The History of British India, Vol. II, by James Mill

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Part 1 of 2

CHAP. X. General Reflections.

TO ascertain the true state of the Hindus in the scale of civilization, is not only an object of curiosity in the history of human nature; but to the people of Great Britain, charged as they are with the government of that great portion of the human species, it is an object of the highest practical importance. No scheme of government can happily conduce to the ends of government, unless it is adapted to the state of the people for whose use it is intended. In those diversities in the state of civilization, which approach the extremes, this truth is universally acknowledged. Should any one propose, for a band of roving Tartars, the regulations adapted to the happiness of a regular and polished society, he would meet with neglect or derision. The inconveniences are only more concealed and more or less diminished, when the error relates to states of society which more nearly resemble one another. If the mistake in regard to Hindu society, committed by the British nation, and the British government, be very great; if they have conceived the Hindus to be a people of high civilization, while they have in reality made but a few of the earliest steps in the progress to civilization, it is impossible that in many of the measures pursued for the government of that people, the mark aimed at should not have been wrong.

The preceding induction of particulars, embracing the religion, the laws, the government, the manners, the arts, the sciences, and literature, of the Hindus, affords, it is presumed, the materials from which a correct judgment may, at last, be formed of their progress toward the high attainments of civilized life. That induction, and the comparisons to which it led, have occupied us long, but not longer, it is hoped, than the importance of the subject demanded, and the obstinacy of the mistakes which it was the object of it to remove.

The reports of a high state of civilization in the East were common even among the civilized nations of ancient Europe. But the acquaintance of the Greeks and Romans with any of the nations of Asia, except the Persians alone, was so imperfect, and among the circumstances which they state so many are incredible and ridiculous, that in the information we receive from them on this subject, no confidence can be reposed.

Of the modern Europeans, the individuals who first obtained a tolerable acquaintance with any of the nations of the East, were the popish missionaries, chiefly the Jesuits, who selected China for the scene of their apostolical labours. Visiting a people who already composed a vast society, and exhibited many, though fallacious, marks of riches, while Europe as yet was every where poor; and feeling, as it was natural for them to feel, that the more they could excite among their countrymen an admiration of the people whom they described, the greater would be the portion of that flattering sentiment, which would redound upon themselves, these missionaries were eager to conceive, and still more eager to propagate, the most hyperbolical ideas of the arts, the sciences, and institutions of the Chinese. As it is almost always more pleasing, and certainly far more easy, to believe, than to scrutinize; and as the human mind in Europe, at the time when these accounts were first presented, was much less powerful, and penetrating, than it is at present, they were received with almost implicit credulity. The influence of this first impression lasted so long, that even to Voltaire, a keen-eyed and sceptical judge, the Chinese, of almost all nations, are the objects of the loudest and most unqualified praise.162 The state of belief in Europe has, through the scrutiny of facts, been of late approximating to sobriety on the attainments of the Chinese, and a short period longer will probably reduce it to the scale of reason and fact.163

It was under circumstances highly similar, that the earliest of the modern travellers drew up and presented their accounts of Hindustan. The empire of the Moguls was in its meridian splendour. It extended over the principal part of India; and the court, the army, and the establishments of Akber or Aurungzebe, exhibited that gorgeous exterior, that air of grandeur and power, which were well calculated to impose upon the imagination of an unphilosophical observer.164

It was unfortunate that a mind so pure, so warm in the pursuit of truth, and so devoted to oriental learning, as that of Sir William Jones, should have adopted the hypothesis of a high state of civilization in the principal countries of Asia. This he supported with all the advantages of an imposing manner, and a brilliant reputation; and gained for it so great a credit, that for a time it would have been very difficult to obtain a hearing against it.

Beside the illusions with which the fancy magnifies the importance of a favourite pursuit, Sir William was actuated by the virtuous design of exalting the Hindus in the eyes of their European masters; and thence ameliorating the temper of the government; while his mind had scope for error in the vague and indeterminate notions which it still retained of the signs of social improvement. The term civilization was by him, as by most men, attached to no fixed and definite assemblage of ideas. With the exception of some of the lowest states of society in which human beings have been found, it was applied to nations in all the stages of social advancement.165

It is not easy to describe the characteristics of the different stages of social progress. It is not from one feature, or from two, that a just conclusion can be drawn. In these it sometimes happens that nations resemble which are placed at stages considerably remote. It is from a joint view of all the great circumstances taken together, that their progress can be ascertained; and it is from an accurate comparison, grounded on these general views, that a scale of civilization can be formed, on which the relative position of nations may be accurately marked.

Notwithstanding all that modern philosophy had performed for the elucidation of history, very little had been attempted in this great department, at the time when the notions of Sir William Jones were formed;166 and so crude were his ideas on the subject, that the rhapsodies of Rousseau on the virtue and happiness of the savage life surpass not the panegyrics of Sir William on the wild, comfortless, predatory, and ferocious state of the wandering Arabs. “Except,” says he, “when their tribes are engaged in war, they spend their days in watching their flocks and camels, or in repeating their native songs, which they pour out almost extempore, professing a contempt for the stately pillars and solemn buildings of the cities, compared with the natural charms of the country, and the coolness of their tents: thus they pass their lives in the highest pleasure of which they have any conception, in the contemplation of the most delightful objects, and in the enjoyment of perpetual spring.”167 “If courtesy,” he observes, “and urbanity, a love of poetry and eloquence, and the practice of exalted virtues, be a just measure of perfect society, we have certain proof that the people of Arabia, both on plains and in cities, in republican and monarchical states, were eminently civilized for many ages before their conquest of Persia.”168 We need not wonder if the man, who wrote and delivered this, found the Hindus arrived at the highest civilization. Yet the very same author, in the very same discourse, and speaking of the same people, declared, “I find no trace among them till their emigration of any philosophy but ethics;”169 and even of this he says, “The distinguishing virtues which they boasted of inculcating, were a contempt of riches and even of death; but in the age of the seven poets, their liberality had deviated into mad profusion, their courage into ferocity, and their patience into an obstinate spirit of encountering fruitless dangers.”170 He adds; “The only arts in which they pretended to excellence (I except horsemanship and military accomplishments) werepoetry and rhetoric.”171 It can hardly be affirmed that these facts are less than wonderful as regarding a people “eminently civilized;” a people exhibiting “a just measure of perfect society.”172

Among the causes which excited to the tone of eulogy adopted with regard to the Hindus, one undoubtedly was, the affectation of candour. Of rude and uncultivated nations, and also of rude and uncultivated individuals, it is a characteristic, to admire only the system of manners, of ideas, and of institutions to which they have been accustomed, despising others. The most cultivated nations of Europe had but recently discovered the weakness of this propensity: Novelty rendered exemption from it a source of distinction: To prove his superiority to the prejudices of home, by admiring and applauding the manners and institutions of Asia, became, therefore, in the breast of the traveller, a motive of no inconsiderable power.173

The nations of Europe became acquainted nearly about the same period, with the people of America, and the people of Hindustan. Having contemplated in the one, a people without fixed habitations, without political institutions, and with hardly any other arts than those indispensably necessary for the preservation of existence, they hastily concluded, upon the sight of another people, inhabiting great cities, cultivating the soil, connected together by an artificial system of subordination, exhibiting monuments of great antiquity, cultivating a species of literature, exercising arts and obeying a monarch whose sway was extensive, and his court magnificent, that they had suddenly passed from the one extreme of civilization to the other. The Hindus were compared with the savages of America; the circumstances in which they differed from that barbarous people, were the circumstances in which they corresponded with the most cultivated nations; other circumstances were overlooked; and it seems to have been little suspected that conclusions too favourable could possibly be drawn.174

The progress of knowledge, and the force of observation, demonstrated the necessity of regarding the actual state of the Hindus as little removed from that of half-civilised nations. The saving hypothesis, however, was immediately adopted, that the situation in which the Hindus are now beheld is a state of degradation; that formerly they were in a state of high civilization; from which they had fallen through the miseries of foreign conquest, and subjugation.

This was a theory invented to preserve as much as actual observation would allow to be preserved, of a pre-established and favourite creed. It was not an inference from what was already known. It was a gratuitous assumption. It preceded inquiry, and no inquiry was welcome, but that which yielded matter for its support.175

To this purpose were adapted the pretensions of the Brahmens, who spoke of an antecedent period, when the sovereigns of Hindustan were masters of great power and great magnificence. It was of importance to weigh these pretensions; because the rude writers of rude nations have almost always spoken of antecedent times as deserving all the praise with which their powers of rhetoric or song could exalt them. If the descriptions of antiquity presented by the Brahmens bore the consistent marks of truth and reality, a degree of intrinsic evidence would be attached to them. If these descriptions flew wide of all resemblance to human affairs, and were nothing but wild unnatural fictions, they would be so far from proving an antecedent state of knowledge and civilization, that they would prove the reverse. And, had the Hindus remained fixed from the earliest ages in the semibarbarous state, it is most certain that the Brahmens would have given to us just such accounts of antiquity as those we have actually received at their hands.

As the Hindus have enlightened us by no record of antecedent events, and we thus have no immediate proof of their state of civilization, in the times that are past, the only sure ground of inference is the laws and institutions which they framed, the manners they adopted, and the arts and sciences to which they attended. If these great circumstances were at variance with the existing state of society, but adapted to one more advanced, the inference would certainly be a probable one, that to a period when society was in that improved condition, they really owed their birth. But in regard to the Hindus, their laws and institutions are adapted to the very state of society which those who visit them now behold. They are laws and institutions which, so far from importing any more perfect state of society, seem entirely inconsistent with it; such as could neither begin, nor exist, under any other than one of the rudest and weakest states of the human mind. As the manners, the arts and sciences of the ancient Hindus are entirely correspondent with the state of their laws and institutions, every thing we know of the ancient state of Hindustan conspires to prove that it was rude.

It is another important fact, that, if the Hindus had ever been placed in this pretended state of civilization, we know of no such period of calamity, as was sufficient to reduce them to a state of ignorance and barbarity. The conquest of Hindustan, effected by the Mahomedan nations, was to no extraordinary degree sanguinary or destructive. It substituted sovereigns of one race to sovereigns of another, and mixed with the old inhabitants a small proportion of new; but it altered not the texture of society; it altered not the language of the country; the original inhabitants remained the occupants of the soil; they continued to be governed by their own laws and institutions; nay, the whole detail of administration, with the exception of the army, and a few of the more prominent situations, remained invariably in the hands of the native magistrates and officers.176 The few occasions of the persecution, to which, under the reigns of one or two bigoted sovereigns, they were subjected on the score of religion, were too short and too partial to produce any considerable effects.177

When we look for the particulars of those pretended reigns of mighty kings, the universal lords of India, under whom science flourished, and civilization rose to the greatest height, we meet with nothing but fable, more wild, and inconsistent, and hyperbolical, than is any where else to be found. From this no rational conclusion can be drawn, except that it is the production of a rude and irrational age. Bharat, or Bharata, is said to have been the first universal sovereign of India, which from him derived its name; India being, in the language of the natives, Bharata Versh. In this, however, as usual, the Hindu accounts contradict themselves, since Bharat is represented as preceding Rama, the son of Cush, who, according to Sir William Jones, might have established the first regular government in India.178 Judhishter is another of these universal sovereigns; but of him even the origin is allegorical; he is the son of Dherma, or the god of justice, and he reigned 27,000 years. The name, with which, chiefly, the idea of the universal sovereignship of India, and the glory of art and science, is combined, is that of Vicramaditya. Of him, let us hear what is represented; and then we shall be enabled to judge. “The two periods,” says Captain Wilford, “of Vicrama’ditya and Saliva’ha’na are intimately connected; and the accounts we have of these two extraordinary personages are much confused, teeming with contradictions and absurdities to a surprising degree. In general the Hindus know but of one Vicrama’ditya; but the learned acknowledge four; and when, at my request, they produced written authorities, I was greatly surprised to find no less than eight or nine. —Vicrama’ditya made a desperate tapasya, in order to obtain power and a long life from Ca’li’devi, and as she seemingly continued deaf to his entreaties, he was going to cut off his own head, when she appeared, and granted him undisturbed sway over all the world for one thousand years, after which a divine child, born of a virgin, and the son of the great Tacshaca, carpenter or artist, would deprive him both of his kingdom and of his life. This would happen in the year of the Cali yug, 3101, answering to the first of the Christian era. The history of these nine worthies, but more particularly when considered as a single individual, is a most crude and undigested mass of heterogeneous legends, taken from the apocryphal gospel of the infancy of Christ, the tales of the Rabbis and Talmudists concerning Solomon, with some particulars about Muhammed; and the whole is jumbled together with some of the principal features of the history of the Persian kings of the Sassanian dynasty. Thus Vicrama is made contemporary with Solomon; and like him, he is said to have found the great mantra, spell or talisman; through which he ruled over the elements, and spirits of all denominations, who obeyed him like slaves. Like Solomon he had a most wonderful throne, supported and adorned with lions, who are endued with reason and speech. We read in the Vetala-pancha-vinsati, that it was through the assistance of the great Vetala, or devil, that two Vicrama’dityas obtained the empire of the world, a long life, with unlimited sway. They performed the pújá in his honour, offered sacrifices, and in short dedicated or gave themselves up to him.”179 On this foundation of historical matter is built the magnificent fabric of a great and universal monarchy, the reign of the arts and sciences, all that embellishes human life, and augments the human powers. Such being the premises, and such the conclusion, are they not admirably adapted to one another? The legend speaks, and that loudly, and distinctly, what it is; the creation of a rude and uncultivated fancy, exerting itself to rouse the wonder of a rude and uncultivated age, by a recital of actions, powers, and events, swelled beyond the measure of human nature; profiting by all the hints which the legends or history of other nations supplied to furnish out its story, and by appropriating the wonderful deeds of all the world to gratify the barbarous vanity of the people to whom the story was addressed. If the historian gave to his hero a reign of a thousand years; it was quite in the same temper, and conducive to the same end, to give him the sovereignty of all India; and not only of all India, but, as we see was the fact, the sovereignty of the whole world. This is precisely the course which a wild and ignorant mind, regarding only the wonder which it has it in view to excite, naturally, in such cases, and almost universally, pursues. Such legends, if they existed in myriads, are no more a proof of a monarchy common to all India, which they do not assert, than of the universal monarchy of the whole world, or of the thousands or the myriads of years to one reign, which they expressly assert.180

The very lists which are found in the books of the Hindus, filled up with the names of successive monarchs, Mr. Wilford assures us, are the creation of the fancies of the writers, and are formed without any reference to facts. In enumerating the authorities, from which he drew his materials, in the essay on Vicramaditya and Salivahana, he says, “The fourth list has been translated into all the dialects of India, and new-modelled at least twenty different ways, according to the whims and pre-conceived ideas of every individual, who chose to meddle with it. It is, however, the basis and ground work of modern history among the Hindus; as in the Khulásetul Tuwarie, and the Tadkeratussulatin. The latter treatise is a most perfect specimen of the manner of writing history in India; for, excepting the above list, almost every thing else is the production of the fertile genius of the compiler. In all these lists the compilers and revisers seem to have had no other object in view, but to adjust a certain number of remarkable epochs. This being once effected, the intermediate spaces are filled up with names of kings not to be found any where else, and most probably fanciful. Otherwise they leave out the names of those kings of whom nothing is recorded, and attribute the years of their reign in some among them better known, and of greater fame. They often do not scruple to transpose some of those kings, and even whole dynasties; either in consequence of some pre-conceived opinion, or owing to their mistaking a famous king for another of the same name. It was not uncommon with ancient writers, to pass from a remote ancestor to a remote descendant; or from a remote predecessor to a remote successor, by leaving out the intermediate generations or successions, and sometimes ascribing the years of their reigns to a remote successor or predecessor. In this manner the lists of the ancient kings of Persia, both by oriental writers, and others in the west, have been compiled: and some instances of this nature might be produced from Scripture. I was acquainted lately, at Benares, with a chronicler of that sort; and in the several conversations I had with him, he candidly acknowledged, that he filled up the intermediate spaces between the reigns of famous kings, with names at a venture; that he shortened or lengthened their reigns at pleasure; and that it was understood, that his predecessors had taken the same liberties. Through their emendations and corrections, you see plainly a total want of historical knowledge and criticism; and sometimes some disingenuity is but too obvious. This is, however, the case with the sections on futurity in the Bhagavat, Vaya, Vishu, and Brahmanda Puranas; which with the above lists constitute the whole stock of historical knowledge among the Hindus; and the whole might be comprised in a few quarto pages of print.”181

Such is the mode, in which the authors of the Puranas supply themselves with a convenient quantity of ordinary kings: Mr. Wilford affords most satisfactory information with regard to the manner in which they further supply themselves with extraordinary ones. “The propensity,” says he, “of the Hindus, to appropriate every thing to themselves, is well known. We have noticed before their claims to Bahram-Gῦr and his descendants; and in the same manner they insist that Acbar was a Hindu in a former generation. The proximity of the time, in which this famous emperor lived, has forced them, however, to account for this in the following manner. There was a holy Brahmen, who wished very much to become emperor of India; and the only practicable way for him was to die first, and be born again. For this purpose be made a desperate Tapasya, wishing to remember then every thing he knew in his present generation. This could not be fully granted; but he was indulged with writing upon a brass plate a few things which he wished more particularly to remember; then he was directed to bury the plate, and promised that he would remember the place in the next generation. Mucunda, for such was his name, went to Allahabad, buried the plate, and then burned himself. Nine months after he was born in the.character of Acbar, who, as soon as he ascended the throne, went to Allahabad, and easily found the spot where the brass plate was buried. Thus the Hindus claim Muhammed and Acbar as their own; exactly like the Persians of old, who insisted that Alexander was the son of one of their kings; so that after all they were forced to submit to their countrymen only.”182

The account of the claim to Bahram-Gῦr, mentioned in the beginning of the preceding passage, is extremely important on the present occasion; as it shows us that Vicramaditya, whom the legend makes sovereign of the world, and the believers in the great Hindu monarchy take for emperor of Hindustan, was in reality a King of Persia, borrowed by the Brahmens, from their propensity to appropriate every thing remarkable which they heard of in the world. “One of these Vicramas,” says Mr. Wilford, speaking of the different persons in whom this Vicramaditya appears, “was really a Sassanian Prince: and the famous Shabour or Sapor, of that dynasty, who took the emperor Valens prisoner.”183 The story is as follows: “In Gurjjara-mandalam are the Sabharamati and Mahi rivers; between them is a forest, in which resided Tamralipta-rĭshi, whose daughter married King Tamrasena. They had six male children and one daughter called Mandava-rec’ha. The King had two young lads, called Devas’arma and Havis’arma, whose duty chiefly was to wash, every day, the clothes of their master, in the waters of the nearest river. One day, as Devas’arma went, by himself, for that purpose, he heard a voice, saying, Tell King Tamrasena to give me his daughter; should he refuse me he will repent it. The lad on his return mentioned the whole to his master; who would not believe it, and the next day sent Havis’arma to the river, who heard the same voice also, with the threats in case of a refusal. The King was astonished; and going himself heard the voice also. On his return he assembled his council; and after consulting together, it was agreed, that the King should go again, and ask him who he was. The supposed spirit being questioned, answered, I am a Gand’harva, or heavenly choirister; who, having incurred Indra’s displeasure, was doomed to assume the shape of an ass. I was born in that shape, in the house of a cumbhacara, or potter, in your capital city; and I am daily roving about in quest of food. The King said that he was very willing to give him his daughter; but that he conceived that such an union was altogether impossible while he remained in that shape. The Gand’harva said, Trouble not yourself about that; comply with my request, and it shall be well with you. If, says the King, you are so powerful, turn the walls of my city, and those of the houses, into brass; and let it be done before sun-rise to-morrow. The Gand’harva agreed to it, and the whole was completed by the appointed time; and the King of course gave him his daughter. This Gand’harva’s name was Jayanta, the son of Brahma. When cursed by Indra, he humbled himself; and Indra relenting, allowed him to resume his human shape in the night time; telling him that the curse should not be done away, till somebody had burned his ass-like frame. The mother of the damsel spied them once in the night; and, to her great joy, found that the Gand’harva dallied with her daughter in a human shape. Rejoiced at this discovery, she looked for his ass-like form, and burned it. Early in the morning, the Gand’harva looked for this body of his, and found that it had been destroyed. He returned immediately to his wife, informing her of what had happened, and that his curse being at an end, he was obliged to return to heaven, and leave her. He informed her also that she was with child by him, and that the name of the child was to be Vicramaditya.”184 After the statement of some other particulars, Mr. Wilford says; “This is obviously the history of Yesdegird, son of Bahram-Gῦr, or Bahram the ass, King of Persia: the grand features are the same, and the times coincide perfectly. The amours of Bahram-Gῦr, with an Indian princess, are famous all over Persia, as well as in India.”185 Such are the accounts of Vicramaditya, from which we are called upon for our belief of an universal monarchy, and a period of civilization and knowledge.186

Our experience of human nature, and the phenomena which are exhibited under the manners, attainments, and institutions of the Hindus, are the only materials from which a rational inference can be drawn. It is by no means impossible for a people, who have passed but a small number of stages in the career of civilization, to be united, extensively, under one government, and to remain steady for a great length of time in that situation. The empire of China is one conspicuous proof; the ancient kingdom of Persia, which for several ages stood exempt from revolution, is another. The Ottoman empire may be considered as a similar instance. And the Russians, a barbarous people, have long formed a very extensive monarchy. It would, therefore, be far from evidence of any higher civilization, among the Hindus, than what they now manifest, had the existence of a great monarchy been proved. Among uncivilized nations, however, it is most common to find a perpetual succession of revolutions, and communities in general small; though sometimes a prince or individual with uncommon talents arises; and, acquiring power, extends his authority over several of those communities; or even, as in the case of Charlemagne, over a great number; while, after his death, the large empire which he had erected gradually dissolves, till the whole, or the greater part, is re-divided into small communities as before. Every thing which the Europeans have seen in Hindustan conspires to prove that such subdivision of communities, and occasional and temporary extensions of power in particular hands, have composed the history of that country. The Mahratta empire affords a striking example of those changes which seem natural to the circumstances in which the people are placed. Within the period of the modern intercourse of the Europeans with Hindustan, an aspiring individual was enabled to extend his authority, partly by persuasion, partly by force, first over one district, and then over another, till at last he united under his command an extensive empire, composed chiefly of the separate and disjointed communities, who occupied the mountainous districts in the western and central parts of Hindustan.187 Soon was this empire broken into several different governments, the owners of which hardly acknowledged even a nominal homage to the throne of Sevagee; and had they been left to themselves, free from the irresistible operation of the British power, the empire of the Mahrattas, in all probability, would have been resolved, ere this time, into its primitive elements. Even the empire of the Moguls, itself; though erected on firmer foundations than it is reasonable to suppose that any Hindu monarchy ever enjoyed; though supported by a foreign force; and acted upon by peculiar motives for maintaining undivided power, had no sooner attained its greatest extension by the conquests of Aurungzebe, than it began immediately to fall to pieces; and a single century beheld it in fragments.

The monuments of the ancient state of Hindustan conspire in giving indication of a troubled scene. Every ancient writing, which bears any reference to the matter of history, the historical poems, the Puranas, hold up to view a state of society, the reverse of tranquil; perpetual broils, dethronements, injustice, wars, conquests, and bloodshed. Among the most important of all the documents of antiquity found in Hindustan, are the inscriptions, declaratory of grants of land, made by the ancient princes of the country. These princes are so far from appearing to have presided over a peaceful land, that they are all represented, as victorious warriors; and as having been surrounded by enemies, over whom they have triumphed, and whom they have severely chastised.188 Almost all the princes mentioned in these inscriptions, princes in all the parts of India, and not pretended to have been more than the sovereigns of some particular district, are described as the conquerors and sovereigns of the whole world.189

Of the unsparing and destructive cruelty which accompanied the perpetual wars and conquests of the Hindus, among other proofs, the following may be considered as strong. In the inscription found at Tanna, part of the panegyric bestowed upon the donor Prince, is in these words; “Having raised up his slain foe on his sharp sword, he so afflicted the women in the hostile palaces, that their forelocks fell disordered, their garlands of bright flowers dropped from their necks on the vases of their breasts, and the black lustre of their eyes disappeared; a warrior, the plant of whose fame grows up over the temple of Brahma’s egg [the universe] from the-repeated-watering-of-it-with-the-drops-that-fell-from-the-eyes-of-the-wives-of-his-slaughtered-foe.”190 It would be in the highest degree absurd to reject this, were it even a solitary instance, as evidence of a general fact; because the exterminating ferocity is described as matter of the highest praise; and panegyric, to be what it is, must be conformable to the ideas of the people to whom it is addressed.191

The picture which Major Rennel, looking only to a limited period, drew of the state of Hindustan, may be taken, agreeably to every thing which we know of Hindustan, as the picture of it, to the remotest period of its history. Rebellions, massacres, and barbarous conquests, make up the history of this fair country, (which to an ordinary observer seems destined to be the paradise of the world,)—the immediate effect of the mad ambition of conquering more than can be governed by one man.”192 “Revolutions,” (says Sonnerat, directing his attention to the coast of Malabar, which had been little affected by foreign conquest) “have been more rapid in this than in any other part of the globe. A daring robber, possessed of policy and courage, in a short time gives laws to the whole coast, but in his turn becomes tributary to a bolder villain, who marching in the same path, subjects him to that lot he had inflicted on others.”193

Notwithstanding, in other respects, the extreme scantiness and uncertainty of the materials for any inferences except the most general, in regard to the ancient state of Hindustan, there is a great body of evidence to prove the habitual division of the country into a number of moderate, and most frequently, petty sovereignties and states.194 In the dramatic poem Sacontala, the daughter of the hermit asks the royal stranger, who had visited their consecrated grove; “What imperial family is embellished by our noble guest? What is his native country? Surely it must be afflicted by his absence from it?” The question undoubtedly implied that there were more royal families than one to which he might belong; and these at no remarkable distance; since the stranger was known to have come into the forest in the course of a hunting excursion. In the Hetopadesa mention is made of a variety of princes. Thus in the compass of a few pages, we are told; “In the country of Calinga is a prince, named Rucmangada, who, advancing with preparations to subdue the adjacent regions, has fixed his station near the river Chandrabhaga.”195 Again, “In the country of Canyacuja is a prince named Virasena.”196 And further, “There is near the Bhagirathi a city, named Pataliputra, in which lived a prince named Sundersana.”197 In the inscription, formerly quoted, found at Monghir, and bearing date 23 years B. C. there is sufficient proof of the division of Hindustan into numerous kingdoms. Gopaal, the prince or the father of the prince by whom the grant is made, is panegyrized as the conqueror of many princes; and his son is, “He, who marching through many countries, making conquests, arrived with his elephants, in the forests of the mountains Beendhyo, where seeing again their longlost families, they mixed their mutual tears; and who going to subdue other princes, his young horses meeting their females at Komboge, they mutually neighed for joy:—who conquered the earth from the source of the Ganges as far as the well-known bridge which was constructed by the enemy of Dosaesyo, from the river of Luckeecool as far as the ocean of the habitation of Booroon.”198 If this prince overran the peninsula, and conquered a multitude of princes, the peninsula must have been possessed by a multitude of princes before. And we may form an idea of the exaggeration used in the account of his victories, when we are told that his father Gopaal was king of the world, and possessed of two brides, the earth and her wealth.199 The conquests by those princes, even when they took place, were but inroads, never to any considerable extent, effecting a durable possession. This prince himself we are told, “when he had completed his conquests, released all the rebellious princes he had made captive; and each returning to his own country laden with presents, reflected upon this generous deed, and longed to see him again.”200 The laws frequently afford evidence to the same purpose. The penalty, so frequently imposed, of banishment from one kingdom to another, proves the vicinity of different kingdoms.201 The following is another instance in point: “If a lender of money says to a person, A debt due to me is outstanding in your hands, and that person denies the debt, if at that time the bond is not in the lender’s hands, but should be in some other kingdom, then, until he brings the bond from such other kingdom, the suit shall not be determined.”202 In the code of Menu is a series of rules for behaviourto neighbouring princes; sufficiently proving, that Hindustan was in that state of subdivison which rendered these rules pertinent and useful.203 These articles, to which there is nothing whatsoever opposed, but the absurd fables of the Brahmens, constitute a degree of evidence to which we may with sufficient confidence attach our belief.204

We have already seen, in reviewing the Hindu form of government, that despotism, in one of its simplest and least artificial shapes, was established in Hindustan, and confirmed by laws of Divine authority. We have seen likewise, that by the division of the people into castes, and the prejudices which the detestable views of the Brahmens raised to separate them, a degrading and pernicious system of subordination was established among the Hindus, and that the vices of such a system were there carried to a more destructive height than among any other people.205 And we have seen that by a system of priestcraft, built upon the most enormous and tormenting superstition that ever harassed and degraded any portion of mankind, their minds were enchained more intolerably than their bodies; in short that, despotism and priestcraft taken together, the Hindus, in mind and body, were the most enslaved portion of the human race. Sir William Jones, in his preface to the translation of the Institutes of Menu, says, that this code exhibits “a system of despotism and priestcraft, both indeed limited by law, but artfully conspiring to give mutual support, though with mutual checks.” The despotism and priestcraft of the system were, it seems, too glaring to be mistaken or denied; but, in order to palliate the deformity, Sir William is betrayed into nonsense. A despotism, he says, limited by law; as if a despotism limited by law were not a contradiction in terms; what is limited by law, so far as so limited, being not a despotism. A priestcraft, he also says, limited by law: A law of which the priests themselves were the sole makers, and the sole interpreters! A despotism, and a priestcraft, he says, with mutual checks. Yes, truly; it was the interest of the priestcraft to check the despotism, in all encroachments on the priestcraft; and it was the interest of the despotism to check the priestcraft, in all encroachments on the despotism: But who checked the despotism and the priestcraft in oppressing the people? Alas! no one. It was the interest of the despotism and the priestcraft to join together in upholding their common tyranny over the people; and it must be allowed that so commanding a motive had all the influence upon their conduct which it might be expected to have. Apply this remark of the splendid orientalist to the Turks: There is a despotism and a priestcraft, limited, (if we may so abuse the term,) and still more strictly limited, by law; for the Moslem laws are more precise and accurate than those of the Hindus: There, too, the despotism and priestcraft check one another: But has all this prevented the Turkish despotism and priestcraft from being the scourge of human nature; the source of barbarity and desolation?

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Part 2 of 2

That the Hindu despotism was not practically mild, we have a number of satisfactory proofs. We have seen the cruelty and ferocity of the penal laws; itself a circumstance of the highest importance. “A thunderbolt,” says the author of the Hetopadesa, “and the power of kings are both dreadful! But the former expendeth its fury at once, whilst the latter is constantly falling upon our heads.”206 Some of the observations are so comprehensive, and pointed, as to afford the strongest evidence. “In this world,” says the same celebrated book, “which is subject to the power of one above, a man of good principles is hard to be found, in a country, for the most part, governed by the use of the rod.”207 “Princes in general, alas! turn away their faces from a man endowed with good qualities.”208 “The conduct of princes, like a fine harlot, is of many colours: True and false, harsh and gentle; cruel and merciful; niggardly and generous; extravagant of expense, and solicitous of the influx of abundant wealth and treasure.”209 “An elephant killeth even by touching, a servant even by smelling, a king even by ruling.”210 All the general maxims of the Hindus import the extreme degradation of the great body of the people. “The assistance, O king, which is rendered to those of low degree, is like endeavouring to please bears. A low person should never be placed in the station of the great. One of low degree having obtained a worthy station seeketh to destroy his master.”211 “The Hindus,” says Dr. Buchanan, “in their state of independence, exacted deference from those under them with a cruelty and arrogance rarely practised but among themselves. A Nair was expected instantly to cut down a Tiar or Mucua, who presumed to defile him by touching his person; and a similar fate awaited a slave, who did not turn out of the road as a Nair passed.”212 In Sacontala, Dushmantu is represented as a king who possessed every virtue, and made happiness flourish as in the golden age. Yet we have a specimen of the justice and legality which prevailed during this happy reign, in the passage relating to the innocent fisherman. He was found, by certain of the king’s officers, offering to sale a ring with the king’s name upon it. They instantly seize him, and drag him away to justice: all the while beating and bruising him; and loading him with opprobrious epithets. The victim of this brutal treatment offers only the most humble entreaties, making statement of the facts, and protestation of his innocence. Upon the sight of the ring, the king acknowledges that he is innocent; and orders him a sum of money, equal in value to the ring. Of this reward he is obliged to resign a half to the very men who had abused him, “to escape,” it is said, “the effects of their displeasure.”213

The laws for guarding the authority of the magistrate exhibit a character of extreme severity, and indicate an habitual state of the most rigid domination. “If a man speaks reproachfully of any upright magistrate, the magistrate shall cut out his tongue, or, having confiscated all his effects, shall banish him the kingdom.” By this law even the privilege of complaint was taken from the wretched Hindu. The victim of oppression was bound, under ferocious penalties, to suffer in silence.

The following is a law by which every act of despotism is legalized. “If a magistrate, for his own good, hath passed any resolutions, whoever refuses to submit to such resolutions, the magistrate shall cut out that person’s tongue.”214 If every resolution which the magistrate chooses to pass for his own good, is by the very circumstance of his passing it, obligatory under violent penalties, the state of the government is not doubtful.

“If a man makes complaint before the magistrate against the magistrate’s counsellor, without any real fault in him, or performs any business or service for the magistrate’s accuser, the magistrate shall put him to death.”215 Under the operation of this law, the magistrate had little to fear from accusation. There could be no remedy for any grievance; because the existence of any grievance could hardly ever be told. If the magistrate was willing to hear of his own misconduct, or that of his servants, in that case he might hear of it; where he was unwilling, in that case it was death.216

Though all peaceable applications for the redress of grievances were thus precluded, any violence offered to the person of the magistrate, was punished in a manner which none but the most savage people ever endured. “If a magistrate has committed a crime, and any person, upon discovery of that crime, should beat and ill-use the magistrate, in that case, whatever be the crime of murdering one hundred Brahmins, such crime shall be accounted to that person: and the magistrate shall thrust an iron spit through him, and roast him at the fire.”217

The notices afforded us of particular sovereigns are exceedingly few. But, such as they are, most of them declare the misgovernment and cruelty of the individuals to whom they relate. “According to Plutarch, in his life of Alexander, Chandra-Gupta (I use the words of Mr. Wilford) had been in that prince’s camp, and had been heard to say afterwards, that Alexander would have found no difficulty in the conquest of Prachi, or the country of the Prasians, had he attempted it, as the King was despised and hated too, on account of his cruelty.”218

As the Hindu manners and character are invariable, according to their admirers; these admirers cannot consistently reject their present, as proof of their ancient, behaviour; and all men will allow that it affords strong ground of inference. “It is a remark,” says one of the best informed observers of Hindustan, “warranted by constant experience, that wherever the government is administered by Gentoos, the people are subject to more and severer oppressions than when ruled by the Moors. I have imputed this to intelligent Gentoos, who have confessed the justice of the accusation, and have not scrupled to give their opinions concerning it.” The opinions of these Gentoos are as favourable to themselves as, suiting the occasion, they could possibly make them. “A Gentoo,” say they, “is not only born with a spirit of more subtile invention, but by his temperance and education becomes more capable of attention to affairs, than a Moor; who no sooner obtains power than he is lost in voluptuousness; he becomes vain and lordly, and cannot dispense with satiating the impulses of his sensual appetites; whereas a Gentoo Prince retains in his Durbar the same spirit which would actuate him if keeping a shop.” Mr. Orme adds, “Avarice is his predominant passion; and all the wiles, address, cunning, and perseverance, of which he is so exquisite a master, are exerted to the utmost in fulfilling the dictates of this vice; and his religion, instead of inspiring, frees him from the remorse of his crimes; for whilst he is harassing and plundering the people by the most cruel oppressions, he is making peace with the gods by denying nothing to their priests.” Mr. Orme exhibits an impressive example. “The present King of Travancore (an Hindu prince whose dominions had never been subject to a foreign government) has conquered or carried war into all the countries which lay round his dominions, and lives in the continual exercise of his arms. To atone for the blood which he has spilt, the Brachmans persuaded him that it was necessary he should be born anew: this ceremony consisted in putting the prince into the body of a golden cow of immense value, where, after he had laid the time prescribed, he came out regenerated and freed from all the crimes of his former life. The cow was afterwards cut up and divided amongst the Seers who had invented this extraordinary method for the remission of his sins.”219 No testimony can be stronger to the natural tendency of the Hindu religion, and to the effects which their institutions are calculated to produce.220

Among other expedients for saving the favourite system, it has been maintained that the petty states and princes in Hindustan were but subordinate parts of one great monarchy, whose sceptre they acknowledged, and mandates they obeyed. There is no definable limit to gratuitous suppositions. If we are to be satisfied with opinions not only void of proof, but opposed by every thing of the nature of proof, attainable upon the subject, we may conjure up one opinion after another; and nothing, except physical impossibility or a defect of ingenuity, can set bounds to our affirmations. In the loose mode of thinking, or rather of talking without thinking, which has prevailed concerning Indian affairs, the existence of feudal institutions in modern Europe has constituted a sufficient basis for the belief of feudal institutions in India; though it would have been just as rational to conclude that, because the Saxon language forms the basis of most of the languages of Europe, therefore the Saxon language forms the basis of the language in India.

There are two modes in which the subordination of a number of petty princes to a great one may take place. The inferior states may exist merely as conquered, enslaved countries, paying tribute to a foreign government, obeying its mandates, and crouching under its lash. A second mode would be, where the inferior states were connected together by confederacy, and acknowledged a common head for the sake of unity, but possessed the right of deliberating in common upon common concerns. It may with confidence be pronounced, that in neither mode is the supposed effect compatible with the state of civilization in Hindustan.

To retain any considerable number of countries in subjection, preserving their own government, and their own sovereigns, would be really arduous, even where the science of government were the best understood. To suppose it possible in a country where the science of government is in the state indicated by the laws and institutions of the Hindus, would be in the highest degree extravagant. Even the Romans themselves, with all the skill which they possessed, retained their provinces in subjection, only by sending thither their own governors and their own armies, and superseding entirely the ancient authorities of the country. The moderation of conquering, without seizing, is a phenomenon so rarely exemplified in the most civilized times, that to suppose it universal in India, is to make a supposition in contradiction to the known laws of human affairs, and even to particular experience. Wherever an Indian sovereign is able to take possession, he hastens to take it. Wherever he can make a plundering incursion, though unable to retain, he ravages and destroys. Now it sometimes happens, that a neighbouring prince, too weak to prevent or chastise these injuries, endeavours to purchase exemption from them by a composition. This, in the language of the Mahrattas, who, in modern times, have been almost the only people in India in a situation to exact it, is called Chout, of which the standard is a fourth part of the revenues of the district liable to be over-run. It has in several instances, and these abundantly recent ones, been payed, for certain districts, by the British government itself, without the most distant idea of any lordship paramount in the Mahrattas. It is abundantly evident that this species of subordination, if subordination it can be called, never could have extended far; never could reach beyond the countries immediately contiguous to that from which the chance of mischief arose.

