The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c17.30

v4.c17.30

During his seven years' tenure of the office of governor of the Deccan prince Parvīz and the officers under him had made no progress in their campaigns. Like his father he was addicted to wine and he was fonder of pleasures than of his business. Jahāngīr, anxious to complete his conquest of the Deccan, transferred Parvīz to the easier charge of Allahābād in 1616 and sent in his place Khurram on whom he conferred the title of Shāh, while he himself moved his court to Māndū so as to be nearer the scene of operations. A graphic description of the luxury of his camp equipage, with the ladies of the court riding in gold howdahs on 50 elephants, is given by Roe, whose meagre allowance from the Company did not permit him to buy or hire reasonable equipment. The route lay through difficult country where supplies were always, and water was sometimes, scarce, while the straggling cortège was often liable to be plundered by the inhabitants. In December, 1616, Roe saw a hundred corpses of people who had been executed for robbery, and in January he writes: “I am yet following this wandering King over mountaynes and through woods, so strange and unused wayes that his own people who almost know no other god, blaspheame his name and hers that (it is said) conducts all his actions.” While he stayed at Ujjain the emperor took pleasure in a visit to a celebrated *faqīr* called Chid Rūp¹ who had met Akbar some 15 years earlier. In the sage’s teaching of Vedānta philosophy Jahāngīr thought he recognised the germ of Sūfī mysticism. The slow march through country which presented many opportunities for the emperor’s favourite pastime of hunting ended in March, 1617, when he arrived at Māndū, the old capital of the independent rulers of Mālwā.² The magnificent buildings of the Mālwā kings drew his admiration, while his disgust at the misdeeds of one of the most infamous led him to desecrate the tomb and have the remains cast in the Narbadā river which flows a few miles away. The difficulties of water supply on the rocky hill where the emperor resided were so great that it had to be purchased, and Roe considered himself lucky in finding a residence near an assured supply. Throughout the summer intrigues continued regarding the succession, and attempts were made to arrange a marriage between Khusrav and Nūr Jahān’s daughter by her former husband Sher Afgan. The match would have been generally popular, and might have secured Khusrav’s position, but he declined to accept it, through devotion to his only wife.