The Memoirs of Jahāngīr (Jahāngīrnāma) 7.3.1

7.3.1

"Besmeared with wine Fighani went to the dust. Alas! if the angels smelt his fresh shroud!" He left 1,500,000 rupees. He has one very stupid son, called Ri'ayat. On account of his father's claims for services performed, I gave the superintendence of half the farrashkhana to him and the other half to Tukhmaq Khan. Kamal Khan was one of the slaves sincerely devoted to my service; he is of the caste of the Kalals of Delhi. On account of the great honesty and trustworthiness that he had shown I made him bakawal-begi (chief of the kitchen). Few such servants are ever met with. He had two sons, to both of whom I showed great kindness, but where are there others like him? On the 2nd of the said month La'l Kalawant, who from his childhood had grown up in my father's service, who had taught him every breathing and sound that appertains to the Hindi language, died in the 65th or 70th year of his age. One of his girls (concubines) ate opium on this event and killed herself. Few women among the Musulmans have ever shown such fidelity. In Hindustan, especially in the province of Sylhet, which is a dependency of Bengal, it was the custom for the people of those parts to make eunuchs of some of their sons and give them to the governor in place of revenue (mal-wajibi). This custom by degrees has been adopted in other provinces, and every year some children are thus ruined and cut off from procreation. This practice has become common.