A confederation of princes, similar to that which was exemplified in Germany, and which no combination of circumstances has elsewhere produced, is a supposition, still more opposed to experience. Of all the results of civilization, that of forming a combination of different states, and directing their powers to one common object, seems to be one of the least consistent with the mental habits and attainments of the Hindus.221 It is the want of this power of combination which has rendered India so easy a conquest to all invaders; and enables us to retain, so easily, that dominion over it which we have acquired. Where is there any vestige in India of that deliberative assembly of princes, which in Germany was known by the name of the Diet? Where is there any memorial of that curious constitution by which the union of the German princes was preserved; or of those elections by which they chose among themselves him who should be at their head? That nominal homage, which the Mahratta chiefs paid to the throne of Sevagee, was a temporary circumstance, entirely of a different nature. These chiefs were not subordinate princes, but revolted subjects, in a dismembered empire. There was among them no confederacy. When at war with Scindia, the British were at peace with the Peshwa and Holkar; when they were at war with Holkar, they were at peace with the rest. They acknowledged a subordination to the primary seat of government, only because their subjects had been accustomed to look to it; and because they were not yet secure of their obedience.222

They, who affirm the high state of civilization among the Hindus previous to their subjugation to foreigners, proceed so directly in opposition to evidence, that wherever the Hindus have been always exempt from the dominion of foreigners, there they are uniformly found in a state of civilization inferior to those who have long been the subjects of a Mahomedan throne.223

It is in no quarter pretended, that the Hindu superstition was ever less gross than it now appears. It is remarkable, that in any quarter it should not be recollected, that superstition necessarily gives way, as civilization advances. Powerful, at an early age, among the Greeks and Romans, it finally ceased to have almost any influence;224 and Goguet had long ago declared, with philosophical truth, that “we wanted no evidence to prove the ignorance and rudeness of the Greeks in the heroic times; their credulity and their respect for oracles are proofs, more than sufficient. This species of superstition has no force or dominion, but in proportion to the gross ignorance of the people: witness the savages, who do not undertake any thing till they have previously consulted their divines and their oracles.”225

So many regulations are found in the Hindu codes of law respecting seasons of calamity; seasons when it is supposed that a great portion of the people are without the means of subsistence, that those dreadful visitations must be very frequent. From which soever of these two great causes, famine, or the ravages of war, the frequency of those calamities arose, it equally bars the supposition of good government and high civilization.226

If we apply the reflection, which has been much admired, that if a man were to travel over the whole world, he might take the state of the roads, that is, the means of internal communication in general, as a measure of the civilization; a very low estimate will be formed of the progress of the Hindus. “In India,” says Rennel, “the roads are little better than paths, and the rivers without bridges.”227 “In Malabar,” says Dr. Buchanan, speaking of the wretched state of the roads, “even cattle are little used for the transportation of goods, which are generally carried by porters.”228 The Emperor, Shah Jehan, constructed certain roads in Bengal, which were celebrated as prodigies; but the remains of them, Dr. Tennant remarks, sufficiently manifest that they can never have been good, and the admiration they excited proves nothing except the wretched condition of every thing, under the name of road, which had been known in India before.229 Another fact, of much importance, is, that a Mahomedan sovereign was the first who established Choultries; that is, Caravanseras, or houses of reception for travellers upon the road, of which, till that period, they had no experience. “This fact,” says Mr. Forster, “also recorded in Dow’s history, is well known amongst the natives.”230

Among the pretensions received without examination, that of enormous riches found in India by the first Mahomedan conquerors, requires particular attention. If those accounts had not far exceeded all reasonable bounds, it would have been a matter of difficulty, to prove the falsehood of them, except to those who were capable of estimating one circumstance, in any state of society, by its analogy with the rest. As the amount, however, stated by those authors, whose testimony has been adopted; by Ferishta, for example, followed by Dow; far exceeds the bounds not of probability only, but of credibility; and affords decisive evidence of that Eastern exaggeration which in matters of history disdains to be guided by fact, the question is left free of any considerable difficulty.231 These accounts refute themselves. We have, therefore, no testimony on the subject; for all that is presented to us in the shape of testimony betrays itself to be merely fiction. We are left to our knowledge of circumstances, and to the inferences which they support. Now if the preceding induction, embracing the circumstances of Hindu society, is to be relied on, it will not be disputed, that a state of poverty and wretchedness, as far as the great body of the people are concerned, must have prevailed in India, not more in the times in which it has been witnessed by Europeans, than the times which preceded. A gilded throne, or the display of gold, silver, and precious stones, about the seat of a court, does not invalidate this inference. Only there where gold and silver are scarce, can the profuse display of them about the monarch’s person either gratify the monarch’s vanity, or dazzle by its rarity the eyes of the multitude. Perhaps there are few indications more decisive of a poor country, and a barbarous age, than the violent desire of exhibiting the precious metals and precious stones, as the characteristic marks and decorations of the chief magistrate.232

The science of political economy places this conclusion on the ground of demonstration. For the people to have been rich in gold and silver, these commodities must have circulated among them in the shape of money. But of gold and silver in the shape of money, no nation has more, than what is in proportion to its exchangeable commodities. Now that ever the people of Hindustan were profusely supplied with commodities, every thing in their manners, habits, government, and history, concur to disprove. There is, besides, a well-established fact, which ascertains the impossibility of their having abounded in gold and silver. Their commodities were not exchanged by the medium of the precious metals. The traffic of India, as in the rudest parts of the earth, was chiefly a traffic of barter; and its taxes, as already seen, were paid in kind. It was not till the time of Akber that gold or silver was coined for circulation, in the greatest part of India; antecedently to that period small pieces of copper were the only coin.233 Up to the present hour, when the real signs of riches and civilization are but just beginning to be understood, nothing has been more common with rash and superficial travellers, than to set down lofty accounts of the riches of almost every new country to which they repaired.234

As rude nations, still more than civilized, are incessantly harassed by the dangers, or following the gains of war; one of the first applications of knowledge is, to improve the military art. The Hindus have, at no period, been so far advanced in knowledge, as even to be aware of the advantage of discipline, of those regular and simultaneous movements, upon which, in skilled warfare, almost every thing depends. “In the Hindu armies,” says Francklin, “no idea of discipline ever existed.”235 “The rudeness of the military art in Indostan,” says Mr. Orme, “can scarce be imagined but by those who have seen it. The infantry consists of a multitude of people assembled together without regard to rank and file.”236

Even medicine and surgery, to the cultivation of which so obvious and powerful an interest invites, had scarcely, beyond the degree of the most uncultivated tribes, attracted the rude understanding of the Hindus. Though the leisure of the Brahmens has multiplied books, on astrology, on the exploits of the gods, and other worthless subjects, to such a multitude, “that human life,” says Sir W. Jones, “would not be sufficient to make oneself acquainted with any considerable part of Hindu literature,”237 he yet confesses, there is “no evidence that in any language of Asia, there exists one original treatise on medicine, considered as a science.”238 Surgery, says an author, who believes in the high civilization of the Hindus, is unknown among that people. In the case of gunshot, or sabre wounds, all they did was to wash the wound, and tie it up with fresh leaves; the patient, during the period of convalescence, eating nothing but the water gruel of rice.239

In comparing them with other people, it cannot, in a single word, be declared, with which of the nations, more familiar to Europeans, the Hindus, in point of civilization, may be regarded as on a level; because, in comparison with those whom they most nearly approach, while inferior to them in some, they are superior, in other respects. Should we say that the civilization of the people of Hindustan, and that of the people of Europe, during the feudal ages, are not far from equal, we shall find upon a close inspection, that the Europeans were superior, in the first place, notwithstanding the vices of the papacy, in religion; and, notwithstanding the defects of the schoolmen, in philosophy. They were greatly superior, notwithstanding the defects of the feudal system, in the institutions of government and in laws. Even their poetry, if the observance of nature, if the power of moving the affections, or indeed ingenuity of invention, be regarded as the marks of excellence, is beyond all comparison preferable to the poetry of the Hindus. That, in war, the Hindus have always been greatly inferior to the warlike nations of Europe, during the middle ages, it seems hardly necessary to assert.240 In some of the more delicate manufactures, however, particularly in spinning, weaving, and dyeing, the Hindus, as they rival all nations, so they no doubt surpass all that was attained by the rude Europeans. In the fabrication, too, of trinkets; in the art of polishing and setting the precious stones; it is possible, and even probable, that our impatient and rough ancestors did not attain the same nicety which is displayed by the patient Hindus. In the arts of painting and sculpture, we have no reason to think that the Europeans were excelled by the Hindus. In architecture, the people who raised the imposing structures which yet excite veneration in many of the ancient cathedrals, were not left behind by the builders of the Indian pagodas.241 The agriculture of the Europeans, imperfect as it was, surpassed exceedingly that of the Hindus; for with the climate and soil of most of the countries of Europe, agriculture, so imperfect as that of India, could not have maintained the population. In point of manners and character, the manliness and courage of our ancestors, compared with the slavish and dastardly spirit of the Hindus, place them in an elevated rank. But they were inferior to that effeminate people in gentleness, and the winning arts of address. Our ancestors, however, though rough, were sincere; but, under the glosing exterior of the Hindu, lies a general disposition to deceit and perfidy. In fine, it cannot be doubted that, upon the whole, the gothic nations, as soon as they became a settled people, exhibit the marks of a superior character and civilization to those of the Hindus.242

No one can take an accurate survey of the different nations of Asia, and of their different ages, without remarking the near approaches they make to the same stage of civilization. This gives a peculiar interest and importance to the inquiry respecting the Hindus. There can be no doubt that they are in a state of civilization very nearly the same with that of the Chinese, the Persians, and the Arabians; who, together, compose the great branches of the Asiatic population; and of which the subordinate nations, the Japanese, Cochin-chinese, Siamese, Burmans, and even Malays and Tibetans, are a number of corresponding and resembling offsets.

With regard to former ages, it is true, that the religion, and several circumstances in the outward forms of society, have been altered in Persia, since the days of Darius; but the arts, the sciences, the literature, the manners, the government, concur to prove, in a remarkable manner, the near approach of the two periods to the same points of civilization. The ancient Persians, too, there is reason to believe, were placed in nearly the same state of society with the people whom they succeeded; the Chaldeans, Assyrians, and Babylonians. In contemplating, therefore, the state of Hindustan, curiosity is very extensively gratified. As the manners, institutions, and attainments of the Hindus, have been stationary for many ages; in beholding the Hindus of the present day, we are beholding the Hindus of many ages past; and are carried back, as it were, into the deepest recesses of antiquity. Of some of the oldest nations, about which our curiosity is the most alive, and information the most defective, we acquire a practical, and what may be almost denominated a personal knowledge, by our acquaintance with a living people, who have continued on the same soil from the very times of those ancient nations, partake largely of the same manners, and are placed at nearly the same stage in the progress of society. By conversing with the Hindus of the present day, we, in some measure, converse with the Chaldeans and Babylonians of the time of Cyrus; with the Persians and Egyptians of the time of Alexander.

A judicious observer of Asiatic manners declares that “The leading customs of the various nations of Asia are similar, or but weakly diversified. When they sit, the legs are crossed or bent under them; they perform topical ablutions before and after meals, at which no knife or spoon is used, unless the diet be wholly liquid; they invariably adopt the like modes of performing natural evacuations.”243

The account which Gibbon presents us, from Herodian, and Ammianus Marcellinus, of the art of war among the Persians, in the time of the Roman emperors, is an exact description of the art, as practised by the Persians and Hindus, and by most of the other nations of Asia, at the present day. “The science of war, that constituted the more rational force of Greece and Rome, as it now does of Europe, never made any considerable progress in the East. Those disciplined evolutions which harmonize and animate a confused multitude, were unknown to the Persians. They were equally unskilled in the arts of constructing, besieging, or defending regular fortifications. They trusted more to their numbers than to their courage; more to their courage than to their discipline. The infantry was a half-armed, spiritless crowd of peasants, levied in haste by the allurements of plunder, and as easily dispersed by a victory as by a defeat. The monarch and his nobles, transported into the camp the pride and luxury of the seraglio. Their military operations were impeded by a useless train of women, eunuchs, horses and camels; and in the midst of a successful campaign, the Persian host was often separated or destroyed by an unexpected famine.”244

In the system of Zoroaster, and in that of the Brahmens, we find the same lofty expressions concerning the invisible powers of nature; the same absurdity in the notions respecting the creation; the same infinite and absurd ritual; the same justness in many ideas respecting the common affairs of life and morality; the same gross misunderstanding in others; but a striking resemblance between the two systems, both in their absurdities and perfections. The same turn of imagination seems to have belonged to the authors of both; and the same aspect of nature to have continually presented itself; the deformities however of the Hindu system being always the greatest.

The Persians, in the time of Cambyses, had judges, select sages, who were appointed for life; and whose business it was, according to pre-established laws, to terminate all disputes, and punish crimes. This, like similar circumstances, in the state of the Hindus, presents part of the forms of a legal government. These judges, however, when consulted by the king if he might perform an act, on which for fear of popular odium he hesitated to venture, gave a solemn opinion, that for the king of the Persians it was law, to do whatsoever he pleased.245 “This constitutional maxim,” says Gibbon archly, “was not neglected as an useless and barren theory.”246

“Like Brimha, the Fo of the Chinese has various times become incarnate among men and beasts. Hence he is represented in his temples as riding upon dragons, rhinoceroses, elephants, mules and asses; dogs, rats, cats, crocodiles, and other amiable creatures, whose figures he fancied and assumed. There are in some of these pagodas, a thousand of these monstrous statues, all most horribly ugly, and ill represented, and unlike any thing in heaven or earth, or the waters under the earth.”247

Under the reign of credulity, it is instructive to mark the inconsiderateness of a reflecting writer. After many praises of the Chinese husbandry, such as those which we have often heard of the agriculture of the Hindus, Lord Macartney adds, “The plough is the simplest in the world, has but one handle, is drawn by a single buffalo, and managed by a single person without any assistance.”248 And Mr. Barrow says, “Two thirds of the small quantity of land under tillage is cultivated with the spade or the hoe, without the aid of draught cattle.”249

Even of the principal route from Pekin to Canton, Lord Macartney remarks; “For horse and foot the road is excellent, but admits of no wheel carriages.”250 Mr. Barrow more explicitly declares, that except near the capital, and in some few places where the junction of the grand canal with navigable rivers is interrupted by mountainous ground, there is scarcely a road in the whole country that can be ranked beyond a foot path.251 Even the grand canal itself was opened by the Tartar conqueror Gingis Khan, in the thirteenth century: and that solely with a view to convey the taxes, paid in kind, from the southern part of the empire to the capital, a great part of them having been always lost by the unskilfulness of Chinese navigation, when conveyed by sea.”252

Like the Hindus, before the improvements introduced among them by the Moguls, the Chinese have no coin, above a small one of copper; and the taxes of that immense empire are paid in kind.253

Lord Macartney remarks, that the Chinese have no natural philosophy; no medical or chirurgical skill; that a fractured leg is usually attended by death.254

In the sciences and arts of the Hindus and Chinese there is manifested a near approximation to the same point of advancement. In respect to government and laws, the Chinese have to a considerable degree the advantage. As they are a busy people, however; and have no idle class, whose influence depends upon the wonder they can excite by pretended learning, they have multiplied, far less than the Hindus, those false refinements, which a barbarous mind mistakes for science.255 Both have made greater progress in the refinement of the useful arts, than in the advancement of science. But in these too the Chinese appear to have the superiority; for though it may be doubted whether the Chinese manufacture of silk rivals in delicacy the cotton manufacture of the Hindus, the latter people have nothing to set in competition with the porcelain of the Chinese; and in the common works in wood and iron, the Chinese are conspicuously preferable. In the contrivance and use of machinery both are equally simple and rude.256

In the state of the fine arts, there is a striking resemblance between the two nations. “The architecture of the Chinese,” says Mr. Barrow, “is void of taste, grandeur, beauty, solidity, or convenience; their houses are merely tents, and there is nothing magnificent in the palace of the emperor.”257 Both nations were good at imitation.258 Both were extremely defective in invention. In painting and sculpture they were ignorant of perspective, of attitude, and proportion.

Even in manners, and in the leading parts of the moral character, the lines of resemblance are strong. Both nations are to nearly an equal degree tainted with the vices of insincerity; dissembling, treacherous, mendacious, to an excess which surpasses even the usual measure of uncultivated society. Both are disposed to excessive exaggeration with regard to every thing relating to themselves. Both are cowardly and unfeeling. Both are in the highest degree conceited of themselves, and full of affected contempt for others. Both are, in the physical sense, disgustingly unclean in their persons and houses.259

With respect to the inhabitants of another quarter of Asia, Turner, in his account of the embassy to Tibet, informs us, that the deportment of the Rajah of Bootan was exceedingly urbane, and his sentiments breathed that sort of humanity which seems to flow from the belief of the metempsychosis. “My food, said he, consists of the simplest articles; grain, roots of the earth, and fruits. I never eat of any thing which has had breath, for so I should be the indirect cause of putting an end to the existence of animal life, which by our religion is strictly forbidden.”260

Though frequent ablutions are performed for religious purposes, the same author informs us that the people in their persons are extremely unclean.261

“Bootan presents to the view nothing but the most mishapen irregularities; mountains covered with eternal verdure, and rich with abundant forests of large and lofty trees. Almost every favourable aspect of them, coated with the smallest quantity of soil, is cleared and adapted to cultivation, by being shelved into horizontal beds; not a slope or narrow slip of land between the ridges lies unimproved. There is scarcely a mountain whose base is not washed by some rapid torrent, and many of the loftiest bear populous villages, amidst orchards and other plantations on their summits and on their sides. It combines in its extent the most extravagant tracts of rude nature and laborious art.”262

Yet they have no discipline in their armies. In their mode of warfare, stratagem is more practised than open assault.263

The appearance of the capital Teshoo Loomboo was in a high degree magnificent, and together with the palace afforded proofs of a progress in the arts which vied with that of Hindustan and China.264

The inhabitants of the great Peninsula, to the eastward of the Ganges, discover, as far as known, the uniform marks of a similar state of society and manners. The Cochin-Chinese, for example, who are merely a separate community of the Chinese race, appear by no means in civilization behind the Chinese and Hindus. A traveller from whom we have obtained a sensible though short account of some of the more striking phenomena of the country, both physical and moral, informs us, that it is “one of the most fruitful in the world. In many parts,” he says, “the land produces three crops of grain in the year. All the fruits of India are found here in the greatest perfection, with many of those of China. No country in the East produces richer or a greater variety of articles proper for carrying on an advantageous commerce, cinnamon, pepper, cardemoms, silk, cotton, sugar, Agula wood, Japan wood, ivory, &c.”265

The following paragraph describes an important article of accommodation, to which no parallel can be found in all China and Hindustan. “In this valley we passed through three or four pretty villages pleasantly situated, in which, as well as on other parts of the road, were public houses, where tea, fruits, and other refreshments are sold to travellers. At noon we alighted at one of them, and partook of a dinner, which consisted of fowls cut into small pieces, dressed up with a little greens and salt, some fish, &c.”266

The appearance of the king’s court was not only splendid but decorous; and even the little of the country which the travellers saw discovered to them large cities, with streets, laid out on a regular plan, paved with flat stones, and having well-built brick houses on each side.267

The people on the western side of that peninsula, whether known by the name of Birmans, Peguans, Assamese, or Siamese, partake strongly of the Hindu character, and exhibit only a variation of the religion, laws, institutions, and manners which prevail on the other side of the Ganges. The great difference consists in their having adopted the heresy, or retained the primitive faith of Buddha; and rejected the distinction of castes. But nothing appears among them which would lead to an inference of any inferiority in their progress towards the attainments of civilized life.

The Birmans, we are told by Symes, call their code generally Derma Sath or Sastra; it is one among the many commentaries on Menu. “The Birman system of jurisprudence,” he adds, “is replete with sound morality, and in my opinion is distinguished above every other Hindoo commentary for perspicuity and good sense. It provides specifically for almost every species of crime that can be committed, and adds a copious chapter of precedents and decisions to guide the inexperienced in cases where there is doubt and difficulty. Trial by ordeal and imprecation are the only absurd passages in the book.”268

“There is no country of the East,” says the same author, “in which the royal establishment is arranged with more minute attention than in the Birman court; it is splendid without being wasteful, and numerous without confusion.”269

Their literature appears to be as extensive and curious, as that of the Hindus. They have numerous, and copious libraries; the books, says Colonel Symes, are “upon divers subjects; more on divinity than on any other; but history, music, medicine, painting and romance, had their separate treatises.”270

Of the kingdom of Assam we possess not many accounts; but what we have yield evidence to the same effect. In the Alemgeernameh of Mohammed Cazim, is a description of Assam, which has been translated by Henry Vansittart, Esqr. and presented to us in several publications. We are there told that the country, at least in many places, is “well inhabited, and in an excellent state of tillage; that it presents, on everyside, charming prospects of ploughed fields, harvests, gardens, and groves.”271

“As the country is overflowed in the rainy season, a high and broad causeway has been raised, for the convenience of travellers from Salagereh to Ghergong, which is the only uncultivated ground to be seen: each side of this road is planted with shady bamboos, the tops of which meet and are entwined.”272 And this is more than seems to have been attained in Hindustan, before the improvements introduced by the Mohammedan conquerors.

“The silks are excellent, and resemble those of China. They are successful in embroidering with flowers, and in weaving velvet, and tautband, which is a species of silk of which they make tents and kenauts.”273

The bigotted and intolerant Mussulman, however, who finds no excellence where he finds not his faith; discovers no qualities but evil in the minds of the Assamese. “They do not adopt,” he says, “any mode of worship practised either by heathens or Mahomedans; nor do they concur in any of the known sects, which prevail amongst mankind. They are a base and unprincipled nation, and have no fixed religion; they follow no rule but that of their own inclinations, and make the approbation of their own vicious minds the test of the propriety of their actions.”274 Such are the distorted views presented to an ignorant mind, through the medium of a dark and malignant religion, respecting a people cultivating the ground to great perfection, and forming a dense population. Among other particulars of the vileness which he beheld in them, is the following: “The base inhabitants, from a congenial impulse, are fond of seeing and keeping asses, and buy and sell them at a high price.”275 Yet he speaks in lofty terms of the royal magnificence of the court. “The Rajahs of this country have always raised the crest of pride and vain glory, and displayed an ostentatious appearance of grandeur, and a numerous train of attendants and servants.” And he expresses himself with mingled horror and admiration of the prowess and superiority of the Assamese in war. “They have not bowed the head of submission and obedience, nor have they paid tribute or submission to the most powerful monarch; but they have curbed the ambition, and checked the conquests, of the most victorious princes of Hindustan.” Several armies from Bengal, which had been sent to conquer them, having been cut off, of some of which scarce even tidings had ever been received, “the natives of Hindustan consider them wizards and magicians, and pronounce the name of that country in all their incantations and countercharms: they say, that every person who sets his foot there is under the influence of witchcraft, and cannot find the road to return.”276

The admiration which the Greeks, no very accurate observers of foreign manners, expressed of the Egyptians, and which other nations have so implicitly borrowed at their hands, not a little resembles the admiration among Europeans which has so long prevailed with regard to the Hindus. The penetrating force of modern intelligence has pierced the cloud: and while it has displayed to us the state of Egyptian civilization in its true colours, exhibits a people who, standing on a level with so many celebrated nations of antiquity, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Arabians, correspond, in all the distinctive marks of a particular state of society, with the people of Hindustan. The evidence has been weighed by a cool and dispassionate judge, in the following manner: “I see nothing,” says the President Goguet, “in the Egyptians that can serve to distinguish them in a manner very advantageous; I even think myself authorized to refuse them the greatest part of the eulogies that have been always so liberally bestowed upon them. The Egyptians did invent some arts and some sciences, but they never had the ingenuity to bring any of their discoveries to perfection. I have exposed their want of taste, and I venture to say, of talent, in architecture, in sculpture, and in painting. Their manner of practising physic was absurd and ridiculous. The knowlege they had of geometry and astronomy was but very imperfect. Their discoveries are far enough from entering into any comparison with those which the Greeks made afterwards in those two sciences. In fine, the Egyptians have had neither genius, ardour, nor talent, for commerce, or for the marine and military art.

“As to civil laws, and political constitutions, the Egyptians had indeed some very good ones; but otherwise there reigned in their government a multitude of abuses and essential defects, authorized by the laws and by their fundamental principles of government.

As to the manners and customs of this people, we have seen to what a height indecency and debauchery were carried in their religious feasts and public ceremonies. The public cult which a nation fixes to honour the Deity, bears the stamp of that nation’s character. Neither was the morality of the Egyptians extremely pure; we may even affirm, that it offended against the first rules of rectitude and probity. We see that the Egyptians bore the highest blame of covetousness, of ill faith, of cunning, and of roguery.

It appears to me to result from all these facts that the Egyptians were a people industrious enough, but, as to the rest, without taste, without genius, without discernment; a people who had only ideas of grandeur ill understood; and whose progress in all the different parts of human knowledge never rose beyond a flat mediocrity; knavish into the bargain, and crafty, soft, lazy, cowardly, and submissive; and who, having performed some exploits to boast of in distant times, were ever after subjected by whoever would undertake to subdue them; a people again vain and foolish enough to despise other nations without knowing them: Superstitious to excess, singularly addicted to judicial astrology, extravagantly besotted with an absurd and monstrous theology. Does not this representation sufficiently authorize us to say that all that science, that wisdom, and that philosophy, so boasted of in the Egyptian priests, was but imposture and juggling, capable of imposing only on people so little enlightened, or so strongly prejudiced, as were anciently the Greeks in favour of the Egyptians.”277

The sagacity of Adam Smith induced him, at an early period of his life, to deny the supposed proof of any high attainments among those ancient nations, and to declare, though with hesitancy, his inclination to the opposite opinion.

“It was in Greece, and in the Grecian colonies, that the first philosophers of whose doctrine we have any distinct account, appeared. Law and order seem indeed to have been established in the great monarchies of Asia and Egypt, long before they had any footing in Greece: Yet after all that has been said concerning the learning of the Chaldeans and Egyptians, whether there ever was in those nations any thing which deserved the name of science, or whether that despotism which is more destructive of leisure and security than anarchy itself, and which prevailed over all the East, prevented the growth of philosophy, is a question which, for want of monuments, cannot be determined with any degree of precision.”278 To leave the subject even in this state of doubt was but a compromise with popular opinion, and with his own imperfect views. The circumstances handed down to us, compared with the circumstances of other nations, afforded materials for a very satisfactory determination. The opinion by which he supports his disbelief of the ancient civilization of Asia is at once philanthrophic and profound; That “despotism is more destructive of leisure and security, and more adverse to the progress of the human mind, than anarchy itself.”

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BOOK III.: THE MAHOMEDANS.

CHAP. I. From the first Invasion of India by the Nations in the North, till the expulsion of the Gaznevide dynasty.

AT the time when the nations of Europe opened their communication with India, by the Cape of Good Hope, the people whom we have now described had for a number of ages been subject to a race of foreigners. That subjection, though it had not greatly altered the texture of native society, had introduced new forms into some of the principal departments of state; had given the military command to foreigners; and had mixed with the population a proportion of a people differing from them considerably, in manners, character, and religion. The political state of India, at this time, consisted of a Mahomedan government, supported by a Mahomedan force, over a Hindu population.

It appears that the people of Hindustan have at all times been subject to incursions and conquest, by the nations contiguous to them on the north-west. The Scythians, that is, the rude nations on the east of Persia, conquered, we are told by Justin, a great part of Asia, and even penetrated as far as Egypt, about 1,500 years before Ninus, the founder of the Assyrian monarchy. And we know that in the vast empire of Darius Hystaspes as much of India was included, as constituted one, and that the most valuable, of his twenty satrapies. The exact limits of the Indian satrapy are unknown; but from the account which Herodotus gives of its tribute, far exceeding that of any of the rest, the extent of it cannot have been small. Major Rennel supposes that it may have reached as far as Delhi, and have included the whole of the Punjab, or country watered by the five branches of the Indus, together with Cabul, Candahar, and the tract of country which lies along the Indus to the sea.279

The conquests of Alexander the Great, which succeeded to those of the Persian monarchs, seem not to have extended so far in India, as the previous possessions of Darius; since his career was stopped on the banks of the Hyphasis, or modern Beyah, the last of the five branches of the Indus; whence returning to the Hydaspes, he passed down the Indus to the sea. Seleucus, the successor of Alexander in Upper Asia, not only received, but endeavoured to augment, the acquisitions made by that conqueror in India. He gained victories over Sandracottos, the sovereign of a people living on the Ganges. But, as he was recalled to the defence of another part of his dominions against Antigonus, he made peace with the Indian: and the limits established between them are not ascertained.280

Among the kingdoms, formed out of the vast empire of Alexander, by the dissensions of his followers, was Bactria. This district was part of that great range of country, on the eastern side of Media and Persia, extending from the lake Aral to the mouths of the Indus, which the power of the Persian monarchs had added to their extensive dominions. The people of this intermediate region seem to have possessed an intermediate stage of civilization between the Tartar or Scythian tribes which bordered with them on the east, and the people of the Assyrian or Persian empire which was contiguous to them on the west. Among these people there is some reason for believing that the Bactrians were distinguished, and at an early period, by superior progress in the knowledge, and other acquirements of civilized men. Among the numerous Zoroasters, with whom Persian story abounds, one is said to have been king of Bactria, contemporary with Ninus; and to have invented magic; that is, to have been the object of admiration on account of his knowledge. Of the eastern nations added to the subjects of the Persian kings, the Bactrians were the nearest to India, and were only separated from it by that range of mountains, in which the Indus and the Oxus find their respective sources. Bactria as well as India were among the parts of the dominions of Alexander which fell to the share of Seleucus. In the reign, however, of his son or grandson, the governor of the Bactrian province threw off his dependence upon the Seleucidæ; and a separate Greek kingdom was erected in that country, about sixty-nine years after the death of Alexander. The Persian dominions in India seem to have shared the fate of Bactria, and to have fallen into the hands of the same usurper. The Greek sovereigns of Bactria became masters of an extensive empire; and assumed the proud title of King of Kings; the distinctive appellation of the Persian monarchs in the zenith of their power. They carried on various wars with India; and extended their conquests into the interior of the country. The limits of their dominions in that direction we have no means of ascertaining. One of those great movements in central or eastern Tartary, which precipitates the eastern barbarians upon the countries of the west, brought an irresistible torrent of that people across the Jaxartes, about 126 years before the Christian era, which, pouring itself out upon Bactria, overwhelmed the Grecian monarchy, after it had lasted nearly 130 years.281

About the same period that the successors of Alexander lost the kingdom of Bactria, the misconduct of a governor in the distant provinces bordering on the Caspian Sea, raised up a military chief who excited the rude and turbulent inhabitants to revolt, and laid the foundation of the Parthian kingdom; a power which soon possessed itself of Media, and finally stripped the descendants of Seleucus of almost all that they possessed from the Tigris eastwards. The rebellion of the Parthians is placed about the year 256 before Christ; and the kings of Syria maintained from that time a struggling and declining existence, till they finally yielded to the power of the Romans, and Syria was erected into a province sixty-four years before the commencement of the Christian era.282

The descendants of the Parthian rebel, known under the title of the Arsacides, held the sceptre of Persia till the year of Christ 226. The possession of empire produced among them, as it usually produces among the princes of the East, a neglect of the duties of government, and subjugation to ease and pleasure; when a popular and enterprising subject, availing himself of the general dissatisfaction, turned the eyes of the nation upon himself, and having dethroned his master, substituted the dynasty of the Sassanides to the house of Arsaces. As usual, the first princes of this line were active and valiant; and their empire extended from the Euphrates to the Jaxartes, and the mountainous ridge which divided the kingdom of Bactria from the Scythians of the East. To what extent their power was carried over the ancient soil of the Hindus, does not appear; but it is more than probable that the territory west of the Indus, from the time when it was first established into a Persian satrapy, in the reign of Darius, owned no more the caste who sprung from the arm of the Creator. Bactria was numbered as one among the four provinces of the great Chosroes, who reigned from the year 531 of the Christian era to the year 571, and was denominated King of Persia and of India. The grandson of Chosroes, who was deposed in 628, may be considered as closing the line of the Sassanides; for, after a few years of tumult and distraction, the irresistible arms of the successors of Mahomet were directed toward Persia, and quickly reduced it under the power of the Caliphs.283

In the year 632, Caled, the lieutenant of Abubeker, entered Persia. In a few years the standards of the Faithful were carried to the furthest limits of Bactria, and pushing once more the shepherds of the East beyond the Jaxartes, rendered the empire of the Caliphs in that direction conterminous with the Persian monarchy in its proudest days.284

The possession of empire required, as usual, but a few generations to relax the minds of the successors of Mahomet, and render them as unfit as their predecessors for any better use of power, than the unrestrained indulgence of themselves in the pleasures which it commands.

The tribes of Tartar, or Scythian shepherds, from the centre of Asia, unsettled, fierce, and warlike, had from the earliest ages proved dangerous and encroaching neighbours to the Eastern provinces of Persia. Pushed beyond the Jaxartes and Imaus, by Cyrus, and the more warlike of the successors of Cyrus, they were ever ready, as soon as the reign of a weak prince enfeebled the powers of government, to make formidable incursions, and generally held possession of the provinces which they over-ran, till a renewal of vigour in the government made them retire within their ancient limits. We are informed by Polybius that a tribe of Nomades or shepherds, whom he calls Aspasians, forced their way across the Oxus, and took possession of Hyrcania, even in the reign of Antiochus. We have already seen that a body of Tartars overwhelmed Bactria about 120 years before Christ. And about 100 years subsequent to the Christian era, a portion of the great nation of the Huns, who had been forced by a victorious tribe from their native seat behind the wall of China, penetrated into Sogdiana, the country between the Oxus and the Jaxartes, towards the shores of the Caspian Sea; and there established themselves under the titles of the Euthalites, Nephthalites, and White Huns. After these irruptions, the more vigorous of the princes of the Sassanian dynasty reduced Sogdiana, as well as Bactria, to occasional obedience; but without expelling the new inhabitants, and without acquiring any permanent dominion. In the cultivated provinces in which they settled, the savage Tartars acquired a degree of civilization; and when obliged to yield to the followers of Mahomed, felt so little attachment to their ancient religion, as immediately to recommend themselves to the favour, by adopting the faith, of their conquerors.285

When the government of the Caliphs began to lose its vigour, a tribe of Tartars, originally situated in the Alti mountains, and known by the name of Turks, had acquired extraordinary power. They had, in a series of wars, subdued the neighbouring tribes, and extended their sway, that species of sway which it is competent to a pasturing people to exercise or to sustain, over a great portion of the Tartars of Asia.286 When the military virtues of the Arabians sunk beneath the pleasures which flow from the possession of power, the Caliphs sought to infuse vigour into their effeminate armies, by a mixture of fierce and hardy Turks. Adventurers of that nation were raised to the command of armies, and of provinces; and a guard of Turkish soldiers was appointed to surround the person of the monarch. When weakness was felt at the centre of the empire; the usurpation of independence by the governors of the distant provinces was a natural result. The first, by whom this usurpation was attempted, was Taher, Governor of Chorasan, the province extending from the Caspian Sea to the Oxus. He and his posterity, under the title of Taherites, enjoyed sovereignty in that province from the year 813 to the year 872. The son of a brazier, called in Arabian Soffar, who rose (a common occurrence in the East) through the different stages of military adventure, to be the head and captain of an army, supplanted the Taherites, and substituted his own family, called from their origin Soffarides, in the government of Chorasan and Transoxiana. The Soffarides were displaced by a similar adventurer, who established the house of the Samanides, after a period, according to the varying accounts, of either 34 or 57 years, from the elevation of the Brazier. The Samanides are celebrated by the Persian historians for their love of justice and learning; they extended their sway over the eastern provinces of Persia, from the Jaxartes to the Indus, and reigned till after the year 1000 of the Christian era.287

The Taherites, the Soffarides, and Samanides usurped only the eastern provinces of the empire of the Caliphs, the provinces which, being the nearest to the turbulent and warlike tribes of shepherds, and most exposed to their incursions, were of the least importance to the sovereigns of Persia. Three adventurers, brothers, called, from the name of their father, the Bowides, rose to power in the provinces extending westward from Chorasan, along the shores of the Caspian Sea, about the year 315 of the Hegira, or 927 of Christ. This dynasty consisted of seventeen successive and powerful princes, who reigned till the year 1056. They conquered the provinces of Gilan, Mazenderan, Erak, Fars, Kerman, Khosistan, Ahvaz, Tabarestan, and Georgian; and rendered themselves masters of the Caliphs, to whom they left only a shadow of authority.288

About the year of Christ 967, Subuctagi, a servant of the Samanides, was appointed governor of the Indian province of Candahar, or Ghazna, as it is called by the Persian writers; from the name of the capital Ghizni. Having raised himself from the condition of a Turkish slave to such a degree of power as made it dangerous to recall him from his government, he left it to his son Mahmood, who asserted his independence; and founded the dynasty of the Ghaznevides. Mahmood subverted the throne of the Samanides, reduced to a shadow the power of the Bowides, and reigned from the Tigris to the Jaxartes. He also made extensive conquests towards the south; and as he was the first who in that direction bore the crescent beyond the furthest limits of the Persian empire, and laid the foundation of the Mahomedan thrones in India, we are now arrived at the period when the Mahomedan history of India begins.289

The northern provinces of India, Cabul, Candahar, Multan, and the Punjab, appear, from the days of Darius Hystaspes, to have followed the destiny of Bactria, Chorasan, and Transoxiana, the eastern appendages of Persia, and, excepting some short intervals, to have been always subject to a foreign yoke. Even the White Huns, who established themselves in Sogdiana, on the river Oxus, and in Bactria, about the end of the first century of the Christian era, advanced into India, and in the second century were masters as far as Larice or Guzerat.290 Mahmood was already master of the dominions of the Samanides, and of all the eastern provinces that had occasionally owned allegiance to the Persian throne; when he first, says the Persian historian, “turned his face to India.” This expedition, of which the year 1000 of the Christian era is assigned as the date, seems to have been solely intended to confirm or restore the obedience of the governors who had submitted to his father, or been accustomed to obey the masters of eastern Persia; and few of its particulars have been thought worthy of record. He renewed his invasion the succeeding year; and proceeded so far as to alarm a prince who reigned at Lahore; a city, on one of the most eastern branches of the Indus, which gave its name to a small kingdom. This prince, called by the Persian historians Jeipal, or Gepal, met him, with his whole army, and was defeated. It was, according to the same historians, a custom or law of the Hindus, that a prince, twice defeated by Mahomedan arms, was unworthy to reign; and as this misfortune had happened to Jeipal, who had formerly yielded to Subuctagi, he resigned the throne to his son Anundpaul, and burnt himself alive in solemn state.291

In the year 1004 Mahmood again marched into India to chastise, for defect of duty, a tributary prince on the Indus. His presence was still more urgently required the following year; when the king of Multan revolted, and was joined by Anundpaul. Mahmood was met by Anundpaul as he was descending through the pass in the intervening mountains. Anundpaul was conquered and obliged to fly into Cashmere: when the king of Multan endeavoured, by submission, to save what he could. As Mahmood had received intelligence that a body of Tartars had invaded his northern provinces, he was the more easily softened; and leaving Zab Sais, a Hindu who had embraced the Mahomedan religion, his lieutenant, or governor in India, marched to repel the invaders.292

During this expedition against the Tartars, Zab Sais revolted; resumed the Brahmenical faith; and was on the point of being joined by a confederacy of Rajahs, or Hindu sovereigns, when Mahmood hastened back to India, took Zab Sais unprepared, and made him prisoner for life; after which, the season being far advanced, he returned to Ghizni. Early, however, in the following spring, some movements of Anundpaul recalled him to India, when the princes of Oogeen, Gualior, Callinger, Kanoge, Delhi, Ajmere, the Guickwars, and others, joined their forces to oppose him. A general battle was fought, in which the Ghiznian monarch prevailed. He then reduced the fort of Nagracote or Nagarcote; and, having plundered the temple of its riches, very great, as we are told, returned to his capital. As the king of Multan still continued refractory, Mahmood returned to that province in the following year, and having taken the Rajah prisoner, carried him to Ghizni, where he confined him for life.293

“In the year 402, 294 the passion of war,” says the historian, “fermenting in the mind of Mahmood,” he resolved upon the conquest of Tannasar or Tahnesir, a city about thirty coss north-west from Delhi; the seat of a considerable government; famous for its sanctity and subservience to the Brahmenical religion. Having taken Tannasar, and demolished the idols, he marched to Delhi; which he quickly reduced; and thence returned with vast riches.”295

Two years afterwards, he drove from his dominions the king of Lahore, and overran Cashmere, compelling the inhabitants to acknowledge the prophet.

