Jx..d:l URN 7 "Q £ ' I IAVIN T:iv;uio 4 IT’G/t'. THE ORIENTAL ANNUAL. e*--, T r\ A i LIVES OF THE MOGHUL EMPERORS, BY THE REV. HOBART CAUNTER, B.D. WITH TWENTY-TWO ENGRAVINGS FROM DRAWINGS BY WILLIAM DANIELL, R.A. LONDON : PUBLISHED FOR THE PROPRIETOR, BY CHARLES TILT, 86, FLEET STREET. 1837. LONDON : PRINTED BY SAMUEL BENTLEY, Dorset Street, Fleet Street. TO THE PRESIDENT AND COUNCIL OF THE ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY, THIS VOLUME IS DEDICATED, BY THEIR HUMBLE AND OBEDIENT SERVANT, THE AUTHOR. PREFACE. This volume being the commencement of a new series, I am anxious to say a few words with refer- ence to the motive which directed my present choice. Little is commonly known of the Mohammedan history of India, and this because the means of information are not readily accessible to the general reader. It therefore occurred to me, that a series of volumes em- bracing a portion of history with which, though ex- tremely interesting, the large majority of persons are not familiar, would be opening a new source of know- ledge, agreeable to many in search of information as well as amusement. The volumes of the Oriental Annual already pub- lished are better calculated, upon the whole, to amuse than instruct ; at the same time, they were intended to convey that sort of instruction to be derived from an VI PREFACE. acquaintance with the manners, customs and habits, the literature, arts and social condition of that country to the description of which they are confined. In the present series, if there shall be found less to entertain, there will, I trust, be more to instruct, and a fair balance of advantage in the reader s favour be there- by struck. In saying this, I am not vain enough to imagine that I have done justice to the subject, far from it ; but although sensible that in abler hands it might have been made full of high and stirring interest, I trust I may be allowed to say, that I have collected information from a variety of sources not open to general readers, and that, with all its de- ficiencies, the volume will contain the results of much painful and laborious research. I might have pro- duced an apparently learned work at less cost of ex- ertion,— for the mask of learning is easily assumed ; but my purpose has been rather to be understood by unlearned readers, than to challenge the higher and more fastidious reading of learned men. In writing these lives, it has been my aim to con- vey all the information in my power, without en- cumbering the text with dry details, or embarrassing it by multiplying the names of persons and places ; PREFACE. Vll I have, therefore, endeavoured to divest the subject of much of its natural perplexity and dryness, in order to render it intelligible to the many, and not a sealed book accessible only to the few. It must necessarily happen that the lives of men whose days have been devoted to conquests, will afford less variety than the lives of those whose existence has been distinguished by a more diversified field of action, and a more varied tenour of circumstances: for the conqueror, however extended the sphere of his opera- tions, is always, so to speak, in the same element, and discloses therefore, at all times, pretty nearly the same, or at least similar, moral features under every aspect of his career. Nevertheless, there is much to arrest the reflections of thinking men, in viewing the issues resulting from the ambition of heroes, whose in- satiable thirst for glory causes them to look upon the ruin of countries and the subversion of empires with a bounding heart and a sparkling eye. Their actions are often the embryos of great moral revolutions : — this might be strikingly illustrated by the Mohammedan conquest of Hindostan, if here were the place to pur- sue such an inquiry. There will, in truth, be found much salutary food Vlll PREFACE. for mental digestion,, when we look at the strange re- volutions often produced by the mere blind passions of men. A lesson is read well worth our study, when we trace the remote results of causes where there has appeared scarcely any relation between the cause and the effect. We take a far profounder insight into the almost infinitely diversified field of human actions and of human motives, and peer with a surer scrutiny into the mystical depths which lie profoundly and darkly beneath the surface, when we examine history but as the great index of humanity, and trace through the long lapse of ages the mighty ends which past events both dark and bright — those alike which have won our ad- miration, and excited our awe — have concurred to produce. Battles and massacres are frightful things to contemplate, but their ultimate effects upon the social condition are often signal and permanent. Society, under certain modifications, assumes at times its tone and aspect from circumstances, that, in them- selves, simply considered, present the most repelling features with which the passions or vices of men can invest them. As from the ashes which strew the forest that has been desolated by fire, a fresher and more exuberant growth arises, so from the devastation PREFACE, IX of war new societies frequently spring, which add order and harmony to the civil and moral world. Destruction is everywhere the precursor of fecundity, and confusion of order. Thus we trace amid the va- rious phases of circumstance, grand issues produced by an Almighty and providential agency, not seen or contemplated in the embryo, which nevertheless spring out of the darkest and most unpromising events. The first conquest of Hindostan by Timur Beg, and its final conquest by Baber, have led to results perhaps yet to be consummated, but which appear rapidly advancing towards their