214 A Canal Act of the Emperor Akbar, [No. 171. 



and the water of life in my heart is larger than the sea, with the wish to 

 dispense benefits, and to leave permanent marks of the greatness of my 

 Empire, by digging canals, and founding cities, by which too the 

 revenues of the Empire will be increased. 



" God says, sow a grain, and reap sevenfold(a). My desire is to reap 

 one-hundredfold, that my crown may become wealthy, and that the 

 zamindars may obtain double returns. 



" The seeds sown in this world, are reaped in the next. 



" The Omnipotent God gives power to whom he pleases. 



" The following is the best purpose to which my wealth can be applied, 

 viz. — 



" The Chitang Naddi, by which Firoz Shah Badshah, two hundred and 

 ten years ago, brought water from the nalas and drains in the vicinity 

 of Sadhaura(6), at the foot of the hills, to Hansi and Hissar, and by 

 which for four or five months in the year water was then available, has, 

 in the course of time, and from numerous obstacles, become so choked, 

 that for the last hundred years, the waters have not flowed past the 

 boundary of Kythal, and thence to Hissar, the bed has become so chok- 

 ed, that it is scarcely discernible ; since which time, the inhabitants of 

 those parts have become parched with thirst(c), and their gardens dried 

 up. 



" Now that I have given the district (Sarkar) of Hissar to the great, 

 the fortunate, the obedient, the pearl of the sea of my kingdom, the star 

 of my government, the praised of the inhabitants of the sea and land, 

 the apple of my kingdom's eye, my son Sultan Muhamad Salim 

 Bahadur (d), (may God grant him long life and greatness) ; my wisdom 

 wishes that the hopes, like the fields of those thirsty people, may, by 

 the showers of liberality and kindness, be made green and flourishing, 



(a) " The similitude of those who lay out their substance, for advancing the religion 

 of God, is as a grain of corn which produceth seven ears, and in each ear a hundred 

 grains."— Sale's Koran, Ch. II. 



(b) Sadhaura, a town of the Ambala district, about twenty miles west of the Jumna. 

 The river flowing past Sadhaura is the Markanda, but the sources of the Chitang are 

 only seven or eight miles distant. 



(c) In Hariana the springs have been raised, since the canal was re-opened, in 

 some instances as much as sixty feet. — Capt. Baker's Report on the Sutlej and Jumna 

 Canal. 



(d) Afterwards the Emperor Jahangfr, who was at this time under two years of 

 age. " The Sirkar of Hissar Firozeh, ever since the conquest of Hindoostan by the 

 Moguls, has constituted the personal estate of the heirapparentof the empire" — Rennet. 



