“There’s one lamp in this house, by whose rays
Wherever I look there is an assembly.”
They call this state sarvabiyās,[85] that is, giving up all. They call him who possesses it sarvabiyāsī.
After interviewing Jadrūp I mounted an elephant and passed through the town of Ujjain, and as I went scattered to the right and left small coins to the value of 3,500 rupees, and proceeding 1¾ kos alighted at Dāʾūd-k͟heṛā, the place where the royal camp was pitched. On the 3rd day, which was a halting day, I went, from desire for association with him, after midday, to see Jadrūp, and for six gharis enjoyed myself in his company. On this day also he uttered good words, and it was near evening when I entered my palace. On the 4th day I journeyed 3¼ kos and halted at the village of Jarāo[86] in the Pārāniyā garden. This is also a very pleasant halting-place, full of trees. On the 6th there was a march; after proceeding for 4¾ kos I halted on the bank of the lake of Debālpūr Bheriyā. On account of the pleasantness of the place and the delights of the lake, I halted at this stage for four days, and at the end of each day, embarking in a boat, employed myself in shooting ducks (murg͟hābī) and other aquatic animals. At this halting-place they brought fak͟hrī grapes from Ahmadnagar. Although they are not as large as the Kabul fakhri grapes, they do not yield to them in sweetness.
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.
As at the time when I was prince I had promised Mīr Ẓiyāʾu-dīn Qazwīnī, who was one of the Saifī Sayyids, and whom during my reign I have honoured with the title of Muṣt̤afā K͟hān, to give the parganah of Maldah, which is a famous parganah in Bengal, to him and his descendants[87] in āl tamg͟hā (perpetual royal grant), this great gift was bestowed in his honour at this halting-place. On the 13th a march took place. Going separately from this camp to look round the country and hunt with some of the ladies and intimates and servants, I proceeded to the village of Ḥāṣilpūr, and whilst the camp was pitched in the neighbourhood of Nālcha (Bālchha?) I halted at the village of Sāngor. What shall be written of the beauty and sweetness of this village? There were many mango-trees, and its lands were altogether green and delightful. On account of its greenness and pleasantness I halted here for three days. I gave this village to Kamāl K͟hān, the huntsman, in place of Kes͟ho Dās Mārū. An order was passed that they should hereafter call it Kamālpūr. At this same halting-place occurred the night of S͟hīvrāt (Shivrātri). Many Jogis collected. The ceremonies of this night were duly observed, and I met the learned of this body in social intercourse. In these days I shot three blue bulls. The news of the killing of Rāja Mān reached me at this place. I had appointed him to head the army that had been sent against the fort of Kāngṛā. When he arrived at Lahore he heard that Sangrām, one of the zamindars of the hill-country of the Panjab, had attacked his place and taken possession of part of his province. Considering it of the first importance to drive him out, he went against him. As Sangrām had not the power to oppose him, he left the country of which he had taken possession and took refuge in difficult hills and places. Rāja Mān pursued him there, and in his great pride, not looking to the means by which he himself could advance and retreat, came up to him with a small force. When Sangrām saw that he had no way to flee by, in accordance with this couplet—
“In time of need when no (way of) flight is left,
The hand seizes the edge of the sharp sword.”[88]
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 17th I marched from Sāngor, and after proceeding 3 kos came again to the village of Ḥāṣilpūr. On the road a blue bull was killed. This village is one of the noted places in the Subah of Malwa. It has many vines and mango-trees without number. It has streams flowing on all sides of it. At the time I arrived there were grapes contrary to the season in which they are in the Wilāyat (Persia or Afghanistan). They were so cheap and plentiful that the lowest and meanest could get as much as they desired. The poppy had flowered and showed varied colours. In brief, there are few villages so pleasant. For three days more I halted in this village. Three blue bulls were killed with my gun. From Ḥāṣilpūr on the 21st in two marches I rejoined the big camp. On the road a blue bull was killed. On Sunday, the 22nd, marching from the neighbourhood of Nālcha (Bālchha?), I pitched at a lake that is at the foot of the fort of Māndū. On that day the huntsmen brought news that they had marked down a tiger within 3 kos. Although it was Sunday, and on these two days, viz. Sunday and Thursday, I do not shoot, it occurred to me that as it is a noxious animal it ought to be done away with. I proceeded towards