seventeenth century, provincial governors, and probably to some extent
all large holders of service lands, employed various methods for adding
to the profits which the assigned lands were meant to yield them. Of
these devices two seem to have been specially common, the practice
of supporting a body of horse smaller than the number agreed for,
and the practice of purveyance that is of levying supplies without
payment. Sir Thomas Roe, from A.D. 1615 to 1618 English ambassador
at the court of the emperor Jehángír, gives the following details
of these irregular practices: 'The Pátan (that is Patna in Bengal)
viceroy's government was estimated at 5000 horse, the yearly pay
of each trooper being £20 (Rs. 200), of which he kept only 1500,
being allowed the surplus as dead pay. On one occasion this governor
wished to present me with 100 loaves of the finest sugar, as white
as snow, each loaf weighing fifty pounds. On my declining, he said,
'You refuse these loaves, thinking I am poor; but being made in my
government the sugar costs me nothing, as it comes to me gratis.' Sir
Thomas Roe in Kerr's Voyages, IX. 282-284. The same writer, the best
qualified of the English travellers of that time to form a correct
opinion, thus describes the administration of the Musalmán governors of
the seventeenth century: 'They practise every kind of tyranny against
the natives under their jurisdiction, oppressing them with continual
exactions, and are exceedingly averse from any way being opened by
which the king may be informed of their infamous proceedings. They
grind the people under their government to extract money from them,
often hanging men up by the heels to make them confess that they are
rich, or to ransom themselves from faults merely imputed with a view
to fleece them.' Sir Thomas Roe in Kerr's Voyages, IX. 338.
[696] Of these settlements the principal was that of the Ráthod chief
who in the thirteenth century established himself at Ídar, now one
of the states of the Mahi Kántha. In the thirteenth century also,
Gohils from the north and Sodha Parmárs and Káthis from Sindh entered
Gujarát. Rás Mála, II. 269.
[697] Gujarát of about the year A.D. 1300 is thus described: 'The
air of Gujarát is healthy, and the earth picturesque; the vineyards
bring forth blue grapes twice a year, and the strength of the soil
is such that the cotton plants spread their branches like willow and
plane trees, and yield produce for several years successively. Besides
Cambay, the most celebrated of the cities of Hind in population and
wealth, there are 70,000 towns and villages, all populous, and the
people abounding in wealth and luxuries.' Elliot's History of India,
III. 31, 32, and 43. Marco Polo, about A.D. 1292, says: 'In Gujarát
there grows much pepper and ginger and indigo. They have also a great
deal of cotton. Their cotton trees are of very great size, growing
full six paces high, and attaining to an age of twenty years.' Yule's
Edition, II. 328. The cotton referred to was probably the variety known
as devkapás Gossypium religiosum or peruvianum, which grows from ten
to fifteen feet high, and bears for several years. Royle, 149-150.
[698] Elphinstone's History, 762.
[699] Bird's History of Gujarát, 110, 129, and 130.
[700] The passage from the Mirat-i-Áhmedi, Bird 109, is: 'A sum of 25
lákhs of húns and one kror of ibráhíms, that were two parts greater,
being altogether nearly equal to 5 krors and 62 lákhs of rupees, was
collected from the Dakhan tribute and the customs of the European
and Arab ports.' The word hún, from an old Karnátak word for gold,
is the Musalmán name for the coin known among Hindus as varáha or
the wild-boar coin, and among the Portuguese as the pagoda or temple
coin. Prinsep Ind. Ant. Thomas' Ed. II. U. T. 18. The old specimens of
this coin weigh either 60 grains the máda or half pagoda, or 120 grains
the hún or full pagoda. Thomas, Chron. Pat. Ks. II. 224, note. The
star pagoda, in which English accounts at Madras were formerly kept,
weighs 52·56 grains, and was commonly valued at 8s. or Rs. 4 (Prinsep
as above). At this rate in the present sum the 25 lákhs of húns would
equal one kror (100 lákhs) of rupees. The ibráhími, 'two parts greater
than the hún,' would seem to be a gold coin, perhaps a variety of the
Persian ashrafi (worth about 9s. English. Marsden, N. O. 455). Taking
the two parts of a hún as fánams or sixteenths, this would give the
ibráhími a value of Rs. 4 1/4, and make a total customs revenue of
425 lákhs of rupees. This statement of the revenues of the kingdom
is, according to the author of the Mirat-i-Áhmedi, taken from such
times as the power of the Gujarát kings continued to increase. The
total revenue of the twenty-five districts (£5,840,000) is the amount
recovered in the year A.D. 1571. But the receipts under the head of
Tribute must have been compiled from accounts of earlier years. For,
as will be seen below, the neighbouring kings ceased to pay tribute
after the end of the reign of Bahádur (A.D. 1536). Similarly the
customs revenues entered as received from Daman and other places must
have been taken from the accounts of some year previous to A.D. 1560.
[701] The remains at Chámpáner in the British district of the Panch
Maháls are well known. Of Mehmúdábád, the town of that name in the
district of Kaira, eighteen miles south of Áhmedábád, a few ruins only
are left. In A.D. 1590 this city is said to have contained many grand
edifices surrounded with a wall eleven miles (7 kos) square with at
every 3/4 mile (1/2 kos) a pleasure house, and an enclosure for deer
and other game. (Áin-i-Akbari: Gladwin, II. 64.) The Mirat-i-Áhmedi
makes no special reference to the sovereign's share of the revenue. The
greater part of the £5,620,000 derived from tribute and customs would
probably go to the king, besides the lands specially set apart as
crown domains, which in A.D. 1571 were returned as yielding a yearly
revenue of £900,000 (900,000,000 tankás). This would bring the total
income of the crown to a little more than 6 1/2 millions sterling.
[702] So Sikandar Lodi emperor of Dehli, A.D. 1488-1517, is reported
to have said: 'The magnificence of the kings of Dehli rests on wheat
and barley; the magnificence of the kings of Gujarát rests on coral
and pearls.' Bird, 132.
[703] The twelve Gujarát ports mentioned by Barbosa are: On the south
coast of the peninsula, two: Patenixi (Pátan-Somnáth, now Verával),
very rich and of great trade; Surati-Mangalor (Mangrul), a town
of commerce, and Diu. On the shores of the gulf of Cambay four:
Gogari (Gogha), a large town; Barbesy (Broach); Guandári or Gandar
(Gandhár), a very good town; and Cambay. On the western coast five:
Ravel (Ránder), a rich place; Surat, a city of very great trade; Denvy
(Gandevi), a place of great trade; Baxay (Bassein), a good seaport
in which much goods are exchanged; and Tanamayambu (Thána-Máhim), a
town of great Moorish mosques, but of little trade. (Stanley's Barbosa,
59-68). The only one of these ports whose identification seems doubtful
is Ravel, described by Barbosa (page 67) as a pretty town of the Moors
on a good river, twenty leagues south of Gandhár. This agrees with the
position of Ránder on the Tápti, nearly opposite Surat, which appears
in Al Bírúni (A.D. 1030) as Ráhanur one of the capitals of south
Gujarát and is mentioned under the name Ránir, both in the Áin-i-Akbari
(A.D. 1590) and in the Mirat-i-Áhmedi for the year A.D. 1571, as a
place of trade, 'in ancient times a great city.' In his description
of the wealth of Cambay, Barbosa is supported by the other European
travellers of the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. According
to Nicolo de Conti (A.D. 1420-1444), the town, including its suburbs,
was twelve miles in circuit abounding in spikenard, lac, indigo,
myrobalans, and silk. Athanasius Nikotin (A.D. 1468-1474) found it
a manufacturing place for every sort of goods as long gowns damasks
and blankets; and Varthema (A.D. 1503-1508) says it abounds in grain
and very good fruits, supplying Africa Arabia and India with silk and
cotton stuffs; 'it is impossible to describe its excellence.' Barbosa's
account of Áhmedábád is borne out by the statement in the Áin-i-Akbari
(Gladwin, II. 63) that the whole number of the suburbs (purás) of
the city was 360, and in the Mirat-i-Áhmedi, that it once contained
380 suburbs each of considerable size, containing good buildings and
markets filled with everything valuable and rare, so that each was
almost a city. Bird, 311.
[704] Gladwin's Áin-i-Akbari, II. 62-63. Compare Terry (Voyage, 80,
131) in 1615: Gujarát a very goodly large and exceeding rich province
with, besides its most spacious populous and rich capital Áhmedábád,
four fair cities Cambay Baroda Broach and Surat with great trade to the
Red Sea, Achin, and other places. At the same time (Ditto, 179-180)
though the villages stood very thick, the houses were generally very
poor and base, all set close together some with earthen walls and
flat roofs, most of them cottages miserably poor little and base set
up with sticks rather than timber.
[705] The decrease in the Mughal collections from Gujarát compared
with the revenues of the Áhmedábád kings may have been due to
Akbar's moderation. It may also have been due to a decline in
prosperity. Compare Roe's (1617) account of Toda about fifty miles
south-east of Ajmír. It was the best and most populous country Roe
had seen in India. The district was level with fertile soil abounding
in corn cotton and cattle and the villages were so numerous and
near together as hardly to exceed a kos from each other. The town
was the best built Roe had seen in India tiled two-storied houses
good enough for decent shopkeepers. It had been the residence of a
Rájput Rája before the conquests of Akbar Sháh and stood at the foot
of a good and strong rock about which were many excellent works of
hewn stone, well cut, with many tanks arched over with well-turned
vaults and large and deep descents to them. Near it was a beautiful
grove two miles long and a quarter of a mile broad all planted with
mangoes tamarinds and other fruit trees, divided by shady walks and
interspersed with little temples and idol altars with many fountains
wells and summer houses of carved stone curiously arched so that a
poor banished Englishman might have been content to dwell there. This
observation may serve universally for the whole country that ruin and
devastation operate everywhere. For since the property of all has
become vested in the king no person takes care of anything so that
in every place the spoil and devastations of war appear and nowhere
is anything repaired. Roe in Kerr's Voyages, IX. 320-321.
[706] Bird's History of Gujarát. Another detailed statement of the
revenue of Gujarát given in the Mirat-i-Áhmedi, apparently for the
time when the author wrote (A.D. 1760) gives: Revenue from crown
lands £2,107,518; tribute-paying divisions or sarkárs £12,700;
Mahí Kántha tribute £178,741; Vátrak Kántha tribute £159,768; and
Sábar Kántha tribute £121,151; in all £2,579,878: adding to this
£20,000 for Kachh, £40,000 for Dungarpur, and £5000 for Sirohi,
gives a grand total of £2,644,878. According to a statement given
by Bird in a note at page 108 of his History, the revenue of Gujarát
under Jehángir (A.D. 1605-1627) averaged £1,250,000; under Aurangzíb
(A.D. 1658-1707) £1,519,622; and under Muhammad Sháh (A.D. 1719-1748)
£1,218,360. In this passage the revenue under the emperor Akbar
(A.D. 1556-1605) is given at £66,845. This total is taken from
Gladwin's Áin-i-Akbari. But at vol. II. page 73 of that work there
would seem to be some miscalculation; for while the total number of
dáms (1/40th of a rupee) is 43,68,02,301, the conversion into rupees
is Rs. 10,96,123 instead of Rs. 1,09,20,057 1/2. The corresponding
returns given by Mr. Thomas (Rev. of the Mog. Emp. page 52) are under
Akbar, A.D. 1594, £1,092,412; under Sháh Jahán, A.D. 1648, £1,325,000;
and under Aurangzíb, A.D. 1658 £2,173,220, A.D. 1663-1666 £1,339,500,
A.D. 1697 £2,330,500, and A.D. 1707 £1,519,623. The varieties in
the currency employed in different parts of the accounts cause some
confusion in calculating the Gujarát revenue. Under the Áhmedábád
kings the accounts were kept in tánkás or 1/100 of rupees, while under
the Mughals dáms or 1/45th of a rupee took the place of tánkás. The
revenues from Surat Baroda Broach and other districts south of the Máhi
were returned in changízis, a coin varying in value from something
over 2/3rds of a rupee to slightly less than 1/2; the revenues from
Rádhanpur and Morvi were entered in mahmúdis, a coin nearly identical
in value with the changízi, while, as noticed above, the tribute and
customs dues are returned in a gold currency, the tribute in huns of
about 8s. (Rs. 4) and the customs in ibráhímís of 9s. (Rs. 4 1/2).
[707] Áin-i-Akbari (Gladwin), I. 305. The Áin-i-Akbari mentions four
ways of calculating the state share in an unsurveyed field: (1) to
measure the land with the crops standing and make an estimate; (2)
to reap the crops, collect the grain in barns, and divide it according
to agreement; (3) to divide the field as soon as the seed is sown; and
(4) to gather the grain into heaps on the field and divide it there.
[708] The men to whom this 2 1/2 per cent was granted are referred
to in the Mirat-i-Áhmedi as desáis. Whatever doubt may attach to
the precise meaning of the term desái it seems clear that it was
as village headmen that the desáis petitioned for and received this
grant. These desáis were the heads of villages with whom, as noticed
above, the government agent for collecting the revenue dealt, and who,
agreeing for the whole village contribution, themselves carried out the
details of allotment and collection from the individual cultivators. In
the sharehold villages north of the Narbada, the headman who would
be entitled to this 2 1/2 per cent was the representative of the
body of village shareholders. South of the Narbada, in villages
originally colonised by officers of the state, the representatives of
these officers would enjoy the 2 1/2 per cent. In south Gujarát the
desáis or heads of villages also acted as district hereditary revenue
officers; but it was not as district hereditary revenue officers,
but as heads of villages, that they received from Akbar this 2 1/2
per cent assignment. In north Gujarát there were desáis who were only
district revenue officers. These men would seem to have received no
part of Akbar's grant in 1589-90, for as late as A.D. 1706 the emperor
Aurangzíb, having occasion to make inquiries into the position of
the desáis, found that hitherto they had been supported by cesses and
illegal exactions, and ordered that a stop should be put to all such
exactions, and a fixed assignment of 2 1/2 per cent on the revenues of
the villages under their charge should be allowed them. It does not
appear whether the Surat desáis succeeded in obtaining Aurangzíb's
grant of 2 1/2 per cent as district revenue officers in addition to
Akbar's (A.D. 1589) assignment of 2 1/2 per cent as heads of villages.
