On the 1st of Tír, the fourth month of the Persian year (15th May 1617), the Hindu chiefs of the neighbourhood came to pay their
Appendix II.
The Hill Fort of Mándu.
History
The Mughals, a.d. 1570–1720. respects and present their tribute. The Hindu chief of Jítpúr in the neighbourhood of Mándu, through his evil fortune, did not come to kiss the threshold.[113] For this reason I ordered Fidáíkhán to pillage the Jítpúr country at the head of thirteen officers and four or five hundred matchlockmen. On the approach of Fidáíkhán the chief fled. He is now reported to regret his past conduct and to intend to come to Court and make his submission. On the 9th of Yúr, the sixth month of the Persian calendar (late July, a.d. 1617), I heard that while raiding the lands of the chief of Jítpúr, Rúh-ul-láh, the brother of Fidáíkhán, was slain with a lance in the village where the chief’s wives and children were in hiding. The village was burned, and the women and daughters of the rebel chief were taken captives.[114]
The beautiful surroundings of the Ságar lake offered to the elegant taste of Núr Jehán a fitting opportunity for honouring the Shab-i-Barát or Night of Jubilee with special illuminations. The emperor describes the result in these words: On the evening of Thursday the 19th of Amardád, the fifth month of the Persian year (early July, a.d. 1617), I went with the ladies of the palace to see the buildings and palaces on the Ságar lake which were built by the old kings of Mándu. The 26th of Amardád (about mid-July) was the Shab-i-Barát holiday. I ordered a jubilee or assembly of joy to be held on the occasion in one of the palaces occupied by Núr Jehán Begam in the midst of the big lake. The nobles and others were invited to attend this party which was organized by the Begam, and I ordered the cup and other intoxicants with various fruits and minced meats to be given to all who wished them. It was a wonderful gathering. As evening set in the lanterns and lamps gleaming along the banks of the lake made an illumination such as never had been seen. The countless lights with which the palaces and buildings were ablaze shining on the lake made the whole surface of the water appear to be on fire.[115]
The Memoirs continue: On Sunday the 9th of Yúr, the sixth Persian month (late July), I went with the ladies of the palace to the quarters of Ásaf Khán, Núr Jehán’s brother, the second son of Mirza Ghiás Beg. I found Ásaf Khán lodged in a glen of great beauty surrounded by other little vales and dells with waterfalls and running streamlets and green and shady mango groves. In one of these dells were from two to three hundred sweet pandanus or kewda trees. I passed a very happy day in this spot and got up a wine party with some of my lords-in-waiting, giving them bumpers of wine.[116] Two months later (early September) Jehángír has the following entry[117] regarding a visit from his eldest son and heir prince Khurram, afterwards the emperor Shah Jehán, who had lately brought the war in the Dakhan to a successful close. On the 8th of the month of Máh (H. 1026: according to Roe September 2nd, 1617), my son of exalted name obtained the good fortune of waiting upon me in the fort of Mándu after three-quarters and one ghadi of the day had passed, that is about half an hour after sunrise. He had been absent fifteen months and eleven days. After he had performed the ceremonies of kissing the ground and the kurnish or prostration, I called him up to my bay window or jharokah. In a transport of affection I could not restrain myself from getting up and taking him into my arms. The more
Appendix II.
The Hill Fort of Mándu.
History
The Mughals, a.d. 1570–1720. I increased the measure of affection and honours the more humility and respect did he show. I called him near me and made him sit by me. He submitted a thousand ashrafis (= Rs. 4500) and a thousand rupees as a gift or nazar and the same amount as sacrifice or nisár. As there was not time for me to inspect all his presents he produced the elephant Sarnák, the best of the elephants of Ádil Khán of Bijápur. He also gave me a case full of the rarest precious stones. I ordered the military paymasters to make presents to his nobles according to their rank. The first to come was Khán Jehán, whom I allowed the honour of kissing my feet. For his victory over the Rána of Chitor I had before granted to my fortunate child Kurram the rank of a commander of 20,000 with 10,000 horse. Now for his service in the Dakhan I made him a commander of 30,000 and 20,000 horse with the title of Sháh Jehán. I also ordered that henceforward he should enjoy the privilege of sitting on a stool near my throne, an honour which did not exist and is the first of its kind granted to anyone in my family. I further granted him a special dress. To do him honour I came down from the window and with my own hand scattered over his head as sacrifice a trayfull of precious stones as well as a large trayfull of gold.
