62 
W. Irvine —The Later Mugjials. [No. 1, 
gate of the palace, seated on a moveable throne and wearing, according to 
usage, the clothes sent to him by the bride’s father, of which Khemsi, 
Bhandari, had been the bearer. The Emperor was preceded by plat¬ 
forms, on which stood women singing and dancing as they were carried 
along. Fireworks were let off. 1 The Emperor entered the house of 
Amir-ul-Umara and there completed the usual ceremonies. Those ob¬ 
served on this occasion were a mixture of Mahomedan and Hindu usages. 
One which caused much remark was the offer to the guest of a drink 
made of rose-water, sugar, and opium. This mixture was pressed on 
them by the Rajputs on the plea that it was the custom of their country. 
Many Mahomedans drank of it, but some objected. There was another 
thing never seen before in an imperial wedding. A gold plate had been 
made with five divisions, and each of these divisions was filled with pre¬ 
cious stones. In one, diamonds; in another, rubies; in the third, emeralds ; 
in the fourth, topazes ; and in the fifth, which was in the centre of them 
all, large and valuable pearls. 2 Farrukhsiyar returned late at night, 
bringing the bride with him to the palace, which he entered by the Labor 
gate, it being unlucky to go and come by the same route. The festivities 
continued to the end of the month. 3 
The consummation of the marriage had been delayed . for a month 
or two by Farrukhsiyar’s illness. When he returned to Dihli on the 
I9th Sha c ban (19th August, 1715), he was suffering from haemorrhoids. 
It was on this occasion that the services of William Hamilton, the 
English surgeon, were called into requisition. He had accompanied 
an embassy sent to Dihli to complain of the conduct of Murshid Quli 
Khan, Nazim of Bengal, in regard to the re-imposition of the custom 
duties which had been remitted by ‘Alamgir. 4 By the 16th October 
1 Mirza Muhammad and his brother were present in tbe processian, on foot. 
They went with it from the DIwan-i-'Am to the house of Amir-ul-Umara, M.M., 219. 
2 Yahya, 122b, Khushhal Cand, 402a. 
8 Taghaiyyar-i-rdh dadan; not to return by the way or gate by which you 
went, a practice observed by the Emperors of Hindustan ( Mirdtu-l-istildh). Mir 
‘Abd-ul-Jalil, Bilgrami, wrote a long masnavi, or narrative poem, in honour of the 
occasion. (Lithographed at Nawal Kishor Press, Lakhnau, 1299 H.) Mr. Beale 
praises it for the skill with which the Hindu names of the planets are introduced 
under the guise of Persian words. ( MiftaTi , 301). The chronogram of Mhd. Ahsan, 
Ma’ni Khan (Ijad), was :— 
From the garden of Maharajah Jaswant Singh 
A flower came to the secret chambers of the palace. 
Zi l dgh -i-Mahdrdjah Jaswant Singh 
Ba mushlcbue daulat dardmad gule (1127). Miftah , 302, Mirza 
Muhammad, 213-14, Kamwar Khan, and Wheeler, 178. 
4 J. T. Wheeler, “ Early Records, ” 169-184. 
