The Memoirs of Jahāngīr (Jahāngīrnāma) 2: CHAPTER I.
The Tūzuk-i-Jahāngīrī (Rogers, Beveridge) 2
- Language
- English
CHAPTER I.
2.1
BY the boundless favour of Allah, when one sidereal hour of Thursday, Jumada-s-sani 20th, A.H. 1014 (October 24th, 1605), had passed, I ascended the royal throne in the capital of Agra, in the 38th year of my age. Till he was 28 years old, no child of my father had lived, and he was continually praying for the survival of a son to dervishes and recluses, by whom spiritual approach to the throne of Allah is obtained. As the great master, Khwaja Mu'inu-d-din Chishti, was the fountain-head of most of the saints of India, he considered that in order to obtain this object he should have recourse to his blessed threshold, and resolved within himself that if Almighty God should bestow a son on him he would, by way of complete humility, go on foot from Agra to his blessed mausoleum, a distance of 140 kos. In a.h. 977, on Wednesday, 17th Rabi'u-l-awwal (August 31st, 1569), when seven ghari of the aforesaid day had passed, when Libra (Mizan) had risen to the 24th degree, God Almighty brought me into existence from the hiding-place of nothingness. At the time when my venerated father was on the outlook for a son, a dervish of the name of Shaikh Salim, a man of ecstatic condition, who had traversed many of the stages of life, had his abode on a hill near Sikri, one of the villages of Agra, and the people of that neighbourhood had complete trust in him. As my father was very submissive to dervishes, he also visited him.
2.2
One day, when waiting on him and in a state of distraction, he asked him how many sons he should have. The Shaikh replied, "The Giver who gives without being asked will bestow three sons on you." My father said, "I have made a vow that, casting my first son on the skirt of your favour, I will make your friendship and kindness his protector and preserver." The Shaikh accepted this idea, and said, "I congratulate you, and I will give him my own name." When my mother came near the time of her delivery, he (Akbar) sent her to the Shaikh's house that I might be born there. After my birth they gave me the name of Sultan Salim, but I never heard my father, whether in his cups or in his sober moments, call me Muhammad Salim or Sultan Salim, but always Shaikhu Baba. My revered father, considering the village of Sikri, which was the place of my birth, lucky for him, made it his capital. In the course of fourteen or fifteen years that hill, full of wild beasts, became a city containing all kinds of gardens and buildings, and lofty, elegant edifices and pleasant places, attractive to the heart. After the conquest of Gujarat this village was named Fathpur. When I became king it occurred to me to change my name, because this resembled that of the Emperor of Rum.
2.3
An inspiration from the hidden world brought it into my mind that, inasmuch as the business of kings is the controlling of the world, I should give myself the name of Jahangir (World-seizer) and make my title of honour (laqab) Nuru-d-din, inasmuch as my sitting on the throne coincided with the rising and shining on the earth of the great light (the Sun). I had also heard, in the days when I was a prince, from Indian sages, that after the expiration of the reign and life of King Jalalu-d-din Akbar one named Nuru-d-din would be administrator of the affairs of the State. Therefore I gave myself the name and appellation of Nuru-d-din Jahangir Padshah. As this great event took place in Agra, it is necessary that some account of that city should be given.
2.4
Agra is one of the grand old cities of Hindustan. It had formerly an old fort on the bank of the Jumna, but this my father threw down before my birth, and he founded a fort of cut red stone, the like of which those who have travelled over the world cannot point out. It was completed in the space of fifteen or sixteen years. It had four gates and two sally-ports, and its cost was 35 lakhs of rupees, equal to 115,000 toman of current Persian coinage and to 10,500,000 khani according to the Turan reckoning. The habitable part of the city extends on both sides of the river. On its west side, which has the greater population, its circumference is seven kos and its breadth is one kos. The circumference of the inhabited part on the other side of the water, the side towards the east, is 2½ kos, its length being one kos and its breadth half a kos. But in the number of its buildings it is equal to several cities of 'Iraq, Khurasan, and Mawara'a-n-nahr (Transoxiana) put together. Many persons have erected buildings of three or four storeys in it. The mass of people is so great, that moving about in the lanes and bazars is difficult. It is on the boundary of the second climate. On its east is the province of Qanauj; on the west, Nagor; on the north, Sambhal; and on the south, Chanderi.
2.5
It is written in the books of the Hindus that the source of the Jumna is in a hill of the name of Kalind, which men cannot reach because of the excessive cold. The apparent source is a hill near the pargana of Khizrabad. The air of Agra is warm and dry ; physicians say that it depresses the spirits (ruhra ba tahlil mibarad) and induces weakness. It is unsuited to most temperaments, except to the phlegmatic and melancholy, which are safe from its bad effects. For this reason animals of this constitution and temperament, such as the elephant, the buffalo, and others, thrive in its climate. Before the rule of the Lodi Afghans, Agra was a great and populous place, and had a castle described by Mas'ud b. Sa'd b. Salman in the ode (qasida) which he wrote in praise of Mahmud, son of Sultan Ibrahim, son of Mas'ud, son of Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni, on the capture of the castle — "The fort of Agra appeared in the midst of the dust Like a mountain, and its battlements like peaks."
2.6
When Sikandar Lodi designed to take Gwalior he came to Agra from Delhi, which was the capital of the Sultans of India, and settled down there. From that date the population and prosperity of Agra increased, and it became the capital of the Sultans of Delhi. When God Almighty bestowed the rule of India on this illustrious family, the late king, Babar, after the defeat of Ibrahim, the son of Sikandar Lodi, and his being killed, and after his victory over Rana Sanga, who was the chief of the Rajas of Hindustan, established on the east side of the Jumna, on improved land, a garden (charbagh) which few places equal in beauty. He gave it the name of Gul-afshan