Jehángír’s last Mándu entry is this: On the night of Friday in the month of Abán (October 24th, 1617) in all happiness and good fortune I marched from Mándu and halted on the bank of the lake at Naâlchah.
Jehángír’s stay at Mándu is referred to by more than one English traveller. In March 1617, the Rev. Edward Terry, chaplain to the Right Honourable Sir T. Roe Lord Ambassador to the Great Mughal, came to Mándu from Burhánpur in east Khándesh.[118] Terry crossed a broad river, the Narbada, at a great town called Anchabarpur (Akbarpur)[119] in the Nímár plain not far south of Mándu hill. The way up, probably by the Bhairav pass a few miles east of Mándu, seemed to Terry exceeding long. The ascent was very difficult, taking the carriages, apparently meaning coaches and wagons, two whole days.[120] Terry found the hill of Mándu stuck round with fair trees that kept their distance so, one from and below the other, that there was much delight in beholding them from either the bottom or the top of the hill. From one side only was the ascent not very high and steep. The top was flat plain and spacious with vast and
Appendix II.
The Hill Fort of Mándu.
History
The Mughals, a.d. 1570–1720. far-stretching woods in which were lions tigers and other beasts of prey and many wild elephants. Terry passed through Mándu a few days’ march across a plain and level country, apparently towards Dhár, where he met the Lord Ambassador Sir Thomas Roe, who had summoned Terry from Surat to be his chaplain. Sir Thomas Roe was then marching from Ajmír to Mándu with the Court of the emperor Jehángír, whom Terry calls the Great King.
On the 3rd of March, says Roe, the Mughal was to have entered Mándu. But all had to wait for the good hour fixed by the astrologers. From the 6th of March, when he entered Mándu, till the 24th of October, the emperor Jehángír, with Sir Thomas Roe in attendance, remained at Mándu.[121] According to Roe before the Mughal visited Mándu the hill was not much inhabited, having more ruins by far than standing houses.[122] But the moving city that accompanied the emperor soon overflowed the hill-top. According to Roe Jehángír’s own encampment was walled round half a mile in circuit in the form of a fortress, with high screens or curtains of coarse stuff, somewhat like Aras hangings, red on the outside, the inside divided into compartments with a variety of figures. This enclosure had a handsome gateway and the circuit was formed into various coins and bulwarks. The posts that supported the curtains were all surmounted with brass tops.[123] Besides the emperor’s encampment were the noblemen’s quarters, each at an appointed distance from the king’s tents, very handsome, some having their tents green, others white, others of mixed colours. The whole composed the most curious and magnificent sight Roe had ever beheld.[124] The hour taken by Jehángír in passing from the Dehli Gate to his own quarters, the two English miles from Roe’s lodge which was not far from the Dehli Gate to Jehángír’s palace, and other reasons noted below make it almost certain that the Mughal’s encampment and the camps of the leading nobles were on the open slopes to the south of the Sea Lake between Báz Bahádur’s palace on the east and Songad on the west. And that the palace at Mándu from which Jehángír wrote was the building now known as Báz Bahádur’s palace.[125] A few months before it reached Mándu the imperial camp had turned the whole valley of Ajmír into a magnificent city,[126] and a few weeks before reaching Mándu at Thoda, about fifty miles south-east of Ajmír, the camp formed a settlement not less in circuit than twenty English miles, equalling in size almost any town in Europe.[127] In the middle of the encampment were all sorts of shops so regularly disposed that all persons knew where to go for everything.
The demands of so great a city overtaxed the powers of the deserted Mándu. The scarcity of water soon became so pressing that the poor were commanded to leave and all horses and cattle were ordered off the hill.[128] Of the scarcity of water the English traveller Corryat, who was then a guest of Sir Thomas Roe, writes: On the first day one of my Lord’s people, Master Herbert, brother to Sir Edward Herbert, found a fountain which, if he had not done, he would have had to send ten course
Appendix II.
The Hill Fort of Mándu.
