The Moghul Empire E-Book

Henry George Keene

• Herausgeber: Charles River Editors
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 313

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018

Beschreibung

The Pergamum Collection publishes books history has long forgotten. We transcribe books by hand that are now hard to find and out of print.

Das E-Book The Moghul Empire wird angeboten von Charles River Editors und wurde mit folgenden Begriffen kategorisiert:
pakistan; shivaji; maratha; mauragupta; delhi; punjab; free; history

Leseprobe

The Moghul Empire, From the Death of Aurungzeb to the Overthrow of the Mahratta Power

By

Henry George Keene

ADVERTISEMENT.

The revolutions of the Moghul Empire of Hindoostan, up to the battle of Paniput, have been chronicled by the late Hon. Mountstuart Elphinstone, along with the corresponding periods in the history of the Deccan. The campaigns of Generals Lake and Wellesley, with the subsequent British administration, have been described in the works of Mill, Wilson, Kaye, &c.

But there is a period of above forty years, the annals of which are only to be made out by laborious research among various and conflicting narratives, some very scarce.

To collate and reconcile these with the aid of trustworthy MSS. and traditions, has appeared a service which might be acceptable to those who are in any way interested in the great dependency of the Crown.

A brief introduction has been prefixed, which, it is hoped, may be of use to those even who are familiar with the standard histories. For although a relation of the events which took place in remote provinces has not “been reiterated in what professes to be merely an account of the disintegration of the Empire after the death of Aurungzeb, yet a few particulars of manners and occurrences are now, it is believed for the first time, presented to the English reader; while some errors that had crept into preceding works, have been silently rectified from Native authorities, compared with English memoirs written at the time.

In the history of the anarchy, much that is desired in a history will be sought in vain. There will be little or nothing learnt of the state of the people; for there are extant with regard to those dark days, no annals of the poor, however short or simple. Nor will there be any light thrown upon systems of government; for, as has been said, it was an anarchy. But it is believed that an interest may be derived from the biographies of the persons chiefly engaged; and from the picture of things which, let us trust, are for ever passed away.

The spelling of native words has been framed on the system prescribed by the Government of the North-West Provinces of India, much the same as that followed by Grant Duff in his “History of the Mahrattas.” The notion is to represent the words by the nearest phonetic equivalents; to discard the use of accents; and to adhere to the received spelling of very familiar words like “Calcutta,” “Mahomet,” &c., even when quite incorrect.

It cannot be hoped that those few persons who have made the subject their special study will be altogether satisfied with the manner in which the writer has performed his task. He can only plead, in mitigation of their censure, that he has had to work in the intervals of an absorbing profession, and with but a small command of English books of reference.

The treatment of the subject is intentionally superficial, and full of episode. Not only is this believed to be the only method which the nature of the subject will bear, but it is, in a manner, forced on one by the character of the materials.

To have attempted to give a complete narrative, it would have been necessary to treat at length on matters which (like the campaigns of Olive and Lake) had been exhausted by distinguished writers, from whom one must have transcribed wholesale if one wished to shun an unequal competition. And, however the work was done, it would still have laid a very severe burthen upon the patience even of those few indulgent readers who may perhaps be induced to bear with the slighter nature of the present humble Essay.

H. G. K.

KEY TO THE METHOD OF ROMANIZING ADOPTED IN THIS WORK.

The English reader will be enabled to judge the correct pronunciation of native words occurring in the following pages by bearing in mind a few rules more simple than absolutely accurate. My object has been to express the Asiatic sounds by their nearest English representatives without using accents.

Of the consonants there are but three which require any further explanation.

The great or dotted “Kaf“ of the Persian alphabet is sometimes rendered in English by Q. But Q by itself has an awkward look, having no recognized value in English spelling; and Qu, though used in such cases by the Spaniards (e.g. Guadalquivir-Quad-ul-Kubeer), does not at all express the sound to English ears. Moreover, the use of an ordinary K for this letter is already familiar in such words as The Koran, Abd-ool-Kadir, &c.

