The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c17.82

v4.c17.82

Fastidious in matters of art and literature he was also particular in his dress and critical of the pleasures of the table. He chose certain fashions and stuffs for his own clothing and forbade other people to use them. He records the number of the delicious cherries of Kābul he ate in one day, and recognises the excellence of figs picked and eaten at once, but notes a warning against too many at a time. Regarding his own intemperance he is entirely frank and relates that he began to drink wine at the age of 18 and increased his potations until wine ceased to intoxicate him, when he changed to spirits. The time came when his hand shook so much that he could not drink from his own cup; and then under the influence of Nūr Jahān he recovered to some extent by diluting the spirits with wine. On Thursday evenings (the eve of the Muslim sabbath) he abstained from drinking and he ate no meat on Thursday, the day of his own accession or Sunday, the day on which his father was born. Intemperate himself, he recognised his own weakness and no courtier was admitted to audience whose breath was tainted with the smell of liquor. Though he was hospitable enough to bid them drink when he did himself, he sometimes forgot his own command and ordered savage punishments for their imagined disobedience.¹