[709] Bird's History of Gujarát, 409.
[710] Áhmedábád (A.D. 1583) by Muzaffar Sháh the last king of Gujarát;
Cambay (A.D. 1573) by Muhammad Husain Mirza; and Surat (A.D. 1609)
by Malik Ambar the famous general of the king of Amednagar. In such
unsettled times it is not surprising that the European travellers of
the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, between Áhmedábád
and Cambay found native merchants marching in large weekly caravans
which rested at night within a space barricaded by carts. (Kerr,
IX. 127 and 201.) The English merchants, on their way from one
factory to another, were accompanied by an escort, and, in spite of
their guard, were on more than one occasion attacked by large bands
of Rájputs. (Kerr, IX. 127, 187, 201, 203.) As regards the state
of the different parts of the province, Nicholas Ufflet, who went
from Agra to Surat about 1610, describes the north, from Jhálor to
Áhmedábád, as throughout the whole way a sandy and woody country,
full of thievish beastly men, and savage beasts such as lions and
tigers; from Áhmedábád to Cambay the road was through sands and woods
much infested by thieves; from Cambay to Broach it was a woody and
dangerous journey; but from Broach to Surat the country was goodly,
fertile, and full of villages, abounding in wild date trees. (Kerr,
VIII. 303.) Passing from the mouth of the Tápti to Surat Mr. Copland
(24th Dec. 1613) was delighted to see at the same time the goodliest
spring and harvest he had ever seen. 'Often of two adjoining fields,
one was as green as a fine meadow, and the other waving yellow
like gold and ready to be cut down, and all along the roads were
many goodly villages.' (Kerr, IX. 119.) At that time the state of
north-east Gujarát was very different. Terry, 1617 (Voyage, 404),
describes the passage of nineteen days from Mándu near Dhár to
Áhmedábád as short journeys in a wilderness where a way had to be cut
and made even and the great space required for the Mughal's camp rid
and made plain by grubbing up trees and bushes. And between Cambay
and Áhmedábád De la Valle, A.D. 1623 (Travels, Hakluyt Ed. I. 92),
resolved to go with the káfila since the insecurity of the ways did
not allow him to go alone. Still at that time Gujarát as a whole (see
above page 220 note 2) was an exceeding rich province, a description
which twenty years later (1638) is borne out by Mandelslo (Travels,
French Edition, 56): No province in India is more fertile; none
yields more fruit or victuals. With the boast of the author of the
Mirat-i-Áhmedi (A.D. 1756) that Gujarát was the richest province in
India compare Kháfi Khan's (A.D. 1719) remark (Elliot, VII. 530):
This rich province which no other province in India can equal.
[711] Orme's Historical Fragments, 12.
[712] The following are some of the notices of Áhmedábád and Cambay
by the European travellers of the seventeenth century: Cambay,
1598, trade so great that if he had not seen it he would not have
believed it possible (Cæsar Frederick); 1623, indifferent large with
sufficiently spacious suburbs and a great concourse of vessels (De
la Valle, Hakluyt Edition, I. 66-67); 1638, beyond comparison larger
than Surat (Mandelslo, 101-108); 1663-1671, twice as big as Surat
(Baldæus in Churchill, III. 506). Áhmedábád, 1598, a very great city
and populous (Cæsar Frederick); 1623, competently large with great
suburbs, a goodly and great city, with large fair and straight but
sadly dusty streets (De la Valle, Hakluyt Edition, I. 95); 1627,
large and beautiful with many broad and comely streets, a rich and
uniform bazár, and shops redundant with gums perfumes spices silks
cottons and calicoes (Herbert's Travels, 3rd Edition, 66); 1638,
great manufactures, satin and velvet, silk and cotton (Mandelslo,
80); 1695, the greatest city in India, nothing inferior to Venice
for rich silks and gold stuffs (Gemelli Careri in Churchill, IV. 188).
[713] Bird, 411.
[714] The usual explanation of toda garás is the word toda meaning
the beam-end above each house door. The sense being that it was a levy
exacted from every house in the village. A more likely derivation is
toda a heap or money-bag with the sense of a ready-money levy. Toda
differed from vol in being exacted from the garás or land once the
property of the levier's ancestors.
[715] Somnáth (north latitude 20° 55'; east longitude 70° 23'), the
temple of Mahádev 'Lord of the Moon,' near the southern extremity of
the peninsula of Káthiáváda.
[716] Anahilaváda (north latitude 23° 48'; east longitude 72° 2'),
Nehrwála or Pátan, on the south bank of the Sarasvatí river, sixty-five
miles north-east of Ahmedábád, was from A.D. 746 to A.D. 1298 the
capital of the Rájput dynasties of Gujarát. As a result of Muhammad
Ghori's defeat the Tárikh-i-Sorath (Burgess, 112-113) states that the
Turkish Afghán and Mughal prisoners, according to the rule of the
Kuraan (XXIV. 25) were distributed, the wicked women to the wicked
men and the good women to the good men. Of the male prisoners the
better class after having their heads shaved were enrolled among the
Chakáwal and Wádhel tribes of Rájputs. The lower class were allotted
to the Kolis, Khánts, Bábriás, and Mers. All were allowed to keep their
wedding and funeral ceremonies and to remain aloof from other classes.
[717] The Mirat-i-Áhmedi gives an account of an expedition by
one Alifkhán a noble of Sultán Sanjar's against Anahilaváda in
A.D. 1257. He is said to have built the large stone mosque without the
city. Alifkhán returned unsuccessful, but not without levying tribute.
[718] Devgadh near Daulatabad in the Dakhan, about ten miles north-west
of Aurangábád (north latitude 19° 57'; east longitude 75° 18'). The
Mirat-i-Áhmedi has Devgadh Chandah, which is in the Central Provinces.
[719] Jhálor (north latitude 25° 23'; east longitude 72° 40') in the
Rájput state of Jodhpur, seventy miles south-west by south from the
city of Jodhpur.
[720] Bayley (Gujarát, 39 note) shows strong ground for holding that,
though Gujarát was conquered by Ulugh Khán a brother of Alá-ud-dín,
its first governor was not Ulugh Khán but Álp Khán a brother-in-law
of Alá-ud-dín. According to this account Ulugh Khán died in A.D. 1299
and Álp Khán at Malik Káfúr's instigation was killed in A.D. 1315. Ziá
Barni (Elliot, III. 169) supports this account.
[721] According to Ziá Barni (Elliot, III. 218) Hisám-ud-dín was
the mother's brother, according to others he was the brother of Hasan
afterwards Khusraw Khán Parmár the favourite of Mubárak Sháh. On coming
to Gujarát Hisám-ud-dín collected his Parmár kindred and revolted, but
the nobles joining against him seized him and sent him to Dehli. To
their disgust Mubárak in his infatuation for Hisám-ud-dín's nephew
or brother, after slapping Hisám-ud-dín on the face set him at liberty.
[722] In the Karnátak, probably on the Tungabhadra near
Vijayánagar. Briggs' Muhammadan Power in India, I. 418 and 428. Briggs
speaks of two Kampilás one on the Ganges and the other on the
Tungabhadra near Bijánagar.
[723] Asáwal (north latitude 23° 0'; east longitude 72° 36'), a town
of some size, afterwards, A.D. 1413, made the capital of the Musalmán
kings of Gujarát and called Áhmedábád.
[724] Girnár (north latitude 21° 30'; east longitude 70° 42'), in
the Sorath sub-division of the peninsula of Káthiáváda.
[725] Both the Mirat-i-Áhmedi and the Táríkh-i-Fírúz Sháhi say that
the fortress was taken. The Úparkot or citadel of Junágadh, in the
plain about two miles west of Mount Girnár, is probably meant.
[726] Nágor (north latitude 27° 10'; east longitude 73° 50'), in the
Ráthod state of Jodhpur, eighty miles north-east of Jodhpur city.
[727] The Tabakát-i-Akbari has Khánpur or Kánpur. The place is Khambhoi
about twenty miles west of Pátan.
[728] Ídar is the principal state of the Mahi Kántha. The town of
Ídar is in north latitude 23° 50' and east longitude 73° 3'.
[729] Junágadh in the Sorath sub-division of Káthiáváda. This is
Briggs' Rái of Jehrend. Junágadh was formerly called Jirangad, both
names meaning ancient fortress.
[730] Rájpípla is in the Rewa Kántha division of Gujarát.
[731] Sultánpur and Nandurbár now form part of the British district
of Khándesh.
[732] Ásir, now Ásírgad (north latitude 21° 26'; east longitude 76°
26'), beyond the north-eastern frontier of Khándesh.
[733] Mándu (north latitude 22° 20'; east longitude 75° 27'), one
of the most famous forts in India, the capital of the Pathán dynasty
of Málwa, A.D. 1404-1561, stands on the crest of the Vindhyas about
twenty-five miles south of Dhár. During a considerable part of the
fifteenth century Mándu was either directly or indirectly under
Gujarát. An account of Mándu is given in the Appendix.
[734] Ajmír (north latitude 26° 29'; east longitude 74° 43'), the
chief town of the district of the same name to which Sámbhar and
Dandwána belong.
[735] Delváda and Jháláváda are somewhat difficult. The context
suggests either Jhálor in Márwár or Jháláváda in the extreme south-east
of Rájputána south of Kotah. The combination Delváda and Jháláváda
seems to favour Káthiáváda since there is a Delváda in the south of
the peninsula near Diu and a Jháláváda in the north-east. But the
Delváda of the text can hardly be near Diu. It apparently is Delváda
near Eklingji about twenty miles north of Udepur. The account of Áhmed
Sháh's expedition to the same place in A.D. 1431 (below page 239)
confirms this identification.
[736] Pánipat (north latitude 29° 23'; east longitude 77° 2'),
seventy-eight miles north of Dehli.
[737] Farishtah (II. 355) calls the Ídar chief Ranbal.
[738] Compare Farishtah, II. 355-356. After his death Muhammad was
known as Khudáigán-i-Shahíd, Our Lord the Martyr, according to the
custom of the Sultáns of Dehli, all of whom had three names, their
family name, their throne name, and their after-death name whose
letters contain the date of the monarch's decease. Thus the emperor
Akbar's after-death title is Ársh Áshiáni, The Holder of the Heavenly
Throne; the emperor Jehángír's is Jannat Makáni, The Dweller in Heaven;
the emperor Sháh Jehán's is Firdaus Makáni, He Whose Home is Paradise;
and the emperor Aurangzíb's is Khuld Makáni, The Occupier of the
Eternal Residence. Similarly the after-death title of Muzaffar Sháh,
Tátár Khán's father, is Khûdáigán-i-Kabir, The Great Lord.
[739] Dhár (north latitude 22° 35'; east longitude 75° 20'), the
capital of the state of Dhár thirty-three miles west of Mhow in
Central India.
[740] The Tabakát-i-Akbari has Kanthkot a dependency of Kachh. This
is probably correct.
[741] The date is doubtful: Farishtah (II. 630) gives A.D. 1412,
the Áin-i-Akbari (Blochman's Edition, I. 507) A.D. 1411.
[742] Four Áhmeds who had never missed the afternoon prayer helped
to build Áhmedábád: Saint Sheikh Áhmed Khattu, Sultán Áhmed, Sheikh
Áhmed, and Mulla Áhmed. Compare Bombay Gazetteer, IV. 249 note 5.
[743] Called in the Tabakát-i-Akbari the Rája of Mandal.
[744] Sidhpur (north latitude 23° 50'; east longitude 72° 20'),
on the Sarasvatí, fifty-eight miles north of Áhmedábád.
[745] Chámpáner (north latitude 22° 30'; east longitude 73° 30') in
the British district of the Panch Maháls, from A.D. 1483 to A.D. 1560
the chief city of Gujarát, now in ruins.
[746] Modása (north latitude 23° 27'; east longitude 73° 21'), fifty
miles north-east of Áhmedábád.
[747] Mirat-i-Sikandari Persian Text, 34, 35; Farishtah, II. 363, 364.
[748] Sankheda is on the left bank of the Or river about twenty miles
south-east of Baroda.
[749] Mángni Mákani or Mánki, famous for its witches, eight
miles east of Sankheda. Mr. J. Pollen, I.C.S., LL.D. Compare
Bom. Gov. Rec. N. S. XXIII. 98.
[750] Dohad (north latitude 22° 50'; east longitude 74° 15'),
seventy-seven miles north-east of Baroda, now the chief town of the
sub-division of the same name in the British district of the Panch
Máháls. Mr. J. Pollen, I.C.S., LL.D.
[751] Jítpur about twelve miles north-east of Bálásinor.
[752] Ujjain (north latitude 23° 10'; east longitude 75° 47'), at
different times the capital of Málwa.
[753] Sárangpur about fifty miles north-east of Ujjain.
[754] Ahmednagar (north latitude 23° 34'; east longitude 73° 1')
in the native state of Ídar.
[755] Mirat-i-Sikandari Persian Text, 43.
