The Book of Akbar 302: OF THE DOMINION-INCREASING ACTS OF HIS MAJESTY THE SHAHINSHAH FROM THE TIME OF HIS FELICITOUS SETTING OUT FOR THE PANJAB TILL HIS SACRED ACCESSION.
The Akbarnama (H. Beveridge), vols. I–II 302
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OF THE DOMINION-INCREASING ACTS OF HIS MAJESTY THE SHAHINSHAH FROM THE TIME OF HIS FELICITOUS SETTING OUT FOR THE PANJAB TILL HIS SACRED ACCESSION.
302.1
The brief account of the fortune-encompassing condition of His Majesty the Shahinshah from the time of his being dispatched to the Panjab till his glorious accession is that when the standards of fortune were turned towards the Panjab the Atka Khan and other servants came from Hisar Firuza and met him on the way, in accordance with an intimation to that effect, and had the honour of paying their respects. When fortune’s equipage arrived at Sihrind all the king’s servants who had been appointed as auxiliaries to Shah Abu-l-M'aali, such as Muhammad Quli Khan Barlas, Musahib Beg, Khwaja Jalalu-d-din Mahmud, Farhat Khan, Tahir Muhammad, son of Mir Khurd, and Mihtar Taimur Sharbatai, came away without leave (from Abu-l-M'aali) on hearing of the advance of His Majesty the Shahinshah, and hastened to obtain the bliss of service, for they had been troubled by the evil fellowship of that ill-regulated young man. They were favourably received. Sikandar, who had come out of the hills, withdrew to them again before the victorious army had encamped. The infatuated Mir who had marched out to put him down hastened back to Lahore. When it became certain that the province had been given to His Majesty the Shahinshah, and that he was proceeding thither, Abu-l-M'aali felt constrained to come with a body of troops to the bank of the Sultanpur river (the Bias) and to do homage.
302.2
His Majesty out of kindness, and in order to ratify the favour that had been shown by His Majesty Jahanbani himself indicated to Abu-l-M'aali that he should take a seat in the high assemblage, and encompassed him with favours. But inasmuch as the easily intoxicated Mir had been made drunk by one gulp of the world’s wine he, after obtaining leave and returning to his quarters sent a message that “my position with His Majesty Jahanbani is universally known; and especially your Highness may recollect that at the qamargha (ring-hunt) in Jii gjjahi I ate with His Majesty Jahanbani in the same place and off the same plate; you were present, and had your portion (alush) sent to you. Taking then my position into consideration, why, when I came to your habitation, was a separate rug put down for me, and why was there a separate tablecloth?” His Majesty a mine of sense and urbanity, smiled at his ignorance, and said to Haji Muhammad Sistani who had brought the message “Tell him the regulations of State and the laws of love are distinct, you have not with me the position that you had with His Majesty Jahanbani. ’Tis strange that you have not discriminated between these two positions, and have complained.” The Mir was greatly abashed. His Majesty went on towards the hills in order to extirpate Sikandar who was stated to be in Mankot and its neighbourhood. When the army of fortune encamped near Hariana a swift courier arrived and apprized Bairam Khan of His Majesty Jahanbani’s fall.
302.3
Bairam Khan did not think it expedient to advance further, and moved the army to Kalanur in order that they might halt for some days in that pleasant place. Near Kalanur Nazr Shaikh Culi arrived and produced the sublime mandate (firman). Just about this time the tidings of the inevitable events reached the royal hearing, and His Majesty displayed the weeping and lamentation which befitted the condition of affection and love. The distress and internal affliction which were experienced by that lofty-souled one exceeded human conception. Bairam Khan, Atka Khan and Maham Anaga essayed to comfort him, but as his sorrow sprang from excessive love what they regarded as topics of consolation only augmented his grief. This chosen one of God expends such sorrow of heart and consideration for individual men! How grieved and afflicted he is at the death of any one who has a savour of sincerity, devotion, and ability! It was fitting that such a disposition should show itself in his holy personality under circumstances which were in old times motives for rejoicing among the unthinking so that men of the world who regard only what they perceive by their senses may acknowledge the true grandeur of this great one, and that such acknowledgment may be a means of guiding all mankind, and that the guidance may result in general enlightenment and charity.
302.4
If it were not for this reason, how could the wide domain of the knowledge, piety and devotion of this nursling of the light of glory permit that such censure of the decrees of Providence should contract the law of submission? At length by the assistance of far-reaching reason he conveyed himself to the asylum of patience and employed himself in alms-giving and in other good works which may benefit those who have travelled to the abiding world. Poets and sages composed elegies and chronograms. Among them was Khwaja Husain of Merv who made a tarhibband in an elegy, about that cupola of pardon, some lines of which are as follows:— Verse. O heart, thou too must hear the sound of death. Death's morning must blow on thy life's ascension. As the order for tasting death is for all men. Be sure that the sherbet of death must be drunk. This name of life which they imposed upon you. Is a name that must be carried on to the side of death. Be not proud of this rose and garden of life. Autumn’s breeze must blow on this rose and garden, Thou hast heard with thine own ears that such an one remaineth not Others’s ears must receive tidings of thee likewise. Mir cAbdu-l-Hai found this chronogram Verse. Alas, Alas ! My king fell from the roof. (963). Maulana Mas'aud of Hisar composed this:— Verse. Humayun Padshah was united to God. (963). But this was by writing the sacred name (Humayun) without alif. Maulana Qasim Kahi made this chronogram:— Verse. Humayun Padshah fell from the roof. (902).
302.5
This chronogram is one year short. A difference of one or two years may be allowed in the case (of the dates) of buildings, but not in obituary chronograms. A number discovered this chronogram Verse. Let Jalalu-d-din be the kingdom’s heir. (963). The spiritual and physical perfections and the notes of reason