Travels in India (Tavernier) 57: CHAPTER IX · Concerning other details of the Great Mogul’s Court.
Travels in India (Ball) 57
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CHAPTER IX · Concerning other details of the Great Mogul’s Court.
57.1
Since Aurangzeb, who reigns at present, has occupied the throne of the Moguls, which he usurped from his father and brothers, he has imposed on himself, as I have said, a severe form of penance, and eats nothing which has enjoyed life. As he lives upon vegetables and sweetmeats only, he has become thin and meagre, to which the great fasts which he keeps have contributed. During the whole of the duration of the comet of the year , which appeared very large in India, where I then was, Aurangzeb only drank a little water and ate a small quantity of millet bread; this so much affected his health that he nearly died, for besides this he slept on the ground, with only a tiger’s skin over him, and since that time he has never had perfect health. I remember having seen the King drink upon three different occasions while seated on his throne. He had brought to him upon a golden saucer, enriched with diamonds, rubies, and emeralds, a large cup of rock crystal, all round and smooth, the cover of which was of gold, with the same decoration as the saucer. As a rule no one sees the King eat except his womenkind and eunuchs, and it is very rarely that he goes to eat at the house of any of his subjects, whether of a Prince or even of his own relatives. While I was on my last journey, Zafar Khan, who was his Grand Vizier, and besides that his uncle on his wife’s side, invited the King to visit him in order to see the new palace which he had had built for himself.
57.2
This being the greatest honour his Majesty could do him, Zafar Khan and his wife, in testimony of their gratitude, made him a present of jewels, elephants, camels, horses, and other things, to the value of seven lakhs of rupees (700,000), which amount to one million and fifty thousand (1,050,000) livres of our money. This wife of Zafar Khan is the most magnificent and the most liberal woman in the whole of India, and she alone expends more than all the wives and daughters of the King put together; it is on this account that her family is always in debt, although her husband is practically master of the whole Empire. She had ordered a grand banquet to be prepared for the King, but his Majesty, as he did not wish to eat at Zafar Khan’s house, returned to the palace, and the Princess sent after him the dishes she had destined for him. The King found all the dishes so much to his taste that he gave 500 rupees to the eunuch who brought them, and double that amount to the kitchen. When the King goes to the mosque in his pallankeen one of his sons follows on horseback, and all the Princes and officers of the household on foot. Those who are Muhammadans wait for him upon the top of the steps to the mosque, and when he is about to come out they precede him to the gate of the palace. Eight elephants march in front of him, four carrying two men each, one to guide the elephant, and the other, seated on its back, carries a standard attached to a hand pike.
57.3
The four other elephants carry a seat or species of throne on their backs, one of which is square, another round, one covered and another closed with glass of many kinds. When the King goes out he has generally 500 or 600 men for his bodyguard, each man being armed with a kind of hand pike. They attach fireworks to the iron blade; these consist of two rockets crossed, each of the thickness of the arm, and a foot in length; when ignited these will carry the hand pike 500 yards. The King is also followed by 300 or 400 matchlock men, who are timid and unskilful in firing, and a number of cavalry of no greater merit. One hundred of our European soldiers would scarcely have any difficulty in vanquishing 1000 of these Indian soldiers ; but it is true, on the other hand, that they would have much difficulty in accustoming themselves to so abstemious a life as theirs. For the horseman as well as the infantry soldier supports himself with a little flour kneaded with water and black sugar, of which they make small balls ; and in the evening, whenever they have the necessaries, they make khichri, which consists of rice cooked with a grain of the above name in water with a little salt. When eating it they first dip the ends of their fingers in melted butter, and such is the ordinary food of both soldiers and the poor people. To which it should be added that the heat would kill our soldiers, who would be unable to remain in the heat of the sun throughout the day as these Indians do.
57.4
I should say en passant that the peasants have for their sole garment a scrap of cloth to cover those parts which natural modesty requires should be concealed ; and that they are reduced to great poverty, because if the Governors become aware that they possess any property they seize it straightway by right or by force. You may see in India whole provinces like deserts, from whence the peasants have fled on account of the oppression of the Governors. Under cover of the fact that they are themselves Muhammadans, they persecute these poor idolaters to the utmost, and if any of the latter become Muhammadans it is in order not to work any more ; they become soldiers or Fakirs, who are people who make profession of having renounced the world, and live upon alms; but in reality they are all great rascals. It is estimated that there are in India 800,000 Muhammadan Fakirs, and 1,200,000 among the idolaters, of whom I shall speak farther on. Once a fortnight the King goes out to hunt, and while en route he is always mounted on his elephant, as also while the chase lasts. All the beasts which he shoots are driven within musket range of his elephant. Ordinarily these are lions, tigers, deer, and gazelles—for, as for wild boars, he as a good Muhammadan does not wish to see them. On his return he uses a pallankeen, and there is the same guard and the same order as when he goes to the mosque, save that at the chase there are 200 or 300 horsemen who ride before him in confused ranks.
57.5
As for the Princesses, whether they are the wives of the King, his daughters, or his sisters, they never leave the palace except when they go to the country for a few days’ change of air and scene. Some of them go, but rarely, to visit the ladies of the nobles, as for example the wife of Zafar Khān, who is the King’s aunt. This is not done except by the special permission of the King. It is not here as in Persia where the Princesses only make their visits at night, accompanied by a great number of eunuchs, who drive away all persons whom they meet on the road. But at the court of the Great Mogul the ladies generally go out at nine o’clock in the morning, and have only three or four eunuchs to accompany them, and ten or twelve female slaves who act as ladies of honour. The Princesses are carried in pallankeens covered with embroidered tapestries, and every pallankeen is followed by a small carriage which can only contain one person. It is drawn by two men, and the wheels are not more than a foot in diameter. The object in taking these carriages is, that when the Princesses arrive at the houses they are going to visit, the men who carry the pallankeens are only allowed to go to the first gate, where the eunuchs compel them to retire, the Princesses then change into the carriages, and are drawn by the ladies of honour to the women’s apartments.
57.6
For, as I have elsewhere remarked, in the houses of the nobles the women’s apartments are in the centre, and it is generally necessary to traverse two or three large courts and a garden or two before reaching them. When these Princesses are married to nobles of the Court they become the rulers of their husbands, who, if they do not live as they desire, and do not act according to their commands, as they possess the power of approaching the King whenever they wish, they persuade him to do what they please, to the disadvantage of their husbands; most frequently asking for them to be deprived of their offices. As it is the custom that the firstborn succeeds to the throne, although he be the son of a slave, immediately that the Princesses of the King’s harem become aware that there is one among them with child, they use all conceivable methods to make her have a miscarriage. When I was at Patna in the year 1666, Shaista Khan’s surgeon, who is a half-caste (mestiv) Portuguese, assured me that the Princess, wife of Shaista Khan, in one month had caused miscarriages to eight women of his harem, not permitting any children but her own to survive.