[756] There are two Máhims on the North Konkan coast, one about
twenty-two miles north of Bassein (north latitude 19° 40'; east
longitude 72° 47'), and the other in the northern extremity of the
island of Bombay (north latitude 19° 2'; east longitude 72° 54'). The
southern Máhim, to which Farishtah (II. 370-371) is careful to apply
the term jaziráh or island, is the town referred to in the text. The
northern Máhim, now known as Kelva Máhim, was, as is noted in the text,
the head-quarters of a Hindu chief.
[757] Thána (north latitude 19° 11'; east longitude 73° 6'), the
head-quarters of the British district of that name, about twenty-four
miles north-by-east of Bombay, was from the tenth to the sixteenth
century A.D. the chief city in the Northern Konkan.
[758] Báglán, now called Satána, is the northern sub-division of
the British district of Násik. In A.D. 1590 the chief commanded
8000 cavalry and 5000 infantry. The country was famous for
fruit. Áin-i-Akbari (Gladwin), II. 73. The chief, a Ráthod, was
converted to Islám by Aurangzíb (A.D. 1656-1707).
[759] Dúngarpur (north latitude 23° 50'; east longitude 73° 50')
in Rájputána, 150 miles north-west of Mhow.
[760] Mirat-i-Sikandari Persian Text, 45, 46.
[761] Godhra (north latitude 22° 45'; east longitude 73° 36'), the
chief town of the sub-division of that name in the British district
of the Panch Maháls. The Mirat-i-Sikandari (Persian Text, 49) gives,
probably rightly, Kothra a village of Sáunli or Savli about twenty
miles north of Baroda.
[762] Sultánpur (north latitude 21° 43'; east longitude 74° 40'),
in the north of the Sháháda sub-division of the British district of
Khándesh, till A.D. 1804 a place of consequence and the head-quarters
of a large district.
[763] Kapadvanj (north latitude 23° 2'; east longitude 73° 9'), the
chief town of the sub-division of that name in the British district
of Kaira.
[764] Dholka (north latitude 22° 42'; east longitude 72° 25'), the
chief town of the sub-division of that name in the British district
of Áhmedábád.
[765] Sámbhar (north latitude 26° 53'; east longitude 75° 13'), a town
in the province of Ajmír, about fifty-one miles north-north-east from
the city of Ajmír.
[766] Chitor (north latitude 24° 52'; east longitude 74° 4'), for
several centuries before A.D. 1567 the capital of the principality
of Udepur.
[767] Sirohi (north latitude 24° 59'; east longitude 72° 56'), the
capital of the principality of the same name in the province of Ajmír.
[768] Ábu (north latitude 24° 45'; east longitude 72° 49') in the
state of Sirohi.
[769] The Rája is called Krishna Kishan or Kánh Devra. Ábu is still
held by the Sirohi Devrás.
[770] Mandisor (north latitude 24° 4'; east longitude 75° 9'), the
chief town of a district of the same name in the province of Málwa.
[771] Persian Text, Mirat-i-Sikandari, 75-76.
[772] The Portuguese merchant and traveller Barbosa (A.D. 1511-1514)
gives the following details of Mahmúd Begada's cavalry: The Moors and
Gentiles of this kingdom are bold riders, mounted on horses bred in the
country, for it has a wonderful quantity. They ride on small saddles
and use whips. Their arms are very thick round shields edged with silk;
each man has two swords, a dagger, and a Turkish bow with very good
arrows. Some of them carry maces, and many of them coats-of-mail,
and others tunics quilted with cotton. The horses have housings and
steel headpieces, and so they fight very well and are light in their
movements. The Moorish horsemen are white and of many countries,
Turks and Mamelukes, military slaves from Georgia Circassia and
Mingrelia, Arabs Persians Khorásánis Turkomans, men from the great
kingdom of Dehli, and others born in the country itself. Their pay is
good, and they receive it regularly. They are well dressed with very
rich stuffs of gold silk cotton and goat's wool, and all wear caps
on their heads, and their clothes long, such as morisco shirts and
drawers, and leggings to the knee of good thick leather worked with
gold knots and embroidery, and their swords richly ornamented with
gold and silver are borne in their girdles or in the hands of their
pages. Their women are very white and pretty: also very richly decked
out. They live well and spend much money. Stanley's Barbosa, 55-56.
[773] Mahmúd's favourite trees were the mango ámbo Mangifera indica,
ráen Mimusops hexandra, jámbu Eugenia jambolana, gúlar Ficus glomerata,
tamarind ámli Tamarindus indica, and the shrubby phyllanthus áonla
Emblica officinalis.
[774] Burhánpur (north latitude 21° 18'; east longitude 76° 20'),
under the Musalmáns the capital of Khándesh, now within the limits
of the Berárs.
[775] Gondwána, a large hilly tract lying between north latitude 19°
50' and 24° 30' and east longitude 77° 38' and 87° 20'.
[776] The Mirat-i-Sikandari (Persian Text, page 89) gives the hill fort
of Bárudar. The Persian r may be a miswritten g and the d a mistake
for w that is Baguwar or Baguwarah. The seaport Dûn may be Dungri
hill six miles from the coast. But Dûn for Dáhánu a well-known port
in north Thána is perhaps more likely. Farishtah (Briggs, IV. 51)
gives Bavur for Baru and Dura for Dûn. Compare Tabakát-i-Akbari in
Bayley's Gujarát, page 178 note 2.
[777] Girnár the diadem of Káthiáváda. See above page 231 note 2.
[778] Mangifera indica, Mimusops hexandra, Eugenia jambolana, Ficus
glomerata, Tamarindus indica, and Emblica officinalis.
[779] Khánts are still found chiefly in Soráth. See Bombay Gazetteer,
VIII. 142.
[780] The Tabakát-i-Akbari says they were Játs. Sir H. Elliot
(History of India, I. 496) represents the Sumrás to be Agnikula
Rájputs of the Parmára stock. The Jádejás had been ruling in Kachh
since A.D. 1350-1365.
[781] Dwárka (north latitude 22° 15'; east longitude 69°), on the
north-western shore of Káthiáváda, famous for its temple of Krishna.
[782] The Tabakát-i-Akbari has 'To-morrow the sword of adamant shall
answer your message.'
[783] Farishtah, II. 396-397.
[784] Mirat-i-Sikandari, 112-114.
[785] Dábhol (north latitude 17° 34'; east longitude 73° 16'), on the
north bank of the river Váshishti (called Halewacko and Kalewacko by
the early navigators. See Badger's Varthema, page 114 note 1) in the
British district of Ratnágiri. About this time, according to Athanasius
Nikitin (A.D. 1468-1474), Dábhol was the great meeting place for all
nations living along the coast of India and Ethiopia. In A.D. 1501 it
was taken by the Portuguese. Between A.D. 1626 and 1630 an English
factory was established here, but by the end of the century trade
had left Dábhol and has never returned.
[786] Cheul, now Revdanda (north latitude 18° 33'; east longitude 72°
59'), from about A.D. 1500 to 1650 a place of much trade.
[787] Mahmúd Begada greatly impressed travellers, whose strange tales
of him made the king well-known in Europe. Varthema (1503-1508)
thus describes his manner of living: 'The king has constantly
20,000 horsemen. In the morning when he rises there come to his
palace 50 elephants, on each of which a man sits astride, and
the said elephants do reverence to the king, and, except this,
they have nothing else to do. When the king eats, fifty or sixty
kinds of instruments, drums trumpets flageolets and fifes play,
and the elephants again do him reverence. As for the king himself,
his mustachios under his nose are so long that he ties them over
his head as a woman would tie her tresses, and he has a white beard
that reaches to his girdle. As to his food, every day he eats poison
(Hudibras' Prince whose 'daily food was asp and basilisk and toad'),
not that he fills his stomach with it, but he eats a certain quantity,
so that when he wishes to destroy any great person he makes him come
before him stripped and naked, and then eats certain fruits which are
called chofole (jáiphal, nutmeg), like a muscatel nut. He also eats
certain leaves called tamboli (pán or betel leaf; like the leaves of
a sour orange, and with these he eats lime of oyster shells. When
he has chewed this well he spurts it out on the person he wishes
to kill, and so in the space of half an hour the victim falls to
the ground dead. The Sultán has also three or four thousand women,
and every night that he sleeps with one, she is found dead in the
morning.' Barbosa (A.D. 1511) goes further (Stanley's Trans. 57),
saying that so soaked was the king with poison that if a fly settled
on his hand it swelled and immediately fell dead. This was the result
of his early training. For, on Varthema's companion asking how it
was that the king could eat poison in this manner, certain merchants,
who were older than the Sultán, answered that his father had fed him
upon poison from his childhood. (Badger's Varthema, 110.) Of the
origin of Mahmúd's surname Begada two explanations are given: (1)
'From his mustachios being large and twisted like a bullock's horn,
such a bullock being called Begado; (2) that the word comes from
the Gujaráti be, two, and gad, a fort, the people giving him this
title in honour of his capture of Junágadh (A.D. 1472) and Chámpáner
(A.D. 1484).' (Bird's History of Gujarát, 202; Mirat-i-Ahmedi Persian
Text, 74.) Varthema's account of the poison-eating is probably
an exaggeration of the Sultán's habit of opium-eating to which
from his infancy he was addicted. The Mirat-i-Sikandari (Persian
Text, 751) speaks of the great physical power of Mahmúd and of his
wonderful appetite. Mahmúd's daily food weighed forty sers the ser
being 15 bahlulis a little over half a pound. He used to eat about
three pounds (5 sers) of parched gram to dessert. For breakfast,
after his morning prayer, Mahmúd used to consume a cupfull of pure
Makkah honey with a second cupfull of clarified butter and fifty
small plantains called sohan kelas. At night they set by his bed two
plates of sambúsás or minced mutton sausages. In the morning Mahmúd
seeing the empty plates used to give thanks: 'Oh Allah,' he said,
'hadst thou not given this unworthy slave rule over Gujarát, who
could have filled his stomach.' His virile powers were as unusual as
his appetite. The only woman who could bear his embraces unharmed
was a powerful Abyssinian girl who was his great favourite. Of the
wealth and weapons kept in store the Mirat-i-Sikandari gives the
following details regarding the great expedition against Junágadh
(Persian Text, 94): The Sultán ordered the treasurer to send with
the army gold coins worth five krors, 1700 Egyptian Allemand Moorish
and Khurásáni swords with gold handles weighing 2 1/2 to 3 pounds
(4-5 sers), 1700 daggers and poignards with gold handles weighing
1 to 1 1/2 pounds (2-3 sers), and 2000 Arab and Turki horses with
gold-embroidered housings. All this treasure of coin and weapons the
Sultán spent in presents to his army (Ditto, 94-95).
[788] Ferishtah, II. 404. The Mirat-i-Sikandari (Persian Text, 148,
149) calls the Persian ambassador Ibráhím Khán.
[789] Farishtah, II. 408.
[790] Mirat-i-Sikandari, 166-167; Farishtah, II. 411.
[791] The verse supposed to possess the highest virtue against poison
is the last verse of Chap. cvi. of the Kurâán.... Serve the Lord of
this House who supplieth them with food against hunger and maketh
them free from fear.
[792] Mirat-i-Sikandari (Pers. Manuscript), 174, 175, 194.
[793] Both the Mirat-i-Sikandari (287) and Farishtah (II. 419) place
Munga in Nandurbár-Sultánpur. The further reference to Rána Bhím of
Pál seems to apply to the same man as the Rána Bhím of Munga. Munga
may then be Mohangad that is Chhota Udepur.
[794] Mirat-i-Sikandari Persian Text, 225-226: Farishtah,
II. 425-428. The Gujarát Musalmán historians give a somewhat vague
application to the word Pál which means a bank or step downwards to the
plain. In the Mirat-i-Áhmedi (Páhlanpur Edition, page 168) Pálvaráh,
whose climate is proverbially bad, includes Godhra Ali Mohan and
Rájpípla that is the rough eastern fringe of the plain land of Gujarát
from the Mahi to the Tapti. As the Rája of Nándod or Rájpípla was the
leading chief south of Ídar Colonel Watson took references to the Rája
of Pál to apply to the Rája of Rájpípla. An examination of the passages
in which the name Pál occurs seems to show that the hill country to
the east rather than to the south of Pávágad or Chámpáner is meant. In
A.D. 1527 Latíf Khán the rival of Bahádur Sháh after joining the Rája
Bhím in his kohistan or highlands of Pál when wounded is taken into
Hálol. The same passage contains a reference to the Rája of Nándod
as some one distinct from the Rája of Pál. In A.D. 1531 Ráisingh of
Pál tried to rescue Mahmúd Khilji on his way from Mándu in Málwa to
Chámpáner. In A.D. 1551 Násir Khán fled to Chámpáner and died in the
Pál hills. These references seem to agree in allotting Pál to the
hills of Bária and of Mohan or Chhota Udepur. This identification
is in accord with the local use of Pál. Mr. Pollen, I.C.S., LL.D.,
Political Agent, Rewa Kántha, writes (8th Jan. 1895): Bhíls Kolis and
traders all apply the word Pál to the Bária Pál which besides Bária
takes in Sanjeli and the Navánagar-Saliát uplands in Godhra.
[795] Purandhar about twenty miles south by east of Poona, one of
the greatest of Dakhan hill forts.
[796] Mirat-i-Sikandari, 238, 239; Farishtah, II. 430. According to
the Mirat-i-Sikandari (239) the Sultán enquired on which side was the
loftiest height. They told him that in the direction of Songad-Chitauri
the hill was extremely high. These details show that the cliff scaled
by Bahádur was in the extreme south-west of Mándu where a high nearly
isolated point stretches out from the main plateau. For details see
Appendix II. Mándu.
[797] Mirat-i-Sikandari, 241-242; Farishtah, II. 432.
