native authority — > 
 " The country was torn to pieces with civil wars, and 
 groaned under every species of domestic confusion. 
 Villainy was practised in every form ; all law and 
 religion were trodden under foot ; the bonds of private 
 friendship and connections, as well as of society and 
 government, were broken ; and every individual, as 
 if amidst a forest of wild beasts, could rely upon 
 nothiag but the strength of his own arm." 
 
 The creator of the late revolution followed the ac- 
 cepted Turkish tradition, and set up a fresh puppet 
 out of the captive princes of the house of Taimur. 
 This prince, who ascended the throne in July, 1754, 
 was a younger son of Jahandar Shah, and was 
 proclaimed by the title of Alamgir II, the first 
 emperor, so called, having been the one we know as 
 Aurungzeb. His brief reign was chiefly remarkable 
 for the growing depravity and violence of the young 
 captain-general, and the in creasing confusion and 
 misery which devastated the land. A great invasion 
 of the Afghans was precipitated by the direct invoca- 
 tion of the emperor, desirous, at any cost, to free him- 
 self from the thraldom in which he was kept by his 
 general. In 1758, the Afghans, under the famous 
 Ahmad Khan, appeared before the gates of Delhi. 
 The captain-general went out to meet the Afghans, 
 but his lieutenant, a Rohilla Pathan, named Najib 
 Khan (who was paymaster of the forces), deserted 
 with the bulk of the army, and frustrated all resist- 
 ance. The enemy occupied Delhi, and levied a con- 
 
 Q
 
 226 THE TTTRKS IN INDIA. 
 
 tribution of a million sterling from the wretclied 
 inhabitants. 
 
 After plundering the surrounding country, Ahmad 
 Khan returned to Cabul, leaving Shahabuddin in 
 possession of all power, civil as "well as military. 
 This ruffian now threw off all pretence of decency, 
 and plundered the country like any common male- 
 factor. The emperor's eldest son, Ali Gohar, cut his 
 way out of the city, leaving his miserable father a 
 helpless captive in the hands of the villainous minis- 
 ter. Joining a Mahratta force that was encamj)ed in 
 the neighbourhood, the prince began raising contri- 
 butions on his own account, and finally went east and 
 sought refuge in Bahar and Bengal. Ahmad, the 
 Afghan leader, reappeared in the Punjab, and the 
 emperor again opened a correspondence with him, 
 having for its object the ruin of his insupportable 
 jailor. The latter, on being informed of his victim's 
 vain struggles, adopted the determination of ending 
 them by violence, and the unhappy Alamgir was 
 accordingly assassinated by the orders of Shahabuddin 
 on 10th November, 1759. The circumstances will be 
 found detailed in Keene's " Moghal Empire," p. 57. 
 
 Najib, the Pathan, again coalesced with his tribe- 
 fellows from Cabul — and Shahabuddin was obliged to 
 fly. Delhi was sacked once more, and a massacre took 
 place which was only arrested by the barbarians being 
 driven from the city by the efiiuvia from the decom- 
 posing corpses. Much of the city was burned down ; 
 famine completed the work of the sword, the people 
 dying of starvation among the ruins of their houses ! 
 
 Such was the state of the country and capital 
 when the ^Mahrattas resolved to march on Hindustan
 
 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 227 
 
 with all their power, and make a grand effort for the 
 final and complete subversion of Mughal rule, and for 
 a revival of Hindu sovereignty. 
 
 Note. — So mucli mention has been made in these pages of depositions and 
 enthronements, that it may be of interest to give Dow's description of the cere- 
 monies observed at the accession of a new emperor. It sounds strange to be 
 told that the first preliminary of a Mughal coronation was that an umbrella was 
 held over the head of the new monarch, until we recollect that in the east an 
 umbrella (borne by a servant) is a sign of great wealth and dominion. The 
 nobles being ranged in two rows, one on each hand, made a lane. In front, a 
 herald proclaimed the names and titles of the prince. Then each lord, according 
 to his rank, came forward and made his offering. The chief officer of the 
 kitchen then brought in a golden salver, laden with confectionery, which being 
 placed before the monarch was consecrated by him in a form of words, after 
 which he ate a little, and distributed the rest among the grandees present. This 
 is particularly noticed as a very ancient Mughal custom, preserved in the 
 Taimuride family. The emperor mounted his state elephant, and proceeded 
 with a long train of followers to the Jama Mu-ijid, or cathedral-mosque, distri- 
 buting as he passed among the spectators largesse of coin and jewels. After the 
 emperor had said a prayer, the public liturgy was read by the primate, and the 
 reading of the Khuthah or homily followed, containing proclamations of the 
 genealogy, and prayers for the person of the sovereign. The procession then 
 returned to the palace. No actual coronation took place, and the whole cere- 
 mony seems to have been a survival of the succession of a Tartar chief transfused 
 with the seemly observances of rehgion. 
 
 Note on Nadir Shah. — There is a rather rare book, " History of Nadir 
 Shah," by James Fraser, which was published during the Shah's lifetime, and 
 contains particulars of the Delhi massacre by the secretary of a IMughal noble — ■ 
 Sarbaland Khan — who was much employed in the matter of the indemnity ; and 
 the same work contains other particulars of the events of the period. No exact 
 account of the fate of the peacock throne is forthcoming there or elsewhere. 
 Modem travellers have seen at Tahran, the present capital of Persia, what is 
 said to be the identical article of furniture, in a despoiled condition. But Mr. 
 Eraser's authority declares that it was "broken to pieces" by Abdulla the 
 Sayyid, before the battle that he fought with Mahomad Shah on November 3rd, 
 1720. Fraser names no writer as his authority, bat asserts generally that he 
 took this part of his narrative from a MS. sent to Dr. Mead by a Mr. Humfri3s 
 Cole, who was chief of the E.I. Company's factory at Patna. Fraser's book was 
 published in 1742, and contains many particulars corroborative of Dow's 
 description of the campaign of 1738. The dates (English) are ten days out, 
 being given according to the old style, which was not superseded in England 
 till nearly ten years after the book was published.
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE CAMPAIGN OF PANIPAT. I 
 
 The neiglibourliood of Panipat, a town about fifty 
 miles north-west from Delhi, has been the scene of 
 many decisive engagements at various periods. It 
 was here that, according to traditions and poetic 
 narrative, the Kauravas met the Pandavas in the 
 dawn of Hindu history. Coming down to more 
 authentic times : it was here that, in a.d. 1526, 
 Babar, at the head of twelve thousand sans -culottes^ 
 like himself, overthrew the magnificent but unwar- 
 like array of Ibrahim Khan Lodi. Here, thirty years 
 latter, the struggle made by the pugnacious chandler, 
 Hemu, in behalf of the Sur dynasty, was frustrated by 
 the youthful Akbar and his minister Bahram. Not 
 far off took place the insincere attempt of the Mughals 
 of 1738 to check the incursion of the terrible Nadir 
 Shah. 
 
