Note 75 — The Twelfth New Year’s Feast after my auspicious accession.

At this place figs arrived from Ahmadabad. Although the figs of Burhanpur are sweet and well-grown, these figs are sweeter and with fewer seeds, and one may call them 5 per cent. better. On Kam-s͟hamba, the 29th, and Mubārak-s͟hamba, the 30th, we halted. At this stage Sar-farāz K͟hān came from Ahmadabad and had the good fortune to kiss the threshold. Out of his offerings a rosary of pearls, bought for 11,000 rupees, two elephants, two horses, two bullocks and a riding cart, and some pieces of Gujaratī cloth, were accepted, and the remainder presented to him. Sar-farāz K͟hān is a grandson of Musāḥib Beg, by which name he was called by Akbar after his grandfather, who was one of the Amirs of Humāyūn. In the beginning of my reign I increased his mansab and appointed him to the Subah of Gujarat. As he had an hereditary connection with the Court as a Khana-zada (one born in the house), he proved himself efficient in the Subah of Gujarat. Considering him worthy of patronage, I gave him the title of Sar-farāz K͟hān and raised him in the world, and his mansab has risen to 2,000 personal and 1,000 horse. On Friday, the 1st of Day, I marched 3¾ kos and halted on the bank of the tank of Jhasod.75 At this stage Rāy Mān, captain of the Khidmatiya,76 caught a rohū fish and brought it. As I am particularly partial to the flesh of fish, especially that of the rohu, which is the best kind of fish in Hindustan, and I had never, notwithstanding much enquiry, had one for eleven months from the time of crossing the pass of Ghātī Chand77 until the present time, and now obtained it, I was greatly delighted. I presented a horse to Rāy Mān. Although the parganah of Dohad is reckoned as within the boundary of Gujarat, yet, in fact, it was from this stage that all things appeared different. The open plains and soil are of a different kind; the people are different and the language of another description. The jungle that appeared on the road, has fruit-bearing trees, such as the mango and khirnī and tamarind, and the method of guarding the cultivated fields is with hedges of zaqqūm. The cultivators separate their fields with cactus, and leave a narrow road between them for coming and going. Since all this country has a sandy soil, when any movement takes place, so much dust rises that the faces of people are seen with difficulty, so that one should call Ahmadabad ‘Gardābād’78 (abode of dust). On Saturday, the 2nd, having marched 3¾ kos, I encamped on the bank of the Mahī. On Sunday, the 3rd, again after a march of 3¾ kos, I halted at the village of Bardala. At this stage a number of mansabdars who had been appointed to serve in Gujarat had the good fortune to kiss the threshold. Marching 5 kos on Monday, the 4th, the royal standards halted at Chitrasīmā, and the next day, Tuesday, after a march of 5 kos, in parganah Mondā.79 On this day three blue bulls were killed; one was larger than the others and weighed 13 maunds and 10 seers. On Wednesday, the 6th, I marched 6 kos and halted in parganah Naryād.80 In passing through the town I scattered 1,500 rupees. On Thursday, the 7th, marching 6½ kos, I halted in the parganah of Pitlād.81 In the country of Gujarat there is no larger parganah than this; it has a revenue of 700,000 rupees, equal to 23,000 current tumans of Iraq. The population of the town (qaṣba), too, is dense. Whilst I passed through it I scattered 1,000 rupees. All my mind is bent upon this, that under any pretext the people of God may be benefited. As the chief way of riding among the people of this country is in carts, I also wished to travel in a cart. I sat for 2 kos in a cart, but was much troubled with the dust, and after this till the end of the stage rode on horseback. On the road Muqarrab K͟hān came from Ahmadabad, and had the good fortune to wait on me, and presented an offering of a pearl he had bought for 30,000 rupees. On Friday, the 8th, marching 6½ kos, the place of the descent of prosperity was on the shore of the salt sea.