[798] Halvad is a former capital of the chief of Dhrángadhra in
Káthiáváda.
[799] Gágraun in Central India about seventy miles north-east of
Ujjain.
[800] Rantanbhúr about seventy-five miles south by east of Jaipur.
[801] Mirat-i-Sikandari Persian Text, 266, 268; Farishtah, II. 439.
[802] A detailed account of the death of Sultán Bahádur is given in
the Appendix.
[803] Mirat-i-Sikandari Persian Text, 233. Compare Farishtah, II. 427.
[804] Mirat-i-Sikandari, Persian Text, 292.
[805] A poet of the time, Mulla Muhammad of Astarábád, enshrined the
date H. 947 (A.D. 1540) in the words:
SADD BUWAD BAR SÍNAH-O-JÁNAI FIRANGÍ ÍN BINÁI. May this fabric press
like a pillar on the breast and the life of the Frank.
Farishtah, II. 447. The letter values that make 947 are: S = 60, d =
4, b = 2, w = 6, d = 4, b = 2, r = 200, s = 60, y = 10, n = 50, h =
5, w = 6, j = 3, a = 1, n = 50, f = 80, r = 200, n = 50, g = 20, y =
10, a = 1, y = 10, n = 50, b = 2, n = 50, a = 1, y = 10. Total 947.
[806] Mirat-i-Sikandari, Persian Text, 326-27.
[807] This Imád-ul-Mulk is different from the Imád-ul-Mulk mentioned
above (page 258) as receiving a grant of Broach and Surat. The
latter had before this retired to Surat, and was killed there in
A.D. 1545. (Bird, 266.) Imád-ul-Mulk II. who attacked Burhán, was
originally called Malik Arslán (Bird, 272). He is also called the
leader of the Turks and Rúmi. This Imád-ul-Mulk Rúmi, who was the
father of Changíz Khán, was ultimately killed in A.D. 1560 at Surat
by his own son-in-law Khudáwand or Ikhtiyár Khán.
[808] Mirat-i-Sikandari, Persian Text, 326-27.
[809] This seems to be the palace referred to in the Tabakát-i-Akbari
(Sir Henry Elliot's History of India, V. 369): After his second
settlement of Gujarát (A.D. 1573, H. 981) Akbar left Áhmedábád for
Mehmudábád and rested in the lofty and fine palace of Sultán Mahmúd
of Gujarát.
[810] Mirat-i-Sikandari, Persian Text, 332.
[811] For Pál compare note 2 page 253.
[812] The fort of Daman was taken by the Portuguese in A.D. 1530, and,
according to Portuguese accounts (Faria y Souza in Kerr's Voyages,
VI. 413) the country round was annexed by them in 1558. According
to a statement in Bird's History, 128, the districts surrendered by
Changíz Khán contained 700 towns (villages) yielding a yearly revenue
of £430,000 (Rs. 43,00,000). Sanján, since known as St. John's Head
(north latitude 20° 13'; east longitude 72° 47'), between Daman and
Bassein, seems to be one of the two Sindáns, the other being in Kachh,
mentioned by the ninth to twelfth century Arab geographers. According
to Idrísi (Jaubert's Edition, 172) the mainland Sindán was a great
town with a large import and export trade and well peopled with
rich warlike and industrious inhabitants. Idrísi's (Elliot, I. 85)
notice of an island of the same name to the east is perhaps a confused
reference to the Kachh Sindán which is generally supposed to be the
Sindán of the Arab geographers. In A.D. 842, Sindán then a city of
some size, is mentioned by Al-Biláduri (Reinaud's Fragments, 216-217)
as having been taken by a Musalmán slave Fazl son of Máhán. This Fazl
is related to have sent an elephant from Sindán to the Khalífah Al
Maamún the Abbási (A.D. 813-833) and to have built an Assembly Mosque
at Sindán. (Al-Biláduri in Elliot, I. 129.)
[813] According to Abul Fazl (Akbarnáma, III. 404; Elliot, V. 730)
Muzaffar was a base-born boy of the name of Nathu.
[814] Tabakát-i-Akbari in Elliot's India, V. 339 note 2.
[815] These Mírzás were the great grandsons of a Muhammad Sultán Mírza,
the ruler of Khurásán, who, on being driven out of his dominions,
sought refuge in India. This prince and his family on the ground of
their common descent from Taimûr, were entertained first by Bábar
(A.D. 1526-1531), and afterwards by Humáyún (A.D. 1531-1556). Before
this quarrel Akbar had treated the Mírzás with great honour. Elliot's
History, VI. 122.
[816] The modern game of polo. Lane in his translation of the Thousand
and One Nights (I. 76, 1883 Edition) calls it the golf-stick, but the
nature of the game described there does not in any way differ from
polo. Chaugán is the Persian and As-súlján-wal-kurah the Arabic name
for the game.
[817] The emperor Akbar took Muzaffar Sháh with him to Agra, and
settled on him the districts of Sárangpur and Ujjain in Málwa with a
revenue of Rs. 20,00,000 (50 lákhs of tankás) (Elliot, V. 353). When
Mun'im Khán Khán Khánán was going to Bengal, the emperor made
Muzaffar over to him. Mun'im Khán gave his daughter Sháhzádah Khánam
in marriage to Muzaffar, but shortly afterwards having reason to
suspect him imprisoned him, whence Muzaffar finding an opportunity
fled to Gujarát in A.D. 1581 (H. 989) according to Farishtah (II. 460),
1583 according to the Mirat-i-Sikandari.
[818] Both the Tabakát-i-Akbari (Elliot, V. 342) and Farishtah
(I. 491) name four other nobles Mír Abu Turáb, Sayad Áhmed Bhukhári,
Malik Ashraf, and Wajíh-ul-Mulk. The Sayad Áhmed of these two writers
is a misprint for the Sayad Hámid of the text.
[819] Mirat-i-Sikandari, 415; Tabakát-i-Akbari in Elliot, V. 343.
[820] These details of the Surat expedition are taken from the
Tabakát-i-Akbari in Elliot, V. 343-346 and Abúl Fazl's Akbar-námah
in Elliot, VI. 42.
[821] The emperor Jehángír in his Diary (Tuzuk-i-Jehángíri, Persian
Text, Sir Sayad Ahmed's Edition, page 196) says that Biharji or Viharji
was the hereditary title of the chiefs of Báglán. The personal name
of the Baglán Bihárji of his time was Partáp.
[822] According to the Áin-i-Akbari (Blochmann, I. 325) the province
of Gujarát over which the Kokaltásh was placed did not pass further
south than the river Mahi.
[823] Tuzuki Jehángíri or Jehángír's Memoirs, Pers. Text, Sayad Áhmed
Khán's Edition page 20. For Akbar's march compare Tabakát-i-Akbari
in Elliot, V. 365 and Blochman's Áin-i-Akbari, I. 325 and note. The
Mirat-i-Áhmedi (Pers. Text, 131) records these further details:
When starting from his last camp Akbar began to mount his horse on
the day of the battle that took place near Áhmedábád. The royal steed
unable to bear the weight of the hero laden with the spirit of victory
sat down. Rája Bhagwándás Kachwáhah ran up to the rather embarrassed
emperor and offered him his congratulations saying: This, your Majesty,
is the surest sign of victory. There are also two further signs: the
wind blows from our back and the kites and vultures accompany our host.
[824] Tabakát-i-Akbari in Elliot, V. 405.
[825] Mángrúl (north latitude 21° 8'; east longitude 70° 10'), a
seaport on the south coast of Káthiáváda, about twenty miles west
of Somnáth. This town, which is supposed to be the Monoglossum
emporium of Ptolemy (A.D. 150) (see Bird, 115), is spelt Mánglúr
by the Muhammadan historians. Barbosa (A.D. 1511-1514), under the
name of Surati-mangaler, calls it a 'very good port where many
ships from Malabár touch for horses, wheat, rice, cotton goods,
and vegetables.' In A.D. 1531 the city was taken by the Portuguese
general Sylveira with a vast booty and a great number of prisoners
(Churchill's Travels, III. 529). It is incidentally mentioned in
the Áin-i-Akbari (A.D. 1590). In A.D. 1638 Mandelslo describes it
as famous for its linen cloth, and in A.D. 1700 it is mentioned by
Hamilton (New Account, I. 136) as a place of trade.
[826] This has been rendered by Bird, 353, 'the mountain of Dínár,'
as if Koh Dínár.
[827] H. 992 (1584 A.D.) according to the Tabakát-i-Akbari (Elliot,
V. 428).
[828] Mirat-i-Sikandari, 422. Compare Blochman's Áin-i-Akbari, I. 386.
[829] Mirat-i-Sikandari, 426: Farishtah, I. 503; Elliot, V. 434. In
honour of this victory the Khán Khánán built, on the site of the
battle, a palace and garden enclosing all with a high wall. This which
he named Jítpur the City of Victory was one of the chief ornaments
of Áhmedábád. In November 1613 the English merchant Wittington writes
(Kerr's Voyages, IX. 127): A kos from Sarkhej is a pleasant house with
a large garden all round on the banks of the river which Chon-Chin-Naw
(Khán Khánán) built in honour of a great victory over the last king of
Gujarát. No person inhabits the house. Two years later (1615) another
English merchant Dodsworth (Kerr, IX. 203) describes the field of
Victory as strongly walled all round with brick about 1 1/2 miles in
circuit all planted with fruit trees and delightfully watered having a
costly house called by a name signifying Victory in which Khán Khánán
for some time resided. In 1618, the emperor Jehángír (Memoirs Persian
Text, 210-213) on his way to Sarkhej visited the Khán-i-Khánán's Bághi
Fateh or Garden of Victory which he had built at a cost of two lákhs
of rupees ornamenting the garden with buildings and surrounding it
with a wall. The natives he notices call it Fateh-Wádi. In 1626 the
English traveller Herbert (Travels, 66) writes: Two miles nearer
Áhmedábád than Sirkhej are the curious gardens and palace of Khán
Khánán where he defeated the last of the Cambay kings and in memory
built a stately house and spacious gardens the view whereof worthily
attracts the traveller. Mandelslo writing in 1638 is still louder in
praise of Tschietbág the Garden of Victory. It is the largest and most
beautiful garden in all India because of its splendid buildings and
abundance of fine fruits. Its site is one of the pleasantest in the
world on the border of a great tank having on the water side many
pavilions and a high wall on the side of Áhmedábád. The lodge and
the caravanserai are worthy of the prince who built them. The garden
has many fruit trees oranges, citrons, pomegranates, dates, almonds,
mulberries, tamarinds, mangoes, and cocoanuts so closely planted that
all walking in the garden is under most pleasing shade (Mandelslo's
Travels, French Ed. 111-112). When (A.D. 1750) the Mirat-i-Áhmedi
was written several of the buildings and the remains of the summer
house were still to be seen (Bird's History of Gujarát, 375). A few
traces of the buildings known as Fateh Bádi or Victory Garden remains
1879). (Áhmedábád Gazetteer, 292.)
[830] Two lákhs of mahmúdis. The mahmúdi varied in value from about
one-third to one-half of a rupee. See Introduction page 222 note 2.
[831] Morvi (north latitude 29° 48'; east longitude 70° 50'), a town
in Káthiáváda, about twenty-one miles south of Kachh.
[832] Jagat (north latitude 22° 15'; east longitude 69° 1'), the site
of the temple of Dwárka, at the western extremity of the peninsula
of Káthiáváda.
[833] Verával (north latitude 20° 55'; east longitude 70° 21'),
on the south-west coast of Káthiáváda. On the south-east point of
Verával bay stood the city of Dev or Mungi Pátan and within its walls
the temple of Somanátha.
[834] Jehángír's Memoirs, Persian Text, 23; Blochman's Áin-i-Akbari,
I. 470. Bahádur died about A.D. 1614: Jehángír's Memoirs, 134.
[835] Now belonging to His Highness the Gáikwár about twenty-seven
miles north-west of Áhmedábád.
[836] Belpár, belonging to the Thákor of Umeta in the Rewa Kántha.
[837] This Mándwa is probably the Mándwa under His Highness the Gáikwár
in his district of Atarsumba, but it may be Mándwa on the Narbada in
the Rewa Kántha. Atarsumba is about ten miles west of Kapadvanj in
the British district of Kaira.
[838] Jehángír's Memoirs, Persian Text, 75.
[839] Now belonging to the Rája of Dharampur, east of the British
district of Surat.
[840] In this year (A.D. 1611) the English East India Company sent
vessels to trade with Surat. The Portuguese made an armed resistance,
but were defeated. The Mughal commander, who was not sorry to see
the Portuguese beaten, gave the English a warm reception, and in
A.D. 1612-13 a factory was opened in Surat by the English, and in
A.D. 1614 a fleet was kept in the Tápti under Captain Downton to
protect the factory. In A.D. 1615, Sir Thomas Roe came as ambassador to
the emperor Jehángír, and obtained permission to establish factories,
not only at Surat but also at Broach, Cambay and Gogha. The factory at
Gogha seems to have been established in A.D. 1613. The emperor Jehángír
notes in his memoirs (Persian Text, 105) that Mukarrab Khán, viceroy
from A.D. 1616-1618, regardless of cost had bought from the English
at Gogha a turkey, a lemur and other curiosities. On his return from
Jehángír's camp at Áhmedábád in January 1618 Roe obtained valuable
concessions from the viceroy. The governor of Surat was to lend ships
to the English, the resident English might carry arms, build a house,
practise their religion, and settle their disputes. Kerr's Voyages,
IX. 253. The Dutch closely followed the English at Surat and were
established there in A.D. 1618.
