Part 18

One of the royal slaves who was serving in the seal-cutting departments prepared and laid before me a design such as I had never seen or heard of before. As it is exceedingly strange, a detailed [336] description of it is given. In the shell of a filbert four compartments had been carved out of ivory. The first compartment was one of wrestlers, in which two men were engaged in wrestling, a third was standing with a spear in his hand, a fourth with a hard stone. [337] Another was sitting with his hands placed on the ground, while in front of him were laid a piece of wood, a bow and a pot. In the second a throne had been made above which a shamiyana (a tent-fly or canopy) was depicted, and a man of wealth (a prince) was seated on the throne with one leg placed over the other and a pillow at his back. Five servants were standing around and before him, and tree-boughs threw a shade over the throne. In the third compartment is a company of rope-dancers, who have raised upright a pole with three ropes fastened to it. A rope-dancer upon it (qu. on the ropes? [338]) has taken hold of his own right foot with his left hand behind his head, and standing on one foot has placed a goat on the top of the pole. Another person has thrown a drum on his neck and is beating it, whilst another man is standing with his hands lifted up and looking at the rope-dancer. Five other men are also standing, of whom one has a stick in his hand. In the fourth compartment there is a tree, below which the figure of the revered (hazrat) Jesus is shown. One person has placed his head at Jesus' feet, and an old man is conversing with Jesus and four others are standing by. [339] As he had made such a masterpiece, I honoured him with a present and with increased salary.

On the 30th Shahriwar, Mirza Sultan, who had been sent for from the Deccan, came and waited on me. Safdar Khan had an increase of rank conferred on him, and was appointed to go to the assistance of the army against the rebel Rana. As `Abdu-llah Khan Bahadur Firuz-jang had proposed to enter the neighbouring province of the Deccan by way of Nasik, it occurred to me to appoint Ram Das Kachhwaha, who was one of the sincere servants of my revered father, to accompany him in order that he might in every place look after him, and not allow him to be too rash and hasty. For this purpose I bestowed on him great favours, as well as the title of Raja, which he had not thought of for himself. I also gave him drums and the fort of Ranthanbur, which is one of the noted castles in Hindustan, and honouring him with a superb robe of honour and an elephant and horse I dismissed him. I appointed Khwaja Abu-l-hasan, who had been transferred from the chief Diwanship, to the duty of the Subahdarship of the Deccan, as he had been for a long time in those regions in the service of my deceased brother (Daniyal). I honoured Abu-l-hasan, son of I`timadu-d-daulah, with the title of I`tiqad Khan, and having promoted the sons of Mu`azzam Khan to fitting ranks sent them to Bengal to Islam Khan. At the request of Islam Khan, Raja Kalyan was appointed to the government of the Sarkar of Orissa and had an increase in rank of 200 personal and horse. I presented Shaja`at Khan Dakhani with 4,000 rupees. On the 7th Aban Badi`u-z-zaman, son of Mirza Shahrukh, came from the Deccan and waited on me.

About this time, in consequence of the disturbances that had occurred in the country of Mawara'a-n-nahr, many of the Amirs and Uzbeg soldiers, such as Husain Bi, Pahluwan Baba, and Nauras Bi Darman, and Baram Bi and others came to Court and waited on me. They were all honoured with robes of honour, horses, cash, mansabs, and jagirs. On the 2nd Azar Hashim Khan came from Bengal and had the honour of kissing my threshold. I sent 500,000 rupees for the expenses of the victorious army of the Deccan, of which the leader was `Abdu-llah Khan, to Ahmadabad in Gujarat by the hands of Rup Khawass and Shaikh Anbiya. On the 1st day I went to the village of Samonagar, which is one of my fixed hunting-places, to hunt. Twenty-two antelope were killed, of which I myself killed sixteen and Khurram the other six. Remaining there two days and two nights, on the night of Sunday I returned to the city in health and safety, and one night this couplet threw its brilliance on my mind:--

"As long as there's in heaven light for the sun, Be not the reflection far from the Shah's umbrella."

