Rambles and Recollections of an Indian Official by William Sleeman

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Notes:

1. Govardhan is a very sacred place of pilgrimage, full of temples,
situated in the Mathura (Muttra) district, sixteen miles west of
Mathura, Regulation V of 1826 annexed Govardhan to the Agra district.
In 1832 Mathura was made the head-quarters of a new district,
Govardhan and other territory being transferred from Agra.

2. The Puranas, even when narrating history after a fashion, are cast
in the form of prophecies. The Bhagavat Purana is especially devoted
to the legends of Krishna. The Hindi version of the 10th Book
(_skandha_) is known as the 'Prem Sagar', or 'Ocean of Love', and is,
perhaps, the most wearisome book in the world.

3. This flight occurred during the struggles following the battle of
Plassy in 1757, which were terminated by the battle of Buxar in 1764,
and the grant to the East India Company of the civil administration
of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa in the following year. Shah Alam bore, in
weakness and misery, the burden of the imperial title from 1759 to
1806. From 1765 to 1771 he was the dependent of the English at
Allahabad. From 1771 to 1803 he was usually under the control of
Maratha chiefs, and from the time of Lord Lake's entry into Delhi, in
1803 he became simply a prisoner of the British Government. His
successors occupied the same position. In 1788 he was barbarously
blinded by the Rohilla chief, Ghulam Kadir.

4. Akbar II. His position as Emperor was purely titular.

5. The name is printed as Booalee Shina in the original edition. His
full designation is Abu Ali al-Husain ibn Abdullah ibn Sina, which
means 'that Sina was his grandfather. Avicenna is a corruption of
either Abu Sina or Ibn Sina. He lived a strenuous, passionate life,
but found time to compose about a hundred treatises on medicine and
almost every subject known to Arabian science. He died in A.D. 1037.
A good biography of him will be found in _Encyclo. Brit._, 11th ed.,
1910.

6. Otherwise called Eurasians, or, according to the latest official
decree, Anglo-Indians.

7. 'Diplomatic characters' would now be described as officers of the
Political Department.

8. These remarks of the author should help to dispel the common
delusion that the English officials of the olden time spoke the
Indian languages better than their more highly trained successors.

9. The author wrote these words at the moment of the inauguration by
Lord William Bentinck and Macaulay of the new policy which
established English as the official language of India, and the
vehicle for the higher instruction of its people, as enunciated in
the resolution dated 7th March, 1835, and described by Boulger in
_Lord William Bentinck_ (Rulers of India, 1897), chap. 8. The
decision then formed and acted on alone rendered possible the
employment of natives of India in the higher branches of the
administration. Such employment has gradually year by year increased,
and certainly will further increase, at least up to the extreme limit
of safety. Indians now (1914) occupy seats in the Council of India in
London, and in the Executive and Legislative Councils of the
Governor-General, Provincial Governors, and Lieutenant-Governors.
They hold most of the judicial appointments and fill many responsible
executive offices.

10. Khojah Nasir-ud-din of Tus in Persia was a great astronomer,
philosopher, and mathematician in the thirteenth century. The
author's Imam-ud-din Ghazzali is intended for Abu Hamid Imam al
Ghazzali, one of the most famous of Musulman doctors. He was born at
Tus, the modern Mashhad (Meshed) in Khurasan, and died in A.D. 1111.
His works are numerous. One is entitled _The Ruin of Philosophies_,
and another, the most celebrated, is _The Resuscitation of Religious
Sciences_ (F. J. Arbuthnot, _A Manual of Arabian History and
Literature_, London, 1890). These authors are again referred to in a
subsequent chapter. I am not able to judge the propriety of Sleeman's
enthusiastic praise.

11. The gentleman referred to was Mr. John Wilton, who was appointed
to the service in 1775.

12. The cantonments at Dinapore (properly Danapur) are ten miles
distant from the great city of Patna.

13. The rupee was worth more than two shillings in 1810. The
remuneration of high officials by commission has been long abolished.

