Note 128 — The Twelfth New Year’s Feast after my auspicious accession.

On Tuesday, the 16th, they caught Kaukab, the son of Qamar K͟hān. He had in Burhanpur put on a faqir’s dress and gone off into the wilds. The brief account of his case is this:—He was the grandson of Mīr ʿAbdu-l-Lat̤īf, who was one of the Saifī Sayyids and was attached to this Court. Kaukab had been appointed to the Deccan army, and had spent some days with it in poverty and wretchedness. When for a long time he did not get promotion he suspected that I was unfavourable to him, and foolishly took the dress of asceticism and went off to the wilderness. In the course of six months he traversed the whole of the Deccan, including Daulatabad, Bidar, Bijapur, the Carnatic, and Golconda, and came to the port of Dābul.128 From there he came by ship to the port of Gogā, and after visiting the ports of Surat, Broāch, etc., he reached Ahmadabad. At this time Zāhid, a servant of S͟hāh Jahān, arrested him and brought him to Court. I ordered them to bring him before me heavily bound. When I saw him I said to him, “Considering the obligations of service of your father and grandfather, and your position as a houseborn one, why have you behaved in such an inauspicious manner?” He replied that he could not tell a lie in the presence of his qibla and real teacher, and that the truth was that he had hoped for favours, but as he was unlucky he had left outward ties and gone into the wilderness of exile. As his words bore the marks of truth they made an impression on me, and I abandoned my harsh tone and asked him if in his misfortunes he had waited upon ʿĀdil K͟hān, or Qut̤bu-l-Mulk, or ʿAmbar. He replied that though he had been unsuccessful at this Court and had remained thirsty in this boundless ocean of beneficence, he had never—God forbid that he should—approached with his lips other fountains. Might his head be cut off if it had bowed at this Court and then lowered itself at another! From the time that he went into exile he had kept a diary showing what he had done, and by examining it it would be seen how he had conducted himself. These words of his increased my compassion for him, and I sent for his papers and read them. It appeared from them that he had encountered great hardship, and that he had spent much time on foot, and that he had suffered from want of food. On this account I felt kindly disposed towards him. Next day I sent for him and ordered them to remove the bonds from his arms and legs, and gave him a robe of honour, a horse, and 1,000 rupees for his expenses. I also increased his rank by one half, and showed him such kindness as he never had imagined. He repeated this verse—