five.16 He was the sovereign lord of Hindustan; he CHAPTER V. was the willing slave of a vicious and vindictive

woman named Núr Mahal.17

16 Hawkins was at Agra about 1608-11. 1615, says that Jehangir was fifty-three. accounts as to the age of a Moghul sovereign.

Coryat, who was at Agra about
There are always contradictory

17 See Hawkins in Kerr, vol. viii. Núr Mahal is a heroine in Lalla Rookh. She appears as the Light of the Harem. Moore's poetry is pretty; his oriental characters are Europeans in fancy costume. Núr Mahal signifies the "Light of the Harem." Jehangir afterwards changed her name to Núr Jehan, i. e. the "Light of the World."

Hawkins' description of Jehangir is worth extracting. "Concerning the king's religion and behaviour it is thus. In the morning about break of day, he is at his beads, his face to the westward [i. e. towards Mecca] in a private fair room upon a fair jet stone, having only a Persian lambskin under him. He hath eight chains of beads, every one of which contains four hundred; they are of pearls, diamonds, rubies, emeralds, lignum aloes, eshen [?] and coral. At the upper end of this jet stone are placed the images of Christ and our Lady, graven in stone. He turneth over his beads, and saith so many words, to wit, three thouand two hundred words. [Jehangir refers to these beads in his Autobiography: the words he repeated were different names of God.] He then presenteth himself to the people to receive their saláms or good-morrow, for which purpose multitudes resort thither every morning. This done, he sleepeth two hours more, then dineth and passeth his time with his women. At noon he sheweth himself again to the people, sitting till three or four o'clock to view his pastimes by men and beasts, every day sundry kinds. At three o'clock all the nobles in Agra, whom sickness detaineth not, resort to the court; and the king comes forth in open audience, sitting in his seat royal, every man standing in his degree before him the chief within a red rail, the rest without. This red rail is three steps higher than the place where the rest stand. Men are placed by officers; there are others to keep men in order. In the midst, right before the king, standeth an officer, with his master hang-man, accompanied with forty others of the same profession with hatchets on their shoulders, and others with whips. Here the king heareth causes some hours every day; he then departs to his house of prayer; which ended, four or five sorts of well-dressed meats are brought him, whereof he eats what he likes to stay his stomach, drinking once of his strong drink. After this he comes forth into a private room where none may come, but such as himself nominates. In this place he drinks other five cups, which is the portion that the physicians allow him, and then lays him down to sleep, every man departing home. When he hath slept two hours, they awake him, and bring his supper to him, thrusting it into his mouth, not being able to feed himself. This is about one o'clock at night; and so he sleepeth the rest of the night. In this cup-space he doth many idle things; but nothing without writing be he drunken or sober. For he hath writers by course which write all, not omitting what he doth with his women; to the end that when he dieth, those writings may be brought forth, and thence what is thought fit may be inserted in their chronicles. When any poor men come to demand justice of the king, they go to a certain rope fastened to two pillars, near where the king sits; this rope is full of bells plated

CHAPTER V.

Story of Núr
Mahal.

Marries
Jehangir.

The story of Núr Mahal is an oriental romance; it begins in the reign of Akber. She had been betrothed very early to a Persian. Her mother had taken her to the palace to visit one of Akber's ladies. Jehangir saw her; he fell in love with her. The mother was exasperated; the matter reached the ear of Akber. Few things exasperated Akber more than the lawless amours to which the Moghuls were prone. Núr Mahal was sent to Bengal and married to her betrothed.

Time passed, and Akber died. Jehangir came to the throne; he ordered the viceroy of Bengal to send Núr Mahal to the palace. The viceroy mooted the matter to her husband; the husband stabbed him to the heart, and was then cut to pieces by the guards. Amidst the ferment Núr Mahal was sent to the palace; she refused to see Jehangír. Various stories are told of what followed. The most probable one is that she became one of the slaves to Jehangir's Rajpoot mother. At last ambition began to stir in her heart. She became the wife of Jehangír; henceforth her influence was paramount. Her father was made prime minister; her brother Asof Khan was raised to a high post.18 Within a year after her marriage five favourite queens of Jehangir perished in the harem; it was whispered at court that they had been poisoned by Núr Mahal.1 19 In one direction her influence was bene

with gold, and with shaking the rope, the king, hearing the sound, sends to know the cause, and doth justice accordingly." Purchas's Pilgrimage, reprinted at Calcutta, 1864.

18 Asof Khan is not a name but a title. The brother of Núr Mahal is always known as Asof Khan.

19 See Memoir of Jehangir in Father Catrou's History of the Moghuls. Núr Mahal was chief wife in the imperial harem. Her authority was paramount

ficial; she prevented Jehangir from drinking in the CHAPTER V. day-time; she induced him to moderate his evening potations.20

sons.

Jehangir had no children by Núr Mahal. He Jehangir's four had four sons by other wives, who all played a part in history. Their names were Khuzru, Parwíz, Khurram, and Shahryár.