 Now, when the empire of the Chughtai dynasty 
 had melted from sight, like a snowdrift in spring- 
 time — when their city was desolate, and their heir a 
 homeless exile — there was to be fought a new battle on 
 the same plains, in which the issue to be determined
 
 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 229 
 
 was not merely whether the empire was to pass from 
 one dynasty to another, hut whether the Hindus w^ere 
 to restore the sovereignty of the Mdlia Bhdrata^ or 
 whether the peninsula was to fall into the power of 
 some stronger race, who should hy-and-bye include it 
 in the cosmos of civilised life. 
 
 Por the importance of what is known distinctively 
 as the Battle of Panipat is this. Had the Hindu 
 league prospered, the last vestiges of what we call the 
 empire of the Great Mughal must have utterly dis- 
 appeared, and in that case there would have been no 
 occupation by Sindhia, no interference of the Prench, 
 and, consequently, no Lake campaigns or Wellesley 
 annexation ; the British would have held Bengal as 
 they now hold Hongkong, and Hindustan would have 
 been to them no more than what Cabul or Nepal is 
 under existing conditions. 
 
 The Mahratta confederacy was in 1759 irresistible 
 from the borders of Berar and Mysore to the banks 
 of the Ganges. On one side they were checked by 
 the Nizam and Haidar ; on the other by Shujaa-ud- 
 daula, the young ruler of Oudh. Between these limits 
 they were practically paramount. To the westward a 
 third Mohamadan power, the newly-formed Daurani 
 Empire,* was no doubt a standing menace ; but it is 
 very possible that with Ahmad Shah, as with the 
 other Moslem chiefs, arrangements of a pacific nature 
 might have been m.ade. All turned upon the character 
 of one man ; that man was Sadasheo Bao, the cousin 
 and minister of the Mahratta leader, the Peshwa, into 
 whose hands had fallen the sway of their vast power. 
 
 * Vide Note at end of Chapter.
 
 230 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 
 
 Por tlieir titular head, the descendant of Sivaji, the 
 original founder, was a puppet, almost a prisoner, such 
 as we, not many years ago, considered the Mikado of 
 Japan. 
 
 The state of the country is thus descrihed hy a 
 contemporary historian quoted hy Tod : — 
 
 " The people of Hindustan, at this period, thought only of 
 personal safety and gratification. Misery was disregarded by those 
 who escaped it, and man, centred solely in self, felt not for his 
 kind. Tliis selfishness, destructive of public as of private virtue, 
 became universal in Hindustan after the invasion of Nadir Shah, 
 nor have the people become more virtuous since, and, consequently, 
 are neither more happy nor more independent." 
 
 Ahmad Khan, the Ahdali, whom we are now to 
 recognize as Ahmad Shah, the Daurani emperor, 
 returned to Hindustan late in the summer, and 
 marched to Delhi, when he heard of the murder of 
 Alamgir II. 
 
 The execrahle Shahahuddin (or Ghazi-ud-din, the 
 younger) fled at his approach, taking refuge with the 
 Jats. Mahratta troops, who had occupied some places 
 of strength in the Pun j ah, were defeated and driven 
 in. The capital was again occupied and plundered. 
 After which the Shah returned to the territory of his 
 ally, Najib,* and summoned to his standard the chiefs 
 of the Bohillas. On the other hand, the Mahrattas, 
 summoning to their side the chiefs of the Eajputs 
 and Jats, moved up from the south. This was in 
 September — December, 1759. The main force of the 
 Mahrattas that left the Deccan, consisted of 20,000 
 chosen horse, under the immediate command of the 
 
 * Vide Note at end of Chapter.
 
 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 231 
 
 minister, Sadasheo, whom, for convenience we may in 
 future call by his title of " the Bhao." He also took 
 with him a powerful disciplined corps of 10,000 men, 
 infantry and artillery, under a Mohamadan soldier 
 of fortune, named Ibrahim Khan. This general 
 had learned Prench discipline under the celebrated 
 M. Bussy, and bore the title or nickname of " Gardi," 
 a souvenir of his origin. 
 
 The Bhao's progress was joined by Mahratta forces 
 under Holkar, Sindhia, the Gaikwar, Gobind Punt, 
 Bundela, and others. Many of the Bajput states 
 contributed, and Suraj Mai brought a contingent of 
 20,000 hardy Jats. Hinduism was uniting for a grand 
 effort ; Islam was rallied into cohesion by the necessity 
 of resistance. Each party began earnestly longing 
 for the alliance of the Shias under Shujaa of Oudh, 
 whose antecedents led men on both sides to look upon 
 them as neutral. 
 
 The Bhao had much prestige. Hitherto always vic- 
 torious, his personal character inspired great respect. 
 His camp, enriched with the plunder of Hindustan, 
 was on a scale of unwonted splendour. " The lofty 
 and spacious tents," says Grant Duff, " lined with 
 silks and broadcloths, were surmounted by large 
 gilded ornaments, conspicuous at a distance .... 
 vast numbers of elephants, flags of all descriptions, 
 the finest horses magnificently caparisoned .... 
 seemed to be collected from every quarter .... it 
 was in imitation of the more becoming and tasteful 
 array of the Mughals in the zenith of their glory." 
 Nor was this the only innovation. Hitherto the 
 Mahrattas had been light horsemen, each man carry- 
 ing his food^ forage, bedding and heel-ropes, as part
 
 232 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 
 
 of his accoutrements; marching fifty miles after a 
 defeat, and then halting in complete readiness to 
 " fight another day." Now, for the first time, they 
 "were to he supported hy a regular park of artillery 
 and a regular force of drilled infantry. But all these 
 seeming advantages only precipitated and rendered 
 more terrible their ultimate overthrow. 
 
 Holkar and Suraj Mai, true to the instincts of 
 Iheir old predatory experience, urged upon the Bhao 
 that regular warfare was not the game that they knew. 
 They counselled, therefore, that families and tents. 
 and all heavy equipments should he left in some strong 
 place of safety, such as the almost impregnable forts 
 of Jhansi and Gwalior, while their clouds of horse 
 harassed the enemy and Avasted the country before 
 and around him. But the Bhao rejected these prudent 
 counsels with contempt; he had seen the effect of 
 discipline and guns in southern war ; and, not without 
 a shrewd foresight of what was afterwards to be ac- 
 complished by a man then in his train, resolved to try 
 the effect of scientific soldiership as he understood it. 
 The determination proved his ruin, not because the 
 instrument he chose was not the best, but because it 
 was not complete ; and because he did not know how 
 to handle it. "When Mahdaji Sindhia, after a lapse of 
 twenty years, mastered all Asiatic opposition by the 
 employment of the same instrument, he had a European 
 general, the Count de Boigne, who was one of the 
 great captains of his age, and he allowed him to use 
 his own strategy and tactics. Then the regular 
 battalions and batteries, becoming the nucleus of the 
 army, were moved with resolution and aggressive im- 
 pulse, while the cavalry only acted for purposes of
 
 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 233 
 
 escort, reconnaissance, and pursuit. In the fatal 
 campaign before us we shall find the disciplined troops 
 doing all that could fairly be expected of them under 
 Asiatic leaders, but failing for want of numbers, and 
 of generalship. 
 