I ordered the lamplighters and the relators of stories that at the time of their salutations and telling stories they should commence with this couplet, and it is still in use. On Saturday, the 3rd day, a letter came from Khan A`zam that `Adil Khan Bijapuri had given up his evil ways and become penitent, and in the rank of servants was now more loyal than ever. On the 14th day, corresponding with the last day of Shawwal, leave was given to Hashim Khan to go to Kashmir. I gave a special wrapper [340] (fargal) to Yadgar `Ali, ambassador of Persia. I presented I`tiqad Khan with one of my special swords called Sar-andaz (thrower of heads). Having honoured Shadman, son of Khan A`zam, with the title of Shadman Khan, I increased his rank to 1,700 personal and 500 horse. He was also honoured with a standard. Sardar Khan, brother of `Abdu-llah Khan Firuz-jang, and Arslan Bi Uzbeg, who had been appointed to the charge of Sivistan, [341] were also presented with standards. I ordered that ja'i-namaz (prayer carpets) should be made of the skins of the antelopes I had myself killed, and be kept in the public audience hall for people to use in saying their prayers. By way of special respect to the Law I ordered that the Mir-i-`Adl and Qazi, who are the pivot of affairs of the divine law, should not kiss the ground (before me), which is a kind of sijda. On Thursday, the 22nd day, I went again to Samonagar to hunt. As many antelope had collected together in that neighbourhood I had this time sent off Khwaja Jahan to prepare a qamargah and drive in the antelope into a broad place from all sides, to place canvas-walls (sara-parda) and a gulal-bar [342] round it. They enclosed a kos and half of ground with sarapardas. When news came that the hunting-place had been prepared and a great deal of game had been confined, I went there and began to hunt on the Friday. Until the next Thursday I went every day to the qamargah with the ladies and hunted as much as I liked. Some of the deer were taken alive and some killed with arrows and guns. On the Sunday and Thursday, on which I do not fire guns at animals, they took them alive in nets. In these seven days 917 head, male and female, were caught, and of these 641 deer were caught alive. Four hundred and four head were sent to Fathpur to be let loose on the plain there, and with regard to 84 I ordered them to put silver rings in their noses and set them free in the same place. The 276 other antelope that had been killed with guns and arrows and by cheetahs were divided from day to day among the Begams and the slaves of the palace, and Amirs and servants of the palace. As I became very tired (dilgir) of hunting, I gave orders to the Amirs to go to the shikargah (hunting-place) and hunt all that were left over, and myself returned in safety to the city. On the 1st Bahman, corresponding with the 17th Zi-l-qa`da, I ordered that in the large cities of my dominions, like Ahmadabad, Allahabad, Lahore, Delhi, Agra, etc., they should arrange bulghur-khanas (places for the distribution of cooked food) for the poor; thirty mahalls (districts) had been ordered. Six had already been established, and twenty-four other districts were now ordered. On the 4th Bahman I increased the rank of Raja Bir Singh Deo by 1,000 personal; it was previously 4,000 personal and 2,000 horse: I gave him a jewelled sword. Another sword out of my special ones, that was called Shah-bacha, (king's child), was presented to Shah-nawaz Khan. On the 16th Isfandarmuz, Badi`u-z-zaman, son of Mirza Shahrukh, was appointed to the army against the rebel Rana and a sword sent by his hand for Raja Baso. Having again heard that the Amirs on the borders interfere with authority in matters that do not concern them, and do not observe laws and regulations, I ordered [343] that the Bakhshis should circulate orders, to be obeyed amongst the Amirs of the borders, that hereafter they should not interfere in such things, which are the private affair of kings. The first thing is this, that they should not sit in the jharokha (private window), and should not trouble their officers and captains of the auxiliaries with keeping guard or saluting them, and should not have elephant fights, and should not inflict the punishment of blinding, and should not cut off ears and noses, and should not force Islam on anyone, and should not confer titles on their servants, and should not order the royal servants to do kurnish or prostration, and should not force singers to remain on duty in the manner customary in (royal) darbars, and should not beat drums when they go out, and when they give a horse or elephant to anyone, whether to the king's attendants or to their own servants, they should not place reins or elephant's goads on their backs and make them perform obeisance. In going in procession they should not take with them on foot in their retinue the royal attendants. If they write anything to them they should not put a seal on it. [344] The regulations which have been styled the rules of Jahangir (Ayin-i-Jahangiri) are now in force. [345]

THE SEVENTH NEW YEAR'S FESTIVAL AFTER THE AUSPICIOUS ACCESSION.