Ghain and Ain are unpronounceable gutturals, and it is enough for me to say that they pass without notice, here, as Gh and A. The latter will bear a diaeresis, to show that it is to be pronounced separately; e.g. Shoojaä (q.d. “Shoe Jah Ah").

N.B. Whenever an aspirate follows a consonant, it is to be pronounced as if it began another syllable, as in English “Loophole,” “Pothook.”

The following is the respective value of the vowels:

1. A has the value as in English “Ah!” “papa.”

2. E sounds as in “elephant,” “there“

3. I sounds as in “India,” “bit.”

4. O, sounding as in “rope,” “more“ is rarely used.

5. U as in “but.“

And of the diphthongs, this:

6. Aee has the sound of i in “light“

[This diphthong is also expressed by some writers in one or other of these ways, ai, ei, ey; and some of them may have crept into my pages by inadvertence.]

7. Ao, au, and ou, as ow in “cow.”

8. Ee as in “bee,” “seen.”

9. Oo as in “boot “or “book “(long or short).

Examples. (1) and (5) BABUR. (7) (5) and (2) AURUNGZEB. (3) and (8) SINDEEA (N.B. sometimes written in Persian SAEENDEEA). (4) and (5) POKUR. (6) and (9) JAEEPOOR.

PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS ON HINDOOSTAN, AND THE CITY OF DEHLI.

The country to which the term Hindoostan is strictly and properly applied may be roughly said to be a rhomboidal trapezium, bounded on the north-west by the rivers Indus and Sutlej, on the south-west by the Indian Ocean, on the south-east by the Nurbudda and the Sone, and on the north-east by the Himalaya Mountains and the river Ghagra. In the times of the emperors, it comprised the provinces of Sirhind, Rajpootana, Goozrat, Malwa, Biana, Oudh, Kuttahur (afterwards Rohilkund), and Unturbedh, or Dooab (Mesopotamia, the “land between the two rivers"): and the political division was into soobahs, or divisions; sircars, or districts; dustoors, or subdivisions; and pergunnahs, or fiscal unions.

The Deccan, Punjab, and Cabool are omitted, as far as possible, from notice, because they did not form part of the normal territories of the Empire. In the former, down to nearly the end of Aurungzeb’s reign, independent Mussulman kingdoms continued to flourish; Cabool was as often as not in the hands of the Persians, and the Punjab (at least beyond Lahore) was a kind of debateable land, where Afghans and Sikhs were constantly warring against the Empire, and against each other. It must, however, be remembered that all these outlying provinces have been held by the Emperors of Hindoostan at one time or another.

Bengal, Buhar, and Orissa also formed an integral portion of the Empire, but fell away without playing an important part in the history we are considering, excepting for a very brief period.

Including these three, the regular soobahs were twelve, the rest of the names as follows: Sirhind, Dehli, Oudh, Allahabad, Meywar, Marwar, Malwa, Biana, and Goozrat. Soobah Dehli contains sircars Dehli, Hissar, Rawaree, Saharunpore, Sumbhul, Budaon, Coel, Sahar, and Tijara. From this a notion of the extent of other divisions may be formed.

Soil and climate depend upon the physical features rather than upon the latitude, in a country facing south a great wall of limestone and having a vast desert to the west.

The highest point in the plains of Hindoostan is, probably, the plateau on which stands the town of Ajmere, about 230 miles south of Delhi. It lies on the eastern slope of the Aravalee Mountains, a range of primitive granite, of which Aboo, the chief peak, is estimated to be near 5,000 feet above the level of the sea; the plateau of Ajmere itself is some 3,000 feet lower.

