Note 10 — The Twelfth New Year’s Feast after my auspicious accession.

On the 25th the contingent of Iʿtimādu-d-daulah passed before me in review on the plain under the jharoka. There were 2,000 cavalry well horsed, most of whom were Moghuls, 500 foot armed with bows and guns, and fourteen elephants. The bakhshis reckoned them up and reported that this force was fully equipped and according to rule. On the 26th a tigress was killed. On Thursday, the 1st Urdībihis͟ht, a diamond that Muqarrab K͟hān had sent by runners was laid before me; it weighed 23 surkh, and the jewellers valued it at 30,000 rupees. It was a diamond of the first water, and was much approved. I ordered them to make a ring of it. On the 3rd the mansab of Yūsuf K͟hān was, at the request of Bābā K͟hurram, fixed at 1,000 with 1,500 horse and in the same way the mansabs of several of the Amirs and mansabdars were increased at his suggestion. On the 7th, as the huntsmen had marked down four tigers, when two watches and three gharis had passed I went out to hunt them with my ladies. When the tigers came in sight Nūr-Jahān Begam submitted that if I would order her she herself would kill the tigers with her gun. I said, “Let it be so.” She shot two tigers with one shot each and knocked over the two others with four shots. In the twinkling of an eye she deprived of life the bodies of these four tigers. Until now such shooting was never seen, that from the top of an elephant and inside of a howdah (ʿamārī) six shots should be made and not one miss, so that the four beasts found no opportunity to spring or move.10 As a reward for this good shooting I gave her a pair of bracelets11 (pahunchī) of diamonds worth 100,000 rupees and scattered 1,000 ashrafis (over her). On the same day Maʿmūr K͟hān (the architect-K͟hān) obtained leave to go to Lahore to complete the buildings of the palace there. On the 10th the death of Sayyid Wāris̤, who was faujdār of the Subah of Oudh, was reported. On the 12th, as Mīr Maḥmūd asked for a faujdārship, I dignified him with the title of Tahawwur K͟hān, and, increasing his mansab, appointed him to the faujdārship of some of the parganahs of the Subah of Multan. On the 22nd, T̤āhir, the bakhshi of Bengal, who had been forbidden to pay his respects, waited upon me and presented his offerings. Eight elephants were also presented as the offering of Qāsim K͟hān, governor of Bengal, and two as that of S͟haik͟h Modhū. On the 28th, at the request of K͟hān Daurān, an order was given for the increase of the mansab of ʿAbdu-l-ʿAzīz K͟hān by 500. On the 5th K͟hurdād the duty of the Diwanship of Gujarat was given to Mīrzā Ḥusain in supercession of Kes͟ho. I dignified him with the title of Kifāyat K͟hān. On the 8th, Las͟hkar K͟hān, who had been appointed bakhshi of Bangash, came and waited on me; he offered 100 muhrs and 500 rupees. Some days before this Ūstād Muḥammad Nāyī (flute-player), who was unequalled in his craft, was sent by my son K͟hurram at my summons. I had heard some of his musical pieces12 (majlis-sāz), and he played a tune which he had composed for an ode (g͟hazal) in my name. On the 12th I ordered him to be weighed against rupees; this came to 6,300 rupees. I also gave him an elephant with a howdah,13 and I ordered him to ride on it and, having packed14 his rupees about him, to proceed to his lodging. Mullā Asad, the story-teller, one of the servants of Mīrzā G͟hāzī, came on the same day from Tattah and waited on me. As he was a reciter and story-teller full of sweetness and smartness, I liked his society, and I made him happy with the title of Maḥz̤ūz̤ K͟hān, and gave him 1,000 rupees, a dress of honour, a horse, an elephant, and a palanquin. After some days I ordered him to be weighed against rupees, and his weight came up to 4,400. He was raised to the mansab of 200 personal and 20 horse. I ordered him always to be present at the meetings for talk (gap). On the same day Las͟hkar K͟hān brought his men to the dars͟han jharoka before me. There were 500 horse, 14 elephants, and 100 musketeers. On the 24th news came that Mahā Singh, grandson of Rāja Mān Singh, who was entered among the great officers, had died from excessive wine-drinking at Bālāpūr in the province of Berar. His father also had died at the age of 3215 from the drinking of wine beyond measure. On the same day they had brought to my private fruit-house many mangoes from all parts of the province of the Deccan, Burhanpur, Gujarat, and the parganahs of Malwa. Although this province is well known and celebrated for the sweetness, freedom from stringiness, and size of its mangoes, and there are few mangoes that equal its mangoes—so much so that I often ordered them to be weighed in my presence, when they were shown to come to a seer or 1¼ seer or even more—yet in sweetness of water and delicious flavour and digestibility the mangoes of Chaprāmau,16 in the province of Agra, are superior to all the mangoes of this province and of all other places in India.