14. There used to be two opium agents, one at Patna, and the other at
Ghazipur, who administered the Opium Department under the control of
the Board of Revenue in Calcutta. In deference to the demands of the
Chinese Government and of public opinion in England, the Agency at
Ghazipur has been closed, and the Government of India is withdrawing
gradually from the opium trade. Such lucrative sinecures as those
described in the text have long ceased to exist.

15. These Persian words would not now be used in orders to servants.

16. This officer was Sir Joseph O'Halloran, K.C.B., attached to the
18th Regiment, N.I. He became a Lieutenant-Colonel on June 4, 1814,
and Major-General on January 10, 1837. He is mentioned in
_Ramaseeana_ (p 59) as Brigadier-General commanding the Sagar
Division.

17. The King's demand was improper and illegal. The Muhammadan law,
like the Jewish (Leviticus xviii, 18), prohibits a man from being
married to two sisters at once. 'Ye are also forbidden to take to
wife two sisters; except what is already past: for God is gracious
and merciful' (_Koran_, chap. iv). Compare the ruling in 'Mishkat-ul-
Masabih', Book XIII, chap. v, Part II (Matthews, vol. ii, p. 94).

18. The colonel's son has succeeded to his father's estates, and he
and his wife are, I believe, very happy together. [W. H. S.] Such an
incident would, of course, be now inconceivable. The family name is
also spelled Gardner. The romantic history of the Gardners is
summarized in the appendix to _A Particular Account of the European
Military Adventures of Hindustan, from 1784 to 1803_; compiled by
Herbert Compton: London, 1892.

19. _Ante_, Chapter 53 text between [2] and [3].

20. Kasganj, the residence of Colonel Gardner, is in the Etah
district of the United Provinces. In 1911 the population was 16,429.

CHAPTER 54

Fathpur-Sikri--The Emperor Akbar's Pilgrimage--Birth of Jahangir.

On the 6th January we left Agra, which soon after became the
residence of the Governor of the North-Western Provinces, Sir Charles
Metcalfe.[1] It was, when I was there, the residence of a civil
commissioner, a judge, a magistrate, a collector of land revenue, a
collector of customs, and all their assistants and establishments. A
brigadier commands the station, which contained a park of artillery,
one regiment of European and four regiments of native infantry.[2]

Near the artillery practice-ground, we passed the tomb of Jodh Bai,
the wife of the Emperor Akbar, and the mother of Jahangir. She was of
Rajput caste, daughter of the Hindoo chief of Jodhpur, a very
beautiful, and, it is said, a very amiable woman.[3] The Mogul
Emperors, though Muhammadans, were then in the habit of taking their
wives from among the Rajput princes of the country, with a view to
secure their allegiance. The tomb itself is in ruins, having only
part of the dome standing, and the walls and magnificent gateway that
at one time surrounded it have been all taken away and sold by a
thrifty Government, or appropriated to purposes of more practical
utility.[4]

I have heard many Muhammadans say that they could trace the decline
of their empire in Hindustan to the loss of the Rajput blood in the
veins of their princes.[5] 'Better blood' than that of the Rajputs of
India certainly never flowed in the veins of any human beings; or,
what is the same thing, no blood was ever believed to be finer by the
people themselves and those they had to deal with. The difference is
all in the imagination, and the imagination is all-powerful with
nations as with individuals. The Britons thought their blood the
finest in the world till they were conquered by the Romans, the
Picts, the Scots, and the Saxons. The Saxons thought theirs the
finest in the world till they were conquered by the Danes and the
Normans. This is the history of the human race. The quality of the
blood of a whole people has depended often upon the fate of a battle,
which in the ancient world doomed the vanquished to the hammer; and
the hammer changed the blood of those sold by it from generation to
generation. How many Norman robbers got their blood ennobled, and how
many Saxon nobles got theirs plebeianized by the Battle of Hastings;
and how difficult it would be for any of us to say from which we
descended--the Britons or the Saxons, the Danes or the Normans; or in
what particular action our ancestors were the victors or the
vanquished, and became ennobled or plebeianized by the thousand
accidents which influence the fate of battles. A series of successful
aggressions upon their neighbours will commonly give a nation a
notion that they are superior in courage; and pride will make them
attribute this superiority to blood--that is, to an old date. This
was, perhaps, never more exemplified than in the case of the Gurkhas
of Nepal, a small diminutive race of men not unlike the Huns, but
certainly as brave as any men can possibly be. A Gurkha thought
himself equal to any four other men of the hills, though they were
all much stronger; just as a Dane thought himself equal to four
Saxons at one time in Britain. The other men of the hills began to
think that he really was so, and could not stand before him.[6]