 On arriving at Delhi the Bhao summoned the 
 citadel, in which was situated the palace of the 
 emperors. It was tenanted by a weak Mussalman force, 
 which had been hastily thrown in under the command 
 of a nephew of Shah Wall Khan, the Daurani vazir. 
 After a brief bombardment this garrison capitulated, 
 and the Bhao took possession and plundered the last 
 remaining effects of the emperor, including the silver 
 ceiling of the Diicdn Khds which was thrown into the 
 melting pot, and furnished seventeen lakhs of rupees 
 (£170,000). 
 
 Ahmed, in the meantime, was cantoned at Anup- 
 shahr, on the frontier of the Bohilla country, where 
 he was compelled to remain while his negotiations 
 with Shujaa were pending. It was now the middle of 
 1760, and the rainy season was at hand, during which, 
 in an unbridged country, military operations could not 
 be carried on. All the more needful that the time of 
 enforced leisure should be given to preparation. Na- 
 jib, the head of the Bohillas, was very urgent with the 
 Shah that Shujaa should be persuaded to take part 
 against the Mahrattas. He pointed out that, such as 
 the Mughal Empu'e might be, Shujaa was its vazir. 
 As Ahmad Shah had hitherto been foiled by the late 
 Nawab, Safdar Jang, it was for his majesty to judge 
 how useful might be the friendship of a potentate 
 whose hostility had been so formidable. "But," 
 added the prudent Bohilla, " it must be remembered
 
 234 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 
 
 that tlie rGcollection of the past will make the Nawab 
 timorous and suspicious. The negotiation will be as 
 delicate as important. It should not be entrusted to 
 ordinary agency, or to the impersonal channel of 
 written correspondence." 
 
 The Shah approved of these reasonings, and it was 
 resolved that Najib himself should visit the Nawab- 
 vazir and lay before his excellency the case which he 
 (Najib) so well understood, and in w^hich his own 
 interest was so deep. The envoy found the vazir en- 
 camped upon the Ganges at Mehndeeghat, and lost no 
 time in opening the matter. With the good sense 
 that always characterised him, Najib touched at once 
 the potent spring of self. Shia or Sunni, all Mos-lems 
 were alike the object of Mahratta enmity. He, Najib, 
 knew full well what to expect should the Hindu league 
 prevail. But would the vazir fare better ? " Though, 
 after all, the will of God will be done, it behoves us 
 not the less to help destiny to be beneficent by our own 
 endeavours. Think carefully, consult the begam, 
 your mother. I am not fond of trouble, and should 
 not have come all this distance to see your excellency 
 were I not deeply interested." Such, as we learn 
 from an adherent of Shujaa's, was the substance of 
 the advice given him by the Rohilla chieftain. 
 
 The nature of these negotiations is not left to con- 
 jecture. The narrative of what occurred is supplied 
 by Kasi Raj Pandit, a Hindu writer in the service of 
 the Nawab-vazir, and an eye-witness of the whole 
 campaign. He was present in both camps, having 
 been employed in the negotiations which took place 
 between the Mahvattas and the Mohamadans, and his 
 account of the battle (of which a translation appeared
 
 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 235 
 
 in the "Asiatic Eesearches " for 1791, reprinted in Lon- 
 don, 1799) is the most authentic that has come down 
 to our times. 
 
 Shujaa-ud-Daula, after anxious deliberation, resolved 
 to adopt the advice of his Rohilla visitor; and having 
 so resolved, he adhered manfully to his resolution. 
 He sent his family to Lucknow, and returned with 
 Najib to Anupshahr, where he was warmly received 
 by the Daurani Shah, and his minister, Shah Wall 
 Khan. 
 
 Shortly after the united forces of the Moslems 
 moved down to Shahdara, the hunting-ground of the 
 emperors, near Delhi, from which, indeed, it was only 
 separated by the river Jumna, but the monsoons hav- 
 ing set in, the encounter of the hostile armies was, for 
 the present, impossible. The interval was occupied in 
 negotiation. The Bhao first attempted the virtue of 
 Shujaa, whom he tempted with large offers to desert 
 the Sunni cause. Shujaa amused him with messages 
 in which our Pundit acted as go-between ; but all was 
 conducted with the knowledge of Najib, who was fully 
 consulted by the Nawab-vazir throughout. The 
 Shah's minister, also, was aware of the transaction, 
 and apparently disposed to grant terms to the Hindus. 
 Advantage was taken of the opportunity, and of the 
 old alliance between Shujaa and the Jats to shake 
 the confidence of Suraj Mai, and persuade him to 
 abandon the league, which he very willingly did when 
 his advice was so haughtily rejected. It was the 
 opinion of our Pandit that a partition of the country 
 might even now have been effected had either party 
 been earnest in desiring peace ; he does not evidently 
 know what were the Bhao's real feelings, but probably
 
 236 THE TUUKS IN INDIA. 
 
 judged him by the rest of his conduct, which was that 
 of a bold ambitious statesman. Prom what he saw in 
 the other camp he may well have concluded that Najib 
 had some far-seeing scheme on foot which kept him 
 from sincerely forwarding the proposed treaty. Cer- 
 tainly that astute E,ohilla was ultimately the greatest 
 gainer from the anxieties and sufferings of the cam- 
 paign. But the first act of hostility came from the 
 BhaOj who moved up stream to turn the invader's flank. 
 About eighty miles north of Delhi, on the meadow- 
 lands lying between the West Jumna Canal and the 
 river — from whose right bank it is about two miles 
 distant — stands the small town of Kunjpura. In the 
 invasion of Nadir Shah it had been occupied by a 
 force of Persian sharpshooters, who had inflicted much 
 loss on the Mughal army from its cover. Induced, 
 perhaps, by the remembrance of those days, Ahmed 
 had made the mistake of placing in it a garrison of his 
 own people, from which he was now separated by the 
 broad stream of the Jumna, brimming with the 
 autumnal floods. Here the Bhao struck his first blow, 
 taking the whole Afghan garrison prisoners after an 
 obstinate defence, and giving up the j)lace to plunder, 
 while the main Afghan army sat idle on the other 
 side. 
 
 At length arrived the Dasahra, the anniversary of 
 the attack of Lanka by the demigod Rama, a pro- 
 verbial and almost sacred day of omen for the com- 
 mencement of Hindu military expeditions. Ahmad 
 adopted the auspices of his enemy, and reviewed his 
 troops the day before the festival. The state of his 
 forces is positively given by the Pundit as consisting of 
 28,000 Afghans, powerful men, clad in armour and 
 
 I
 
 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 237 
 
 moanted on Turkman horses, forty pieces of cannon, 
 besides light guns mounted on camels, with some 
 28,000 horse, 38,000 foot, and about forty guns under 
 tlie Hindustani Mussalmans. The Mahrattas had more 
 cavalry, fewer foot, and an artillery of 200 guns ; in 
 addition to which they were aided — if aid it could be 
 called in regular warfare — by clouds of predatory 
 horsemen, making up their whole force to over 200,000, 
 mostly, as it turned out, food for the sabre. 
 
