The Eleventh New Year’s Feast after the auspicious Accession.
Alexander Rogers translation
“Who succeeds with hand and tongue?
He who performs the dues of thanks.”
“When gnats get wings they smite the elephant,”
“What does a slave who bows not his neck to the order?”
S͟hauqī, the mandolin player, is the wonder of the age. He also sings Hindi and Persian songs in a manner that clears the rust from all hearts. I delighted him with the title of Ānand K͟hān: Ānand in the Hindi language means pleasure and ease.
“In the end a wolf’s cub becomes a wolf,
Although he be brought up with man.”
“The world-sword may move from its place,
But it will cut no vein till God wills.”
“By day our clothes are the sun,
By night our mattress and blanket the moon’s rays.”
He bathes twice a day in a piece of water near his abode, and once a day goes into the city of Ujjain, and nowhere but to the houses of three brahmins whom he has selected out of seven, who have wives and children and whom he believes to have religious feelings and contentment. He takes by way of alms five mouthfuls of food out of what they have prepared for their own eating, which he swallows without chewing, in order that he may not enjoy their flavour; always provided that no misfortune has happened to their three houses, that there has been no birth, and there be no menstruous woman in the house. This is his method of living, just as it is now written. He does not desire to associate with men, but as he has obtained great notoriety people go to see him. He is not devoid of knowledge, for he has thoroughly mastered the science of the Vedānta, which is the science of Sufism. I conversed with him for six gharis; he spoke well, so much so as to make a great impression on me. My society also suited him. At the time when my revered father conquered the fort of Āsīr, in the province of Khandesh, and was returning to Agra, he saw him in the very same place, and always remembered him well.
“There’s one lamp in this house, by whose rays
Wherever I look there is an assembly.”
At the request of my son Bābā K͟hurram the mansab of Badīʿu-z-zamān, son of Mīrzā S͟hāhruk͟h, was fixed at 1,500 personal and 1,000 horse. On the 11th I marched, and after proceeding for 3¼ kos halted in the parganah Daulatabad. On the 12th, which was a halt, I rode out to hunt. In the village of S͟haik͟hūpūr, which belonged to the said parganah, I saw a very large and bulky banyan-tree, measuring round its trunk 18½ gaz, and in height from the root to the top of the branches 128¼ cubits. The branches spread a shade for 203½ cubits. The length of a branch, on which they have represented the tusks of an elephant, was 40 gaz. At the time when my revered father passed by this, he had made an impression of his hand by way of a mark at the height of 3¾ gaz from the ground. I ordered them also to make the mark of my hand 8 gaz above another root. In order that these two hand-marks might not be effaced in the course of time, they were carved on a piece of marble and fastened on to the trunk of the tree. I ordered them to place a chabūtara and platform round the tree.
“In time of need when no (way of) flight is left,
A fight took place, and according to what was decreed, a bullet struck Rāja Mān and he delivered his soul to the Creator thereof. His men were defeated and a great number of them killed. The remainder, wounded, abandoned their horses and arms, and with a hundred alarms escaped half-dead.