We passed many wells from which the people were watering their
fields, and found those which yielded a brackish water were
considered to be much more valuable for irrigation than those which
yielded sweet water. It is the same in the valley of the Nerbudda,
but brackish water does not suit some soils and some crops. On the
8th we reached Fathpur Sikri, which lies about twenty-four miles from
Agra, and stands upon the back of a narrow range of sandstone hills,
rising abruptly from the alluvial plains to the highest, about one
hundred feet, and extends three miles north-north-east and south-
south-west. This place owes its celebrity to a Muhammadan saint, the
Shaikh Salim of Chisht, a town in Persia, who owed his to the
following circumstance:

The Emperor Akbar's sons had all died in infancy, and he made a
pilgrimage to the shrine of the celebrated Muin-ud-din of Chisht, at
Ajmer. He and his family went all the way on foot at the rate of
three 'kos', or four miles, a day, a distance of about three hundred
and fifty miles. 'Kanats', or cloth walls, were raised on each side
of the road, carpets spread over it, and high towers of burnt bricks
erected at every stage, to mark the places where he rested. On
reaching the shrine he made a supplication to the saint, who at night
appeared to him in his sleep, and recommended him to go and entreat
the intercession of a very holy old man, who lived a secluded life
upon the top of the little range of hills at Sikri. He went
accordingly, and was assured by the old man, then ninety-six years of
age, that the Empress Jodh Bai, the daughter of a Hindoo prince,
would be delivered of a son, who would live to a good old age. She
was then pregnant, and remained in the vicinity of the old man's
hermitage till her confinement, which took place 31st of August,
1569. The infant was called after the hermit, Mirza Salim, and became
in time Emperor of Hindostan, under the name of Jahangir.[7] It was
to this Emperor Jahangir that Sir Thomas Roe, the ambassador, was
sent from the English Court.[8] Akbar, in order to secure to himself,
his family, and his people, the advantage of the continued
intercessions of so holy a man, took up his residence at Sikri, and
covered the hill with magnificent buildings for himself, his
courtiers, and his public establishments.[9]

The quadrangle, which contains the mosque on the west side, and tomb
of the old hermit in the centre, was completed in the year 1578, six
years before his death; and is, perhaps, one of the finest in the
world. It is five hundred and seventy-five feet square, and
surrounded by a high wall, with a magnificent cloister all around
within.[10] On the outside is a magnificent gateway, at the top of a
noble flight of steps twenty-four feet high. The whole gateway is one
hundred and twenty feet in height, and the same in breadth, and
presents beyond the wall five sides of an octagon, of which the front
face is eighty feet wide. The arch in the centre of this space is
sixty feet high by forty wide.[11] This gateway is no doubt extremely
grand and beautiful; but what strikes one most is the disproportion
between the thing wanted and the thing provided--there seems to be
something quite preposterous in forming so enormous an entrance for a
poor diminutive man to walk through--and walk he must, unless carried
through on men's shoulders; for neither elephant, horse, nor bullock
could ascend over the flight of steps. In all these places the
staircases, on the contrary, are as disproportionately small; they
look as if they were made for rats to crawl through, while the
gateways seem as if they were made for ships to sail under.[12] One
of the most interesting sights was the immense swarms of swallows
flying round the thick bed of nests that occupy the apex of this
arch, and, to the spectators below, they look precisely like swarm of
bees round a large honeycomb. I quoted a passage in the Koran in
praise of the swallows, and asked the guardians of the place whether
they did not think themselves happy in having such swarms of sacred
birds over their heads all day long. 'Not at all,' said they; 'they
oblige us to sweep the gateway ten times a day; but there is no
getting at their nests, or we should soon get rid of them.' They then
told me that the sacred bird of the Koran was the 'ababil', or large
black swallow, and not the 'partadil', a little piebald thing of no
religious merit whatever.[13] On the right side of the entrance is
engraven on stone in large letters, standing out in bas-relief, the
following passage in Arabic: 'Jesus, on whom be peace, has said, "The
word is merely a bridge; you are to pass over it, and not to build
your dwellings upon it".' Where this saying of Christ is to be found
I know not, nor has any Muhammadan yet been able to tell me; but the
quoting of such a passage, in such a place, is a proof of the absence
of all bigotry on the part of Akbar.[14]