 On the 17th of October, 1760, the Afghan host 
 and its allies broke up from Shahdara, and between the 
 23rd and 25th effected a crossing at Baghpat, a small 
 town about twenty-four miles up the river. The posi- 
 tion of the hostile armies was thus reversed, that of the 
 northern invaders being nearer Delhi,* with the whole 
 of Hindustan at their backs, while the southern de- 
 fenders of their country were in the attitude of men 
 marching down from the north-west with nothing 
 behind them but the dry and war-wasted plains of 
 Surhind. In the afternoon of the 26th, Ahmad's 
 advance guard reached Sambalka, about half-way 
 between Sonpat and Panipat, where they encountered 
 the vanguard of the Mahrattas. A sharp conflict 
 ensued, in which the Afghans lost a thousand men, 
 killed and wounded, but drove back the Mahrattas on 
 their main body, which kept on retreating slowly for 
 several days, contesting every inch of the ground until 
 they reached Panipat. Here the camp w^as finally 
 pitched in and about the town, and the position at 
 once covered by digging a trench sixty feet wide and 
 
 * In Keene's " Moghiil Empire " it is erroneously stated that the Afghans 
 encamped at Kurnal. The statement in the text being on the authority of an 
 eye-witness, may be depended upon.
 
 238 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 
 
 twelve deep, with a rampart on w^liicb the guns were 
 mounted. The Shah took up ground four miles to the 
 south protecting his position by ahattis of felled 
 timber, according to his usual practice, but pitching 
 in front a small unprotected tent from which to make 
 his own observations. 
 
 The small reverse of the Mahrattas at Sambalka 
 was soon followed by others, and hopes of a pacific 
 solution became more and more faint. Gobind Punt, 
 Bundela, foraging near Meerut with 10,000 light 
 cavalry, was surprised and slain by Atai Khan, at the 
 head of a similar party of Afghans. The terror caused 
 by this affair paralysed the Khan's commissariat, while 
 it greatly facilitated the foraging of the Shah. Shortly 
 after a party of 2000 Mahratta horsemen, each carry- 
 ing a bag of specie from Delhi, fell upon the Afghan 
 pickets, which they mistook for their own in the dark 
 of night. On their answering in their own language 
 to the sentry's challenge, they were surrounded and 
 cut up by the enemy, and something like two hundred 
 thousand pounds in silver was lost to the Bhao. Ibra- 
 him and his disciplined mercenaries now became very 
 clamorous for their arrears of pay, on which Holkar 
 proposed that the cavalry should make an immediate 
 attack without them. The Bhao ironically acquiesced, 
 and turned the tables upon Holkar, who probably 
 meant nothing less than to lead so hare-brained a 
 movement. 
 
 During the next two months constant skirmishes 
 and duels took place between parties and individual 
 champions upon either side. In one of these Najib 
 lost three thousand of his Hohillas, and was very 
 near perishing himself, and the chiefs of the Indian
 
 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 239 
 
 Mussalmans became at last very urgent with the Shah 
 to put an end to their suspense by bringing on a 
 decisive action. But the Shah, with the patience 
 of a great leader, as steadily repressed their ardour, 
 knomng very well that (to use the words of a Moslem 
 on a similar occasion) the enemy were all the while 
 " cooking in their own gravy." Eor this is one of the 
 sure marks of a conqueror, that he makes of his own 
 troubles a measure of his antagonist's misfortunes, so 
 that they become to him a ground, not of losing heart, 
 but of gaining courage. 
 
 Meanwhile the vigilance of his patrol — for which 
 service he had five thousand of his best cavalry em- 
 ployed through the long winter nights — created almost 
 a blockade of the Mahrattas. On one occasion twenty 
 thousand of the camp followers, who had gone to 
 collect provisions, were massacred in a wood near the 
 camps by this vigilant force. 
 
 The Bhao's spirit sank under these repeated blows 
 and warnings, and he sent to the Nawab-vazir, Shujaa- 
 ud-Daulah, to offer to accept any conditions that might 
 still be obtainable. All the other chiefs were willing, 
 and the Shah referred them to the Ptohillas. But Najib 
 proved implacable. The Pundit went to the Rohilla 
 leader, and urged on him every possible consideration 
 that might persuade him to agree. But Najib's clear 
 good sense perceived the nature of the crisis. " I 
 would do much," he said, " to gratify the Nawab and 
 show my respect for his excellency. But oaths are 
 not chains; they are only words — things that will 
 never bind the enemy when once he has escaped from 
 the dangers which compel him to undertake them. 
 By one efi'ort we can get this thorn out of our sides."
 
 240 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 
 
 Proceeding to the Shah's tent, he obtained instant 
 admission, though it was now midnight. Here he 
 repeated his arguments, adding that whatever his 
 majesty's decision might be was personally immaterial 
 to himself. " For I," he concluded, " am but a soldier 
 of fortune, and can make terms for myself with either 
 party." 
 
 The blunt counsel pleased the Shah. "You are 
 right, Najib," said Ahmad, "and the Nawabis led by 
 the impulses of youth. I disbelieve in Mahratta peni- 
 tence, and am not going to throw over you, whom I 
 have all along regarded as the manager of this affair. 
 Though in my position I must hear every one, yet I 
 promise never to act against your advice." 
 
 While these things were passing in the Moslem 
 camp, the Mahrattas, having exhausted their last 
 resource by the plunder of the town of Panipat, sent 
 all their chiefs on the same evening to meet in the 
 great durbar tent. It was now the 6th of January, 
 and we may fancy the shivering, starving southerners 
 crouched on the ground and discussing their griefs by 
 the wild torchlight. They represented that they had 
 not tasted food for two days, and were ready to die 
 fighting, but not to die of hunger. Fan* was dis- 
 tributed, and all swore to go out an hour before day- 
 break and drive away the invaders, or perish in the 
 attempt. 
 
 As a supreme effort, the Bhao, whose outward 
 bearing at the durbar had been gallant and dignified, 
 
 * The pan, or pepper leaf, wrapped round an aromatic preparation of betel 
 nut and shell lime, is a favourite condiment, and is bestowed by a great man on 
 the breaking up of an assemblage. In the present case it had also a sacramental 
 character.
 
 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 241 
 
 now wrote a short note to our Pundit, who gives the 
 exact text : — " The cup is full to the brim, and cannot 
 hold another drop. If anything can be done, do it. 
 If not, let me know plainly and at once, for afterwards 
 there will be no time for writing or for speecli." The 
 Pundit was with Shujaa by the time this note arrived 
 — the hour was three a.m. — and he handed it to his 
 master, who began to examine the messenger. "While 
 he was so doing his spies ran in with the intelligence 
 that the Mahrattas had left their lines. Shujaa at 
 once hastened to the Shah's tent. 
 
