Note 13 — Chapter III · MUGHAL VICEROYS. a.d. 1573–1758. (continued 2)

Mirăt-i-Sikandari, 426: Farishtah, I. 503; Elliot, V. 434. In honour of this victory the Khán Khánán built, on the site of the battle, a palace and garden enclosing all with a high wall. This which he named Jítpur the City of Victory was one of the chief ornaments of Áhmedábád. In November 1613 the English merchant Wittington writes (Kerr’s Voyages, IX. 127): A kos from Sarkhej is a pleasant house with a large garden all round on the banks of the river which Chon-Chin-Naw (Khán Khánán) built in honour of a great victory over the last king of Gujarát. No person inhabits the house. Two years later (1615) another English merchant Dodsworth (Kerr, IX. 203) describes the field of Victory as strongly walled all round with brick about 1½ miles in circuit all planted with fruit trees and delightfully watered having a costly house called by a name signifying Victory in which Khán Khánán for some time resided. In 1618, the emperor Jehángír (Memoirs Persian Text, 210–213) on his way to Sarkhej visited the Khán-i-Khánán’s Bághi Fateh or Garden of Victory which he had built at a cost of two lákhs of rupees ornamenting the garden with buildings and surrounding it with a wall. The natives he notices call it Fateh-Wádi. In 1626 the English traveller Herbert (Travels, 66) writes: Two miles nearer Áhmedábád than Sirkhej are the curious gardens and palace of Khán Khánán where he defeated the last of the Cambay kings and in memory built a stately house and spacious gardens the view whereof worthily attracts the traveller. Mandelslo writing in 1638 is still louder in praise of Tschietbág the Garden of Victory. It is the largest and most beautiful garden in all India because of its splendid buildings and abundance of fine fruits. Its site is one of the pleasantest in the world on the border of a great tank having on the water side many pavilions and a high wall on the side of Áhmedábád. The lodge and the caravanserai are worthy of the prince who built them. The garden has many fruit trees oranges, citrons, pomegranates, dates, almonds, mulberries, tamarinds, mangoes, and cocoanuts so closely planted that all walking in the garden is under most pleasing shade (Mandelslo’s Travels, French Ed. 111–112). When (a.d. 1750) the Mirăt-i-Áhmedi was written several of the buildings and the remains of the summer house were still to be seen (Bird’s History of Gujarát, 375). A few traces of the buildings known as Fateh Bádi or Victory Garden remains 1879). (Áhmedábád Gazetteer, 292.) ↑