1 Massacre of the Af-
2 ghans at Peshdwar.
3 Tho imperial camp.
4 Death of Aurangzeb,
5 1707.
6 Bis letters to his
7 sons.
8 His will.
9 His character.
10 sHis person.
11 178 HISTORY OF THE PANJAB,
12 courtesy and friendship. He entertained the Afghans at a grand banquet
13 held at Peshawar in honour of the circumcision ceremony of his son, and
14 gave them a splendid feast in the grand square of the city. Horse-racing,
15 elephant-fights, games and exhibitions were the order of the day. In the
16 midst of these rejoicings Kasim Khan suddenly left the assembly, which
17 was a signal for a massacre. Bodies of armed men, who had been concealed:
18 in the neighbouring houses, poured volleys of musketry on the Afghan guests,
19 who had attended the feast without a suspicion of treachery. There was
20 a general massacre of the Afghans, and it spread consternation throughout
21 Kabul. The Afghans were paralysed and gave no further trouble for the
22 rest of Aurangzeb’s reign.
23 The imperial camp of Aurangzeb was quite a moving city, being as large
24 and populous as Delhi itself. He was fond of camp-life and seldom lived m
25 his palaces in the towns. The ladies of the harem, seated on glittering
26 howdahs and veiled, accompanied him. They were attended by a-multi-
27 tude of women on horseback, cloaked from head to feet. The king’s
28 establishment, consisting of cooks, Abyssinian slaves, mace-bearers and cricrs,
29 was numerous. Provisions in abundance were carried with the camp.
30 Drinking water from the Ganges was carried on the backs of camels. The
31 imperial treasure was carried on elephants and carts. The king’s pavilions
32 consisted of magnificent courts, halls and chambers, and every approach was
33 guarded by cannons. There were hosts of cavalry and infantry, camp-followers
34 and servants, victuallers, foragers and others, with luggage, tents and horses.
35 Aurangzeb died in his camp at Ahmadnagar, in 1707, at the advanced
36 age of eighty-nine, and in the fiftieth year of his reign, Ever suspicious
37 of all around him, he studiously kept his sons at a distance to defeat any
38 possible attempt at plotting on their part. Before his death, he seems to
39 have felt strongly that his dissolution was near, and the letters he dictated
40 to his sons in his last days are sufficiently indicative of the intense remorse
41 he felt for the past. He writes:—‘I came a stranger into this world and
42 a stranger I depart. I know nothing of myself, what I am, and for what
43 I am destined. My back is bent with weakness and my feet have lost the
44 power of motion. The breath which rose is gone and has left not even
45 hope behind it. I resign you, your mother and your son to God, as I myself
46 am going. The agonies of death come upon me fast. Udepiri, your
47 mother, has been a partner in my illness, and wishes to accompany me in
48 death ; but everything has its appointed time. I go. Whatever good or
49 evil I have done has been done for you. Come what may, my vessel is
50 launched on the waves. Farewell! Farewell! Farewell!” Shortly before
51 his death he wrote a will giving the northern districts of his empire to
52 Moazzam, the southern to Azam, and the kingdoms of Golconda and
53 Bijépar to the youngest son, Kam Baksh. Thus dicd Aurangzeb, one of
54 the greatest and least happy of the Tartar sovereigns that have ruled an
55 Eastern empire. In marked contrast to his predecessors from Baber
56 downwards, he was sober and abstemious. Under him the Moghal empire
57 reached its greatest limits. He applied himself assiduously to business,
58 and evinced a keen interest in the administration of his country. He was
59 ofsmail stature, with a long nose, a round beard, and an olive skin, He usually
60 wore plain white muslin, and had a large emerald affixed to his turban.
61 Gemelli Carreri, who saw the emperor in his seventy-eigbth year, says:
62 The emperor stood amidst his grandees leaning on a staff; he received
63 petitions personally ; read them without the aid of spectacles, and endorsed
64 them with his own hand. He did all this with a cheerful, smiling coun-
65 . t ba = 2?
66 Sri Satgurul] agit SINgA TBE BI yAsed with his aiNdharielibrary@ gmail.com