1 NOR-UD-DIN JAHANGIR. 151
2 armies, the result of which was the total defeat of Khusrow’s army and his
3 flight in the direction of Kabul. The Prince was crossing the Chindb by
4 night, when the ferry-boat in which he had embarked ran on a sand bank.
5 He was arrested by the King’s officers, who were in pursuit, and brought
6 before his majesty in the garden of Mirza Kamran, on the Ravi, handcutfed
7 - and fettered. He was led up from the left side according to the practice of
8 Changez Khan. On his right was Husain Beg, and on his left Abdul Aziz,
9 “The Prince,” writes Jahdngir in his memoirs, “stood between them, trem-
10 bling and weeping. Husain Beg, suspecting that he would be made the
11 scapegoat, began to speak sorrowfully, but he was not allowed to continue.
12 Khusrow was placed in custody. I then ordered the two villains to be
13 inclosed in the skins of a cow and an ass respectively, and to be put on
14 asses, their faces towards the tails, and to be paraded in this manner
15 round the city. Husain Beg, who was inclosed in the cow’s skin, lived only
16 to the fourth watch, as the skin of that animal dries quickly, and then died.
17 Abdul Aziz, who was in the ass’s skin, which is less affected by moisture,
18 survived a day and a night, when he died.” Sheikh Farid, in recognition of
19 his services, received the title of Mtrtazé Khan and the zemindars of the
20 Chindb, who had helped in the arrest of the rebel Prince were rewarded
21 ‘ with jégirs. Foremost among these was Kelan, son-in-law of Kamdl
22 Choudri of Lodhra, who was specially favoured by his majesty. The emperor
23 remained in the garden of Mirza Kamran from 1st Zil Hij to 9th Moharram,
24 1015 A.H. (1607 A.D.) on account, as he says, of bad weather. “On the
25 9th of Moharram,” continues the royal writer, “I entered the castle of
26 Lahore, where I took up my abode in the royal pavilion built by my father
27 on the principal tower, from which to view the combats of elephants,
28 Seated in the pavilion, and having directed a number of sharp stakes to be
29 set up in a double row, from the garden of Mirza Kamran to the gates of
30 Lahore, I caused the 700 traitors who had conspired with Khusrow against
31 my authority, to be impaled alive upon them. There cannot be a more
32 excruciating punishment than this, since the wretches lingered a long time
33 in the most agonising torture before they died, and the spectacle of their
34 agony was most frightful.” Along the ghastly avenue the wretched Prince
35 was borne on an elephant to witness the writhing and shrieking, in agony, of
36 these victims to his father’s fierce revenge and his own ambition. The
37 mother of Khusrow poisoned herself, preferring to die rather than live and see
38 the misery and affliction of her son.
39 The celebrated Guru Arjan Mal, the fourth Guru of the Sikhs, and the
40 compiler of the Adi Granth, was charged with having assisted the rebel
41 Prince Khusrow with spiritual aid. He was put in close confinement, and his
42 death is attributed to the torture to which he was subjected. Tradition,
43 however, asserts that he disappeared in the Ravi, as he plunged into the
44 water to bathe. Heis regarded by the Sikhs as their first martyred Guru,
45 and his death changed them from a peaceful to a warlike nation.
46 Intelligence having reached the emperor at Lahore that the Kazal
47 Bashis had laid siege to Kandahar, he sent a force in that direction under
48 the command of Ghézi Beg Khan. A few days afterwards, the emperor
49 himself marched to Kabul, leaving Khilj Khan, Miran Sadar Jahan and
50 Mir Sharif Amli in charge of Lahore. Having crossed the Ravi, he alight-
51 ed in the garden of Dilamez and staid there for four days. “On the
52 fifth day,” continues the emperor, “I marched from the garden to the
53 village called Harfpur, three-and-a-half kos from the city. On Tuesday
54 flags waved in Jahéngirpir, which was a hunting ground of mine. Near
55 this village I had a minaret erected over the remains of an antelope of mine
56 Sri Satguru J agjit Singh J i eLibrary _ Namdhari
57 But is defeated ané
58 captured, 1606.
59 Barbarous punish-
60 ment of Khusrow’s
61 principal advisers.
62 Rewards for good
63 services rendered.
64 The emperor's des-
65 cription of a horrible
66 scene of cruelty.
67 Punishment of Arjan
68 Mal, the fourth Seikh
69 Gurn.
70 The emperor’s march
71 to Kabul.
72 ibrary@ gmail.com