History
The Mughals, a.d. 1570–1720. (kos) every day for water to a river called Narbada that falleth into the Bay of Cambye near Broach. The custom being such that whatsoever fountain or tank is found by any great man in time of drought he shall keep it proper to his without interruption. The day after one of the king’s Hadis (Ahádis) finding the same and striving for it was taken by my Lord’s people and bound.[129] Corryat adds: During the time of the great drought two Moor nobles daily sent ten camels to the Narbada and distributed the water to the poor, which was so dear they sold a little skin for 8 pies (one penny).[130]
Terry notices that among the piles of buildings that held their heads above ruin were not a few unfrequented mosques or Muhammadan churches. Though the people who attended the king were marvellously straitened for room to put their most excellent horses, none would use the churches as stables, even though they were forsaken and out of use. This abstinence seems to have been voluntary, as Roe’s servants, who were sent in advance, took possession of a fair court with walled enclosure in which was a goodly temple and a tomb. It was the best in the whole circuit of Mándu, the only drawback being that it was two miles from the king’s house.[131] The air was wholesome and the prospect was pleasant, as it was on the edge of the hill.[132] The emperor, perhaps referring rather to the south of the hill, which from the elaborate building and repairs carried out in advance by Abdul Karím seems to have been called the New City, gives a less deserted impression of Mándu. He writes (24th March 1617): Many buildings and relics of the old kings are still standing, for as yet decay has not fallen upon the city. On the 24th I rode to see the royal edifices. First I visited the Jámá Masjid built by Sultán Hoshang Ghori. It is a very lofty building and erected entirely of hewn stone. Although it has been standing 180 years it looks as if built to-day. Then I visited the sepulchres of the kings and rulers of the Khilji dynasty, among which is the sepulchre of the eternally cursed Násir-ud-dín.[133] Sher Sháh to show his horror of Násir-ud-dín, the father-slayer, ordered his people to beat Násir-ud-dín’s tomb with sticks. Jehángir also kicked the grave. Then he ordered the tomb to be opened and the remains to be taken out and burnt. Finally, fearing the remains might pollute the eternal light, he ordered the ashes to be thrown into the Narbada.[134]
The pleasant outlying position of Roe’s lodge proved to be open to the objection that out of the vast wilderness wild beasts often came, seldom returning without a sheep, a goat, or a kid. One evening a great lion leapt over the stone wall that encompassed the yard and snapped up the Lord Ambassador’s little white neat shock, that is as Roe explains a small Irish mastiff, which ran out barking at the lion. Out of the ruins of the mosque and tomb Roe built a lodge,[135] and here he passed the rains with his “family,” including besides his secretary, chaplain, and cook twenty-three Englishmen and about sixty native servants, and during part of the time the sturdy half-crazed traveller Tom Coryate or Corryat.[136] They had
Appendix II.
The Hill Fort of Mándu.
History
The Mughals, a.d. 1570–1720. their flock of sheep and goats, all necessaries belonging to the kitchen and everything else required for bodily use including bedding and all things pertaining thereto.[137] Among the necessaries were tables[138] and chairs, since the Ambassador refused to adopt the Mughal practice of sitting cross-legged on mats “like taylors on their shopboards.” Roe’s diet was dressed by an English and an Indian cook and was served on plate by waiters in red taffata cloaks guarded with green taffata. The chaplain wore a long black cassock, and the Lord Ambassador wore English habits made as light and cool as possible.[139]
On the 12th of March, a few days after they were settled at Mándu, came the festival of the Persian New Year. Jehángír held a great reception seated on a throne of gold bespangled with rubies emeralds and turquoises. The hall was adorned with pictures of the King and Queen of England, the Princess Elizabeth, Sir Thomas Smith and others, with beautiful Persian hangings. On one side, on a little stage, was a couple of women singers. The king commanded that Sir T. Roe should come up and stand beside him on the steps of the throne where stood on one side the Persian Ambassador and on the other the old king of Kandahár with whom Sir T. Roe ranked. The king called the Persian Ambassador and gave him some stones and a young elephant. The Ambassador knelt and knocked his head against the steps of the throne to thank him.[140] From time to time during Terry’s stay at Mándu, the Mughal, with his stout daring Persian and Tartarian horsemen and some grandees, went out to take young wild elephants in the great woods that environed Mándu. The elephants were caught in strong toils prepared for the purpose and were manned and made fit for service. In these hunts the king and his men also pursued lions and other wild beasts on horseback, killing some of them with their bows carbines and lances.[141]