The tomb of Shaikh Salim, the hermit, is a very beautiful little
building, in the centre of the quadrangle.[15] The man who guards it
told me that the Jats, while they reigned, robbed this tomb, as well
as those at Agra, of some of the most beautiful and valuable portion
of the mosaic work.[16] 'But,' said he, 'they were well plundered in
their turn by your troops at Bharatpur; retribution always follows
the wicked sooner or later.'[17] He showed us the little roof of
stone tiles, close to the original little dingy mosque of the old
hermit, where the Empress gave birth to Jahangir;[18] and told us
that she was a very sensible woman, whose counsels had great weight
with the Emperor.[19] 'His majesty's only fault was', he said, 'an
inclination to learn the art of magic, which was taught him by an old
Hindoo religious mendicant,' whose apartment near the palace he
pointed out to us.

'Fortunately,' said our cicerone, 'the fellow died before the Emperor
had learnt enough to practise the art without his aid.'

Shaikh Salim had, he declared, gone more than twenty times on
pilgrimage to the tomb of the holy prophet; and was not much pleased
to have his repose so much disturbed by the noise and bustle of the
imperial court. At last, Akbar wanted to surround the hill with
regular fortifications, and the Shaikh could stand it no longer.[20]
'Either you or I must leave this hill,' said he to the Emperor; 'if
the efficacy of my prayers is no longer to be relied upon, let me
depart in peace.' 'If it be _your majesty's_ will,' replied the
Emperor, 'that one should go, let it be your slave, I pray.' The old
story: 'There is nothing like relying upon the efficacy of our
prayers,' say the priests, 'Nothing like relying upon that of our
sharp swords,' say the soldiers; and, as nations advance from
barbarism, they generally contrive to divide between them the surplus
produce of the land and labour of society.

The old hermit consented to remain, and pointed out Agra as a place
which he thought would answer the Emperor's purpose extremely well.
Agra, then an unpeopled waste, soon became a city, and Fathpur-Sikri
was deserted.[21] Cities which, like this, are maintained by the
public establishments that attend and surround the courts of
sovereign princes, must always, like this, become deserted when these
sovereigns change their resting-places. To the history of the rise
and progress, decline and fall, of how many cities is this the key?

Close to the tomb of the saint is another containing the remains of a
great number of his descendants, who continue to enjoy, under the
successors of Akbar, large grants of rent-free lands for their own
support, and for that of the mosque and mausoleum. These grants have,
by degrees, been nearly all resumed;[22] and, as the repair of the
buildings is now entrusted to the public officers of our government,
the surviving members of the saint's family, who still reside among
the ruins, are extremely poor. What strikes a European most in going
over these palaces of the Moghal Emperors is the want of what a
gentleman of fortune in his own country would consider elegantly
comfortable accommodations. Five hundred pounds a year would at the
present day secure him more of this in any civilized country of
Europe or America than the greatest of those Emperors could command.
He would, perhaps, have the same impression in going over the
domestic architecture of the most civilized nations of the ancient
world, Persia and Egypt, Greece and Rome.[23]

