I X D I A. 



TV. office. He wss completely free from avarice ; ajid his 

 "Y-"** disposition was forgiving. In private his temper was 

 capricious, so much so, indeed, as to bear occasionally 

 the character of insanity, with whkb malady his un- 

 fortunate s n Khosru was certainly afflicted. He was 

 naturally indolent, and indulged much in wine and 

 opium; but he was fond of literature, and has left 

 a well written life of himself. So well known, and so 

 well beloved was he, that he frequently left his palace 

 in a simple habit, and mixed with the evening parties 

 of every rank : his person was too well known to be 

 disguised ; but he never had reason to repent of his fa- 

 miliarity with his people. 1 ' 



s^ jiiua On the death of Jehanghire, the nobility resumed 

 iQjissik their intrigues, in the hopes of preventing the sacces- 

 sion of his son Shah Jehan ; but as there were several 

 parties among them, each with a different view, though 

 all hostile to Shah Jehan, their schemes were defeated 

 by their own want of concord. It is probable, how- 

 ever, that they might not have been defeated so soon 

 or so easily, had not the emperor received the valuable 

 assistance of the talents of Aiph Jab : this person was 

 the son of Aiaas,' and consequently a brother oi 

 Jean ; but he was still more closely connected with the 

 emperor, by the latter having married his daughter. 

 By means of this man, Shah Jehan was seated peace- 

 ably and firmly on the throne ; and he no los* reward- 

 ed hi* service*, than secured the tranquillity and pros- 

 perity of hi* own kingdom, by raising him to the rank 

 of vixier. As soon as the intrigue* of the nobility were 

 quelled, Shah Jehan caused the male descendant* of 

 Baber to be put to death ; and, in order to make the 

 people forget this cruelty, he held a festival which sur- 

 passed in magniftfnce every thing of the kind that 

 had ever been celebrated in the East- 



Dunng the first years of hi* reign, he wai 

 i ant. ou and happy : hi* kingdom nowruhed 



were extensive; and in hi* domestic concen 



1 afsV^s**,..**. Lfu 4V .>*- 



ccocoro mno eUaVcviOB* riB rauwi^m-iAv 

 vixier till hi* drath, which happened in his 

 ami tiHMigh his measure* were sometimes despotic, yet 



Hit riushj 



II* S-*MI 



, < 



they were generally wise and prudent, and productive 

 of beneficial re*ulM. The empress was a woman of an 

 amiable and gentle disposition ; and of great virtue a. 

 well a* beauty ; she conducted herself with so much 

 pnsdence and propriety, and with such strict and regu- 

 lar regard to her husband'* wishes and views, that the 

 obtained unlimited influence over him : during her in. . 

 he had no other wife, and when ah* died, he raised to 

 her memory a beautiful tomb, of the finest marble, in- 

 laid with precious stone*, which cost 17.50,000. 



during the reign of Shah Jehan ; the conqwest of the 

 Deean was purtued with great vigour, and the plun- 



nf T9 .U)i! 



of it* 



to 



the emperor as their sovereign. The whole of Bengal 

 wa> entirely subdued ; and the states of Tibet and 

 Assam were kept in awe; Candahar waa rt covered 

 from the I'eroians ; Cashmere was go* et lied by a vice- 

 roy from Delhi ; and ( iuxtrat was lulaautl to obedience. 

 Golconda was in part actually taken poasrsaion of; bat 

 Bejapoor and the < arnatic, together with the region of 

 the Gauts, remained in the power of their ancient pos- 

 sessors. In the wan, dunng which these rmqants 

 were atchieved, Shah Jehan was principally jarfabtod 

 for his Mece*. to hi* general Mohabet, Vis MI Khan 

 Zknon, and on their death, to the military talents of hia 

 There were four of them, Dara, Su/ah, 



Aurengzebe, and Morad. The characters and talents of Htor>. 

 all these were distinctly marked, and though in some 

 respects they resembled one another, yet in many ma- 

 terial points, there were great and striking differences. 

 Dara was undoubtedly most richly pitied by nature of 

 all the sons, both in the qualities of his mind, and in 

 the virtues of his heart. Like all the princes of the 

 house of Baber, he was well versed in the learning of 

 Persia and Arabia ; and he caused himself to be in- 

 structed in the ancient learning of Hindostan by some 

 Hindoo Pundits, whom he liberally paid for that im- 

 pose ; he was even anxious to acquire some insight in- 

 to the literature and the customs of Europe; and in 

 order to gratify his desire in this respect, he paid great 

 attention to, protected, and encouraged the Jesuits, who 

 had a college at Agra. In his temper he was frank 

 far beyond what the manners and habits of the east re- 

 quire or sanction ; and his generosity was unbounded, 

 and not always under the guidance of a discriminating 

 prudence. In his person he was remarkably hand- 

 some ; and his address was elegant and insinuating. 

 Possessed of these qualifications, he was deservedly a 

 favourite with almost all classes and descriptions of his 

 father's subjects. Sujah, the second son, was distin- 

 guished for his prudence, which directed or restrained 

 the openness of his temper, and the generosity of hi, 

 disposition, much more than Dara was inclined or 

 could be induced to do : but his prudence, though a 

 guard against the excess of these qualities, was but a 

 feeble barrier, when the attainment of pleasure wa 

 Sujah's object ; in this respect he was weak and unre- 

 strained. Both these sons were distinguished, and 

 nearly in an equal degree, for their talents and success 

 a* warriors ; but the third son, Aurengzebe, was su- 

 perior to either of his brothers, in the politics, the 

 skill, and the bravery, which a state of warfare de- 

 mand*. As he was inferior to his brothers in the ad- 

 vantages of person and address, he endeavoured, and 

 bat too successfully, to compensate for these dencien- 

 cias, by dissimulation and intrigue. Wrapt up within 

 himself, though apparently open and artlens, he threw 

 hi* adversaries off their guard, and succeeded at one 

 and the tame time, in concealing hi* own sentiments 

 and in developing those of others ; whin it 

 ry to gain over hi* opponent*, or to make 

 a* instruments in his own hands, he dis- 

 played wonderful power* of address, and exquisite 

 knowledge of the weak parts of the human character. 

 It is evident that such a disposition and liabits a Au. 



I, aided by no mean talent*, and the 

 happy and not common art of having these talents al- 

 ways at command exactly when they were wanted, 

 were capable of producing much good, or much evil, 

 according as they were directed. Unfortunately, am- 

 bsnon, or no low standard, was the ruling passion of his 

 heart ; and this ambition, which aimed at as high power 

 a* lay within his reach, he was resolved to gratify, 

 without the smallest compunction of conscience regard- 

 ing the measures, which it might call upon him to exe- 

 cute. But be well knew, that as he was not the oldest 

 son, it would be indispensably necessary to keep his 

 ambition concealed from every eye ; he therefore af- 

 fected the habits of a Faquir, and used religion a* a 

 task to cover his designs. The distinguishing features 

 in the disposition of the fourth son, were violence and 

 impatience ; but they were not the violence and impa- 

 tience of a bad heart, or of an unfeeling temper ; they 

 rather constitutional than the result of thought* 

 or vice, and they were accompanied, u ii often 



