[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Indian literature](https://indike.org/pramana/in) › [Dark Ages](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages) › [Travellers (1500–1858)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel) › [Storia do Mogor](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci) › [Storia do Mogor (Irvine)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci~en-irvine) › 281.10 # Storia do Mogor 281.10 Storia do Mogor (Irvine) 281.10 - **Language:** English ### [281.10.1](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci~en-irvine.281.10.1) These were words worthy of a great sovereign, if he also carried them in his heart. But I have always found, judging by a long experience, that he and all the Mahomedans direct their actions by their own convenience, and for the sole welfare of their own bodies. This is the cause that there are many princes and lords who give alms daily, not from love of God, but merely in the hope that God may grant them good success in their affairs. It is also with this thought that there are many who out of superstition place under their pillow at night what they want to give away in charity. The prince Shah 'Alam was accustomed to thus place aside ten rupees every night with this object. But let us return to the subject of the new tax. Begam Sahib, eldest sister of the king, a very generous princess, wanted to make a fresh appeal. With this intent she paid her brother a visit, and entreated most humbly that he would not go farther with this affair; and to touch him more deeply she brought forward a comparison. 'Just think, sire,' said she, 'that the lands of Hindustan are like a vast ocean; your majesty and all the other members of our royal family are like ships navigating its waters and ploughing through its waves. Where is there any sovereign prince who would desire to load with imposts the sea on which he sails? Who has ever seen the physician pay the patient? From this reasoning I conclude, with your majesty's permission, that if the sick man has to pay the physician who cures him; ### [281.10.2](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci~en-irvine.281.10.2) if the ships and the sailors must always try to render the seas favourable and pacific towards them in order to navigate with success and arrive happily at port; in the same way your majesty ought to appease and soften the ocean of your subjects. For in what way can you expect them to pay taxes if you overburden them and provoke their waves by this unaccustomed demand? Abandon, then, sire, this purpose, lest there be a rebellion in this kingdom. Let your majesty reflect that violent winds usually raise and disturb the seas, swell high their waves, and transform the whole into a terrifying tempest. By its violence everything is swept to the shore, and the poor and persecuted people are ruined.' ### [281.10.3](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci~en-irvine.281.10.3) When she had finished this harangue, and impressed on him the force of this comparison, she attempted to throw herself at his feet and, as it were, pay him the adoration and homage of a subject to her sovereign. Coming from a sister, this was a thing still more to be prized. But the prince, stiff and unmoved in his ideas, at once dismissed her, saying: 'Madam, forget not that when Muhammad entered the world it was entirely drowned in the idolatry of the unbeliever, but no sooner had that incomparable prophet reached the age of discretion than he busied himself with all his strength in freeing the peoples from so dangerous a condition, by establishing among them his holy doctrines. Of what methods, I beg you to say, did he make use to gain such a happy purpose? Was it not by that of taxation? Thus, as you can see, he had a happy issue of all his undertakings. I have resolved, madam, to imitate so great a man in everything I can, even in the laying on of taxes, and I hope that just as the Lord blessed that great prophet by such means, He will bless me also, me and my designs.' Having finished these words, he bade her good-bye and turned his back upon her, a movement that cut the princess to the very quick. ### [281.10.4](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci~en-irvine.281.10.4) Not very long afterwards there was an alarming earthquake, by which the great nobles were impelled once more to solicit fresh orders on the subject. With this idea they asked for an audience. When it was granted, they represented to the monarch that Nature, affected at the oppression of his people, gave by this movement a token of its resentment. 'Ah!' said the king, laughing at their talk, 'is it possible that you have so little wit as to take up things in a contrary sense? It is true that the earth lately trembled, but it is the result of the joy it felt at the course I am adopting. All nature shows marks of this feeling. The skies are darkened, they are covered with clouds, and weep tears of gladness, pouring out their waters upon the earth. In its turn the earth is in no sense ungrateful for these benefits from on high; for, after giving us such startling proof of her extraordinary gratitude by the effort she has recently made, she wishes further to make clear to us that in her heart is joy over our actions. This it is which compels her to be fertile, and give us abundant harvest of fruit and grain. Animals, too, are conscious of my exertions; so much the more that it is from the fertility of the earth that they receive their meat. The birds of the air exult at it in their flight and in their warbling. The horse neighs by reason of it, since he finds wherewithal to appease his hunger.' ### [281.10.5](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci~en-irvine.281.10.5) 'There!' said he, 'that is the way, my lords, to look at things.' The reason of the people is always selfish, obscured either by passion or by necessity. As for us, we have more good sense, and can well distinguish between things and consider their results.' This was the manner in which this king replied to his nobles. After this he set in motion the collectors of the taxes, and on this head I cannot refrain from remarking that if the tax-contractor pays twenty-five thousand rupees to the crown, he must have at the least recovered one hundred thousand. They always keep back three-fourths for themselves, and pay in one-fourth only to the royal treasury. I have before this spoken of the poet Birbal, and perhaps inquiring persons will not be displeased to learn who he was. The following is approximately his character. He was loved and favoured by Jahangir, and in consequence much thought of at the court; he was a good poet and a great musician. The man's manners were so pleasant and agreeable that \[30\] he gained the esteem of everybody. Here is a story which goes not a little way to make known his character. ### [281.10.6](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci~en-irvine.281.10.6) One day the king asked him why he had been so long in making his appearance at court. 'Sire,' said the poet, 'I was very busy quieting an infant.' 'What!' retorted the king, 'do you want all that time to satisfy a baby? I could do it myself in one instant, for what more is wanted than to give him some fruit, some sweetmeats, or some similar plaything?' 'Ah!' said the facetious poet, 'your majesty, so far as I see, does not understand the acute and importunate nature of infants, and how difficult it is to satisfy them.' The prince, who loved a pleasantry, directed him to imitate an infant, and he would undertake to content him in all that he might demand. ### [281.10.7](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci~en-irvine.281.10.7) The joke-loving Birbal obeyed forthwith, began to cry, and asked for suck. A woman was sent for at once. No sooner had he perceived her than he ran to her with great signs of delight, laid hold of her breast, and began to suck. Making believe that one breast had no milk, he sought the other. From time to time he passed his hand over her face, and to finish with, wetted her and passed wind. But still not satisfied, he began once more to howl, wanted to be taken up and carried, and to be taken into the garden for a walk. This was done; there he asked for fruit and flowers: some he kept, the others he threw away. With all this being still unsatisfied, he demanded several other things, amongst others that they should parade the elephants and horses with all their trappings and standards. He was given in to on every point. Then he asked for gold coins, and distributed them hither and thither—at least, in part, for he took good care to keep back some for himself. All this was carried on with such childish and infantile gestures, just like a little child, that the prince was extremely delighted. ### [281.10.8](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci~en-irvine.281.10.8) However, the comedy was not yet ended. He asked for cocks, pigeons, other sorts of birds, goats, and other similar animals, the whole with such bright and diverting ways that the king was quite satisfied; not to mention that as an additional joy he forgot not the bottle, which was ever agreeable to him in all his pastimes. Finally, the last scene of this play was a demand for buffaloes and cows. As soon as he saw them, he ordered milk to be drawn from one of them. When the order had been obeyed, he drank a little, and made signs to replace the rest in the cow's udder — a thing obviously impossible. Then the light-hearted Birbal lay down on the ground and roared, thumped and kicked, scratched his face, and used all the gestures of an angry child. No one was able to pacify him by any arguments they could devise. --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci~en-irvine.281.10](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci~en-irvine.281.10) · Pramāṇa