1 158 HISTORY OF THE PANJAR.
2 Jahén Begum, the sole consolation of her royal husband. For myself I
3 want nothing more than a pound of meat and two pints of wine.” In
4 another place Jahdngir says, “ My wife has wit enough in her little finger to
5 rule the whole kingdom without my troubling my head about it.” For
6 twenty years Ndr Jahén held this despotic monarch under her sway. For
7 her sake the emperor even consented to dispense with a custom strictly ob-
8 served by the Mussalmdns. Sir Thomas Roe, who was sent to India as
9 ambassador by the king of England, mentions that Jahdngir used to drive
10 in the streets of Agra with Nur Jahdn, unveiled, in a bullock cart, drawn
11 by small oxen called gahnis. :
12 Both eastern and western writers bestow high encomiums on Nur Jahan.
13 Her highaccomplish- Ghe was undoubtedly the most accomplished woman of her age. According
14 ments.
15 to oriental writers, she was an asylum for the oppressed and a fountain of
16 high virtues and goodness.
17 The queen readily bestowed dowries on the daughters of such poor
18 parents as chose to beg for them, and, it is said, that, in this way, her bounty
19 enabled five hundred girls to get married. ae
20 The court of Jahdngir owed many reforms to her good sense and judg-
21 ment. Under her excellent management, it not only became more magni-
22 She contrives many ficent and decorous, but was maintained with greater economy than before.
23 improvements.
24 Her taste and skill were manifested chiefly in reforming the ladies’ dresses,
25 in which she introduced many improvements more becoming than any
26 before hertime. She was the author of the modern bodice and inner shirt,
27 and contrived many articles of female dress which are in use to this day.
28 She also contrived improvements in the furniture of apartments. She planned
29 public edifices and gardens, from the produce of which she is said to have
30 first extracted the attar (“ otto,” properly if) of roses. By her orders many
31 cities were embellished with fine mosques, pleasant gardens, sarais, reservoirs
32 and fountains, most of which stand to this day, a monument of her public
33 spirit and artistic genius. Her private rooms, and her balcony, with its
34 white marble pillars, still stand in the castle of Agra.
35 She was a good rider and well skilled in hunting. Seated on an elephant,
36 opt ety in she once shot four tigers with her own hand. Of her dexterity in the sports
37 of the field a poet has thus humorously written :—
38 ea} Wy} plas && 5f larg
39 ee} SST to Wj who yo 5078
40 ‘Although Nur Jahan is a woman in appearance, yet in the ranks of men she is a woman
41 who can destroy a lion (Zan-i-Sher* Afgan).”
42 Her facili S i i _! . .
43 hottie She was herself skilled in poetry, and one of the causes of her having
44 Verses.
45 charmed Jahdngir is said to have been the promptitude with which she
46 composed extempore verses. She composed excellent Persian poems and
47 wrote, like Salema Sultan Begum and Zibun Nisa Begum, under the
48 assumed name of Makhf. She was ready-witted and good at repartee.
49 On one occasion N&r Jahdén happening to be by when the emperor saw the
50 new moon, his majesty looking at her said :—
51 od Jorge EUS T sly dA Silo
52 The new moon has appeared high up in the sky.”
53 Nur Jahan forthwith replied :—
54 3 TOR Og! aan al srkio Sas
55 Tt is the key of the cellar which was lost and has been found.”
56 * If the word ‘zan’ (slayer) here used be interpreted ‘ wife,’ the expression ‘ Zan-i-Sher
57 Afgan,’ which also means lion-slayer, would mean wife of Sher Afgan. The anthor has in this
58 Sri Satguru fagit GAgN H @EIPANE® Crsinally theyyeite ah Sh IARY@ gmail.com