1 The emperor's march
2 to Kashmir, 1633.
3 Recovery of Kandahar,
4 1039.
5 Ali Mardan Khan
6 joins the emperor at
7 Lahore, 1637.
8 He is created viceroy
9 of the Panjub, 1639.
10 Lahore visited by
11 Father Manrique, the
12 prior of Hughili.
13 He is entertained by
14 2 prime minister in
15 his palace of Léhore.
16 168 . HISTORY OF THE PANJAB.
17 campaign in the Dekkan against Khan Jahdn Lodi; and the emperor, like
18 Edward I, his brother of England, carried the remains of his consort to the
19 metropolis and laid them in a spot in the garden, still pointed out close to the
20 grand mosque, where they remained during the long period of eighteen years
21 that the sepulchre was being erected for their reception. The mausoleum stands
22 on an elevated terrace, and is built of white marble inlaid with precious stones.
23 Its vast and soft swelling dome is surrounded with many turrets of white marble,
24 the whole fabric being supported by four great arches, the mould of which
25 is enriched with beautiful engravings of Arabic characters in black marble.
26 Tavernier, who witnessed the commencement and the completion of this
27 great work, remarks that it employed twenty thousand men daily for twenty-
28 two years,a fact from which some idea of its excessive costliness may be
29 formed. The building is said to have cost £750,000. The emperor, accord-
30 ing to the same authority, began to make his own sepulchre on the other
31 side of the river, and intended to connect the two tombs by a magnificent
32 bridge, but his war with his son Aurangzeb and his subsequent captivity
33 prevented the carrying out of his design, and, when he died, his remains
34 were buried close to those of his beloved wife.
35 In 1683, Shah Jahdn proceeded, vid Léhore, to Kashmir, where he
36 remained for the summer. Compensation for damages done to cultivation
37 on the march was paid.
38 In 1689 a.D., Kandahar, of which a precarious possession had been held by
39 the Moghal sovereigns from its first conquest by Baber, and which had been
40 in the occupation of the Persians since the 17th year of Jahéngir’s reign,
41 was surrendered to the Emperor Shah Jahdn by the governor, Ali Mardan
42 Khan, who, having been driven to revolt by the tyranical proceedings of
43 his Persian master, Shah Safi, gave up the city to the Moghal emperor and
44 himself joined the imperial court at Léhore, where he was received with
45 great honour by the emperor. Ali Mardan Khan was a man of great taleuts
46 and energy, and he distinguished himself very highly under his new sove-
47 reign, who raised him to the post of amir-ul-omerah, or premier noble, and
48 intrusted him with important military commands beyond the Indus. His
49 skill and judgment in the execution of works of public utility, to which the
50 celebrated canal of Delhi, known after his name, still bears ample testimony,
51 and the taste and elegance which he displayed on all occasions of public
52 festivities and shows, excited universal admiration at the court.
53 In 1639, Ali Mardan Khan was made viceroy of the Panja4b. He inau-
54 gurated his appointment by the construction of a canal which brought the
55 waters of the Ravi to Léhore to irrigate the country between the city and
56 the Himdlayas. The court spent the summer at Kashmir, and the winter was
57 passed at Léhore. Ldhore was visited at this time by Father Manrique, an
58 Augustinian prior, who, in his memoirs, published in Rome in 1653, has
59 given a graphic account of the Moghal court and the mode of living there.
60 By the intervention of a Jesuit priest, Father Joseph Da Castro, he obtained
61 au interview with the prime minister, Asif Khan, athis magnificent palace
62 at Lahore, described as gorgeously decorated and profusely adorned with
63 paintings. The minister received the father with great distinction, and gave
64 him an entertainment at which the Christian priest dined with the minister,
65 and which the emperor himself and several of the ladies of the. royal
66 seraglio graced with their’presence. The banquet was served with great
67 splendour and attended by many ladies of the harem, who made their
68 appearance unveiled. The minister presented the priest with a gift of
69 “ersian melons and a bag of money. An imperial decree was passed, sanc-
70 Sri Satguia PRR MAGI BEB! some Placag gph aherte raiser a hich SarhY ediand