Storia do Mogor 15.2.8

15.2.8

On p. 230 he says that it was on July 25, 1679, that Shah 'Alam started for the north, which is possibly correct, though the year 1680 is more probable. But the journey is said to have been to Agrah in thirty-four days, and after a stay of four days, on to Dihli in six days. There, as he says, Manucci was greeted by a throng of friends ; and after a stay of two months Legrenzi returned to Surat. Then follows an account of Agrah, of Dihli, and other chapters, till the subject of India ends on p. 310. Now, I am convinced that all this journey is fictitious; it bears internal evidence, I think, that the man was never either at Agrah or Dihli, and what he knew of them was mere hearsay. Nor did Shah 'Alam, when recalled from the Dakhin for the Rajputanah campaign, go anywhere near Agrah or Dihli. As to the two versions of what happened at Aurangabad, either or both must be embroidered ; and, as just shown, Legrenzi is not above a little fiction when necessary. There is a notice of Legrenzi and his book in ' Studii Biografici e Bibliografici sulla Storia della Geografia in India,' by S. Amat de S. Filippo (Roma, 1882), p. 445.