On the 24th I rode to go round and see the buildings of the old kings, and went first to the Jāmiʿ mosque, which is one built by Sult̤ān Hūs͟hang G͟hūrī. A very lofty building came to view, all of cut stone, and although 180 years have passed since the time of its building, it is as if the builder had just withdrawn his hand from it. After this I went to the building containing the tombs of the K͟haljī rulers. The grave of Naṣīru-d-dīn, son of Sult̤ān G͟hiyās̤u-d-dīn, whose face is blackened for ever, was also there. It is well known that that wretch advanced himself by the murder of his own father, G͟hiyās̤u-d-dīn, who was in his 80th year. Twice he gave him poison, and he twice expelled it by means of a zahr-muhra (poison antidote, bezoar) he had on his arm. The third time he mixed poison in a cup of sherbet and gave it to his father with his own hand, saying he must drink it. As his father understood what efforts he was making in this matter, he loosened the zahr-muhra from his arm and threw it before him, and then turning his face in humility and supplication towards the throne of the Creator, who requires no supplication, said: “O Lord, my age has arrived at 80 years, and I have passed this time in prosperity and happiness such as has been attained to by no king. Now as this is my last time, I hope that Thou wilt not seize Naṣīr for my murder, and that reckoning my death as a thing decreed Thou wilt not avenge it.” After he had spoken these words, he drank off that poisoned cup of sherbet at a gulp and delivered his soul to the Creator. The meaning of his preamble was that he had passed the time of his reign in enjoyment such as has not been attained to by any of the kings. When in his 48th year he came to the throne, he said to his intimates and those near him, “In the service of my revered father I have passed thirty years in warfare and have committed no fault in my activity as a soldier; now that my turn to reign has arrived, I have no intention to conquer countries, but desire to pass the remainder of my life in ease and enjoyment.” They say that he had collected 15,000 women in his harem. He had a whole city of them, and had made it up of all castes, kinds, and descriptions—artificers, magistrates, qazis, kotwals, and whatever else is necessary for the administration of a town. Wherever he heard of a virgin possessed of beauty, he would not desist (lit. did not sit down from his feet) until he possessed her. He taught the girls all kinds of arts and crafts, and was much inclined to hunt. He had made a deer park and collected all kinds of animals in it. He often used to hunt in it with his women. In brief, in the period of thirty-two years of his reign, as he had determined, he went against no enemy, and passed this time in ease and enjoyment. In the same way no one invaded his country. It is reported that when S͟hīr K͟hān, the Afghan, in the time of his rule, came to the tomb of Naṣīru-d-dīn, he, in spite of his brutish nature, on account of Naṣīru-d-dīn’s shameful conduct, ordered the head of the tomb to be beaten with sticks. Also when I went to his tomb I gave it several kicks, and ordered the servants in attendance on me to kick the tomb. Not satisfied with this, I ordered the tomb to be broken open and his impure remains to be thrown into the fire. Then it occurred to me that since fire is Light, it was a pity for the Light of Allah to be polluted with burning his filthy body; also, lest there should be any diminution of torture for him in another state from being thus burnt, I ordered them to throw his crumbled bones, together with his decayed limbs, into the Narbada. During his lifetime he always passed his days in the water in consequence of the heat that had acquired a mastery over his temperament. It is well known that in a state of drunkenness he once threw himself into one of the basins at Kāliyādaha, which was very deep. Some of the attendants in the harem exerted themselves and caught his hair in their hands and drew him out of the water. After he had come to his senses they told him that this thing had happened. When he had heard that they had pulled him out by the hair of his head, he became exceedingly angry, and ordered the hands of the attendants to be cut off. Another time, when an affair of this kind took place, no one had the boldness to pull him out and he was drowned. By chance, after 110 years had passed since his death, it came to pass that his decayed limbs also became mingled with the water.
On the 28th, as a reward for the buildings of Māndū having been completed through his excellent exertions, I promoted ʿAbdu-l-Karīm to the rank of 800 personal and 400 horse, and dignified him with the title of Maʿmūr K͟hān (the architect-K͟hān). On the same day that the royal standards entered the fort of Māndū, my son of lofty fortune, Sult̤ān K͟hurram, with the victorious army, entered the city of Burhanpur, which is the seat of the governor of the province of Khandesh.
After some days, representations came from Afẓal K͟hān and the Rāy Rāyān, to whom at the time of leaving Ajmir my son had given leave to accompany the ambassador to ʿĀdil K͟hān, reporting that when the news of our coming reached ʿĀdil K͟hān he came out for 7 kos to meet the order and the litter of the prince, and performed the duties of salutation and respect which are customary at Court. He did not omit a hair’s point of such ceremonies. At the same interview he professed the greatest loyalty, and promised that he would restore all those provinces that ʿAmbar of dark fate had taken from the victorious State, and agreed to send to the Court with all reverence a fitting offering with his ambassadors. After saying this he brought the ambassadors in all dignity to the place that had been prepared for them. On the same day he sent some one to ʿAmbar with a message of the matters it was necessary to acquaint him with. I heard this news from the reports of Afẓal K͟hān and the Rāy Rāyān.