Note 19 — The Eighth New Year after the auspicious Accession.

There are twenty-six others of this caste who have ruled for 1,010 years. They have the title of Rāwal, and from the Rāwal who was first known as Rāwal down to Rānā Amar Singh, the present Rānā, there are twenty-six individuals who have ruled for the space of 461 years. During this long time they have never bent their necks in obedience to any of the kings of the country of Hindustan, and have for most of the time been rebellious and troublesome, so much so that in the reign of the late king Bābar, Rānā Sāngā collected together all the Rajas, Rays, and Zamindars of this province, and fought a battle in the neighbourhood of Biyāna with 180,000 horse and several lakhs of foot-soldiers. By the aid of Almighty God and the assistance of fortune the victorious army of Islām prevailed against the infidel forces, and a great defeat happened to them. The details of this battle have been given in the Memoirs of King Bābar. My revered father (may his bright tomb be the abode of unending Grace) exerted himself greatly to put down these rebels, and several times sent armies against them. In the twelfth year after his accession he set himself to capture the fort of Chitor, which is one of the strongest forts of the inhabited world, and to overthrow the kingdom of the Rānā, and after four months and ten days of siege took it by force from the men of Amar Singh’s father, after much fighting, and returned after destroying the fort. Every time the victorious forces pressed him hard in order to capture him or make him a fugitive, but it so happened that this was not effected. In the end of his reign, on the same day and hour that he proceeded to the conquest of the Deccan, he sent me with a large army and reliable Sardars against the Rānā. By chance these two affairs, for reasons which it would take too long to recount, did not succeed. At last I came to the throne, and as this matter was only half done, the first army I sent to the borders was this one. Making my son Parwīz its leader, the leading nobles who were at the capital were appointed to this duty. I sent abundant treasure and artillery with him. As every matter depends on its own season, at this juncture the unhappy affair of K͟husrau occurred, and I had to pursue him to the Panjab. The province and the capital of Agra remained void. I had necessarily to write that Parwīz should return with some of the Amirs and take charge of Agra and the neighbourhood. In short, this time again the matter of the Rānā did not go off as it should. When by the favour of Allah my mind was at rest from K͟husrau’s disturbance, and Agra became again the alighting place of the royal standards, a victorious army was appointed under the leadership of Mahābat K͟hān, ʿAbdu-llah K͟hān, and other leaders, and from that date up to the time when the royal standards started for Ajmir his country was trodden under foot by the victorious forces. As finally the affair did not assume an approved form, it occurred to me that, as I had nothing to do at Agra, and I was convinced that until I myself went there the affair would not be set to rights, I left the fort of Agra and alighted at the Dahrah garden. On the next day the festival of the Dasahrā took place. According to the usual custom they decorated the elephants and horses, and I had them before me. As the mothers and sisters of K͟husrau repeatedly represented to me that he was very repentant of his deeds, the feelings (lit. sweat) of fatherly affection having come into movement, I sent for him and determined that he should come every day to pay his respects to me. I remained for eight days in that garden. On the 28th news arrived that Rāja Rām Dās, who was doing service in Bangash and the neighbourhood of Kabul with Qilīj K͟hān, had died. On the 1st of the month of Mihr I marched from the garden, and dismissed K͟hwāja Jahān to look after the capital of Agra and guard the treasure and the palace, and gave him an elephant and a special robe (fargul). On the 2nd Mihr news arrived that Rāja Bāso had died in the thanah of Shahabad,19 which is on the border of the territory of Amar. On the 10th of the same month I halted at Rūp Bās, which has now been named Amānābād. Formerly this district had been given as jagir to Rūp K͟hawāṣṣ. Afterwards, bestowing it on Amānu-llah, son of Mahābat K͟hān, I ordered it to be called by his name. Eleven days were passed at this halting-place. As it is a fixed hunting-place, I every day mounted to go hunting, and in these few days 158 antelopes, male and female, and other animals were killed. On the 25th of the month I marched from Amānābād. On the 31st, corresponding with the 8th Ramaẓān, K͟hwāja Abū-l-ḥasan, whom I had sent for from Burhanpur, came and waited on me, and presented as offerings 50 muhrs, 15 jewelled vessels, and an elephant, which I placed in my private stud. On the 2nd Ābān, corresponding with the 10th Ramaẓān, news came of the death of Qilīj K͟hān. He was one of the ancient servants of the State, and obtained the mercy of God in the 80th year of his age. He was employed at Peshawar in the duty of keeping in order the Afghans full of darkness.20 His rank was 6,000 personal and 5,000 horse. Murtaẓā K͟hān Dakhanī was unrivalled in the art of pūlta-bāzī, which in the language of the Dakhanis they call yagānagī, and the Moguls s͟hams͟hīr-bāzī, ‘sword-play’ (fencing). For some time I studied it with him. At this time I exalted him with the title of Warzis͟h K͟hān (Exercise-K͟hān). I had established a custom that deserving people and dervishes should be brought before me every night, so that I might bestow on them, after personal enquiry into their condition, land, or gold, or clothes. Amongst these was a man who represented to me that the name Jahāngīr, according to the science of abjad (numerals reckoned by letters), corresponded to the great name “Allah Akbar.”21 Considering this a good omen, I gave him who discovered (this coincidence) land, a horse, cash, and clothing. On Monday, the 5th S͟hawwāl, corresponding to the 26th Ābān, the hour for entering Ajmir was fixed. On the morning of the said day I went towards it. When the fort and the buildings of the shrine of the revered K͟hwāja appeared in sight, I traversed on foot the remainder of the road, about a kos. I placed trustworthy men on both sides of the road, who went along giving money to fakirs and the necessitous. When four gharis of day had passed, I entered the city and its inhabited portion, and in the fifth ghari had the honour of visiting the venerated mausoleum. After visiting it I proceeded to the auspicious palace, and the next day ordered all those present in this honoured resting-place, both small and great, belonging to the city, and travellers, to be brought before me, that they might be made happy with numerous gifts according to their real circumstances. On the 7th Āẕar I went to see and shoot on the tank of Pushkar, which is one of the established praying-places of the Hindus, with regard to the perfection of which they give (excellent) accounts that are incredible to any intelligence, and which is situated at a distance of three kos from Ajmir. For two or three days I shot water-fowl on that tank, and returned to Ajmir. Old and new temples which, in the language of the infidels, they call Deohara22 are to be seen around this tank. Among them Rānā S͟hankar, who is the uncle of the rebel Amar, and in my kingdom is among the high nobles, had built a Deohara of great magnificence, on which 100,000 rupees had been spent. I went to see that temple. I found a form cut out of black stone, which from the neck above was in the shape of a pig’s head, and the rest of the body was like that of a man. The worthless religion of the Hindus is this, that once on a time for some particular object the Supreme Ruler thought it necessary to show himself in this shape; on this account they hold it dear and worship it.23 I ordered them to break that hideous form and throw it into the tank. After looking at this building there appeared a white dome on the top of a hill, to which men were coming from all quarters. When I asked about this they said that a Jogī lived there, and when the simpletons come to see him he places in their hands a handful24 of flour, which they put into their mouths and imitate the cry of an animal which these fools have at some time injured, in order that by this act their sins may be blotted out. I ordered them to break down that place and turn the Jogī out of it, as well as to destroy the form of an idol there was in the dome. Another belief they have is that there is no bottom to this tank. After enquiry it appeared that it is nowhere deeper than 12 cubits. I also measured it round and it was about 1½ kos.