Storia do Mogor 68: OF KING AURANGZEB, SIXTH KING OF HINDUSTAN, AND ELEVENTH OF THE RACE OF TAIMUR-I-LANG

68

Those are kings whom God appoints, but as they know not His secret purposes, men decline to acknowledge those who unjustly seize some kingdom. All the same, the saying in the Proverbs of Solomon, chapter viii., is incontrovertible : Per me reges regnant (v. 15, ' By me kings reign and princes decree justice'). God alone raises men to the throne to be either a scourge or a solace to their subjects. Thus, although the holy men of Mecca declined to accept the gifts sent by Aurangzeb, because Shahjahan, his father, was still alive, I shall not, in this my book, delay speaking of him as king until the death of Shahjahan, but from the commencement I feel obliged to concede his being such, for as an undisputed monarch he ruled over Hindustan ; and this course is demanded by this history to facilitate the reader's understanding thereof.
Finding himself now arrived at the goal of all his hopes, his father in prison, his brothers dead, Aurangzeb ordained a nine days' festival, during which he received congratulations and valuable gifts from the great men of the kingdom. He continued his accustomed sacrifice of pimento, which he began when prince in the Dakhin. This was conducted in the following way: Having taken a handful of pimento and said a prayer, he threw it on some live charcoal, where it was allowed to smoke for some moments. Then the coals and the said smoking pimento were sent out to be thrown on some mound or other, where the whole was consumed. Thus he has been accustomed to act every Friday up to the present time.
He knew that the people murmured at his usurpation, and therefore after the days of festival he set to work to restore order in the realm, by way of showing that his object was not merely to reign, but to work for the good of Hindustan, which (as he said) was near to destruction by reason of the carelessness of Shahjahan and the bad judgment of Dara. Therefore he began by rewarding the nobles who had aided him in his undertaking. He confirmed to Rajah Jai Singh the present made to him of the province of Sambar (Sambhar) ; the pay of others was increased ; each noble received a set of robes, to the greatest being given a scimitar covered with precious stones [2], having a rich and handsome hilt, an elephant and a horse. He well knew that liberality and generosity are necessary to a prince ; but if not accompanied by justice and sufficient vigour they are useless ; rather do they serve to the perverse as occasion for greater insolence, as in the verse :
Oderunt peccare boni virtutis amore ; Oderunt peccare mali formidine poenae.
Thus, after the festival, he sent an order to decapitate 500 thieves, thereby terrorizing the perverse. These executions were to take place in front of the mosque called Cadam Racul (Qadam-i-rasul) — that is to say, ' Footsteps of the Sent,' because it has a stone on which two footmarks are cut, for which the Mahomedans have great veneration. Not content with putting in order affairs in the city of Dihli, where his court was, in his desire to be called just and thus cover his usurpation, he also sent off new governors and viceroys to the provinces and kingdoms to displace the old ones. Although he did not fail to give the new governors good instructions, he added unfailingly some others that served his own dissimulations and intrigues. Among these was an order that they might take false oaths, and by thus swearing gain over men and raise rebellions in neighbouring kingdoms. When the attempt succeeded, it would suffice for them to feed ten mendicants, by which they would be freed from their sin and absolved from their promises, in spite of having backed them by a thousand oaths on the Quran.