1 MUHAMMAD FARRUKHSEER. _ 189
2 Delhi, among whom he was popular, and several of the Turkish nobles and
3 courtiers tried to strike a last blow for the defence of their emperor. They
4 even succeeded in driving out the Mahratta guards of the city gates and killing
5 fifteen hundred: of the enemy’s troops; but irresolution on the part of the
6 emperor demoralized his supporters, and he was compelled to conceal him-
7 self for safety in the recesses of the seraglio. A body of negroes and armed
8 Abyssinians, Georgian and Calmuc women, always guarded the king’s cham-
9 ber. The resistance offered by them having been overpowered, the soldiery
10 penetrated within the gate, and every apartment was searched for the
11 emperor. The women and the guard of Amazons were tortured to compel
12 them to point out the place of his retreat, and he was at length dragged
13 from his concealment. . At this sight a number of the princesses and ladies
14 of the first rank, among whom were the emperor’s mother, wife and daugh-
15 ter, ran to his assistance, crying and wailing, and, forming a circle round his
16 person, entreated the Afghan soldiers to liberate him. He was, how ever, dis-
17 engaged from the women, thrown into a dungeon on the top of the 7irpolia,
18 and partially deprived of sight. The chronogram commemorating this event
19 is found in the sentence :
20 é shay WII Le syed
21 “Take warning, ye that have eyes.”
22 Suddenly’ it was announced to the citizens that Shams-ud-din Rafi-ul-
23 darajat, the younger son of Rafi-ul-kadr, and grandson of Bahddur Shah, had
24 The emperor is
25 seized and blinded,
26 1718,
27 Rafi-ul-darajat
28 ascends the throne,
29 assumed the regalia of the empire, and that Farrukhseer had ceased to ino
30 reign. ‘The kettledrums thundered forth at the palace wates, the heralds
31 sounded from the porticoes of the court halls, the salutes boomed through the
32 morning air, The young prince, a stripling of twenty, was taken out in
33 haste from the State prison of Salemgarh, adjoining thé palace, and placed
34 on the throne. He had no time even to bathe and clean himself, and was
35 thrust upon the throne in the clothes that he had on when he got out of his
36 bed. Abdulla Khan had just time to take off his neck a string of large
37 pearls and throw it over the robe of the prince. Farrukhseer, after suffer-
38 ing all the agonies of a lingering death, was flung into his solitarycell. A
39 leathern thong, or the bowstring, was strained round his neck. The prince
40 tried to keep it off his neck, by holding it with both his hands, and strug-
41 gled desperately with his hands and feet. He gave vent to his feelings by
42 reproaching the wazirs and even the Divine justice which suffered such
43 wicked men to live. But there was no escape, and the unhappy prince had
44 the misfortune ofsuffering dint of blows in addition to a painful death caused
45 by a dagger. The event happened on 16th May 1719. His body was car-
46 ried to the sepulchre of the Emperor Himayan and buried there with due
47 pomp and magnificence.* He had reigned six years and four months,
48 * The funeral was attended by a large crowd of leading citizens, but no sooner had the
49 procession quitted the suburbs of the town than the chief mourners were hooted and assailed
50 with stones, bricks and clods of earth.—Surnul Mutakhermn,
51 The inscription on the coin of this emperor was as follows :—
52 eo Thad a yet ale ol — D5 pe pt > U-4S St a5 ako
53 ‘“ Farrukhseer, the monarch of the land and sea, put his stamp on silver and gold through
54 the grace of God.”
55 Lhe mischievous children of Delhi parodied the couplet thus—
56 ye c ies aL IK) xls gh — je 3 Rigo 3 foal x 8) Ka Caw
57 “ The greedy King Farrukhseer struck coin on wheat, lentils, and pea.”
58 ~
59 Crucl execution of
60 Farrukhscer, 1719.
61 Sri Satguru J agjit Singh Ji eLibrary NamdhariElibrary@ gmail.com