HYDRABAD AND BIDUR. 
191 
tablets, inlaid so as to form various elegant figures, 
in which sentences of the Khoran are inscribed in 
large white characters, three feet in height, upon an 
enamelled ground of green and gold. 
The noble founder of this magnificent college had 
collected, during his adventurous and successful life, 
one of the most extensive libraries mentioned in the 
history of tlindostan. He bequeathed it to the 
Madressa for the use of the students, together with 
a great number of his own manuscripts and draw- 
ings ; but it does not appear that there is any rem- 
nant of them left. Whether they were carried off 
and dispersed before Aurungzebe’s time, or destroyed 
in “ Aurungzebe’s explosion,” remains for the inves- 
tigation of such as may be anxious to ascertain. 
Mahmood Gawan appears to have delighted more in 
the possession of his books, his elephants, and horses, 
than in all the vast magnificence and wealth which 
his royal master had so profusely lavished upon him. 
The following anecdote, related by Ferishta, confirms 
this assumption, and beautifully exemplifies his 
simplicity of character, and the genuine greatness of 
his mind. 
Having been three years absent from the capital, 
in command of an arduous and almost hopeless 
expedition against Goa, and other possessions of the 
Rai of Bijanuggur, Mahmood Gawan returned to 
Bidur, covered with glory and renown, having 
achieved the most wonderful victories, and having 
