ployed by him as its nurse; and to his kindness her family was indebted for an introduction to the court of Akbar. Here the father and eldest son soon rose into notice; and the mother had free access to the háram of Akbar, where the young and beautiful girl saw and captivated Jahángír, then Prince Salím. To remove her from the Prince's sight she was, by Akbar's advice, married to Sher Afkan, a young Persian, who was made governor of Burdwán.

When Jahángír became emperor he suggested to Kutbud-dín, Viceroy of Bengal, that he should induce Núr Jahán's husband to divorce her. Her husband refused; and in the quarrel that ensued both the Viceroy and Sher Afkan were killed. Núr Jahán was sent to Delhi; but she, looking upon the emperor as the murderer of her husband, rejected his overtures with disdain. After a length of time, however, a reconciliation took place, and Núr Jahán became Empress of India. Her name was put on the coinage with the Emperor's. Her influence was unbounded. Her father was made prime minister; and her brother, Asaf Khán, was given a very high appointment. They used their power well; and though Jahángír still indulged in nightly drunken debauches, the affairs of the kingdom were henceforth managed with prudence and humanity.

The year 1615 was marked by the arrival of a grand embassy from James I., King of England, to the Emperor Jahángír. Sir Thomas Roe was the ambassador, and he was received with great honour, being assigned the highest place at court at all public ceremonies. By his influence the English trade with India was encouraged. We shall see in a future chapter that the Portuguese had already established themselves in the country; and from this time the European settlements in India rapidly grew in importance.

The intrigues of the Empress Núr Jahán to insure the succession of Prince Shahryár, Jahángír's youngest son (who had married the daughter she had borne to Sher Afkan, her first husband) drove Sháh Jahán (the third son

of the emperor) into rebellion. Sháh Jahán had greatly distinguished himself in many wars, and he now succeeded in making himself supreme in Bengal for two years. He subsequently submitted to his father.

Mahábat Khán, a famous general, had been brought to Delhi from his government of Kábul, by Núr Jahán, who hoped that he would aid her in carrying out her wishes in opposition to Shah Jahán. He did so at first, and the reputation which he won in the campaigns in the Deccan made him the most eminent man in the empire, except perhaps the queen's own brother, Asaf Khan. But he became a friend and partisan of Prince Parwíz, whom Nur Jahán hated as much as Sháh Jahán, and thus he incurred the bitter hostility of the Queen.

Mahábat was summoned to join the Emperor, as the latter was marching with his army towards Kábul. He came, attended by 5,000 Rájput horsemen devoted to his service; but on his arrival was told that he could not see the emperor. Seeing that his disgrace was resolved on, he determined to avert it by a stroke of unparalleled audacity. He waited until the emperor's troops had crossed the Jhelam, and when Jahángír himself was about to follow he suddenly secured the passage of the river with a part of his Rajputs, whilst with the rest he seized the emperor's person. Núr Jahán strove in vain to liberate her husband, and at length resolved to share his captivity. She narrowly escaped being put to death by the victor. Mahábat was now supreme, and retained his power for nearly a year. Núr Jahán at length succeeded in effecting the escape of the emperor, and Mahábat was compelled to fly to the south, where he joined Shah Jahán.

Sháh Jahán soon after this succeeded his father as emperor, and he ordered Núr Jahán to lead a strictly secluded life, but generously allowed her a magnificent income. This generosity, however, was marred by the fact that he slew his brother Shahryár and every male of the race of Bábar.

§ 3. Shah Jahán. -A formidable rebellion of the Súbahdar (governor of the súbah or province) of the Deccan, who was called Khán Jahán Lodí, was suppressed in 1630. A large part of Sháh Jahán's reign was occupied by incessant wars in the Deccan, conducted at first by himself and his generals, and latterly by his sons, especially the great Aurangzeb, who was the third son.

crores.

Shah Jahan will always be famous for the splendour of his buildings and other public works, and for the magnificence of his court, with the glorious 'peacock throne,' covered over with precious gems, and worth six and a half He built the Taj Mahall at Agra, as the mausoleum of his queen, Mumtáz Mahall; it is made of pure white marble, decorated with mosaic-work of many-coloured precious stones, and is in solemn grandeur unsurpassed by any building in the world. Besides the peacock throne Sháh Jahán left vast treasures, including no less than twenty-four crores of rupees in coin alone.

He was on the whole a good and just ruler. He never remitted his vigilance over the administration; and in this way, and by a judicious selection of his ministers, he secured the prosperity of his dominions, which enjoyed almost uninterrupted tranquillity during his reign.