In the beginning of the year 1018, the Sultan (Mahmood was the first on whom that title was bestowed) with a large army, raised chiefly among the tribes who possessed, or bordered upon, the northern provinces of his empire, marched against Kanoge, the capital of a kingdom, situated on the Ganges, about 100 miles south-east from Delhi.296 “From the time of Gustasp, the father of Darab, to this period, this city (says the Persian historian) had not been visited by any foreign enemy; three months were necessary to complete the march between this kingdom and the capital of Mahmood; and seven mighty streams rushed across the intervening space.” The conqueror having with much difficulty forced a passage through the mountains, by the way of Cashmere, arrived at Kanoge, before the Rajah was prepared for resistance. Placing his only hopes in submission, he threw himself upon the mercy of the invader. The magnitude and grandeur of the city is celebrated in poetic strains by the Persian historians. Mahmood, remaining but three days, proceeded against a neighbouring prince, inhabiting a city called Merat; thence to another city, on the Jumna, named Mavin, and next to Muttra, which is still a city of considerable extent, at a small distance from Agra. This last city was full of temples and idols, which Mahmood plundered and destroyed; and from which, according to the usual story, he obtained incredible treasure. Several other forts and Rajahs being subdued, Mahmood returned from his eighth expedition into India, laden, we are told, with riches; and began to adorn and improve his capital. He built a mosque, so beautiful and magnificent, that it was called the Celestial Bride, and “struck every beholder with astonishment and pleasure. In the neighbourhood of this mosque he founded an university, which he furnished with a vast collection of curious books, in various languages: and with natural and artificial curiosities. He appropriated a sufficient fund for the maintenance of the students, and the learned men who were appointed to instruct the youth in the sciences.”297

Mahmood’s ninth expedition in 1021, was for the purpose of protecting the Rajah of Kanoge, who now held the rank of one of his dependants. The Rajah of Callinger, a city in the province of Bundelcund, situated on one of the rivers which fall into the Jumna, was the most guilty of the assailants. As the Rajah avoided Mahmood in the field, he plundered and laid waste the country, and, this done, returned to his capital.

Here he had not reposed many days, when he was informed that two districts on the borders of Hindustan refused to acknowledge the true prophet, and continued the worship of lions.298 The zeal of the religious sultan immediately took fire. Having speedily brought to reason the disrespectful provinces, he marched to Lahore, which he gave up to pillage. According to custom, it afforded enormous riches. Mahomedan governors were established in this and several other districts of Hindustan.

The twelfth expedition of the Ghiznian monarch was undertaken in the year 1024. He had heard not only of the great riches and supposed sanctity of the temple of Sumnaut, but of the presumption of its priests, who had boasted that other places had yielded to the power of Mahmood, by reason of their impiety; but if he dared to approach Sumnaut, he would assuredly meet the reward of his temerity. Mahmood, having arrived at Multan, gave orders to his army to provide themselves with water and other necessaries for crossing a desert of several days’ march, which lay between this city and Ajmere. The Rajah and people of Ajmere abandoned the place at his approach. They were invited to return, and experience the clemency of the victor; but not complying, beheld their country desolated with fire and sword. Arrived at Sumnaut, which was a strong castle, situated on the promontory of Guzerat, near the city of Diu,299 washed on three sides by the sea, Mahmood met with a more serious resistance than any which he had yet encountered in Hindustan. Not only did the priests and guardians of the temple defend it with all the obstinacy of enthusiasm and despair; but a large army collected in the surrounding kingdoms was brought to its defence. Having triumphed over all resistance, the religious sultan entered the temple. Filled with indignation at sight of the gigantic idol, he aimed a blow at its head, with his iron mace. The nose was struck from its face. In vehement trepidation the Brahmens crowded around, and offered millions,300 to spare the god. The Omrahs dazzled with the ransom ventured to counsel acceptance. Mahmood, crying out that he valued the title of breaker, not seller of idols, gave orders to proceed with the work of destruction. At the next blow, the belly of the idol burst open: and forth issued a vast treasure of diamonds, rubies, and pearls; rewarding the holy perseverance of Mahmood, and explaining the devout liberality of the Brahmens. After this Mahmood took vengeance on the rajahs who had confederated to defend the temple, and reduced all Guzerat to his obedience. It is said that he was so captivated with the beauty of the country, the richness of the soil, and the salubrity of the climate, that he conceived the design of making it the place of his residence, and resigning Ghizni to one of his sons. Diverted from this design by the counsels of his friends, he placed a Hindu governor over the province, and after an absence of two years and six months returned to Ghizni. A people whom the translator of Ferishta calls the Jits, afterwards better known under the name of Jaats, who inhabited part of the country bordering on the Indus, southward from Multan, either failed in respect, or gave molestation, as he marched from Guzerat. Returning in the same year to chastise them, he defeated 4,000 or 8,000 (so wide are the accounts) of their boats, launched on the river to defend an island to which, as the place of greatest safety, they had conveyed the most valuable of their effects, and the most cherished of their people.301 This was the last of the exploits of Mahmood in India, who died at Ghizni in the year 1028. Mahmood, the son of Subuctagi the Turkish slave, is one of the most celebrated of eastern princes. He was supposed to possess in the highest perfection almost every royal virtue. He patronized learning, and encouraged the resort of learned men. Ferdosi, the author of the Shah Namah, the most celebrated poem of the East, was entertained at his court.

After a short contest between Mahommed and Musaood, the sons of Mahmood, Musaood mounted the throne of Ghizni, and the eyes of Mahommed were put out. Musaood entered India three times, during the nine years of his reign; and left the boundaries of the Ghaznevide dominions there in the situation nearly in which he received them. His first incursion was in the year 1032, when he penetrated by the way of Cashmere; and his only memorable exploit was the capture of the fort of Sursutti, which commanded the pass. In 1034, he sent an army which chastised a disobedient viceroy. And in 1035, he marched in person to reduce Sewalik, a kingdom or rajahship lying at the bottom of the mountains near the place where the Ganges descends upon the Indian plains. He assailed the capital, of great imputed strength; took it in six days; and found in it incredible riches. From this he proceeded against the fort of Sunput, a place about forty miles distant from Delhi on the road to Lahore, the governor of which abandoned it upon his approach, and fled into the woods. He proposed to march against another prince, called Ram; but Ram, understanding his intentions, endeavoured to divert the storm, by gifts and compliments, and had the good fortune to succeed. Musaood was recalled from India to oppose an enemy, destined to render short the splendour of the house of Ghizni.

During several centuries, the movements westward of the hordes of Turkmans had been accumulating that people upon the barriers of the Persian empire. In the reign of Mahmood, three brothers, sons of Seljuk, solicited permission to pass the Oxus, with their flocks and herds, and to enjoy the unoccupied pastures of Chorasan. Mahmood, disregarding the advice of his best counsellors, granted their request. The example set, the number of Tartars in Transoxiana and Chorasan continually increased. During the vigilant and vigorous reign of Mahmood, the Turks behaved so much like peaceable subjects, that no complaint against them seems to have been raised. But in the days of his son and successor Musaood, the inhabitants of Chorasan and Transoxiana complained that they were oppressed by the strangers, and Musaood at last resolved to drive them back from his dominions. Togrul Beg, however, the son of Michael, the son of Seljuk, offered himself as a leader and a bond of union to the Turks; opposed Musaood; triumphed over him in the field; rendered himself master of the northern provinces of his empire, and established the dynasty of the Seljukides. Having baffled the power of the Sultan of Ghizni, Togrul found nothing remaining to oppose to him any serious resistance, from the Oxus to the Euphrates; he extinguished the remaining sparks of the power of the Bowides; and took the Caliph under his protection. Togrul was succeeded by his nephew Alp Arslan, and the latter by his son Malek Shah; both celebrated warriors, who pushed the limits of their empire beyond the Euphrates and the Jaxartes, and made deep inroads upon the Roman provinces and the Tartar plains. The provinces of Zabulistan or Candahar, of Segistan or Seistan, and Cabul, with the provinces in India beyond the Hydaspes, were all that at last remained to the Ghaznevides.

Musaood returning from the defeat which he, deserted by his troops, had sustained at the hand of the Turkmans, and hastening to India to recruit his forces, was deposed by a mutiny in the army, and his brother Mahommed, whose eyes he had put out, was placed upon the throne. Modood, the son of Musaood, who had been left by his father with an army at Balke marched against Mahommed, whom he dethroned. Modood made some efforts against the Seljukians, and for a time recovered Transoxiana. But the feebleness and distraction now apparent in the empire of the Ghaznevides encouraged the Rajah of Delhi, in concert with some other rajahs, to hazard an insurrection. They reduced Tannasar, Hassi the capital of Sewalik, and even the fort of Nagracote. The Rajahs of the Punjab endeavoured to recover their independence; and the Mahommedan dominion was threatened with destruction.

In the year 1049 Modood died; and a rapid change of princes succeeded, violently raised to the throne, and violently thrown down from it. His son Musaood, a child of four years old, was set up by one general; and, after a nominal reign of six days, gave place to Ali, the brother of Modood, who was supported by another. Ali reigned about two years, when he was dethroned by Abdul Reshid, his uncle, son of the great Mahmood. Tugril, governor of Segistan, rebelled against Reshid, and slew him after reigning one year. Tugril himself was assassinated after he had enjoyed his usurpation but forty days. Feroch-Zaad, a yet surviving son of Musaood, was then raised to the throne, who, dying after a peaceable reign of six years, was succeeded by his brother Ibrahim.

Ibrahim reigned a period of no less than forty-two years. After he had terminated his disputes with the dangerous Seljukians, by resigning to them all the provinces they had usurped of the Ghaznevide empire, he directed his ambition towards India. An army which he dispatched into that country is said to have reduced to his obedience many places which had not yet yielded to the Moslem arms. In the year 1080, he marched in person; and by the successful attack of several places of strength, added the territory they protected to his dominions.302 Against the house of Seljuk, now reigning over Persia, Chorasan, and Bucharia, the latter comprehending the ancient provinces or kingdoms of Bactria, Sogdiana, and Transoxiana, he found protection chiefly by intermarriages and alliance.

Ibrahim was succeeded by his son Musaood, who enjoyed a peaceable reign of sixteen years. With the exception of one expedition, under one of his generals, who penetrated beyond the Ganges, India remained unmolested by his arms. But as the Indian provinces now formed the chief portion of his dominions, Lahore became the principal seat of his government.

His son Shere, says the Persian historian, “placed his foot on the imperial throne; but within a year was assassinated by his brother Arsilla.” Byram, one of the brothers of Arsilla, made his escape; and fled to the governor of Chorasan, who was brother to the king of Persia, and to his own, and Arsilla’s mother. By the assistance of this prince, his uncle, who marched with an army to his support, he dethroned Arsilla, and assumed the reins of government, which had been held by the usurper for three years.

Byram, or Bahram, was twice called into India, by the disobedience of the governor of Lahore, who aspired to independence. But he had no sooner settled this disturbance, than he was called to oppose the governor of another of his provinces, whose rebellion was attended with more fatal consequences. A range of mountainous country, known by the name of the mountains of Gaur, occupies the space between the province of Chorasan and Bactria on the west and north, and the provinces of Segistan, Candahar, and Cabul on the south. The mountaineers of this district, a wild and warlike race, had hardly ever paid more than a nominal obedience to the sovereigns of Persia. The district, however, had been included in the dominions of the Sultans of Ghizni; and had not yet been detached by the Seljukian encroachments. In the days of Byram, a descendant of the ancient princes of the country, Souri by name, was governor of the province. Finding himself possessed of power to aim at independence, he raised an army of Afghauns, such is the name (famous in the history of India) by which the mountaineers of Gaur are distinguished, and chased Byram from his capital of Ghizni. Byram, however, having collected and recruited his army, marched against his enemy, and aided by his subjects of Ghizni, who deceived and betrayed their new master, gained a complete victory, and put the Gaurian to a cruel death. The power which he gained was but of short duration. Alla, the brother of Souri, who succeeded him in his usurped dominion, hastened to repair his loss. Byram was defeated in a decisive battle, and fled towards India; but sunk under his misfortunes, and expired, after a languid, but gentle reign of thirty-five years.

He was succeeded by his son Chusero, who withdrew to India, and made Lahore his capital. This prince cherished the hope of recovering the lost dominions of his house from the Gaurian usurper, by aid from his kinsman, the king of Persia; and collected an army for that purpose; but at this moment a fresh horde of Turkman Tartars rushed upon the Persian provinces, and inundated even Cabul and Candahar, from which the Gaurians were obliged to retire. The Turks, after two years’ possession, were expelled by the Gaurians. The Gaurians were again defeated by the arms of Chusero, and yielded up the temporary possession of Ghizni to its former masters. Chusero continued to reside at Lahore, and, having died after a reign of seven years, was succeeded by his son Chusero the Second.

Mahommed, brother to the Gaurian usurper, pursued the same ambitious career. He soon rendered himself master of the kingdom of Ghizni or Candahar; and, not satisfied with that success, penetrated even into India; over-ran Multan, with the provinces on both sides of the Indus; and advanced as far as Lahore. After an uninteresting struggle of a few years, Chusero was subdued; and in the year 1184 the sceptre was transferred from the house of Ghizni to the house of Gaur. The same era which was marked by the fall of the Ghaznevides, was distinguished by the reduction of the house of Seljuk. The weakness and effeminacy which, after the vigour and ability of the founders of a new dynasty, uniformly take place among the princes their successors, having relaxed the springs of the Seljukian government, the subordinate governors threw off their dependence; and a small portion of the dominions of Malek now owned the authority of Togril his descendant.

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CHAP. II. From the Commencement of the first Gaurian Dynasty to that of the second Gaurian or Afghaun Dynasty.

Mahomed left the government of India, after the defeat and death of Chusero, in the hands of a viceroy, and returned to Ghizni. After an absence of five years, he marched towards Ajmere; and, having taken the city of Tiberhind, is said to have been on his way back, when he heard that the Rajahs of Ajmere and Delhi, with others in confederacy, were advancing with a large army to relieve the city which he had just taken and left. He turned and met them a little beyond Tannasar. Having incautiously allowed his army to be surrounded by superior numbers, he was defeated, and, being severely wounded, escaped with great difficulty from the field of battle. He took such measures, as the moment allowed, to secure his provinces and forts, and hastened to Gaur.

After little more than a year he was prepared to return to India with a formidable army of Turks, Persians, and Afghauns. The combined Rajahs had consumed their time in the siege of Tiberhind, which had resisted them for one year and one month. No fewer, it is said, than 150 kings, with their armies, amounting, by “the lowest and most moderate account, to 300,000 horse, 3000 elephants, and a great body of infantry,” met him on the former field of battle. The Rajahs sent him an insulting proposal, that he might be permitted to march back unmolested, if he had the prudence to decline the combat. Mahomed had learned wisdom from experience. Sending an humble answer; that he was only the servant of his brother, bound to execute his commands; and praying for time, to learn the will of his master; he filled the Rajahs, and their enormous camp, with an ill-grounded and intemperate presumption. While they were spending the night in revelling and joy, Mahomed crossed the river with his army, and fell upon them before the alarm was spread. The extent of the camp was so great, that a part of the army had time to form itself and advance to cover the flight. Mahomed immediately drew off his troops to meet them. Forming a strong reserve of his chosen horse, he ordered the rest of his army, drawn up in four lines, to receive the enemy calmly. The first line, having discharged its missile weapons, was made to withdraw to the rear; the next, coming in front, discharged in like manner its weapons, and in like manner gave place to another. By this stratagem were the enemy held in play, “till the sun was approaching the west,” when Mahomed, placing himself at the head of his reserve, rushed upon the fatigued and now presumptuous multitude; who were immediately thrown into the greatest disorder, and “recoiled, like a troubled torrent, from the bloody plain.”

Shortly after this event Mahomed returned to Ghizni, leaving the fruits of the victory to be gathered and secured by his favourite General Cuttub. The events of this man’s life, though far from singular in the East, involved extraordinary changes of condition and fortune. In his childhood, he was brought from Turkestan to Nishapore, the capital of Chorasan, and there sold for a slave. It happened that the master by whom he was bought had the disposition to give him education, and that the quickness of his parts enabled him to profit by this advantage. The death of his patron, however, exposed him once more to the chance of the market; which fortunately assigned him to Mahomed the Gaurian. His intelligence and assiduity attracted in time the notice of the Prince. He advanced by gradual accessions of favour, till he rose to be Master of the Horse. Even misfortune, though he lost a detachment of men, and was taken prisoner by the enemy, did not lose him the kindness of Mahomed; or interrupt the career of his promotion.

Cuttub improved, with diligence and ability, the advantages which his master had gained in India. He reduced the surrounding districts; took the fort of Merat; and invested Delhi. The garrison ventured to meet him in the field. He vanquished them; and, surmounting all opposition, obtained possession of the city.

Mahomed returned to India in 1193. Cuttub was received with the highest marks of distinction; and being honoured to command the van of the army, he conquered the rajah of Benares; where Mahomed destroyed innumerable idols, and obtained, of course, incalculable riches. The whole country submitted, to the confines of Bengal.

Upon the return of Mahomed to Ghizni, Cuttub was declared his adopted son, and confirmed in the government of India. By various expeditions, he chastised repeatedly the refractory rajahs of Ajmere and Guzerat; took the cities of Calinger and Kalpy, with their respective territories; and at last made himself master of the forts of Biana and Gualior.

In the year 1202, Mahomed was excited to try his fortune for a share in the dismemberment of the Seljukian empire. Among the provinces of which the governors had thrown off their dependance upon the Seljukian princes, that of Karisme, on the eastern side of the Caspian Sea, had risen to the rank of an independent kingdom, under a race of princes known by the name of the Karismian dynasty. Against Tacash, the reigning sovereign of this kingdom, Mahomed led an army. But Osman, a Tartar chief, who had assumed the rank of sovereign, in another part of Transoxiana, and had Samarcand for his capital, marched to the assistance of Tacash; Mahomed sustained a total defeat; and was fain, by a great ransom, to purchase return to his own country. Intelligence of his defeat was to his servants the signal for revolt. His slave Ildecuz, having assumed supremacy in his capital of Ghizni, refused him admittance. He continued his route to Multan, where another of his servants took arms against him. Being joined by many of his friends, he gave the traitor battle, and obtained the victory. He next collected such of his troops as were in the contiguous provinces of India, and marched back to Ghizni, where the rebellious slave was delivered up by the inhabitants.

At the same time with the other rebellious attempts, to which his defeat by the Karismians had given birth, a tribe of Indians, inhabiting the country about the sources of the Indus from the Nilab or western branch of that river upwards to the Sewalic mountains; called by the Persian historian, Gickers, and by him described as a people excessively rude and barbarous, putting their female children to death; attempted the recovery of their independence, and proceeded towards Lahore. Mahomed had no sooner recovered his capital than he marched against them; and Cuttub at the same time advancing from Delhi, they were attacked on both sides, and speedily subdued. Mahomed was returning to Ghizni, when he was murdered in his tent by two Gickers, who penetrated thither in the night.

The death of Mahomed, who left no children, produced a contest for the succession, and a division of the empire. Mamood, his nephew, retained Gaur, of which he was governor. Eldoze, another governor, took possession of Candahar and Cabul; and Cuttub claimed the sovereignty of India. Eldoze marched against him; but was met and conquered. Cuttub, following up his victory, proceeded to Ghizni, where he was crowned. He now resigned himself to sloth and indulgence. Eldoze, who had retired to Kirma, his former province, obtained intelligence of this degeneracy, and of the disgust to which it had given birth. He raised an army, and surprised Cuttub, who withdrew to India; and made no effort for the recovery of Ghizni; but is celebrated for having governed his Indian dominions with great justice and moderation. During his administration, Bahar and Bengal were added to the Mahomedan dominions.303 He died only four years after the death of Mahomed, in 1210. Tacash, the Karismian, who had extended his sway over almost the whole of Persia, shortly after marched against Eldoze, and added Ghizni, with all the possessions, of the Gaurides, as far as the Indus, to his extensive empire.

Cuttub was succeeded by his son Aram; who proved unequal to the task of reigning. Multan and Sind were seized upon by one chief; Bengal by another; and in almost every province the standard of revolt was raised or preparing to be raised; when the Omrahs of Delhi invited Altumsh, the son-in-law of Cuttub, and governor of Budaoon, now the country of the Rohillas, to ascend the throne. The reign of Aram scarcely completed a year.

Altumsh, like Cuttub, had been a slave from Tartary; but, being remarkable for the beauty of his person, was thought by his master worthy of a good education. He was sold to Cuttub for a large sum, and appointed master of the chase. He rapidly made his way to great favour; was at last married to the daughter of his sovereign; and declared his adopted son.

Altumsh ascended not the throne in perfect tranquillity. Several of Cuttub’s generals aspired to improve their fortune by resistance; and Eldoze, being driven from Ghizni by the arms of the Karismian monarch, made an effort to procure for himself a sceptre in India. But Altumsh prevailed over all his opponents; and reigned from the mouths of the Indus to those of the Ganges.

This prince died in 1235, and was succeeded by his son Feroze; who appearing a weak and dissolute prince, subservient to the cruel passions of his mother, was soon deposed; and Sultana Rizia, the eldest daughter of Altumsh, was raised to the throne.

It is a rare combination of circumstances which, in the East, places sovereign power in the hands of a woman. Rizia possessed manly talents and great virtues. The idea, however, of the weakness of her sex encouraged the presumption of her deputies in the various provinces. She contended with success against more than one rebellious and usurping governor. But her difficulties continually increased; and at last a combination of the Omrahs set up her brother Byram, as a competitor for the throne. She was still able to meet the rebels with an army. But the Turkish or Tartarian mercenaries in her brother’s pay were an overmatch for her Indian troops. She was conquered and put to death, after a reign of three years and six months.

Byram the Second, nursed in pleasure, and a stranger to control, was a weak, imprudent prince. The jealousies which he felt towards the great men in his court, he sought to relieve by assassination. His vizir, having escaped an intended blow, found means to regain his confidence: and being placed at the head of an army against the Moguls, he matured the dissatisfaction of the Omrahs, and, turning the army of Byram against himself, dethroned and killed him, about two years after he had ascended the throne.

It was during this reign that the Moguls, destined to erect in India the greatest empire it had ever seen, first penetrated into that country. Gingis, the chief of a tribe of Tartars, distinguished by the name of Moguls, who roamed with their flocks and herds on the northern side of the wall of China, formed, by talents and good fortune, one of those combinations, among different tribes of Tartars, which more than once within the period of history had been witnessed before; and never without extensive revolutions and conquests. Partly by force, partly by intimidation, partly by hopes of sharing in the advantages of conquest, Gingis, about the year 1210, was acknowledged as Khan, by all the shepherd hordes from the wall of China to the Volga. The presumption and pride of two such elevated neighbours as the emperor of China, and the new sovereign of Tartary, could not fail to kindle the flames of war. Innumerable squadrons of Tartars surmounted the unavailing rampart which the Chinese had in former ages raised to exclude them. Pekin was taken; and the northern provinces of China were added to the empire of Gingis.

About the same time a quarrel arose on the opposite side of his dominions. Mahomed was now king of Karisme, which from a revolted province had grown into the seat of a great empire, extending from the borders of Arabia to those of Turkestan. The monarch of so many provinces, which prided themselves in their riches and the acquirements of civilized life, made light, it seems, of the power of him who ruled over multitudes, indeed, but of men who had no riches except their cattle, and no cities except their camps. An injury done to some of the subjects of Gingis, for which all reparation was haughtily refused, first drew upon western Asia the fury of his arms. Mahomed crossed the Jaxartes to meet his enemy in the plains of Turkestan, with no less, it is said, than four hundred thousand men. But these were encountered by seven hundred thousand Tartars, under Gingis and his sons, who in the first battle, which was suspended by the night, laid one hundred and sixty thousand Karismians dead upon the field.

After this fatal blow, Mahomed expected to arrest the progress of the victor, by throwing his troops into the frontier towns. But the arms of Gingis were irresistible; the places of greatest strength were obliged to surrender; and Karisme, Transoxiana, and Chorasan, soon acknowledged the sovereignty of the Mogul. He was withdrawn by the wishes of his troops from the further prosecution of his conquests in the West, and died in the year 1227; but left sons and grandsons to copy the deeds of their progenitor. In the year 1258, the conquest of Persia was consummated: and the last remains of the power of the Caliphs and Seljukians trampled in the dust.

It was but an incursion which, in the year 1242, the Moguls, during the reign of Byram II., made into India. They plundered the country as far as Lahore, and then retreated to Ghizni.

Upon the fall of Byram, the men in power thought proper to take from his prison Musaood, the son of Feroze, the late king, and set him upon the throne. In the second year of his reign, an army of Mogul Tartars made a descent into Bengal, by the way, says Ferishta, of Chitta and Tibet.304 They met, we are told, with a total defeat. On the following year, however, another army of the same people crossed the Indus; but Musaood marching against them in force, they were pleased to retire. Musaood, however, in a reign of four years had disgusted his nobles, by his vices; and made them bold, by his weakness. They combined to call Mamood his uncle to the throne, and Musaood was thrown into prison for life.

Mamood II., upon the death of his father Altumsh, had been consigned to a prison; but there exhibited some firmness of mind, by supporting himself with the fruits of his industry in copying books; while he often remarked that “he who could not work for his bread did not deserve it.” He was released by his predecessor Musaood, and received the government of a province; in which he acted with so much vigour and prudence, that the fame of his administration recommended him to the Omrahs, as the fittest person to cover, with his power and authority, their rebellious enterprise.

The infirm administration of the preceding princes had introduced much disorder into the kingdom. The tribes of Hindus, known by the name of Gickers, a more active and enterprising race than the general body of their countrymen, had been guilty of many acts of insubordination and violence toward the Mahomedan government and people, in the provinces near the Indus. One of the first enterprises of Mamood, was to chastise this people; many thousands of whom he carried away into captivity. Of the Omrahs, who had received jagheers, or estates in land, many declined or refused to furnish their quota of troops for the army; though it was for the maintenance of those troops, that the estates, says Ferishta, were bestowed. The chiefs who infringed this condition were carried prisoners to Delhi; and their sons, or other relations, gifted with the estate. Some places of strength, in the country lying between the Jumna and the Ganges, were taken. A governor on the Indus, who had rebelled, was reduced to obedience, and received into favour. Shere, the king’s nephew, viceroy of Lahore and Multan, expelled the Moguls from Ghizni, and once more annexed that kingdom to the Indian part of the Gaurian empire. Mamood fell into the error of disgusting his Omrahs, by pampering a favorite; but recovered his authority, by sacrificing, with a good grace, the author of his danger. A fresh army of the Moguls crossed the Indus in the year 1257; but retired upon the approach of Mamood. In the following year, an ambassador, from Hallacu, the grandson of Gingis, who had just completed the conquest of Persia, arrived at Delhi. The grandest possible display of the power and wealth of the empire seems to have been studied upon this occasion. To meet the representative of the conqueror, before whom Asia trembled, the vizir went out at the head of 50,000 foreign horse, two hundred thousand infantry, two thousand elephants of war, and three thousand carriages of fireworks. With this magnificent escort, the ambassador was conducted to the royal presence; all the officers, dignitaries, and dependants of the empire, in gorgeous attire, surrounding the throne. This appears to have been a message of peace; since nothing of importance occurred, till the death of the Shah, which happened in the year 1265.

This prince carried to the throne that contempt of pleasure and show, and that simplicity of manners, which he had learned in his adversity. “Contrary,” says Ferishta, “to the custom of princes, he kept no concubines. He had but one wife, whom he obliged to do every homely part of housewifery; and when she complained one day, that she had burned her fingers in baking his bread, desiring he would allow her a maid to assist her, he rejected her request, with saying—that he was only a trustee for the state, and that he was determined not to burthen it with needless expences. He therefore exhorted her to persevere in her duty with patience, and God would reward her in the end. As the emperor of India never eats in public, his table was rather that of a hermit, than suitable to a great king. He also continued the whimsical notion of living by his pen. One day, as an Omrah was inspecting a Coran, of the emperor’s writing, before him, he pointed out a word, which he said was wrong. The king, looking at it, smiled, and drew a circle round it. But when the critic was gone, he began to erase the circle and restore the word. This being observed by one of his old attendants, he begged to know his Majesty’s reason for so doing; to which he replied, “that he knew the word was originally right, but he thought it better to erase from a paper, than to touch the heart of a poor man, by bringing him to shame.”

Mamood died without leaving any sons; and his vizir, Balin, who even in his life time engrossed the principal share of power, without opposition mounted the throne. Balin was originally a Turk, of Chitta, of the tribe of Alberi. He was taken, when very young, by the Moguls who over-ran his country, and sold to a slave merchant who carried him to Bagdat. The master into whose hands he fell, learning that he was a relation of Altumsh, who then reigned at Delhi, proceeded with him to that city, and presented him to the monarch, who received him gladly, and liberally rewarded his conductor.

A brother of Balin had already made his way to the court of Delhi, and was considerably advanced in the road of favour and power. The young adventurer improved his advantages; and rapidly ascended the ladder of promotion. He took an active part in all the revolutions which placed so many successors on the throne. In the reign of Musaood he was raised to the dignity of lord of requests; and in that of Mahmood obtained the vizarit.

The reign of Balin was severe; but vigilant, clearsighted, and consistent. He punished disobedience with rapidity and cruelty; but he distinguished talents with care, and rewarded services with discernment and generosity. The fame of his government made his alliance be courted, even by the Mogul sovereigns who reigned over Tartary and Persia.

“He expelled,” says Ferishta, “all flatterers, usurers, pimps, and players, from his court; and being one day told, that an Omrah, an old servant of the crown, who had acquired a vast fortune by usury and monopoly in the bazaar or market, would present him with some lacks of rupees, if he would honour him with one word from the throne; he rejected the proposal with great disdain. What, he said, must his subjects think of a king who should condescend to hold discourse with a wretch so infamous.” As freedom of bargain respecting interest on loans is exceptionable on principles of superstition alone, Balin was possibly mistaken in his instance, without being incorrect in his rule. The association of the king with persons infamous by their vices, sheds moral depravity among the people, except in that proportion exactly in which it sheds contempt upon the throne.

The generosity of Balin made his court the resort and asylum of the various princes, whom the arms of Gingis and his successors had rendered fugitives from their kingdoms. More than twenty of these unfortunate sovereigns, from Tartary, Transoxiana, Chorasan, Persia, Irac, Azarbijan, Persia proper, Roum, and Syria, among whom were two princes of the race of the Caliphs, had allowances assigned them from the revenues of Balin, with palaces, which took their names from their possessors, and admission on all public occasions to the presence and throne of their benefactor. The most learned men from all Asia, accompanying their respective princes, or seeking the same asylum, were assembled at Delhi. “And the court of India,” says the historian, “was, in the days of Balin, reckoned the most polite and magnificent in the world. All the philosophers, poets, and divines, formed a society every night, at the house of the prince Shehid, the heir apparent to the empire. Another society of musicians, dancers, mimicks, players, buffoons, and story-tellers, was constantly convened at the house of the emperor’s second son Kera, who was given to pleasure and levity. The Omrahs followed the example of their superiors, so that various societies and clubs were formed in every quarter of the city.”

The hills to the south-east of Delhi were inhabited by Hindus, who acted the part of banditti and plunderers; and advanced, in numbers resembling an army, sometimes to the very walls of the capital. Balin ordered operations against them; and they were massacred without mercy. The soldiers, who carried hatchets for the purpose, cut down, to the distance of one hundred miles, the woods to which the robbers retired. The cleared space proved excellent land; and was speedily peopled; the inhabitants being protected from the mountaineers by a line of forts erected at the bottom of the hills.

The Shah gave considerable employment to his army, in bridling the wild inhabitants of the mountains, near the centre of his dominions; but he rejected the advice of his counsellors, to regain the distant provinces of Malwa and Guzerat, which had asserted their independence from the time of Cuttub; wisely observing, that the cloud of Moguls, now gathered on his northern frontier, presented an object of more serious and anxious regard.

His accomplished and philosophical son, Mahomed Shehid, was appointed viceroy of the northern provinces, to hold in check those dangerous neighbours. And he assembled around him the men, most eminent for thought or action, whom the Asiatic world at that time contained.

Argunu, the grandson of Hallacu who subdued Persia, and the fourth in descent from Gingis, now filled the throne of Persia; and another descendant of that renowned conqueror, by name Timur, ruled over the eastern provinces from Chorasan to the Indus. In revenge for some former check, as well as by desire for extension of empire, Timur invaded India with a large army in 1283. They were met by the Indian prince, and battle was joined. Both leaders displayed the talents of great generals; but Mahomed at last prevailed, and the Moguls betook themselves to flight. Mahomed joined in the pursuit. He had just halted, in order to return; when he was surprised with only five hundred attendants, by a party of the enemy; and, being overpowered by superior numbers, was slain defending himself to the last. The army and the empire were filled with grief by his fall.

While the son was engaged in his arduous defence of the empire against the Moguls, the father was employed in subduing a dangerous rebellion in Bengal. Tughril, governor of that rich and powerful province, had executed an expedition against the rajahs of Jagenagur, a province bounded on the north by Bengal, and on the east by Orissa. Succeeding, and obtaining great treasure, he began to feel himself too great for a subject; delayed remitting the Emperor’s share of the plunder; and, hearing that Balin was sick, and too ill to survive, raised the red umbrella, and assumed the title of king. Balin ordered the Governor of Oude to assume the office of Subahdar of Bengal, and, with an army which he committed to his command, to march against the rebel. The new Subahdar was defeated; and Balin was so enraged that he bit his own flesh, and commanded the general to be hanged at the gate of Oude. Another of his generals whom he sent to wipe off this disgrace had no better success; when Balin, deeply affected, resolved to take the field in person. Tughril, hearing of his approach, thought proper to elude the storm, by retiring. He intended to remain in Jagenagur, till the Shah retired; and then to resume the command of the province. With some difficulty Balin procured intelligence of his route. An exploring party, at last, discovered and surprised his camp. Tughril fled and was killed, when Balin inflicted sanguinary punishment on his adherents.

But the death of his great and hopeful son was a blow to the heart of Balin, to which no success could yield a remedy. Oppressed, at once, with grief, with business, and with old age (he was now in his eightieth year), he languished for a short time, and expired. He appointed his grandson, by the deceased Mahomed, his successor. Kera,305 however, the second son of Balin, was governor of Bengal, the most affluent province of the empire; and the Omrahs, respecting his present power, more than the will of their deceased master, raised his son Kei Kobad to the throne.

Kei Kobad was in his eighteenth year, handsome in his person, of an affable and mild disposition, and not slightly tinctured with literature. His mother was a beautiful princess, daughter of the emperor Altumsh. “He delighted,” says his historian, “in love, and in the soft society of silver-bodied damsels with musky tresses.” He adds; “When it was publicly known that the king was a man of pleasure, it became immediately fashionable at court; and, in short, in a few days, luxury and vice so prevailed, that every shade was filled with ladies of pleasure, and every street rung with music and mirth. The king fitted up a palace at Kilogurry, upon the banks of the river Jumna; and retired thither to enjoy his pleasures undisturbed, admitting no company but singers, players, musicians, and buffoons.”

The father of Kei Kobad remained contented with his government of Bengal. But Nizam ul Dien, who became the favourite minister of the young Shah, conceived hopes, from the negligence of his master, of paving for himself a way to the throne. He proceeded to remove the persons whose pretensions were likely to obstruct his career. The many acts of cruelty and perfidy, of which he was the cause, shed discredit upon the government. The father of Kei Kobad saw the danger; and forewarned his son. But the prince could not attend to business, without sacrificing pleasure. He found it, therefore, more agreeable to repose upon the minister, and neglected the advice. Kera, alarmed for his own fate, as well as that of his son, thought it adviseable to second his advice with his presence, and his presence with an army. This was construed an act of hostility; and the Shah marched out from Delhi, at the head of an army, to oppose his father. The father, either conscious of his inferiority in point of strength, or unwilling to proceed to the last extremity, requested an interview. This was dreaded by the minister, who endeavoured to blow up the vanity and presumption of the young monarch to such a pitch, that he might hear of nothing but a battle. Kera was not easy to be repulsed; and renewed his application, by a letter, full of parental expostulation and tenderness. The heart of the young prince was corrupted, but not yet thoroughly depraved. He could not resist the letter of his father; and Nizam, no longer able to defeat the interview by direct, endeavoured to elude it by artificial means. He prevailed upon the prince, as sovereign, to insist upon the first interview; in hopes that Kera would refuse. Kera was not a slave to points of ceremony; and readily consented to repair to the imperial camp; where the son was prepared to display his insolence at even his father’s expense. The throne was set out with the greatest pomp and ceremony; and Kei Kobad, ascending, commanded that his father should three times kiss the ground. At the first door, the aged prince was ordered to dismount; and, when he came in sight of the throne, to perform the abject obeisance of the east; the mace-bearer at the same time calling out, according to custom, “The noble Kera to the king of the world sends health!” The father, whose heart was full, was no longer able to restrain his tears. Upon sight of his father in tears, the young prince forgot his insolence, and rushing from the throne, threw himself upon his face at his father’s feet, and implored his forgiveness.306

The presence and admonitions of Kera made an impression upon the mind of Kei Kobad, which it was too soft to retain. “When he arrived at Delhi,” says Ferishta, “the advice of his father, for a few days, seemed to take root in his mind. But his reformation was not the interest of the minister.” He accordingly plied him with pleasure in all the shapes in which it was known to have the greatest influence on his mind. The most beautiful and accomplished women whom it was possible to procure were made to present themselves to him at all the most accessible moments, and invention was exhausted to find an endless variety of modes to surprise and captivate the prince with new combinations of charms. The most exquisite musicians, dancers, players, buffoons, were collected to fill up the intervals left vacant by love.

The hatred, however, which the success, the presumption, and insolence of the minister had engendered in his fellow courtiers; or the suspicions and fears which, at last, though tardily, were excited in the breast of the sovereign, cut short the days and the machinations of Nizam ul Dien. He was taken off by poison. The authority of the king did not long survive. His intemperance in the haram brought on a palsy; which disabled him in one side, and distorted his countenance. All attention was then absorbed by the scramble for power. Every Omrah of popularity set up his pretensions. The friends of the royal family brought out the son of Kei Kobad, a child of three years old, and set him on the throne. He was supported by the Tartars; a body of whom, as mercenaries, were generally kept by the Indian sovereigns, whom they became the common instruments of setting up and pulling down. On the present occasion, the Tartars had a formidable body of competitors. Of the Afghauns, or mountaineers of Gaur and Ghirgistan, on the frontiers of Persia, a tribe named Chilligi307 made war and depredation their business; and usually, in great numbers, served, as mercenaries, any power which chose to employ them. An adventurer of this tribe, of the name of Mallek, who subsisted by his sword, rose to distinction in the army of Balin; and left his talents and his fortune to his son Feroze, who, at the time of the illness of Kei Kobad, was one of the chief Omrahs, and commanded a province. He was joined by the Chilligi mercenaries, who attacked, and cut to pieces, the Tartars. There was no longer any obstruction. Kei Kobad was killed upon his bed, after a reign of little more than three years. Such was the termination of the Gaurian, or rather of the first Gaurian dynasty; and such the commencement of the Afghaun, or second Gaurian dynasty, in the year 1289. At the time of this revolution, Cubla, the grandson of Gingis, sat on the throne of Tartary and China; another of his descendants on that of Persia; and a third possessed a kingdom in Transoxiana, and those provinces to the north-west of the Indus which constituted the original dominions of the house of Ghizni.

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CHAP. III. From the Commencement of the second Gaurian or Afghaun Dynasty, to the Commencement of the Mogul Dynasty.

Feroze was seventy years of age when he became the master of the kingdom. He was a man of intelligence; and though guilty of cruelty and injustice in acquiring or establishing his throne, he sought to distinguish himself by the justice, and also the popularity, of his administration. “For that purpose,” says his historian, “he gave great encouragement to the learned of that age; who, in return, offered the incense of flattery at the altar of his fame.”