 Ahmad had lain down to rest, but his horse was 
 held, ready-saddled, at the entry. He rose from his 
 couch, and asked, " What news ? " The Nawab told 
 what he had heard. The Shah immediately mounted, 
 and sent for the Pundit. While the latter was cor- 
 roborating the tidings brought by his master, Ahmad, 
 sitting on his horse, was smoking a Persian pipe and 
 peering into the darkness. All at once the Mahratta 
 cannon opened fire ; on which the Shah, handing his 
 pipe to an orderly, said calmly to the Nawab, " Your 
 follower's news was very true, I see," then, summon- 
 ing his prime minister. Shah Wali, and Shah Pasand, 
 the chief of his stafip, he made his dispositions for a 
 general engagement when the light of day came. 
 
 Yes ; the news was true. Soon after the desnatch 
 of the Bhao's note, the Mahratta troops broke their 
 fast with the last remaining grain in camp, and pre- 
 pared for a mortal combat, coming forth from their 
 lines with turbans dishevelled, and turmeric-smeared 
 faces, like devotees of death. They marched in an 
 oblique line, with their left in front, preceded by their 
 guns, small and great, the Bhao, with the Peshwa's 
 
 n
 
 242 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 
 
 son and the household troops, was in the centre. The 
 left wing consisted of the ''Gardis" under Ihrahim 
 Khan. Holkar and Sindhia were on the extreme right. 
 
 On the other side, the Afghans formed a somewhat 
 similar line ; their left being formed by Najib's 
 Rohillas, and their right by the brigades of Persian 
 troops. Their left centre was led by the two vazirs, 
 Shujaa-ud-Daulah, and Shah Wali ; the right centre 
 consisted of Uohillas under the well-known Hafiz 
 E-ahmat and other chiefs of the Indian Pathans. Day 
 broke, but the Afghan artillery for the most part kept 
 silence, while that of the enemy, losing range in its 
 constant advance, threw away its ammunition over the 
 heads of the enemy, and dropped its shot a mile to his 
 rear. Shah Pasand Khan covered the left wing with 
 a choice body of mailed Afghan horsemen, and in this 
 order the army moved forward, leaving the Shah at 
 his usual post, which was now in rear of the line, from 
 whence he would watch and direct the battle. 
 
 !No great precautions seem to have been taken in 
 the Mahratta host, except indeed by the Gardis, and 
 their vigilant leader, who advanced in silence and 
 without firing a shot, with two battalions of infantry 
 bent back to his left flank to cover his approach from 
 the attack of the Persian cavalry forming the extreme 
 right of the enemy's line. The valiant veteran soon 
 showed the worth of Erencli discipline, and another 
 division such as his would have probably gained the 
 day. Well mounted and armed, and carrying in his 
 hand the colours of his own personal command, he 
 led his men against the Rohilkhand columns with 
 fixed bayonets, and to so much effect that nearly 
 eight thousand were put hor s-de -combat ^ and for three
 
 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 243 
 
 hours the Gardis remained in unchallenged possession 
 of that part of the field. Shujaa-ud-Daulah, with his 
 small but compact force, remained stationary, neither 
 fighting nor flying; and the Mahrattas forebore to 
 attack them. The corps between this and the Pathans 
 was that of the Daurani vazir ; and it suffered severely 
 from the shock of an attack delivered upon them by the 
 Bhao himself at the head of the household troops. The 
 Pundit, being sent through the dust to inform Shujaa 
 what was going on, found Shah Wali vainly trying to 
 rally the courage of his followers, of whom many were 
 in full retreat. " Whither would you run, friends ? " 
 cried the vazir, "your country is far from here." 
 
 Meanwhile the prudent Najib had masked his 
 advance by a series of breastworks, under cover of 
 which he had gradually approached the hostile line. 
 *'I have the highest stake to-day," he said, " and cannot 
 afford to make any mistakes." The part of the enemy's 
 force immediately opposite to him was commanded 
 by the then head of the Sindhia house, who was Najib's 
 personal enemy. Till noon Najib remained on the 
 defensive, keeping off all close attacks upon his earth 
 works by continuous discharges of rockets. But so far 
 the fortune of the day was evidently inclined towards 
 the Mahrattas. The Mohamadan left still held their 
 own under the two vazirs and Najib ; but the centre 
 was cut in two, and the right was almost destroyed. 
 
 Of the circumstances which turned the tide and gave 
 the crisis to the Moslems, but one account necessarily 
 exists. Hitherto we have had the guidance of Grant 
 Duff for the Mahratta side of the affair ; but now the 
 whole movement was to be from the other side, and 
 we cannot do better than trust the Pundit. Dow, the
 
 244 THE TUEKS IN INDIA. 
 
 only other contemporary author of importance, if we 
 except Gholam Husain, wh.o wrote at a very remote 
 place, is most irremediably inaccurate and vague ahout 
 all these transactions. The Pundit, then, informs us 
 that during those earlier hours of the conflict, the 
 Shah had watched the fortunes of the battle from his 
 tent, guarded by the still unbroken forces on his left. 
 But no;^^, hearing that his right was defeated, he felt 
 that the moment was come for a final effort. In front 
 of him the Hindu cries of " Sar ! Har ! Jai Ma- 
 hadeo ! " were maintaining an equal and dreadful 
 concert with those of " Allah ! Allah ! Din ! Din ! " 
 from his own side. The battle wavered to and fro, 
 like that of Elodden, as described by Scott. The Shah 
 saw the critical moment in the very act of passing. 
 He, therefore, sent 500 of his own body-guard with 
 orders to drive all able-bodied men out of camp, and 
 push them to the front at any cost ; 1500 more he sent 
 to encounter those who were flying, and slay without 
 pity any who would not return to the fight. These, 
 with 4000 of his reserve troops went to support the 
 broken ranks of the B^ohilla Pathans on the right. 
 The remainder of the reserve, 10,000 strong, was sent 
 to the aid of Shah Wali, still labouring unequally 
 against the Bhao, in the centre of the field. The 
 Shah's orders were clear. These mailed warriors were 
 to charge with the vazir in close order, and at full 
 gallop. As often as they charged the enemy in front, 
 the chief of the staff, and Najib were directed to fall 
 upon either flank. These orders were immediately 
 carried out. 
 
