and captured. Jeswant Singh was corresponding with Dara; he CHAPTER VI. promised to help Dara with ten thousand Rajpoots. Dara defeated Dara left Ahmadabad; he marched an army towards Ajmír. Jaswant Singh was won over to Aurungzeb by bribes and promises. At Ajmír Dara discovered that Jaswant Singh had thrown him over; that Aurungzeb was marching from Delhi with an overwhelming army. His own officers turned against him; they betrayed his plans to Aurungzeb. He began a battle; he was beaten by treachery; the fighting was a sham; it is said that his artillery was charged with blank cartridges. He soon fled from the field. He pushed on with his family and a small body of horse towards Guzerat. Many of his followers died on the way from heat and exhaustion; many were pillaged and murdered by robbers. He reached Ahmadabad; he was refused admittance. He toiled northwards through the horrible desert of Scinde.61 He tried to escape to Kábul; he was betrayed by a treacherous Afghan, whose life he had saved. His favourite wife took poison; she dreaded falling into the hands of Aurungzeb; she shuddered at the idea of becoming the wife of the murderer of her husband. Death put an end to her sufferings.62 Dara was 61 Dara had fully expected to find an asylum at Ahmadabad. Bernier was with him at the time; he describes the scene. The message from the governor of Ahmadabad, that the gate would be shut against Dara, reached the party at daybreak. It threw them into an agony of fear. The women screamed in terror, Dara was more dead than alive; he spoke sometimes to one and sometimes to another; he stopped and consulted the commonest soldier. The sufferings of those who died in the desert were heart-rending. It would have been better for Dara had he perished in the desert. 62 Father Catrou states, evidently on the authority of Manouchi, that all Moghul princesses carried poison in their rings; they could thus at any moment put an end to their misfortunes. The wife of Dara had good reason for her fears. Aurungzeb, notwithstanding his piety, had the same polygamous tastes CHAPTER VI. about to follow her example; suddenly he was taken prisoner and sent to Delhi. Last days of Dara a Christian. The last days of Dara were spent in the extremity of misery. Aurungzeb had resolved in council to imprison him for life in the fortress of Gwalior. Before doing so it was necessary to prove to all the world that the real Dara had been captured; that he was conquered, degraded, and a prisoner. Dara was paraded on a wretched elephant through the streets and great square at Delhi. He was guarded by the Afghan who had betrayed him. Bernier witnessed the sad procession; he has vividly described the scene. An immense multitude was assembled; shrieks and cries were heard from every quarter. Men, women, and children bewailed the fate of Dara as though some great calamity had befallen them. The whole city was moved; curses were uttered against the Afghan and his followers. Some stones were thrown at them; otherwise no one stirred; no one attempted to rescue Dara. The demonstration, however, was sufficient to alarm Aurungzeb. A second council was held in the palace; it was decided that Dara should die. The wretched prince was not made over to the executioner; he was murdered by hired assassins. His head was cut off and carried to Aurungzeb; it was buried in the tomb of Humáyun. Father Catrou says that Dara died a Christian. When Dara knew that death was inevitable he as his predecessors. The old Rajpoot law, under which the wife of the conquered turned to Christianity for consolation. He wanted CHAPTER VI. to speak to Father Busée-a Flemish priest who had formerly instructed him in Roman Catholic Christianity. Aurungzeb forbade the meeting; he was too staunch a Mussulman to allow Dara to become a Christian. Dara was heard to say, more than once :- "Muhammad has destroyed me; Jesus Christ, the Son of the Eternal, will save me." When the assassins entered his chamber, he cried aloud:-"Muhammad gives me death; the Son of God gives me life." They were his last words. At that moment he was cut down and beheaded. Sulaiman. Shortly after the death of Dara, his son Sulaiman Betrayal of was betrayed by the Raja of Kashmír. He too was sent as a prisoner to Delhi. By this time Aurungzeb had learnt a lesson. He did not expose Sulaiman to the sympathies of the multitude; he paraded him before the court in an inner hall of the palace. The scene was deeply affecting; Bernier could not keep himself away. Sulaiman was tall