The country at large is, probably, the upheaved basin of an exhausted sea which once rendered the highlands of the Deccan an island like a larger Ceylon. The general quality of the soil is accordingly sandy and light, though not unproductive; yielding on an average about 1,400 Ib. of wheat to the acre. The cereals are grown in the winter, which is, at least, as cold as in the corresponding parts of Africa. Snow never falls, but thin ice is often formed during the night. During the spring heavy dews fall, and strong winds set in from the west. These gradually become heated by the increasing radiation of the earth, as the sun becomes more vertical and the days longer.

Towards the end of June the monsoon blows up from the Bay of Bengal, and a rainfall averaging about twenty inches takes place during the ensuing quarter. This usually ceases about the end of September, when the weather is at its most sickly point. Constant exhalations of malaria take place till the return of the cold weather.

During the spring, cucurbitaceous crops are grown, followed by sowings of rice, sugar, and cotton. About the beginning of the hot season the millets and other coarse grains are put in, and the harvesting takes place in October. The winter crops are reaped in March and April. Thus the agriculturists are never out of employ, unless it be during the extreme heats of May and June, when the soil becomes almost as hard as the earth in England becomes in the opposite extreme of frost.

Of the hot season, Mr. Elphinstone gives the following strong but just description: “The sun is scorching, even the wind is hot, the land is brown and parched, the dust flies in whirlwinds, all brooks become dry, small rivers scarcely keep up a stream, and the largest are reduced to comparatively narrow channels in the midst of vast sandy beds.” It should, however, be added, that towards the end of this terrible season some relief is afforded to the river supply by the melting of the snow upon the higher Himalayas. But even so, the occasional prolongation of the dry weather leads to universal scarcity which amounts to famine for the mass of the population, which affects all classes, and which is sure to be followed by pestilence. Such are the awful expedients by which Nature checks the redundancy of a non-emigrating population with simple wants. Hence the construction of waterworks has not merely a direct result in causing temporary prosperity, but an indirect result in a large increase of the responsibilities of the ruling power. Between 1848 and 1854 the population of the part of Hindoostan, now called the North-West Provinces, where all the above described physical features prevail, increased from a ratio of 280 to the square mile till it reached a ratio of 350.

There were at the time of which we are to treat few field-labourers on daily wages, the Metayer system being everywhere prevalent where the soil was not actually owned by joint-stock associations of peasant proprietors, usually of the same tribe.

The wants of the cultivators were provided for by a class of hereditary brokers, who were often also chandlers, and advanced stock, seed, and money upon the security of the unreaped crops.

These, with a number of artisans and handicraftmen, formed the chief population of the towns; some of the money-dealers were very rich, and 24 per cent, per annum was not, by any means, a high rate of interest. There were no silver or gold mines, and the money-price of commodities was low.

The language of Hindoostan, called Oordoo or Rekhta, was, and still is, so far common to the whole country, that it everywhere consists of a mixture of the same elements, though in varying proportions; and follows the same grammatical rules, though with different accents and idioms. The constituent parts are the Arabised Persian, and the Sanskrit, in combination with a ruder basis, possibly of Scythian origin, known as Hindee. Speaking loosely, the Persian speech has contributed nouns substantive of civilization, and adjectives of compliment or of science, while the verbs and ordinary vocables and particles pertaining to common life are derived from the earlier tongues. So, likewise, are the names of animals, excepting those of beasts of chase.

The name Oordoo, by which this language is usually known, is of Turkish origin, and means literally camp. But the Moghuls of India restricted its use to the precincts of the Imperial camp; so that Oordoo-i-mooalee (High or Supreme Camp) came to be a synonym for new Dehli after Shahjuhan had made it his permanent capital; and Oordoo-ki-zubaan meant the lingua franca spoken at Dehli. It was the common method of communication between different classes, as English may have been in London under Edward III. The classical languages of Arabia and Persia were exclusively devoted to uses of state and of religion; the Hindoos cherished their Sanskrit and Hindee for their own purposes of business or worship, while the Emperor and his Moghul courtiers kept up their Turkish speech as a means of free intercourse in private life.

