"Outside, like an infidel's grave, full of cracks, [233]
Inside, the anger of God, the honoured and glorious."
On this day Mukhlis K., according to order, came from Bengal, and
had the good fortune to kiss the threshold. He gave 100 muhars and
100 rupees as nazar, and by way of offering, a ruby and jewelled
aigrette (turra). On Friday, the 9th, Rs. 600,000 of treasure for
the maintenance (zakhira) of the fort of Asir were sent to the
Commander-in-Chief, Khan-khanan.
In the foregoing pages, something has been written about Gosa'in
Jadrup, [234] who lived as a hermit in Ujain. At this time he changed
his residence to Mathura, which is one of the greatest places of
worship of the Hindus, and employed himself in the worship of the true
God on the bank of the Jumna. As I valued his society, I hastened
to wait on him, and for a long time enjoyed his company without the
presence of any stranger. In truth, his existence is a great gain to
me: one can be greatly benefited and delighted.
On Saturday, the 10th, the huntsmen represented that there was in
that neighbourhood a tiger that greatly troubled and injured the
ryots and wayfarers. I immediately ordered them to bring together
a number of elephants and surround the forest and at the end of the
day myself rode out with my ladies. As I had vowed that I would not
injure any living thing with my own hand, I told Nur-Jahan [235]
to shoot at him. An elephant is not at ease when it smells a tiger,
and is continually in movement, and to hit with a gun from a litter
(`imari) is a very difficult matter, insomuch that Mirza Rustam, who,
after me, is unequalled in shooting, has several times missed three
or four shots from an elephant. Yet Nur-Jahan B. so hit the tiger
with one shot that it was immediately killed.
On Monday, the 12th, my desire to see the Gosa'in Jadrup again
increased, and hastening to his hut, without ceremony, I enjoyed
his society. Sublime words were spoken between us. God Almighty
has granted him an unusual grace, a lofty understanding, an exalted
nature, and sharp intellectual powers, with a God-given knowledge
and a heart free from the attachments of the world, so that, putting
behind his back the world and all that is in it, he sits content in
the corner of solitude and without wants. He has chosen of worldly
goods half a gaz of old cotton (kirpas) like a woman's veil, and a
piece of earthenware from which to drink water, and in winter and
summer and the rainy season lives naked and with his head and feet
bare. He has made a hole in which he can turn round with a hundred
difficulties and tortures, with a passage such that a suckling could
hardly be put through it. These two or three couplets of Hakim Sana'i
(may God have mercy on him!) appeared appropriate: