History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v3.c38.s2.31

v3.c38.s2.31

Again, with regard to *bhang*, "Not a day passed that on rising in the morning we did not hear the breaking by blows and strokes of the pots and pans in which these beverages are prepared. But, seeing that the ministers themselves also drank and loved to get drunk, the rigour of prohibition was lightened by degrees." So, too, in the case of the order against music: "If in any house or elsewhere he (*i.e.*, the Censor) heard the sound of singing and instruments, he should forthwith hasten there and arrest as many as he could, breaking the instruments. Thus was caused a great destruction of musical instruments.... In spite of this, the nobles did not cease to listen to songs in secret." (*Storia*, ii. 5-8.)