Out of such elements was the rich and still growing language of Hindoostan formed, and it is yearly becoming more widely spread, being largely taught in Government schools, and used as a medium of translation from European literature, both by the English and by the natives. For this purpose it is peculiarly suited, from still possessing the power of assimilating foreign roots, instead of simply inserting them cut and dried, as is the case with languages that have reached maturity. Its own words are also liable to a kind of chemical change when encountering foreign matter (e.g. jow, barley: when oats were introduced some years ago, they were at once called jowee “little barley").

The peninsula of India is to Asia what Italy is to Europe, and Hindoostan may be roughly likened to Italy without the two Sicilies. In this comparison the Himalayas represent the Alps, and the Tartars to the north are the Tedeschi of India; Persia is to her as France, Piedmont is represented by Cabool, and Lombardy by the Punjab. A recollection of this analogy may not be without use in familiarizing the narrative which is to follow.

Such was the country into which successive waves of invaders, some of them, perhaps, akin to the actual ancestors of the Goths, Huns, and Saxons of Europe, poured down from the plains of Central Asia. At the time of which our history treats, the aboriginal Indians had long been pushed out from Hindoostan into the mountainous forests that border the Deccan; which country had been largely peopled, in its more accessible regions, by the Soodras, who were probably the first of the Scythian invaders. After them had come the Sanskrit-speaking race, a congener of the ancient Persians, who brought a form of Fire-worshipping, perhaps once monotheistic, of which traces are still extant in the Vedas, their early Scriptures. This form of faith becoming weak and eclectic, was succeeded by a reaction, which, under the auspices of Gautama, obtained general currency, until in its turn displaced by the gross mythology of the Pooranas, which has since been the popular creed of the Hindoos.

This people is now divided into three main denominations, the Surawugees or Jaeens (who represent the Boodhists or followers of Gautama); the sect of Shiva, and the sect of Vishnoo.

To the Hindoo invaders succeeded the early Mussulmans from Ghuznee and Ghor. Then came the terrible incursion of Timoor the Lame, followed in its turn by an Afghan invasion which founded a strong dynasty, and largely affected the population of the northern provinces.

Finally, a descendant of Timoor—by name Babur, a man of intellect and energy, led a fresh Mahomedan crusade at the head of a Turanian tribe called Moghul (who may or may not have been connected with the Mongol conquerors of China) on the same familiar path.

His dynasty, after a long and severe struggle with the Afghan settlers, established themselves firmly on the throne of Hindoostan under his grandson Ukbur, one of whose first public acts was to abolish the Juzeea, or capitation-in-lieu-of-death, which all previous Mussulman rulers had imposed upon the Hindoos; and which, when again introduced by his bigoted great-grandson Aurungzeb, contributed powerfully to the alienation of the people and to the downfall of the Empire.

The Mahomedans in India preserved their religion, though not without some taint from the circumjacent idolatry. Their celebration of the Mohurrum, with tasteless and extravagant ceremonies, and their fast in Rumzan, were alike misplaced in a country where, from the moveable nature of their dates, they sometimes fell on seasons when the rigour of the climate was such as could never have been contemplated by the Arabian Prophet. They continued the bewildering lunar year of the Hijree, with its thirteenth month every third year; but, to increase the confusion, the Moghul Emperors also reckoned by Turkish cycles, while the Hindoos tenaciously maintained in matters of business their national Sumbut or era of Raja Bikrum Ajeet.

If India be the Italy of Asia, still more properly may it be said that Dehli is its Rome. This ancient city stretches ruined for many miles round the present inhabited area, and its original foundation is lost in a mythical antiquity. A Hindoo city called Indraprustha was certainly there on the bank of the Jumna near the site of the present city before the Christian era, and various Mahomedan conquerors occupied sites in the neighbourhood, of which numerous remains are still extant. The last was the Deen Punnah of Humayoon, nearly on the site of the old Hindoo town, but it had gone greatly to decay during the long absence of his son and grandson at Agra and elsewhere.