[841] At first Jehángír, who reached Áhmedábád in the hot weather
(March A.D. 1618), contented himself with abusing its sandy streets,
calling the city the 'abode of dust' gardábád. After an attack of fever
his dislike grew stronger, and he was uncertain whether the 'home
of the simoom' samumistán, the 'place of sickness' bímáristán, the
'thorn brake' zakumdár, or 'hell' jahánnamábád, was its most fitting
name. Even the last title did not satisfy his dislike. In derision
he adds the verse, 'Oh essence of all goodnesses by what name shall
I call thee.' Elliot's History of India, VI. 358; Jehángír's Memoirs
Persian Text, 231. Of the old buildings of Áhmedábád, the emperor
(Memoirs, Persian Text, 208-210) speaks of the Kánkariya tank and
its island garden and of the royal palaces in the Bhadar as having
nearly gone to ruin within the last fifty years. He notes that his
Bakhshi had repaired the Kánkariya tank and that the viceroy Mukarrab
Khán had partly restored the Bhadar palaces against his arrival. The
emperor was disappointed with the capital. After the accounts he had
heard it seemed rather poor with its narrow streets, its shops with
ignoble fronts, and its dust, though to greet the emperor as he came
on elephant-back scattering gold the city and its population had put
on their holiday dress. The emperor speaks (Memoirs, Persian Text page
211) of having met some of the great men of Gujarát. Chief among these
was Sayad Muhammad Bukhári the representative of Sháhi Álam and the
sons of Sháh Wajíh-ud-dín of Áhmedábád. They came as far as Cambay
to meet the emperor. After his arrival in the capital Jehángír with
great kindness informally visited the house and garden of Sikandar
Gujaráti the author of the Mirat-i-Sikandari, to pick some of the
author's famous figs off the trees. Jehángír speaks of the historian
as a man of a refined literary style well versed in all matters of
Gujarát history, who six or seven years since had entered his (the
imperial) service (Memoirs, 207-211). On the occasion of celebrating
Sháh Jehán's twenty-seventh birthday at Áhmedábád Jehángír records
having granted the territory from Mándu to Cambay as the estate of his
son Sháh Jehán (Prince Khurram). Memoirs, Persian Text, 210-211. Before
leaving Gujarát the emperor ordered the expulsion of the Sevadas or
Jain priests, because of a prophecy unfavourable to him made by Mán
Sing Sewda (Memoirs, Persian Text, 217).
[842] This was probably the gold ashrafi or seraph of which
Hawkins (1609-1611) says, 'Serraffins Ekberi, which be ten rupees
a-piece.' Thomas Chron. Pat. Kings of Dehli, 425.
[843] The peaked masonry tomb over Aurangzíb's after-birth with its
mosque, enclosure, and intact endowment is one of the curiosities
of Dohad. In a letter to his eldest son Muhammad Muâzzam then
(A.D. 1704) viceroy of Gujarát the aged Aurangzíb writes: My son of
exalted rank, the town of Dohad, one of the dependencies of Gujarát,
is the birth-place of this sinner. Please to consider a regard for
the inhabitants of that town incumbent on you, and continue in office
its decrepid old Faujdár. In regard to that old man listen not to the
whisperings of those suffering from the disease of self-interest:
"Verily they have a sickness in their hearts and Allah addeth to
their ailments." (Letters of the Emperor Aurangzíb: Persian Text,
Cawnpur Edition, Letter 31.)
[844] Elliot, VII. 24.
[845] The words used in the text is tuyúl. In meaning it does not
differ from jágir.
[846] This is one of the first mentions in history of peninsular
Gujarát as Káthiáváda, or as anything other than Sorath or
Sauráshtra. The district referred to was probably united to the
eastern possessions of the Kháchar Káthis and Panchál.
[847] The author of the Mirat-i-Áhmedi says that in his time,
A.D. 1746-1762, these Navánagar koris were current even in Áhmedábád,
two koris and two-thirds being equal to one imperial rupee. They
were also called jámis. The Mirat-i-Áhmedi (Persian Text, 225)
calls them mahmúdis. The legend on the reverse was the name of the
Gujarát Sultán Muzaffar and on the obverse in Gujaráti the name of the
Jám. Usually two mahmúdis and sometimes three went to the imperial
rupee. The author says that in Áhmedábád up to his day (A.D. 1756)
the account for ghi clarified butter was made in mahmúdis. When the
order for melting the mahmúdis was passed a mint was established at
Junágadh but was afterwards closed to suit the merchants from Diu
and other parts who transmitted their specie to Áhmedábád.
[848] The traveller Mandelslo, who was in Áhmedábád in 1638,
says: No prince in Europe has so fine a court as the governor of
Gujarát. Of none are the public appearances so magnificent. He never
goes out without a great number of gentlemen and guards on foot and
horse. Before him march many elephants with housings of brocade and
velvet, standards, drums, trumpets, and cymbals. In his palace he is
served like a king and suffers no one to appear before him unless he
has asked an audience. (Travels, French Edition, 151.) Of the general
system of government be says: The viceroy is absolute. It is true he
summons leading lords of the country to deliberate on judgments and
important matters. But they are called to ascertain their views not
to adopt them. On the one hand the king often changes his governors
that they may not grow overpowerful. On the other hand the governors
knowing they may be recalled at any time take immense sums from the
rich merchants especially from the merchants of Áhmedábád against whom
false charges are brought with the view of forcing them to pay. As
the governor is both civil and criminal judge if the merchants did not
temper his greed they would be ruined beyond remedy. (Ditto, 150.) The
frequent changes of viceroys in Gujarát is explained by Terry, 1615-17
(Voyage to East Indies, 364): To prevent them from becoming popular
the king usually removes his viceroys after one year sending them to
a new government remote from the old one. Terry adds a curious note:
When the king sends any one to a place of government they never cut
their hair till they return into his presence as if they desired not to
appear beautiful except in the king's sight. As soon as he sees them
the king bids them cut their hair (Ditto, 365). It does not seem to
have been cheating to keep up fewer horse than the number named. Terry
(Voyage to East Indies, 391) says: He who hath the pay of five or six
thousand must always have one thousand or more in readiness according
to the king's need of them, and so in proportion all the rest.
[849] Mirat-i-Áhmedi Persian Text, II. 46-47. Pinjárás are cotton
teasers, Mansúris are Pinjárás who worship Mansúr a tenth century
(3rd century Hijrah) saint.
[850] Mirat-i-Áhmedi Persian Text, 237.
[851] Jhábua, now under the Bhopáwar Agency.
[852] Mirat-i-Áhmedi Persian Text, 249.
[853] Mirat-i-Áhmedi, Persian Text, 274, 279.
[854] Ráygad (north latitude 18° 14'; east longitude 73° 30'),
the name given in A.D. 1662 to Rairi, a hill fortress in the Mahád
sub-division of the Kolába collectorate. Shiváji took the place and
made it his capital in A.D. 1662.
[855] Janjira (north latitude 17° 59' to 18° 32') that is Jazírah the
Island, on the western coast, about forty-four miles south of Bombay.
[856] Another post of Islámábád was at Punádra in the parganah of
Ázamábád on the Wátrak about twenty-one miles east-south-east of
Áhmedábád. Ázamábád was built by Ázam Khán during his viceroyalty
(A.D. 1635-1642) and at his request by permission of the emperor
Sháh Jehán was erected into a parganah. For the pay of the garrison
twelve villages were attached from the neighbouring parganahs of
Bahyal and Kapadvanj.
[857] The Mirat-i-Áhmedi (Persian Text, 311) adds that Bahlol's
following of Kasbátis was so poorly equipped that he had to mount
many of them, for whom he could not find horses, on bullocks. The
sense of security in the mind of the Ídar chief bred by contempt at
the sight of this motley crowd was the chief cause of Bahlol's success.
[858] The zakát or purification is the tax required by law to be given
annually to the poor. It is levied on camels, oxen, buffaloes, sheep,
goats, horses, asses, mules, and gold or silver whether in money
or ornaments or vessels. The tax is not levied on any one who owns
less than a minimum of five camels, thirty oxen, forty-five sheep,
five horses, two hundred dirhems or twenty dinárs. The proportion
to income is generally one-fortieth; the amount may be paid either
in kind or in money. Compare Stanley Lane Poole's Arabian Society in
the Middle Ages, 14.
[859] This Sámprah according to the Mirat-i-Áhmedi, Persian Text,
II. 127, was a small police post or thána in Parganah Bahyal,
twenty miles north-east of Áhmedábád. It is now in the Gáekwár's
territory. Bahyal was under Pátan, so in the text the place is
described as under Pátan.
[860] The surkh or little black-dotted red seed of the
Abrus precatorius is called ghúngchi in Hindi and cock's-eye,
chashmi-i-khurús, in Persian. As a weight the seed is known as
a rati 96 going to the tola. It is used in weighing precious
stones. Blochmann's Áin-i-Akbari, I. 16 note 1 and Mirat-i-Áhmedi
Persian Text, 366.
[861] Sinor in Baroda territory on the right bank of the Narbada
about thirty miles south of Baroda.
[862] Mirat-i-Áhmedi, Persian Text, 372.
[863] Mirat-i-Áhmedi, Persian Text, 427-434.
[864] Arhar-Mátar is according to the Mirat-i-Áhmedi (Persian Text,
II. 126) the present Kaira sub-division of Mátar. The Mirat-i-Áhmedi
places it twenty miles south-west of Áhmedábád. It is four miles
south-west of Kaira.
[865] In the beginning of Ajítsingh's administration the Sacrifice
Íd of the Musalmáns very nearly ended in a riot. An overzealous
police officer belonging to the Kálúpúr section of Áhmedábád,
hoping to please the Hindu viceroy, by force deprived some of the
Sunni Bohorás of that quarter of a cow which they had purchased for
the sacrifice. The Bohorás in a mass appealed to the Kázi who not
succeeding in his representation to the viceroy was obliged to allay
the popular excitement by publicly sacrificing a cow after the Íd
prayers. Mirat-i-Áhmedi Royal Asiatic Society MS., I. 567-568.
[866] This is the first known mention of Gohilváda, the Gohils country,
as a separate district.
[867] During the governorship of Haidar Kúli at Surat the
Mirat-i-Áhmedi (Royal Asiatic Society MS., I. 567-568) notices the
death of Mulla Abdul Ghafúr the founder of the wealthy family of
the Mullás of Surat. Haidar Kúli confiscated Abdul Ghafúr's property
representing to the emperor that the Mulla died issueless. But the
Mulla's son Abdúl Hye proceeding to Dehli not only obtained from the
emperor an order of restitution of property but the title of chief
of merchants, Umda-tut-Tujjár, and an elephant.
[868] The sum is 6,75,000 mahmúdis. Like the changízi (see above page
222 note 2) the mahmúdi seems to have varied in value from one-third
to one-half of a rupee.
[869] See note 1 page 312. The author of the Mirat-i-Áhmedi (Persian
Text Royal Asiatic Society's Library Edition, I. 658) says Trimbakráv
was slain. This seems an oversight as in another passage (Ditto,
738-739, see below page 312) he states that Trimbakráv was killed in
1731. The latter statement is in agreement with Grant Duff (History
of the Maráthás, I. 364).
[870] The amount was 1,25,000 mahmúdis.
[871] Kasbátis are the descendants of the Musalmán garrisons of some
towns of north Gujarát. The Kasbátis of Víramgám were originally
Tánk Rájputs.
[872] See note on page 306.
[873] Pátdi (north latitude 23° 10'; east longitude 71° 44'),
at the south-east angle of the Ran of Cutch, fifty-two miles west
of Áhmedábád.
[874] The Máhi-marátib was a banner having the likeness of a fish at
its top.
[875] Of the death at the age of nine years of this son of Saint
Sháh-i-Álam the Mirat-i-Áhmedi (Printed Persian Text, II. 26) gives
the following details: Malik Seif-ud-dín, the daughter's son of Sultán
Áhmed I., had a son who he believed was born to him by the prayer of
Saint Sháh-i-Álam. This boy who was about nine years old died. Malik
Seif-ud-dín ran to Sháh-i-Álam, who used then to live at Asáwal,
two or three miles east of Áhmedábád, and in a transport of grief and
rage said to the Saint: 'Is this the way you deceive people? Surely
you obtained me the gift of that boy to live and not to die? This I
suppose is how you will keep your promise of mediating for our sinful
souls before Alláh also?' The Saint could give no reply and retired
to his inner apartments. The stricken father went to the Saint's son
Sháh Bhíkan, who, going in to his father, entreated him to restore
the Malik's boy to life. The Saint asked his son 'Are you prepared
to die for the boy?' Sháh Bhíkan said 'I am ready.' The Saint, going
into an inner room, spread his skirts before Alláh crying 'Rájanji,'
a pet name by which the Saint used to address Alláh, meaning Dear
King or Lord, 'Rájanji, here is a goat for a goat; take thou this
one and return the other.' Lamentations in the Saint's harem showed
that half of the prayer was granted and the Malik on returning to
his house found the other half fulfilled.
[876] See above page 256. The Portuguese details have been obtained
through the kindness of Dr. Gerson DaCunha.
[877] The following Persian verses are carved on the Âlamgír gateway:
In the time of Álamgír Aurangzíb (A.D. 1658-1707), the ruler of
the World,
This gate resembling the skies in altitude was built anew.
In the year A.H. 1079 (A.D. 1668) the work of renewal was begun
and completed
By the endeavour of the exalted Khán Muhammad Beg Khán.
From the accession of this Emperor of the World Aurangzíb.
This was the eleventh year by way of writing and history.