 The forward movement of the Moslems began at 
 one p.m. The fight was close and obstinate ; men
 
 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 245 
 
 fighting with swords, spears, axes, and even with 
 daggers. Between two and three p.m. the Peshwa's son 
 was wounded, and having fallen from, his horse, was 
 placed upon an elephant. The last thing seen of the 
 Bhao was his dismounting from the elephant and 
 getting on his Arab charger. Soon after the young 
 chief was slain. The next moment, Holkar and the 
 Gaikwar left the field. In that instant resistance 
 ceased, and the Mahrattas all at once became helpless 
 victims of butchery. Thousands were cut down; 
 other thousands were drowned in escaping, or were 
 slaughtered by the country people, whom they had so 
 long pillaged. The Shah, and his principal com- 
 manders, then retired to camp, leaving the pursuit to 
 be completed by subordinate ofiicers. Porty thousand 
 prisoners are said to have been slain. Among the 
 prisoners was Ibrahim, the valiant and skilful leader 
 of the Gardis. Though severely wounded, he was 
 taken care of in Shujaa's tents, and his wounds re- 
 ceived surgical attention. Shujaa also endeavoured to 
 extend protection to the head of the house of Sindhia. 
 The afterwards celebrated Mahdaji,who was to become 
 in his turn master of the whole country, fled from the 
 field ; and the late Colonel Skinner used to describe 
 how this chief, in whose service he at one time was, 
 would relate the mental agonies he endured on his 
 light Deccanee mare, from the lobbing paces and 
 roaring breath of a big northern horse, on which he 
 was pursued for many miles by an Afghan, greedy of 
 blood and booty. 
 
 Jankoiji, the then head of the family, was killed 
 next day, a victim to the enmity of Najib, whose 
 policy included relentlessness. Ibrahim Gardi was
 
 246 THE TURKS IN INDIA. 
 
 taken from Shnjaa by a mixture of force and fraud. 
 He was put into tlie charge of the Afghan vazir, and 
 died in that charge a week after. A headless body, 
 supposed to be that of the Bhao, was found some 
 twenty or thirty miles off ; the body, with that of the 
 Peshwa's son, received the usual honours of Hindu 
 cremation, at the prayer of the Nawab Shujaa. 
 
 After these things, the allies moved to Delhi ; but 
 the Daurani troops became mutinous and quarrel- 
 some, and they parted on ill terms. Shujaa marched 
 back to Mehndi Ghat, whence he had come six 
 months before ; the Shah, having written to the fu- 
 gitive. Shah Alam, to salute him as emperor, got 
 what money he could out of the exhausted treasury, 
 and departed to his own country. Najib Khan re- 
 mained at Delhi, under the title of Najib-ud-Daula, 
 with a son of the absent emperor, as ostensible 
 regent. Such was the famous campaign of Panipat, 
 the first disaster, on a great scale, of the power of the 
 Mahratta confederacy, and the besom which swept 
 the land of Hindustan for the advent of the British. 
 
 Note. — It is a cm-ious coincidence, and one -which illustrates the similar 
 character of war ia West and East, that the critical action of Ahmad Shah's 
 troops at Panipat should so closely resemble that by which the Duke of 
 Marlborough had won the battle of Blenheim, more than half a century 
 before — namely, breaking the hostile line of battle by a violent assault at 
 the end of a long engagement with a reserre of heavy cavalry. 
 
 The fact is, no doubt, to be accounted for by the character of Ahmad, 
 who was a self-made man, brought up in a good school. Hence he had learned 
 to be prudent, without surrendering his native originality and the initiative 
 spirit, which might otherwise have led only to eccentric conduct. It is 
 extremely unlikely that he had ever heard so much as the name of the 
 Englisli general, but in like circumstances his genius had like inspiration. 
 Therefore he made the right step at the right moment, and so gained his 
 great success, unconsciously reproducing the strategy of another great leader.
 
 THE TUEKS IN INDIA. 247 
 
 An episode like this possesses value, as a study of human nature, even beyond 
 what arises from its importance as a link in the chain of history. 
 
 The two most remarkable men in the above narrative are the Shah himself 
 and Najib Khan. The former was a native of Herat, his tribal surname being 
 Abddlli, whence the Europeans of the last century sometimes mention him 
 by the name, " Abdallah." He rose to distinction in the service of Nadir 
 Shah, and, according to a contemporary anecdote preserved in the "Asiatic 
 Researches," was once under arrest in the same guard -room with Karim 
 Khan, a brother officer, who afterwards succeeded to Nadir's throne. Ahmad 
 Abdalli was not free from the vices of his profession, and his cruel spoliations 
 of the citizens and villagers of Hindustan are a sad blot upon his character. 
 But the narrative we have been studying accoiints for his unvaried success ; 
 he was evidently possessed of that combination of patience, prudence, and 
 resolution, which is as irresistible as it is rare. He was the founder of 
 Afghanistan as an independent power, though his own dynasty fell in the 
 third generation before the genius and popularity of a collateral, the late Dost 
 Mohamad Klian. 
 
 Of Najib Khan (afterwards called Najib-ud-Daula), it should be noted 
 that he, too, was a Pathan* soldier of fortune, who had chosen an Indian 
 career. He married the daughter of Dundi Khan, the head of the Rohillas, 
 and this alliance bad procured him a territorial charge in the north-west comer 
 of RohCkhand. It is now the district of Bijnore, and its chief town 
 Najibabad, still bears the founder's name. When Safdar Jang occupied 
 Kohilkhand, he abandoned the cause of his friends and espoused that of the 
 conqueror. When the latter broke down he joined the young Ghazi-ud-Din. 
 By that minister he was put in charge of fifty-two parganahsf about 
 Saharanpur, which long continued to form the fief of his family, and formed 
 an almost independent principality. Though possessing much of the unscru- 
 pulous habits of a condottiere, Najib had also the virtues of his class. He 
 was active, painstaking, and faithful to engagements. He ultimately ruled 
 the empire for nine years, and handed it to his son in an improved and 
 strengthened condition, and ready to be restored to its lawful monarch. He 
 was reported on by the British Government of those days as " a great and 
 good character." (Keene's "Fall of the Moghal Empire," page 94.) 
 
 * Pathan is the generic name applied in India to Afghans and their 
 descendants. 
 
 t Hundreds, or small fiscal unions of parishes.
 
 I
 
 APPENDIX A. 
 
 In comparing the passage from Nizam-ud-Din witli that from De 
 Lact, it seems possible that the latter relates to the accounts as found 
 by Jahangir on his father's death (Thomas, " Chronicles," p. 440) ; 
 that the three arhs forty- nine Tcrors of tankahs means the same as the 
 similar estimate (in dams^ of the " Ain Akbari " ; and that, taking 
 Nizam to have meant half that taiikali or dam, his estimate of six 
 hundred and forty krors means sixteen krors of rupees. I say " pos- 
 sible " — but no more — and his sum may have risen to seventeen krors 
 forty-five' lakhs between the date of the " Tabakat " and Akbar's 
 death, when Khandes had been thoroughly settled, and part of what 
 was afterwards Aurungabad added to the empire. If we are at liberty 
 to adopt Mr. Thomas' suggestion, and estimate the separate revenue 
 at a corresponding sum, this would give us something close upon the 
 £349,000,000 estimated by Mr. Thomas as the total revenue (from 
 all sources) at Akbar's death. But this appears very doubtful. 
 Hawkins' notion that Jahangir got fifty krors of rupees from the 
 land alone may be at once set aside as a monstrous exaggeration. 
 Mr. Thomas (" Eevenue Eesources," p. 23) thinks that Hawkins 
 had means of knowing the truth, but admits in a foot-note that 
 the estimate must have included customs, taxes, and all other 
 miscellaneous receipts. But Hawkins declares that his estimate 
 applies to the land alone — " the king's yearly income of his crowne- 
 land " — which seems to dispose of his claim to be considered an 
 authority. It is further to be remarked that Coryat, the eccentric 
 but inquisitive vicar of Odcombe, who was in India at the same 
 time, declared that the revenue (q.d. from land ?) was only " forty 
 millions of crowns of six shillings each " (£12,000,000), which 
 tallies very fairly with the account in the " Ain." The author of 
 the " Badshahnama " in the next reign put the revenue of the whole 
 empire at £22,000,000, giving details for each province of which 
 that forms the total. He states that this was twenty years after
 