At length New Dehli—the present city—was founded by Shahjuhan, the great-grandson of Hoomayoon, and received the name, by which it is still known to Mahomedans, of Shahjuhanabad. The city is seven miles round, with seven gates, the Palace or citadel one-tenth of the area. Both are a sort of irregular semicircle on the right bank of the Jumna, which river forms their eastern arc. The level is about 800 feet above the level of the sea, and is a basin bordered by a low range of hills, and receiving the drainage of the Mewat Highlands. The greatest heat is in June, when the mean temperature in the shade is 92°F.; but it falls as low as 53° in January. The situation—as will be seen by the map—is extremely well chosen as the administrative centre of Hindoostan; it must always be a place of commercial importance, and the climate has no peculiar defect. The only local disorder is a very malignant sore, which may perhaps be due to the brackishness of the water. This would account for the numerous and expensive canals and aqueducts which have been constructed at different periods, to bring water from remote and pure sources. The text of the following description is taken from the Mirut-i-Aftabnuma, a work on the history of modern Dehli by Shah Nuwaz Khan, a noble of Shah Alum’s court.

“The city of Dehli,” also called Dillee by Hindoos, and sometimes by Europeans (without any just cause) Delhi, “was founded by the Emperor Shahjuhan in H. 1048,” and that remarkable edifice, the fortress (commonly called Lall Killa), begun in the following year (the twelfth of the reign of this Emperor) and completely finished in the twentieth, at an expense of 5,000,000 (fifty lakhs) of rupees. This fortress extends 1,000 guz in length and 600 guz in breadth, with its fronting walls 25 guz high; two canals passing within, fall by two mouths into the Jumna. The chief material of this fine building was red stone, and the whole of the buildings in this fortress, intended for the Imperial ladies to live, in as well as some other buildings, such as the garden named Huyat Buksh, Mootee Mehul, Hummam (or Bathinghouse), Shah Mehul (commonly called Deewan-i-Khass), refectories in the Boorj-i-Tilla, Imtiaz Mehul, and the sleeping-rooms both of the king and his ladies, were built on the northern side of the fort; the canal from the Jumna was also made to flow in the centre of these buildings. The account of each of the above-mentioned buildings is as follows:

“Boorj-i-Shimalee.— This was a raised pavilion of which the plinth was 12 guz in height, and all constructed of white marble. In the centre was a large marble reservoir inlaid with precious stones.

“Hayat Buksh.—This garden occupied a good tract of land, and contained a reservoir in the centre, through which some 49 jets rose, while 112 of the same, set all around it, were bursting forth constantly. On its eastern and western sides there were two kingly houses surmounted with domes of white marble richly gilt.

“Motee Mehul.—This beautiful edifice stood on the eastern side of the above-mentioned garden. The vestibule contained a reservoir, and the stone of which the reservoir was made was in those times found in a mine about 200 koss distant from Dehli. On the southern side of this building was a bungalow built of polished marble, about 7 guz high.

“Shah Mehul, or Deewan Khas.—This building was situated on an estaode of 1½ guz from the ground, the canal passing through was about 4 guz broad, all made of marble, of which material the building itself was likewise composed. The roof and arches of this were also richly plated, and adorned with flowers and the well-known inscription—

“‘If there be a heaven on earth, it is this, it is this, it is this.’ The construction of this beautiful edifice is said to have cost nine lakhs.

“The Hummam, or bath-house, contained a terrace and reservoir of marble, all inlaid with precious stones, where the warm baths were taken. The cold bath adjoined, a square reservoir with a jet of gold at each of the four angles. In the southern part of this building was another pavilion called Tusbeeh Khana, behind which was the bedroom of the Emperor, bearing inscriptions from the pen of Sadoolah Khan, containing accounts of the construction of the fortress.

“Boorj-i-Tilla.—The material of this house is polished marble, in the northern part of which stood a beautiful bedroom for the Emperor. The profusion of inscriptions and incrustations on the walls of the room were almost a repetition of those in Shah Mehul.