[878] Mr. Fergusson (Indian Architecture, page 543) says: "The pillars
appear to have been taken from a Jain building." But the refinement
on the square capital of each pillar of the Hindu Singh-múkh or
horned face into a group of leaves of the same outline shows that
the pillars were specially carved for use in a Muslim building. The
porch on the north side of the tomb enclosure is described (Ditto,
page 543) as composed of pillars avowedly re-erected from a Jain
building. This note of Mr. Fergusson's must have gone astray, as
the north porch of Hoshang's tomb enclosure is in the plain massive
pointed arch and square-shafted style of the tomb and of the great
mosque. Mr. Fergusson's note apparently belongs to the second and
smaller Jámá Masjid, about a hundred yards east of the Sea or Sagár
lake, the pillars of whose colonnade and porch are still enlivened
by rows of the lucky face of the Hindu old horny.
[879] Hoshang's great mosque has the following much damaged Persian
inscription:
The mosque of exalted construction, the temple of heavenly
altitude,
Whose every thick pillar is a copy of the (pillars of the) Sacred
Temple (the Temple of Makkah).
On account of the greatness of its dignity, like the pigeons of
the Temple of Makkah,
Sacred angels of high degree are always engaged in hovering
around it,
The result of the events born of the merciless revolution of
the skies.
When the sun of his life came as far as the balcony (i. e. was
ready to set).
Áazam Humáyún (that is Malik Mughi's) said ...
The administration of the country, the construction of buildings,
and the driving back of enemies
Are things which I leave you (the son of Áazam Humáyún) as parting
advice with great earnestness.
The personification of the kindness of Providence, the Sultán
Alá-ud-dín (Mehmúd I. A.D. 1436-1469), who is
The outcome of the refulgence of the Faith, and the satisfier of
the wants of the people,
In the year A.H. 858. (A.D. 1454),
In the words of the above parting advice, finished the construction
of this building.
[880] This Jámá Mosque has the following Persian inscription dated
H. 835 (A.D. 1431):
With good omens, at a happy time, and in a lucky and well-started
year,
On the 4th of the month of Alláh (Ramazán) on the great day
of Friday,
In the year 835 and six months from the Hijrah (A.D. 1431)
Counted according to the revolution of the moon in the Arabian
manner,
This Islamic mosque was founded in this world,
The top of whose dome rubs its head against the green canopy
of Heaven.
The construction of this high mosque was due to
Mughís-ud-dín-wad-dunya (Malik Mughís), the father of Mehmúd
I. of Málwa (A.D. 1436-1469), the redresser of temporal and
spiritual wrongs.
Ulugh (brave), Áazam (great), Humáyún (august), the Khán of the
seven climes and the nine countries.
By the hands of his enterprise this so great mosque was founded,
That some call it the House of Peace, others style it the Kaábah.
This good building was completed on the last of the month of
Shawwál (A.H. 835, A.D. 1431).
May the merit of this good act be inserted in the scroll of the
Khán's actions!
In this centre may the praises of the sermon read (in the name)
of Mehmúd Sháh
Be everlasting, so long as mountains stand on the earth and stars
in the firmament.
[881] The following Persian inscription carved on the entrance
arch shows that though it may have been repaired by Báz Bahádur,
the building of the palace was fifty years earlier (H. 914, A.D. 1508):
"In the time of the Sultán of Nations, the most just and great,
and the most knowing and munificent Khákán Násir Sháh Khilji
(A.D. 1500-1512). Written by Yúsuf, the year (H. 914) (A.D. 1508)."
[882] Translations of its two much-admired Persian inscriptions are
given below pages 370-371.
[883] On the Tárápúr gateway a Persian inscription of the reign of the
emperor Akbar (A.D. 1556-1605) states that the royal road that passed
through this gateway was repaired by Táhir Muhammad Hasan Imád-ud-dín.
[884] The Persian references and extracts in this section are
contributed by Khán Sáheb Fazl-ul-láh Lutfulláh Farídi of Surat.
[885] Sir John Malcolm in Eastwick's Handbook of the Panjáb, 119. This
reference has not been traced. Farishtah (Elliot, VI. 563) says Mándu
was built by Anand Dev of the Bais tribe, who was a contemporary of
Khusrao Parwíz the Sassanian (A.D. 591-621).
[886] The date is uncertain. Compare Elphinstone's History, 323;
Briggs' Farishtah, I. 210-211; Tabakát-i-Násiri in Elliot, II. 328. The
conquest of Mándu in A.D. 1227 is not Mándu in Málwa as Elphinstone
and Briggs supposed, but Mandúr in the Siwálik Hills. See Elliot,
Vol. II. page 325 Note 1. The Persian text of Farishtah (I. 115),
though by mistake calling it Mándu (not Mándu), notes that it was the
Mandu in the Siwálik hills. The poetical date-script also terms it
Biládi-Siwálik or the Siwálik countries. The date of the conquest of
the Siwálik Mándu by Altamsh is given by Farishtah (Ditto) as A.H. 624
(A.D. 1226). The conquest of Málwa by Altamsh, the taking by him of
Bhilsah and Ujjain, and the destruction of the temple of Maha Káli
and of the statue or image of Bikramájit are given as occurring in
A.H. 631 (A.D. 1233). The Mirat-i-Sikandari (Persian Text, 13) notices
an expedition made in A.D. 1395 by Zafar Khán (Muzaffar I. of Gujarát)
against a Hindu chief of Mándu, who, it was reported, was oppressing
the Musalmáns. A siege of more than twelve months failed to capture
the fort.
[887] Briggs' Farishtah, IV. 170.
[888] Briggs' Farishtah, IV. 168. According to the Wákiat-i-Mushtáki
(Elliot, IV. 553) Diláwar Khán, or as the writer calls him Amín
Sháh, through the good offices of a merchant whom he had refrained
from plundering obtained the grant of Mándu, which was entirely
desolate. The king sent a robe and a horse, and Amín gave up walking
and took to riding. He made his friends ride, enlisted horsemen, and
promoted the cultivation of the country (Elliot, IV. 552). Farishtah
(Pers. Text, II. 460-61) states that when Sultán Muhammad, the son of
Fírúz Tughlak, made Khwájah Sarwar his chief minister with the title
of Khwájah Jehán, and gave Zafar Khán the viceroyalty of Gujarát
and Khizr Khán that of Multán, he sent Diláwar Khán to be governor
of Málwa. In another passage Farishtah (II. 461) states that one
of Diláwar's grandfathers, Sultán Shaháb-ud-dín, came from Ghor and
took service in the court of the Dehli Sultáns. His son rose to be
an Amír, and his grandson Diláwar Khán, in the time of Sultán Fírúz,
became a leading nobleman, and in the reign of Muhammad, son of Fírúz,
obtained Málwa in fief. When the power of the Tughlaks went to ruin
Diláwar assumed the royal emblems of the umbrella and the red-tent.
[889] Diláwar Khán Ghori, whose original name was Husein, was one
of the grandsons of Sultán Shaháb-ud-dín Muhammad bin Sám. He was
one of the nobles of Muhammad, the son of Fírúz Tughlak, who after
the death of that monarch, settled in and asserted his power over
Málwa. (Pers. Text Faristah, II. 460). The emperor Jehángír (who calls
him Âmíd Sháh Ghori) attributes to him the construction of the fort
of Dhár. He says (Memoirs Pers. Text, 201-202): Dhár is one of the
oldest cities of India. Rája Bhoj, one of the famous ancient Hindu
kings, lived in this city. From his time up to this a thousand years
have passed. Dhár was also the capital of the Muhammadan rulers of
Málwa. When Sultán Muhammad Tughlak (A.D. 1325) was on his way to
the conquest of the Dakhan he built a cut-stone fort on a raised
site. Its outline is very elegant and beautiful, but the space
inside is empty of buildings. Âmíd Sháh Ghori, known as Diláwar
Khán, who in the days of Sultán Muhammad the son of Sultán Fírúz,
king of Dehli, gained the independent rule of Málwa, built outside
this fort an assembly mosque, which has in front of it fixed in the
ground a four-cornered iron column about four feet round. When Sultán
Bahádur of Gujarát took Málwa (A.D. 1530-31) he wished to carry this
column to Gujarát. In digging it up the pillar fell and broke in two,
one piece measuring twenty-two feet the other thirteen feet. As it
was lying here uncared-for, I (Jehángír) ordered the big piece to
be carried to Ágra to be put up in the courtyard of the shrine of
him whose abode is the heavenly throne (Akbar), to be utilised as
a lamp post. The mosque has two gates. In front of the arch of one
gate they have fixed a stone tablet engraved with a prose passage to
the effect that Âhmíd Sháh Ghori in the year H. 808 (A.D. 1405) laid
the foundation of this mosque. On the other arch they have written
a poetic inscription of which the following verses are a part:
The liege lord of the world.
The star of the sphere of glory.
The stay of the people.
The sun of the zenith of perfection.
The bulwark of the law of the Prophet, Ámíd Sháh Dáúd.
The possessor of amiable qualities, the pride of Ghor.
Diláwar Khán, the helper and defender of the Prophet's faith.
The chosen instrument of the exalted Lord, who in the city of
Dhár constructed the assembly mosque
In a happy and auspicious moment on a day of lucky omen.
Of the date 808 years have passed (A.D. 1405)
When this fabric of Hope was completed.
[890] Briggs' Farishtah, IV. 169.
[891] When fellow-nobles in the court of the Tughlak Sultán, Zafar
Khán (Sultán Muzaffar of Gujarát) and Diláwar Khán bound themselves
under an oath to be brothers in arms. Farishtah, Pers. Text II. 462.
[892] Briggs' Farishtah, IV. 173; Elphinstone's History, 678.
[893] Though their temples were turned into mosques the Jains
continued to prosper under the Ghoris. At Deogarh in Lalitpura in
Jhánsi in the North-West Provinces an inscription of Samvat 1481,
that is of A.D. 1424, records the dedication of two Jaina images
by a Jain priest named Holi during the reign of Sháh Alambhaka of
Mandapapura, that is of Sháh Alp Khán of Mándu that is Sultán Hoshang
Ghori. Archæological Survey of India, New Series, II. 120.
[894] Farishtah, Pers. Text II. 464-65.
[895] Briggs' Farishtah, IV. 176, 178, 180, 181, 183.
[896] Farishtah, Pers. Text II. 466-67.
[897] Briggs' Farishtah, IV. 180. In connection with the Tárápúr Gate
Farishtah says (Pers. Text, II. 468): The fort of Mándu is built on
the top of a mountain, and the line of its fortification is about
twenty-eight miles in length. In place of a moat it is surrounded
by a deep chasm, so that it is impossible to use missiles against
it. Within the fort water and provisions are abundant and it includes
land enough to grow grain for the garrison. The extent of its walls
makes it impossible for an army to invest it. Most of the villages near
it are too small to furnish supplies to a besieging force. The south
or Tárápúr gate is exceedingly difficult of access. A horseman can
hardly approach it. From whichever side the fort may be attempted, most
difficult heights have to be scaled. The long distances and intervening
hills prevent the watchers of the besieging force communicating with
each other. The gate on the side of Delhi is of easier access than
the other gates.
[898] It follows that Farishtah (Briggs, IV. 196) is mistaken in
stating that Hoshang's son Muhammad gave Mándu the name of Shádiábád,
the Abode of Joy.
[899] Farishtah, Pers. Text II. 472-475. It seems to follow that
from the first the monument to Hoshang in Hoshangábád was an empty
tomb. Compare Briggs' Farishtah, IV. 180-190.
[900] The following more detailed, but also more confused, story is
told in the Wákiat-i-Mushtáki (Elliot, IV. 552-54): A man named Mehmúd,
son of Mughís Khilji, came to Hoshang and entered his service. He
was a treacherous man, who secretly aspired to the throne. He became
minister, and gave his daughter in marriage to the king. [Farishtah,
Pers. Text, II. 474, says: "Malik Mughís gave his daughter (Mehmúd's
sister) in marriage, not to Hoshang, but to Hoshang's son Muhammad
Shah."] His father Malik Mughís, coming to know of his son's ambitious
designs, informed the king of them. Hereupon Mehmúd feigned illness,
and to deceive the king's physicians shut himself in a dark room and
drank the blood of a newly killed goat. When the physicians came
Mehmúd rose hastily, threw up the blood into a basin, and tossing
back his head rolled on the floor as if in pain. The physicians
called for a light. When they saw that what Mehmúd had spat up was
blood they were satisfied of his sickness, and told the king that
Mehmúd had not long to live. The king refrained from killing a dying
man. This strange story seems to be an embellishment of a passage
in Farishtah (Pers. Text, II. 477). When Khán Jehán, that is Malik
Mughís the father of Mehmúd, was ordered by Sultán Muhammad to take
the field against the Rájput rebels of Nádoti (Hároti?) many of the
old nobles of Málwa went with him. In their absence the party hostile
to the Khiljis represented to Sultán Muhammad that Mehmúd Khilji was
plotting his death. On hearing that the Sultán was enraged against him
Mehmúd secluded himself from the Court on pretence of illness. At the
same time he worked secretly and bribed Sultán Muhammad's cup-bearer
to poison his master. On the death of Sultán Muhammad the party of
nobles opposed to Mehmúd, concealing the fact of Muhammad's death,
sent word that Muhammad had ordered him immediately to the palace,
as he wanted to send him on an embassy to Gujarát. Mehmúd, who knew
that the Sultán was dead, returned word to the nobles that he had
vowed a life-long seclusion as the sweeper of the shrine of his patron
Sultán Hoshang, but that if the nobles came to him and convinced him
that the good of his country depended on his going to Gujarát he was
ready to go and see Sultán Muhammad. The nobles were caught in their
own trap. They went to Mehmúd and were secured and imprisoned by him.
[901] Farishtah, Pers. Text, II. 480.
[902] Briggs' Farishtah, IV. 196. These titles mean: The Chief of
Nobles, the Great, the August.
