Storia do Mogor 65.8
Storia do Mogor (Irvine) 65.8
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65.8.1
Champat drew back his forces, but the king marched forward. Champat complained of this deception ; but the wazir wrote to him that he must continue his retirement leisurely, that the king would retire without fail. If he had advanced for a time as he had done, it was only that his army might not murmur against him. Champat once more believed what he was told, and retreated again. This caused his soldiers to take fright, seeing that the king continued to follow, without the rajah ever daring to attack. Thus most of the Hindu army dispersed, in such a manner that Champat was forced to take refuge in the jungle. The king's army invaded the territories of the prince and plundered them. Champat complained to Sa'dullah Khan about having been misled, but Sa'dullah Khan replied that the king had also broken his word to him. Thus was the Bundelah left in the extensive forests and the mountains with a considerable force, where the king was unable to get at him. In the end he was obliged to enter the king's service [144] in person with three thousand horse and accept pay from him; and until this day there are descendants of his who always assume the name of Champat Bundelah, and serve, as he did, under the Mogul flag.
65.8.2
With reference to Sa'dullah Khan, I beg to inform the reader that the lord Dom Matheus, of Canarese race, was Bishop of Bichulim. He went into the Mogul realm to carry on a mission, and, desirous of obtaining a permit from the king, he came to court and prayed an audience, stating that he was a man who had come from a very distant country to make a proposition to the king. When he reached the royal presence Shahjahan recognised that he was a learned man of ascetic life. He therefore sent for all the most learned Mahomedan doctors; and when they had arrived the king gave permission to the bishop to speak. Thereupon Dom Matheus announced this proposition: 'A traveller in a foreign country met two persons, one of whom was sleeping and the other was awake. I ask your majesty, from which of them ought he to ask his way?' He put forward this proposition because the Mahomedans say that the Messiah is alive and awake, while Muhammad is sleeping until the Day of Judgment.
65.8.3
They were all perplexed by this question, but Shahjahan ordered them to answer. Sa'dullah Khan, who was the most learned of all, seeing their silence, and fearing some reply which would open the field for Lord Dom Matheus to preach the true faith of Jesus Christ, craved leave from the king to give the answer. He said: 'It was necessary to wait until he who was sleeping should awake, because the very man who was awake was himself waiting to ask from the sleeper which was the right way.' By this he meant to suggest that the Messiah had lost his way, and was waiting for Muhammad to awake to ask him the road. No delay was allowed for Lord Dom Matheus to open his mouth, but the king gave him the signal to take his leave; and Sa'dullah Khan remained a proud victor, receiving the congratulations of all the bystanders. The astrologer who had advised Shahjahan to march in person said one day to the king, as a proof of acquaintance with the courses of the stars, that it was advisable for his majesty to quit the fortress, because there was a planet then dominant which prognosticated the death of the greatest person dwelling therein. He was of opinion that for governor he should select the kotwal (chief police officer). This plan was adopted, and the king went out to hunt. After the lapse of two months Shahjahan received news that the kotwal was dead. He returned to the fortress, and made a great deal of the astrologer, and conferred on him very great rewards.
65.8.4
But it seems to me that it was the astrologer's artfulness, for he had a very great friend in the physician who attended the kotwal. It may be that they took counsel together, and he may have had him killed to prove the truth of his reading of the stars. For I have seen many similar cases, and these Hindus, without fear of God and devoid of scruple, do many such-like things out of desire for money. Nevertheless, there is not a great man who has not in his house an astrologer, if it be only to know the right hour for leaving his house on any business, even down to when to put on a new cloak (cabaya). Of this astrologer tribe there are great numbers in the Mogul kingdom; even the bazars swarm with these folk, and by this means they find out all that passes in the houses. Both Moguls and Hindus are so credulous that they put faith in all that these men choose to tell them.
65.8.5
During the march made by Shahjahan against Champat Bundelah there died a great captain called Camcana (Khan Khanan). Out of carelessness the king did not appoint anyone in his place. There was then present at the court a general whose ancestors had fought in the wars of Taimur-i-lang. The king made use of his advice, he being a man of excellent judgment. One day he appeared in the royal presence anxious and pensive. Shahjahan asked him what was the cause of his anxieties. He answered that a kingdom was like a palace built upon pillars: when one of them was missing, if no remedy was applied, it was bound to fall. Just as in the case of that palace without the pillar there was wanting a good officer in the kingdom; and if another were not put in his place, it was inevitable that the kingdom would go to ruin. The king was pleased with the advice, and directed him to select someone at court who was fitted to occupy that post. In a short time this order was carried out.
65.8.6
The said general's name was Said can Bahadar (Sa'id Khan Bahadur); he had neither sons nor daughters. The king was desirous that he should have [146] issue. He therefore ordered his physician to refer to a receipt in the 'Chronicles of Taimur-i-lang,' which was composed of eleven ingredients. I have tested it several times, and always with good results. Sa'id Khan Bahadur swallowed the medicine, and at the end of four years he had a number of sons by various wives, concubines, and slave-girls that he possessed. After this interval Shahjahan asked him how many sons he had, to which he replied that next day he would give him an answer. He then found that he had sixty male children, without counting the female. He expressed his gratitude for the gift made to him by his majesty, adding that all of those children were ready to be offered up a sacrifice to the royal orders. The king gave them all the epithet of Canazat (Khdnahzdd) — that is to say, ' Born in the House,' by which they were mostly known, and all drew good pay.
65.8.7
Not only was Shahjahan liberal in rewarding and prompt in chastising the great; he was equally grateful in every matter, even the smallest. It happened that one day on his way to hunt he became separated from his men. Worn out and very thirsty, he went into a village lying on the king's highway from Agrah to Dihli, and arrived at a hamlet where as a charity a Brahman was giving water to the wayfarers. The king came up to him, and requested him to give him water. The Brahman, seeing that Shahjahan was drinking greedily owing to his great thirst, threw into the vessel a little grass, thereby forcing him to drink slowly. The king in anger asked him why he had put in the grass. The Brahman, not knowing to whom he was speaking, said : 'It is what I do to my asses when they are tired, so that they may not get colic pains.' The king took a rest at the edge of the village, beneath a tree. His retinue arrived, when the Brahman in a fright, recognising that it was the king, prostrated himself on the spot and asked for pardon. But Shahjahan rewarded him with a gift of the said village, which at this day is known as the 'Brahman's village.'
65.8.8
The same thing that happened to his grandfather Akbar also happened to Shahjahan, when he had made up his mind to make war upon the Rana, a Hindu king. He sent for his wazlr, Sa'dullah Khan, to come to the palace at an unusual hour, and directed him to prepare the army secretly for a campaign against the said Rana. Coming out of the fortress, Sa'dullah Khan heard [147] a Ragateira woman, who cried out to her husband, calling him a lazy, idle fellow ; he must get up at once and go to buy whatever was required before starting against the Rana, whose territories the king intended to invade. Hearing this, the wazir returned to court and related to Shahjahan all that he had heard. At once the king sent out spies to discover what was being said. These men came back and reported that the common people in the city said openly that the king would march against the Rana. This report caused the king to abandon his intention, and the Rana made terms with him, ceding some territory and paying a considerable sum of money. The Ragateira woman arrived at her opinion because the wazir had been sent for to the palace during the night, and since the people of Industan (Hindustan) are great gossips, as I have said earlier (I. 87), they sometimes get hold of the truth.