The first of September was Jehángír’s birthday. The king, says Corryat,[142] was forty-five years old, of middle height, corpulent, of a seemly composition of body, and of an olive coloured skin. Roe went to pay his respects and was conducted apparently to Báz Bahádur’s Gardens to the east of the Rewa Pool. This tangled orchard was then a beautiful garden with a great square pond or tank set all round with trees and flowers and in the middle of the garden a pavilion or pleasure-house under which hung the scales in which the king was to be weighed.[143] The scales were of beaten gold set with many small stones as rubies and turquoises. They were hung by chains of gold, large and massive, but strengthened by silken ropes. The beam and tressels from which the scales hung were covered with thin plates of gold. All round were the nobles of the court seated on rich carpets waiting for the king. He came laden with diamonds rubies pearls and other precious vanities, making a great and glorious show. His swords targets and throne were corresponding in riches and splendour. His head neck breast and arms above the elbows and at the wrist were decked with chains of precious stones, and every finger had two or three rich rings. His legs were as it were fettered with chains of diamonds and rubies as large as walnuts and amazing pearls. He got into the scales crouching or sitting on his legs like a woman. To counterpoise his weight bags said to contain Rs. 9000 in
Appendix II.
The Hill Fort of Mándu.
History
The Mughals, a.d. 1570–1720. silver were changed six times. After this he was weighed against bags containing gold jewels and precious stones. Then against cloth of gold, silk stuffs, cotton goods, spices, and all commodities. Last of all against meal, butter, and corn. Except the silver, which was reserved for the poor, all was said to be distributed to Baniahs (that is Bráhmans).[144] After he was weighed Jehángír ascended the throne and had basons of nuts almonds and spices of all sorts given him. These the king threw about, and his great men scrambled prostrate on their bellies. Roe thought it not decent that he should scramble. And the king seeing that he stood aloof reached him a bason almost full and poured the contents into his cloak.[145] Terry adds: The physicians noted the king’s weight and spoke flatteringly of it. Then the Mughal drank to his nobles in his royal wine and the nobles pledged his health, The king drank also to the Lord Ambassador, whom he always treated with special consideration, and presented him with the cup of gold curiously enamelled and crusted with rubies turkesses and emeralds.[146]
Of prince Khurram’s visit Roe writes: A month later (October 2nd) the proud prince Khurram, afterwards the emperor Sháh Jehán (a.d. 1626–1657), returned from his glorious success in the Dakhan, accompanied by all the great men, in wondrous triumph.[147] A week later (October 9th), hearing that the emperor was to pass near his lodging on his way to take the air at the Narbada, in accordance with the rule that the masters of all houses near which the king passes must make him a present, Roe took horse to meet the king. He offered the king an Atlas neatly bound, saying he presented the king with the whole world. The king was pleased. In return he praised Roe’s lodge, which he had built out of the ruins of the temple and the ancient tomb, and which was one of the best lodges in the camp.[148] Jehángír left Mándu on the 24th October. On the 30th when Roe started the hill was entirely deserted.[149]
Terry mentions only two buildings at Mándu. One was the house of the Mughal, apparently Báz Bahádur’s palace, which he describes as large and stately, built of excellent stone, well squared and put together, taking up a large compass of ground. He adds: We could never see how it was contrived within, as the king’s wives and women were there.[150] The only other building to which Terry refers, he calls “The Grot.” Of the grot, which is almost certainly the pleasure-house Nílkanth, whose Persian inscriptions have been quoted above, Terry gives the following details: To the Mughal’s house, at a small distance from it, belonged a very curious grot. In the building of the grot a way was made into a
Appendix II.
The Hill Fort of Mándu.
History
The Mughals, a.d. 1570–1720. firm rock which showed itself on the side of the hill canopied over with part of that rock. It was a place that had much beauty in it by reason of the curious workmanship bestowed on it and much pleasure by reason of its coolness.[151] Besides the fountain this grot has still one of the charmingly cool and murmuring scallopped rillstones where, as Terry says, water runs down a broad stone table with many hollows like to scallop shells, in its passage over the hollows making so pretty a murmur as helps to tie the senses with the bonds of sleep.