Notes:

1. The Act of 1833 (3 & 4 William IV, c. 85), which reconstituted the
government of India, provided that the upper Provinces should be
formed into a separate Presidency under the name of Agra, and Sir
Charles Metcalfe was nominated as the first Governor. On
reconsideration, this arrangement was modified, and instead of the
Presidency of Agra, the Lieutenant-Governorship of the North-Western
Provinces was formed, with head-quarters at Agra. Sir C. Metcalfe
became Lieutenant-Governor in 1836, but held the office for a short
time only, until January, 1838, when Lord Auckland, the Governor-
General, took over temporary charge. The seat of the Local Government
was moved to Allahabad in 1868. From 1877 the Lieutenant-Governor of
the North-Western Provinces was also Chief Commissioner of Oudh. The
name North-Western Provinces, which had become unsuitable and
misleading since the annexation of the Panjab in 1849, could not be
retained after the formation of the North-West Frontier Province in
1902. Accordingly, from that year the combined jurisdiction of the
North-Western Provinces and Oudh received the new official name of
the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh. The title of Chief
Commissioner of Oudh was dropped at the same time, but the legal
System and administration of the old kingdom of Oudh continued to be
distinct in certain respects.

2. The civil establishment and garrison are still nearly the same as
in the author's time. The inland customs department is now concerned
only with the restrictions on the manufacture of salt. The offices of
district magistrate and collector of land revenue have long been
combined in a single officer.

3. Akbar married the daughter of Bihari Mal, chief of Jaipur, in A.D.
1562. There is little doubt that she, _Mariam-uz-Zamani_, was the
mother of Jahangir. See Blochmann, transl. _Ain_, vol. i, p. 619. Mr.
Beveridge has given up the opinion which he formerly advocated in
_J.A.S.B._, vol. lvi (1887), Part I, pp. 164-7.

The Jodhpur princess was given the posthumous title of 'Mariam-uz-
Zamani', or 'Mary of the age', which circumstance probably originated
the belief that Akbar had one Christian queen. Her tomb at Sikandara
is locally known simply as Rauza Maryam, 'the mausoleum of Mary', a
designation which has had much to do with the persistence of the
erroneous belief in the existence of a Christian consort of Akbar.
Mr. Beveridge holds, and I think rightly, that Jodh Bai is not a
proper name. It seems to mean merely 'princess of Jodhpur'. The only
lady really known as Jodh Bai was the daughter of Udai Singh (Moth
Raja) of Jaipur, who became a consort of Jahangir. Sleeman's notion
that Jahangir's mother also was called Jodh Bai is mistaken
(Blochmann, _ut supra_).

4. It was blown up about 1832 by order of the Government, and the
materials of the gates, walls, and outer towns were used for the
building of barracks. But the mausoleum itself resisted the spoiler
and remained 'a huge shapeless heap of massive fragments of masonry'.
The building consisted of a square room raised on a platform with a
vault below. The marble tomb or cenotaph of the queen still exists in
the vault. A fine gateway formerly stood at the entrance to the
enclosure, and there was a small mosque to the west of the tomb
(_A.S.R._ vol. iv. (1874), p. 121: Muh. Latif, _Agra_, p. 192). It is
painful to be obliged to record so many instances of vandalism
committed by English officials. This tomb is the memorial of Jodh
Bai, daughter of Udai Singh, _alias_ Moth Raja, who was married to
Jahangir in A.D. 1585, and was the mother of Shah Jahan. Her personal
names were Jagat Goshaini and Balmati. She died in A.D. 1619. Akbar's
queen, Maryam-uz-Zamani, daughter of Raja Bihari Mall of Jaipur
(Amber), who died in A.D. 1623, is buried at Sikandra. (See Beale,
s.v. 'Jodh Bai' and 'Mariam Zamani'; Blochmann, transl. _Ain_, pp.
429, 619.) The tomb of Maryam-uz-Zamani has been purchased by
Government from the missionaries, who had used it as a school, and
has been restored. (_Ann. Rep. A.S., India_, 1910-11, pp. 92-6.)