Chidju, however, a prince of the royal blood, nephew of the late Balin, and a nabob or governor of a province, obtained the alliance of several chiefs, and marched with an army towards Delhi. Feroze placed himself at the head of his army, and sent forward his son with the Chilligi cavalry. The prince encountered the enemy, and obtaining an advantage, took several Omrahs prisoners, whom he mounted upon camels with branches hung round their necks. When Feroze beheld them in this state of humiliation, he ordered them to be unbound, gave a change of raiment to each, and set an entertainment before them; repeating the verse, “That evil for evil it was easy to return; but he only was great who could return good for evil.” In a few days Chidju was taken prisoner, and sent to the king; but instead of death, which he expected, received a pardon, and was sent to reside at Multan, on a handsome appointment for life. To the Omrahs of the Chilligi, displeased at so much lenity, Feroze replied, “My friends, I am now an old man, and I wish to go down to the grave without shedding blood.”

The mind of this prince, however, did not, it seems, distinguish sufficiently between lenity and relaxation. The police of the empire was neglected; and robbery, murder, insurrection, ever ready to break loose in India, diffused insecurity over the nation. The Omrahs of the Chilligi “began,” says Ferishta, “to lengthen the tongue of reproach against their sovereign.” The design was conceived of raising one of themselves to the throne; the project was even discussed at an entertainment, at which they were assembled; but one of the company privately withdrew and informed the emperor, who immediately ordered them to be arrested and brought before him. It occurred to one of them to represent the affair as a drunken frolic, and the words as the suggestion of intoxication. The prince was pleased to accept the apology; and dismissed them with a rebuke. He was not so lenient to a Dirvesh, or professor of piety, who by the appearance of great sanctity, and by the distribution of great liberalities to the poor, the source of which no one could discover, acquired immense popularity; and on this foundation aspired, or was accused of aspiring, to the throne. Though little or no evidence appeared against him, he was cruelly put to death.

With his expiring breath, the holy Dirvesh cursed Feroze and his posterity; nature was thrown into convulsions upon the death of the saint; and from that hour the fortunes of Feroze were observed to decline. His eldest son was afflicted with insanity which no power of medicine could remove. Factions and rebellions disturbed his administration. In the year 1291, Hindustan was invaded by a prince of the house of Gingis, at the head of 100,000 Moguls; and though Feroze engaged them, and obtained the advantage, he was glad to stipulate for the departure of the invaders by consenting to let them retreat unmolested.

In this reign occurred an event of great importance in the history of Hindustan: the first invasion of the Deccan by Mahomedan arms. Deccan means the south; and is applied in a general manner to the kingdoms and districts included in the southern portion of India. It does not appear that the application of the name was ever precisely fixed. It has been commonly spoken of as indicating the country south of the Nerbudda river, which falls into the Gulf of Cambay at Baroach; but as the Patan or Mogul sovereignties hardly extended beyond the river Kistna, it is only the country between those two rivers which in the language of India commonly passes under the name of Deccan.

Alla, the nephew of Feroze, was Nabob or Governor of Corah, one of the districts in the Doab, or country lying between the Ganges and Jumna. Having distinguished himself in a warfare with some rajahs who bordered on his province, he was gratified by the addition to his government of the province of Oude. His first success appears to have suggested further enterprise. He solicited and obtained the consent of Feroze to extend his empire over the Hindus. Having collected such an army as his resources allowed, he marched directly, by the shortest route, against Ramdeo, one of the rajahs of Deccan, whose capital was Deogur, now Dowlatabad.308 Alla met with no inconsiderable resistance; but finally prevailed; and exacted heavy contributions (exaggerated by the pen of Oriental history into incredible sums), as the price of his return. He retreated many days through several hostile and populous kingdoms; the governments of which were too weak or too stupid to offer any obstruction to his march.

Feroze was not without uneasiness upon intelligence of the ambitious adventure of Alla; and of the great addition to his power which the vastness of his plunder implied. He rejected, however, the advice of his wisest counsellors to take previous measures for the securing of his authority and power; and resolved to repose on the fidelity of his nephew. He was even so weak as to permit Alla, on feigned pretences, to entice him to Corah, where he was barbarously assassinated, having reigned only seven years and some months.

Alla made haste to get into his power the family of Feroze; of whom all who were the objects of any apprehension were unrelentingly murdered; and the rest confined. He had scarcely time, however, to settle the affairs of his government, when he learned that the Mogul sovereign of Transoxiana had invaded the Punjab with an army of 100,000 men. An army, commanded by his brother, was sent to expel them. A battle was fought in the neighbourhood of Lahore, in which the Indians were victorious, and the Moguls retreated. The successful general was sent into Guzerat, which he quickly reduced to the obedience of the Shah.

The Moguls returned the following year with much greater force; and marched even to the walls of Delhi, to which they laid siege. Alla at last collected his army, and gave them battle. Though his success was not decisive, the Moguls thought proper to retreat.

The king’s arbitrary maxims of government, and the odious manner in which he arrived at the supreme command, engendered disaffection; and during the first years of his reign he was harassed by perpetual insurrections and rebellions. He applied himself, however, with industry and intelligence, to the business of government; and though his administration was severe and oppressive, it was regular and vigorous, securing justice and protection to the body of the people. His education had been so neglected that he could neither read nor write; but feeling the disadvantages under which his ignorance laid him, he had firmness of mind to set about the work of his own instruction even upon the throne; acquired the inestimable faculties of reading and writing; made himself acquainted with the best authors in the Persian language; invited learned men to his court; and delighted in their conversation.

In 1303, he projected another expedition into Deccan by the way of Bengal, but was recalled by a fresh invasion of the Moguls of Transoxiana; who advanced as far as Delhi, but retreated without sustaining a battle. After their departure, he resolved, by an augmentation of his army, to leave himself nothing to fear from that audacious enemy. But reflecting that his revenues were unequal to so great a burden, he resolved to reduce the soldiers’ pay. Reflecting again, that this would be dangerous, while the price of articles continued the same, he ordered all prices to be reduced a half; by that means, says Ferishta, with an ignorance too often matched in more instructed countries, “just doubling his treasures and revenue.” The Moguls were not discouraged by frequency of repulse. The armies of the king of Transoxiana twice invaded Hindustan in 1305, and were twice defeated by Tughlic, the general of Alla.

In the following year the design against Deccan was renewed, and prosecuted with greater resources. Cafoor, a slave and eunuch, his favourite, and, it was said, the instrument of his pleasures, was placed at the head of a grand army, and marched towards the south. He first “subdued the country of the Mahrattors,309 which he divided among his Omrahs,” and then proceeded to the siege of Deogur. Ramdeo endeavoured to make his peace by submission; and having agreed to pay a visit to the emperor at Delhi, and to hold his territories as a dependency, he was dismissed with magnificent presents, and his dominions were enlarged.

The division of Deccan, known by the name of Telingana, is supposed to have extended, along the eastern coast, from the neighbourhood of Cicacole on the north, to that of Pulicat on the south; and to have been separated on the west from the country known by the name of Maharashtra, or by contraction Mahratta, by a line passing, near Beder, and at some distance east of Dowlutabad, to the river Tapti.310

Alla was on his march against the Rajah of Warunkul, one of the princes of this district, in 1303, when he was recalled by another invasion of the Moguls. He made, indeed, a part of his army proceed in the expedition, for the purpose of reducing the fort of Warunkul, a place of great strength, and, by repute, of immense riches; but the project failed. In 1307, Cafoor was ordered to march into Telingana by the way of Deoghur, and lay siege to Warunkul. Warunkul was taken by assault, after a siege of some months.311 The rajah made his peace, by sacrificing largely to the avarice of his conquerors, and accepting the condition of a tribute.

The more Alla tasted of the plunder of Deccan, the more he thirsted for additional draughts. In 1310, Cafoor was sent on a more distant expedition. He marched by Deoghur; and penetrating as far as Carnatic, took the Rajah prisoner, and ravaged his kingdom. According to the historians, he returned with such wealth as no country ever yielded to a predatory invader.312 Nor did he remain long at Delhi before he persuaded the Shah to send him once more into Deccan; where he ravaged several countries, and sent the plunder to Alla. This prince had ruined his constitution by intemperance in the seraglio; and felt his health in rapid decline. He sent for Cafoor from Deccan, and complained to him of the undutiful behaviour of his wife and his son. Cafoor, whose eyes had already turned themselves with longing to the throne, contemplated the displeasure of the emperor against his family as a means for realizing his most extravagant hopes. He prevailed upon Alla to throw his two eldest sons, and their mother, into prison; and to put to death several of the chiefs by whom his pretensions were most likely to be opposed. When things were in this train, Alla expired in the year 1316, in the twenty-first year of his reign.

The time was not yet come when Cafoor deemed it expedient to declare himself king. He produced a testament, genuine or spurious, of the late prince, in which he appointed Omar, his youngest son, then seven years of age, his successor, and Cafoor regent. The first act of Cafoor’s administration was to put out the eyes of the two eldest of the sons of Alla: But there was a third, Mubarick, who escaped, till a conspiracy of the foot guards put the regent to death, only thirty-five days after the decease of his master. The reins of government were immediately put into the hands of Mubarick; but he thought proper to act in the name of his young brother, already upon the throne, for the space of two months, till he had gained the Omrahs. He then claimed his birthright; deposed his brother; according to the Asiatic custom, put out his eyes; and sent him for life to the fort of Gualior.

Mubarick was a man of vicious inclinations, and mean understanding. He for a moment sought popularity, by remitting the more oppressive of the taxes, and relaxing the reins of government; but the last so injudiciously, that disorder and depredation overran the country.

The reduction of the revolted Guzerat was one of the first measures of Mubarick. The enterprise, being entrusted to an officer of abilities, was successfully performed.

The Rajahs in the Deccan yielded a reluctant obedience; which, presuming on their distance, they imagined they might now, without much danger, suspend. Mubarick, in the second year of his reign, raised a great army, and marched to Deoghur; where not finding much resistance, he did little more than display his cruelty, in the punishment of those, who, charged with enmity or disobedience, fell into his hands.

Among the favourites of Mubarick was Hassen, formerly a slave, and, according to Ferishta, the son of a seller of rags in Guzerat. This man was an instrument of the pleasures of the Shah; and upon his accession to the throne had been honoured with the title of Chusero, and raised to the office of Vizir. Finding nothing more to perform in the region of Deoghur, Mubarick placed Chusero at the head of a part of the army, and sent him on an expedition against Malabar, while he himself returned with the remainder to Delhi.

The vices of Mubarick, and of his government, became daily more odious. He was the slave of every species of intemperance, and void of every humane or manly quality, which could procure the indulgence of mankind to his faults. Conspiracy succeeded conspiracy, and one insurrection another; till Chusero, beholding the contempt in which his master was held, believed he might shed his blood with safety, and place himself upon his throne. The reputation and plunder, derived from the success of his expedition to Malabar,313 had added greatly to his power. He made use of his influence over the mind of the emperor to fill with his creatures the chief places both in the army and the state. In the year 1321, he conceived himself prepared for the blow; when in one night Mubarick and his sons were destroyed.

On mounting the throne, Chusero assumed the title of Nasir ul dien, or defender of religion; a cause which has seldom been associated with that of government, except for the purposes of fraud; and Chusero, it seems, was aware that, for his government, such a covering was required.

He put to death, without remorse, a great multitude of persons in the service of Mubarick; all those from whom he imagined that he had any thing to fear; and distributed the offices of government among his creatures. “The army,” says Ferishta, “loved nothing better than a revolution; for they had always, upon such an occasion, a donation of six months’ pay immediately advanced from the treasury:” so exactly does military despotism resemble itself, on the banks of the Tiber, and those of the Ganges.

But though Chusero met with no opposition in ascending the throne; he did not long enjoy his kingdom in peace.

Ghazi was governor of Lahore; and though, for the sake of securing him to his interest, Chusero had bestowed high office and rank upon his son Jonah, Jonah made his escape from Delhi, and joined his father at Lahore.

Ghazi dispatched circular letters to the Omrahs; exerted himself to raise forces; and was joined by several of the viceroys with their troops. Chusero dispatched an army to subdue the rebellion; but the soldiers of Ghazi were hardened by frequent wars with the Moguls; those of Chusero, enervated by the debauchery of the city, were broken at the first onset; and the confederates marched with expedition to the capital. Chusero was ready to receive them with another army. Though betrayed and deserted in the action by a part of his troops, he maintained the conflict till night; when he made a fruitless endeavour to fly with a few of his friends. Deserted by his attendants, and dragged from his lurking place, he met the fate which he would have bestowed.

The Omrahs hastened to pay their respects to the victor; and the magistrates of Delhi presented to him the keys. Mounting his horse, he entered the city, and arriving at the gates of the palace, he addressed the people; “O ye subjects of this great empire! I am no more than one of you, who unsheathed my sword to deliver you from oppression, and rid the world of a monster. If, therefore, any of the royal line remains, let him be brought, that we, his servants, may prostrate ourselves before his throne. If not; let the most worthy of the illustrious order be elected among you, and I shall swear to abide by your choice.” But the people cried out, with vehemence, that none of the royal family remained alive; and that he, who had protected the empire from the Moguls, and delivered it from the tyrant, was the most worthy to reign. He was then seized, and by a sort of violence placed upon the throne; the people hailing him “King of the World.”

Tuglick is the name, by which the new emperor chose to be distinguished. It was the name of his father, who is understood to have been a slave in the service of Balin. His mother was of the tribe of the Jaats.

After appointing the instruments of his government, the first care of Tuglick was to secure his northern frontier against the formidable incursions of the Moguls; and so judiciously did he station his force, and erect his forts, that he was not once molested by those invaders during his reign.

This being accomplished, he sent his son Jonah into the Deccan to chastise the Rajah of Warunkul, who, during the late disorders, “had withdrawn his neck from the yoke of obedience.” Jonah, with the usual ease, hardly meeting with any resistance, overran the Hindu kingdoms; leaving every where behind him the cruel marks of imperial vengeance and avarice. After a few efforts in the field, the Rajah of Warunkul shut himself up in his strong-hold, and was besieged. From the strength of the place, the siege was a work of time; during which sickness, and along with sickness, desire to return, and from that desire opposed, disaffection, spread themselves in the Mahomedan army. Several of the Omrahs withdrew with their troops; when the Prince, no longer able to continue the siege, retreated, first to Deoghur, and thence to Delhi. The army was recruited with great expedition, and he marched again in a few months towards Warunkul, which soon yielded to his arms. Many thousands of the Hindus were put to the sword; and the Rajah and his family were sent to Delhi. Appointing Omrahs to the government of Telingana, he marched against Cuttack, where he gained some advantages, and then returned by the way of Warunkul to Delhi.

Tuglick, receiving complaints of great oppression against his officers in Bengal, appointed Jonah governor of Delhi, and marched toward that province with an army. Nazir, the grandson of the emperor Balin, had possessed the viceroyalty of Bengal, since the death of his father. He advanced to meet the Emperor with submission and presents; and was confirmed in his government. Jonah, with the nobles of Delhi, went out to meet his father with rejoicings upon his return. A wooden house was hastily erected to entertain him. When the entertainment was concluded, and the emperor was about to retire, the Omrahs hurrying out to be in readiness to attend him, the roof suddenly fell in, and crushed him with several of his attendants; whether by the contrivance of Jonah, by the fault of the building, or a stroke of lightning, was variously conjectured and believed. He reigned but four years and some months, with the reputation of a wise and excellent prince.

Jonah mounted the throne by the title of Mahomed III.; and began his reign with acts of liberality and beneficence. He distributed profuse gifts, and made magnificent appointments. This prince was a compound of heterogeneous qualities. He was generous to profusion; a lover of literature, in which he had made considerable acquirements; he was not only temperate but austere in his manner of life, and an attentive performer of acts of religion; he had no regard, however, to justice, or to humanity; he was cruel and vindictive as a man; oppressive and tyrannical as a ruler. His plans proceeded on the supposition, that the happiness or misery of his subjects was a matter of indifference; and when their disaffection began to afford him uneasiness, their misery seemed to become an object of preference and a source of gratification. He displayed however no contemptible talents in supporting himself against the hatred and detestation of mankind.

Immediately upon his accession he directed his attention to the further subjugation of Deccan; but more, it would appear, with a view to plunder, than to permanent dominion. His generals appear to have over-run a large portion of its more accessible parts. He reduced the Carnatic; and in the hyperbolical language of Ferishta, spread his conquests to the extremity of the Deccan, and from sea to sea.

He adopted frantic schemes of ambition. He raised an army for the conquest of the kingdom of Transoxiana and Chorasan, and another for the subjugation of China. Previous to the grand expedition against China, 100,000 horse were sent to explore the route through the mountains, and to establish forts to the confines of China. The horse did, we are told, penetrate to the frontiers of China, but were met with an army which they durst not oppose; and the rains, covering with water the roads and the plains, obstructed their retreat. They perished through fatigue, famine, and disease; and scarcely a man survived to describe the disaster. The inaccurate and uninstructive genius of Oriental history gives us no information respecting the track which this illfated army pursued.

The expense of Mahomed’s government led him to oppress his subjects by increase of taxes. To this great cause of misery and discontent, he added others by injudicious schemes of finance. “The King,” says Ferishta, “unfortunately for his people, adopted his ideas upon currency, from a Chinese custom of using paper upon the emperor’s credit, with the royal seal appended, for ready money. Mahomed, instead of paper, struck a copper coin, which, being issued at an imaginary value, he made current by a decree throughout Hindustan.” This produced so much confusion and misery, and so completely obstructed the collection of the revenue, that Mahomed was obliged to recall his debased coin; and individuals acquired immense fortunes by the ruin of many thousands, the general misery of the people, and the impoverishment of the sovereign.

Being called into Deccan, to suppress an insurrection raised by his nephew, whom be ordered to be flead alive, and in that condition carried, a horrid spectacle, round the city; he took a fancy to the situation of Deoghur, resolved to make it his capital, by the name of Dowlatabad, and to remove thither the inhabitants of Delhi. This caprice he carried into execution; unmoved by the calamities that were to fall upon the individuals; and unable to foresee the alienation in the minds of men to which the sight and the reports of so much unnecessary evil must of necessity expose him. “The emperor’s orders,” says the historian, “were strictly complied with, and the ancient capital left desolate.”

The provinces, one after another, began now to rebel. The Governor of Multan set the example. Scarcely was he subdued when Bengal broke into insurrection. This too the vigour of Mahomed quickly reduced. He was thence summoned by disturbances in Telingana, where he lost great part of his army, by a plague, then raging at Warunkul. But what, to the mind of Mahomed, was of more importance than the lives of half the inhabitants of Hindustan, he himself was afflicted with the tooth-ach. He even lost a tooth. This he commanded to be buried with solemn pomp, and a magnificent tomb to be erected over it.

Calamity in every shape assailed the wretched subjects of Mahomed. Such was the excess of taxation, that in many parts, particularly in the fertile country between the Jumna and the Ganges, the cultivators fled from their fields and houses, and preferred a life of plunder and rapine in the woods. From this, and from unfavourable seasons, famine raged about Delhi, and the neighbouring provinces; and multitudes of people perished from want. A chief of the Afghauns came down from the mountains, and plundered the province of Multan. The fierce tribes of Hindus, called by Ferishta, Gickers, were combined by a leader, and ravaged the Punjab and Lahore.

Mahomed, struck at last with the calamities of his reign, had recourse to religion for a cure. He sent a splendid embassy to Mecca, that, his coronation being confirmed by the successor of the prophet, the blessing of Heaven might descend upon his throne.

The Rajahs of Telingana and the Carnatic formed a confederacy; and within a few months expelled the Mahomedans from every place in the Deccan, except Dowlatabad.

Even the Viceroy of Oude rebelled. But the Emperor, marching against him with expedition, brought him quickly to his feet. Contrary to his usual practice, Mahomed pardoned the offender, and even restored him to his government; declaring, that he would not believe in his guilt, and ascribing his transgression to a temporary delusion, which the malice and falsehood of others had produced.

An effort was made to regain what had been lost in Deccan, and governors and troops were dispatched to the different districts; who in the way of plunder performed considerable feats. But in the mean time disturbances of a new description broke out in Guzerat. Of the mercenary troops, composed of Tartars, Afghauns, and other hardy races from the North, in which consisted a great proportion of the armies of the Mahomedan emperors of Hindustan, a considerable number, during some ages, had been Moguls. Of these it would appear that a considerable body had been sent to keep in check the turbulent inhabitants of Guzerat. They began now to commit depredations, and to set the power of Mahomed at defiance. Mahomed resolved to punish and extirpate them. The presence of the emperor, and their fears made them withdraw from Guzerat; but they retired into Deccan; and took Dowlatabad by surprise. Mahomed allowed them little time to make an establishment. They ventured to meet him in battle; when they were partly slain and partly dispersed. Before he could take the city, fresh disturbances arose in Guzerat. Leaving an Omrah to push the reduction of Dowlatabad, he hastened to the new insurgents. An army of no inconsiderable magnitude opposed him. He carried on his operations with vigour, and once more prevailed. But in the mean time the Moguls in Deccan, gathering strength upon his departure, defeated his General, and pursued his troops toward Malwa. He resolved to march against them in person. But the settlement of Guzerat was an arduous and a tedious task. Before it was concluded, he fell sick, and died in the year 1351, after a reign of twenty-seven years.

His death was propitious to the Moguls in Deccan; and afforded time for laying the foundation of a Mahomedan empire, which rose to considerable power, and preserved its existence for several centuries. Upon seizing Dowlatabad, the rebel chiefs agreed to elect a sovereign; when their choice fell upon Ismael, an Afghaun, who had been commander of a thousand in the imperial army. Among the insurgents, was a military adventurer of the name of Hussun. Wonderful things are recorded of his predestination to power; as usually happens in the case of those who, from a degraded station, rise to great command over the hopes and fears of mankind. He was an Afghaun slave or dependent of a Brahmen, who professed astrology in Delhi. The Brahmen gave him a couple of oxen to cultivate a piece of waste ground near the city, as means of a livelihood; where his plough turned up a treasure. He informed the Brahmen; and the Brahmen, equally conscientious, or equally cautious, the emperor. The Emperor, struck with the honesty of Hussun, bestowed upon him the command of one hundred horse. The Brahmen told him, that he saw by the stars, he was destined to greatness, and stipulated that, when king of Deccan, he would make him his minister. Hussun offered his services to the first commander who was sent into Deccan; joined the insurgents; and when Ismael was chosen king, he was decorated with the title of Zuffeir Khan; and received a large jaghire for the maintenance of his troops.

After Mahomed was summoned from Deccan, by the new disturbances in Guzerat, and after his general was obliged to raise the siege of Dowlatabad, Zuffeir Khan marched with twenty thousand horse against Beder, a city on the Godavery, nearly a hundred miles north-west from Golconda, and about the same distance west from Warunkul. This had been the seat of a Hindu rajahship; it was at this time a station of one of the imperial generals. Zuffeir Khan, obtaining the assistance of the Rajah of Warunkul, who sent him fifteen thousand men; and being reinforced with five thousand horse, detached to his assistance by the new king of Dowlatabad, engaged and defeated the army of Mahomed. Returning, with glory and plunder, he was met, before reaching the capital, by the king; who could not help observing, that more attention was paid to the general than to himself. Making a merit of what would soon be necessity; and taking the pretext of his great age, he proposed to retire from the cares of government, and recommend Zuffeir Khan as successor. The proposition was applauded; and the slave or peasant Hussun, mounting the new throne by the style and title of Sultan Alla ad dien Hussun Kongoh Bhamenee, became the founder of the Bhamenee dynasty. Koolburga, or Culberga, which had been the place of his residence, he named Ahssunabad, and rendered it the capital of the Deccanee empire.

Sultan Alla was not unmindful of his ancient master; from whose name he added the term Kongoh, and according to some authorities, that of Bahmenee, Brahmen being so pronounced, to his royal titles. He invited Kongoh from Delhi; made him lord of the treasury; and in his edicts associated the name of the Brahmen with his own. Hussun lived, after the acquisition of royalty, eleven years, two months, and seven days; having in that time reduced to his obedience all the regions in Deccan which had ever acknowledged the sway of the emperors of Delhi. He governed with wisdom and moderation, and died at Koolburga, in the year 1357, and the sixty-seventh year of his age.314

Upon the death of the emperor Mahomed, his nephew Feroze, whom he recommended for his successor, was in the imperial camp; and without difficulty mounted the throne. The nerves of the state were relaxed by mis-government; and it displayed but little vigour during the days of Feroze. The governor of Bengal aspired to independence; and the emperor, after several efforts, being unable to reduce him to obedience, was forced to content himself with a nominal subjection.315 Feroze, however, employed himself with laudable solicitude, in promoting agriculture, and the internal prosperity of his dominions. He lived till the age of ninety years; twenty-eight of which he spent upon the throne. He is celebrated in history for having constructed fifty great aqueducts or reservoirs of water; forty mosques; thirty schools; twenty caravanseras; an hundred palaces; five hospitals; one hundred tombs; ten baths; ten spires; one hundred and fifty wells; one hundred bridges; and pleasure-gardens, without number.

Mahomed, a son of Feroze, had received the reins of government from his father, when the weight of them began to press heavily upon his aged hands. A conspiracy, however, of the Omrahs, had, after a time, obliged him to fly from the throne; and Feroze made Tuglick, his grandson, successor. Tuglick was a friend to pleasure; and slenderly provided with talents. He made an effort to get into his power Mahomed, his uncle, who had been chased from the throne; but Mahomed threw himself into the fort of Nagracote, which, for the present, it was deemed inexpedient to attack. The emperor, meanwhile, inspired so little respect, that Abu Becker, his cousin, in danger from his jealousy, found himself able to hurry him to his grave. By means of some Omrahs, he corrupted the imperial slaves; who assassinated their master, after he had reigned but five months.

Abu Becker was hardly more fortunate. Some of the Mogul mercenaries, in the imperial service, conspired against him, and invited Mahomed from Nagracote, to place himself at their head. Mahomed succeeded; and Abu Becker resigned his life and his throne, one year and six months after the death of Tuglick.

In the reign of Mahomed, the Mahrattors (Mahrattas) again appear in the field. They were soon brought to submission; and Narsing their prince waited upon the emperor at Delhi. The six years of this emperor were chiefly employed in subduing or anticipating the insurrections of the provincial Omrahs or governors, from whom he enjoyed scarce an interval of repose. His son Humaioon, who succeeded him, was seized with a fatal disorder, and survived his father not many days.

The Omrahs, after high dispute, at last raised Mahmood, an infant son of the late Mahomed, to the throne. The distractions in the empire increased.

Three of the most powerful Omrahs of the court, Mubarick, Ekbal, and Sadit, fell into deadly feuds. The emperor having left the capital, with the army commanded by Sadit, Mubarick, fearing the resentment of Sadit, shut the gates of the city. The emperor was constrained to abandon Sadit, before he was allowed to re-enter his capital and palace. Joined by his sovereign, Mubarick, the next day, marched out and gave battle to Sadit, but was worsted and forced back into the city. As the rains had commenced, Sadit was obliged to lead his army into quarters. He immediately sent for Nuserit, a prince of the blood, and set him up in opposition to Mahmood, by the name of Nuserit Shah. A conspiracy soon threw Sadit into the hands of Mubarick, who put him to death. But a strong party adhered to Nuserit; and a most destructive contest ensued between the partisans of the rival kings. The balance continued nearly even for the space of three years, during which every species of calamity oppressed the wretched inhabitants. Some of the distant Subahdars looked on with satisfaction, contemplating their own elevation in the depression of the imperial power. But in the year 1396, Mahomed Jehangheer, the grandson of Timur, or Tamerlane, having constructed a bridge over the Indus, invaded Multan. The governor, who already regarded the province as his own, opposed him with no contemptible force; but was overcome, and resigned Multan to the conqueror. In the mean time the Omrah Ekbal obtained and betrayed the confidence of Nuserit, whom he obliged to fly to Paniput. He opened a deceitful negotiation with the Emperor, under cover of which he surprised and slew Mubarick. All power now centred in Ekbal; and the emperor was converted into a cipher. In this situation were affairs at Delhi, when intelligence arrived that Timur himself had crossed the Indus.

The birth of Timur, or Tamerlane, was cast at one of those recurring periods, in the history of the Asiatic sovereignties, when the enjoyment of power, for several generations, having extinguished all manly virtues in the degenerate descendants of some active usurper, prepares the governors of the provinces for revolt, dissolves the power of the state, and opens the way for the elevation of some new and daring adventurer. At no preceding period, perhaps, had these causes enervated the powers of government over so great a part of Asia at once, as at the time of Tamerlane. The descendants of Gingis had had formed their immense conquests into three great kingdoms; of which Persia was one; the intermediate regions of Transoxiana, Chorasan, Bactria, and Zabulistan or Candahar, and Cabul, lying between Persia and Tartary, were the second; and Tartary itself, or rather Tartary and China in conjunction, the third. The dynasties of the race of Gingis, in all these several kingdoms, had been in possession of power so long, as now to display the effects which possession of power in Asia invariably produces. The reigning sovereigns had every where given themselves up to the vices which are the natural growth of the throne; the viceroys of the provinces despised their authority; and weakness and distraction pervaded the empire. About thirty years before the birth of Timur, the kingdom of Persia had undergone a species of dissolution; almost every province, under a rebel governor, had been erected into an independency, and the whole divided into a number of petty states. From nearly the same period, the kingdom of Zagatai, (this was the intermediate sovereignty, so called from that son of Gingis whose inheritance it became,) had been contended for by a succession of usurpers. The Mogul throne of Tartary and China had been less violently agitated, but was greatly reduced in power. Into what confusion and weakness the Afghaun empire of Delhi had fallen, we have seen in sufficient detail.

Timur was born forty miles to the south of Samarcand, in the village of Sebzar, where his fathers, enjoying the rank or command of a toman of horse, had possessed a local authority for some generations. Timur had, from a tender age, been involved in the warfare of a distracted period; and by his courage, activity, and address, had at five and twenty fixed upon himself the hopes and esteem of a large proportion of his countrymen. Amid the other calamities which had fallen upon the kingdom of Zagatai or Samarcand, upon the breaking up of the government of the descendants of Gingis, the Tartars of Cashgar had been incited, by the apparent weakness of the state, to invade the country, where they now oppressed and massacred the wretched inhabitants. Timur stood forward as the deliverer of his country; but when the day for action arrived, the chiefs who had promised to support him betrayed their engagements, and he was constrained to fly to the desert with only sixty horsemen. Timur run every sort of danger, and endured every sort of hardship, for several months, during which he led the life of a fugitive or outlaw. By degrees, however, he collected a party of well-tried adherents. The soldiers of fortune, the most adventurous of the youth, gathered around him. He harassed the Tartars by daring, yet cautious onsets; whence he increased his reputation, and multiplied his followers. After a series of struggles, the invaders were finally driven from Transoxiana. But it was not till the age of thirty-four, and after a course of strenuous and fortunate activity, that he was raised by the general voice to the undivided sovereignty of his native country.

Placed on the throne of Samarcand, the eye of Timur perceived the situation of the neighbouring countries. The provinces or kingdoms which had become detached from the house of Zagatai; Karisme, and Chorasan; first tempted his restless ambition; and some years were spent in adding these important conquests to his dominion. The contiguous provinces of Persia; Mazenderan and Segistan, to which was added Zabulistan, the grand southern or Indian district of the kingdom of Zagatai; next employed his conquering arms. These enterprises successfully terminated, he passed into Fars, the Persia proper; into Persian Irac, and Aderbijian, the conquest of which he completed in two years. The princes or usurpers of the provinces, Shirvan and Gilan, sent to make their submissions, and to promise obedience. At Shiraz, in the year 1386, he received intelligence, that Toktamish Khan, a Tartar chief, whose authority was acknowledged throughout the region known to the Persians under the title of Desht Kapshak, north of the Caspian, had made incursion into Transoxiana. He flew to repel the invader; and the desire of chastising Toktamish was the primary cause of the conquests of Timur in Turkestan. He followed his enemy into regions, void of houses, where the men fled before him. When far driven to the north, they were at last constrained to fight; and the army of Timur, after severe suffering, repaid itself by a complete victory, which compelled Toktamish, with his remaining followers, to take shelter in the mountains on the western side of the Caspian Sea. From this enterpise, the victor returned to complete the conquest of Persia. He drove from the city of Bagdad, the last prince in Persia of the house of Gingis; he conquered the whole of Mesopotamia; pushed his way into Tartary through mount Caucasus, to chastise anew the insolence of Toktamish, who had passed Derbend and made an inroad in Shirvan; and, having settled these extensive acquisitions, was, in 1396, prepared to carry his army across the Indus.

Timur proceeded from Samarcand, by the city of Termed, and passing a little to the eastward of Balk, arrived at Anderob, a city on the borders of that stupendous ridge of mountains which separates Hindustan from the regions of the north. The difficulties of the passage were not easily surmounted; but every thing yielded to the power and perseverance of Timur. He descended to the city of Cabul; whence he marched towards Attock, the celebrated passage of the Indus; and in the year 1397, commenced his operations against Mubarick, who governed the frontier provinces of the empire of Delhi. Mubarick betook himself to a place of strength, and resisted the detachment sent to subdue him; but on the approach of the conqueror with his whole army, fled, with his family and treasure. The attention of Timur was now called to the situation of his grandson, who had invaded Hindustan the preceding year. The solstitial rains had forced him to draw his army into Multan, after it had suffered much from the season; and no sooner was he enclosed within the city, than the people of the country invested it, preventing supplies. Mahomed was reduced to the greatest distress, when his grandfather detached a body of horse to support him, and soon after followed with his whole army. He ravaged Multan and Lahore, putting the inhabitants of such of the cities as presumed to offer any resistance indiscriminately to the sword. Without further delay, he directed his march towards Delhi, and encamped before the citadel.

On the seventh day, though unlucky, Ekbal, and his ostensible sovereign, marched out to engage him. But the enervated troops of Delhi scarcely bore to commence the action with the fierce soldiers of the north; and Timur pursued them with great slaughter to the walls of Delhi. Ekbal, and Mahmood, fled from the city in the night, the sovereign towards Guzerat, the minister towards Birren; upon which the magistrates and omrahs of the city tendered their submissions; and opened the gates. In levying the heavy contributions imposed upon the city, disputes arose between the Moguls of Timur and the inhabitants; when blood began to flow. One act of violence led to another, till the city was involved in one atrocious scene of sack and massacre, which Timur was either (authorities differ) careless to prevent, or pleased to behold.

Timur remained at Delhi fifteen days, and arrested the progress of conquest in Hindustan. Having received the submissions of several omrahs, the governors or subahdars of provinces, and confirmed them in their commands, he marched in a northern direction, over-running the country on both sides of the Ganges, till he reached the celebrated spot where it issues from the mountains. He then advanced along the bottom of the hills to Cabul, and thence proceeded to Samarcand.

Delhi remained in a state of anarchy for two months after the departure of the Moguls. It was then entered by the pretended emperor Nuserit, with a small body of horse. Ekbal, however, by means of some Zemindars, was still able to dislodge him, and recovered the Dooab or country between the rivers, which, with a small district round the city, was all that now acknowledged the sovereign of Delhi. The governors or subahdars of the provinces all assumed independence, and adopted royal titles. Lahore, Dibalpore [Punjab], and Multan, were seized by Chizer; Canoge, Oude, Corah, and Jionpoor, by Shaja Jehan, then styled the king of the East; Guzerat, by Azim; Malwa, by Delawir; and the other departments, by those who happened in each to have in their hands the reins of government. Ekbal made some efforts, but attended with little success, to extend his limits. He received Mahmood, who fled from the disrespectful treatment bestowed on him by the governor or king of Guzerat; but compelled him to live on a pension, without claiming any share in the government. At last he came to blows with Chizer, the powerful usurper of Multan and Lahore; when he was defeated, and lost his life in the action. Mahmood then recovered a small remainder of the power which once belonged to the Shahs of Delhi; but knew not how to employ it either for his own or the public advantage. Nothing but the struggles and contests which prevailed among the usurpers of the provinces prevented some one of them from seizing his throne, and extinguishing his impotent reign in his blood; when dying of a fever, in the year 1413, “the empire fell,” says Ferishta, “from the race of the Turks [or Tartars] who were adopted slaves of the emperor Mahomed Gauri, the second of the race of the sovereigns of India, called the dynasty of Gaur.”316 An Omrah, who happened to be in command at Delhi, presumed to mount the vacant throne; but Chizer, with the troops and resources of Multan and Lahore, found little difficulty in throwing him down from his rash elevation.

Within a short period subsequent to the departure of Timur from Delhi, that conqueror had settled the affairs of Persia; reduced Syria, Egypt, and Asia Minor; defeated Bajazet the Turkish emperor on the plains of Galatia; and prepared a vast expedition against China, which he was conducting through the plains and across the mountains of Tartary, when he fell sick, and died, in the year 1405, leaving his vast empire to his son Shiroch.

Chizer, it seems, was of the race of the prophet. His father had been adopted as the son of a great Omrah, who was governor of Multan, in the reign of Feroze. Upon the death of this Omrah and his son, the father of Chizer succeeded as Subahdar of Multan, and from him the government descended to his son. At the time when Timur arrived in India, he was involved in difficulties, through the power of a neighbouring chief; and had the prudence, or good luck, to solicit the protection of the conqueror, who confirmed him in the government of Multan, and added to it several other important provinces.

Chizer affected to decline the title of sovereign; pretending that he held the government of India only as deputy of the house of Timur, in whose name he ordered the coin to be struck, and the instruments of government to be expedited. By this expedient, we are told, he obviated the jealousies and competition of the Omrahs, many of whom would have regarded their claim to the throne as preferable to his own. Chizer governed with considerable abilities; and the people again tasted the fruits of peace and protection under his reign. He made but little progress in reannexing the revolted provinces to the empire of Delhi. He reigned, however, from the furthest branch of the Indus, to the extremity of the Doab; and from the Cashmere and Himaleh mountains to the latitude of Gualior.

After a reign of seven years and some months his death transferred the government to Mubarick his son. Mubarick was early involved in a contest with the Gickers, who, under a leader of the name of Jisserit, continued to molest the Punjab and Lahore during the whole of his reign. The Hindu tribes in the hill country of Mewat, to the south of Delhi; those also in the hill country to the north of Budaoon or Rohilcund, gave him at various periods no little disturbance. A war was at one time kindled between him and the governor who had usurped the provinces lying eastward from Delhi, and was then known by the title of the King of the East. Coming however to a drawn battle, the two sovereigns were contented ever after to leave each other in peace. A rebellious slave, in the northern provinces, drew him into a contest with the Moguls of the empire of Samarcand; the rebel having invited the Viceroy of Shiroch who resided at Cabul, to come to his assistance. The Moguls were defeated in battle and repelled. Mubarick, however, in consequence of a conspiracy, headed by the Vizir, was shortly after assassinated, in the fourteenth year of a reign, during which he had displayed considerable talents for government, and more than usual attention to justice and humanity.

The Vizir placed Mahomed, a grandson of Mubarick upon the throne, expecting to govern the kingdom in his name, or in time to appropriate the shadow as well as the substance of command. But the Omrahs were disgusted with his pretensions, and levied war; which enabled or compelled the king to rid himself by assassination of his domineering minister. The Omrahs returned to obedience; and the king, after making a parade of his power in a progress through several of the provinces, returned to Delhi, and resigned himself to pleasure. The temper of the times was not such as to permit a negligent hand to hold the reins of government with impunity. The Omrahs in the distant governments began immediately to prepare for independence. Beloli Lodi, the governor of Serhind, a town on the Sutledge, or eastern branch of the Indus, made himself master of Lahore, of the greater part of the Punjab, and the country eastwards as far as Paniput, within a few leagues of Delhi. Beloli retired before the imperial army, but preserved his own entire; and reoccupied the country as soon as the troops of Mahomed returned. Another Viceroy, who had become independent in Malwa, and assumed the title of its King, marched against the feeble sovereign of Delhi, who saw no hopes of safety, but in calling the rebel Beloli to his aid. An indecisive action was fought: and the monarchs of Delhi and Malwa, both suffering from their fears, made haste to quiet their minds by huddling up an adjustment; but Beloli attacked in its retreat the army of Malwa, which he plundered and deprived of its baggage. He was dispatched by Mahomed against Jisserit the Gicker chief, who still harassed the northern provinces. But Beloli made his own terms with the plunderer; and returned to besiege Delhi. It held out however so long, that for the present he abandoned the enterprise. Mahomed shortly after died, his power reduced to a shadow, after a reign of twelve years and some months.

