The Memoirs of Jahāngīr (Jahāngīrnāma) 37: Mandu.
Dwázda-Sála-i Jahángírí; Wáki’át Jahángírí, of the Emperor Jahángír (Elliot & Dowson, extracts) 37
- Language
- English
Mandu.
37.1
Mandu is one of the divisions of the province of Malwa, and the total of its revenue is one kror thirty-nine lac of dams. The city was for a long time the capital of the kings of this country. 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 out to see the royal edifices. First I visited the jámi' masjid which was built by Sultan 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. Afterwards I visited the sepulchres of the kings and rulers of the Khilji dynasty, among which there is also the tomb of the eternally cursed Nasiru-d din, son of Sultan Ghiyasu-d din. It is notorious that this graceless wretch twice attempted to kill his father by poison when he was in the eightieth year of his age; but the old monarch saved his life by the use of bezoar. The third time he gave him, with his own hand, a cup of sherbet mixed with poison, and told him that he must drink it. The father, seeing his son’s determination, took the bezoar off his arm, and placed it before him. Then he bowed in humble supplication before his Maker, and said, O Lord! I have now arrived at the age of eighty. All this time I have passed in ease and prosperity, and in a state of pleasure such as has been the lot of no monarch. This moment is my last, and I pray thee not to hold my son Nasir answerable for my blood.
37.2
May my death be deemed a natural death, and may my son be not held answerable for it.” Having said this, he drank the poisoned draught and expired. What he meant by saying that he had enjoyed such luxury and pleasure as no king ever did was this : In the forty-eighth year of his age, when he succeeded to the throne, he said to his friends and associates, that in the time of his father he had spent thirty years of his life in the command of the army, and had done all that was required of a soldier. Now that the sovereignty had devolved upon him, he had no desire for conquest, his only wish was to pass the remainder of his life in pleasure and luxury. It is said that he had 15,000 women in his harem. He built a city which was inhabited only by women, and all arts and sciences were taught them. The posts of governor, judge, magistrate, and all offices required in the management of a city, were held by persons of the female sex. Whenever he heard of a girl possessing beauty, he never rested till he obtained her. He was exceedingly fond of sport, and had made a deer park, in which he had collected all kinds of animals. He often amused himself in hunting in this park, in the company of women. As he had from the first determined, he made no invasion during his whole reign of thirty-two years, and spent all this time in ease, enjoyment, and pleasure ; and no enemy made any attack upon his dominions.
37.3
It is reported that Sher Khan Afghan, in the course of his reign, came to the tomb of Nasiru-d din, and although he had a brutal disposition, yet on account of the shameful deed above stated, he ordered his people to beat the tomb with their sticks. When I went to the tomb, I also kicked it several times, and ordered my attendants also to spurn it with their feet. Not satisfied even with this, I ordered the tomb to be opened, and the remains of that foul wretch to be thrown into fire. But then I remembered that fire is a part of the eternal light, and that it was very wrong to pollute it with that filthy matter. I also hesitated from burning his remains, lest by so doing a remission be made in his punishment in the next world. I ordered that his decayed bones and the dust of his body should be thrown into the Nerbudda, because it is said that as he had a very hot temper in the days of his youth, he always remained in water. It is well known that one day, in a fit of intoxication, he threw himself into the tank of Kaliyadah, which was very deep. Some of the servants of the palace caught hold of his hair and dragged him out. When he came to his senses, and learnt what had happened, and that they had dragged him out by the hair, he was so angry with them that he ordered their hands to be cut off. The next time he fell into the tank, nobody attempted to pull him out, and so he was drowned.
37.4
Now, at a period of 110 years after his death, it had come to pass that his rotten remains were also mixed with water. One night I turned the discourse of my courtiers on the chase, and told them how fond of it I formerly was. At the same time it occurred to my mind whether all the animals and birds which I had killed since the time of my coming to reason could not be calculated. I therefore ordered all the news-writers, the gamekeepers and other officers to ascertain and write out a list of all the various animals and birds I had killed, and to show it to me. Accordingly a paper was prepared, from which it appeared that from the twelfth year of my age, A.H. 988, to the end of the last year, the eleventh of my reign, and the fiftieth lunar year of my age, 28,532 animals and birds were killed in the course of my sport, of which 17,168 were graminivorous animals and birds I had shot or killed with my own hands, and the following is a detailed account of them.