[903] It is related that one of the pious men in the camp of Sultán
Ahmed of Gujarát had a warning dream, in which the Prophet (on whom
be peace) appeared to him and said: "The calamity of (spirit of)
pestilence is coming down from the skies. Tell Sultán Ahmed to
leave this country." This warning was told to Sultán Ahmed, but
he disregarded it, and within three days pestilence raged in his
camp. Farishtah Pers. Text, II. 484.
[904] Briggs' Farishtah, IV. 205, gives 230 minarets and 360
arches. This must have been an addition in the Text used by
Briggs. These details do not apply to the building. The Persian text
of Farishtah, II. 485, mentions 208 columns or pillars (duyast o
hasht ustuwánah). No reference is made either to minarets or to arches.
[905] Farishtah, Pers. Text II. 487.
[906] Briggs' Farishtah, IV. 207. Malcolm's Central India, I. 32. In
A.D. 1817 Sir John Malcolm (Central India, I. 32 Note) fitted up one
of Mehmúd's palaces as a hot-weather residence.
[907] Of the siege of Kumbhalmer a curious incident is recorded by
Farishtah (Pers. Text, II. 485). He says that a temple outside the
town destroyed by Mehmúd had a marble idol in the form of a goat. The
Sultán ordered the idol to be ground into lime and sold to the Rájputs
as betel-leaf lime, so that the Hindus might eat their god. The idol
was perhaps a ram, not a goat. The temple would then have been a
Sun-temple and the ram, the carrier or váhana of the Sun, would have
occupied in the porch a position similar to that held by the bull in
a Mahádeva temple.
[908] Ruins of Mándu, 13.
[909] In the end of A.H. 846 (A.D. 1442) Mehmúd built a seven-storeyed
tower and a college opposite the Jámá Mosque of Hoshang Sháh. Briggs'
Farishtah, IV. 210; Persian Text, II. 488.
[910] Compare Briggs' Farishtah, IV 323.
[911] Gladwin's Áin-i-Akbari, II. 41.
[912] Briggs' Farishtah, IV. 210; Farishtah, Persian Text II. 488.
[913] Memoirs of the emperor Jehángír (Pers. Text) Sir Sayad Áhmed's
Edition, page 188, eleventh year of Jehángír, A.D. 1617.
[914] Herbert's Khán Jehan is doubtless Mehmúd's father the minister
Malik Mughís, Khán Jehán Aâzam Humáyún. It cannot be Khán Jehán Pir
Muhammad, Akbar's general, who after only a few months' residence was
slain in Mándu in A.D. 1561; nor can it be Jehángír's great Afghán
general, Khán Jehán Lodi (A.D. 1600-1630), as he was not in Mándu until
A.D. 1628, that is more than a year after Herbert left India. Compare
Herbert's Travels, 107-118; Elliot, VI. 249-323, VII. 7, 8, and 21;
and Blochman's Áin-i-Akbari, 503-506.
[915] Briggs' Farishtah, IV. 214.
[916] Ruins of Mándu, 13. Farishtah has three mentions of colleges. One
(Pers. Text, II. 475) as the place where the body of Hoshang was
carried, probably that prayers might be said over it. In another
passage in the reign of Mehmúd I. (Pers. Text, II. 480) he states
that Mehmúd built colleges in his territories which became the envy
of Shíráz and Samarkand. In a third passage he mentions a college
(page 488) near the Victory Tower.
[917] Briggs' Farishtah, IV. 217. A different but almost
incredible account of the capture of the royal belt is given in
the Mirat-i-Sikandari, Pers. Text, 159: When Sultán Kutb-ud-dín,
son of Sultán Muhammad, defeated Sultán Mehmúd Khilji at the battle
of Kapadvanj, there was such a slaughter as could not be exceeded. By
chance, in the heat of the fray, which resembled the Day of Judgment,
the wardrobe-keeper of Sultán Kutb-ud-dín, in whose charge was
the jewelled belt, was by the restiveness of his horse carried
into the ranks of the enemy. The animal there became so violent
that the wardrobe-keeper fell off and was captured by the enemy,
and the jewelled belt was taken from him and given to Sultán Mehmúd
of Málwa. The author adds: This jewelled waistband was in the Málwa
treasury at the time the fortress of Mándu was taken by the strength
of the arm of Sultán Muzaffar (A.D. 1531). Sultán Mehmúd sent this
belt together with a fitting sword and horse to Sultán Muzaffar by
the hands of his son.
[918] Briggs' Farishtah, IV. 209.
[919] Briggs' Farishtah, IV. 234-235: Pers. Text, II. 503.
[920] Briggs' Farishtah, IV. 236.
[921] Ruins of Mándu, 6.
[922] Farishtah Pers. Text, II. 504-505.
[923] Farishtah Pers. Text, II. 505.
[924] Farishtah Pers. Text, II. 507.
[925] Wákiat-i-Mushtáki in Elliot, IV. 554-556. Probably these are
stock tales. The Gujarát historians give Muzaffar and Muhammad the
Gold-giver (A.D. 1441-1451) credit for the horse scrupulosity. See
Mirat-i-Sikandari Pers. Text, 178.
[926] Briggs' Farishtah, IV. 236-239; Wákiat-i-Jehángíri in Elliot,
VI. 349-350; Wákiat-i-Mushtáki in Elliot, IV. 554-55; Malcolm's
Central India, I. 35-36. The Mirat-i-Sikandari (Pers. Text, 160) has
the following notice of Ghiás-ud-dín: The Sultáns of Mándu had reached
such a pitch of luxury and ease that it is impossible to imagine aught
exceeding it. Among them Sultán Ghiás-ud-dín was so famous for his
luxurious habits, that at present (A.D. 1611) if any one exceeds in
luxury and pleasure, they say he is a second Ghiás-ud-dín. The orders
of the Sultán were that no event of a painful nature or one in which
there was any touch of sadness should be related to him. They say that
during his entire reign news of a sad nature was only twice conveyed
to him: once when his son-in-law died and once when his daughter
was brought before him clothed in white. On this occasion the Sultán
is related to have simply said: "Perhaps her husband is dead." This
he said because the custom of the people of India is that when the
husband of a woman dies she gives up wearing coloured clothes. The
second occasion was when the army of Sultán Bahlol Lodi plundered
several of the districts of Chanderi. Though it was necessary to
report this to the Sultán, his ministers were unable to communicate
it to him. They therefore asked a band of actors (bhánds) to assume
the dress of Afgháns, and mentioning the districts to represent them
as being pillaged and laid waste. Sultán Ghiás-ud-dín exclaimed in
surprise: "But is the governor of Chanderi dead that he does not
avenge upon the Afgháns the ruin of his country!"
[927] Compare Catalogue of Indian Coins, The Mahomedan States, pages
LIV. LV. and 118-121.
[928] Farishtah Pers. Text, II. 507.
[929] Farishtah (Pers. Text, II. 508) detailing how Násir-ud-dín came
to power, says: There was a difference between Násir-ud-dín and his
brother Alá-ud-dín. The mother of these princes, Khurshíd Ráni, who
was the daughter of the Hindu chief of Báglána, had taken Alá-ud-dín
the younger brother's side. After killing his father Násir-ud-dín
ordered his mother to be dragged out of the harím and Alá-ud-dín and
his children to be slaughtered like lambs.
[930] Briggs' Farishtah, IV. 238-239. Farishtah holds that
Násir-ud-dín's murder of his father is not proved. He adds (Pers. Text,
II. 515) that Násir-ud-dín was at Dhár where he had gone to quell the
rebellion of the nobles when the news of Ghiás-ud-dín's death reached
him. He argues that as a parricide cannot flourish more than a year
after his father's murder, and as Násir-ud-dín ruled for years after
that event, he could not have killed his father.
[931] Farishtah Pers. Text, II. 516.
[932] Briggs' Farishtah, IV. 243. The emperor Jehángír (Memoirs
Pers. Text, 181) says that Násir-ud-dín had a disease which made him
feel so hot that he used to sit for hours in water.
[933] Wákiat-i-Jehángíri in Elliot, VI. 350. Farishtah (Pers. Text,
II. 517-18) says that Násir-ud-dín died of a burning-fever he had
contracted by hard drinking and other evil habits, that he showed keen
penitence before his death, and bequeathed his kingdom to his third
son Mehmúd. The emperor Jehángír (Memoirs Pers. Text, 181) confirms
the account of the Wákiat as to the manner of Násir-ud-dín's death.
[934] Briggs' Farishtah, IV. 243.
[935] The emperor Jehángír thus describes (Memoirs Pers. Text, 181)
his visit to Násir-ud-dín's grave. It is related that when during his
reign Sher Khán Afghán Súr (A.D. 1540-1555) visited Násir-ud-dín's
grave he ordered his attendants to flagellate the parricide's tomb:
When I visited the sepulchre I kicked his grave and ordered those
with me to do the same. Not satisfied with this I ordered his bones
to be dug out and burned and the ashes to be thrown into the Narbada.
[936] Wákiat-i-Jehángíri in Elliot, VI. 350. The emperor Jehángír
(Memoirs Pers. Text, 202) refers to the well-known bridge and
water-palace about three miles north of Ujjain as the work of
Násir-ud-dín. He says: On Sunday I reached Saádulpur near Ujjain. In
this village is a river house with a bridge on which are alcoves both
built by Násir-ud-dín Khilji (A.D. 1500-1512). Though the bridge is
not specially praiseworthy the water-courses and cisterns connected
with it have a certain merit.
[937] Briggs' Farishtah, IV. 246.
[938] Briggs' Farishtah, IV. 247-249. Malcolm's (Central India, I. 38)
writes the Rájput's name Maderay. The Mirat-i-Sikandari (Persian Text,
149-155), gives the form Medáni Rai, the Lord of the Battlefield,
a title which the author says (page 149) Mehmúd conferred on the
Rájput in acknowledgment of his prowess.
[939] The Mirat-i-Sikandari (Pers. Text, 154) gives the following
details of Mehmúd's flight: Sultán Mehmúd, on pretence of hunting
left Mándu and remained hunting for several days. The Hindus, whom
Medáni Rái had placed on guard over him, slept after the fatigue
of the chase. Only some of the more trusted guards remained. Among
them was a Rájput named Krishna, a Málwa zamíndár who was attached to
the Sultán. Mehmúd said to Krishna: "Can you find me two horses and
show me the way to Gujarát that I may get aid from Sultán Muzaffar to
punish these rascals? If you can, do so at once, and, Alláh willing,
you shall be handsomely rewarded." Krishna brought two horses from
the Sultán's stables. Mehmúd rode on one and seated his dearest of
wives, Ráni Kannya Kuar, on the other. Krishna marched in front. In
half the night and one day they reached the Gujarát frontier.
[940] Tárikh-i-Sher Sháhi in Elliot, IV. 386. The Mirat-i-Sikandari
(Pers. Text, 160) gives the following details of the banquet: Sultán
Mehmúd showed great hospitality and humility. After the banquet as he
led the Sultán over the palaces, they came to a mansion in the centre
of which was a four-cornered building like the Kaâbah, carved and
gilded, and round it were many apartments. When Sultán Muzaffar placed
his foot within the threshold of that building the thousand beauties
of Sultán Mehmúd's harím, magnificently apparelled and jewelled, all at
once opened the doors of their chambers and burst into view like húris
and fairies. When Muzaffar's eyes fell on their charms he bowed his
head and said: "To see other than one's own harím is sinful." Sultán
Mehmúd replied: "These are mine, and therefore yours, seeing that I
am the slave purchased by your Majesty's kindness." Muzaffar said:
"They are more suitable for you. May you have joy in them. Let them
retire." At a signal from Sultán Mehmúd the ladies vanished.
[941] Briggs' Farishtah, IV. 250-262.
[942] Farishtah Pers. Text. II. 527. According to the Mirat-i-Sikandari
(Pers. Text, 161) Mehmúd marched against Gágraun first, and slew
Hemkaran, a partisan of Medáni Rái, in a hand-to-hand fight. On this
the Rána and Medáni Rái joined their forces against Mehmúd.
[943] Briggs' Farishtah, IV. 262-263.
[944] Persian Edition, 239.
[945] Briggs' Farishtah, IV. 267-68. Sultán Bahádur apparently
surprised the party in charge of the Tárápúr or Southern Gate.
[946] Briggs' Farishtah, IV. 269; Mirat-i-Áhmedi, Persian Text, I. 76.
[947] Briggs' Farishtah, II. 77.
[948] Abul Fazl's Akbar Námah in Elliot, VI. 14; Briggs' Farishtah,
II. 77.
[949] Abul Fazl's Akbar Námah in Elliot, V. 192.
[950] Abul Fazl's Akbar Námah in Elliot, VI. 15; Briggs' Farishtah,
II. 80-81.
[951] Abul Fazl's Akbar Námah in Elliot, VI. 18. According to
Farishtah (Pers. Text, II. 532) Mallu, the son of Mallu, was a
native of Málwa and a Khilji slave noble. Mallu received his title
of Kádir Sháh from Sultán Mehmúd III. of Gujarát (A.D. 1536-1544)
at the recommendation of his minister Imád-ul-Mulk who was a great
friend of Mallu. Mirat-i-Sikandari, Persian Text, 298.
[952] Farishtah Pers. Text, II. 532.
[953] Tárikh-i-Sher Sháh in Elliot, IV. 391; Briggs' Farishtah,
IV. 271-72.
[954] Farishtah (Pers. Text, 533-34) refers to the following
circumstance as the cause of Kádir Sháh's suspicion. On his way to
Sher Sháh's darbár at Ujjain Kádir saw some Mughal prisoners in chains
making a road. One of the prisoners seeing him began to sing:
Mará mí bín darín ahwál o fikrí khíshtan mí kun!
