Travels in India (Tavernier) 57.2

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.