Heg. 1073 (1663).—An attempt was made by the Marajah to assassinate Shaista Chan, who escaped with the loss of three fingers; but his son was slain.
Heg. 1074 (1664).—Aurungzebe fell sick, and his son Shah Allum began to intrigue for the throne; but his efforts were foiled by the Emperor’s unexpected recovery. Shah Allum was appointed to a command in the Deccan, in order to remove him from the capital.
Heg. 1075 (1665).—A dangerous insurrection broke out in Guzarat, and was quelled with difficulty. This year was distinguished by the death of Jumla, who had been appointed to the government of Bengal. Jumla was a man of great talent, having risen from a very low station to the highest offices in the state. He was much esteemed by Aurungzebe for his abilities, but still more dreaded than esteemed. During this year also there was an insurrection of Fakeers, who, under the influence of a very wealthy old woman, committed dreadful ravages, and marched to the number of twenty thousand towards the capital. Their march was marked by the most horrible cruelties. They totally defeated the imperial troops commanded by the collector of the revenue. At length the Emperor subdued them with their own weapons: employing the juggles of pretended enchantment, the insurrection was quelled, but not until almost every one of the enthusiasts had been slain.
Heg. 1076 (1666).—This year was remarkable for the death of Shah Jehan, and the capture of Sevajee, chief of the Mahrattas, who from the seventeenth year of his age had been pursuing a career of success almost unparalleled in the history of potentates. From commanding a small band of mountain robbers, he had raised himself to be the leader of a formidable army, with which he awed the surrounding provinces. He was at length taken prisoner by the imperial general, and confined at Delhi, whence he contrived to escape disguised in the dress of a man who had been admitted into his apartment with a basket of flowers. After enduring unparalleled hardships, he reached his native mountains, where he was crowned sovereign of the Mahrattas, who from that period gradually increased in political importance, till they became the most numerous and influential of the native powers in India. They produced several distinguished warriors, among whom the names of Scindia and Holcar will be remembered so long as history has its records, and man the capacity to peruse them.
The Revolt of the Fakeers.
CHAPTER I.
About noon, under the scorching beams of a tropical sun, a young Mussulman was on his way towards the Mewat hills, accompanied by a party of fakeers. His hands were bound behind him with his turban, and he had nothing on his head but a silk skull-cap to resist the intense rays which shot from the cloudless heavens in an uninterrupted stream of glowing light. His black hair, which was long and bushy, fell over his shoulders and temples; thus supplying a natural protection against the influence of the solar fires, which were almost insupportable. He was urged onward by his companions at a rate which the excessive heat rendered extremely distressing, though to them it appeared mere matter of pastime. Accustomed as they were to undergo the severest bodily inflictions, what to him was positive torture was to them a relaxation from it.
Every one of his companions was perfectly naked, and each bore the marks of having submitted to the torturing process of some dreadful penance. Their limbs were sunken and fleshless, the skin shrivelled and discoloured by the severity of those torments to which their bodies had been exposed. Their nails protruded and curved into a point over the fingers and toes, like the claws of a beast of prey. Their hair, matted with the filthy accumulations of years, hung over the backs of these Mahomedan Nazarites, like the locks from a Medusa’s head, and was frequently so thick as to shroud them in a capillary veil, revolting to more than one sense, and agreeable to none. They were armed with huge clubs, the heads of which were charged with iron. These they used with considerable dexterity, being in the habit of employing them in the jungles for the purpose of destroying small game, upon which they frequently feasted with a gluttonous zest that would have shamed even the Roman Apicius.
“Ay,” said one, eyeing their prisoner with a look of Satanic triumph, “naked men know how to fight. Devotion is their shield, which all the outcasts from Paradise shall never be able to pierce.”
“I am in your power,” replied the captive; “but beware how you exercise your momentary ascendancy. Your foul revolt will not escape its due punishment: in spite of your devotion you will suffer the penalty—torture me for a false prophet else. Success has turned your brains. The war waged by enthusiasm is like a sudden burst of the tempest, which crushes the oak in its impetuous sweep, but quickly passes away; the surrounding plain springs out into renewed luxuriance and beauty, and thus smiles at the impotence of the hurricane.”