Later Mughals v2.c14.s7.17

v2.c14.s7.17

A more important expedition of this sort was made after a tiger. On the 17th Sept. 1723, the Emperor went on a visit to the shrines at the Qutb, and pitched his camp at the foot of the low hills there. Four days afterwards Mutaqad-uddaulah Allahwirdi Khan, the head huntsman, reported that two tigers with two cubs had been marked down in a plain covered with scrub. The kind of net known as a yawar or bawar with other hunting necessaries was ordered to be made ready. On the 22nd the advance tents were sent on to the village of Khaoli. Two days later they marched from the camp near the Qutb, and halted at Bijwasan village. Next day they reached Dholkot, the day after they were at Qasba Patodhi. The tiger hunt took place on the 29th. When they had arrived near the yawar or net the Emperor directed that the following nobles should enter it: the Wazir (Nizam-ul-mulk), the Amir-ul-umara (Samsam-ud-daulah), Ghazi-ud-din Khan (the Wazir's eldest son), Sarbuland Khan Mir Mushrif, and the three eunuchs Hafiz Khidmatgar Khan, Jawahir Khan and Itibar Khan. Some followers of these nobles, men famed for their bravery, were ordered to arm themselves and walk in front of the elephant on which the Emperor was seated. First of all, the Emperor himself shot dead the larger tiger; then four cubs were killed with sword and dagger and matchlock by the nobles and their retainers, of whom some fifteen were wounded. The next day the return march was made to Dholkot, and the day after the Emperor reached once more the palace at Dihli. [Kamwar 266, 259; Ahwal 183a for a plot against Nizam.]