Later Mughals v1.c10.s8: Sec. 8.—The Emperor's Deposition and Death.
Later Mughals v1.c10.s8
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Sec. 8.—The Emperor's Deposition and Death.
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In the confusion and hurry attending his accession, no heed had been paid to the state of Rafi-ud-darjat's health. He was afterwards found to be far advanced in consumption, he was also addicted to the use of opium ; and from the day that he ascended the throne, he became weaker and weaker. By the middle of Rajab (June) it was evident that his days were numbered. He then told the Sayyids that if they would comply with his most earnest desire, and raise to the throne his elder brother, Rafi-ud-daulah, he should die happy. Accordingly on the 17th Rajab (4th June 1719) Rafi-ud-darjat was deposed and sent back into the harem. Two days afterwards (6th June, 1719), Rafi-ud-daulah was seated on the throne in the public audience-hall within the palace at Dihli. On the 24th Rajab (11th June, 1719) Rafi-ud-darjat expired, and was buried near the shrine of Khwaja Qutb-ud-din. [Warid 159a.]
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∗ In spite of the evidence of Khush-hal Chand, a contemporary and a resident at Dihli, I fear that this story about the Princess' cutting off her hair, must be treated as what lawyers call "common form." It is also related by N. Manucci, in regard to Rana Dil, one of the widows of Dara Shukoh, when summoned to his harem by Alamgir.
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APPENDIX.—RAFI-UD-DARJAT.
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Age.—At his death Rafi-ud-darjat was about twenty years of age ; the words waris-i-taj (1111 H)., "heir to the crown," giving the year of his birth, Khafi Khan, ii. 816. The Jam-i-jam gives the precise date as the 8th Jamadi II. 1111 H. (30th November, 1699) ; Mirza Muhammad, Tarikh-i-Muhammadi, declares that he was only sixteen or seventeen years of age at his death.
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Reign.—He reigned from his accession on the 9th Rabi II. to his deposition on the 17th Rajab 1131 H., for a period of three months and nine days.
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Titles.—His style and title as Emperor was Abul-barakat, Sultan Shams-ud-din, Muhammad Rafi-ud-darjat, Badshah, Ghazi. (Mirza Muhammad, Tazkira, 470.)
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Coin.—The distich placed upon his coin was : Zad sikka ba Hind ba hazaran barakat Shahan-shah-i-bahr-o-bar, Rafi-ud-darjat. "Coin was struck in Hind, with a thousand blessings, By the king of kings on land and sea, Rafi-ud-darjat."
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But on the second day of the reign Qutb-ul-mulk called on Fath Khan Fazil, to provide a couplet which should allow of a different word for gold coins (ashrafi) and silver coins (Rupees), as was the case with Alamgir's coinage. The poet on the spur of the moment produced the following lines :
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*Sikka zad Shah Rafi-ud-darjat* *Mihr-manind ba yamin-o-barakat.* “The Emperor Rafi-ud-darjat struck coin, Sun-like, with power and felicity.”
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On the Rupee the word *badr* (moon) was substituted for *mihr* (sun). It is not known whether these lines were ever actually brought into use, as we have no coin on which they appear; but there is another variant on one coin in the Lahor Museum:
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*Sikka-i-mubarik-i-badshah-i-ghazi, Rafi-ud-darjat.*
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There are twenty-three coins of this reign in the three public collections at London, Calcutta, and Lahor; four of gold and nineteen of silver, all circular in shape. All except one are dated according to the Hijra or the regnal year, or both. All except one coin can be classed under the *subahs* in which their place of mintage was situated. These twenty-two coins belong to ten mints in eight out of the twenty-one provinces; Kashmir, Tattha, Ajmer, Gujarat, Malwa, Bengal, Orissa and the six Dakhin *subahs* being unrepresented. The number of coins from each mint is: Kabul (1), Lahor (4), Multan (1), Shahjahanabad (5), Akbarabad (5), Gwaliyar (1), Etawa (2), Muazzamabad, *i.e.*, Oudh (1), Kora (1), Patna (1). It is curious that in such a short reign a distant province like Kabul should have issued any coin; but the other places were well within control of the Court. In the gold coins the weights are 160, 168, 169 and 169.5 grains, and the diameters ·77, ·8, ·85, and ·94 of an inch. For the silver coins the weight and the diameter are respectively 172 (2), 173 (4), 174 (1), 174·5 (2), 175 (5), 176 (2), 177 (1), 178 (1), and 179 (1), grains, and ·82 (1), ·85 (2), ·90 (5), ·95 (5), ·96 (1), ·97 (1), 1·0 (3), 1·03 (1) of an inch. Mr. M. Longworth Dames (*Numismatic Chronicle*, Fourth Series, ii. 275-309) has three coins of this reign; adding thereby two more mints to the above, *viz.*, Burhanpur and Sarhind.
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*Family.*—The only reference to Rafi-ud-darjat’s wife or wives is to be found in the story given a page or two back, from which we learn the name of one wife, Inayat Banu. He seems to have left no children. One notable point about him was his descent on both sides from Alamgir, his mother being the daughter of Prince Akbar, that monarch's fourth son. With such an ancestry it is strange that he did not display more of the energy and ability characteristic of the earlier generations of his house.