In the same year, viz. 1446, died Shiroch, son of Timur, and Emperor of the Moguls. Upon his death the vast empire of Timur, which had yet remained entire, underwent division. The eldest son of Shiroch, the famous Ulug Beg, inherited the imperial titles, and the dominion of Western Tartary or Transoxiana. The eldest son of Basinker, another of the sons of Timur, possessed himself of Chorasan, Candahar, and Cabul. The second son of Basinker held possession of the Western Persia. And Abul Kazem, the third of Timur’s sons, became sovereign of Georgia, and Mazenderan.

Alla, the son of Mahomed, mounted the throne of Delhi, honoured now with the obedience of little more than a few of the contiguous districts. Alla showed no talents for government; and after a few years, being attacked by Beloli, resigned to him the throne, upon condition of receiving the government of Budaoon, where he lived and died in peace.

Beloli was an Afghaun, of the tribe of Lodi, which subsisted chiefly by carrying on the traffic between Hindustan and Persia. Ibrahim, the grandfather of Beloli, a wealthy trader, repaired to the court of Feroze at Delhi; and acquired sufficient influence to be entrusted with the government of Multan. When Chizer succeeded to the same command, he made the son of Ibrahim master of his Afghaun troops; and afterwards bestowed upon him the government of Serind. Beloli was not the son of the governor of Serhind, but of another of the sons of Ibrahim. Beloli, upon the death of his father, repaired to his uncle at Serhind, and so effectually cultivated his favour, that he received his daughter in marriage, and his recommendation to succeed him in his government. But Ibrahim left a brother Feroze, and a son Cuttub, who disputed the pretensions of the son-in-law of the governor of Serhind. Beloli was the most powerful and adroit; and of course the successful competitor. The rest, however, excited against him the Emperor of Delhi. His country was attacked and over-run. But Beloli kept his army together, and speedily recovered his territory, when the imperial troops were withdrawn. By activity, valour, and skill, something was daily added to the power of Beloli; by indolence, effeminacy, and folly, something was daily detached from the power of the sovereign of Delhi; till Beloli was able to measure strength with him, on more than equal terms, and finally to seat himself on his throne.

The mother of Beloli was smothered, while pregnant, under the ruins of a falling house. Her husband, opening her body, saved the infant, afterwards emperor of Hindustan. It is related that when Beloli was yet a youth, in the service of his uncle, a famous Dirvesh, whom he came to visit, suddenly cried out with enthusiasm, Who will give two thousand rupees for the empire of Delhi? Beloli had but one thousand six hundred rupees in the world. But he sent his servant immediately to bring them. The Dirvesh, receiving the money, laid his hand upon the head of Beloli, and gave him salutation and blessing as the king of Delhi. Ridiculed by his companions as a dupe, Beloli replied, that if he obtained the crown it was cheaply purchased; if not, still the benediction of a holy man was not without its use.

Those Omrahs, who regarded their own pretensions to the throne as not inferior to those of Beloli, were disaffected. A party of them joined Mahmood, who held the usurped sovereignty of Bahar, and the country towards Orissa; and was called king of Jionpoor, the city, at which he resided, on the banks of the Goomty, about 40 miles from Benares. The victory which Beloli gained over their united forces established him firmly on his throne.

Beloli made a progress through his unsettled provinces, confirming or removing the several governors, as he supposed them affected to his interests. He was not long suffered to remain in peace. Between him and the rival sovereign of Jionpoor, or the East, an undecisive war was carried on during the whole of his reign. The advantage, partly through force, and partly through treachery, was, upon the whole, on the side of Beloli, who at last drove the king of the East from Jionpoor, and severed from his dominions the district to which it belonged. In his declining years Beloli divided the provinces of his empire among his sons, relations, and favourites; and died at an advanced age, in the thirty-ninth year of his reign. He was a modest sovereign; and when reproved by his friends for showing so little of the prince, “It was enough for him,” he replied, “that the world knew he was king; without his making a vain parade of royalty.”

The partition which Beloli made of his dominions had no tendency to prevent those disputes about the succession, which are so frequent in the East; but neither, perhaps, did it augment them. A strong party of the Omrahs declared for Secunder, one of the younger sons of Beloli; and after some struggle of no great importance he was seated firmly on the throne. The usual measures were pursued for placing the provinces in a state of obedience; and Secunder was stimulated to endeavour the restoration of some of the districts which for several reigns had affected independence on the throne of Delhi. The tranquillity, however, of an empire, which had been so long distracted, was not easily preserved; and Secunder was perpetually recalled from the frontiers of his kingdom, to anticipate or to quell insurrections within. He waged notwithstanding a successful war with the king of the East, who had been driven from Jionpoor by the father, and was now driven from Bahar by the son. But he found himself unequal to a war for the recovery of Bengal, to the confines of which he had once more extended the empire of Delhi; and that important province still remained in the hands of the usurper. Secunder reigned, with the reputation of abilities and of no inconsiderable virtue, for twentyeight years and five months, and was succeeded by his son Ibrahim.

Ibrahim had personal courage, and was not altogether destitute of talents; but he was a violent, capricious, unthinking prince; and quickly lost the affections and respect of his subjects. One of his maxims was, “that kings had no relations; for that all men equally were the slaves of the monarch.” This, though perfectly constitutional doctrine in the East, was a language which had now become unusual to the proud Omrahs of the falling throne of Delhi. Ibrahim was involved in an uninterrupted struggle with rebellion; against which, however, he maintained himself, during a space of twenty years. His empire was then invaded by Baber, a descendant of the great Timur, who in 1525 deprived him at once of his throne and his life.

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Part 1 of 6

CHAP. IV. From the Commencement to the Close of the Mogul Dynasty.

Upon the death of Shiroch, the son of Timur, and the division of the dominions of that conqueror among his descendants, quarrels and war ensued; the weakness and vice, which are the usual attendants upon long inherited sovereignty, weakened the unsteady powers of Asiatic government; and in a few years the great empire of Timur was in a state of dissolution. The Turks, who had penetrated into western Asia, and who, under Bajazet, received a dreadful overthrow by the arms of Timur, no sooner felt the weakness of government in the hands of his successors, than they pressed upon the nearest provinces, and at an early period were masters of Mesopotamia. Ismael was a disgraced servant of Jacob Beg, the eighth in the Turkish dynasty of the white sheep. Pursuing the career of a military adventurer, he collected around him a number of those daring characters, so numerous in the turbulent and unsettled countries of the East, whose business it is to seek a livelihood by their sword; and after a period, spent in subordinate plunder, he conceived himself sufficiently strong to attack, in the year 1500, the governor, or king (for he now affected independence) of the province of Shirvan. After the conquest of Shirvan, Ismael successively made himself master of Tauris, Media, Chaldea, Persia, and became the founder of the dynasty of the Sophis, who held the sceptre of Persia for a number of generations.

On the eastern side of the Caspian, Shaïbek Khan, a chief of the Usbeks, or Tartars of Desht Kipshak, entered Transoxiana, at the head of his horde, in the year 1494. In the course of four years, he rendered himself master of all Transoxiana and Chorasan; the last of which was however wrested from the Usbecks, by the arms of Ismael Sophi, in the year 1510.

Baber was the grandson of Abu Seid, the king of Zagatai; and Abu Seid was the son of Mahomed, the grandson of Timur, through Miran Shah. The dominions of Abu Seid were at his death divided among his sons. Ali became king of Cabul; Ahmed, king of Samarcand; Ahmer, king of Indija and Firgana; and Mahmood, king of Kundiz and Buducshan. Baber was the son of Ahmer, king of Indija and Firgana; a district surrounded by mountains, lying between Samarcand and Cashgar. He succeeded his father, while yet very young, in the year 1493; and was immediately involved in a war with his uncles, desirous to profit by his youth and inexperience. Baber maintained himself against them with varying fortune, sometimes reduced to the lowest ebb, at other times borne on a flowing tide; till the arrival of Shaïbek, the Tartar.317 Shaïbek, after a struggle which was strenuously supported by Baber, swept the posterity of Timur from Transoxiana and Chorasan. Baber was compelled to retire towards Cabul; where the son of his uncle Ali had been dethroned by his Omrahs, and the greatest anarchy prevailed. The weak resistance opposed to Baber, in Cabul, he had means to overcome, and became master of that province in the year 1504. After spending some years in contending with the enemies who disputed with him the possession of Cabul and resisted his efforts for obtaining Candahar, he was fired with the hopes of recovering his paternal dominions, Ismael Sophi having defeated and slain his enemy, Shaïbek. In the year 1511 he marched towards Bochara, of which, after some resistance, he made himself master. His next object was Samarcand, which surrendered upon his arrival. His ambition was to make this celebrated capital of the great founder of his house the place of his residence; and he appointed Nasir, his brother, governor of Cabul. But he had not enjoyed, above nine months, this coveted throne, when the Usbeks, under the successor of Shaïbek, returned from the desert, and Baber, after an unavailing struggle, was forced back to Cabul.

Baber had not spent one year in re-establishing his authority, in Cabul, when information received of the weakness at Delhi inspired him with hopes of indemnifying himself in the south for the possessions which he had been constrained to relinquish in the north. In the year 1519 he took possession of all the countries on the further side of the Blue River, one of the branches of the Indus. He overran a part of the Punjab, levying contributions; and after chastising the Gickers, who had molested him in his progress, he returned to Cabul. Before the end of the same year, he renewed his march into Hindustan, and intended to reduce Lahore; but was interrupted, by news from the northern side of the mountains which separate Bochara from Cabul, that a district there, of which he still retained possession, had been invaded by the Tartars of Cashgar. The following year, the conqueror was recalled, after he had made some progress in the invasion of Hindustan, by intelligence that Cabul itself was assailed by the people of Candahar. Baber resolved to complete the conquest of this neighbouring country, before he again led out his armies, to regions more remote. The vigour of the king of Candahar, who held out for three years, procured, thus long, a respite to the kings and Omrahs of Hindustan; or rather afforded three additional years for the exercise of their mutual hostilities, and the oppression of the wretched inhabitants. But in the year, 1523, Candahar being at last reduced, Baber rendered himself master of Lahore and the Punjab. The next year, beginning to feel the seducements of luxury and ease, he contented himself with directing his troops in Hindustan to march against Delhi. But they were attacked and overthrown. In 1525 Baber resolved to repair this misfortune by his presence. Ibrahim marched out to defend his capital with an army as much inferior in bravery, as it was superior in numbers. It was speedily routed, Ibrahim was slain in battle, Baber entered Delhi, and, mounting the throne of the Afghauns, or Patans, began the Mogul dynasty in Hindustan.

Great efforts were still demanded for the reduction of the provinces, the Omrahs of which being Afghauns, and expecting little favour under a Mogul monarch, held out, and even formed themselves into an extensive and formidable confederacy, setting a son of the late Secunder, as sovereign, at their head. Baber’s principal officers, alarmed by the resistance which it seemed necessary to overcome, combined in offering him advice to return. The king, declaring that he would relinquish such a conquest only with his life, displayed so formidable a spirit of resolution and perseverance, that in a short time the confederacy began to dissolve. Many of the Omrahs, who were the weakest, or whose territories were the most exposed, came over to Baber, and entered into his service. At last a great battle was fought, which Baber with difficulty won, but which gave him so decided a superiority, that his enemies were no longer able to meet him in the field. Having reduced the provinces which latterly paid obedience to the throne of Delhi, he advanced against the Omrahs of the East, who for a length of time had affected independence. He had scarcely, however, conquered Bahar, when he fell sick and died, in the year 1530.

Humaioon succeeded to the throne of his father, but was not long suffered to enjoy it in peace. His brother Camiran, in the government of Cabul, formed a resolution of seizing upon the Punjab; and Humaioon was fain to confer upon him the government of all the country from the Indus to Persia, on condition of his holding it as a dependency. Mahmood, too, the son of the Emperor Secunder, whom the confederated Omrahs, had placed at their head, was again joined by some chiefs, and kindled the flames of war in the eastern provinces. A victory gained by the Emperor extinguished all immediate danger in that quarter. But Shere Khan, the regent of Bahar, refused to give up the fortress of Chunar. A conspiracy was formed in favour of Mahomed, a prince of the race of Timur; and Bahadur, king of Guzerat, was excited to hostilities by the protection which Humaioon afforded to the Rana of Chitore. Bahadur was unequal to his enterprise; the war against him was pushed with activity and vigour, and he lost entirely the kingdom of Guzerat. Humaioon was now in favour with fortune; from Guzerat he marched to the eastern provinces, and reduced Chunar. Having gained the passes he then entered Bengal; the government of which had recently been usurped, and its sovereign expelled by the enterprising Shere. He took possession of Gour, then the capital of the province; and there resided for several months; but, his troops suffering from the humidity of the climate, and his two brothers now aspiring openly to his throne, he was compelled to proceed towards Agra, which he and his father had made the seat of government. In the mean time, Shere, though he had been defeated, was not subdued. He made himself master of the strong fortress of Rotas, after he had been obliged to retire from Gour; and he now threw himself in the way of Humaioon, whose presence was urgently required in another part of his empire. Humaioon, threatened with detention, if nothing worse, desired accommodation. After a negotiation, it was agreed that the government of Bahar and Bengal should be conferred upon Shere, paying a slight tribute, in acknowledgment of dependence. The chance of finding the camp of the Emperor unguarded, under the negligence inspired by the prospect of peace, was one among the motives which led Shere to open the negotiation. The perfidy succeeded; and Humaioon, having lost his army, was constrained to fly.

He repaired to Agra, and was joined by his brothers, whose united strength was no more than sufficient to defend them against Shere, the Afghaun. But their conflicting interests and passions defeated every scheme of co-operation. The army with which Humaioon marched out to meet the assailant was overthrown; the capital no longer afforded him a place of refuge; he fled from one place to another, subject at times to the greatest hardships; and was at last obliged to quit the kingdom, and seek an asylum in Persia, where he was hospitably and honourably entertained.

The grandfather of Shere, the new sovereign of Hindustan, came from the district of Roh318 in the
mountains of Afghaunistan, in quest of military employment, in the reign of Beloli, and entered into the service of an Omrah of the court. His son Hussun followed the Subahdar, who acquired the title of King of the East; and rose to considerable rank in his service. Ferid, the son of Hussun, received the name of Shere, which signifies lion, from killing with his own hand, in the presence of the King or Governor of Bahar, an enormous tiger which rushed from a thicket. When this monarch died, and his son, a minor, succeeded him, the government of Bahar rested chiefly in the hand of Shere; and a short time elapsed, when the young prince, having made his escape, left the name as well as the power of sovereign to the usurper. He had just accomplished the conquest of Bengal, when Humaioon, returning from Guzerat, invaded his dominions.319

Immediately after his victory, Shere assumed the imperial title of Shah, and exerted himself with great activity in reducing the provinces to his obedience. His mandates ran from the furthest branch of the Indus, to the Bay of Bengal; a more extensive dominion than for some ages had belonged to any sovereign of Hindustan. Besieging one of the strongly situated forts, which abound in India, he was killed by an accidental explosion of gunpowder, when he had reigned five years in Hindustan. What can be said of few sovereigns, even in still more enlightened ages, he left various monuments of public beneficence to prolong the memory, and the love, of his short administration. He built caravanseras at every stage, from the Nilab, or furthest branch of the Indus, to the shores of Bengal; he dug a well for the refreshment of the traveller at every two miles; he ordered that all travellers without distinction of country or religion should at every stage be entertained, according to their quality, at the public expense; he had trees planted along the roads to shelter the travellers against the violence of the sun; he established posthorses, the first in India, for the more rapid conveying of intelligence to government,320 and for the accommodation of trade and correspondence; even the religious comfort of the traveller was not neglected; a number of magnificent mosques were erected along the road, and priests appointed for the performance of devotional services.

Shere left two sons, of whom the youngest, being with the army, was proclaimed king. A struggle, as usual, ensued, for the possession of the throne; a feigned accommodation was made up between the brothers; war again quickly broke out; the eldest lost a battle, from which he fled, and disappearing was never heard of more. The youngest remained emperor, by the name of Selim. The Omrahs, however, or Subahdars of the provinces, who never neglected an opportunity that promised a chance of independence, rebelled in several quarters. In some instances they were not without difficulty subdued. After several years spent in reducing his dominions to order and obedience, Selim was roused from his dreams of future tranquillity, by intelligence that the exiled emperor Humaioon was on his way from Persia with an army, for the recovery of Hindustan. Selim prepared for action with vigour. But Humaioon, instead of advancing, retired. Selim, shortly after, was seized with a violent distemper; and died suddenly, in the tenth year of his reign.

He left a son to succeed him; but only twelve years of age. There was a nephew to the late emperor Shere, by name Mubarick, whose sister was mother of the young prince. Mubarick assassinated the boy in the arms of his mother, three days after he had been proclaimed as king.

Mahomed was the name which Mubarick thought proper to use upon the throne. Vice, profusion, and folly, the attributes of his character and administration, lost him speedily the respect of his people, and the obedience of his Omrahs. His brother Ibrahim raised an army, from which Mahomed fled to the eastern provinces, leaving Ibrahim to assume the style of royalty at Delhi. This was not all. Ahmed, another nephew of the emperor Shere, laid claim to the sovereignty in Punjub, assumed the name of Secunder Shah, and marched towards Agra. Ibrahim met him, and was defeated. Ibrahim was attacked on the other side, by the vizir of Mahomed, and after several turns of fortune, fled to Orissa. Secunder took possession of Agra and Delhi, while Mahomed was engaged in a war with the governor of Bengal; in which at first he was prosperous, but finally stript of his dominions and life.

In the mean time, Secunder was summoned to oppose the exiled emperor Humaioon, who had now a second time returned for the recovery of his throne.

When Humaioon made his escape into Persia, Tamasp the son of Ismael, second of the Sophis, ruled from beyond the Euphrates, to the furthest boundary of Transoxiana. The governor of the province which first afforded shelter to Humaioon received him with distinction; and he was conveyed, with the respect which seemed due to his rank and misfortunes, to the Presence at Ispahan. He was treated by Tamasp as a sovereign; and his misfortunes excited the compassion of a favourite sister of the king, and of several of his counsellors. At their instigation an army of ten thousand horse was entrusted to Humaioon; with which he advanced towards Candahar, still governed, together with Cabul, by one of his rebellious brothers. After an obstinate resistance, the city of Candahar fell into his hands, and the rest of the province submitted. Jealousy and dissatisfaction soon sprung up between him and the Persian commanders. But various Omrahs of the country now joined him with their troops; and, marching to Cabul, he was joined by the second of his rebellious brothers, and several other chiefs. Cabul was in no situation to resist; and his hostile brother fled to Bicker, a wild and desert province toward the mouth of the Indus, governed by a relation. When Cabul was subdued, Humaioon crossed the mountains to the north, for the purpose of reducing Buducshan, that district of the Mogul kingdom of Transoxiana which had remained united to the dominions of Baber. In the mean time his brother returned from Bicker, and in the absence of Humiaoon and his army obtained possession of Cabul. Humaioon hastened from Buducshan, gave battle to his brother’s army, routed it, and laid siege to Cabul. His brother seeing no hopes of success, fled from the city by night, and made his way to Balk, where he received assistance from the governor, marched against Humaioon’s new conquest of Buducshan, and expelled his governor. Humaioon left him not to enjoy his acquisition in peace: he marched against him, and forcing him to submit, treated him with lenity and respect. Humaioon next involved himself in hostilities with the Usbeks of Balk, over whom at first he gained advantages, but at last was routed, and obliged to retreat to Cabul. In this retreat he was deserted by his perfidious brother, whom he had recently spared. Some of the chiefs of his army wrote to that deserter, that if he could attack the army of Humaioon, they would betray him in the action. Humaioon was accordingly defeated; and obliged to fly towards Buducshan, leaving Cabul a third time to his foe. Being joined, however, by the second of his brothers, who now repaid by great services his former demerits; and by several other chiefs; he was speedily in a condition to march again to Cabul with a force which his brother was by no means able to withstand. After some resistance the brother was obliged to fly; and though he continued for several years to raise disturbance, he was no longer able to endanger the sovereignty of Humaioon.

That prince, though now in possession of part of his ancient dominions, though aware of the distractions which prevailed in the rest, and invited by the inhabitants of Agra and Delhi, paused at the thought of invading Hindustan. At first he was able to raise an army of only fifteen thousand horse. With that he began to advance towards the Indus, where he was joined by his veterans from Candahar. The governors of Punjab and Lahore fled before him; and those countries were regained without a contest. Secunder detached an army, which advanced towards the Sutledge. But the general of the advanced division of the army of Humaioon surprised the camp of Secunder in the night, and entirely dispersed the troops. This disaster made Secunder hasten with his main army to meet the enemy; a great battle was fought under the walls of Serhind, in which the young Akbar, son of Humaioon, showed remarkable spirit and resolution. Secunder, being routed, fled to the mountains of Sewalic.

Humaioon re-entered Delhi in the year 1554; but was not destined to a long enjoyment of the power which he had regained. As he was supporting himself by his staff, on the marble stairs of his palace, the staff slipped, and the emperor fell from the top to the bottom. He was taken up insensible, and expired in a few days, in the year 1555, the fifty-first of his age.

Tamasp still reigned in Persia. But the Usbecks had now possessed themselves of Bochara, and of the greater part of Transoxiana.

Akbar, the son of Humaioon, though not quite fourteen years of age, was placed on his father’s throne. He had been nursed in difficulty and misfortune; and, young as he was, those powerful teachers had done much in forming his mind.

When Humaioon with the few friends who adhered to him first fled from India, they nearly perished in the sandy desert which lies between Ajmere and the Indus. With the utmost difficulty, and after the loss of many lives, they arrived at Amercot, the seat of a Hindu Rajah, about two hundred miles from Tatta. It was here that Akbar was born. Humaioon, proceeding to Candahar, where he still hoped for support, was attacked by the governor of Candahar, and obliged to fly, leaving his infant son and his mother behind him. Akbar was kept at Candahar by the governor, till Humaioon was on his march from Persia, when he sent him to his uncle at Cabul. When Humaioon, after Cabul was taken, again beheld his son and his wife, he took the child in his arms, then four years of age, and exclaimed: “Joseph by his envious brethren was cast into a well; but he was exalted by Providence to the summit of glory.” Akbar once more fell into the hands of his uncle, when that rebellious prince regained possession of Cabul. When Humaioon returned to besiege him, Akbar was bound to a stake, and exposed upon the battlements. Humaioon made proclamation, that if injury happened to Akbar, every human being in Cabul should be put to the sword. The wretched uncle was deterred, or forcibly restrained, from exposing it to such a disaster.

Byram, the chief of the Omrahs in the service of Humaioon, a man of talents, but of a severe, or rather of a cruel disposition, was appointed regent during the minority; which, in so unsettled and turbulent an empire, was not likely to be attended with general submission and peace.

The first object of the new government was to exterminate the party of the late pretended emperor Secunder; and for this purpose an army, with the young sovereign at its head, marched toward the mountains. Secunder fled; the Rajah of Nagracote made his submission; and the rainy season coming on, the army retired into quarters.

In the mean time, the Governor who had been left by Humaioon in the command of Buducshan assumed independence; and presumed so far upon the weakness of the new government, as to march against Cabul. The city stood a siege of four months; but at last submitted, and acknowledged the authority of the invader.

This calamity arrived not alone. Himu, the vizir of Mahomed, the usurper who retained a part of the eastern provinces, marched to the centre of the empire with a formidable army. He took Agra. He took Delhi. The young Shah still remained in his quarters. A council of war was held, in which Byram advised to march against the enemy. The principal part of the Omrahs, as the hostile army amounted to 100,000 horse, that of the king to scarcely 20,000, held it adviseable to retreat. But the young Shah supported the opinion of Byram with so much ardour, that he kindled the enthusiasm of the Omrahs, who declared their resolution to devote their lives and fortunes to his service.

While the army was on its march, the governor of Delhi, he by whom the city had just been surrendered, joined the King. Waiting for a time when the presence of the Prince offered no interruption, Byram called this governor into his tent, and beheaded him. It was to anticipate, he told the King, the clemency of the royal mind, that he had taken upon him, without consultation, to make this example; necessary to let the neglectful Omrahs know, that want of vigour was hardly less criminal than want of loyalty; and that, as meritorious services would be amply rewarded, so no failure in duty should pass with impunity. The Prince, whatever were his thoughts, thanked the regent for the care he bestowed upon his person and government.

The brave Himu made the necessary dispositions for encountering the imperial army. The contending parties arrived in presence of one another in the neighbourhood of Paniput. The Moguls, who had been reinforced on the march, fought with great constancy, and the enemy were thrown into disorder. Himu advanced, conspicuous on a towering elephant, and endeavoured by his example to reanimate his troops. He was shot with an arrow through the eye; and his followers, believing him killed, endeavoured to save themselves by retreat. Himu drew the eye out of the socket with the arrow; and continued the fight with unabated constancy. But the driver of his elephant seeing a mortal blow aimed at himself offered to direct the animal wherever he should be desired. Upon this, Himu was surrounded and taken.

When the battle ended, he was brought into the presence of Akbar, almost expiring with his wounds. Byram, addressing the King, told him it would be a meritorious action to kill that dangerous infidel with his own hands. Akbar, in compliance with the advice of his minister, drew his sword, but only touching with it gently the head of his gallant captive, burst into tears. This movement of generous compassion was answered by the minister with a look of stern disapprobation; and with one blow of his sabre he struck the head of the prisoner to the ground.

This important victory restored tranquillity to the principal part of Akbar’s dominions. It is true that in the same year the invasion of a Persian army, under the nephew of Tamasp, rendered that prince for a time master of Candahar. And the late pretended emperor Secunder advanced into the western provinces, and made the governor fly to Lahore. But the imperial standards were carried with expedition towards the Indus; Secunder was cooped up in a fort; when, offering to surrender the place and all his pretensions, he was permitted to retire into Bengal, and Akbar returned to Lahore.

The overbearing pretensions of an imperious, though useful servant, and the spirit of a high-minded, though generous sovereign, could not long be reconciled. Mutual jealousies and discontents arose; the minister used his power with cruelty to deliver himself from those who stood in his way; he increased by that means the disgust of his master; yet he contrived for a time to preserve himself in power, by occupying the mind of the King with military preparation and action. An expedition, which ended successfully, was planned against Gualior, at that time a place of the highest importance. In the same year, one of Akbar’s generals subdued all the country about Jion-poor and Benares, hitherto retained by the Omrahs who had derived their power from the gift or the weakness of the late princes of the Afghaun or Patan dynasty. Operations were commenced against Malwa, possessed by another of those Omrahs. But all this business and success served only to retard, not prevent, the fall of the minister. When the royal ear was found open to accusations against the harsh and domineering Byram, courtiers were not wanting to fill it. He was secretly charged with designs hostile to the person and government of the Shah; and the mind of Akbar, though firm, was not unmoved by imputations against the man he disliked, however destitute of facts to support them. After some irresolution and apprehension, a proclamation was issued to announce that Akbar had taken upon himself the government; and that henceforth no mandates but his were to be obeyed. Byram, who had shown so much resolution when serving his master, was full of indecision when called upon to act for himself. The sovereign advised him to make a voyage to Mecca. At one time Byram proceeded to obey; at another time he resolved to render himself independent in some of the provinces which Akbar had not yet subdued; and at another time conceived the design of seizing and governing the Punjab itself. He attempted arms, but met with no support; and, driven to his last resource, implored the clemency of his master. Akbar hastened to assure him of forgiveness, and invited him to his presence. When the unfortunate Byram presented himself with all the marks of humiliation, and bursting into tears threw himself on his face at the foot of the throne, Akbar lifted him up with his own hand, and setting him in his former place at the head of the Omrahs, “If the noble Byram,” said he, “loves a military life, he shall obtain the government of a province in which his glory may appear; if he chooses rather to remain at court, the benefactor of our family shall be distinguished by our favours; but should devotion engage the soul of Byram to make a voyage to the holy city, he shall be provided and escorted in a manner suitable to his dignity.” Byram, desiring leave to repair to Mecca, received a splendid retinue and allowance; but in his passage through Guzerat, an Afghaun Chief, whose father he had formerly slain in battle, pretending salutation, stabbed him with a dagger, and killed him on the spot.

In the year 1560, a son of the late Shah Mahomed, who had found means to raise 40,000 horse, advanced with a design to recover the province of Jionpoor. The generals of Akbar, who had the province in charge, vanquished him with the forces under their command. Presuming, however, on their services or strength, they delayed remitting the plunder. Akbar went towards them without a moment’s delay; upon which they made haste to meet him with the spoils. He accepted their obedience; praised their valour; and bestowed on them magnificent gifts. This is a specimen of the behaviour of Akbar to his Omrahs. Their proneness to seize every opportunity of disobedience he restrained by prompt and vigorous interference; seldom punished their backwardness; but always bestowed on their services honour and reward.

Hussun, the governor of Ajmere, made some progress in subduing several forts in that hilly country, yet held by Hindu Rajahs. The general, sent to reduce Malwa, had carried on the war in that province with so much success as to drive the pretended king out of his dominions. He fled, however, to the sovereigns of Candesh and Berar; from whom he received such effectual support as to be able to defeat the army of the imperial general, which he pursued to the vicinity of Agra. Akbar gave commission to Abdalla, the Usbeck, governor of Kalpy, a city and province on the Jumna, to prosecute the war; and by him was Malwa annexed to the Mogul dominions. About the same time the Gickers, those restless tribes of Hindus, who so often from their mountains disturbed the obedience of the upper provinces, were united under a warlike chief, and assumed the appearance of a formidable enemy. They were attacked with the usual vigour of Akbar’s government; and compelled to receive, though of their own nation, a sovereign named for them by the Moguls.

Notwithstanding the virtues of Akbar’s administration, the spirit of rebellion, inherent in the principles of Indian despotism, left him hardly a moment’s tranquillity, during the whole course of a long and prosperous reign. Hussun revolted in Ajmere, and gained a victory over the imperial troops who were sent to oppose him. Hakim, brother of Akbar, a weak man, the governor of Cabul, began to act as an independent prince. A slave of his, approaching the King, while marching with his troops, let fly an arrow which wounded him in the shoulder. Abdalla, the Usbeck, master of Malwa, believed himself so strong, and the King, pressed by rebellion in various quarters, so weak, that he might erect a throne for himself. He contrived artfully to spread a rumour, that the Shah had contracted a general hatred of the Usbecks in his service, and meditated their destruction. This gained over Secunder and Ibrahim, the governors of two of the eastern provinces. Asaph, who held the government of Corah, had obtained great wealth by subduing and plundering a rajahship or Hindu kingdom, between Berar and Bengal, which till this time had escaped the ravage of a Mahomedan conqueror. Not wishing to part with any of this wealth and influence, he joined with the rebels, in hopes of being able to defy the imperial power. Even Zemaun, the captain-general of the empire, and his brother Bahadur, two chiefs of great power and renown, joined the enemies of Akbar, and hoped to raise themselves on the ruins of the king.

Akbar, whom neither exertion nor danger dismayed, opposed himself to his enemies with an activity, which often repaired the deficiencies of prudence. It would be tedious to follow minutely a series of expeditions, so much the same, to subdue one rebellious chieftain after another. Akbar had made considerable progress in reducing the eastern provinces to obedience, when he learned that Hakim, governor of Cabul, in hopes of advantage from his absence, had advanced towards Lahore. The tranquillity of the northern provinces, whose inhabitants were hardy and warlike, was always regarded by Akbar as worthy of more watchful solicitude than that of the east, where the people were effeminate and more easily subdued. Leaving therefore the reduction of the Usbeck rebels still incomplete, he hasted towards Lahore; and surprising his brother by the celerity of his appearance, he rendered opposition hopeless, and crushed the rebellion in its bud. In the mean time the Usbecks increased their army, and extended their conquests. The expeditious movements of Abkar left them little time to enjoy their advantages. Having returned with a recruited army, he came to an action with the combined forces of the insurgents, and gained a great victory, which effectually quashed the rebellion in the east.

The unsettled state of the province of Malwa soon required the royal presence. Among other measures, for the secure possession of that important district, he advanced to the attack of Chitore, a fort of great natural strength, situated in a mountainous and difficult part of the province, inhabited by Hindus, who had been frequently subdued, by the more powerful of the Mahomedan princes, but had as often revolted when the reins of government were held by a feeble hand. After an obstinate resistance Chitore was taken. Rantampore, in the Arrabarreehills, in the province of Ajmere, was also a hill fort, of great strength, which had often been taken from the Hindus, and as often recovered. Having reduced Rantampore, as well as Callinger, another strong hold of similar description and importance, in the same range of mountains, he directed his attention to Guzerat.

This was one of the provinces the governor of which, during the decline of the Patan or Afghaun dynasty, had assumed independence; and it had been governed as a separate kingdom for a number of years. After a time it had fallen into the same confusion, which seems the common fate of Asiatic sovereignties whether great or small. The Ormahs became too powerful for the sovereign; the different districts or governments assumed independence; and the royal power was reduced to a shadow. In this situation the province offered but little resistance to Akbar; the different leaders, who felt their inferiority, courted favour by hastening submission. Hussun, in Ajmere, was able to take the field with an army; but as the king was now at leisure to push the war against him, he was driven from the province, and, with the remains of his army, fled to Punjab. Attacked by a warlike tribe of the inhabitants, he was there taken prisoner, delivered up to the governor of Multan, and by him put to death. No sooner had the king turned his back on Guzerat, than some of the turbulent chiefs began to assemble armies, and prepare the means of resistance. The rainy season was now commenced, when the great army was unable to move; but Akbar, selecting a small body of cavalry, pursued his way with the utmost expedition to Guzerat, surprised the rebels in the midst of their preparations; offered them battle notwithstanding the inferiority of his force, and, contrary to all prudential calculation, gained a victory, which established his authority in Guzerat.

The province of Bengal paid a nominal submission to the throne of Delhi, but during several reigns had been virtually independent. After the other provinces of the empire were reduced to more substantial obedience, it was not likely that grounds of quarrel would long fail to be laid between Akbar and the King of Bengal. The governor or Subahdar of Oude being ordered, as contiguous, to begin operations against him, had gained some important advantages, and was besieging Patna, when he was joined by the Shah. The Bengal chief, seeing no chance of success, offered terms of accommodation. Akbar consented to engage for his life, but demanded that every thing else should be left to his clemency; to spare, however, the blood of their subjects, he offered to decide their disputes by personal combat. In the following night the Bengal chief went secretly down the river in a boat, and his troops immediately evacuated the city. Akbar returned to Agra; and the governor of Oude, to whose jurisdiction Patna was annexed, was ordered to complete the reduction of Bengal. The vanquished sovereign was allowed to retain Orissa. But unfortunately for him, the Zemindars of Bengal still adhered to his interests, and speedily assembled a considerable army for his restoration. Having put himself at the head of this armament, he was taken prisoner, and in the absence of Akbar put to death in cold blood, upon the field.

For a short space Akbar now enjoyed tranquillity and obedience throughout his extensive empire; and wisely made use of the interval to visit and inspect its several provinces. Soon was he recalled to his former troubles and exertions. The recently subdued Bengal furnished a variety of discontended spirits, who again appeared in arms; and his brother, in Cabul, marched against Lahore. Akbar never allowed disobedience in the upper provinces to gain strength by duration. He hastened to Lahore, overcame his brother, followed him close to Cabul, and received a message from the vanquished prince, imploring forgiveness. Akbar, with his usual generosity, which was often inconsiderate, and cost him dear, replaced him in his government.

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Part 2 of 6

The peace of Bengal was in the mean time restored; but a formidable rebellion broke out in Guzerat, which the son of Byram, the late regent, was sent to subdue. He was opposed with great obstinacy; and some power. But being a man of talents, he restored the province in a little time to obedience, and was rewarded with its government.

The governor of Cabul, the king’s brother, died. The state of the upper provinces seemed upon that occasion to require the presence of Akbar, and he marched towards Punjab. Here he projected the conquest of Cashmere, and dispatched an army for that purpose. The season being ill chosen and provisions failing, that army found itself unequal to the enterprise. Akbar, however, was not willing to be foiled: he dispatched a second army; and the conquest was made with little opposition. Soon after this, the Governor of Candahar, a province which hitherto had paid but a nominal submission to the Mogul throne, unable to defend himself against his rebellious brothers, and the Usbeks, who had now rendered themselves masters of Transoxiana and Bactria, and were formidable neighbours to the northern provinces of Hindustan, offered to deliver up his government to Akbar; and received that of Multan in exchange.

Akbar, who now beheld himself master, from the mountains of Persia, and Tartary, to the confines of Deccan, began to cast the eyes of ambition on that contiguous land. He gave directions to his governors, in the provinces nearest Deccan, to prepare as numerous armies as possible; and to omit no opportunity of extending the empire. He dispatched ambassadors to the kingdoms of Deccan, more with a design to collect information, than to settle disputes. And at last a great army, under Mirza, the son of Byram, who had reduced Guzerat, marched in execution of this project of unprovoked aggression, and unprincipled ambition.

We have already observed the circumstances which attended the first establishment of a Mahomedan empire in Deccan, and it will now be necessary to recount shortly the events which intervened from the death of Alla Bhamenee, in the year 1357, to the invasion of Akbar in 1593.321 Alla was succeeded by his son Mahomed, who reigned seventeen years, and carried on successful wars against the Rajahs of Telingana and Beejanuggur,322 a city on the Tummedra or Toombuddra, the most southern branch of the Kistna or Krishna, and at that time the capital of a considerable kingdom.323 He stript these sovereigns of part of their dominions, and rendered them tributary for the rest. A circumstance is recorded by the historian, which indicates but a thin population in that part of India. The number of lives which were destroyed by his wars was computed at near 500,000, among whom was the natural proportion of both sexes, and of all ages; for Indian wars spare neither sex nor age: And by this loss, the regions of Carnatic, says the historian, were so laid waste, that they did not recover their natural population for several kerruns, or revolutions of ten years: yet they had never before been more than slightly over-run by a foreign invader; and the virtues or vices of Hindu policy were here to be traced in their natural effects. Mujahid the son of Mahomed, was assassinated by his uncle after reigning three years. The murderer Daood placed himself on the throne, but lost his own life by assassination, after a month and five days. Of Alla, the first of the Bahmenee sovereigns, the youngest son was still alive, and had passed his life in confinement during the intermediate reigns. By the intrigues of the Haram, he was now acknowledged as king, and spent a mild and prudent reign of nineteen years, in almost uninterrupted tranquillity. His eldest son Gheause succeeded him; but having affronted one of his Turkish Omrahs, who disguised his resentment the more effectually to secure his revenge, he lost his throne and his eyes, after a reign of little more than a month; and his brother Shumse was made to possess it in his stead.

Shumse was but fifteen years of age; and was a passive instrument in the hands of the Turk. Of Daood, however, the usurper, who had enjoyed royalty a month, several sons remained, who, under the odium attending the present state of the government, conceived hopes of profiting by the usurpation of their father. By an alternation of force and artifice, they secured the persons of the king and his minister, after a reign of only five months and seven days, and one of the brothers, by name Firoze, took possession of the throne. He reigned upwards of five and twenty years; and is the most celebrated of all the sovereigns of Deccan. He was engaged in a variety of wars with the Hindu rajahs; but his acquisitions in point of territory were inconsiderable. His endeavours to secure the succession to his son, by the destruction of a brother of his own, whose power and talents excited his fears, involved the last months of his reign in trouble. But finding his efforts ineffectual, he submitted to necessity, and appointing his brother successor, died in a few days.