Khuzru, the eldest, was the rebel. He was still Khuzru. in confinement; he was in the charge of a faithful Rajpoot named Anna Rai; he was vainly hoping for a day when he might be reconciled to his father.

Parwíz was a drunkard. Drunkenness was the Parwiz. curse of the family; his two uncles, Murád and Danyál, had died of drunkenness; his father Jehangir was a drunkard. Parwíz was vain and arrogant, like all Moghuls; he had small capacity. He was in nominal command of the army of the Dekhan ; he was a mere tool in the hands of the Khan Khanán, who held the real command.

wards Shah

Khurram, afterwards known as Shah Jehan, was Khurram, afterthe sharpest of the family. He was haughty, aspir- Jehan. ing, false, and subtle. He was no drunkard like Parwíz; he was much given to women. Ambition was his master passion; he saw the throne in the distance; his life was a daily intrigue. He had married the niece of Núr Mahal, the daughter of Asof Khan; he had thus secured the support of

21

paramount in the harem. The chief wife exercised the same authority in the households of the Moghul Khans.

20 Jehangir, in his Autobiography, says that he was accustomed to drink twenty cups of wine each day. Each cup was about six ounces; this would amount to some eight or ten bottles. Jehangir always exaggerated; he never told the truth in anything. He says that he reduced his allowance to five cups; Hawkins, who knew him well, says that he drank one cup in private with his evening meal; and five cups afterwards in the Ghusal-khana. Jehangir, in his Autobiography, ignores the private cup.

21 This lady became famous in after years. Her name was Muntáz Mahal.

CHAPTER V. the favourite and her brother. He had already distinguished himself in the field; he had defeated the Rana of Chitór, now known as the Rana of Udaipur; he had induced the Rana to make a show of submission. He was straining every point to induce his father to recall Parwíz and the Khan Khanán from the Dekhan, and to give him the sole command in their room.

Shahryár.

War in the
Dekhan :

Shahryar was a young man of no capacity. He only played a subordinate part in the latter years of the reign.

The all-engrossing event of the time was the treachery of the war in the Dekhan. Ahmadnagar was still the bone of contention between the Great Moghul and the Sultans of the Dekhan. An Abyssinian, named Malik Amber, had become the master spirit at Ahmadnagar. Malik Amber had set up a prince of the fallen dynasty; he ruled as minister; he secured some help from Bíjápur and Golkonda; he recovered possession of Ahmadnagar; he drove the Moghuls northward to Burhanpur. The Khan Khanán commanded the Moghul army in the Dekhan; he was taking bribes from the Sultans of the Dekhan; he was listless and indifferent. At times he made a convulsive effort to recover Ahmadnagar; it was only for a show. Years passed away and nothing was done.22

Aggressions of the English.

The English were as yet of no account at the Moghul court. After the departure of Hawkins they made some stir at Surat. They had grown

She was also known as the Taj Bíbí. She was the favourite wife of Shah Jehan.
When she died he built the mausoleum for her at Agra, which is known as the
Taj Mahal.

22 See Blockmann's notices of the Khan Khanán, No. 29 on Abul Fazl's list of Amírs and Mansubdars. Also life of Abul Fazl.

impatient of the insolence of the Moghuls; they CHAPTER V. had taken the law into their own hands; they had cut up the Moghul trade between Surat and Mocha. An English captain, named Sir Henry Middleton, was prevented from trading at Surat. He sailed to the Red Sea; he stopped every Moghul ship that was going to Mocha or coming from Mocha; he made the Moghuls on board sell him all their merchandise, and take English merchandise in exchange, at the market rates which prevailed at Surat. The Moghul merchants at Surat were horribly frightened. They began to give in; they permitted the English to trade at Surat. The Portuguese interfered; they threatened the Moghuls; they captured Moghul ships by way of reprisals. Piratical wars were carried on between the English and the Portuguese. The Moghuls saw the English beating the Portuguese; they began to respect the English.23

Thomas Roe,

In 1615, four years after the departure of Mission of Sir Hawkins, another Englishman appeared upon the 1615-18. scene. This was Sir Thomas Roe. He was a far grander man than Hawkins; he was lord ambassador from King James; he had a secretary, a chaplain, and a retinue. His journal is a reflex of the Moghul court; it portrays the real life of Moghul despots; it brings the actors upon the stage as living characters.

rudeness of

Sir Thomas Roe landed at Surat with some show Landing of Roe: of state. The English ships in the river were Moghul offi

23 Kerr's Collection of Travels, vol. viii.

He

24 Sir Thomas Roe was a shrewd Englishman of the Elizabethan era. was born in 1568; consequently he was about forty-eight years of age. He had been a commoner of Magdalen College at Oxford. He had afterwards read for the bar. He died in 1844, aged seventy-six. He was buried at Woodford, near Kent. See Introduction by Samuel Richardson to Roe's Negotiations with the Ottoman Porte from 1621 to 1628. Folio: London, 1740.

cials.