Jauhar-i Samsam, of Muhammad Muhsin Sadiki (Elliot & Dowson, extracts)
Translation of Jauhar-i shamsham (Jauhar-i ṣamṣām)
- Language
- English
- Date
- 1877 CE
- Translators
- Henry Miers Elliot, John Dowson
- Extent
- 5 passages, 1,022 words
- Text
- complete digital text
- Source
- archive.org · The History of India, as told by its own Historians. The Muhammadan Period. The posthumous papers of Sir H.… · Public domain (published before 1930)
Contents
- 1 — 5 parts
Text
1.1
[After the death of Amíru-l umará Husain 'Alí Khán], the Emperor Muhammad Sháh never came out of the citadel of Dehli except to enjoy the pleasures of an excursion or to amuse himself in field sports. He paid no attention to the administration of the kingdom, which lacked all supreme authority, and through his indolence, unrelieved by any exertion, he fell and came to an end. For water even, notwithstanding its innate purity and excellence, if it remains stagnant anywhere, changes its colour and smell. The Government of the country went so completely out of the grasp of his will that the faujdárs of every sarkár and chakla, and the súbadárs of every city and province, who possessed the strong arm of a military force, refused to pay the revenue due on khálisa and jágír lands. They used to send merely gifts and presents to their lord and master, after the manner of friends and equals, but put the produce of the Jágírs of the mansabdárs, and the amount collected from the Imperial domains (khálisa), like food easy of digestion, down their own throats. The proud and haughty of every region raised their heads in contumacy, and the rebellious and refractory of every land fixed the bent of their inclinations on revolt and disobedience.
1.2
Hosts upon hosts of the execrable Mahrattas brought forcibly under their subjection the territory of the Dakhin and the provinces of Gujarát and Málwá, and raised the banner of subjugation to such a pitch as to pillage and lay waste the cities, towns, and villages around Agra and Dehli, and to leave the good name and property of none, whether high or low, unmolested. An incursion of the vile forces of the enemy to the outskirts of Dehli and Agra took place regularly every year, and, exclusive of the booty of populous towns, they used to carry off by force and violence forty or fifty lacs worth of property from the open country, insomuch that the rumour of the instability of the royal house of Hind, having reached the lords and commons of all quarters of the globe, Nadir of Isfahan invaded it with his troops resembling the waves of the sea, and put all the natives of the provinces of Kabul, the Panjab and Dehli at once to the sword.
1.3
(When Muhammad Shah was in the field against Nadir Shah), Sa'du-d din Khan Bahadur, darogha of the sublime artillery, planted an iron fortress as it were all around the royal camp, which was five parasangs in circumference, by chaining together the heavy pieces of ordnance (most of which required 600 bullocks for the drawing of their carriages, and some a thousand or more, as well as five or ten elephants to push each gun from behind, exclusive of the people attached to every one, who by their expert contrivances pass it with ease over rugged and difficult places), and the medium and light guns, which exceeded the limit of computation, and were beyond the power of reckoning. * * The heavy shower of arrows, and the hail-storm of bullets, with the violent pelting of their fall, caused the torrent of death to sweep away the fabric of a multitude of living forms, and despatched to the sea of perdition a whole host of the ever-victorious army under the command of Amiru-l umara Samsamu-d daula, successful in both worlds. His Majesty, the shadow of the Most High, on learning the frightful news of the superior prowess of the ferocious Kazalbashes, was about to despatch a suitable force to the aid and support of that choice favourite at the Court of the Omnipotent; but through Fath Jang Nizamu-l Mulk's opposition, the august and sublime intention was not carried into effect.
1.4
* * 'Abdu-l Ma'bud Khan addressed the following remarks to Asaf Jah Nizamu-l Mulk: "The Amiru-l umara Khan-dauran Bahadur is so influential a person, that if the evil eye fall on the stability of his army, it will be the cause of dispersion to the leaves of the volume of the State, and a reason of slipping to the feet of resolution among the servants of the Government. Therefore the duty of aiding and supporting such a high-minded and faithful individual is proper and incumbent on all; and from feelings of generosity and good sense I have an ardent desire for the accomplishment of the task." * * As this black night had come out of the darkness of Fath Jang's animosity, in accordance with the will of the Almighty, how could the first blush of the bright dawn of safety and security and the disc of the brilliant sun of victory show its face without the removal of its raven tresses? Fath Jang laid his hand on the arm of the warrior, and did not let it go until by divers arguments he had dissuaded him from his fixed determination; while the latter, the chosen of the Adored, writhed in the depths of anguish, and bit the lip of remorse with the teeth of helplessness.
1.5
In consequence of the death of Amiru-l umara Samsamu-d daula, the robe of the office of Mir Bakhshi was bestowed on Ghaziu-d din Khan, son of Fath-Jang Nizamu-l Mulk. The fire of animosity, that had been somewhat allayed, immediately kindled afresh into flames, because Bahadur Jang Burhanu-l Mulk, from the first dawn of his prosperity till the closing calamity of his career, had entertained the desire of obtaining the dignity of Amiru-l umara, and having waited for his opportunity a long time, had kept sowing this wish in the field of his heart. As he had fully expected to have his hopes realized on the death of the late incumbent, he had deemed it expedient to keep on good terms with the Emperor; but on hearing that another had been invested with the coveted robe, he swerved from the path of conciliation, and girded the waist of cunning more tightly than before in hastening along the road of enmity. The image of peace that had been reflected in the glass of exhibition had been changed to war, and the broken chain of friendship was spliced with the cord of contention.