Travels in India (Tavernier) 11.10

11.10

Since the Muhammadan kings have taken possession of these countries, the fortress of Gwalior has become the place where they send princes and great nobles when they wish to be sure of their persons. Shah Jahan having ascended the throne by treachery, as I shall relate in the course of my narrative, caused to be arrested, one after the other, all the princes and nobles whom he believed to be able to injure him, and sent them to Gwalior, but he allowed them all to live and to enjoy the revenues of their property. Aurangzeb, his son, does just the contrary ; for when he sends any great noble there, at the end of nine or ten days he causes him to be poisoned, and he makes this use of it so that the people may not say that he is a sanguinary monarch. As soon as he had in his power Prince Murad Baksh, his younger brother — who was the one whom he encouraged to take arms against his father, Shah Jahan, and who, being Governor of the Province of Gujarat, had caused himself to be called King — he had him placed in this fortress, where he died. They have made him in the town an appropriately magnificent tomb, in a mosque which they built for the purpose, with a great court in front, all surrounded by vaults under which there are several shops. It is the custom in India, when they build a public edifice, to make around it a large place for holding markets, with an endowment for the poor, to whom they give alms daily, and who pray to God for him who has caused the work to be done.