 250 APPENDIX. 
 
 the emperor's accession, at wticli time the income was only 
 £17,800,000. The latter estimate is confirmed by the entirely 
 independent testimony of Eamusio. Valuable MS. records cited by 
 Mr. Thomas (" Eevenue Eesources," pp. 33-35) give £24,056,114 
 as the net return in the early years of Aurungzeb (1654-5) ; the 
 returns for later years come to over £34,000,000, which Manucci 
 raises to £38,000,000, according to Mr. Thomas. But, as he says that 
 the 38 krors were equal to 580,000,000 Trench livres, it is very likely 
 that at that time the exchange was not at the original par of two 
 shillings. Lastly, in Harris's " Voyages " is an estimate, which 
 Mr. Thomas seems to value highly, from which it would appear 
 that the total was £30,179,686 in the last years. 
 
 The following is the conspectus of these estimates (rejecting 
 those of Hawkins and Carreri which are apparently extravagant). 
 It is possible that the higher totals express the mixed totals or 
 icJiole of the fixed revenues, whether from land or customs and 
 poll-tax, though they can throw no light on what may be termed 
 "accidental items," gifts, fines, escheats, and such like. 
 
 Co>"SPECTus OF La^t) Eevexue. 
 
 Akbar— about £10,000,000. 
 
 Jahc4ngir— from £12,000,000 (Coryat) to £17,500,000. 
 Shah jahau— about £22,000,000. 
 
 Aurungzeb— from £24,056,114 to £34,000,000, but declining 
 in the last year or two to £30,179,686. 
 
 It must be confessed that the subject is obscure and tLe 
 evidence conflicting. But, to those ■who are in favour of the higher 
 estimates, it may be suggested that, in the first place, the " Ain " 
 is not likely to have been far wrong, and that ten millions may very 
 safely be taken as a starting-point for the income of the empire. 
 If, in the height of Aurungzeb's power, and when he was wringing 
 a new poll-tax from the bulk of the population, and was vigilantly 
 administering nearly the whole of the Deccan, in addition to the 
 heritage of his fathers, he more than tripled the revenue of 1596, 
 he did as much as could be expected from the ablest financier. It 
 will be seen that I do not believe the estimate of £80,000,000 
 which Mr. Thomas seems disposed to accept upon European testi- 
 mony. European travellers in those days saw Eastern matters — 
 especially the wealth of India — through convex glasses.
 
 APPENDIX B. 
 
 Note on Manriq^ue's Mission, and the Catholics in the time of 
 
 Shalijdhdn. 
 
 In a. d. 1653 was published at Rome a small quarto o£ 470 pages, 
 containing the " Itinerary of Missions in the East Indies, made by 
 P. Maestro Fra Sebastian Manrique, an Eremite monk of S. 
 Augustine." The first 56 chapters describe the travels of the 
 missionary in Burmah, Bengal, and Bahar ; but in chapter 57 we 
 find him going to Hindustan; and the next ten chapters are devoted 
 to an account of the cities of Agra and Lahore, and of the court of 
 "the Great Mogul." Then follows a journey to Multan, then one 
 to Candahar, after which is a fresh description of the Mughal system, 
 wealth, power, &c. Then comes a relation of the fall of Hughli, 
 some years before, and of the imprisonment and sufferings of the 
 Catholic priests of that place, especially of Prior Antonio de Cristo, 
 whose liberation the author undertook with success. The remainder 
 of the book sho^^'s how the enterprising father returned to Eome 
 through Persia and the Levant. 
 
 He seems to have been a man of average observation, but much 
 beset by a desire for distinction as a rhetorician, to which he 
 occasionally sacrificed both accuracy and intelligibility. He also 
 uses archaic words, and forms of spelling which sometimes interfere 
 with the reader's ease, unless he be an unusually profound Spanish 
 scholar. The following extracts may be found interesting. After 
 mentioning his arrival at Agra (where the priests knew him "though 
 in Mughal garb," and placed at his disposal a house formerly in- 
 habited by the captive prior), he relates how, on the day after 
 Christmas, he set out for Biana, passing through Fathipur-Sikri 
 (already a ruin). Having transacted the business for which he went 
 to Biana, he returned to Agra, where he visited the prior in prison, 
 and cheered him with hopes of liberty which he afterwards fulfilled.
 
 252 APPENDIX. 
 
 The court was then at Lahore, whither it would be necessary to 
 repair to make intercession for the prior. This was in 1640, and 
 the poor man had been in prison for over eight years. 
 
 Before starting for Lahore, Manrique had time to look about 
 him and examine the fort and other buildings of Agra. His account 
 of the palace is not important ; the buildings of those days have 
 been much better described by Finch, whose account will be found 
 in Furchas' " Pilgrims." The present Diwdn-i-Adm had not been 
 built, nor, in all probability, the Amr Sink gate ; for Amr Sinh's 
 little tragedy did not occur till four years later. 
 
 The description of the tomb of Akbar at Sikandra is not very 
 clear, and the account of the Taj is not much more graphic, though 
 it contains certain details of considerable interest. It was still 
 unfinished when he saw it (it was not finished for eight years more) ; 
 all that he saw seems to have been " a beautiful, lofty, and squared 
 wall (or rampart) of ruddy and famous masonry, and well-propor- 
 tioned height." Four white marble palaces were in the corners, 
 and a spacious garden within, together with a white circular tower 
 of Archimedean geometry. One thousand workmen laboured there 
 daily. "The architect was a Venetian named Geronimo Verroneo, 
 who came to India, with the ships of the Portuguese, and who died 
 in the city of Lahore a little before my arrival. To him gave the 
 Emperor Khurram great salaries, but he was supposed to have pro- 
 fited so little by them, that when he died F. Joseph de Castro* 
 found them much less than he had expected. Of him a report was 
 current that the Pddsha, having sent for him and, made known the 
 desire he felt to build there [at Agra] a grandiose and sumptuous 
 monument to his defunct consort, and to have him make and exhibit 
 designs for it, the architect Verroneo obeyed, and in a few days 
 produced various models of very fine architecture, showing all the 
 skill of his art ; also that, having contented his majesty in this, he 
 dissatisfied him — according to his barbarous and arrogant pride — 
 by the modesty of his estimates ; further that, growing angry, he 
 ordered him to spend three krors, and to let him know when they 
 were spent — wonderful sum ! But if these mortuary chambers had 
 really covers of gold plates, as was the case with the urn containing 
 the ashes of the empress, such an expense need cause no astonish- 
 ment." The amount evidently surprised the friar, for he falls to 
 
 * Vide infra.
 
