The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c20.134

v4.c20.134

On the accession of Jahāndār Shāh, Zu-’l-Fiqār Khān became minister. Severe vengeance was taken on the leading supporters of his defeated rivals; they were subjected to ruthless confiscation, imprisonment and even execution. New men were raised to power as partisans of the new emperor and useful tools of the all-powerful minister. Even Muhammad Karīm, the eldest son of ‘Azīm, was put to death in cold blood by order of Zu-’l-Fiqār. Jahāndār Shāh arrived at Delhi from Lahore on 22 June, 1712, and learnt that Farrukh-siyar, the second son of ‘Azīm-ush-shān and his deputy in the government of Bengal, had advanced to Patna to prepare for an attempt on the crown. So a large force was sent against him under prince ‘Azz-ud-dīn (Jahāndār’s eldest son), too young and inexperienced a youth for such a command, to wait and watch at Āgra. Arrived at Delhi Jahāndār Shāh spent his time entirely in pleasure and merry-making with his concubine La‘l Kumārī. Under infatuation with her he indulged in every kind of mad freak and low amusement. All decency was abandoned; her kinsmen robbed and mismanaged the state, the highest dignitaries were insulted and thwarted by the favourite’s low-born associates, the crown was stripped of dignity and prestige in the public eye, and the entire tone of society and administration was vulgarised. La‘l Kumārī received an allowance of twenty million rupees a year, besides clothes and jewels, and imitated the style of Nūr Jahān, the famous queen of Jahāngīr, while the army and civil officers starved. The emperor spent every night in drunken frolics with boon companions of the lowest rank in society; religious practices were openly abandoned. Punishment was not slow in coming. Zu-’l-Fiqār was regarded with bitter jealousy by ‘Alī Murād Khān Jahān, the emperor’s foster-brother (created Amīr-ul-Umarā), who always tried to contradict and thwart him by influencing the emperor against his minister.