126 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [March, 1912. 
I will not follow the details of this contest between the 
four brothers, which was fought out on the banks of the Ravi 
near Lahore. They are fully given in the paper from which I 
am quoting—see the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal 
for 1896. Prince ‘Azimu-sh-shin, on the death of his father, 
seized the imperial camp, and was in an incomparably stronger 
position than his brothers. However, owing to his own 
ineptitude and futility, he lost everything, was defeated, and 
in flight from the field of battle, was engulfed, together with his 
elephant, in a quicksand. The defeat and death of Jahan 
Shah, and of Rafi‘u-sh-shan, followed in quick succession. 
these events happened within five weeks after the death of 
Bahadur Shah, and the biers of his three sons were despatch 
with that of their father to Dehli for interment. All his rivals 
having been removed, Jahandar Shah proceeded at once to 
carry out his formal enthronement and proclamation as sov- 
ereign of Hindustan. 
Muhammad Farrukhsiyar, the second son of ‘Azimu-sh- 
han, was now in his thirty-first year, and had accompanied his 
father first to Agra, and thence to Bengal. In the last year of 
his reign, Aurangzeb recalled his grandson, ‘Agimu-sh- rons 
from Bengal, giving him orders to leave his eldest son, Muham 
mad Karim, in charge of Bahar, and his second son, Fa mont 
siyar, in Bengal. The young prince passed some years at 
Dhakka (Jahangirnagar), the capital of the Bengal a: 
but in as reign of Bahadur Shah (1707—12), he moved t 
Murshidabad, and subsequently to Raj Mahal (Akbarnagar) 
‘Azimu-sh-shan, anticipating a struggle for the throne, called 
se Farrukhsiyar to return to Court, and the latter was on the 
arch and not far from Patna (‘ Azimabad), when on the 7th 
Safar 1124 a.n. (15th March, 1712), he heard of Bahadur 
Shah’s death, and on the 13th (21st March), without waiting 
for further information, he proclaimed his father’s accession, 
and caused coin to be s orem = the public prayer or 
Khutba to be read in his n He decided to march no further, 
but on the 29th Safar (6th moti 17 12) he heard of his father’s 
defeat and death. For a little time the prince contemplated 
- suicide, ae was in the end incited to try the issue of a contest 
in the . Thereupon, while still at Patna, he cance 
his sibebaions to the empire, issuing coin, and causing the 
to be read in hisown name. He possessed little follow- 
ing at the time, but the adventure eventually had a favourable 
issue. Jahandar Shah was defeated at Agra on the 13th Zi-l- 
Hajj, 1124 a.u. (10th January, 1713), and slain shortly after- 
wards. Jahandar Shah had shown himself absolutely unfitted 
to rule, and Mr. Irvine remarks that the cause of his fall is 
likened by Warid truly enough to the case of the exiled 
monarch who attributed his ruin to morning slumbering and 
midnight carousing. 