The new sovereign, Ahmed, was a man of talents; governed with moderation and prudence; and enjoyed a prosperous reign of twelve years and two months. He overthrew the Rajah of Warunkul, and added the city of Telingana to his dominions. The governors who, during the decline of the Afghaun or Patan dynasty of Delhi, had assumed independence in the provinces of Malwa, Candesh, and Guzerat, were now sovereigns, whose contiguity failed not to produce occasions of discord. At different times Ahmed was engaged in war with all these princes, but without any memorable result. He enlarged and beautified the city of Beder, which he called Ahmedabad, and removed to it the seat of government from Calburga. Toward the conclusion of his reign, he projected a partition of his kingdom among his sons. His acquisitions in Berar, with some contiguous districts, he assigned to Mahmood; he gave Telingana to Daood; and sent these princes to take possession of their shares. His two remaining sons, Alla and Mahomed, were destined to succeed him as colleagues on the throne of Calburga.

They ascended the throne without opposition; but Mahomed, dissatisfied with the share of power which his brother allowed him, was soon excited to rebel. He was defeated, and treated with generosity by Alla. Their brother Daood having just died in Telingana, Mahomed was appointed governor of that kingdom, where he devoted himself to his pleasures, and lived in peace. Alla was at various times attacked, by the Rajah of Beejanuggur in the south, and the kings of Guzera, Candesh, and Malwa, in the north; but defended himself with success. He sent an army to invade Malabar, which at first gained advantages, but being artfully drawn into the difficult recesses of that mountainous and woody country, was almost totally destroyed. After a reign of nearly twenty-four years, he was succeeded by his son Humaioon, who meeting with opposition and rebellion, gave reins to the ferocity of a violent mind; but died, or was assassinated, it is uncertain which, after a reign of little more than three years. His eldest son, Nizam, was only eight years of age at his accession; but the reins of government were directed by the queen-mother, a woman of talents; and though the surrounding sovereigns endeavoured to avail themselves of the weakness of a minority, and the king of Malwa penetrated to the very capital, he was repulsed, and the Bahmenee empire remained entire. Nizam died in little more than two years after his father, when the crown devolved upon his second brother Mahomed, who was then in his ninth year. The abilities of the queen-mother, and of a faithful minister, conducted the state in safety through the difficulties and dangers of a second minority; and Mahomed, displaying, when he grew up, considerable talents for government, enjoyed prosperity for a number of years; took part of Orissa, and the island of Goa; and thus extended his dominions from sea to sea. At last, however, the jealous rivals of the minister forged an accusation, which they presented to the king at an artful moment, and surprised him into a sudden order for his destruction. Mahomed soon discovered, and soon repented, his fatal mistake. The ambitious Omrahs, whom the vigilance and talents of the minister had restrained, began immediately to encroach on the royal authority. Mahomed died within a year of the execution of his minister, having languished both in mind and body, from the day of that unfortunate and criminal act.

His son Mahmood ascended the throne of Deccan in the twelfth year of his age. The contentions of the great Omrahs now filled the state with disorder. The sovereign himself displayed no talents for government, and was a slave to his indolence and pleasures. After plotting and struggling for several years, four of the great Omrahs declared themselves independent in their several governments; and a fifth, who remained at the court, reduced the power of the sovereign to a shadow, and ruled in his name. Mahmood’s nominal sovereignty lasted for thirty-seven years; during which the Deccanee empire was divided into five several kingdoms; that of Beejapore or Visiapore, founded by Esuff Adil Khan; that of Ahmednuggur, founded by Ahmed Nizam Beheree; that of Berar, founded by Ummad al Mulk; that of Golconda, founded by Koottub al Mulk; their respective governors; and that of Ahmedabad Beder, founded by Ameer Bereed, who rendered himself master of the person and throne of his master, and retained the provinces which had not been grasped by the other usurpers. This revolution, after being several years in progress, was consummated about the year 1526. These sovereigns were engaged in almost perpetual wars with one another, with the Rajah of Beejanuggur, and with the Sultan of Guzerat, who was so powerful as to hold in a species of subjection the Sultans of both Malwa and Candesh. A temporary union of the Shahs of Beejapore, Golconda, and Ahmednuggur, in 1564, enabled them to subvert the empire of Beejanuggur, and reduce the power of its chief to that of a petty Rajah. The kingdom of Beder, which had fallen to the share of Ameer Bereed, was conquered during the reign of his grandson; and its territories, which were not large, were divided among the other usurpers of the Bahmenee dominions. A similar fate awaited the portion of Ummad, which consisted of the southern part of Berar; it subsisted as a kingdom only four generations; and was annexed to his dominions by the king of Ahmednuggur in the year 1574. Deccan was, therefore, at the time when its invasion was projected by the Moguls, divided among the sovereigns of Beejapore, Ahmednuggur, and Golconda. At the time when the Bahmenee empire of Deccan was first divided into separate kingdoms, the Portuguese began their conquests on the coast of Malabar, and took possession of the island of Goa.

In addition to the army which Akbar had dispatched under Mirza towards Deccan, he sent orders to his son Morad, to whom he had committed the government of Guzerat, to join him with all his forces: Mirza had already been reinforced with the troops of Malwa, governed by another son of the Emperor, and by six thousand horse belonging to the king of Candesh, who had endeavoured, by submission, to avert the ruin which resistance would ensure. The combined army marched upon Ahmednuggur, to which they laid siege. The place was defended with great bravery, till provisions began to fail in the Mogul army, when the generals opened a negociation, and agreed, upon condition of receiving Berar, to raise the siege of Ahmednuggur, and evacuate the kingdom. The pain felt by the king at the loss of Berar soon prompted him to an effort for its recovery. His army fought a drawn battle with the Moguls. The resolution and ardour of Mirza led him to renew the engagement on the following day, when he defeated indeed the enemy, but was so weakened by his loss, as to be unable to pursue the fugitives, or to improve his victory. Mirza was soon after recalled. In his absence the Ahmednuggur arms gained some advantages; and the Mogul interests declined. But in 1598 Mirza was restored to the army in Deccan, to which the Emperor proceeded in person. Ahmednuggur was again besieged; and at last compelled to open its gates. The territory of Ahmednuggur was formed into a province of the Mogul empire; and its government conferred upon Danial, one of the sons of Akbar. The Emperor did not long survive these new acquisitions. He returned to Agra, and died in the fifty-second year of his reign.

At the time of the death of this successful prince, his great empire was divided into fifteen vice-royalties, called Subahs; each governed immediately by its own viceroy called Subahdar. The names of the Subahs were, Allahabad, Agra, Oude, Ajmere, Guzerat, Bahar, Bengal, Delhi, Cabul, Lahore, Multan, Malwa, Berar, Candesh, and Ahmednuggur.324

Shah Tamasp, the second in the line of the Sophis, held the sceptre of Persia till the twentieth year of the reign of Akbar; when there was a rapid succession of several princes, most of whom were cut off by violence. During these disorderly reigns, the Usbecks made dangerous inroads upon the eastern provinces of Persia, and even threatened the security of the northern provinces of India. At the time of the death of Akbar, Shah Abbas the great was upon the throne, a prince who made both his neighbours and his subjects tremble at his name.

Selim was the only surviving son of Akbar; but even this fortunate circumstance did not save him from a rival. Selim’s own son Chusero was destined to supersede his father, by Azim Khan, whose daughter was the wife, and by Rajah Man Sing, whose sister was the mother of Chusero. Azim Khan was vizir; Man Sing had a powerful government as an Omrah of the empire, and an army of twenty thousand Rajpoots, his countrymen, in his service. The schemes of these powerful chiefs were rendered abortive, by a decisive resolution of the commander of the City guards; who ordered the gates to be shut, and delivered the keys to Selim on his knees. Selim assumed the title of Mahomed Jehangire, or conqueror of the world, and dated his reign from October 21, 1605, being then in the thirty-seventh year of his age. Jehangire, for whom it would have been difficult, in the commencement of his reign, to contend with the power of Azim Khan, and Rajah Man Sing, contented himself with sending them to their respective governments; the vizir to his Subah of Malwa; the Rajah to that of Bengal; and Chusero was received into favour. A short time elapsed, when Chusero again rebelled, but, rejecting the advice of Azim Khan, and Rajah Man Sing, to assassinate his father, he taught those artful chiefs to despair of his cause, and they abstained from lending him any open support. So many followers crowded to his standards, as enabled him to seize and ravage some extensive districts. Unable to contend with the army which pressed him, he retired towards the Indus, when his followers dispersed, his principal friends were punished with all the ferocity of Oriental despotism, and he himself was placed in confinement.

One of the circumstances which had the greatest influence on the events and character of the reign of Jehangire was his marriage with the wife of one of the Omrahs of his empire, whose assassination, like that of Uriah, cleared the way for the gratification of the monarch. The history of this female is dressed in romantic colours by the writers of the East. Chaja Aiass her father, was a Tartar, who left poverty and his native country, to seek the gifts of fortune in Hindustan. The inadequate provision he could make for so great a journey failed him before its conclusion. To add to his trials, his wife, advanced in pregnancy, was seized with the pains of labour in the desert, and delivered of a daughter. All hope of conducting the child alive to any place of relief forsook the exhausted parents; and they agreed to leave her. So long as the tree, at the foot of which the infant had been deposited, remained in view, the mother supported her resolution; but when the tree vanished from sight, she sunk upon the ground, and refused to proceed without her. The father returned; but what he beheld was a huge black snake, convolved about the body of his child, and extending his dreadful jaws to devour her. A shriek of anguish burst from the father’s breast; and the snake, being alarmed, hastily unwound himself from the body of the infant, and glided away to his retreat. The miracle animated the parents to maintain the struggle; and before their strength entirely failed, they were joined by other travellers, who relieved their necessities.

Aiass, having arrived in Hindustan, was taken into the service of an Omrah of the court; attracted after a time the notice of Akbar himself; and by his abilities and prudence rose to be treasurer of the empire. The infant who had been so nearly lost in the desert was now grown a woman of exquisite beauty; and, by the attention of Aiass to her education, was accomplished beyond the measure of female attainments in the East. She was seen by Sultan Selim, and kindled in his bosom the fire of love. But she was betrothed to a Turkman Omrah; and Akbar forbid the contract to be infringed. When Selim mounted the throne, justice and shame were a slight protection to the man whose life was a bar to the enjoyments of the King. By some caprice, however, not unnatural to minds pampered, and trained up as his; he abstained from seeing her, for some years, after she was placed in his seraglio; and even refused an adequate appointment for her maintenance. She turned her faculties to account; employed herself in the exquisite works of the needle and painting, in which she excelled; had her productions disposed of in the shops and markets, and thence procured the means of adorning her apartments with all the elegancies which suited her condition and taste. The fame of her productions reached the ear, and excited the curiosity of the emperor. A visit was all that was wanting to rekindle the flame in his heart; and Noor Mahl (such was the name she assumed) exercised from that moment an unbounded sway over the Prince and his empire.

Through the influence of the favourite Sultana, the vizirit was bestowed upon her father; her two brothers were raised to the first rank of Omrahs, by the titles of Acticâd Khan, and Asiph Jah; but their modesty and virtues reconciled all men to their sudden elevation; and though the emperor, naturally voluptuous, was now withdrawn from business by the charms of his wife, the affairs of the empire were conducted with vigilance, prudence, and success; and the administration of Chaja Aiass was long remembered in India, as a period of justice and prosperity.

The Afghauns broke from their mountains into the province of Cabul, in the sixth year of the reign of Jehangire; but an army was collected with expedition, and drove them back to their fastnesses with great slaughter. About the same time, one insurrection was raised in the province of Bengal, and another in that of Bahar. But the springs of the government were strong; and both were speedily suppressed.

More serious hostility began in Odipore, a mountainous district lying between Ajmere and Malwa, the prince of which, though he had acknowledged subjection to the Mahomedans, yet, protected by his mountains, had never been actually subdued. Amar Sinka, the present Rana or prince of Odipore, attacked and defeated the imperial troops in Candesh. Purvez, the second son of the Emperor, at the head of 30,000 horse, was sent to take the command of all the troops on the borders of Deccan, and to oppose him. But Amar Sinka was no contemptible foe, possessing great authority among his countrymen, and the obedience of a great proportion of the people called Mahrattas, who inhabited the mountains on the southwest, adjoining those of Odipore. Dissensions prevailed among the Omrahs of the imperial army, which the youth and easy character of Purvez made him unable to repress. Encompassed with difficulties, and fain to retreat, he was pursued with loss to Ajmere. Purvez was recalled; a temporary general was sent to take charge of the army; the Emperor himself prepared to march to Ajmere, whence he dispatched his third son Churrum, to prosecute the war. Churrum entered the mountains with a force which alarmed the Hindus, and induced the Rana after a few losses to offer terms of accommodation. It suited the views of Churrum to show liberality on this occasion, and to conclude the war with dispatch. Peace was effected; and Sultun Churrum returned to his father, with a vast increase of reputation and favour at the expense of Purvez; who was left, notwithstanding, governor of Candesh; and lived in royal state at his capital Burrahanpore.325

It was at the time of which we are now speaking, that Sir Thomas Roe arrived at Surat, ambassador to the Great Mogul. In his way to the imperial presence he repaired to Burrahanpore, to pay his respects to the Prince, and solicit permission for his countrymen to establish a factory in his province. Purvez, whose good nature, affability, and taste, were better fitted for display, than his facility, indolence, and diffidence, for the duties of government, received the European messenger with magnificence and distinction. From Burrahanpore, Sir Thomas repaired to Ajmere, where the Emperor still remained. Jehangire was flattered by the compliments and solicitations of a distant monarch. But the rude court of India was not a place where the powers of an ambassador could be exerted with much effect.

In the year 1615, disturbances arose both in Guzerat and Cabul. In the most inaccessible parts of Guzerat lived a race of men, known by the name of Coolies, who exercised perpetual depredations and cruelties upon the inhabitants of the open and cultivated districts. The enormities of this people had lately risen to an extraordinary height, when Jehangire issued a sanguinary order for the utter extirpation of the race. Many were slaughtered; the rest hunted to their mountains and deserts. Cabul was again over-run by the Afghauns, who issued from the mountains adjoining that province on the north. But the Subahdar, collecting an army, overcame them in battle, and drove them back to their own country.

The provinces of the south were still unquiet. Purvez was engaged in a war with the princes of Deccan, which, from the dissensions and treachery of his Omrahs, was not successful, and encouraged the Rana of Odipore “to draw his neck from the yoke of obedience.” The hopes of the Emperor were again cast upon his younger son; and though his counsellors set before him the danger of sending the younger to supersede the elder, he made light of the menaced evil; bestowed upon Churrum the title of Shah Jehan or King of the World, and vested him with the conduct of the war. The easy and unambitious Purvez contested not the royal appointment; fortune, rather than any merit of Shah Jehan, induced the opposing princes to offer terms of accommodation without trying the fortune of the sword; and the prudent desire of Jehan to obtain the credit of terminating the war, without running any of its dangers, made him eagerly remove every obstacle to the conclusion of the peace. In the mean time the Emperor, accompanied by the English ambassador, departed from Ajmere, to Mando, the capital of Malwa, where he presided at the settlement of the affairs of the south; and having spent at Mando seventeen months in business and pleasure, he conveyed the royal camp, which was a prodigious moving city, into the kingdom of Guzerat, and thence to Agra, where he arrived after an absence of little less than five years.

It was shortly after this arrival, that Chaja Aiass, the Vizir, now dear to the nation for the blessings conferred upon it, ended a life which had been checquered by so great a diversity of fortune. The sympathies of the Sultana with such a father appear to have been strong, in spite of that loss of heart, which flows almost inevitably from the enjoyment of boundless power. She was inconsolable for his loss: and her inconsiderate mind, and gaudy taste, made her conceive the design of raising a monument of silver to his memory, till reminded, by her architect, that one of less covetable materials stood a fairer chance for duration. Her brother Asiph Jah sustained the weight of administration, in the room of Chaja Aiass, and inherited the virtues and capacity of his father. But he dared not contend with the haughty and uncontrolable disposition of his sister. And from the death of her father, the caprices and passions of the Sultana exercised a calamitous influence over the fate of the empire.

As the other parts of his dominions were now at peace, Jehangire marched toward Sewalic, or that part of the mountains, separating Tartary from Hindustan, which lies near the spot where the Ganges descends upon the plain. In the recesses and valleys of these mountains, lived tribes of Hindus, which, protected by the strength of their country, had escaped subjection to a foreign yoke, and exercised the depredations, common to the mountaineers of Hindustan, upon the fertile provinces below. The Emperor wished to subdue them; his army penetrated into the mountains; and after enduring a variety of hardships, for nearly two years (so long the war continued), brought twenty-two petty princes to promise obedience and tribute, and to send hostages to Agra. During this expedition the Emperor paid a visit to the delightful valley of Cashmere, where he spent several months. His partiality produced one good effect. A command was issued to improve the road, for the future visits of the Emperor; and this grand improvement, once begun, was extended to various parts of the empire.

In the mean time, the south engendered new disturbances, which led to important events. The princes of Deccan withheld their tribute, and raised an army to make good their disobedience. Intelligence arrived that they had crossed the Nerbudda in great force, and were laying waste the adjacent provinces. A great army was placed under the command of Shah Jehan, with which he was dispatched to repel and chastise the enemy. As the greatness of the force with which he advanced took from the confederates all hope of successful resistance, they hastened to make their peace, paid arrears, and promised punctuality and obedience. The success and power of Shah Jehan encouraged him now to commence the execution of designs which had long existed in his mind. His eldest brother Chusero, confined in a fortress in Malwa, from the time of his last rebellion, he prevailed on his father, before departing, to permit him to relieve from his confinement, and carry along with him. That prince was taken off by assassination, and all men ascribed the murder to Shah Jehan: The emperor loudly expressed his suspicions and resentment. Shah Jehan conceived the time for revolt to be now arrived; assumed the royal titles, and marched to attack his father. They came to action not far from Delhi, and empire was staked on the turn of a die. After an obstinate struggle, the troops of the father prevailed; and the son, who in his rage and grief had with difficulty been restrained from laying hands on himself, fled in great consternation toward the mountains of Mewat. He was pursued to Deccan; one province was wrested from him after another; and he lost a battle on the banks of the Nerbudda, which broke up his army, and obliged him to fly to Orissa. Here fortune seemed to dawn upon him anew. The governor of Orissa retired at his approach. He made himself master of Burdwan. He next entered Bengal, and defeated its Subadhar. He then marched to Bahar, which also yielded to his arms; and the impregnable fortress of Rotas, of which the governor came to deliver the keys into his hands, presented to him the inestimable advantage of a place of security for his family. In the mean time, the imperial army advanced. That of Shah Jehan was routed, in spite of all his exertions, and he again fled towards Deccan. All men now deserted him. After some time spent in eluding his pursuers; his spirits sunk, and he wrote a contrite letter to his father. Pardon was obtained, but with an order to deliver up the forts which were held in his name, and to repair with his family to Agra. That part alone of the command which regarded his own person, he endeavoured to elude, alleging the shame he should feel to behold the face of an injured sovereign and father; and occupied himself under the guise of pleasure in travelling with a few attendants, through different parts of the empire. During this rebellion Abbas, the Persian Shah, attacked and conquered Candahar. The Usbecks also penetrated to Ghizni, but were successfully resisted, and compelled to retreat.

The general to whose valour and conduct, on the late extraordinary and critical occasions, the Emperor owed his success, was Mohâbet, from whom, also, on many former emergencies, he had reaped the most important services. The first movement in the breast of Jehangire was gratitude to his benefactor. But Mohâbet possessed a dangerous enemy in Noor Mahl. The slave, she said, who had power to keep the crown upon the head of the Emperor, had power to take it off. Fear is nearly allied to hatred in the breast of an emperor. The power of Mohâbet was curtailed; offensive mandates were addressed to him; a strong fort, which he held, was transferred to a creature of the Sultana. He was commanded to court. His friends represented the danger; but an angry and more peremptory order following his apology, Mohâbet resolved to obey. Five thousand Rajputs, who had served with him in the imperial army, offered themselves for his escort. When Mohâbet approached the imperial camp, he was ordered to stop, till he should account for the revenues of Bengal, and the plunder acquired in the recent battle. Mohâbet, deeply affected with this injurious treatment, sent his own son-in-law to the Emperor to represent his loyalty, and expose the injustice of his enemies. His son-in-law was seized in the royal square, stript of his clothes, bastinadoed, covered with rags, placed backwards on a horse, of the most miserable description, and sent out of the camp amid the shouts and insults of the rabble. Mohâbet separated his retinue from the camp; and resolved to watch his opportunity. Next morning, the royal army began to cross the bridge which lay upon the river Jylum, or Behut, on the road between Lahore and Cabul. The greater part of the army had now passed, and the royal tents were yet unstruck; when Mohâbet, with two thousand of his Rajputs, galloped to the bridge, and set it on fire. Hastening thence, with a few followers, to the royal quarters; he secured the person of the Emperor, and conveyed him without opposition to his camp. Noor Mahl, in the mean time, contrived to make her escape. Next day Asiph Jah, the vizir, made an obstinate attempt to ford the river, and rescue the Emperor; but was repulsed with great slaughter. Unable after this, to keep the army from dispersing, he fled to the castle of New Rotas on the Attock, where he was besieged and soon obliged to surrender at discretion, while his sister the Sultana fled to Lahore. The Emperor was treated by Mohâbet with profound respect; assured that no infringement of his authority was designed; that the necessity alone under which the enemies of Mohâbet had criminally placed him, was the lamented cause of the restraint which his imperial master endured. The generous Mohâbet, who really meant as he spoke, was well aware that for him there was no security, under Jehangire, while influenced and directed by Noor Mahl. She was repairing to the Emperor upon his own request, when met by an escort of Mohâbet, who, under pretence of guarding, kept her a prisoner. He accused her immediately of treason and other high crimes; and the Emperor, on whose feeble mind absence had already effaced in some degree the impression of her charms, signed without much reluctance the order for her execution. She only begged, that she might have leave, before her death, to kiss the hand of her lord. She was admitted, but in the presence of Mohâbet. She stood in silence. The Emperor burst into tears. “Will you not spare this woman, Mohâbet? See how she weeps.” “It is not for the Emperor of the Moguls,” cried Mohâbet, “to ask in vain.” At a wave of his hand, the guards retired, and she was that instant retored to her former attendants. In a few months Mohâbet restored to the Emperor the full exercise of his authority, and, to show the sincerity of his obedience, dismissed the greater part of his attendants and guards. No sooner did the Sultana conceive him in her power, than she importuned the Emperor for his death. The Emperor had virtue to reject her proposal; but the consequence only was, that she resolved to employ assassination. Jehangire himself discovered to Mohâbet his danger; and he fled without attendants from the camp. The man who had saved the Emperor; and spared both his life and authority, when both were in his hands, was now the object of a command to all the governors of provinces to suffer him no where to lurk in existence; and a price was set on his head. Mohâbet seized a resolution which accorded with the boldness and generosity of his nature. In a mean habit, he secretly entered the camp of Asiph Jah when it was dark, and placed himself in the passage which led from the apartments of the vizir to the haram. He was questioned by the eunuch on guard, who recognized his voice, and carried to Asiph his request to see him on affairs of the utmost importance. Asiph was not ignorant of the baneful effects of his sister’s passions; nor unmoved by the generosity with which Mohâbet had lately treated both her and himself. He took him in his arms, and conveyed him in silence to a secret apartment; Mohâbet opened his mind with freedom on the misconduct of the Sultana; the weakness of Jehangire; and the necessity of another sovereign to cure the evils of an afflicted state. “The elder of the princes,” said he, “is a virtuous man, and my friend; but we must not exchange one feeble sovereign for another. I know the merit of Shah Jehan; for I have fought against him; and though his ambition knows no restraint either of nature or justice, his vigour will prevent intestine disorders, and give power to the laws.” The views of Asiph, whose daughter was the favourite wife of Shah Jehan, corresponded, it seems, with those of Mohâbet: a plan of co-operation was concerted at that moment; and Mohâbet, with letters from the vizir, retired to the court of the Rana of Odipore, to wait for events.

The death of the prince Purvez, which happened soon after, of an apoplexy; and the death of Jehangire, which followed at a short interval, saved the conspirators from many difficulties, and probably crimes. It was found, when the will of the Emperor was opened, that he had named Shariar, his youngest son, successor; at the instigation of the Sultana, whose daughter, by her first husband, that prince had espoused. As a temporary expedient, the vizir placed Dawir Buksh, the son of the late prince Chusero, upon the throne; but at the same time dispatched to Mohâbet the concerted signal for commencing operations in behalf of Shah Jehan. Asiph conquered the troops of Shariar, and put out his eyes. Shah Jehan proceeded towards Agra; and every obstacle was removed by the death of Dawir Buksh. Shah Jehan was proclaimed Emperor of the Moguls in the beginning of the year 1628.

He began his reign by removing all danger of competition. The whole of the male posterity of the house of Timur, with the exception of himself and his sons, were dispatched by the dagger or the bow-string. His sons were four in number; Dara surnamed Shêko, Suja, Aurungzebe, and Morad; the eldest, at this time, thirteen; the youngest, four years of age. Even the daughters of Shah Jehan were important actors in the scenes of his eventful reign. They were three in number, women of talents and accomplishments, as well as beauty. The eldest, Jehânara, was her father’s favourite, with a boundless influence over his mind; lively, generous, open; and attached to her brother Dara, whose disposition corresponded with her own. The second, Roshenrai Begum, was acute, artful, intriguing, and from conformity of character, favoured Aurungzebe. The gentleness of Suria Bânu, the youngest, kept her aloof from the turbulence of political intrigue and contention.

The two chiefs, Asiph and Mohâbet, who had conducted Shah Jehan to the throne, and were the most able and popular men of the empire, were appointed, the first, vizir; the latter, commander-in-chief of the forces. Through the wide dominions of the Shah, Lodi, who commanded the army in Deccan, was the only disobedient chief. Even he submitted, as soon as an army approached.

The dissensions and weakness usually attending a change of sovereign in the disjointed governments of the East, persuaded the leader of the Usbecks, that conquests might be achieved in Hindustan. Though Abbas still reigned in Persia, and the Usbecks had lately shed their blood in torrents, in disputes about the succession to their throne, they still possessed the regions of the Oxus, of which Abbas had in vain attempted to deprive them. Ten thousand horse, with a train of artillery, penetrated through the mountains into Cabul. They first laid siege to the fortress of Zohâc; but, finding it strong and well defended, proceeded to Cabul. The city made a vigorous resistance; but was at last reduced to extremity. The defenders, resolving however upon one desperate struggle, sallied forth, and repulsed the enemy, who evacuated the province, before Mohâbet, on his march from Deccan, whither he had been sent for the subjugation of Lodi, could reach the scene of action.

The disobedience of the Rajah of Bundelcund, who was so imprudent as to take offence at an increase of tribute, was chastised by an overwhelming force. But the heart of the generous Mohâbet was gained by the bravery of his enemy; and he obtained for him pardon and restoration.

All the merit of Mohâbet, and all his services, only inflamed the dark suspicions which usually haunt the mind of an Oriental despot. Shah Jehan regarded him with terror; and by such steps as it appeared safe to venture upon, proceeded to deprive him of his power.

The jealous and revengeful passions of the Emperor involved him in difficulties through another channel. When Lodi submitted upon terms, he was appointed to the government of a province, but not forgiven. He was now ordered to court, and received with so much studied insult, that both his pride and his prudence taught him to look for safety in his independence alone. He escaped with much difficulty; was reduced to the deepest distress; but, having talents and perseverance, he baffled the imperial pursuers, and reached Deccan. The resources which such a man as Lodi might find in the south made the Emperor tremble on his throne. He raised a large army; placed himself at its head; hastened to the scene of action; and engaged in those struggles for the subjugation of Deccan, which formed so large a portion of the business of this, and of the following reign.

Since the fall of Ahmednuggur, at the close of the reign of Akbar, the following are the principal events which had taken place in Deccan. The territories of the Nizam Shawee or Ahmednuggur sovereignty were divided between Mallek Umber, who possessed the country from the Telingana frontier to within eight miles of Ahmednuggur, and four of Dowlatabad; and Rajoo Minnaun, who ruled from Dowlatabad northward to the borders of Guzerat, and southward to within twelve miles of Ahmednuggur; while Mortiza II. a prince of the royal house of Ahmednuggur, with the empty name of sovereign, was allowed to hold the fortress of Ouseh, with a few villages to yield him subsistence. Perpetual contests subsisted between the usurpers; and Umber succeeded at last in taking Rajoo prisoner, and seizing his dominions. Umber was now a sovereign of high rank among the princes of Deccan, governed his dominions with wisdom, and, exacting something more than respect from the kings of Beejapore and Golconda, held in check the arms of Jehângîre himself. He built the city of Gurkeh, now called Aurungabad, five coss from Dowlatabad, and died, two years before the present expedition of Shah Jehan, at eighty years of age, leaving his dominions the best cultivated, and the happiest, region in India. Futteh Khan, the son of Umber, succeeded him. Mortiza II., still alive, got him by treachery into his power; and recovered once more to the house of Nizam Beheree the remaining part of the Ahmednuggur territories. He did not retain them long; Futteh Khan regained his liberty and ascendancy; and, with the concurrence of Shah Jehan, whom he consulted, put Mortiza to death; and placed his son, only ten years of age, upon a nominal throne.326

The Beejapore and Golconda sovereignties remained nearly in the same situation in which they had been found and left by Akbar. Mahomed Adil Shah was now on the throne of the former; Abdoolla Koottub Shah, on that of the latter kingdom.327

The Emperor arrived at Burrahanpore, the capital of Candesh, and sent his mandates to the princes of Deccan, to disband their forces, deliver up Lodi, and make their submissions in person, on pain of destruction. The celerity of the Emperor had allowed to Lodi too little time to make the preparations which resistance to so formidable an enemy required. But he had already engaged the three sovereigns of Deccan in a confederacy for his support, and had influence to make them reject or evade the commands of the Emperor. He was entrusted with a body of troops, and, seizing the passes of the mountains, opposed the entrance of the Mogul army into Golconda. The Emperor, impatient of delay, removed his general, and commanded the vizir to take upon himself the charge of destroying Lodi, and chastising the insolence of the princes of Deccan. The princes were already tired of the war, and alarmed by its dangers. The reputation and power of the vizir augmented their apprehensions. Lodi was deserted by all on the day of battle, except by a few chiefs, his friends, who adhered to him, with their retinues. With these he posted himself on an advantageous ground; and long arrested victory against the whole might of the imperial arms. A neighbouring Rajah, to gain the favour of the Emperor, set upon him unexpectedly, as he was pursuing his way to some place of safety, and he lost his brave son with the greater part of his followers. A party of those who were sent in all directions to scour the country, at last came upon him in a place from which there was no retreat; and he fell defending himself to the last extremity. Shah Jehan exhibited the most indecent joy when assured of his destruction; the measure of his terrors, while this brave man was alive. After the conquest of Lodi, the war in Deccan was little else than a series of ravages. The princes were able to make little resistance. A dreadful famine, from several years of excessive drought, which prevailed throughout India and a great part of Asia, added its horrid evils to the calamities which overwhelmed the inhabitants of Deccan. The princes sued for peace, and the Emperor agreed to withdraw his army, which he now found it difficult to subsist, retaining, as a security for good behaviour, the forts which had fallen into his hands.

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Part 3 of 6

During the famine, religion had made the Hindus desert cultivation, and betake themselves to the supplications, penances, and ceremonies, pleasing to their gods. The calamities which sprung from this act of devotion raised the indignation of Shah Jehan. Though no fanatic in his own religion, he pronounced that “an army of divinities who, so far from benefitting their votaries, led them to inflict upon themselves worse evils than the wrath of an enemy, were unfit to be endured in his dominions.” The Hindus however took arms in defence of their gods; and after some unavailing and unhappy efforts, he desisted, declaring, “that a prince who wishes to have subjects must take them with all the trumpery and baubles of their religion.”

The Portuguese, who had established themselves at Hoogley, in Bengal, and whose presumption rose with their success, gave displeasure to the Subahdar. He transmitted a complaint to the Emperor. “Expel those idolaters from my dominions;” was the laconic answer. The Portuguese defended themselves bravely. When compelled to lay down their arms, the principal evil which they were doomed to suffer, was, to see their religious images broken and destroyed. To this affair succeeded a second revolt of the Rajah of Bundelcund, who warded off the destruction now decreed for him with obstinate bravery for two years. The third son of the Emperor, Aurungzebe, with an experienced general for his guide, had the nominal command of the army, though only thirteen years of age; and showed that ardour in the work of destruction which distinguished his riper years.

When the Emperor marched from the borders of Deccan, he offered the government of Candesh and of the frontier army, for which he saw that great talents were required, to the Vizir, who, fearing the consequences of absence from the court, recommended successfully the virtues and capacity of Mohâbet. Adil Shah, the King of Beejapore, threatened to wrest Dowlatabad from Futteh Khan, who governed in the name of the young Shah of Ahmednuggur. To prevent the annexation of this important fortress to the dominions of his rival, Futteh Khan offered it to Shah Jehan, and Mohâbet marched to receive possession. Futteh Khan repented of his offer; and Mohâbet laid siege to the fortress. Dowlatabad is a place of great natural strength, standing upon a detached and precipitous rock, and had been fortified with the highest efforts of Oriental skill; but famine at last made Futteh submit. The young prince, his master, was carried a prisoner to Gualior. Futteh Khan was allowed to retain his private property, and was destined to become one of the high Omrahs of the empire; but being seized with insanity, the consequence of a wound formerly received in his head, he was carried to Lahore, where he lived many years on a liberal pension. The fall of Dowlatabad put a period to the dynasty of Nizam Shah, which had swayed the sceptre of Ahmednuggur for 150 years.328 Mohâbet, resolving to pursue the reduction of Deccan, marched towards Telingana, and laid siege to a fortress; but falling sick, and finding himself unable to superintend the operations of the army, he withdrew the troops to Burrahanpore, where he died at an advanced age.

The tranquillity of the empire permitted the ambition of Shah Jehan to attach itself to the subjugation of Deccan. He began to march from Agra. That time might be afforded to the governors of the provinces for joining him with their troops, his progress was purposely slow. In rather less than a year he arrived at Dowlatabad with an accumulated army. This great host was divided into twelve bodies, and poured upon the kingdoms of Golconda and Beejapore, with orders not to spare the severities of war: “because war (such was the reflection of Shah Jehan) was the scourge of humanity, and compassion served only to prolong its evils.” One hundred and fifteen towns and fortresses were taken in the course of a year. The unfortunate sovereigns were overwhelmed with calamity; and solicited peace on any terms. It was granted; but on condition that they should resign their dominions, and be contented to hold them as tributaries of the Mogul. The province of Candesh, with the army in Deccan, was left under the command of the son of the late Mohâbet, an accomplished chief. But he died in a little time, and Aurungzebe, the Emperor’s aspiring son, was appointed to succeed him.

About this time a refractory Rajah of Berar drew upon himself the imperial arms. That large district of Hindustan was regularly subdued; and bestowed as a Subah upon the successful general. Another event yielded high satisfaction to the Emperor. The province of Candahar, which had been wrested from the Moguls by the power of Abbas, Shah of Persia, was now recovered by the treachery of its governor, disgusted with the cruel and capricious sway of Sefi, the successor of Abbas on the Persian throne.

Of the operations next in order it is to be lamented that our information is very imperfect. The province of Bengal, we are told, was invaded from the kingdom of Assam, the enemy descending the Brahmapootra in boats till its junction with the Ganges below Dacca. The Subahdar of Bengal experienced little difficulty in repelling the invaders; and, not contented with an easy triumph, pursued them into their own country, took possession of several forts, and reduced some provinces; but he was obliged to return for want of subsistence, and suffered extremely in his retreat by the commencement of the rains and the badness of the roads. It is related also, that the kingdom of Tibet was reduced about this time by another of the generals of Shah Jehan, who was delighted to conquer in regions, which the arms of his predecessor had never reached. But to these conquests no effects are ascribed; and of that which is said to have been accomplished in Tibet we are told neither the place, nor the extent, nor the circumstances, neither the road by which the army was led to it, nor that by which it was conducted back.

The numerous subjects of Shah Jehan now enjoyed a tranquillity and happiness such as had seldom, if ever, been experienced in that portion of the globe. The governors and officers, in every part of his dominions, were strictly watched; and not only their obedience to himself, but their duty to his subjects, was vigorously enforced. His reign is celebrated for the exact execution of the laws. And the collection of the revenue, which affects so deeply the condition of the people, and had, in the time of Akbar, been very much improved, was advanced to greater perfection under the diligent administration of Shah Jehan.329

This tranquillity was scarcely affected by an incursion of the Usbecks into Cabul, the governor of which not only repulsed them, but, following the invaders, ravaged their country as far as Balk, and returned with considerable booty. This success of the governor of Cabul encouraged him to make an incursion into the territory of the Usbecks the following year. But he was on the point of paying dear for his temerity, his communications being intercepted, and his retreat rendered in the highest degree dangerous and difficult. The Emperor himself was, at last, infected with the ambition of conquering the Usbecks. His youngest son, Morad, was sent with an army, and over-ran the country without much difficulty; but offended his father by returning from his command, not only without, but contrary to, orders. The Usbeck sovereign had fled into Persia, but one of his sons solicited and obtained the co-operation of the kindred tribes beyond the Oxus. Aurungzebe was sent to cope with the new adversary; and his talents, and persevering courage were not more than necessary. In a desperate battle victory hung suspended, and fortune was more than once on the point of declaring against the Moguls. After much difficulty, and much loss, the country was indeed subdued; but its ancient sovereign, writing a most submissive letter to the Emperor, was, on promise of a slight tribute, reinstated in his dominions.

It was mortifying to the Emperor, in so high a tide of his power, that Candahar, regarded as the key of his dominions on the side of Persia, was wrested from his hands. Shah Abbas the second had succeeded the wretched Sefi, on the throne of Persia: and taking advantage of the removal of the Mogul troops from the northern provinces, and of the subjugation of the Usbecks, which seemed to deliver those provinces from danger, he marched towards Candahar with a great force, and obtained the city by capitulation, before the Mogul army was able to arrive. The strongest efforts were made for its recovery. Aurungzebe besieged it two several times; and Dara, the eldest son of the Emperor, once. It baffled the operations of both.

The most memorable transaction in the reign of Shah Jehan was the renewal of the war in Deccan. The frontier provinces, and the army appointed to hold in check the sovereigns of the south, had been entrusted to the command of Aurungzebe; but the suspicions and jealousy of his father and brothers had made them seek occasions to remove him, at one time to command in Guzerat, at another in the war against the Usbecks; he had still, however, found means to regain that important government, and was at Dowlatabad when an occasion offered which a mind like his was not apt to despise. A chief, in the service of the king of Golconda, who had carried the arms of that sovereign against the Rajahs of the Carnatic, and added extensive districts to his dominions, fell, at last, from apprehension of his power, under the hatred of his master; and perceived that his life was no longer safe. He transmitted private intelligence to Arungzebe of his readiness to co-operate with him in surprising the city of Hyderabad, not far from Golconda, where the sovereign resided, and where his treasures were deposited. Aurungzebe, covering his designs under the pretence of an embassy, was admitted into the city, but the king discovered the treachery in sufficient time to make his escape to Golconda; and as Hyderabad was set on fire in the confusion of the attack, the greater part of the riches which had tempted Aurungzebe was consumed in the flames. Siege was laid to Golconda; but orders arrived from court, suggested by the jealousies which there prevailed, that the king of Golconda should be offered terms of peace. The troops were withdrawn, after the beautiful daughter of the king had been given in marriage to the eldest son of Aurungzebe.

The chief, at whose instigation Aurungzebe had undertaken the expedition, was the famous Emir Jumla, born in a village near Ispahan in Persia, and of parents so extremely poor that they had scarcely the means of procuring him instruction to read. A diamond merchant, who travelled to Golconda, carried him to that city as a servant or clerk; at this place he left his master, and began to trade on his own account. With the first of his gains he purchased a place in the service of the king. His talents and address attracted favour; and he ascended by rapid gradations to the summit of command. During his public services he forgot not the arts of private acquisition; he had vessels trading to various places, and farmed under borrowed names the whole of the diamond mines. He greatly added to those riches by his successful wars in Carnatic; and was supposed to posses enormous treasures at the time when he connected himself with Aurungzebe. That prince immediately received him into his inmost friendship; and sought the benefit of his counsels and co-operation in his most important affairs. As it appeared that his talents might be employed advantageously for Aurungzebe at the court of his father, he was sent with such recommendations as helped him quickly to the highest rank. When the office of vizir became vacant, the remonstrances of Dara could not prevent the Emperor from bestowing it upon Jumla, in the sordid hope of receiving, upon his appointment, a magnificent present, suited to the riches he was supposed to possess.

