Later Mughals v2.c16.s2.t3: Roshan-Ud-Daulah.
Later Mughals v2.c16.s2.t3
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Roshan-Ud-Daulah.
v2.c16.s2.t3.1
We have already mentioned the rise of Khwaja Muzaffar in the first year of Farrukh-siyar. During the changes of Government following the deposition and death of Farrukh-siyar, he succeeded in making friends among the men of the new régime. Early in the reign of Muhammad Shah he formed a close alliance with the favourite Koki and soon acquired great wealth from the presents made to him to secure his support. He had no obvious qualities to account for his great position, but he possessed no doubt the suppleness required in a courtier.* Outside the Court he did not shine ; his service as faujdar of the troublesome country of Mewat did him no credit. But he was gracious in manner and hospitable, and the repute was great of his charity, more especially to religious mendicants. He was a devoted follower of the holy man Shah Bhik, who is buried at Thaska near Thanesar. Roshan-ud-daulah's yearly illumination of the road from Dihli to the shrine of Qutb-ud-din was long a subject of popular talk. He was also a great builder. In Dihli he built a mosque near the palace and a college with mosque in the main street or Chandni Chauk, both having their domes and minarets adorned with copper-gilt plates. In Panipat he erected in the same style another school and a tomb for himself. In Karnal and Panipat he added gilt domes to the shrines of Shah Sharf Buali Qalandar, also arches and a pulpit. In Thaska also he adorned the shrine of the same saint and added a house for pilgrims, a hall of assembly and a relief kitchen, which he endowed with several villages. At Dihli he also repaired and cleaned annually the shrine known as Qadam-i-sharif (The Holy Foot-prints) and on the twelfth day of Rabi I., the day on which the prophet was born, he distributed there food gratis and other largesse.* [M. U. ii. 333 ; Ashob 47b-56a ; Ghulam Ali 17a.]
v2.c16.s2.t3.2
∗ Or, as Warid (58) says, applying a proverb to him, "He showed you wheat (as sample) but delivered you barley,"—i.e., he was a man of great promise and small performance.