 APPENDIX. 253 
 
 calculation, and shows that we are dealing with one who " in no 
 longer time than it takes to open and shut the mouth, could cause 
 the expenditure of fifteen millions of Spanish dollars." 
 
 The best things in the book are the description of the cele- 
 bration of the royal birthday, and of Asaf Khan's dinner, partly 
 given in the text. There is also a curious account of the persecu- 
 tion of the Portuguese by Shahjahan. 
 
 It appears from Manrique that the siege of Hughli very much 
 resembled that of Cawnpore in our day — the place being entirely 
 open and unwalled. The garrison, moreover, were enormously 
 outnumbered. He says that they obstinately defended themselves 
 behind earthern entrenchments for three months, daring whic'i 
 the enemy lost many men, including two Umrahs, or commanders. 
 It was at length resolved to apply for terms of surrender, and the 
 Prior r. Antonio de Cristo was sent to the camp of the Subahdar 
 with plenary powers. He was accompanied by a certain F. Fran- 
 cisco " de la Incarnacion," and two Portuguese captains. But when 
 they saw in the enemy's proceedings that there was no hope of an 
 honest negotiation, they returned to the city, resolved to sell their 
 lives dear. Tbey accordingly defended themselves for three months 
 more, during which (always according to Manrique) they slew 
 thirteen thousand of the enemy. At length the latter — who had 
 been largely reinforced — delivered a general assault ; the inhabi- 
 tants placed the women and non-combatants in the principal church, 
 and after a vigorous defence, surrendered on promise of life and 
 liberty. The treaty was broken, and men, women, and children 
 were sent to Agra. The journey occupied eleven months, during 
 which the good prior did all in his power for his flock — giving his 
 food to the poor, and his carriage to the weak, and begging for 
 alms in the failure of his own resources. " "With these labours and 
 sufferings, or, to speak more correctly, spiritual triumphs, the ser- 
 vant of God came, with all his company, to the Agra court." So 
 says the enthusiastic Manrique. The rest of the captives were 
 divided amongst the princes and lords of that court, but the monarch 
 reserved for himself the two Augustinians and two priests, of whom 
 one was a Portuguese of Santarem, named Manuel Danhaya ; the 
 other a B ngali of Serampur, named Manuel Garcia ; also some of 
 the leaders, and the women, who were put into the imperial palace. 
 
 " Many times did Shabjahan invite the monks and clergymen to 
 become Mahomadans, but they repudiated his overtures with scorn.
 
 254 APPENDIX. 
 
 and called on the emperor rather to turn from his own errors and 
 conform to the Catholic faith. Long did they suffer ill-treatment 
 and blows in the public pi'ison. At last the emperor sent for them, 
 and renewed his temptations in person, not only with threats, but 
 with large offers of what he would do for them in return. * Sovereign 
 and powerful ruler, if to give you pleasure were not to offend the 
 Sujjreme Ruler of the sky, believe me that without any special 
 promises of favour we should be ready to follow your desire with 
 much joy. But since we are bound to the Creator more than to the 
 creature, and He who is not only Creator but Redeemer has charged 
 us to keep His law, you will surely not take it ill that v/e do not 
 embrace a faith which is in our eyes erroneous and opposed both to 
 reason and understanding. Consider, therefore. Lord, to whom we 
 owe obedience.' Shahjahan was naturally offended at reasoning of 
 this sort, and the end was that all four of these good Christians 
 were ordered for execution the next day. They passed the night in 
 prayer. Next day they were conducted in chains to an open market 
 facing the Delhi gate of the fort — where the railway-station now 
 is, and elephants were brought out to trample them to death like 
 common malefactors. 
 
 " But Asaf Khan, moved by pity for their constancy in suffering, 
 threw himself at the emperor's feet. Seeing the frame of mind of 
 his sovereign and son-in-law, he applied rather to his sense of 
 interest than to his compassion. He pointed out that the Portuguese, 
 though ruined at Hughli, were still powerful on the opposite coast : 
 and that the vengeance of the Yiceroy of Goa would fall upon the 
 ships and sea-going people, so that many of his majesty's subjects 
 would suffer for each of these. 
 
 " Shahjahan yielded ; and the valiant soldiers of the cross, after 
 being paraded ignominiously through the town, were re-conducted to 
 prison. Garcia and Danhaya sank and died of fatigue next day, 
 what became of F. Francisco is not stated. The prior lived nine years 
 in confinement. During this period he managed to raise money by 
 drawing bills on Groa, with w^hich he provided funds for the departure 
 of all his flock, so saving them from the mouth of the infernal 
 wolf," says Manrique. F. F. Grarcia and Danhaya were buried in 
 the little mortuary chapel of the Agra Cemetery near the judge's 
 court, called by natives " Padre Santo.^' Their epitaphs are still 
 to be read, and are as follow : — Aqui cazo P. Mel. Danhaya, 
 Glerigo morio ^e la /K, cua prisdo a 2 cVAgosto, 1635. Aqui cazo P.
 
 APPENDIX. 255 
 
 Mel. Garcia, Clerigo morto no carcere, pe la fe, a 23 de Marco, 
 1634. 
 
 From tliese epitaphs we learn several facts connected with the 
 persecution. First, the secular priests did not, as Manrique sup- 
 poses, die " al segunda dia deste espectaculo." Next, that their 
 sufferings spread over a long period — at least, from March, 1634, 
 to August, 1635. Lastly, that the persecution was not so severe as 
 to prevent the victims from receiving Christian hurial. Moreover, 
 the whole circumstances, ending with the visit of Manrique, the 
 civility that he met with, and the prior's liberation at his request, 
 all show that it was not so much as Christians, but as recalcitrant 
 prisoners of war, that the fathers were ill-treated. By Mohamedan 
 law they were liable to the alternative of circumcision or death. 
 
 There were three priests (Augustinians) and a part of the 
 garrison who attempted to escape from Hughli by water. But 
 their vessel grounded on a sandbank, where they were boarded 
 and put to the sword. One priest escaped by favour of a wealthy 
 Hindu, who hid him in his house and had his wounds treated. 
 
 All this time Christians were abundant in the imperial service, 
 and Mandelslo in 1638 made a tour through the country. It was 
 not, therefore, a religious persecution in the sense in which the 
 Roman emperors would have understood the term. There are 
 seven other tombstones in the same chapel dated in the reign of 
 ShahjahaD, but no others oi inorti pe laje. 
 
 Joseph de Castro, mentioned above as Verronio's executor, 
 died at Agra in 1616. His tomb is among those in the " Padre 
 Santo." 
 
 An interesting account of the " Padre Santo " has lately been 
 contributed to the " Transactions " of the Archaeological Society of 
 Agra by the Eev. Father Symphorien, secretary to Monsignor 
 Jacopi, the Bishop of Agra.
 
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