climax. Those conquests presented new views to the sovereigns of the west ; spread before them a new field of enterprise, and prepared the way to the subjugation of India by the arms of a Christian people, by which it is to be hoped that the faith of Christ will finally prevail throughout those vast regions of the East, containing upwards of two hundred mil- lions of our fellow-creatures, principally idolaters. I am requested by Mr. Daniell to state, that the views in Boutan, engraved in the present volume, were made from sketches by the late Samuel Davis, X PREFACE. Esq. who visited Boutan, in 1783. Mr. Davis was an accomplished draughtsman, with whom Mr. Daniell was personally acquainted, and can therefore answer for the accuracy and fidelity with which the sketches were made. ENGRAVINGS FROM Hratotng# BY WILLIAM DANIELL, ESQ. R.A. SULTAN BABER (Frontispiece.) THE FAN-LEAF PALM (Vignette Title.) CROSSING A TORRENT IN BOOTAN . . . Page 9 THE ALLIGATOR AND OX . . . .18 A MOGUL TROOPER 29 THE HUNTING CHEETAH 39 CAPTA CASTLE, BOOTAN 51 NEAR BUXADUWAR, BOOTAN . . . .54 A MOHAMMEDAN FAKEER 69 VIEW NEAR WANDEPORE 91 MAUSOLEUM OF TOGHLUK SHAH . . • .95 PALACE AT TACISSUDON, BOOTAN . . .105 THE PALACE AT WANDECHY, BOOTAN . . .121 THE FIRE-PHEASANT OF JAVA . . . .145 STATE PRISON AT DELHI 160 A MOHAMMEDAN AT PRAYERS . . . .169 PAT AN TOMB AT TOGHLUKABAD, OLD DELHI . .175 BRIDGE AT OLD DELHI 182 BOATS ON THE GANGES . . . . .198 SHAHJEHANABAD . .... 208 THE NORTH GATE, OLD DELHI . . . .212 THE BORE RUSHING UP THE HOOGLEY . . .224 LIVES OF THE MOGHUL EMPERORS. TIMUR BEG. CHAPTER I. a.d. 1336 — 1354. Perhaps there is no character in history which has been represented under such various aspects of high moral excellence, and of extreme moral deformity, as that of Timur Beg, Emperor of the Moghuls, more com- monly known to European readers under the name of Tamerlane. It is a difficult thing to trace the true lineaments of eminent persons of remote ages in the pictures given by historians ; as all who have distin- guished themselves by the splendour of their achieve- ments have their detractors as well as their admirers; it is consequently no easy matter to reach the naked truth between the wilful misrepresentations of the one and the exaggerated eulogies of the other. There is one tolerably sure guide, however, — the actions of men are an infallible test where these are brought before us in their severe and undisguised reality; but even here there are the glosses of friends and the warpings of enemies to be removed, before we can contemplate the B o LIVES OF THE MOGHUL EMPERORS. object in its simple identity, and discriminate clearly, through the obstructions gathered round it by the fo- reign adjuncts of censure or of praise. Friends conceal and enemies magnify the truth, where this is unfa- vourable ; it is therefore to be sought between the two extremes, and will generally be found by a patient and unbiassed inquirer. In considering what has been said by the writers who have treated the life of Timur Beg, it seems to me, only one conclusion can be drawn : — that he was an unrelenting man, an implacable and cruel prince. This appears even in his own Memoirs, evidently written with the design of giving to posterity a most favourable impression of his character and actions. The thin crust of palliation is too transparent to hide the dark results of ferocious passion and sanguinary ambition, which lie in black and thick masses be- neath; and the pretence to strong religious impressions is but a flimsy foil to the enormities which may be continually traced, with repelling vividness, in a life of seventy years. In fact, it may be truly said that all conquerors are tyrants, for tyranny is inseparable from the lust of dominion : it is the necessary result of conquest, as those impulses which lead to the one invariably tend to the other. In his autobiography, Timur has maintained for himself the highest principles of virtue ; but sentiments and actions are often as cardinal points in the moral hemisphere, and as opposed as they are extreme. A person may be practically wicked who is theoretically moral; and no argument can be drawn, in favour of a man’s good tendencies, from his written admiration of TIMUR BEG. 3 virtue, when his actions do not confirm the interpreta- tion of his words. It is easy to apprehend why Timur was so anxious to leave behind him a record of his principles apart from his practice, when he was probably aware that his actions would not bear a severe scrutiny. He had the penetration to discover the advantages of virtue even to sovereigns, and was no doubt desirous to impress upon his successors the necessity of putting it into constant and earnest operation, and to eradicate through them the impression of his own cruelties ; but this was not to be effected. However the de- formities of tyrants may be veiled, they cannot alto- gether escape the penetration of posterity ; for, when prepossessions and prejudices have been neutralized by the lapse of years, men will generally look with a clear and unbiassed eye, and come tolerably near the truth, though they may not be entirely free from error. I shall endeavour in the following pages to give as faithful an account of the life of this illustrious despot as my own judgment and anxiety to reach the truth will enable me to do. Having no predilections to gratify, no prejudices to overcome, I can be actuated by no motive either to misrepresent or exaggerate. Timur was bom on the twenty-fifth of Shaban, in the year of the Hegira 736, corresponding with the se- venth of May a. d. 1336. He gives a singular account of his own name : — My father related to me the fol- lowing circumstances relative to my name.