On this day my son S͟hāh Jahān presented pomegranates and quinces that had been sent to him from Farāh. I had never seen such large ones, and I ordered them to be weighed. The quince weighed 29 tolas 9 mashas and the pomegranate 40½ tolas. On Friday, the 12th, I went a-hunting and shot two nilgaw, a male and a female. On Saturday, the 13th, I shot three nilgaw, two males and one female. On Sunday, the 14th, I gave S͟haik͟h Ismāʿīl, the son of S͟haik͟h Muḥammad G͟haus̤, a robe of honour and 500 rupees. On Monday, the 15th, I went a-hunting and shot two female nilgaw. On Tuesday, the 16th, I again presented the Shaikhs of Gujarat, who were in attendance, with robes of honour and maintenance-lands. To each of them I gave a book from my special library, such as the Tafsīr-i-kas͟hs͟hāf,[125] the Tafsīr-i-Ḥusainī,[126] and the Rauẓatu-l-aḥbāb.[127] I wrote on the back of the books the day of my arrival in Gujarat and the day of presentation of the books.
At the time that Ahmadabad was adorned by the setting up of the royal standards my employment by day and by night was the seeing of necessitous persons and the bestowing on them of money and land. I directed S͟haik͟h Aḥmad the Ṣadr and some other tactful servants to bring before me dervishes and other needy persons. I also directed the sons of S͟haik͟h Muhammad G͟haus̤, the grandson of S͟haik͟h Wajīhu-d-dīn, and other leading Shaikhs to produce whatever persons they believed to be in want. Similarly I appointed some women to do the same thing in the harem. My sole endeavour was that as I a king had come to this country after many years, no single person should be excluded. God is my witness that I did not fall short in this task, and that I never took any rest from this duty. Although I have not been delighted with my visit to Ahmadabad, yet I have this satisfaction—that my coming has been the cause of benefit to a large number of poor people.
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—
“What I see, is it, O God, waking or in a trance?
Do I behold myself in such comfort after such torture?”
On Wednesday, the 17th, I marched 6 kos and halted at the village of Bārasīnor (Bālasīnor). It has already been mentioned that the plague had appeared in Kashmir. On this day a report of the chronicler of events arrived, stating that the plague had taken firm hold of the country and that many had died. The symptoms were that the first day there was headache and fever and much bleeding at the nose. On the second day the patient died. In the house where one person died all the inmates were carried off. Whoever went near the sick person or a dead body was affected in the same way. In one instance the dead body was thrown on the grass, and it chanced that a cow came and ate some of the grass. It died, and some dogs that had eaten its flesh also all died. Things had come to such a pass that from fear of death fathers would not approach their children, and children would not go near their fathers. A strange thing was that in the ward in which the disease began, a fire broke out and nearly 3,000 houses were burnt. During the height of the plague, one morning when the people of the city and environs got up, they saw circles on their doors. There were three large circles, and on the face of these (i.e. inside them) there were two circles of middle size and one small one. There were also other circles which did not contain any whiteness[129] (i.e. there were no inner circles). These figures were found on all the houses and even on the mosques. From the day when the fire took place and these circles appeared, they say there was a diminution of the plague. This has been recorded as it seems a strange affair. It certainly does not agree with the canons of reason, and my intellect cannot accept it. Wisdom is with God! I trust that the Almighty will have mercy on his sinful slaves, and that they will be altogether freed from such calamity.
On Thursday, the 18th, I marched 2½ kos and halted on the bank of the Mahī. On this day the Jām zamindar[130] had the good fortune to kiss the ground. He presented 50 horses, 100 muhrs, and 100 rupees. His name is Jassā, and Jām is his title. Whoever succeeds is called Jām. He is one of the chief zamindars of Gujarat, and, indeed, he is one of the noted rajas of India. His country is close to the sea. He always maintains 5,000 or 6,000 horse, and in time of war can supply as many as 10,000 or 12,000. There are many horses in his country; Kachhī horses fetch as much as 2,000 rupees. I gave him a dress of honour.
On the same day Lachmī Narāyan, Raja of Kūch (Bihār), which adjoins Bengal, did homage and presented 500 muhrs. He received a dress of honour and an ornamented dagger.
Nawāzish K͟hān, son of Saʿīd K͟hān, who had been appointed to Jūnagaṛh, had the good fortune to pay his respects. On Friday, the 19th, I halted, and on Saturday, the 20th, I marched 3¾ kos and halted at the tank of Jhanūd. On Sunday I marched 4½ kos and halted at the tank of Badarwālā. On this day there came the news of the death of ʿAz̤amat K͟hān Gujarātī. On account of illness he had remained in Ahmadabad. He was a servant who knew one’s disposition, and did good work. As he had thorough knowledge of the Deccan and Gujarat, I was grieved at his death. In the tank above mentioned I noticed a plant which at the approach of the finger or the end of a stick contracts its leaves. After a while it opens them out again. Its leaves resemble those of the tamarind, and it is called in Arabic S͟hajaru-l-ḥayā, ‘the plant of modesty.’ In Hindī it is called Lajvantī. Lāj means modesty. It is certainly not void of strangeness. They also call it nag͟hzak, and say that it also grows on dry land.
On Monday, the 22nd, I halted. My scouts reported that there was a tiger in the neighbourhood which vexed wayfarers, and in the forest where it was they had seen a skull and some bones lying. After midday I went out to shoot it, and killed it with one discharge. Though it was a large tiger, I had killed several that were larger. Among them was a tiger which I killed in the fort of Māndū, and which was 8½ maunds. This one weighed 7½ maunds, or 1 maund less.