§ 4. Aurangzeb.—Aurangzeb had two elder brothers, named Dárá and Shujá, and one younger, named Murád. In 1657 the illness of Sháh Jahán became known to the brothers, although Dárá, who was at Agra, endeavoured to conceal it; and they all immediately made preparations to seize the throne. Aurangzeb at last managed, by the most shameful duplicity and unnatural cruelty, to defeat and kill or drive away all his brothers and their families in succession (1658); and he kept his father, old Sháh Jahán, in prison until his death in 1666.

Mír Júmlah was a great general, to whose aid Aurangzeb was much indebted for his success against his brothers; so he was made Governor of Bengal in succession to the Prince Shujá, whom he had driven into Arakán. Shujá

and all his family miserably perished in Arakán; and Mír Júmlah, after a great campaign, in which he overran Koch Bihár and Assam, died at Dacca.

Aurangzeb was incessantly at war in the Deccan, either fighting with the Mahratta Sivaji (see Chap. XVI.), or engaged in the conquest of Bíjápur and Golkondah, as narrated in § 1. He also had to encounter some serious insurrections of the Rájputs (see Chap. XIII. § 6), towards whom, as towards all his Hindu subjects, he displayed the most furious intolerance and bigotry.

NOTE.-Amongst other acts of bigotry Aurangzeb revived the Jiziah, which had been abolished by Akbar. The Jiziah was a polltax, levied on every person who was not a Muhammadan. It had been an instrument of great oppression by some of the Pathán Sultáns, and was detested by all Hindus.

In the course of one of these Rájput rebellions his favourite son, Prince Akbar, joined the rebels, and endeavoured to seize the Mughul throne; but Aurangzeb, though a very old man, successfully met this new danger, and the young Akbar ultimately died as an exile in Persia.

During this reign the English and French settlements (as we shall see in Chap. XVIII.) were rapidly rising into importance.

Under Aurangzeb the Mughul power attained its greatest splendour and its widest extension; by the time of his death it was rapidly falling into decay. Pure and even austere in his private life, and a rigid Muhammadan, he is generally regarded by Musalmán historians as the greatest of the Mughul dynasty-greater even than Akbar. In general ability, in resolution, in energy he was fully Akbar's equal. Like that illustrious monarch, he was just and laborious; but in almost every other respect his character is almost the reverse of that of Akbar. Both were masters of policy; but Aurangzeb always preferred a crooked policy-to attain his ends by stratagem or trickery. Akbar was perfectly liberal and tolerant, generous to all men, and specially merciful to a fallen enemy; Aurangzeb

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE MUGHUL EMPIRE. 221

was a bigot and a persecutor, suspicious of all men, cruel to the conquered, and ready to avail himself of every mean advantage. His universal mistrust destroyed his own happiness, impaired the success of every undertaking, and undermined the empire. His heir Muazzam once incurred his unjust suspicions, and was imprisoned for six years, from 1687 to 1694. The contrast between the characters of Akbar and Aurangzeb is best exhibited by their treatment of the Hindus, and specially of the Rájputs. We have seen that Akbar converted the Rájputs from enemies into the most loyal supporters of his throne, whilst Aurangzeb caused them to detest him. He even made it difficult to carry on the administration of the empire, by ordering that no Hindus should be employed as public servants; and he insisted on exacting the jiziah not only in Hindustan, but even in the Deccan. The consequence of all this was that most of his Hindu subjects were in heart allies of the Mahrattas; and to this cause may be ascribed, mainly, the rapid decay of the empire.

CHAPTER XV.

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE MUGHUL EMPIRE.

§ 1. The Successors of Aurangzeb. § 2. The Sikhs. § 3. The Provinces become independent of Delhi. § 4. The Invasion of Nádir Sháh, the Persian. § 5. The Invasions of Ahmad Shah Abdálí, the Afghán. § 6. Shah Alam II. and the last of the family of Timúr.

§ 1. The Successors of Aurangzeb.-At the death of Aurangzeb there was the usual contest amongst his sons; and finally the eldest, Muazzam, slew his two brothers, and succeeded to the throne with the title of Bahádúr Sháh.

He reigned six years. He owed his success mainly to a powerful nobleman named Zulfikár Khán; and the same nobleman also secured the succession of the next emperor, Jahándár Sháh, who obtained the throne on the death of Bahádúr. Zulfikár was the vazír of the Emperor Jahándár