In this plight thou seest me to-day,
Thine own turn is not far away.
When Kádir Sháh escaped, Sher Sháh on hearing of his flight exclaimed:
Bá má chi kard dídí
Mallû Ghulám-i-gídí.
Thus he treats us with scorn,
Mallu the slave base born.
To this one of Sher Sháh's men replied:
Kaul-i-Rasúl bar hakk
Lá khaira fil abídi.
The words of the Prophet are true,
No good can a slave ever do.
[955] Tárikh-i-Sher Sháhi in Elliot, IV. 397.
[956] Tárikh-i-Alfi in Elliott, V. 168; Elphinstone's India, 402-403.
[957] Tárikh-i-Alfi in Elliot, V. 168.
[958] Briggs' Farishtah, IV. 276.
[959] When Báz Bahádur attacked the Gonds their chief was dead, and
his widow, Ráni Durgávati, was ruling in his place. The Ráni led the
Gonds against the invaders, and hemming them in one of the passes,
inflicted on them such a defeat that Báz Bahádur fled from the field
leaving his baggage and camp in her hands. Farishtah Pers. Text,
II. 538.
[960] According to Farishtah (Pers. Text, II. 538) Báz Bahádur was
already an adept in music.
[961] Malcolm's Central India, I. 39; Ruins of Mándu, 30.
[962] Briggs' Farishtah, II. 210.
[963] Blochman's Áin-i-Akbari, 321.
[964] Briggs' Farishtah, IV. 211.
[965] Briggs' Farishtah, IV. 216.
[966] Tabakát-i-Akbari in Elliot, V. 291.
[967] Tabakát-i-Akbari in Elliot, V. 330-31.
[968] Blochman's Áin-i-Akbari, 375.
[969] The emperor Jehángír thus describes (Memoirs Pers. Text, 372)
a visit to this building: On the third day of Amardád (July 1617)
with the palace ladies I set out to see Nílkanth, which is one of
the pleasantest places in Mándu fort. Sháh Budágh Khán, who was one
of the trusted nobles of my august father, built this very pleasing
and joy-giving lodge during the time he held this province in fief
(A.D. 1572-1577). I remained at Nílkanth till about an hour after
nightfall and then returned to my state quarters.
[970] An officer who distinguished himself under Humáyún, one of
Akbar's commanders of Three Thousand, long governor of Mándu, where
he died. Blochman's Áin-i-Akbari, 372.
[971] When opposed to Ârab the word Âjam signifies all countries
except Arabia, and in a narrow sense, Persia. The meaning of the word
Âjam is dumbness, the Arabs so glorying in the richness of their own
tongue as to hold all other countries and nations dumb.
[972] The stones on which this inscription is carved have been wrongly
arranged by some restorer. Those with the latter portion of the
inscription come first and those with the beginning come last. Múnshi
Abdur Rahím of Dhár.
[973] The maternal uncle of Naushírwán (A.D. 586-635) the Sassanian,
Shirwán Sháh was ruler of a district on Mount Caucasus. Al Masúdi,
Arabic Text Prairies d'Or, II. 4, and Rauzat-us-Safa, Persian Text,
I. 259.
[974] Blochman's Áin-i-Akbari, 353.
[975] Briggs' Farishtah, IV. 279.
[976] Blochman's Áin-i-Akbari, 429.
[977] Gladwin's Áin-i-Akbari, II. 41.
[978] Blochman's Áin-i-Akbari, 31.
[979] Briggs' Farishtah, IV. 169, 181, 190.
[980] Nineteen kos, taking the kos to be two miles.
[981] The emperor Jehángír's Memoirs, Pers. Text, Sir Sayad Áhmed's
Edition, 178-203.
[982] Literally single-men. The Ahadís were a corps of men who stood
immediately under the emperor's orders. Blochman's Áin-i-Akbari,
20 note 1.
[983] This scattering of gold silver or copper coin, called in Arabic
and Persian nisár, is a common form of offering. The influence of the
evil eye or other baneful influence is believed to be transferred from
the person over whom the coin is scattered to the coin and through
the coin to him who takes it.
[984] This feat of Núr Jehán's drew from one of the Court poets
the couplet:
Núr Jehán gar chih ba súrat zanast
Dar safi Mardán zani sher afkanast.
Núr Jehán the tiger-slayer's woman
Ranks with men as the tiger-slaying woman.
Sherafkan, that is tiger-slayer, was the title of Núr Jehán's first
husband Ali-Kuli Istajlu.
[985] Tuzuk-i-Jehángíri Pers. Text, 187.
[986] Tuzuk-i-Jehángíri Pers. Text, 189.
[987] The miskál which was used in weighing gold was equal in weight
to ninety-six barleycorns. Blochman's Áin-i-Akbari, 36.
[988] Tuzuk-i-Jehángíri Pers. Text, 195.
[989] Tuzuk-i-Jehángíri Pers. Text, 195.
[990] Tuzuk-i-Jehángíri Pers. Text, 192-194.
[991] Tuzuk-i-Jehángíri Pers. Text, 190.
[992] Tuzuk-i-Jehángíri Pers. Text, 192.
[993] Tuzuk-i-Jehángíri Pers. Text, 194-5.
[994] A Voyage to East India, 181. Terry gives April 1616, but Roe
seems correct in saying March 1617. Compare Wákiat-i-Jehángíri in
Elliot, VI. 351.
[995] Akbarpur lies between Dharampuri and Waisar. Malcolm's Central
India, I. 84 note.
[996] Carriages may have the old meaning of things carried, that
is baggage. The time taken favours the view that wagons or carts
were forced up the hill. For the early seventeenth century use of
carriages in its modern sense compare Terry (Voyage, 161). Of our
wagons drawn with oxen ... and other carriages we made a ring every
night; also Dodsworth (1614), who describes a band of Rájputs near
Baroda cutting off two of his carriages (Kerr's Voyages, IX. 203);
and Roe (1616), who journeyed from Ajmír to Mándu with twenty camels
four carts and two coaches (Kerr, IX. 308). Terry's carriages seem to
be Roe's coaches, to which Dela Valle (A.D. 1623) Hakluyt's Edition,
(I. 21) refers as much like the Indian chariots described by Strabo
(B.C. 50) covered with crimson silk fringed with yellow about the
roof and the curtains. Compare Idrísi (A.D. 1100-1150), but probably
from Al Istakhiri, A.D. 960: Elliot, I. 87). In all Nahrwala or north
Gujarát the only mode of carrying either passengers or goods is in
chariots drawn by oxen with harness and traces under the control
of a driver. When in 1616 Jehángír left Ajmír for Mándu the English
carriage presented to him by the English ambassador Sir Thomas Roe
was allotted to the Sultánah Núr Jehán Begam. It was driven by an
English coachman. Jehángír followed in the coach his own men had made
in imitation of the English coach. Corryat (1615, Crudities III.,
Letters from India, unpaged) calls the English chariot a gallant
coach of 150 pounds price.
[997] Kerr's Voyages, IX. 335; Wákiat-i-Jehángíri in Elliot, VI. 377.
[998] Roe writing from Ajmír in the previous year (29th August 1616)
describes Mándu as a castle on a hill, where there is no town and no
buildings. Kerr, IX. 267.
[999] Roe in Kerr's Travels, IX. 313.
[1000] Roe in Kerr's Travels, IX. 314.
[1001] Compare Wákiat-i-Jehángíri in Elliot, VI. 377.
[1002] Roe in Kerr's Travels, IX. 314.
[1003] Roe in Kerr's Travels, IX. 321.
[1004] Roe in Kerr's Travels, IX. 335.
[1005] Corryat's Crudities, III. Extracts (unpaged). This Master
Herbert was Thomas, brother of Sir Edward Herbert, the first Lord
Herbert. It seems probable that this Thomas supplied his cousin Sir
Thomas Herbert who was travelling in India and Persia in A.D. 1627
with his account of Mándu. See below pages 381-382.
[1006] Corryat's Crudities, III. Extracts (unpaged).
[1007] Terry's Voyage, 183; Roe in Kerr, IX. 335.
[1008] Roe in Kerr, IX. 335.
[1009] Wákiat-i-Jehángíri in Elliot, VI. 349.
[1010] Wákiat-i-Jehángiri in Elliot, VI. 350.
[1011] Terry's Voyage, 228.
[1012] Terry's Voyage, 69.
[1013] Terry's Voyage, 183.
[1014] Terry's Voyage, 186, 198.
[1015] Terry's Voyage, 198, 205.
[1016] Roe in Kerr's Voyages, IX. 337; Pinkerton's Voyages, VIII. 35.
[1017] Terry's Voyage, 403.
[1018] Corryat's Crudities, III. Letter 2. Extracts unpaged.
[1019] Roe in Kerr's Voyages, IX. 343.
[1020] Roe in Kerr's Travels, IX. 340-343.
[1021] Roe in Kerr's Travels, IX. 344.
[1022] Terry's Voyage, 377. Terry's details seem not to agree with
Roe's who states (Kerr's Voyages, IX. 344 and Pinkerton's Voyages,
VIII. 37): I was invited to the drinking, but desired to be excused
because there was no avoiding drinking, and their liquors are so hot
that they burn out a man's very bowels. Perhaps the invitation Roe
declined was to a private drinking party after the public weighing
was over.
[1023] Roe in Kerr's Voyage, IX. 347; Elphinstone's History, 494. Kerr
(IX. 347) gives September 2 but October 2 is right. Compare Pinkerton's
Voyages, VIII. 39.
[1024] Ruins of Mándu, 57. As the emperor must have passed out by the
Dehli Gate, and as Roe's lodge was two miles from Báz Bahádur's palace,
the lodge cannot have been far from the Dehli Gate. It is disappointing
that, of his many genial gossipy entries Jehángír does not devote
one to Roe. The only reference to Roe's visit is the indirect entry
(Wa'kiat-i-Jehángíri in Elliot, VI. 347) that Jehángír gave one of his
nobles a coach, apparently a copy of the English coach, with which,
to Jehángír's delight, Roe had presented him.
[1025] Roe in Kerr's Voyages, IX. 353.
[1026] Terry's Voyage, 180.
[1027] Terry's Voyage, 181.
[1028] Wákiat-i-Jehángíri in Elliot, VI. 383.
[1029] Wákiat-i-Jehángíri in Elliot, VI. 387.
[1030] Elphinstone's History, 496-97. Compare Dela Valle (Hakluyt
Edition, I. 177) writing in A.D. 1622, Sultán Khurram after his defeat
by Jehángír retired to Mándu.
[1031] Dela Valle's Travels, Hakluyt Edition, I. 97.
[1032] Elphinstone's History, 507.
[1033] Herbert's Travels, 84. Corryat's Master Herbert was as already
noticed named like the traveller Thomas. The two Thomases were
distant relations, both being fourth in descent from Sir Richard
Herbert of Colebroke, who lived about the middle of the fifteenth
century. A further connection between the two families is the copy
of complimentary verses "To my cousin Sir Thomas Herbert," signed
Ch. Herbert, in the 1634 and 1665 editions of Herbert's Travels, which
are naturally, though somewhat doubtfully, ascribed to Charles Herbert,
a brother of our Master Thomas. It is therefore probable that after his
return to England Sir Thomas Herbert obtained the Mándu details from
Master Thomas who was himself a writer, the author of several poems
and pamphlets. Corryat's tale how, during the water-famine at Mándu,
Master Herbert annexed a spring or cistern, and then bound a servant
of the Great King who attempted to share in its use, shows admirable
courage and resolution on the part of Master Thomas, then a youth
of twenty years. The details of Thomas in his brother Lord Herbert's
autobiography give additional interest to the hero of Corryat's tale of
a Tank. Master Thomas was born in. A.D. 1597. In 1610, when a page to
Sir Edward Cecil and a boy of thirteen, in the German War especially
in the siege of Juliers fifteen miles north-east of Aix-la-Chapelle,
Master Thomas showed such forwardness as no man in that great army
surpassed. On his voyage to India in 1617, in a fight with a great
Portuguese carrack, Captain Joseph, in command of Herbert's ship Globe,
was killed. Thomas took Joseph's place, forced the carrack aground,
and so riddled her with shot that she never floated again. To his
brother's visit to India Lord Herbert refers as a year spent with the
merchants who went from Surat to the Great Mughal. After his return
to England Master Thomas distinguished himself at Algiers, capturing
a vessel worth £1800. In 1622, when Master Thomas was in command of
one of the ships sent to fetch Prince Charles (afterwards King Charles
I.) from Spain, during the return voyage certain Low Countrymen and
Dunkirkers, that is Dutch and Spanish vessels, offended the Prince's
dignity by fighting in his presence without his leave. The Prince
ordered the fighting ships to be separated; whereupon Master Thomas,
with some other ships got betwixt the fighters on either side, and
shot so long that both Low Countrymen and Dunkirkers were glad to
desist. Afterwards at divers times Thomas fought with great courage
and success with divers men in single fight, sometimes hurting and
disarming his adversary, sometimes driving him away. The end of Master
Thomas was sad. Finding his proofs of himself undervalued he retired
into a private and melancholy life, and after living in this sullen
humour for many years, he died about 1642 and was buried in London
in St. Martin's near Charing Cross.
[1034] Khafi Khán in Elliot, VII. 218.
[1035] Malcolm's Central India, I. 64.
[1036] Malcolm's Central India, I. 78.
[1037] Malcolm's Central India, I. 100.
[1038] Malcolm's Central India, I. 106.
[1039] Central India, II. 503.
[1040] Ruins of Mándu, 43: March 1852 page 34.
[1041] Ruins of Mándu, 43: March 1852 page 34.
[1042] Malcolm's Central India, II. 503.