and handsome. His hands were bound in golden fetters. In this plight he stood before Aurungzeb and all the grandees of the empire. Many ladies looked at him through a lattice; some might have known him from his infancy. All were moved; behind the lattice there was weeping and wailing. Aurungzeb promised to spare his life. Sulaiman knew that he would be a prisoner; he feared lest he should be slowly poisoned. He made a profound reverence. He said:--"Let me be killed at once if 63 63 The poison was a well-known mixture of poppy-juice and water. It was called poust. Every morning a cup was given to the victim; all food was withbeld until he had drank it. It took away all sense and intellect. The victim became torpid and idiotic; at last death relieved him. See Bernier. Defeat of in Arakan. CHAPTER VI. I am to drink poust!" Aurungzeb promised in a loud voice that no poust should be given to him. The next day he was sent to the fortress of Gwalior. Meantime Amír Jumla had carried on the war against Shuja. It soon drew to a close. Shuja fled to Dacca; thence he escaped to Arakan in Portuguese galleys; he was accompanied by his wife, two sons, and three daughters. The King of Arakan was puzzled about Shuja. At first he was hospitable; in time he in time he grew insolent. He demanded a daughter of Shuja in marriage. The request was revolting to the Moghul prince. Shuja tried to raise the Mussulmans of Arakan; to kill the King; to seize the throne of Arakan. The plot was discovered. Shuja fled to the mountains which separate Arakan from Pegu. He was pursued; probably he was murdered; nothing more was heard of him. The King of Arakan took his eldest daughter and made her his wife. The queen-mother wanted the son of Shuja to be her husband. There was another plot to raise the Mussulmans. The King discovered it; he murdered the whole family. The princes were beheaded with blunt axes. The princesses were starved to death; the princess who had become his wife, and was about to become a mother, was starved with the others.64 Murád accused of murder: Aurungzeb. All the brothers of Aurungzeb were dead exceptopposition to ing Murád. Aurungzeb was anxious for the death of Murád. The prince was charged with having murdered a secretary whilst viceroy of Guzerat. Aurungzeb prepared to try the case. There was a 64 There are contradictory accounts of these murders. All are horrible. Perhaps Bernier's story is the best-authenticated; the Moghul chronicles were not likely to tell the truth. difficulty at starting. According to Mussulman law CHAPTER VI. no sovereign could try a capital offence until he had been consecrated by the Chief Judge of the empire.65 Aurungzeb was the last man to ignore Mussulman law. The Chief Judge had been appointed when Shah Jehan was on the throne; he manfully refused to consecrate a new sovereign whilst Shah Jehan was still living; he denounced Aurungzeb as the murderer of his elder brother. Aurungzeb was taken aback. He convoked an assembly of all the doctors of the law. He set forth that Shah Jehan was unfit to reign; that Dara had been put to death for infidelity and disobedience to the law. He mingled threats with his arguments. The convocation decided that Aurungzeb was the lawful sovereign. The obnoxious Chief Judge was deposed; another doctor was appointed in his room. Aurungzeb was consecrated as Padishah; he ascended the throne in earnest; he received the homage of all the Amírs and Rajas. Murád was found guilty and sentenced to death. He was bitten by a cobra in the fortress of Gwalior. 66 Aurungzeb an The accession of Aurungzeb is an era in the Accession of history of India. It was followed by a revival of epoch. the Sunní religion; a return to Mussulman law and the Koran; the establishment of Muftis throughout the empire. It was also followed by Hindú up 67 65 The Chief Judge of the empire was known as the Sadr-i-Jehan, or Chief Kází. Under Mussulman Sultans the power of this officer was immense; he was the head of religion; the fourth person in the empire. (See Blockmann's Aín-iAkbari.) The influence of the Sadr-i-Jehan became greatly diminished after Akber had broken up the Ulamá, and forced the existing Sadr-i-Jehan to go to Mecca. Succeeding Sadrs had been members of the "Divine Faith." The Sadr-i-Jehan, who was in power when Aurungzeb usurped the throne, was evidently a staunch Shiah. 66 Father Catrou's History. Tavernier's Travels in India, book ii. chap. 5. 67 The Mufti was the officer who inspected all matters that concerned religion. |