5. Although it may be admitted that the Rajput strain of blood
improved the constitution of the royal family of Delhi, the decline
and fall of the Timuride dynasty cannot be truly ascribed to 'the
loss of the Rajput blood in the veins' of the ruling princes. The
empire was tottering to its fall long before the death of Aurangzeb,
who 'had himself married two Hindoo wives; and he wedded his son
Muazzam (afterwards the Emperor Bahadur) to a Hindoo princess, as his
forefathers had done before him'. (Lane-Poole, _The History of the
Moghul Emperors of Hindustan illustrated by their Coins_, p. xviii. )
The wonder is, not that the empire of Delhi fell, but that it lasted
so long.

6. When the author wrote the above remarks, Englishmen knew the
gallant Gurkhas as enemies only; they now know them as worthy and
equal brethren in arms. The recruitment of Gurkhas for the British
service began in 1838. The spelling 'Gorkha' is more accurate.

7. The 'kos' varies much in value, but in most parts of the United
Provinces it is reckoned as equal to two miles. According to the
_N.W.P. Gazetteer_ (p. 568), the nearest approximate value for the
Agra kos is 1 3/4 mile. Three kos would, therefore, be equal to about
5 1/4 miles. Muin-ud-din died in A.D. 1236. Sleeman, on I know not
what authority, represents Akbar as resorting to Salim Chishti,
Shaikh of Fathpur-Sikri, on the advice given by a vision accorded at
Ajmer. The _Tabaqat-i-Akbari_ simply records that Akbar had visited
the Shaikh, the 'very holy old man' of Sleeman, several times, and
had obtained the promise of a son. That promise was fulfilled by the
birth of the princes Salim and Murad, who both saw the light at
Fathpur-Sikri. The pilgrimage of Akbar on foot to Ajmer, which began
on Friday, Shaban (8th month) 12, A.H. 977, took place _after_ the
birth of Prince Salim, which occurred on the 18th of Rabi-ul-auwwal
(3rd month) of the same Hijri year. Akbar travelled at the rate of 7
or 8 _kos_ a day, and spent about 25 days on the journey (E. & D. v.
333, 334). If he had moved at the rate stated by Sleeman he would
have been nearly three months on the road. He reached Ajmer about the
middle of February (N.S.). Shaikh Salim Chishti died in A.D. 1572 (A.
H. 979) aged 96 lunar years.

8. Sir Thomas Roe was sent out by James I, and arrived at Jahangir's
court in January, 1616. He remained there till 1618, and secured for
his countrymen the privilege of trading at Surat. The best edition of
his book is that by Mr. William Foster (Hakluyt Soc., 1899).

9. Fathpur-Sikri is fully described and illustrated in the late Mr.
E. W. Smith's fine work in quarto entitled _The Moghul Architecture
of Fathpur-Sikri_ (4 Parts, Allahabad Govt. Press, 1894-8), which
supersedes all other writings on the subject. The double name of the
town means 'Fathpur at Sikri' according to a familiar Indian
practice. The name Fathpur ('City of Victory') was bestowed in A.D.
1573 to commemorate the glorious campaign in Gujarat, but building on
the site had been begun in 1569. The historians usually call the town
simply Fathpur, which name also is found on the coinage, from
probably A.H. 977 (A.D. 1569-70). The mint was not in regular working
order until eight years later (A.H. 985). Coins continued to be
struck regularly at Fathpur until A.H. 989 (A.D. 1581-2). Akbar
abandoned his costly foundation a little later. The only coin from
the Fathpur mint of subsequent date is one of the first year of
Shahjahan (Wright, _Catalogue of Coins in Indian Museum, Mughal
Emperors_, 1908, p. xlvii). But Rodgers believed in the genuineness
of a zodiacal gold coin of Jahangir purporting to be struck at
Fathpur (_J.A.S.B._, vol. lvii (1888), Part I, p. 26).