Sháh Jehán seems to have been pleased with Mándu. He returned in a.d. 1621 and stayed at Mándu till he marched north against his father in a.d. 1622.[152] In March a.d. 1623, Sháh Jehán came out of Mándu with 20,000 horse, many elephants, and powerful artillery, intending to fight his brother Sháh Parwíz.[153] After the failure of this expedition Sháh Jehán retired to Mándu.[154] At this time (a.d. 1623) the Italian traveller Dela Valle ranks Mándu with Agra Láhor and Ahmedábád, as the four capitals, each endowed with an imperial palace and court.[155] Five years later the great general Khán Jehán Lodi besieged Mándu, but apparently without success.[156] Khán Jehán Lodi’s siege of Mándu is interesting in connection with a description of Mándu in Herbert’s Travels. Herbert, who was in Gujarát in a.d. 1626, says Mándu is seated at the side of a declining hill (apparently Herbert refers to the slope from the southern crest northwards to Ságar Lake and the Grot or Nílkanth) in which both for ornament and defence is a castle which is strong in being encompassed with a defensive wall of nearly five miles (probably kos that is ten miles): the whole, he adds, heretofore had fifteen miles circuit. But the city later built is of less time yet fresher beauty, whether you behold the temples (in one of which are entombed four kings), palaces or fortresses, especially that tower which is elevated 170 steps, supported by massive pillars and adorned with gates and windows very observable. It was built by Khán Jehán, who there lies buried. The confusedness of these details shows that Herbert obtained them second-hand, probably from Corryat’s Master Herbert on Sir T. Roe’s staff.[157] The new city of fresher
Appendix II.
The Hill Fort of Mándu.
History
The Mughals, a.d. 1570–1720. beauty is probably a reference to the buildings raised and repaired by Abdul Karím against Jehángír’s coming, among which the chief seems to have been the palace now known by the name of Báz Bahádur. The tower of 170 steps is Mehmúd Khilji’s Tower of Victory, erected in a.d. 1443, the Khán Jehán being Mehmúd’s father, the great minister Khán Jehán Aâzam Humáyún.
The Maráthás, a.d. 1720–1820.In a.d. 1658 a Rája Shívráj was commandant of Mándu.[158] No reference has been traced to any imperial visit to Mándu during Aurangzíb’s reign. But that great monarch has left an example of his watchful care in the rebuilding of the Âlamgír or Aurangzíb Gate, which guards the approach to the stone-crossing of the great northern ravine and bears an inscription of a.d. 1668, the eleventh year of Âlamgír’s reign. In spite of this additional safeguard thirty years later (a.d. 1696) Mándu was taken and the standard of Udáji Pavár was planted on the battlement.[159] The Maráthás soon withdrew and Málwa again passed under an imperial governor. In a.d. 1708 the Shía-loving emperor Bahádur Sháh I. (a.d. 1707–1712) visited Mándu, and there received from Ahmedábád a copy of the Kurâán written by Imám Âli Taki, son of Imám Músa Raza (a.d. 810–829), seventh in descent from Âli, the famous son-in-law of the Prophet, the first of Musalmán mystics. In a.d. 1717 Ásaph Jáh Nizám-ul-Mulk was appointed governor of Málwa and continued to manage the province by deputy till a.d. 1721. In a.d. 1722 Rája Girdhar Bahádur, a Nágar Bráhman, was made governor and remained in charge till in a.d. 1724 he was attacked and defeated by Chimnáji Pandit and Udáji Pavár.[160] Rája Girdhar was succeeded by his relation Dia Bahádur, whose successful government ended in a.d. 1732, when through the secret help of the local chiefs Malhárráo Holkar led an army up the Bhairav pass, a few miles east of Mándu, and at Tirellah, between Amjera and Dhár, defeated and slew Dia Bahádur. As neither the next governor Muhammad Khán Bangash nor his successor Rája Jai Singh of Jaipúr were able to oust the Maráthás, their success was admitted in a.d. 1734 by the appointment of Peshwa Bájiráo (a.d. 1720–1740) to be governor of Málwa. On his appointment (a.d. 1734) the Peshwa chose Anand Ráo Pavár as his deputy. Anand Ráo shortly after settled at Dhár, and since a.d. 1734 Mándu has continued part of the territory of the Pavárs of Dhar.[161] In a.d. 1805 Mándu sheltered the heroic Mína Bái during the birth-time of her son Rámchundra Ráo Pavár, whose state was saved from the clutches of
Appendix II.