Meanwhile, a new event demanded the presence of Emir Jumla in Deccan. The king of Beejapore died: and his Omrahs, without consulting the Emperor, placed his son upon the throne. The Emperor, who now affected to reckon the sovereigns of Deccan among his dependants, construed this neglect into a crime, which his new vizir was sent with an army to chastise. He joined Aurungzebe at Burrahanpore; and that ambitious, but artful prince, affected to act with profound submission under the orders of his father’s vizir. These two leaders understood one another. The war was conducted with concert and ability. The city of Beder was taken. The Beejapore army was defeated in the field. Calburga, the ancient capital of the Deccanee empire, submitted; and the King threw himself at the feet of the conqueror. After settling the terms of submission which were severe, Aurungzebe returned to Burrahanpore, and the vizir was recalled to Agra.330

After these events, the health of the Emperor excited alarm;331 when the flames, which had for some time been with difficulty compressed, broke out with irresistible fury. To every brother under an Oriental despotism the sons of the reigning monarch look, as either a victim, or a butcher; and see but one choice between the Musnud and the grave. The usual policy of Oriental fear is to educate the royal youths to effeminacy and imbecility in the haram; but the sons of Shah Jehan had been led into action, and indulged with the possession of power. They were not all men of capacity; but they were all ardent, brave, and aspiring; and each thought himself worthy of empire. Dara, the eldest, gallant, open, sincere, but impetuous, thoughtless, and rash, was destined to the sovereignty by his father, and generally kept near himself; Sujah, the second, was now Subahdar of Bengal, with more prudence and discretion than his elder brother, but far inferior in those qualities to the deep and dissembling Aurungzebe, who had from an early age affected a character of piety, pretending to hate the business and vanities of the world, and to desire only a retreat, where he might practise the austerities and devotions pleasing to God. Morâd, the youngest of the sons of Shah Jehan, was conspicuous, chiefly, for his courage; popular, from his affability and generosity; but credulous and weak. When his father’s illness gave fire to the combustibles which filled the imperial house, this Prince was serving as Subahdar in Guzerat.

As the illness of the Emperor was from the first regarded as mortal, Dara took into his hands without hesitation the reins of government; and with his usual precipitation and violence began to show what he apprehended from his brothers, and what his brothers had to expect from him. All communication with them was interdicted on pain of death. Their agents, papers, and effects at the capital were seized. Jumla, and such of the other high officers of the state as were suspected of attachment to any of the younger princes, were removed from their situations. And orders were issued to place the imperial forces in a state of preparation for the field.

Suja, who was nearest the scene of action, was the first to appear in hostile array. From the government of the richest province of the empire, which he had severely pillaged, he was master of a large treasure, the best sinew of war; and he had collected an army with a view to that very contest which was now impending. Solimân, the eldest son of Dara, was dispatched without loss of time to oppose him; found means to cross the Ganges unexpectedly; surprised the camp of Suja, and forced him to retreat precipitately to Mongeer; where he was immediately besieged.

In the mean time, Aurungzebe was employing the resources of his fertile mind for strengthening his hands, and making sure his blow. He persuaded Morâd, that with regard to himself his views were directed to heaven, not to a throne; but as his brothers Dara and Suja, compared with Morad, were unworthy to reign, he was desirous from friendship of aiding him with all his resources; after which the only boon he should crave would be to retire into obscurity, and devote his days and his nights to the service of his Maker.

Though Emir Jumla had been dismissed from the vizirit, he was sent, through some influence which Dara could not resist, to the command of an army in Deccan, where it was the business of Aurungzebe to obtain the benefit of his talents and resources. But the family of Jumla, detained at Delhi, still retained that chieftain in bonds. The expedient which presented itself to the mind of Aurungzebe, fertile in contrivances, was, to seize the person of Emir Jumla. The appearance of constraint would deprive Dara of a pretext for taking revenge on his family. The sudden resentment of his army could be appeased by promises and bribes. The stratagem succeeded, and the talents and army of Jumla were both added to the resources of Aurungzebe.

Having concerted with his brother, from Guzerat, to join him at Oojeen, he took the route from Burrahanpore, and arrived at the Nerbudda, where he learned that Jesswint Sing, who had married the daughter of the Rana of Odipore, and through her succeeded to most of the dominions of her father, was in possession of the city of Oojeen, and prepared to dispute the passage of the army. The Rajah lost the favourable opportunity of attacking the troops of Aurungzebe, when, spent with heat and fatigue, they first arrived on the banks of the Nurbudda. The wily Mogul delayed some days, till joined by Morad; when the brothers crossed the river, and, after a well contested action, put the Rajah to flight. Aurungzebe, who never trusted to force what he could effect by deceit, had previously debauched the Mahomedans in the army of the Rajah, by disseminating among them the idea that help to the infidels was treason to the faithful.

In the mean time, the Emperor Shah Jehan had recovered from the violent effects of his disorder; and resumed the exercise of his authority. Dara, who during the royal illness had behaved with tenderness and fidelity truly filial, and delayed not a moment to restore the reins of government when his father was capable to receive them, was exalted to a still higher place in the affections of the Emperor; who dispatched his commands to the Princes Aurungzebe and Morad to return to their respective governments. Aurungzebe was little inclined to intermit the efforts he had so happily begun; but to make war upon his father, beloved both by the soldiers and people, was to ruin his cause, and make even his own army desert him. Under colour of refreshing his troops, he waited several days at Oojeen; and the impetuosity of Dara, which the counsels of Shah Jehan were unable to restrain, speedily afforded him a pretext to cover his designs. The news of the passage of the Nerbudda, and of the defeat of the Rajah, kindled Dara into a flame. He marched out of Agra at the head of the imperial forces; and enabled Aurungzebe to give out that he fought by necessity; against his brother merely, not his father; and in self-defence. Dara sent to his son Soliman, who was besieging Suja in Mongeer, to make what terms he could with that Sultan, and march with all expedition to join him against Aurungzebe. Suja was allowed to resume the government of Bengal: Soliman hastened toward the new scene of action: And, could the impatience of Dara, have waited, till joined by his son, who was beloved by the soldiers, and at once prudent and brave, the career of Aurungzebe might perhaps have been closed. The emperor trembled at the prospect of a battle; he threatened to take the field in person, which would have been effectual; because no authority would have been obeyed in opposition to his. But the infatuated Dara found means to prevent the execution of this design; and marched to occupy the banks of the river Chumbul, and the passes of the mountains which extend from Guzerat to the Jumna. Aurungzebe found the passes so strongly guarded, and the enemy so advantageously posted, that he durst not attack them; and fearing the approach of Soliman, he was thrown into the greatest perplexity. In this situation he received, from a treacherous Omrah in the army of Dara, information of a byeroad among the hills, which would conduct him to an unguarded part of the river. He left his camp standing, to amuse the eyes of Dara; whose first intelligence was, that Aurungzebe was in his rear, and in full march towards the capital. By great exertion Dara threw himself before the enemy, and prepared for action. Dara appeared to most advantage in the field of battle. His bravery animated his troops. The impetuous gallantry of Morad, and the cool and inventive intrepidity of Aurungzebe, were balanced by the spirit of the imperial army and its leader. The elephant of Dara was wounded; and in an evil hour he was persuaded to dismount. The troops, missing the imperial houda, suspected treachery, and the death of their general; and every man began to provide for himself. Aurungzebe found himself master of the field of battle, at the moment when he despaired of any longer being able to make his soldiers maintain the contest.

Dara fled to Agra, and, after a short interview with his father, departed with his family and a few attendants to Delhi, where some imperial troops and treasures were placed at his disposal, and whence he proposed to effect a junction with Soliman. All the cunning and diligence of Aurungzebe were now exerted to the utmost, to improve his victory. He affected to treat Morâd as Emperor; and began to make preparations for himself, as intending immediately to set out on a religious pilgrimage to Mecca. In the mean time he wrote letters, and exhausted the arts of seduction, to detatch the Omrahs from the cause of Dara. His principal solicitude was to debauch the army of Soliman; which he accomplished so effectually, that the unfortunate Prince found at last he could place no dependance on its obedience, and was not even safe in its power. He fled from his danger; and took shelter with the Rajah of Serinagur, an unconquered kingdom of Hindus, among the northern mountains. The victorious army advanced towards Agra; but the Emperor ordered the gates of the citadel to be shut, and Aurungzebe was still afraid to offer violence to his father. He wrote a letter, replete with the strongest professions of loyalty, and of the most profound submission to his parent and sovereign. The Emperor, with the hope of drawing him into his power, affected to be satisfied, and invited him to his presence. Aurungzebe every day pretended that he was just about to comply; but every day found an excuse for delay. After a series of intrigues, he pretended that to set his mind at ease, in appearing under humiliation and abasement before his father, it was necessary that his son should previously be admitted into the citadel with a guard for his person. The Emperor, who was blinded by his desire to have Aurungzebe in his hands, assented to a condition which seemed indispensable. When he found himself a prisoner in the hands of his grandson, his rage and vexation exceeded bounds; and he offered to resign to him the crown, if he would set him at liberty, and join him in defeating the schemes of Aurungzebe. But the youth, though not averse to the prospect of reigning, and not much restrained by the sense of filial duty, refused to comply; and, after some hesitation and delay, Shah Jehan sent the keys of the citadel to Aurungzebe. The hypocrisy of Aurungzebe was not yet renounced. By a letter, which was carefully made public, he declared; that with the utmost grief he had been reduced to these extremities; and that as soon as Dara, to whose crimes every evil was owing, should be disabled from future mischief, the happiest event of his life would be, to restore to his father the plenitude of his power.

To deliver himself from Morad was the next study of Aurungzebe. The friends of that thoughtless prince had at last brought him to look with suspicion upon his brother’s designs; and even to meditate an act which might deliver him finally from so dangerous a rival. The sagacity of Aurungzebe enabled him to discover the intended blow, which he contrived to elude at the very moment, when it was aimed and ready to fall. In his turn he inveigled Morad to an entertainment, and, having intoxicated him with wine, withdrew his arms while he slept; seized him without any commotion, and sent him a prisoner to the castle of Agra.332

It was now useless, if not hurtful to the cause of Aurungzebe, any longer to disavow his ultimate purpose. But he waited till he was importuned by his nobles; and then, on the second of August, 1658, in the garden of Azabâd, near Delhi, pretending to be overcome by their entreaties, he submitted to receive the ensigns of royalty; and assumed the pompous title of Aulum gîr, or Conqueror of the world.

Aulum gîr allowed not what he had already achieved to slacken his efforts in finishing what remained to be done. Dara had taken the route towards Lahore; and had the resources of the northern provinces, Lahore, Multan, and Cabul, at his command: Soliman was ready to descend from the mountains with the assistance of the Rajah of Serinagur, and with a body of adherents who still approached the size of an army: And Suja was master of the rich province of Bengal. Aulum gîr saw, what every skilful leader has seen, that in the coarse business of war, expedition is the grand instrument of success. He hastened toward the Sutledge, from the banks of which Dara retreated upon the news of his approach. Aurungzebe, pressing on, drove him first from the Beyah, then from Lahore, and next from Multan; the unfortunate Prince, who might have resisted with some chance of success, having lost his resolution together with his fortune. From Multan, he fled across the Indus to the mountains of Bicker, when Aurungzebe, declaring the war against him to be closed, left eight thousand horse to pursue him, and returned with haste to Agra.

He had no sooner arrived at Agra, than he learned, what he partly expected, that Suja was already in force, and in full march toward the capital. He sent to his son Mahomed whom he had left at Multan, to join him with all his forces; and in the mean time took the road to Bengal, but by slow marches, till Mahomed came up. Suja intrenched himself near Allahabad; and waited for the arrival of his enemy. Though Suja did not avail himself of all his advantages, he was able to join battle with a fair prospect of success. Nor was this all. In the very heat of the action, the Rajah, Jesswint Sing, who had made his peace with Aurungzebe, and joined him with his forces, turned his arms against him, and fell upon the rear of his army. The dismay and desertion which every unexpected incident scatters through an Indian army began to appear. But the firmness of the usurper recovered the blow. His elephant, which was wounded and began to be ungovernable, he ordered to be chained immoveable by the feet; the soldiers, still beholding the imperial castle opposed to the enemy, were rallied by the generals; Suja committed the same fatal mistake which had ruined Dara; he descended from his elephant, and his army dispersed.

Emir Jumla, the ancient friend of Aurungzebe, who from his place of confinement, or pretended confinement in Deccan, had joined him on the march, performed eminent service in this battle. It is even said, that Aurungzebe, when his elephant became ungovernable, had one foot out of the castle to alight, when Jumla, who was near him on horseback, cried out sternly, “You descend from the throne!” Aurungzebe smiled, had a moment for reflection, and replaced himself in the houda.

Suja and his army fled during the night, while Aurungzebe was in no condition to pursue them. Jesswint Sing, and his rajaputs, who had plundered the camp, had the audacity to wait the attack of Aurungzebe the following day; and were routed, but without being obliged to abandon their spoil. Leaving Mahomed with a force to pursue the vanquished Suja, Aurungzebe hurried back to Agra.

The haste was not without a cause. Dara, after having arrived at Bicker, crossed the desert with his family, and arrived in Guzerat, where he gained the governor. Aurungzebe, aware how small a spark might kindle into a flame, among the disaffected rajahs of the mountains, and the distant viceroys and princes of Deccan, was eager to allow the danger no time to augment. He courted Jesswint Sing, who had so recently betrayed him, to prevent his cooperation with Dara: and marched with all expedition to Ajmere. Dara had already seized an important pass, and entrenched himself. Aurungzebe was not a little startled when he first beheld the advantages of the position, and strength of his works. He set in motion his usual engines of treachery and deceit; and by their assistance gained a complete and final victory. Deserted by all, and robbed of his effects, by a body of Mahrattas in his service, Dara fled towards the Indus with his family, who, nearly destitute of attendants, were on the point of perishing in the desert. After many sufferings, he was seized by a treacherous chief, who owed to him his life and fortune; and delivered into the hands of Aurungzebe. His murder was only a few days deferred; during which he was ignominiously exposed about the streets of Delhi.

While the Emperor was engaged in opposing Dara, his son Mahomed and Jumla the Vizir prosecuted the war against Suja. That Prince had fled from the battle to Patna, from Patna to Mongeer, from Mongeer to Rajamahl, and from Rajamahl he was forced to retreat to Tanda. Sujah was still possessed of resources; his courage and resolution failed not; and an event occurred which promised a turn in the tide of his affairs. Mahomed had been formerly enamoured of the daughter of Suja; and their union had been projected, before the distractions of the royal family had filled the empire with confusion and bloodshed. It is said that the Princess wrote to Mahomed a letter, reminding him of his former tenderness, and deprecating the ruin of her father. The impatient and presumptuous Mahomed was little pleased with the treatment he sustained at the hands of Aurungzebe; his heart was touched with the tears of the princess; and he resolved to desert the cause of his own father, and join that of hers. He expected that the army, in which he was popular, would follow his example. But the authority and address of Jumla preserved order and allegiance. The news of his son’s defection quickly reached Aulum gîr; who concluded for certain that he had carried the army along with him, and set out in the utmost expedition with a great force for Bengal. In the mean time Jumla attacked the army of Suja, which he defeated; and the conquered Princes retreated to Dacca. Aurungzebe, pursuing his usual policy, wrote a letter to Mahomed, which he took care that the agents of Suja should intercept. It purported to be an answer to one received; offering to accept the returning duty of Mahomed, and to pardon his error, on the performance of a service which was nameless, but seemed to be understood. This letter smote the mind of Suja with incurable distrust. After a time Mahomed was obliged to depart, and with a heavy heart to entrust himself to his unforgiving father. He was immediately immured in Gualior, where, after languishing for some years, he was entrusted with liberty, though not with power; but died a short time after.333 Suja was speedily reduced to extremity in Dacca, and having no further means of resistance, fled from the province, and sought refuge in the kingdom of Arracân. But the wretched Rajah, who at once coveted his wealth, and dreaded his pursuers, violated without scruple the laws of hospitality and mercy. Death, in some of the worst of its forms, soon overtook the family of Suja.

During these transactions, rewards, which were too powerful for the virtue of a Hindu, had been offered to the Rajah of Serinagur; and shortly after the ruin of Suja, Solimân, the last object of the fears of Aulum gîr, was delivered into his hands, and added to the number of the prisoners of Gualior.

From the time when Aulum gîr, having subdued all competition for the throne, found himself the undisputed lord of the Mogul empire, the vigilance and steadiness of his administration preserved so much tranquillity in the empire, and so much uniformity in its business, that the historians who describe only wars and revolutions, have found little to do. The most important series of transactions were these which occurred in Deccan; which ceased not during the whole of this protracted reign; laid the foundation of some of the most remarkable of the subsequent events; and had a principal share in determining the form which the political condition of India thereafter assumed. That we may relate these transactions without interruption, we shall shortly premise such of the other transactions handed down to us (for we have no complete history of Aurungzebe) as fell near the beginning of his reign, and merit any regard.

When Aurungzebe marched from Deccan to contend for the crown, he left Mahomed Mauzim, his second son, to command in his name. When established upon the throne, it was not altogether without apprehension that he contemplated so vast a power in hands which possibly might turn it against him. Mauzim, aware of the jealous disposition of his father, preserved the utmost humility of exterior; avoided all display, either of wealth or power; was vigilant in business; exact in obeying the commands of the Emperor, and in remitting the revenue and dues of his government. He was recalled, notwithstanding his prudence, and Shaista Khan made viceroy in Deccan. At the same time, Aurungzebe, seeking security for the present, by directing hope to the future, declared Mahomed Mauzim heir to the throne, and changed his name to Shah Aulum, or King of the World.

The third year of his reign was visited with a great famine, a calamity which ravages India with more dreadful severity than almost any other part of the globe. It was occasioned by the recurrence of an extraordinary drought, which in India almost suspends vegetation, and, throughout the principal part of the country, leaves both men and cattle destitute of food. The prudence of Aurungzebe, if his preceding actions will not permit us to call it his humanity, suggested to him the utmost activity of beneficence on this calamitous occasion. The rents of the husbandman, and other taxes, were remitted. The treasury of the Emperor was opened without limit. Corn was bought in the provinces where the produce was least, conveyed to those in which it was most defective; and distributed to the people at reduced prices. The great economy of Aurungzebe, who allowed no expense for the luxury and ostentation of a court, and who managed with skill and vigilance the disbursements of the state, afforded him a resource for the wants of his people.

It was before the commencement perhaps of this calamity, that the empire was agitated by the prospect of a fresh revolution from a dangerous sickness of the Emperor.334 The court was full of intrigues; on one hand, for Mauzim, the declared successor; on the other, for Akbar, a young, and even infant son of Aurungzebe. Shah Jehan himself was still alive; and the people in general expected that he would resume the reins of government. But the nation was relieved from its terrors, and from the calamities which too certainly would have fallen upon it. The usurper recovered. But the efforts of Sultan Mauzim, to secure the succession, expressed to the suspicious mind of Aulum gîr, more of the desire to obtain a throne than to preserve a father; and his purpose in regard to the succession, if his declaration in favour of Mauzim had ever been more than a pretence, was from this time understood to have suffered a radical change.

To forward his designs in favour of Akbar, he applied to Shah Jehan, to obtain for that prince, in marriage, the daughter of Dara, who remained in the seraglio of her grandfather. Shah Jehan, though strictly confined in the palace at Agra, had been treated with great respect; retaining his women and servants, and furnished with every amusement in which he was understood to delight. He had not, however, remitted his indignation against Aurungzebe, and now sent a haughty and insulting refusal. Aurungzebe had prudence not to force his inclination; and, so far from showing any resentment, redoubled his efforts to soften his mind.

The services of Emir Jumla had been rewarded with the government of Bengal. But the mind of Aurungzebe, and indeed the experience of Oriental government, told him, that he was never safe while there was a man alive, who had power to hurt him. He wished to withdraw the Vizer from his government, but without a rupture, which might raise distrust in the breasts of all his Omrahs. To afford him occupation which would detain his mind from planning defection, he recommended to him a war against the King of Assam, who had broken into Bengal during the distractions of the empire, and still remained unchastised. Jumla, who promised himself both plunder and reputation from this expedition, and whose exploring eye beheld an illustrious path through the kingdom of Assam to the conquest of China, undertook the expedition with alacrity. He ascended the Brahmapootra in boats. The Assamese abandoned the country which lies on the side of the mountains facing Bengal; but the fortress of Azo was garrisoned, and stood an attack. After the reduction of Azo, Jumla crossed the mountains of Assam, vanquished the King who took refuge in his capital, forced him to fly to the shelter of the mountains, and became master of a great part of the kingdom. But the rains came on, which in that kingdom are peculiarly violent and lay the greater part of the level country under water. Jumla found it impossible to subsist his army; and was under the necessity of returning to Bengal. Incredible were the difficulties with which he had to contend; necessaries wanting, the roads covered with water, and the enemy every where harassing his retreat. The capacity of Jumla triumphed over all obstructions; he brought back the greater part of the army safe; and wrote to the Emperor that he would next year carry his arms to the heart of China. But the army, on its return, was afflicted with a dysentery, the effect of the hardships it had endured. The general escaped not; and worn out, as he was, with years and fatigue, fell a victim to the violence of the disease. “You,” said the Emperor to the son of Jumla, whom he had recently made generalissimo of the horse, “have lost a father; and I have lost the greatest and most dangerous of my friends.”335

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Part 4 of 6

The next event is ludicrous, perhaps, in itself, but of high importance, as an instance of the power of superstition among the weak and credulous inhabitants of India. Of the professors of devotion and penance, going by the name of Fakîrs, one class is distinguished by wandering about the country in crowds, almost naked, pretending to live by mendicity, but stealing, plundering, and even committing murder, wherever prompted by the hope of advantage. In the territory of Marwâr, or Judpore, an old woman, possessed of considerable property, began to enlarge her liberalities towards the Fakîrs. The sturdy beggars crowded around her, to the number of some thousands, and not satisfied with the wealth of their pious patroness, made spoil of the neighbouring country, and rioted in devotion and sensuality at her abode. The people, exasperated by these oppressions, rose repeatedly upon the saints; but were defeated with great slaughter. The idea of enchantment was generated. The people regarded the old woman as a sorceress; and believed that she compounded for her followers a horrid mess which rendered them proof against human weapons, and invincible. What they were not rendered by enchantments, they were rendered by the belief of them. The Fakîrs, finding themselves, under the auspices of the old woman, too formidable for resistance, assembled in great numbers, and spread their devastations to a wide extent. The Rajah of Marwar attacked them, but was defeated. The collectors of the imperial revenue marched against them with the troops under their command; but sustained a similar disaster. Becoming presumptuous from unexpected success, they resolved on a march to the capital, to the number of twenty thousand plundering saints, with the sacred old woman at their head. About five days’ journey from Agra, they were opposed by a body of imperial troops, under the collector of the district. Him they overcame; and now grasped in their imaginations the whole wealth and authority of the state. They set up their old woman as sovereign. Aurungzebe felt the danger to be serious; for the soldiers were infected with the superstitions of the people; and it was hazardous to the last degree, from the terrors with which they might be disordered, to permit them to engage with the sainted banditti. What was first demanded; an antidote to the religious contagion; was invented by Aurungzebe. His own sanctity was as famous as that of the old woman; he pretended that by means of incantation, he had discovered a counter-enchantment; he wrote with his own hand, certain mysterious words upon slips of paper, one of which, carried upon the point of a spear before each of the squadrons, he declared would render impotent the spells of the enchantress. The Emperor was believed, and though the Fakîrs fought with great desperation, they were all cut to pieces, except a few whom the humanity of the general led him to spare. “I find,” said Aurungzebe, “that too much religion among the vulgar is as dangerous as too little in the monarch.”

In the seventh year of the reign of Aurungzebe his father died. The life of Shah Jehan had reached its natural period; but his death did not escape the suspicion of the pousta, that detestable invention of despotic fears.336

After the death of Jumla, the Rajah of Arracan had invaded the contiguous quarter of Bengal, and possessed himself of Chittagong and all the country along the coast to the Ganges. He availed himself of the Portuguese settlers, who were numerous at Chittagong, and of their ships, which abounded in the bay of Bengal, and it is said infested the coast and every branch of the Ganges as plunderers and pirates. These evils it consisted not with the vigilance of Aurungzebe to leave without a cure. A new deputy was appointed for Bengal; an army collected itself at Dacca; and descended the river. The enemy, though master of the forts and strong holds of the country, without much resistance retired. The Portuguese were invited to betray them, and made no hesitation by their obedience to purchase for themselves privileges and settlements in Bengal.337

The mistake of a secretary was near involving the empire, not only in hostilities with the whole force of Persia, but in all the horrors of a civil war. Aurungzebe, who had been complimented upon ascending the throne by embassies from the Khan of the Usbeks, and from Abbas II. Shah of Persia, proposed, after settling the affairs of his government, to make the suitable return. The secretary who composed the letters, addressed to the respective sovereigns, inadvertently designated the Shah, by no higher title than belonged to the Khan of the Usbeks. This was interpreted as a meditated insult: and resented by a declaration of hostilities. Aurungzebe wished to explain the mistake, but his ambassador was not admitted even to an audience. His own weapons were tried against him; and he added an illustrious instance to prove, that he who is most practised in the arts of deception is not always the hardest to deceive. Of the Mahomedan army and officers of the Mogul empire, as some were Moguls, some Afghauns, some Turks, and some Usbeks, so a large proportion were Persians, among whom was the Vizir himself. The fidelity of this part of his subjects, Aurungzebe was by no means willing to try, in a war with their native country. A letter was intercepted from Abbas, addressed to the Vizir himself, importing that a conspiracy existed among the Persian nobles to seize the Emperor when he should take the field. Aurungzebe was transported with apprehension and rage. He issued a sudden order to the city guards to surround the houses of the Persian Omrahs, which they were forbidden to quit under pain of death. Aurungzebe found himself on the brink of a precipice. The Persian chiefs were numerous and powerful; a common danger united them; the descendants of the Afghaun nobility, who formed a considerable proportion of the men in power, and hated the Moguls, by whom the Afghaun dynasty had been driven from the throne, were very likely to make common cause with the Persians. Even if guilty, he beheld appalling danger in attempting to punish them; but he now reflected that he might have been deceived, and wished only for the means of a decent retreat. He sent for some of the principal Omrahs; but they excused themselves from attendance. All had assembled their friends and dependants; fortified their houses, and waited the appeal to arms. After a suspense of two days, the princess Jehanara arrived. She had been sent for, express, upon the first alarm. The favourite daughter of Shah Jehan, by whom the Persians had always been distinguished and exalted, might render, by her mediation, the most important assistance. After a short conference with the Emperor, she presented herself in her chair at the door of the Vizir. This was an act of supreme confidence and honour. The doors of the mansion flew open; the Vizir hastened to the hall of audience, and prostrated himself at the foot of the throne. Aurungzebe descended, and embraced him. Convinced that he had been deceived, he now sought only to obliterate all memory of the offence; and with some loss of reputation, and a remainder of disgust in the breasts of some of the Omrahs, he recovered himself from the dangerous position in which a moment of rashness had placed him. Shah Abbas in the mean time, with a large army, was upon his march toward the confines of India; and Aurungzebe, who had sent forward his son Mauzim to harass the enemy, but not to fight, made rapid preparations to meet him in person. Shah Abbas, however, died in the camp, before he arrived at the scene of action. His successor wished to mount the throne, free from the embarrassment of an arduous war; and Aurungzebe was more intent upon gaining conquests in Deccan than in Persia. An accommodation, therefore, was easily made.338

These transactions were all contained within the first ten years of the reign of Aurungzebe, during which several events had already occurred in Deccan. A new enemy had arisen, whose transactions were not as yet alarming, but who had already paved the way to revolutions of the greatest importance. This was Sevagee, the founder of the Mahratta empire; a power which began when the empire of the Moguls was in its utmost strength; and rose to greatness upon its ruins. In the mountainous regions which extended from the borders of Guzerat to Canara, beyond the island of Goa, lived a race of Hindus, who resembled the mountaineers in almost all the other parts of Hindustan, that is, were a people still more rude and uncivilized than the inhabitants of the plains, and at the same time far more hardy and warlike. They consisted of various tribes or communities, to some of which (it appears not to how many) the name of Mahratta, afterwards extended to them all, was applied.339 Sevagee was the son of Shahjee, a Hindu in the service of Ibrahim Adil Shah, King of Beejapore, from whom he received a jahgire in the Carnatic, with a command of ten thousand horse. Sevagee, when very young, was sent along with his mother to reside at Poonah, of which as a Zemindary, his father had obtained a grant, and of which he entrusted the management, together with the charge of his wife and son, to one of his officers, named Dadajee Punt. The mother of Sevagee was an object of aversion to her husband; and the son shared in the neglect which was the lot of his mother. He grew up under Dadajee, to vigour both of body and mind; and at seventeen years of age engaged a number of banditti, and ravaged the neighbouring districts. Dadajee, afraid of being made to answer for these enormities, and unable to restrain them, swallowed poison, and died; when Sevagee took possession of the Zemindary, increased the number of his troops, and raised contributions in all the neighbouring districts. Such was the commencement of the fortunes of Sevagee.340

Of his ancestry, the following is the account presented to us. His father was the son of Malojee; and Malogee was the son of Bauga Bonsla, a son of the Rana of Odipoor, by a woman of an inferior caste. The degradation of Bauga Bonsla, from the impurity and baseness of his birth, drove him to seek, among strangers, that respect which he was denied at home. He served, during a part of his life, a Rajah, possessing a Zemindaree in the province of Candesh; and afterwards purchased for himself a Zemindaree in the neighbourhood of Poonah, where he resided till his death. His son Malojee entered the service of a Mahratta chief, in which he acquired so much distinction as to obtain the daughter of his master in marriage for his son. This son was Shajee, and Sevagee was the fruit of the marriage. But Shajee, having quarrelled with his father-in-law, repaired to the king of Beejapore, and received an establishment in Carnatic. He here joined the Polygar of Mudkul in a war upon the Rajah of Tanjore; and having defeated the Rajah, the victors quarrelled about the division of the territory. Shajee defeated the Polygar, took possession of both Mudkul and Tanjore; and having married another wife, by whom he had a son named Ekogee, he left him and his posterity Rajahs of Tanjore, till they sunk into dependants of the East India Company.341

When Sevagee, upon the death of Dadajee, seized the Zemindaree of Poonah, his father was too much occupied in the East to be able to interfere. Aurungzebe was at the same moment hastening his preparations for the war with his brothers; and invited Sevagee to join his standards. The short-sighted Hindu insulted his messenger, and reproached Aurungzebe himself with his double treason against a King and a father. He improved the interval of distraction in the Mogul empire; took the strong fortress of Rayree, or Râjegur, which he fixed upon as the seat of his government; and added to it Porundeh, Jegneh, and several districts dependant on the King of Beejapore. The threats of that power, now little formidable, restrained not his career of plunder and usurpation. He put to death, by treachery, the Rajah of Jaowlee, and seized his territory and treasure; plundered the rich and manufacturing city of Kallean; took Madury, Purdhaungur, Rajapore, Sungarpore, and an island belonging to the Portuguese. At length the Beejapore government sent an army to suppress him. He deceived the general with professions of repentance and offers of submission; stabbed him to the heart at a conference; cut to pieces his army deprived of its leader; and rapidly took possession of the whole region of Kokun or Concan, the country lying between the Ghauts and the sea, from Goa to Daman.

When Aurungzebe, upon the defeat of his rivals, sent Shaista Khan, with the rank of Ameer al Omrah, or head of the Omrahs, to command in Deccan, the Rajah Jesswunt Sing, who had redeemed his treachery in the battle against Suja, by his subsequent dereliction of the cause of Dara, was invested about the same time with the government of Guzerat. As soon as Aurungzebe had leisure to attend to the progress of Sevagee, the viceroy of Guzerat was commanded to co-operate with the viceroy of Deccan, in reducing and chastising the Mahratta adventurer. Sevagee could not resist the torrent which now rolled against him. The strong fortress of Jegneh was taken. The Ameer al Omrah advanced to Poonah, where he took up his residence. Here a band of assassins made their way to his bed in the night. He himself was wounded in the hand, by which he warded off a blow from his head, and his son was slain. The assassins escaped, and Sevagee himself was understood to have been among them. Circumstances indicated treachery; and the suspicions of Shaista Khan fell upon Jesswunt Sing. These two generals were recalled; and after an interval of two years, during which the Prince Mahomed Mauzim, or Shah Aulum, held the government of Deccan, the two generals, Jey Sing and Dilleer Khan were sent to prosecute the war against the Mahratta chief. Jey Sing was the Rajah of Abnir,342 and Dilleer was a Patan Omrah, who both had obtained high rank as generals in the service of Shah Jehan; and being chosen for their merit as the fittest to guide and enlighten Soliman, when sent against Suja, were the chiefs whom Aurungzebe had gained to betray their master, and debauch his army.

Before the arrival of these generals, Sevagee had with great address surprised and plundered Surat; a city of importance and renown; the chief part of the Mogul empire; and that from which the holy pilgrims commenced their voyage to the tomb of the prophet. The operations of the new commanders turned the tide in Mahratta affairs. The armies of Sevagee were driven from the field; his country was plundered; and Poorundeh, a strong fortress, in which he had placed his women and treasures, was besieged. It was reduced to the last extremity, when Sevagee, unarmed, presented himself at one of the outposts of the imperial camp, and demanded to be led to the general. Professing conviction of his folly, in attempting to contend with the Mogul power, he craved the pardon of his disobedience, and offered to the Emperor his services, along with twenty forts which he would immediately resign. Jeysing embraced the proposal; and Sevagee obeyed the imperial order, to wait upon the Emperor at Delhi. Sevagee had offered to conduct the war in Candahar against the Persians. Had he been received with the honour to which he looked, he might have been gained to the Mogul service, and the empire of the Mahrattas would not have begun to exist. But Aurungzebe, who might easily have dispatched, resolved to humble the adventurer. When presented in the hall of audience, he was placed among the inferior Omrahs; which affected him to such a degree that he wept and fainted away. He now meditated, and with great address contrived, the means of escape. Leaving his son, a boy, with a Brahmen whom he knew at Mutterah, and who afterwards conducted him safe to his father, he travelled as a pilgrim to Juggernaut, and thence by the way of Hyderabad to his own country.343

The prince Shah Aulum, and the Rajah Jesswunt Sing, were sent to supersede the Rajah Jey Sing, who was suspected of an understanding with Sevagee, and died on his way to the imperial presence.344 The change was favourable to Sevagee; because Jesswunt Sing, who had but little affection to the imperial service, allowed the war to linger, and discontents and jealousies to breed in the army. Sevagee was not inactive. Immediately upon his arrival he took royal titles, and struck coins in his name. His troops, in consequence of his previous arrangements, had been well kept on foot during his absence; and he attacked immediately the Mogul territories and forts. Surat was again plundered; he recovered all the forts which he had resigned, and added some new districts to his former possessions.

The weakness of Beejapore made him look upon the territories of that declining state as his easiest prey. Neither upon that, however, nor any other enterprise, could he proceed with safety, till his forts were supplied with provisions; and provisions, while pressed by the Mogul arms, he found it difficult, if not impossible, to supply. He seems never to have distrusted his own address any more than his courage. By a letter to Jesswunt Sing, he averred, that only because his life was in danger had he fled from the imperial presence, where his faithful offer of services had been treated with scorn; that still he desired to return within the walks of obedience; and would place his son in the imperial service, if any command in the army, not dishonourable, was bestowed upon him. The stratagem succeeded to his wish; he obtained a truce, during which he supplied his forts; he dexterously withdrew his son from the Mogul army; with little resistance he took possession of several important districts belonging to Beejapore; compelled the King to pay him a contribution of three lacs of pagodas, and the King of Golconda to pay him another of four.345

The Emperor, displeased with Jesswunt Sing, as well on account of the ill success of the war, as the divisions and jealousies which reigned in the army, recalled him; and several generals were successively sent to conduct affairs under Aulum Shah. In the mean time, the Mahrattas plundered the adjoining countries, retreating with the spoil to their forts, in spite of all the efforts of the imperial commanders. At last, in 1671, the Prince himself was recalled. An Omrah, titled Bahadur Khan, succeeded him; and retained the government till the year 1676. During these years the war produced no remarkable event, though it was prosecuted with considerable activity, and without intermission. The efforts of the Viceroy were divided and weakened, by hostilities with Beejapore and Golconda; which, though they had contributed to the fall of those languishing states, had aided the rising power of Sevagee. In 1677 that chieftain affected to enter into an alliance with the King of Golconda against the King of Beejapore and the Moguls; and marched into the territory of Golconda at the head of an army of 40,000 horse. He proceeded to make conquests with great appearance of fidelity; but placed Mahratta governors in all the fortresses, and enriched himself by plunder. He obtained possession of the impregnable fortress of Gingee by treachery. He laid siege to Vellore, which defended itself during more than four months. An interview took place between Sevagee and Ekojee, the latter of whom, perceiving the insatiable appetite of his brother for power, trembled for his dominions. Before he had time, however, to conquer every thing to the north of the Coleroon, he was recalled to his western dominions.346 Dilleer Khan, who succeeded Bahadur, carried on the war in a similar manner, and was superseded by Bahadur, who received the command anew, in 1681. The most remarkable occurrence, during the administration of Dilleer, was the arrival in his camp of the son of Sevagee, who had incurred the displeasure of his father, and fled for protection to the Moguls. The event was regarded as fortunate, and a high rank was bestowed upon the young Mahratta; but Sevagee soon found means to regain his confidence, and he had the good fortune to make his escape a little time before his father terminated his indefatigable and extraordinary career.

During all the time of these great and multiplied transactions, a naval war, which we hear of for the first time in the history of India, was carried on between Sevagee and his enemies. At the commencement of his exploits, a chief, distinguished by the name of Siddee Jore, had the government of the town of Dunda Rajapore, a sea-port, to the southward of Bombay, belonging to the king of Beejapore; and at the same time, the command of the fleet, which that sovereign had formed to protect his maritime dominions, and their trade, from the naval enemies which now infested the coasts of India. While Siddee Jore was endeavouring to signalize himself against Sevagee in another quarter, that ingenious adventurer arrived unexpectedly at Dunda Rajapore, and obtained possession of it by a stratagem. The loss of this important place so enraged the King against Siddee Jore that he procured his assassination. At the time of the capture of Dunda Rajapore, however, the heir of Siddee Jore was in the command of the fleet, which lay at the fortified island of Gingerah, before the town. When the outrage was committed upon his father by the king of Beejapore he tendered his services to Aurungzebe, with the fort of Gingerah, and the whole of the Beejapore fleet. The offer, of course, was greedily accepted. Siddee, it appears, was a name, which was applied in common to those Abyssinian adventurers, who had passed over, in great numbers, from their own country into the service of the kings of Deccan; and had there frequently engrossed a great proportion of the principal offices of state. Of this class of men was the admiral who had now enlisted himself in the Mogul service. He was joined by a great number of his family and countrymen. He himself was called the Siddee, by way of distinction; his principal officers had the term Siddee prefixed to their names; and his crews and followers were in general denominated the Siddees. They carried on an active warfare along the whole western coast of India, and were not only dangerous and troublesome enemies to Sevagee, but formidable even to the British, and other European traders, who frequented the coast.347

Sevagee breathed his last, in his fortress of Rayree on the 5th of April, 1682, of an inflammation in his chest, at the early age of fifty-two; having displayed a fertility of invention, adapted to his ends; and a firmness of mind in the pursuit of them, which have seldom been equalled, probably never surpassed. With the exception of the few small districts possessed by the Europeans, his dominions, at the time of his death, comprehended, along the western coast of India, an extent of about 400 miles in length by 120 in breadth, and from the river Mirzeou in the south, to Versal in the north. Of the detached forts, which at one time he had garrisoned in Carnatic, only one or two appear to have at this time remained in his hands.348

During these transactions in the south, we are not informed of any other emergency which called the attention of Aurungzebe from the ordinary details of his administration; excepting a war with the Patans or Afghauns who infested the northern provinces; and another, which the Emperor himself provoked, with the rajpoots of Ajmere and Malwa.