him, and when I arrived at the place it was sitting under the shade of a tree. Seeing its mouth, which was half open, from the back of the elephant, I fired my gun. By chance it entered its mouth and found a place in its throat and brain, and its affair was finished with that one shot. After this the people who were with me, although they looked for the place where the tiger was wounded, could not find it, for on none of its limbs was there any sign of a gunshot wound. At last I ordered them to look in its mouth. From this it was evident that the bullet had entered its mouth and that it had been killed thereby. Mīrzā Rustam had killed a male wolf and brought it. I wished to see whether its gall-bladder was in its liver like that of the tiger, or like other animals outside its liver. After examination it was clear that the gall-bladder was also inside the liver. On Monday, the 23rd, when one watch had passed in a fortunate ascension and a benign hour, I mounted an elephant and approached the fort of Māndū. When a watch and three gharis of day had passed, I entered the houses which they had prepared for the royal accommodation. I scattered 1,500 rupees on the way. From Ajmir to Māndū, 159 kos, in the space of four months and two days, in forty-six marches and seventy-eight halts, had been traversed. In these forty-six marches our halts were made on the banks of tanks or streams or large rivers in pleasant places which were full of trees and poppy-fields in flower, and no day passed that I did not hunt while halting or travelling. Riding on horseback or on an elephant I came along the whole way looking about and hunting, and none of the difficulties of travelling were experienced; one might say that there was a change from one garden to another. In these huntings there were always present with me Āṣaf K͟hān, Mīrzā Rustam, Mīr Mīrān, Anīrāʾī, Hidāyatu-llah, Rāja Sārang Deo, Sayyid Kāsū, and K͟hawāṣṣ K͟hān. As before the arrival of the royal standards in these regions I had sent ʿAbdu-l-Karīm, the architect, to look to the repair of the buildings of the old rulers in Māndū, he during the time the camp halted at Ajmir had repaired some of the old buildings that were capable of repair, and had altogether rebuilt some places. In short, he had made ready a house the like of which for pleasantness and sweetness has probably not been made anywhere else. Nearly 300,000 rupees, or 2,000 Persian tumans, were expended on this. There should be such grand buildings in all great cities as might be fit for royal accommodation. This fort is on the top of a hill 10 kos in circumference; in the rainy season there is no place with the fine air and pleasantness of this fort. At nights, in the season of the qalbu-l-asad (Cor leonis of Regulus, the star α of Leo), it is so cold that one cannot do without a coverlet, and by day there is no need for a fan (bād-zan). They say[89] that before the time of Rāja Bikramājīt there was a Raja of the name of Jai Singh Deo. In his time a man had gone into the fields to bring grass. While he was cutting it, the sickle he had in his hand appeared to be of the colour of gold. When he saw that his sickle had been transmuted, he took it to a blacksmith of the name of Mādan[90] to be repaired. The blacksmith knew the sickle had been turned into gold. It had before this been heard that there was in this country the alchemist’s stone (sang-i-pāras), by contact with which iron and copper became gold. He immediately took the grass-cutter with him to that place and procured the stone. After this he brought to the Raja of the time this priceless jewel. The Raja by means of this stone made gold, and spent part of it on the buildings of this fort and completed them in the space of twelve years. At the desire of that blacksmith he caused them to cut into the shape of an anvil most of the stones that were to be built into the wall of the fort. At the end of his life, when his heart had given up the world, he held an assembly on the bank of the Narbada, which is an object of worship among the Hindus, and, assembling brahmins, made presents to each of cash and jewels. When the turn of a brahmin came who had long been associated with him, he gave this stone into his hand. He from ignorance became angry and threw the priceless jewel into the river. After he came to know the true state of the affair he was a captive to perpetual sorrow. However much he searched, no trace of it was found. These things are not written in a book; they have been heard, but my intelligence in no way accepts this story. It appears to me to be all delusion. Māndū[91] is one of the famous Sarkars of the Subah of Malwa. Its revenue is 1,390,000 dams. It was for a long time the capital of the kings of this country. There are many buildings and traces of former kings in it, and up till now it has not fallen into ruin.