The Hill Fort of Mándu.
History
Notices, a.d. 1820–1895. Holkar and Sindhia by the establishment of British overlordship in a.d. 1817.[162]
Notices, a.d. 1820–1895.In a.d. 1820 Sir John Malcolm[163] describes the hill-top as a place of religious resort occupied by some mendicants. The holy places on the hill are the shrine of Hoshang Ghori, whose guardian spirit still scares barrenness and other disease fiends[164] and the Rewa or Narbada Pool, whose holy water, according to common belief, prevents the dreaded return of the spirit of the Hindu whose ashes are strewn on its surface, or, in the refined phrase of the Bráhman, enables the dead to lose self in the ocean of being.[165] In a.d. 1820 the Jámá Mosque, Hoshang’s tomb, and the palaces of Báz Bahádur were still fine remains, though surrounded with jungle and fast crumbling to pieces.[166] In a.d. 1827 Colonel Briggs says[167]: Perhaps no part of India so abounds with tigers as the neighbourhood of the once famous city of Mándu. The capital now deserted by man is overgrown by forest and from being the seat of luxury, elegance, and wealth, it has become the abode of wild beasts and is resorted to by the few Europeans in that quarter for the pleasure of destroying them. Instances have been known of tigers being so bold as to carry off troopers riding in the ranks of their regiments. Twelve years later (a.d. 1839) Mr. Fergusson[168] found the hill a vast uninhabited jungle, the rank vegetation tearing the buildings of the city to pieces and obscuring them so that they could hardly be seen.[169] Between a.d. 1842 and 1852 tigers are described as prowling among the regal rooms, the half-savage marauding Bhíl as eating his meal and feeding his cattle in the cloisters of its sanctuaries and the insidious pípal as levelling to the earth the magnificent remains.[170] So favourite a tiger retreat was the Jaház Palace that it was dangerous to venture into it unarmed. Close to the very huts of the poor central village, near the Jámá Mosque, cattle were frequently seized by tigers. In the south tigers came nightly to drink at the Ságar lake. Huge bonfires had to be burnt to prevent them attacking the houses.[171] In a.d. 1883 Captain Eastwick wrote: At Mándu the traveller will require some armed men, as tigers are very numerous and dangerous. He will do well not to have any dogs with him, as the panthers will take them even from under his bed.[172] If this was true of Mándu in a.d. 1883—and is not as seems likely the repetition of an old-world tale—the last ten years have wrought notable changes. Through the interest His Highness Sir Anand Ráo Pavár, K.C.S.I., C.I.E., the present Mahárája of Dhár takes in the old capital of his state, travelling in Mándu is now as safe and easier than in many, perhaps than in most, outlying districts. A phæton can drive across the northern ravine-moat through the three gateways and along the hill-top, at least as far south as the Sea Lake. Large stretches of the level are cleared and tilled, and herds of cattle graze free from the dread of wild beasts. The leading buildings have been saved from their ruinous tree-growth, the underwood has been cleared, the marauding Bhíl has settled to tillage, the tiger, even the panther, is nearly
Appendix II.
The Hill Fort of Mándu.
History
Notices, a.d. 1820–1895. as rare as the wild elephant, and finally its old wholesomeness has returned to the air of the hill-top.
This sketch notices only the main events and the main buildings. Even about the main buildings much is still doubtful. Many inscriptions, some in the puzzling interlaced Tughra character, have still to be read. They may bring to light traces of the Mándu kings and of the Mughal emperors, whose connection with Mándu, so far as the buildings are concerned, is still a blank. The ruins are so many and so widespread that weeks are wanted to ensure their complete examination. It may be hoped that at no distant date Major Delasseau, the Political Agent of Dhár, whose opportunities are not more special than his knowledge, may be able to prepare a complete description of the hill and of its many ruins and writings.
[1] The following Persian verses are carved on the Âlamgír gateway:
In the time of Álamgír Aurangzíb (a.d. 1658–1707), the ruler of the World,