Travels in India (Tavernier) 47: BOOK II

47

the other side of the Ganges, touches on the east the Kingdoms of Arakan, Tipperah, and Assam; on the west Persia and Tartary of the Usbegs ; on the south the Kingdoms of Golconda and Bijapur ; and on the north it reaches to the Caucasus, having on the north-east the Kingdom of Bhutan, from whence comes musk, and to the north-west the country of Chegathay, or the Usbegs.
Many persons having written about India itself, and of the genius of the Indians, I pass to subjects of more importance, but less well known, and I shall speak first of the family of the Kings of India, commonly known as the Moguls, that is to say whites, because the men who formerly conquered the country were white, the native born Indians being brown or olive-coloured.
Aurangzeb, who reigns at present, is the eleventh in direct line of the descendants of the great Temurleng, commonly called Tamerlane, who by the extent and renown of his conquests from China to Poland surpassed the glory of the most renowned captains of previous ages.
His successors succeeded in conquering the whole of India, between the two rivers, thereby destroying many Kings, and Aurangzeb has to-day under his authority the Kingdoms of Gujarat, Deccan, Delhi, Multan, Lahore, Kashmir, Bengal, and many other countries, without speaking of many Rajas, or Kinglets, who are his vassals, and pay him tribute. The following is the succession of these Kings from Tamerlane to Aurangzeb, who reigns at present : —
I. Temur-leng, i.e. “the cripple,” because he had one leg shorter than the other, is buried at Samarcand in the country of Chegathay or Tartary of the Usbegs ; it is also the place where he was born.
II. Miran-Shah, son of Temur-leng.
III. Sultan Muhammad, son of Miran Shah.
IV. Sultan Abu Sayyid Mirza, son of Muhammad.
V. Umr Shekh Mirza, son of Sultan Abu Sayyid.
VI. Sultan Babar, i.e. “ the brave Prince,” son of Umr Shekh, and the first of the Moguls who made himself all powerful in India. He died in the year 1532.
VII. Humayun, which means “happy,” son of Sultan Babar, died in the year 1552.
VIII. Abdul Fateh Jalal-ud-din Muhammad, commonly called Akbar, that is to say “ the mighty,” son of Humayun, reigned fifty-four years, and died A.H. 1014, A.D. 1605.
IX. Sultan Salim, otherwise called Jahangir Padishah, i.e. Conqueror of the World, succeeded Akbar, his father, and died in the year 1627. He had four sons, the first named Sultan Khusru, the second Sultan Khurram, the third Sultan Parwez, fourth Shah Danial.
X. Sultan Khurram, the second of the four sons, succeeded Jahangir, his father, and was recognised as sovereign by the nobles of the Kingdom in the fortress of Agra, under the name of Sultan Shah Bedin Muhammad, but he desired to be called Shah-Jahan, i.e. King of the World.
XI. Aurangzeb, i.e. the Ornament of the Throne, is the King who reigns at present.
The accompanying figure shows the form of the coins which the Kings cause to be thrown to the people when they ascend the throne. They bear the arms or seals of the Kings whom I have just named. The largest seal, in the middle, is that of Shah-Jahan, the tenth King, for Aurangzeb, since he became King, has not had any of these pieces of bounty coined — these coins are nearly all of silver, only a small number being of gold.
The Great Mogul is certainly the most powerful and the richest monarch of Asia; all the Kingdoms which he possesses constitute his domain, he being absolute master of all the country, of which he receives the whole revenue. In the territories of this Prince, the nobles are but Royal Receivers, who render account of the revenues to the Governors of Provinces, and they to the Treasurers General and Ministers of Finance, so that this grand King of India, whose territories are so rich, fertile, and populous, has no power near him equal to his own.