1 Death of Shah Jahan,
2 7666,
3 Grave suspicion that
4 Aurangzeb wasiguilty
5 of parricide.
6 The funeral.
7 Great prosperity of
8 India under Shalt
9 Jahan.
10 His economy.
11 Testimony of Luro-
12 pean travellers.
13 Sri Satgurerf aeyit Siaghigacklprary with appearanceNamdbari
14 174 HISTORY OF THE PANJAB.
15 Shah Jahan, who was induced to send some of the crown jewels to his son,
16 Aurangzeb, as an acknowledgment of this act of kindness, sent a Europe-
17 an physician to treat the old king. The name of this physician is not
18 stated, but he had been employed in more than one work of poisoning, and
19 had been advanced to high office in the state. The death of Shah Jahdn
20 was soon announced. It happened during the night, when Aurangzeb was
21 ready to march for Kashmir with a contented mind. The suspicion was
22 never removed that the aged king had been removed by poison. Fakhr-un-
23 nissa, the eldest daughter of Aurangzeb, congratulated her father on the
24 occasion. The funeral ceremonies were performed with great splendour.
25 The entire troops at Agra, in mourning costume, formed the procession,
26 and Aurangzeb followed the funeral car in solemn sadness, and with tears in
27 his eyes, to the celebrated mausoleum of his mother, where the remains of
28 the unhappy monarch were interred by the side of those of his beloved
29 wife. So died Shah Jahan, the most magnificent monarch who ever ruled
30 the destinies of the Indian empire. He was seventy-four years old.when he
31 died, and had reigned thirty years.
32 All historians agree in speaking in eulogistic terms of the high pros-
33 perity of India during the reign of Shah Jahdn, The presence, in the
34 heart of the city of Lahore, of a splendid mosque, such as that of Wazir
35 Khan, is a proof of the existence of much public as well as private
36 wealth. Shah Jahdn made many costly additions to the palace of Ldhore
37 and laid out the elegant Shdldmar gardens of Lahore and Kdshmir cele-
38 brated in Moore’s Lalla Rookh. It was he who founded modern Delhi and
39 adorned it with a castellated palace and a magnificent mosque, the finest in the
40 East. To him India is indebted for that splendid edifice, the T4j of Agra, a
41 monument of historical significance, unequalled by any other edifice in the
42 world for the mysterious fascination which attaches to it. It is the admira-
43 tion of the world, and the architectural pride of India. As a financier, Shah
44 Jahén had the reputation of managing his extensive establishment with great
45 circumspection. In spite of the costly campaigns carried on from the berders
46 of the Carnatic to the frontier of Balkh and Thibet; in spite of his magni-
47 ficent shows and expensive entertainments; in spite of all his expenditure
48 on public works, which were of such magnitude as had never before been
49 undertaken by a single monarchy; in spite of his periodical expeditions
50 to Kashmir and his expenses in maintaining a standing army of 200,000
51 horse, he left at the end of his reign a treasure estimated at twenty-four crores
52 of rupees, besides vast accumulations in wrought gold and silver and in pearls.
53 Tavernier, the French traveller, who constantly visited most parts of
54 India during the reign of Shah Jahdn, speaks of him as having “reigned
55 not so much as a king over his subjects, but more as a father over his family
56 and children.” Describing the great prosperity and security enjoyed during
57 his reign, Tavernier says: “He was a great king, during whose reign there
58 was such a strictness in the civil government, and particularly in the security
59 of the highways, that there was never any occasion to put any man to death
60 for robbery.” “Nor was this prosperity,” says Elphinstone on the authority
61 of European travellers,“ “confined to royal residences; all travellers speak
62 with admiration of the grandeur of the cities, even in remote provinces, and
63 of the fertile and productive countries in which they stood.” We have also
64 the testimony of the Italian physician, Manucci, who came to India in 1649,
65 * Mandelslo for Gujrat; Graaf and Burton for Bengal, Behar and Orissa ; and Tavernier
66 for most parts of India. Pietro Della Valle, writing in 1623, the last year of Jahangir, says:
67 Here generally all live after a genteel way, and they do it securely as well, because the king
68 does not persecute his subjects with false accusations nor ef rive them of an thing when he
69 Il.
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