Travels in India (Tavernier) 24.2
Travels in India (Ball) 24.2
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24.2.1
After the elephants, the camels follow two by two, sometimes up to thirty or forty. Each camel has its saddle, upon which they place a small culverin which a man, clad in a skin from head to foot, like a sort of pantaloon, and seated on the crupper of the camel with a lighted match in hand, quickly turns from side to side before the balcony where the King is. You see coming after them the carriages, around which the servants walk on foot, after which the led-horses appear, and finally the noble to whom this whole equipment belongs, preceded by ten or twelve courtesans, who await him at the end of the bridge, leaping and dancing before him up to the square. After him the cavalry and infantry follow in good order. And as all that affords a spectacle, and has something of pomp about it, during three or four consecutive months which I have sometimes spent at Bhagnagar, my lodging being in the main street, I enjoyed the amusement every week of seeing these fine troops passing, which are more or less numerous according to the rank of the noble who has been on guard in his turn.
24.2.2
The soldiers have for their sole garment but three or four ells of cloths, with which they clothe the middle of the body before and behind. They wear the hair long, and make a great knot of it on the head as women do, having for sole head-dress a scrap of cloth with three corners, one of which rests on the middle of the head, and the other two they tie together on the nape of the neck. They do not have a sabre like the Persians, but they carry a broadsword like the Swiss, with which they both cut and thrust, and they suspend it from a belt. The barrels of their muskets are stronger than ours, and the iron is better and purer; this makes them not liable to burst. As for the cavalry, they have bow and arrow, shield and mace, with helmet and a coat of mail, which hangs behind from the helmet over the shoulders.
24.2.3
There are so many public women in the town, the suburbs, and in the fortress, which is like another town, that it is estimated that there are generally more than 20,000 entered in the Darogha's register, without which it is not allowed to any woman to ply this trade. They pay no tribute to the King, but a certain number of them are obliged to go every Friday with their governess and their music to present themselves in the square in front of the balcony. If the King be there they dance before him, and if he is not, an eunuch signals to them with his hand that they may withdraw. In the cool of the evening you see them before the doors of their houses, which are for the most part small huts, and when the night comes they place at the doors a candle or a lighted lamp for a signal. It is then, also, that the shops where they sell tári are opened. It is a drink obtained from a tree, and it is as sweet as our new wines. It is brought from 5 or 6 coss distant in leather bottles, upon horses which carry one on each side and go at a fast trot, and about 500 or 600 of them enter the town daily. The King derives from the tax which he places on this tári a very considerable revenue, and it is principally on this account that they allow so many public women, because they are the cause of the consumption of much tári, those who sell it having for this reason their shops in their neighbourhood.
24.2.4
These women have so much suppleness and are so agile that when the King who reigns at present wished to visit Masulipatam, nine of them very cleverly represented the form of an elephant, four making the four feet, four others the body, and one the trunk, and the King, mounted above on a kind of throne, in that way made his entry into the town. All the people of Golconda, both men and women, are well proportioned, of good stature, and of fair countenances, and it is only the peasantry who are somewhat dark in complexion. The King of Golconda who reigns at present is called Abdul Kutab Shah, and I will inform the reader, in a few words, whence he derives his origin. Under the rule of Akbar, King of India, father of Jahangir, the Moguls only extended their authority southwards to Narbeder, and the river which passes it and, coming from the south, flows into the Ganges, separated their lands from those of the Raja of Narsingha, which extended to Cape Comorin, the other Rajas being, as it were, his subjects, and deriving their power from him. It is this Raja and his predecessors who have always been at war with those who succeeded Tamerlane in India, and they were so powerful that the last Raja who was at war with Akbar had on foot four armies, commanded by as many generals.
24.2.5
The most powerful of the four had his quarters in the territories which to-day constitute the kingdom of Golconda, the second held his in the country of Bijapur, the third in the Province of Daulatabad, and the fourth in the region of Burhanpur. The Raja of Narsingha dying without children, these four generals established themselves each in the country which he held with his army, and caused themselves to be recognised as kings — one of Golconda, another of Bijapur, another of Burhanpur, and the other of Daulatabad. Although the Raja was an idolater, these four generals were Muhammadans, and he of Golconda was of the sect of Ali, descended from an ancient family of Turcomans, who inhabit the country of Hamadan in Persia.
24.2.6
He was, as I have said, the most powerful of all ; and a few days after the death of the Raja of Narsingha they achieved a notable victory over the Mogul, after which there was nothing to prevent them from making themselves sovereigns. But since that time Jahangir, son of Akbar, conquered the kingdom of the new King of Burhanpur ; Shah Jahan, son of Jahangir, that of the King of Daulatabad ; and Aurangzeb, son of Shah Jahan, a part of the territory of Bijapur. As for the King of Golconda, neither Jahangir nor Shah Jahan made war upon him, and they left him undisturbed, on the condition that he should pay to the Moguls an annual tribute of 200,000 pagodas. These pagodas are gold pieces which are worth from 6 to 7½ francs of our money, sometimes more and sometimes less. To-day the most powerful of the Rajas of this great peninsula south of the Ganges is the Raja of Velow, who extends his authority as far as Cape Comorin, and who has succeeded to a part of the states of the Raja of Narsingha; but, as there is no trade in his country, this Prince makes but little noise, and strangers hardly ever go to it. The present King of Golconda has no son; he has only three daughters, who are all married.
24.2.7
The eldest is married to one of the relatives of the Grand Sheikh of Mecca, and the circumstances which preceded this marriage are sufficiently curious to occupy a place in my observations. The Sheikh having arrived at Golconda in the garb of a mendicant, remained for some months at the gate of the palace, refusing to reply to sundry people of the Court who inquired why he had come. At length the matter being reported to the King, he sent his senior physician, who spoke Arabic well, to ascertain from the Sheikh what he wanted, and the reason of his coming. The physician, and some nobles of the Court who also spoke to him, immediately saw that he was a man of intelligence, and took him to the King, who was much pleased with his appearance and his preliminary conversation. But at length the Sheikh having declared that he had come to marry the Princess, this proposition very much surprised the King, and was received by some of the Court as coming from a man who was not altogether in his senses. At first they merely laughed, but when they observed that he persisted in his demand, even threatening the country with a great calamity which would befall it if they did not give him the Princess in marriage, he was cast into prison, where he remained for a long time.
24.2.8
The King, at length, considering that it would be better to send him back to his own country, made him embark at Masulipatam on one of the vessels which carry goods and pilgrims to Mocha, from whence they travel by land to Mecca. About two years afterwards the same Sheikh returned to Golconda, and managed so well on this occasion that he espoused the Princess and acquired great credit in the kingdom, which he now governs, and where he is all-powerful. It was he who prevented the King from yielding up the fortress of Golconda, where he had taken refuge when Aurangzeb and his son entered Bhāgnagar, as I shall presently relate — throwing himself upon him, and threatening to kill him if he did not resolve to hold out without thinking more of delivering the keys to the enemy. This bold action was the reason why the King loved him the more thereafter, and made use of his counsel in all important affairs; and thus, not only as son-in-law of the King, but as Prime Minister, he is now the principal personage in the Court of Golconda. He it is who is the cause why the Great Pagoda of Bhagnagar has remained unfinished, having threatened the kingdom with a great calamity if they persisted in completing it.