“Imtiaz Mehul.—Of all the buildings of this fortress, this superb edifice was the first object of attraction; the houses within were, many of them, very large and high. The Mehul was of an oblong form, being 57½ guz long and 26 guz broad; the pillars as well as the roof of one of these rooms being richly gilt rendered it an ornamental room with its mosaics and marble reservoir. Within this was a quadrangle of about 7½ guz; the canal passing down the Aramgah first entered this reservoir, and then issued its water to the south, while a branch canal bursting forth from this reservoir was carried through a garden planted in this Mehul. This garden inclosed a length of 117 guz, and a breadth of 115. Over the entrance were four minarets of red- stone and marble, crowned with gilded cupolas. To the west of the courtyard of this building was a room called Deewan Khana, 67 guz by 24. The material of this pavilion was also red-stone and marble richly inlaid, like the other similar building; it was raised on an elevated terrace surmounted with beautiful gilded domes. This was a very extensive hall, with three handsome gates of red-stone; the one of these four towards the west being surrounded with some other building was called Nukar Khana. In the Imtiaz Mehul there was also a room intended for ‘the Begum Sahibah,’ surrounded with colonnades very beautifully made. A canal made of marble had also been made to flow within. This room was adorned with a handsome orchard, and an octagon reservoir about 25 guz in diameter: to the eastern part of this were connected many other agreeable abodes intended for other royal families to live in. To the right and left sides of the fortress along the river Jumna there had been founded many other superb edifices by the princes. To the north of the market named the Chandnee Chowk, an extensive Seraee (for passengers) had also been constructed, in accordance with the order of the Begum Jehanara; this seraee consisted of 90 convenient rooms, with a terrace of 5 guz broad all before them.

“Beyond the gate towards Lahore was a very beautiful garden called Shalamar, planted by the Emperor Shahjuhan.

“Fronting the gate of the fortress was a mosque named in honour of the Ukburabadee Begum; this mosque was entered by seven rooms, of which there were only three which were surmounted with three magnificent domes, the other four being flat like a roof.

“Jumma Musjid.—The foundation of this Imperial mosque was laid on the 10th of Shuwall H. 1060, by Shahjuhan, the Emperor of Dehli. This remarkable edifice was completed after a period of six years, although a considerable number of about 5,000 workmen of every kind had to work daily for it. The site selected for it is a small rocky eminence about one hundred guz distant from the fortress to the west. It consists of three beautiful gates, the doors of which are covered with plates of wrought brass. The mosque possesses seven excellent arches, with three stately domes, about 90 guz high and 32 guz broad; along the cornice there are eleven compartments, bearing some religious inscriptions; the courtyard of the mosque is paved with large flags of red-stone, in the centre of which is a marble reservoir.”

[The completion of this stately mosque is said to have cost a sum of ten lakhs of rupees, probably near a million of our modern money.]

“The surrounding wall of this city was constructed by Shahjuhan, the Emperor, in the twenty-fourth year of his reign, at an expense of one and a half lakhs of rupees; but the wall, being made of earth and stone, soon began to fall in the rains of the next year. Seeing this, the Emperor began to build a more solid wall with rich materials, the wall when thus constructed, was 6,610 guz in length, 4 in breadth, and 9 in height. This and the last construction are said to have cost five lakhs of rupees.

“Nuhr-i-Faiz.—This canal was originally cut from the Jumna by the Emperor Feeroz Khiljee, and brought as far as the jurisdiction of pergunnah Sufedoon, a place about 30 koss distant from Khizerabad, the source of this canal; but, after the death of the said Emperor, the canal, owing to the want of repairs, had been thrown into a disgraceful state, until it was again repaired, for the purpose of irrigation, by Shuhaboodeen, the Soobah of Dehli, in the reign of the Emperor Mohummud Julalooddeen Ukbur, and henceforth it was called by the name of ‘Nuhri-Shuhab.’ But, as a long time came to pass without any repairs, the canal was left to fall again into the same bad condition; it was however repaired and kept in excellent order by the Emperor Shahjuhan as soon as he had laid the foundation of his fortress ‘Lall Killa’ at Dehli: and he also bade his engineers to lengthen the same canal for 30 koss more from Sufedoon to Dehli.”

