History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v4.c66.s4.4

v4.c66.s4.4

From the thoughts of these humiliations and the impending ruin of his house, Abul Hasan, like Wajid Ali Shah, sought distraction or oblivion by plunging into unrelieved sensuality, (Fryer, i. 85.) Resigning his royal functions to his wazir, Madanna, he shut himself up in his palace with a host of concubines and dancing-girls. Under his predecessor, Haidarabad had become the Indian Babylon, with its twenty thousand public women (who had to dance before the king in the public square every Friday) and its countless taverns, close to these women’s quarters, where 1200 large leather bottles of fermented palm-juice were consumed daily. (Tavernier, i. 157-158.) But he also promoted several fine arts contributory to luxury; he settled in his capital and supported by his bounty skilled craftsmen of various kinds whose exquisite manufactures were famous throughout India. The king’s own skill in music was of no mean order. He was rightly called Tana Shah or "the dainty king." (Chahar Gulshan, 91b-92a.)