1 She is repulsed.
2 She joins the empe-
3 ror in his confinement,
4 And procures his
5 release.
6 Asif Khan created
7 viceroy of the Panjab.
8 Tiness of the em-
9 peror.
10 Tiis death, 1628
11 His burial
12 His character.
13 His person.
14 162 HISTORY OF THE PANJAB.
15 almost reached the emperor’s tent, but the Rajputs, headed by Mohdbat
16 Khan, drove back the imperialists, and gained a decisive victory, and Nur
17 Jahdn, was compelled to retreat to the strongly fortified city of Ldhore.
18 Asif Khan, the brother of Nur Jahan, was driven to Attock and compelled
19 to surrender. Ndr Jahdn, seeing no hopes of recovering the person of the
20 emperor by force, consented to join her husband in his captivity. Mohdbat
21 took the royal captive to Kabul, where he set him at liberty, being influ-
22 enced by the unwearied exertions of his devoted wife.
23 The emperor, after his deliverance, returned to Lahore, by way of Rohtas,
24 and rewarded Asif Khan for his loyal services by conferring on him the
25 viceroyalty of the Panjab and the ministership of the empire. The winter
26 being over, his majesty set off on bis annual visit to the valley of Kdshmir,
27 and celebrated the Now Roz of 11th March 1627, in his camp, on the banks
28 of the Chindb. Sometime after his arrival in the happy valley, Prince
29 Shahir Y4r was taken dangerously ill and conveyed to Lahore for the sake
30 of its warmer climate. About this time Mirza Khan, Khan-i-Khindn, son
31 of Behrém Khan, died, in the seventy-second year of his age. The emperor's
32 own health began to fail rapidly, and he had a severe attack of asthma, an old
33 complaint of his. He became so weak that he was obliged to give up horse
34 exercise, and was carried about in a palanquin. A severe attack of rheu-
35 matism supervening, he despaired of life, the despondeut expressions to
36 which he gave vent causing intense grief to all. His appetite was gone,
37 and he rejected opiuin, which he had been accustomed to take for forty
38 years. He felt inclined for nothing but a little wine. Great fears being
39 entertained for his life, an attempt was made to convey him to Léhore.
40 On reaching Berdm Killa, the pleasant hill scenery revived his love for sport.
41 He ordered a drive of deer, and himself sat on the bank of a stream, with
42 a loaded rifle ready to shoot the game as it passed before him. A deer
43 being driven to the place where the emperor was seated, his majesty fired
44 at and wounded the animal, which fell. A beater who followed it, missed
45 his footing and fell down a precipice, a mangled mass, near the emperor’s
46 feet. His majesty’s nerves were shattered by the shock. He repaired to
47 the camp, and, sending for the mother of the deceased, spoke to her a few
48 words of consolation and made her a gift of money. But he became restless,
49 and his condition showed no improvement. He continued his mimrch to
50 Rajouri, and, journeying from thence, at the close of the day, he called for a
51 glass of wine, but was unable to drink it. He was carried towards Bhimbar,
52 buat expired early in the morning of 28th October, 1628, in the fifty-ninth
53 year of his age and the 22nd of his reign. The funeral ceremonies were
54 performed at Bhimbar, and the corpse was sent, under an escort, to Ldhore,
55 where it was interred in the garden of Nur Jahdn, who built a splendid
56 tomb over the remains of her lamented husband.
57 Jahangir is described by English travellers as a monarch with an easy,
58 courteous, and sociable manner. He was contemporary with James I. of
59 England, and, by a strange coincidence, not only were their reigns of the
60 same duration, but they resembled each other iu their character, being both
61 given to favourites and drink. He issued an edict against tobacco in 1617,
62 in unconscious imitation of his Western brother, the use of that plant for
63 smoking being then a novelty in both Hugland and India. Like the great
64 Akber, he repeatedly pardoned the misconduct of his officers, as is shown in
65 the instances of Mdn Singh and Khan-i-Khdndn, and he freely pardoned his
66 rebel son, Khusrow.
67 In person Jahangir was tall and handsome, with a broad chest and long
68 arms, His eyes were strangely keen and piercing, and his complexion
69 Sri Satguru J agjit Singh Ji eLibrary NamdhariElibrary@ gmail.com