[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) › [Remonstrantie](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.pelsaert) › [Jahangir's India (Moreland, Geyl)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.pelsaert~en-moreland) › 12.2 # Remonstrantie 12.2 Jahangir's India (Moreland, Geyl) 12.2 - **Language:** English ### [12.2.1](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.pelsaert~en-moreland.12.2.1) The most astonishing thing is that the avarice of the nobles has no solid basis, though they devote themselves entirely to gathering their treasures, without a thought of the cruelty or injustice involved. Immediately on the death of a lord who has enjoyed the King's jagir, be he great or small, without any exception — even before the breath is out of his body — the King's officers are ready on the spot, and make an inventory of the entire estate, recording everything down to the value of a single pice, even to the dresses and jewels of the ladies, provided they have not concealed them. The King takes back the whole estate absolutely for himself, except in a case where the deceased has done good service in his lifetime, when the women and children are given enough to live on, but no more. It might be supposed that wife, or children, or friends, could conceal during his \[the lord's\] lifetime enough for the family to live on, but this would be very difficult. As a rule all the possessions of the lords, and their transactions, are not secret, but perfectly well-known, for each has his diwan \[steward\], through whose hands everything passes; he has many subordinates, and for work that could be done by one man they have ten here; and each of them has some definite charge, for which he must account. ### [12.2.2](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.pelsaert~en-moreland.12.2.2) \[When the lord dies,\] all these subordinates are arrested, and compelled to show from their books and papers where all the cash or property is deposited, and how their master's income has been disposed of; and if there is any suspicion about their disclosures, they are tortured until they tell the truth. And so you may see a man whom you knew with his turban cocked on one side, and nearly as unapproachable as his master, now running about with a torn coat and a pinched face; for it is rarely that such men can obtain similar employment from other masters, and they go about like pictures of death in life, as I have known many of them to do. ### [12.2.3](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.pelsaert~en-moreland.12.2.3) I have often ventured to ask great lords what is their true object in being so eager to amass their treasures, when what they have gathered is of no use to them or to their family. Their answers have been based on the emptiest worldly vanity, for they say that it is a very great and imperishable reputation if it is generally known, or the official records show, that such a man has left an estate worth so much. In reply I have urged that it would be possible to win a greater reputation for time and eternity, if, seeing that their friends and relations could expect no enjoyment from their wealth, they would share it with the poor, who in this country are in hundreds of thousands, or indeed innumerable, and would banish outside their doors all oppression, injustice, excessive pomp, chicanery, and similar practices, whereby they have nothing to hope for in the future, but very much to fear. \[When I have urged such arguments\], they have closed the discussion by saying that it is just the custom of the country. ### [12.2.4](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.pelsaert~en-moreland.12.2.4) It is the practice of the King, or rather of his wife, to give rapid advancement and promotion to any soldier, however low his rank, who has carried out orders with credit, or has displayed courage in the field. On the other hand, a very small fault, or a trifling mistake, may bring a man to the depths of misery or to the scaffold, and consequently everything in the kingdom is uncertain. Wealth, position, love, friendship, confidence, everything hangs by a thread. Nothing is permanent, yea, even the noble buildings — gardens, tombs, or palaces, — which, in and near every city, one cannot contemplate without pity or distress because of their ruined state. For in this they are to be despised above all the laziest nations of the world, because they build them with so many hundreds of thousands, and yet keep them in repair only so long as the owners live and have the means. Once the builder is dead, no one will care for the buildings; the son will neglect his father's work, the mother her son's, brothers and friends will take no care for each other's buildings; everyone tries, as far as possible, to erect a new building of his own, and establish his own reputation alongside that of his ancestors. Consequently, it may be said that if all these buildings and erections were attended to and repaired for a century, the lands of every city, and even village, would be adorned with monuments; but as a matter of fact the roads leading to the cities are strewn with fallen columns of stone. ### [12.2.5](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.pelsaert~en-moreland.12.2.5) As regards the laws, they are scarcely observed at all, for the administration is absolutely autocratic, but there are books of law, which are in charge of their lawyers, the Kazis. Their laws contain such provisions as hand for hand, eye for eye, tooth for tooth; but who will excommunicate the Pope? And who would dare to ask a Governor ‘Why do you rule us this way or that way? Our Law orders thus.’ The facts are very different, although in every city there is a kachhahri, or royal court of justice, where the Governor, the Diwan, the Bakhshi, the Kotwal, the Kazi, and other officers sit together daily, or four days in the week. Here all disputes are disposed of, but not until avarice has had its share. All capital cases, such as thefts, murders, or crimes are finally disposed of by the Governor, if the criminals are poor and unable to pay, and the sweepers drag them out to execution with very little ceremony. In the case of other offences the criminals are seldom or never executed; their property is merely confiscated for the Governor and Kotwal. Ordinary questions of divorce, quarrels, fights, threats, and the like, are in the hands of the Kotwal and the Kazi. One must indeed be sorry for the man who has to come to judgment before these godless ‘un-judges’; their eyes are bleared with greed, their mouths gape like wolves for covetousness, and their bellies hunger for the bread of the poor; ### [12.2.6](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.pelsaert~en-moreland.12.2.6) everyone stands with hands open to receive, for no mercy or compassion can be had except on payment of cash. This fault should not be attributed to judges or officers alone, for the evil is a universal plague; from the least to the greatest, right up to the King himself, everyone is infected with insatiable greed, so that if one has any business to transact with Governors or in palaces, he must not set about it without ‘the vision of angels,’ for without presents he need expect very little answer to his petitions. Our honourable employers need not deign to be surprised at this, for it is the custom of the country. The King's letters or farmans to the chief lords or princes are transmitted with incredible speed, because royal runners are posted in the villages 4 or 5 kos apart, taking their turns of duty throughout the day and the night, and they take over a letter immediately on its arrival, run with it to the next village in a breath, and hand it over to another messenger. So the letter goes steadily on, and will travel 80 kos between night and day. Further the King has pigeons kept everywhere, to carry letters in time of need or great urgency. No doubt this is done at home also in the case of sieges, but only for short distances, whereas this King possesses the largest area of all the kingdoms of the world. The length of it from Surat northwards to Kashmir is 1100 kos, or 800 \[Holland\] miles, taking kos to the mile. The stages are: Surat to Burhanpur, 150 kos; ### [12.2.7](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.pelsaert~en-moreland.12.2.7) thence to Agra, 350 k.; Agra to Lahore, 300 k.; and from Lahore to Kashmir 300 k. The route by Ahmadabad is 50 kos nearer. Towards the North-West, the distance from Lahore, by Multan, to Kandahar is 600 k. On the East, it is 1000 k. from Agra to the sea coast through Purop, Bengal, and Orissa. In the West, Kabul is 300 k. from Lahore; and in the South West, the kingdom extends to Tatta, Sind and Bakkar. If all these countries were justly or rationally governed, they would not only yield an incalculable income, but would enable him \[Jahangir\] to conquer all the neighbouring kingdoms. But it is important to recognise also that he is to be regarded as King of the plains or the open roads only; for in many places you can travel only with a strong body of men, or on payment of heavy tolls to rebels. The whole country is enclosed and broken up by many mountains, and the people who live in, on, or beyond, the mountains know nothing of any king, or of Jahangir; they recognise only their Rajas, who are very numerous, and to whom the country is apportioned in many small fragments by old tradition. Jahangir, whose name implies that he grasps the whole world, must therefore be regarded as ruling no more than half the dominions which he claims, since there are nearly as many rebels as subjects. Taking the chief cities for example, at Surat the forces of Raja Piepel come pillaging up to, or inside, the city, murdering the people, and burning the villages; ### [12.2.8](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.pelsaert~en-moreland.12.2.8) and in the same way, near Ahmadabad, Burhanpur, Agra, Delhi, Lahore, and many other cities, thieves, and robbers come in force by night or day like open enemies. The Governors are usually bribed by the thieves to remain inactive, for avarice dominates manly honour, and, instead of maintaining troops, they fill and adorn their mahals with beautiful women, and seem to have the pleasure-house of the whole world within their walls. I shall now try to describe them as far as is possible, as well as the poverty of the people at large. --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.pelsaert~en-moreland.12.2](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.pelsaert~en-moreland.12.2) · Pramāṇa