The Governor of Peshawir, to punish an incursion of the Patans, had, in 1673, pursued them to their mountains, where he allowed himself to be entangled in the defiles, and was cut off with his whole army. A Patan, who had served in the armies of Sultan Sujah, and bore a strong resemblance to his person, gave birth to a report, that the Sultan had made his escape from Arracan. The Patans proclaimed him King of India; and all the tribes of that people were summoned to join their forces to place him upon his throne. They were able, it is said, had they united, to bring into the field 150,000 men; and Aurungzebe was roused by the magnitude of the danger. He took the field in person, and crossed the Indus, about the close of the year 1674. The war lasted for about fifteen months, during which the Patans were driven from the more accessible country; and Aurungzebe was too cautious to penetrate among the mountains. A chain of forts was established to restrain them; and the governor whom he left at Peshawir, having exerted himself to gain the confidence of the Patan chiefs, drew them to an entertainment at that place, and murdered them along with their attendants. Though Aurungzebe disowned the action, he obtained not the credit of being averse to it.349

It is probable that Aurungzebe, from political motives, projected the reduction of the rajpoot states, viewing with jealousy the existence of so great an independent power, (able, it is said, to bring 200,000 men into the field) to the heart of his dominions. He put on however the mask of religion, and began the execution of a project, or pretended project, for the forcible conversion of the Hindus to the religion of the faithful. Jesswunt Sing, the Maharajah, or Great Rajah, as he was called, having died, near Cabul in 1681, his children, on their return to their native country, were ordered to be conducted to court; where he insisted on their being rendered Mahomedans. Their rajpoot attendants contrived their escape, and fled with them to their own country. The Emperor revenged the disobedience by a war; which he conducted in person. His numerous forces drove the rajpoots from the more accessible parts of their difficult country; but they held possession of their mountains and fastnesses; and the war degenerated into a tedious and ineffectual struggle. Aurungzebe sat down at Ajmere, where he superintended, at a less inconvenient distance, the operations in Deccan, as well as the war with the rajpoots.350

Sambah, or Sambagee, the eldest son of Sevagee, succeeded to his throne, but not without a competitor, in a younger brother, whose adherents created him considerable danger, till the principal among them were all put to death. While the war was carried on between the Mahratta and the imperial generals in Deccan, as it had been for several years, by sudden inroads on the one side, and pursuit on the other; but with few important advantages on either; Akbar, one of the younger sons of Aurungzebe, who was employed in the war against the rajpoots, turned his standards against his father, being offered assistance by the enemy whom he was sent to subdue. One of Aurungzebe’s tried artifices, that of raising jealousy between associates, enabled him to defeat the first attempt of Akbar, who fled from the country of the rajpoots, and took refuge with Sambagee.

Both Sambagee and Aurungzebe knew the value of the acquisition. The prince was received with extraordinary honours, by the Mahratta chief, who would not sit in his presence. And Aurungzebe, resolving to extinguish the enemy who had so long troubled his government in the south, arrived with a vast army at Aurungabad, in 1684. After the attack and defence of some forts, with no important result, the prince Shah Aulum was sent into Concan, to reduce the Mahratta fortresses on the sea coast. He found it impossible to procure provisions; the climate disagreed with the Mogul troops; and he was obliged to return with only a remnant of his army.351

In 1687, the Emperor resolved upon the final reduction of the Mahomedan kingdoms of Deccan, Hyderabad or Golconda, and Beejapore, which displayed a greater residue of strength and resources, than their reduced condition had led him to expect. From Ahmednuggur, where the grand camp had already arrived, he moved as far as Sholapore, and sent one army towards Hyderabad, another towards Beejapore.

The general, who led the army of the King of Hyderabad, betrayed his trust, and passed over to the enemy; upon which the King abandoned the open country, and shut himself up in the fort of Golconda. Hyderabad was taken and plundered. That the Sultan Mauzim, however, who commanded, might not have the honour, which he was wise enough not to covet, of taking Golconda, Aurungzebe accepted the humble terms which were offered by the King, and reserved his destruction till another opportunity.

Beejapore made considerable resistance, which was aided by scarcity. After the city had been besieged for some time, the Emperor proceeded to the attack in person. Famine at last compelled the garrison to surrender; and the young King was delivered into the hands of Aurungzebe.352

He received, about the same time, intelligence of another agreeable event, the departure of Sultan Akbar, from the Mahratta country to Persia. As this lessened greatly, in the eyes of Aurungzebe, the importance of immediate operations against the Mahrattas, he turned from Bejapore towards Golconda. Shah Aulum, with his sons, was seized and put in confinement, for remonstrating, it is said, against the treachery aimed at the unfortunate King of Golconda, who had submitted under pledge of honour to himself. Aurungzebe, in truth, was incurably jealous of his son, because heir to his throne; and was stimulated to ease his mind of a part of its load of terror and distrust. Golconda was invested, and, after a siege of seven months, fell by that treachery, the benefit of which Aurungzebe made it his constant endeavour to procure. He had now the two sovereigns of Deccan in his hands, and the reduction of the outstanding forts was all that remained to complete the extension of the Mogul dominion to the furthest limit of Carnatic.353

This important success was immediately followed by an event which the Emperor regarded as peculiarly fortunate. His spies brought intelligence, that Sambagee, at one of his forts in the mountains not far distant, was spending his time in a round of his favourite pleasures, and very imperfectly on his guard. A body of troops was dispatched to surprise him, and he was, in fact, taken prisoner. Sambagee was too formidable to be permitted to live; but the Emperor polluted his fortune by glutting his eyes with the butchery of his enemy; who relaxed not his haughtiness in the presence of death. The efficacy of Sambagee’s talents, which were not inconsiderable, was obstructed by his immoderate passion for women, which his father predicted would lead him to his ruin.

The Emperor followed up his advantage with activity, and immediately sent an army into Concan. Its operations were highly successful; and Rayree, which Sambagee and his father had made their capital, together with the wives and infant son of that chieftain, fell into the hands of the victor.354

Rama, however, the brother of Sambagee, escaped from Concan, and, crossing by the way of Seringapatam to Carnatic, threw himself into the fort of Gingee, which was a place of great strength, and by the obstinacy of its resistance, or the interested delays of the imperial generals, retarded the settlement of Deccan for several years. It gave occupation to a great part of the imperial army from the year 1692 to the year 1700; and during that period kept the reduction of Carnatic incomplete.

The Emperor turned his whole attention to the final subjugation of the Mahrattas, and penetrated into the country with his principal army. But while he was employed in the reduction of forts, the Mahrattas, under various chiefs, issued from their mountains, and spreading over the newly conquered countries of Beejapore and Golconda, and even the provinces of Berar, Candesh, and Malwa, carried great plunder back with them, and left devastation behind. The imperial forces marched to oppose them in all directions, and easily conquered them in battle when they could bring them to an action. But the Mahrattas eluded rencounter, retired to their mountains when pursued, hung upon the rear of their enemy when obliged to return, and resumed their devastations whenever they found the country cleared of the troops which opposed them. The Emperor persevered with great obstinacy in besieging the forts in the accessible parts of the Mahratta country; the greater part of which fell into his hands. But during that time the Mahrattas so enriched themselves by plundering the imperial dominions, and so increased in multitude and power, being joined by vast numbers of the Zemindars in the countries which they repeatedly over-ran, that the advantages of the war were decidedly in their favour, and the administration of Aurungzebe betrayed the infirmities of age. The more powerful Omrahs, who maintained numerous troops, and were able to chastise invaders, his jealous policy made him afraid to trust with the command of provinces. He made choice of persons without reputation and power, who abandoning the defence of their provinces, to which they were unequal, were satisfied with enriching themselves by the plunder of the people. Under so defective a government, the Mahrattas found the whole country south from the Nerbudda open to their incursions. The Emperor persevered in his attempts to subdue them. In that harassing and unavailing struggle were the years consumed which intervened till his death. This event took place, in the camp at Ahmednugger on the 21st of February 1707, in the forty-eighth year of his reign, and ninety-fourth of his age.355

At the time when the last illness of Aurungzebe commenced, his eldest son Mahomed Mauzim, who at an early age had received the title of Shah Aulum, was at Cabul, of which, as a distant province where he would be least dangerous, he was made governor, upon his liberation from the confinement in which he had languished for several years. His two remaining sons, Azim Shah, who was subahdar of Guzerat, and his youngest son Kam Buksh, who had been recently appointed to the government of Beejapore, were both in the camp. Aurungzebe, who forgot not his caution to the last, hurried them away to their stations, either fearing lest under his weakness they should seize upon his person while yet alive; or lest they should fill the camp with bloodshed immediately upon his dissolution. Azim had not yet reached his province, when he received the news of the Emperor’s decease. He hurried back to the camp, and, no competitor being present, received without difficulty the obedience of the army.

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Part 5 of 6

As it was not, however, expected that Shah Aulum would quietly resign his throne and his life, Azim began his march towards the northern provinces. On the news of the Emperor’s illness, Shah Aulum had dispatched his commands to his two sons; Moiz ad dien, the eldest, governor of Multan, and Azim Ooshaun, the second, governor of Bengal, to advance with their forces towards Agra. Azim Ooshaun had used so much diligence, that he was enabled to anticipate the arrival of Azim Shah, and got possession of Agra with its treasures. As the two armies were approaching one another in the neighbourhood of Agra, Shah Aulum addressed a letter to his brother, offering to divide the kingdom. The presumptuous prince rejected the proposal; and the armies came to action; when Azim Shah lost the battle, and he and his two eldest sons their lives. He had committed many important errors; among others offended the generalissimo, the famous Zulfeccar Khan, the favourite general of Aurungzebe, and son of Assud Khan, his vizir. He rejected the advice of this commander at the commencement of the battle, and Zulfeccar with his forces withdrew from the field.356

Shah Aulum, who now assumed the title of Bahadur Shah, was chiefly indebted to the prudence and wisdom of Monâim Khan, his minister of finance, for his victory and throne. He rewarded him with the office of vizir; but Assud Khan, the late vizir, and Zulfeccar Khan his son, were received with extraordinary favour: the former being created vakeel muttulluck;357 the latter meer bukshi;358 and governor of all Deccan, with the title of Ameer ul Omrah.

Another contest, however, still remained. The throne was promised to Kâm Buksh by his own vanity, and by his astrologers; and though his brother, even when near him with an irresistible army, invited him to enjoy in peace his kingdom of Beejapore, to which he offered to add that of Golconda, the infatuated prince was resolved upon his destruction. It had been the object of his father to render him, by his power in Beejapore, safe from the jealousy of any of his brothers who might ascend the imperial throne. For this purpose, he had placed in his service the Turanee Moguls, or that part of the army which consisted of the Mogul adventurers, newly arrived from Tartary, and distinguished from those who had been bred in Hindustan. The chief of these Moguls was Ghazee ad dien Khan, a man of great years and experience; who had acquired high reputation and influence in Deccan during the wars of Aurungzebe. The light, inconsiderate, rash, and inconstant character of Kâm Buksh would have discovered to a less discerning mind than that of Ghazee, the speedy ruin of that prince’s hopes; he therefore listened to the friendly proposals of the Emperor, and was appointed Subahdar of Guzerat, while his son Cheen Koolich Khan, a man of great celebrity in the subsequent history of India, was favourably received at court. Kâm Buksh was gradually deserted by almost all his followers; but rushed desperately into battle near Hyderabad with not more than a few hundred attendants. He was taken prisoner; but not till he received a mortal wound, of which he died the same evening.

The Emperor seemed afraid of becoming, like his father, entangled in the labyrinth of Deccanee affairs; and leaving to his officers whatever remained for the settling of those newly conquered regions, he began his march towards the capital, though in the middle of the rains. Zulfeccar Khan, the subahdar of Deccan, left Daood Khan Dunnee, a native of Deccan, his deputy; and followed his master, still further to push his ambitious designs.

The Emperor was not satisfied with the Rajpoot princes, whose disobedience had been provoked by the religious and mischievous war kindled against them at the end of the reign of Aurungzebe. Ajeet Sing, the successor of Jesswunt Sing, Raja of Odeypore; and Jeysing, the successor of the Rajah, who had rendered himself famous in the wars of Aurungzebe, had formed an alliance, cemented by marriage; and without professing independence of the Mogul power, endeavoured to yield a very limited obedience. Some unavailing measures were taken to reduce them to more perfect subjection. But a new enemy, whose operations began to be serious, and even formidable, rendered it adviseable to accept for the present the nominal obedience of the Rajpoots.

The Seiks, now ravaging the province of Lahore and the northern part of the province of Delhi, committing outrages on the persons of the Moslem, inflamed both the religious and political indignation of the Emperor and his Omrahs. This people, of whom the history is curious, were advancing rapidly to that importance, which renders them at present one of the principal powers in Hindustan. Their origin is to be traced back to the time of the Emperor Baber, when a celebrated Dirvesh, being captivated with the beauty of the son of a grain merchant of the Cshatrya caste, by name Nannuk, brought him to reside in his house, and instructed him in the sublime doctrines and duties of Islamism. Nannuk aspired beyond the merit of a learner. From theological writings which he perused, he selected, as he went on, such doctrines, expressions, sentiments, as captivated his fancy. At length his selections approached to the size of a book; and being written (it is said with elegance) in the Punjabee dialect, or language of the country, were read by various persons, and admired. The fame of Nannuk’s book was diffused. He gave it a name, Kirrunt,359 and, by degrees, the votaries of Kirrunt became a sect. They distinguished themselves by a peculiar garb and manners, which resembled those of the Moslem fakîrs. They united so as to live by themselves apart from the other inhabitants; and formed villages or communities, called Sangats, in which some one, as head of the community, always presided over the rest. Nannuk was followed by nine successors in the office of chief, or patriarch of the whole sect; during whose time the Seiks led peaceable and inoffensive lives. Teeg Bahadur, the tenth in order, was perpetually followed by a large multitude of the enthusiasts of the sect; and united himself with a Mussulman fakîr who had a number of followers approaching that of his own. To subsist so numerous a body of idle religionists, the neighbouring districts were laid under contribution; and the saints having tasted the sweets of a life of plunder and idleness, pushed their depredations, and became the scourge of the provinces. Aurungzebe, who was then upon the throne, commanded the governor of Lahore to seize the two leaders of the banditti; to banish the Mussulman beyond the Indus; and to conduct the Hindu to the fort of Gualior; where he was put to death. The loss of their patriarch was far from sufficient to extinguish the religious flame of the Seiks. A son of Teeg Bahadur, whose family name was Govind, was raised to the vacant supremacy, and was distinguished by the name of Gooroo Govind, Gooroo being the title bestowed by a Hindu on his religious instructor. The fate of his father taught him audacity; he instructed his followers, hitherto unarmed, to provide themselves with weapons and horses; divided them into troops; placed them under the command of those of his friends in whose conduct and fidelity he confided; and plundered the country by force of arms. He was not, however, able to withstand the troops of the province, which were collected to oppose him; his two sons were taken prisoners, and he himself fled among the Afghauns. After a time he came back, disguised as an Afghaun devotee; but falling into mental derangement, was succeeded by Banda, one of his followers, who assumed the name of Gooroo Govind, and resolved to take vengeance on the Moslems for the slaughter of the father and sons of his predecessor. To the robbery and plunder which had become the business of the Seiks, he added cruelty and murder. The Moslem historians of these events are filled with horror as well as indignation at the cruelties which he exercised upon the faithful (to them alone, it seems, did they extend) and describe as one of the most sanguinary of monsters the man whose actions, had infidels been the sufferers, and a Mussulman the actor, they might not, perhaps, have thought unworthy of applause. It was this Banda whose enormities Shah Aulum hurried from Deccan to interrupt and chastise. The rebels (so they were now denominated) deserted Sirhind upon the approach of the Emperor, and retired to Daber, a place of strength, at the entrance of the mountains, and the principal residence of the Gooroo. When Daber was reduced to the last extremity, Banda, with his principal followers, retired to the mountains during the night. The presence of the Emperor suspended, but did not extinguish, the depredations of the Seiks.360

Shah Aulum had reigned five years, counting from the death of Aurungzebe, with the praise of great humanity, having spilt the blood of no rival but in the field, and treating the sons of his rebel brothers like his own; when he was seized with a violent illness, and expired suddenly in his camp, near Lahore, in the year 1712.

The four sons of Shah Aulum, each with his army and retainers, were in the camp; Moiz ad dien Khan, the eldest; Azeem Ooshaun, the second, the favourite of his father; Ruffeh Ooshaun, the third; and Kojesteh Akter, the youngest. Of all the Omrahs, the vizir Monaim Khan being dead, Zulfeccar Khan was by far the most powerful; and doubted not to place on the musnud any of the princes whose cause he should espouse. Azeem Ooshaun, who had in the camp a large treasure of his own, and from his situation near his father was enabled to possess himself of all the imperial treasure and effects, assumed the sceptre without hesitation. Zulfeccar Khan sent to him a confidential messenger, to ask if, in that emergency, he could render him any service; and receiving a careless and disdainful answer, took his resolution. He passed to the camp of Moiz ad Dien, and formed or confirmed a union of the three brothers, who agreed to oppose Azeem Ooshaun, and afterwards to divide the empire. Azeem Ooshaun lost the favourable opportunity of attacking his brothers. He allowed the time to pass; till they made their preparations; and till his own army, becoming uneasy and dispirited, began to disperse. When the inevitable hour arrived, he was conquered without much difficulty, and disappeared in the battle; his wounded elephant, it is supposed, rushed with him down the precipice into the river, where both sunk to appear no more.

To the surviving princes it remained to settle the partition on which they had agreed; but Zulfeccar Khan had other designs. Whether from selfish motives, or a patriotic dread of the consequences of division; whether because that prince was the weakest, and might be governed, or the oldest, and had the better title, the Ameer ul Omrah resolved to make Moiz ad Dien sole Emperor, and to defeat the expectations of the other two. By various artifices, creating difficulties and delay, he contrived to secure the greater part of the treasure to Moiz ad Dien. This roused the jealousy of Kojesteh Akter, and he prepared for action; but the night before the projected battle a fire broke out in his camp, and he lost the greater part of his ammunition. He and his son fought with gallantry, but his soldiers deserted him during the engagement, and gave an easy victory to his more fortunate brother. Ruffeh Ooshaun stood aloof during this action; still confiding in the friendship of Zulfeccar Khan, and reserving himself to fall upon the victor. While he waited with impatience for the morning, having been dissuaded from attacking the successful army the same night, intelligence of his design was carried to the Ameer ul Omrah, who made preparations to receive him. The victory was not a moment doubtful, for the army of the prince almost immediately dispersed, and he was slain, fighting bravely amid a few attendants.361

Moiz ad Dien was proclaimed Emperor with the title of Jehandar Shah. He possessed not abilities to redeem the weaknesses by which he exposed himself to the disapprobation of his people; and his government and person fell into contempt. He was governed by a concubine, who had belonged to the degraded and impure profession of public dancers, and shed infamy upon the man with whom she was joined. The favours of the crown were showered upon the mean relations, and ancient companions of Lall Koor (such was the name of the mistress), who did not always enjoy them with moderation. The Emperor, who loved the jollity of debauch, exposed himself about the city in company with Lall Koor and her favourites, in situations where dignity was apt to be lost. The nobles were offended, because a new set of favourites intercepted the rays of imperial favour; and the people were disgusted at the sight of vices in their sovereign, which shed degradation on the meanest of themselves.

Jehandar Shah was, from these causes, ill prepared to meet the storm which shortly after he was summoned to face. When Azim Ooshaun marched from Bengal to assist his father in the struggle for the crown, he left behind him his son Feroksere. Upon the defeat of Azim Ooshaun, and the elevation of Jehandar Shah, it became necessary for Feroksere to think either of flight or of resistance. There were two brothers, Abdoolla Khan, and Hussun Khan, of the high birth of Syeds, or descendants of the prophet, who had distinguished themselves in the service of Azim Shah, and, having afterwards attached themselves to Azim Ooshaun, were by him appointed, the one to the government of Allahabad; the other, to that of Bahar. Feroksere succeeded in gaining the support of these brothers, whose talents were powerful, and their reputation high. The counsels of Jehandar were divided. The powers and services of Zulfeccar Khan were eclipsed by the favour of Kokultash Khan, the foster brother of the Emperor. The talents of Kokultash were unequal to the conduct of any important affair. The abilities of Zulfeccar were restrained, and his ardour cooled, by the success with which Kokultash thwarted his designs. Neither wished to take the command of the army, which, compelling him to quit the Emperor, left the imperial power in the hands of his rival. Time was consumed during these intrigues. In the end, Aiz ad Dien, the eldest son of the Emperor, and with him, for his guide, a relation of the foster brother, a man without talents or experience, proceeded to the reduction of Feroksere. The two armies met at Cudjwa, a town in the district of Corah, where Aurungzebe and Sujah had formerly engaged. But the conductor of Aiz ad Dien fled with him during the night which was expected to precede the battle; upon which the army either dispersed or joined Feroksere. By an advice of Syed Abdoolla, for which it is difficult to account, Feroksere halted for several days, instead of rapidly improving his advantage. Jehandar Shah had now to put life and empire upon the fate of a battle. All that could be assembled of the imperial forces marched towards Agra, with the Emperor himself at their head. Feroksere also arrived on the opposite side of the river, and the two armies faced one another for several days. At last Feroksere unexpectedly crossed the river in the night; and battle was joined the following day. The line of the imperial army was soon broken, and confusion ensued. Zulfeccar Khan, indeed, fought with a gallantry not unworthy of his former renown, and kept the field when he and his followers remained alone. Not despairing to rally the army, and renew the action on the following day, he dispatched messengers in all directions, but in vain, to search for the Emperor during the night. That unhappy prince had taken the road in disguise toward Delhi, of which Assud Khan, the father of Zulfeccar, was governor. After intelligence of his arrival, the friends of the late Azim Ooshaun surrounded his palace, and demanded the custody of his person. To quiet their clamours, or to lay a foundation of merit with the future sovereign, Assud Khan placed him in confinement; and wrote to Feroksere that he waited for his commands to dispose of the prisoner. So gracious an answer was received, as dissipated the fears of Assud Khan, and enabled him to prevail upon his son, who had arrived at Delhi, to trus himself in the hands of Feroksere. The credulity of Zulfeccar deceived him; for he might have escaped to his government of Deccan, where his talents would have enabled him to set the imperial power at defiance. He was strangled by order of Feroksere, and his dead body was exposed about the streets of Delhi, at the same time with that of his master Jehandar Shah.362

Feroksere began his reign in the year 1713, with the usual performances of an Oriental despot; that is, the murder of all who were the objects of his apprehension. After this the two Syeds, to whom he owed both his life and his throne, were elevated; Hussun to the post of Bukshi, or paymaster of the forces, with the title of Ameer ul Omrah; and Abdoolla to that of Vizir, with the title of Koottub al Mulk, or axis of the state. Cheen Koolich Khan, the son of Gazee ad Dien Khan, who was chief of the Tooranee Moguls in the Deccan at the end of the reign of Aurungzebe, was known to have lived on adverse terms with Zulfeccar Khan; and by this circumstance, as well as by the weight which was attached to his reputation for talents, and his connexion with the Tooranee lords, was recommended to the attention of the new government. He was appointed to the regency or subahdarry of Deccan, and decorated with the title of Nizam al Mulk, or composer of the state; a common title, which he rendered remarkable, in the modern history of India, by transmitting it to his posterity, and along with it a kingdom, in that very region which he was now sent, and but for a little time, to superintend.

Ferokscre was a weak prince, governed by favourites. The two Syeds had laid such obligations upon their sovereign, and possessed such power, chiefly from the inconsiderate cruelty of Ferokscre, who had killed Zulfeccar and others by whom they might have been restrained, that they could brook neither rival nor partner in disposing of the state. Their chains soon became heavy on Ferokscre. A ware of his impatience, they made such efforts to render themselves secure against the effects of his malice, as embroiled the state from the very commencement of his reign.

The first of the contrivances of Emir Jumla (this was the name of the favourite, a man who had formerly been cauzy at Dacca,) was to separate the brothers, under the pretence of honourable employment. The Rajah Ajeet Sing, whom we have already mentioned as the successor of Jesswunt Sing, in that district or division of Rajpootana which was known by the name of Marwar or Rhatore, and of which Chitore and Odeypore had been successively the capitals, had stood out against the operations of Aurungzebe, and remained in a state little short of independence, during the reigns of Shah Aulum and Jehandar Shah. Hussun, the Ameer al Omrah, was required to undertake the reduction of the rebellious Hindu. He marched with so great a force that the Rajah deemed it better to yield than contend; and though he received private encouragements from the court, where he was assured that opposition would be gratefully considered, he concluded an agreement with Hussun, impatient to return to the capital, where his brother’s letters assured him, that designs were ripening for their common destruction.

Though Abdoola, the Vizir, had talents and other eminent qualities; he was so addicted to women and other pleasures, that he neglected business; and let the affairs of his high office devolve into subordinate hands, whose mismanagement shed discredit and unpopularity on himself. His enemies therefore enjoyed advantages, which in the absence of his brother they were eager to improve. Upon the return of Hussun from Marwar, he demanded the regency of Deccan, with a view to govern it by deputy, and remain at court; and he received the appointment, in expectation of his being called to that distant province by the duties of his trust. When it was found, at last, that he had no intention to depart for Deccan, the misunderstanding between the court and the brothers became public and undisguised. They forbore attendance upon the Emperor; assembled their followers, and fortified themselves in their palaces; while the weak and timid Feroksere, who desired, without daring to attempt, their destruction, formed and abandoned twenty resolutions in a day. After a period of anxiety and alarm, a reconciliation was effected by mediation of the empress-mother, who [387] was favourable to the Syeds, and by whom, it is said, that intelligence was sometimes conveyed to them of the plots by which their lives were essayed. The agreement was, that Meer Jumla, being appointed to the government of Bahar, should depart for that province, at the same time that the Ameer al Omrah should proceed to Deccan.363

Hussun told the Emperor, that if mischief were aimed at his brother, he would in twenty days be in the capital from Deccan. The first danger, however, regarded himself. Daood Khan Punnee, the Afghaun, who had been left deputy by Zulfeccar, and obtained the province of Guzerat, upon the appointment of Nizam al Mulk to the regency of Deccan, was ordered to Boorahanpore, ostensibly to wait upon the Subahdar of Deccan, and receive his commands; but with secret instructions to assail the Syed and cut him off. Great expectations were entertained of the Afghaun, who, being a man of prodigious bodily strength, great courage, and not devoid of conduct, had risen to the highest repute as a warrior. It is not unworthy of remark, that he had associated with himself a Mahratta chief, named Neemajee Sindia, who had been taken into the imperial service by Shah Aulum, honoured with a high rank, and gifted with several jagheers in the vicinity of Aurungabad. Hussun had a severe conflict to sustain; and had not a matchlock ball struck Daood, at the moment when the advantage seemed hastening to his side, the day might have been fatal to the fortune of the brothers. When the Emperor heard of the failure of his project, he could not, even in the presence of Abdoolla, suppress his chagrin; and observed that Daood was a brave man unworthily used. Abdoolla replied, that if his brother had fallen, the victim of perfidy, the imperial mind would have experienced more agreeable sensations.

About this time, Banda, the patriarch and captain of the Seiks, fell into the hands of his enemies. He had soon collected his followers, after they were dispersed by Shah Aulum; and spread more widely his depredations and authority in the contiguous provinces. The Subahdar of Lahore had been sent against him, shortly after the accession of Feroksere; but was defeated with great slaughter. The Faujdar, or military and judicial chief of Sirhind, was next commanded to take the field; but was assassinated in his tent, by a Seik, especially commissioned for that purpose. The governor of Cashmere was then removed to the government of Lahore, and appointed to act against the heretics or infidels, with a great army. After many severe engagements, Banda was driven to seek refuge in a fort; where famine at last compelled him to surrender. Great cruelty was exercised upon his followers; and he himself was carried to the capital, where he was ignominiously exposed, and afterwards put to death by torture.

It would be useless and disgusting to describe the scenes to which the hatred of the Emperor and the jealousy of the Vizir gave birth in the capital. When the Ameer al Omrah arrived in Deccan, he found the power of the Mahrattas arrived at a height which was not only oppressive to the provinces but formidable to the imperial throne. Sahoo Rajah, or Sahogee the son of Sambagee, had succeeded to the authority of his father and grandfather, as head of the Mahrattas, and had, during the distractions in the Mogul empire, experienced little resistance in extending the sphere of his domination and exactions. Towards the close of the reign of Aurungzebe, the widow of Rama, the brother of Sambagee, who during the minority of Sahogee enjoyed a temporary authority, had offered to put a stop to all the predatory incursions of the Mahrattas under which the imperial provinces in Deccan so cruelly suffered, on condition of receiving a tenth part, which they call Deesmuk-kee, of the revenues of the six provinces which composed the viceroyalty of Deccan. The pride of Aurungzebe revolted at the humiliating condition; and the offer was rejected with scorn. Daood Khan Punnee, however, who governed the country, as deputy of Zulfeccar, during the reigns of Shah Aulum and Jehandar, and who cultivated the friendship rather than the enmity of the Mahrattas, agreed to purchase deliverance from their incursions by the payment of even the chout, or fourth part of the revenues of the Deccanee provinces, reserving only such districts as were held in jagheer by any princes of the blood royal, and excluding the Mahrattas from the collection, which was to be performed by his own officers alone. Upon the arrival of Nizam al Mulk as Viceroy of Deccan, the chout gave rise to dispute and hostilities; in which the Viceroy gained a battle, and might have further checked the pretensions of the freebooters, had he not been recalled, after enjoying the government one year and some months. The Ameer al Omrah sent a force to dislodge a Mahratta chief who had established a chain of mud forts along the road from Surat to Boorahanpore; and by means of them plundered or levied a tax upon the merchants who trafficked between the two cities. The commander allowed himself to be drawn by the wily Mahratta into a place of difficulty; where he and the greater part of his soldiers lost their lives. A still stronger force was sent to dislodge the plunderer; who declined an action; and was followed by the imperial general as far as Sattara, the residence of Sahogee. But before Sattara was besieged, the Ameer al Omrah, understanding that danger was increasing at Delhi, and that even Sahogee had received encouragement from the Emperor to effect his destruction, resolved, on any terms, to free himself from the difficulties and embarrassment of a Mahratta war. He not only granted the chout, but he added to it the deesmukkee; nay, admitted the Mahratta agents, with a respectable force at Aurungabad, to perform the collection of their own portion of the taxes. The provinces were thus freed from the ravages of military incursion; but the people were oppressed by three sets of exactors, one for the imperial revenue, one for the chout, another for the deesmukkee.

Meanwhile a new favourite had risen at court, recommended to the Emperor by a double tie, a fellowship in disreputable pleasures, and promises to cut off the Syeds without the danger of a contest. By his advice, the most powerful chiefs in the empire were invited to court; Nizam al Mulk, from his government of Morâdabad; Sirbullund Khan, from that of Patna; and the Rajpoot princes, Jeysing of Ambere or Jagenagur; and, the father-in-law of the Emperor, Ajeet Sing of Rhatore. Had these chiefs perceived a prospect of sharing among themselves the grand posts of the empire, they would have undertaken the destruction of the Syeds; but they found the despicable Feroksere so infatuated with his unworthy favourite, that he alone was destined to be the organ of power. Ajeet Sing, perceiving the miserable state of the imperial councils, lost no time in uniting himself with the Vizir.

The increasing violence of the councils pursued for the destruction of the Syeds, and the union, which the removal of the favourite would suffice to form against them, of so many powerful chiefs, induced Abdoolla to summon his brother from Deccan, and to meditate a decisive step. No sooner did the Emperor hear that Hussun was in motion, than, struck with apprehension, he solicited reconciliation with the Vizir. They exchanged turbans, and vows of fidelity, which were equally sincere on both sides. A messenger of rank was dispatched towards Hussun, to declare the reinstatement of his family in the plenitude of imperial favour; while Hussun, giving up to the Mahrattas such forts as he could not garrison, proceeded to the capital with an army, of which ten thousand were Mahrattas; attended by a youth, whom he received from Sahogee as a son of Sultan Akbar, and treated with all the respect due to a grandson of Aulumgir, and a competitor for the imperial throne. In the mean time the Vizir had found little difficulty in detaching from the hopeless cause of the Emperor, Nizam al Mulk, and the other chiefs of the intended conspiracy. Jeysing alone adhered to Feroksere, advising him to take the field in person, and, by the weight of the imperial name, bear down the cause of rebels and traitors. The pride and the resentments of Feroksere made him incline to violent measures during one moment; his fears and pusillanimity made him incline to submissive measures the next. After an interval, during which these passions violently alternated in his breast, he threw himself upon the mercy of the Syeds, and submitted to all their demands. It is not certain that they meant to depose him; but during these violent proceedings, tumults arose in the city; Feroksere shut himself up in the women’s apartments, and refused to come out; his friends and servants took arms; the commotions became alarming, and a moment might be productive of fatal events. After repeated entreaties, the Vizir was at last compelled to violate the sanctity of the secret apartments; Feroksere was dragged forth, and put in confinement; Ruffeh al Dirjaut, son of Ruffeh al Kudder, a grandson of Aurungzebe by a daughter of Akbar, was taken from among the confined princes, and seated on the throne; his accession was announced by the sound of the nobut, and firing of cannon; and, in a few hours, the commotions, which seemed ready to overwhelm the city, gave place to tranquillity and order.

Feroksere was rather more than six years on the throne. His successor was labouring under a consumption, and died in five months after his exaltation. During this interval, Feroksere suffered a violent death, but whether at his own hand, or that of the brothers, is variously affirmed. Except in the palace, the offices of which were filled entirely with the creatures of the Syeds, the different functionaries of the state were confirmed in their situations. Nizam al Mulk, who liked not the complexion of the times, desired leave to retire; but he was prevailed upon to accept the government of Malwa.

Ruffeh al Dowlah, the younger brother of Ruffeh al Dirjaut, was chosen to supply the vacancy of the throne. But the Governor of the citadel of Agra had under his charge a son of Akbar, the youngest son of Aulumgîr; and, in hopes of being joined by other lords, inimical to the Syeds, as well as by Jeysing, who, through influence of the brothers, had been dismissed to his own country before the dethronement of Feroksere, proclaimed the son of Akbar, King. The Syeds left no time for the disaffected to combine; and the Governor, finding his undertaking desperate, put an end to his life. The sickly youth, who this time also was placed upon the throne, followed his predecessor in three months. Rooshun Akter, a son of Kojesteh Akter, the youngest son of Shah Aulum, was the Prince who now was taken to fill the dangerous throne.

Mahomed Shah (that was the name which the new sovereign adopted) began his reign in the year 1720. He was in his seventeenth year; had been confined along with his mother, a woman of judgment and prudence, from the beginning of the reign of Jehandar Shah, and reared by her in great silence and obscurity.

The Syeds were now deprived of all grounds of jealousy and resentment towards the throne; for the Empress-mother advised, and the Emperor practised the most perfect submission to their will. But among the great lords of the empire were some, who beheld not their triumphs and power, without envy and hatred. The Governor of Allahabad had been guilty of some marks of disrespect. Shortly after the accession of Mahomed, Hussun marched to chastise him. The Governor died while Hussun was yet upon the march; and his nephew, though he stood upon the defensive, offered to lay down his arms, provided Rajah Ruttun Chund, the famous Duan of the Vizir, were sent to negociate the terms of his submission. The difficulty of besieging Allahabad, strongly defended by the Jamna and the Ganges, which meet under its walls, allayed in the bosom of Hussun, the thirst of revenge. He listened to the proposition of the nephew, and gave him the government of Oude, in exchange for that which his uncle had enjoyed.

Mahomed Ameed Khan, one of the Tooranee Omrah, remaining at court, began to excite the suspicions of the Syeds; but Nizam al Mulk soon became the principal object of their attention and fears. Upon taking possession of his government of Malwa, he found the province, owing to the late distractions of the empire, overrun with disorder; the Zemindars aiming at independence, and the people either become robbers themselves, or suffering from bands of robbers, who plundered the country with impunity. The vigorous operations demanded for the suppression of these enormities, justified the Nizam in raising and maintaining troops; in providing his garrisons; in adopting all the measures, in short, which were best calculated to strengthen his position. The Syeds were not slow in discerning that these preparations looked beyond the defence of a province. Policy required the removal of the Nizâm. The most respectful intimations were conveyed to him, that as Malwa lay half way between Deccan and the capital, it was pointed out as peculiarly convenient to form the place of residence for the Ameer al Omrah, who, from that station, could both superintend his viceroyalty in Deccan, and watch the operations of the court; and four Subahs were pointed out to Nizam al Mulk; Multan, Candesh, Agra, and Allahabad; of which he was invited to make his election in exchange. Policy might counsel the non-compliance of the Nizam; but pride and vanity counselled an insolent reply, which precipitated hostilities on both sides. The brothers sent an army against Malwa. The Nizam resolved to take possession of Deccan. He crossed the Nerbudda: got, through bribery, possession of the strong fortress of Asere, and the city of Boorahanpore; was joined by Eiwuz Khan, Subahdar of Berar, his relation; by a Mahratta chief, who had quarrelled with Sahogee; and, by a variety of Zemindars. He encountered and defeated the army which the brothers had sent to oppose him; conquered, and slew in battle the governor of Aurungabad, who marched out to meet him; and remained without a rival in Deccan. The Governor of Dowlatabad held out; but the Governor of Hyderabad joined him with 7000 horse. In addition to all these fortunate events, he was encouraged by messages from the court, from Mahomed Ameen Khan, and from the Emperor himself, that his opposition to the Syeds should meet with their support.

The brothers wavered; and permitted time to be lost. Ruttun Chund recommended, what was probably wise, to gain Nizam al Mulk by resigning to him Deccan; and, with vigilance, to guard the rest of the empire. Pride rejected this proposal. It was at last determined, that Hussun, accompanied by the Emperor, should proceed with a great army to Deccan, while Abdoola should remain to guard the capital. The troops were assembled; the march began; and had continued during four or five days, when Mahomed Ameen Khan conceived his plan to be ripe for execution. He had associated with himself Saadut Khan, afterwards Nabob of Oude, progenitor of the now reigning family; and another desperado, named Hyder Khan, in a conspiracy, with the privity of the Emperor, to assassinate the Ameer al Omrah. The lot fell upon Hyder to strike the blow. Hussun, who received a mortal stab, had strength to cry, “Kill the Emperor!” but the conspirators had taken measures for his protection; and, though the nephew of the deceased armed his followers, and endeavoured to penetrate to the Emperor, he was overpowered and slain, while his tents were plundered by the followers of the camp.

The dismal news was speedily conveyed to Abdoolla, who was on his march to Delhi. He advanced to that city; took one of the remaining princes, and proclaimed him Emperor; found still the means to assemble a large army, and marched out to oppose Mahomed. A great battle was fought at Shahpore; but the Vizir was vanquished and taken prisoner. The Emperor, after little more than a year of tutelage, entered his capital in great pomp and ceremony, and was hailed as if it had been his accession to the throne.

The weakness of Mahomed Shah’s administration, whose time was devoted to pleasure, and his mind without discernment and force, was soon felt in the provinces. The Rajah, Ajeet Sing, with a view to bind him to the cause of Mahomed, had, through the hands of the Empress-mother, at the time of the accession, received a firmaun appointing him Governor of Guzerat and Adjmere during life. The grant was now revoked, and Ajeet Sing rebelled. After some vain demonstrations of resentment, the Emperor was obliged to submit to concessions and indulgence.