Mughal Administration c16.s3.2

c16.s3.2

The official entitlature was a very formal thing in the 17th century. The different epithets to be used in addressing or referring to different people, from the Emperor down to ordinary captains and petty civil officers were all fixed beforehand and entered in the office manual (*dastur-ul-aml*). They were from time to time changed by superior order, due notice being given to the clerks. It would have been the height of impropriety to mention the "Shadow of God" or his sons* by name, (and in a more decadent age even the grand wazir). They were each designated in life as the Khalifa and the Shadow of God, and after death by a distinct title, which required interpretation for later ages. Thus Babur, Humayun, Akbar, Jahangir, Shah Jahan, Aurangzib and Bahadur Shah I. were respectively remembered only as *Firdaus-makāni*, *Jinnat-āshyāni*, *Arsh-āshyāni*, *Jinnat-makāni*, *Ala Hazrat Firdaus-āshyāni*, *Khuld-makān* and *Khuld-manzil*,—all these phrases meaning "Seated in heaven." Living princes were similarly designated by conventional but special titles, such as *Shāh-i-buland-iqbāl* for Dara Shukoh, *Mihir-pur-i-khilāfat* for Shah Alam, *Shāh-i-Alijāh* for Muhammad Azam, &c. Jahanara, after her death, was to be mentioned only under the title of "The Spiritual Mistress of