Storia do Mogor 65.41
Storia do Mogor (Irvine) 65.41
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65.41.1
Before he had reached the farther bank, we saw coming seven boats full of armed men carrying a number of flags. Their officer was called Chegatcan (? Chaghatae Khan), an Uzbak by race ; he was highly elated, as if entering in triumph into his own house. I gave an order to my men to get their guns ready, and some pieces with grape (varrer, literally, ' to sweep with a broom '). When they had already got near, we gave them a round from the artillery, which did a good deal of damage, both to the boats and to the men. After that they retreated, while our artillery went on firing. Seeing how resolute we were, Bahadur Khan repaired to Prince Dara, and requested him to order the eunuch to surrender the stronghold, since, the garrison being firm in their resistance, in all probability the whole of them would come to a miserable end within the fortress. On hearing this Dara had compassion upon his eunuch and upon us, and wrote a note with his own hand, stating : ' Unfortunate in the one for whom you fought, I now request and require you to deliver up the place.
65.41.2
When the eunuch Primavera (Basant) saw the letter, he recognised the writing, and began to weep bitterly. He wrote to Bahadur Khan that we demanded to come out with our baggage, and if he did not consent we would fling the cannon and the treasure into the river, and fight to the death with all desperation. Bahadur Khan sent back an assurance that we could leave with our baggage, but must make over the treasure, the princes, and all the matériel appertaining to the fortress. One condition was imposed: we must cross over to the west of the river, then eight days after he had marched we could take the road for Dihli. He made this condition because he feared we might enter his camp, and do our utmost to rescue Dara. After three days we issued from the fort in which we had endured so much. For, two days before the evacuation I bought two calves for six hundred rupees, and paid one rupee for every ounce of butter. Without exaggerating, I bought one chicken for thirteen rupees.
65.41.3
The army of Bahadur Khan passed out of sight of Bhakkar with their princely prisoner. Then came the order of Aurangzeb, already back in Dihli after the battle of Ajmer, to bring the prince to the presence by forced marches without the least delay. Great caution was enjoined. Bahadur Khan, not to fail in any particular, during every night of the march placed the tent where Dara slept close to his own, and guarded it well by alert sentries. In the very tent was a man shouldering a drawn sword, with orders that if he heard any disturbance or rising in the camp, he should at once cut off Dara's head. In the space of forty days they arrived near the city of Dihli. When Aurangzeb was informed, he sent off a number of squadrons to meet Bahadur Khan, as an additional precaution. His orders were that Dara should be brought in on an elephant in an uncovered howdah, with his son, Sipihr Shukoh, at his side; behind them a man with a drawn sword. In this way they brought the unhappy Dara within the city. Round him were several bodies of horse, all clad in shining steel, with drawn swords in their hands. Bahadur Khan sat alone on his elephant alongside the prince's, while all his cavalry rode with arrows ready in their bows. Thus the afflicted prince rode through the main streets on the twenty-second of October, one thousand six hundred and fifty-seven (correctly, 1659), his feet bound but his hands free, with a dejected face, as if he already saw drawing near his last day of life.
65.41.4
When within sight of the fortress a poor faqir shouted to him : ' O Dara ! when you were master you always gave me alms ; to-day I know well thou hast naught to give me.' The prince at once raised his hand to his shoulder, drew off the dark, dingy-coloured shawl that served him as a cloak and threw it to the faqir. But Bahadur Khan, who was close by, ordered it to be taken away, saying that a prisoner had no right to bestow anything. Then the irate faqir uttered a thousand abusive words against Jiwan Khan, who was present. In this way they arrived opposite the royal palace, where the prince was forced to halt for two hours, made a mark for the eyes of everybody, sitting on a little elephant badly equipped, subject to the heat of the midday sun, and ill-clad— a melancholy spectacle, creating compassion in all those who saw him. For in such brief space was this prince, so mighty, so rich, so famous, so powerful, reduced to the last stages of misery. There stood the poor prince awaiting the sentence to be passed upon him ; and Aurangzeb, to still further affront him, wanted to send an order for him to descend from his elephant and come into the presence on foot, just as he was, in chains. But Shaistah Khan counselled him that it was not wise to act thus, for many reasons. He was carried outside the city to a garden called Gecederabad (Khizrabad), which lies on the bank of the Jamnah. It had been planted by Shahjahan for his repose when he went out to the chase.
65.41.5
A lying order was given that after a few days it was intended to forward him (Dara) to the fortress of Gwaliyar. This was said solely in deference to the grief of the common people. Aurangzeb had recourse to a pretext to discover the wishes of those faithful to Prince Dara. This was by taking the opinions of the principal men. He asked from all of them advice as to what was the best thing, whether to kill Dara or send him to the fortress of Gwaliyar. In his own mind he had firmly resolved to have his prisoner's life taken. As the nobles knew this damnable wish of Aurangzeb, the proposition made being only a feigned deference to them, all of them were of opinion that the unfortunate prince must die, alleging as reason that if he did not die the people would be ever looking for his rise. Thus would his majesty never be well served; and, further, his death was required by reason of his being an idolater, without any religion, and an enemy of the Mahomedan faith. Danishmandcan (Danishmand Khan) alone did not share this opinion, although in no way attached to Dara. Those who most insisted that the prince should be put to death were Shaistah Khan, Muhammad Amin Khan, Bahadur Khan, and the physician, Daut (Da,ud). The last named in a short time saw himself in disgrace with Aurangzeb, and died miserably: God's just chastisement being that he who so actively procured another's death to please his master, should by means of the same master come speedily and miserably to his own end.
65.41.6
She who more than all the rest clamoured for the death of Dara was Roshan Ara Begam, his sister but his mortal enemy. She [died], as I shall relate, by poison administered to her by her well-beloved brother — i.e., Aurangzeb. Aurangzeb, who desired nothing more ardently than the death of Dara, was delighted at the opinion of the nobles. On the twenty-sixth of October (1659) he gave orders to Quelis can (? Khalis Khan) to remove the prince Sipihr Shukoh from his father, Dara's, company, and carry him off to the fortress of Gwaliyar, conceding as a favour that he should not be given opium-water to drink.
65.41.7
Prince Dara, finding his son was sent to Gwaliyar fortress without any mention of himself, recognised that he had only a [few] days to live. He therefore planned to seek [257] the only true consolation for his soul. To this intent, over and over again, he entreated with urgence and insistence that the doorkeepers should somehow or other seek out and bring to him Father Buzeo, a man well enough known. But on the guards paying no heed to his words, he still more urgently besought them to do him that favour, from which, neither to them nor to Aurangzeb, could any harm arise. Supposing they were unable to bring Father Buzeo, he begged them to produce some European priest or another. Finding himself unable to obtain his wish, he began in loud and heart-rending tones to say these words : ' Mahamed mara micuxet, ebenalla mare ian mi bacxet ' (Muhammad mara mi-kushad, ibn-ullah mara jan mi-bakhshad) — that is to say, ' Muhammad kills me, and the Son of God gives me life.' From these words and those he spoke to Father Frei Pedro at the city of Tattah — namely, that if any faith in the world was true, it was that taught by the European priests — and from the pain he endured through not being able to get any priest ; further, from information given me by the self-same door-keepers, from whom I made inquiries with great eagerness and minuteness, it is to be inferred that he (Dara) had a great desire to become a Christian.