Thus far the Nuwab. But in his days the architecture was all that was left to bear witness to the magnificence described by him from tradition and from the accounts of earlier historians, in the city and fort.

The entrance to the palace was, and still is, defended by a lofty barbican, passing which the visitor finds himself in an immense arcaded vestibule, wide and lofty, formerly appropriated to the men and officers of the guard, but now (1865) tenanted by small shopkeepers. This opened into a courtyard, at the back of which was a gate surmounted by a gallery, where one used to hear the barbarous performances of the royal band. Passing under this, the visitor entered the Am-Khas above described, much fallen from its state, when the rare animals and the splendid military pageants of the earlier Emperors used to throng its area. Fronting you was the Deewan-i-Am (since converted into a barrack), and at the back (towards the east or river) the Deewan-i-Khas, since turned into a museum. This latter pavilion is in echelon with the former, and was made to communicate on both sides with the private apartments.

On the east of the palace, and connected with it by a bridge crossing an arm of the river, is the ancient Pathan fort of Suleemgurh, a rough and dismal structure, which the latter Emperors used as a state prison. It is a remarkable contrast to the rest of the fortress, which is surrounded by crenellated walls of high finish. These walls being built of the red sandstone of the neighbourhood, and seventy feet in height, give to the exterior of the buildings a solemn air of passive and silent strength, so that, even after so many years of havoc, the outward appearance of the Imperial residence continues to testify of its former grandeur. How its internal and actual grandeur perished will be seen in the following pages.

Of the character of the races who people this wide region, very varying estimates have been formed, in the most extreme opposites of which there is still some germ of truth. It cannot be denied that, in some of what are termed the unprogressive virtues, they exceed most of the nations of Europe; being usually temperate, self-controlled, patient, dignified in misfortune, and affectionate and liberal to kinsfolk and dependents.

But, on the other hand, it must be admitted that, as India is the Italy, so are the Indian races the Italians of Asia. All Asiatics are unscrupulous and unforgiving. The natives of Hindoostan are peculiarly so; but they are also unsympathetic and unenterprising in a manner that is altogether their own. From the languor induced by the climate, and from the selfishness engendered by centuries of misgovernment, they have derived an unblushing audacity of meanness, almost unintelligible in a people so free from the fear of death.

Macaulay has not overstated this in his Essay on Warren Hastings, where he has occasion to describe the character of Nund Komar, who, as a Bengalee man-of-the-pen, appears to have been a marked type of all that is most peculiar in the Hindoo character. Of the Mussulmen, it only remains to add that, although mostly descended from hardier immigrants, they have imbibed the Hindoo character to an extent that goes far to corroborate the doctrine which traces the morals of men to the physical circumstances that surround them.

BOOK I.

INTRODUCTORY.

CHAPTER I.A.D. 1707-19.

Individual greatness of the descendants of Timoor—The tolerance and wisdom of earlier Emperors essential to the prosperity of the Empire—Power of the Empire at death of Aurungzeb only apparent—Parallel with France Aurungzeb’s peculiar errors—Reaction from centralization in weak hands—Special danger of Moghuls from unsettled succession—Virtues of Buhadoorshah of no avail—Temporary subjugation of the Sikhs—On Buhadoorshah’s death at Lahore in 1712, Furokhseer disputes succession with Moizoodeen; and, on the latter dying, succeeds to the throne—Rise of Cheenkillich Khan, afterwards “The Nizam"—The British Embassy, and disinterested surgeon—The Saeeuds—Murder of Emperor.

There is probably no record in history of any family that has produced such a long and unbroken series of distinguished rulers as the Emperors of Hindoostan, descended from the great Timoor Beg, known in Europe as Tamerlane. The brave and simple-hearted BABUR; who won the Empire for his house, has left his image to us in the remarkably outspoken commentaries which have been more than once edited in our language. When he had an inclination to make merry, we are told, he was wont to fill a fountain with wine, and join gaily in open-air revels among companions of both sexes; and the inscription of the fountain was to this purport, “Jovial days! blooming spring time! old wine and young maidens! Enjoy freely, Babur, for life can be enjoyed but once.” This cheerful hero was succeeded in his wide conquests by his son HOOMAYOON, alike famous for his misfortunes and for the unwearied patience with which he endured and ultimately surmounted them. His son was the great JALALOODEEN UKBUR, liberal, merciful, and intrepid; a follower of Truth in all her obscure retreats and a generous friend of her humblest and least attractive votaries. Ukbur’s eldest son, SULEEM JUHANGEER, is well known to all readers of English poetry as the constant and reasonable lover of the gifted Noormehul, but deserves greater distinction for his peculiar accessibility and inflexible justice. So far did he carry his convictions of duty on this head, that his maxim is said to have been “That a monarch should care even for the beasts of the field, and that the very birds of heaven ought to receive their due at the foot of the throne.” Nor is he less remarkable for walking in the path of religious liberality traced by his distinguished father a lesson the more deserving of study by modern Europe, that it was set by two Mussulman despots at a time when the word “toleration” was not known to Christians. The clemency and the justice of his son and successor, SHAH JUHAN, are still famous in India; like his father, he was a devoted husband, and has immortalized his domestic affections in the world-renowned Taj Mehul of Agra, which is, at the same time, a conspicuous monument of his artistic feeling.

This emperor was indeed one of the greatest architects that ever lived; and the Mosque and Palace of Dehli, which he personally designed, even, after the havoc of two centuries, still remain the climax of the Indo-Saracenic order, and admitted rivals to the choicest works of Cordova and Granada.

The abilities of his son ALUMGEER, known to Europeans by his private name, AURUNGZEB, rendered him perhaps the most distinguished of any member of his distinguished house. Intrepid and enterprising as he was in war, his political sagacity and statecraft were equally unparalleled in Eastern annals. He abolished capital punishment, understood and encouraged agriculture, founded numberless colleges and schools, systematically constructed roads and bridges, kept continuous diaries of all public events from his earliest boyhood, administered justice publicly in person, and never condoned the slightest malversation of a provincial governor, however distant his province. Such were these emperors; great, if not exactly what we should call good, to a degree rare indeed amongst hereditary rulers.

The fact of this uncommon succession of high qualities in a race born to the purple may be ascribed to two main considerations. In the first place, the habit of contracting marriages with Hindoo princesses, which the policy and the latitudinarianism of the emperors established, was a constant source of fresh blood whereby the increase of family predisposition was checked. Few if any races of men are free from some morbid taint: scrofula, phthisis, weak nerves, or a diseased brain, are all likely to be propagated if a person predisposed to any such ailment marries a woman of his own stock. From this danger the Moghul princes were long kept free.

Secondly, the invariable fratricidal war which followed the demise of the Crown gave rise to a natural selection (to borrow a term from modern physical inquiry), which eventually confirmed the strongest in possession of the prize. However humanity may revolt from the scenes of crime which such a system must perforce entail, yet it cannot be doubted that the qualities necessary to ensure success in a struggle of giants would certainly both declare and develop themselves by the time that struggle was concluded.

It is indeed probable that both these causes aided ultimately in the dissolution of the monarchy.

The connections which resulted from the earlier emperors’ Hindoo marriages led, as the Hindoos became disaffected after the intolerant rule of Aurungzeb, to an assertion of partisanship which gradually swelled into independence; while the wars between the rival sons of each departing emperor gave more and more occasion for the Hindoo chiefs to take sides in arms.