Mogul

“ It is a frequent custom of the present Mogul, when he happens to be awake in the night time, he calls for certain poor old men, making them sit beside him, and passes his time in familiar discourse with them, giving them clothes and bountiful alms when he dismisses them. At one time, when residing at Ajimeer, he went a-foot on pilgrimage to the tomb of a saint or prophet called Haji Mundin, and there kindled a fire with his own hands, under an immense Heidelbergian equipolent brass pot, in which victuals were cooked for five thousand poor persons. ”

“ If we believe the tales of travellers and historians, nothing since the days of Babylon has equalled the magnificence of the Great Mogul. But magnificence in a sovereign generally means misery in his subjects. The wealth that is lavished on the court is wrung from the people. So it is said to have been with some of the successors of Akbar. The latest historian of Mussulman India [2] says: "They were the most shameless tyrants that ever disgraced a throne. Mogul administration ... was a monstrous system of oppression and extortion, which none but Asiatics could have practised or endured. ”

“ The Mogul takes great delight in these stately animals, and often, when he sits in state, calls for some of the finest and largest to be brought, which are taught to bend before him, as in reverence, when they come into his presence. They often fight before him, beginning their combats like rams, by running furiously against each other, and butting with their foreheads. ”

“ Hence, Fateh Mohammed felt neither “victorious” nor “praised” when a high official, accompanied by a glittering retinue, rode out from Agra and greeted Mowbray and Sainton with much deference, inviting them to return with him forthwith and accept the Emperor’s hospitality! They had gone through so many vicissitudes of late that this bewildering attitude on the part of the Mogul monarch left them outwardly unmoved though inwardly amazed. No one could be more surprised than Mowbray, the too successful prophet of the royal intent. ”

“ Merciless Indians drove them farther on, and hunters of the plains, who coveted their valuable skins, made after them. Finally the great herd, all that was left of it, split, as by common consent, and chose a younger leader for their thinned ranks. One day Mogul, the king of the old herd, found himself deserted, and left to wander alone upon the great plains. ”

“ For Orissa had been absorbed by the Mogul armies late in the seventeenth century, and Mysore was being ground under the heel of Hyder, who himself avoided assuming the position of royalty. The Mogul was sovereign of India from the Himalayas to Cape Comorin; but the best energies of the dynasty had long been spent, and when strength was put forth at the seat of Government, the extreme boundaries of the empire, if they felt it at all, were sensible of but a feeble vibration. ”

“ This was the critical moment in the progress of the Mogul empire. Aurungzebe was called away for two years by the chronic disturbances beyond the Indus; his strength was wasted by the ceaseless wars of the Deccan; and being goaded to madness by the casual insurrection of some Hindoo devotees in the centre of his dominions, he replaced the capitation tax on infidels, and fulminated other decrees against that portion of his subjects of such extravagant intolerance that they at length looked upon the progress of their co-religionists, the Mahrattas, with more longing than alarm. ”

“ In the North as well as the South, forces had been generated which threatened the end of the Mogul rule. The martyrdom of Guru Teg Bahadur, the Sikh Guru, who was foully murdered at Delhi, where he had gone on a mission of peace, had sunk deep into the hearts of his followers, and his son, Guru Govind Singh, was organising forces which were destined to supplant Mogul rule in the Land of the Five Rivers. [1] .In the Deccan, Sivaji’s [2] standard and throne had become the rallying point of the fighting forces of Southern India. ”

“ This cession was made by an authentic act, attended by all the formalities usually practised throughout the Mogul empire. The English, possessed of this title, which was to give a kind of legitimacy to their usurpation, at least in the eyes of the vulgar, soon forgot the promises they had made. They gave the Mogul to understand, that particular circumstances would not suffer them to be concerned in such an enterprise; but some better opportunity was to be hoped for; and to make up for his losses, they assigned him a pension of six millions of rupees, (262,500l.) ”

“ The Princess changes colour several times. The Mogul takes snuff in great agitation. Several grains are heard to fall on the stage. His heart is seen to beat through his upper benjamin.—The Mogul (with a mournful look at his left shoe,) "My shoe-string is broken."—The Princess, (after an interval of melancholy reflection,) "I know it."—The Mogul, "My second shoe-string! ”

“ The student of history finds it difficult to understand fully the political situation at the time. One of the most powerful of all the provinces of the Mogul Empire was "The Deccan," which extended its sway over all of Southern India. The ruler, known as the "Nizam," administered the government in the name of the Mogul, but in reality he was independent, and a true Eastern despot. The chief province of the Deccan was "The Carnatic," which embraced all the territory along the eastern coast. ”

“ To the founder of the short but brilliant Mogul dynasty, was it given first to call into existence a nationality among the people. On ascending the throne at the age of fifteen, Akbar, by raising the Hindus and refusing to favour the Mussulmans, welded the people into one nation. His latitude in religious matters is shown by the Hindu god and goddesses at Futtehpore Sikri, the Windsor of Agra as it has been called. There is even here a palace called the Palace of the Christian Woman. ”

“ When I see the Great Mogul foolishly place himself once a year in a balance to be weighed like an ox; when I see his people applaud the increase in weight of their prince, that is to say, the decrease in his capacity to govern them, my heart, Ibben, bleeds for the extravagance of humanity. ”

“ I prefer to trust to luck and the local police."
"It is not always the best bars that keep people out," said the Count. "It all depends on who's trying to get in. There was an ancient Hindu hermit who lived naked in a cave and passed through the three armies that encircled the Mogul and took the great ruby out of the tyrant's turban, and went back unscathed like a shadow. ”

“ FROM these origins, time has formed in India a mighty nation of near ten millions of Mahomedans, whom Europeans call Moors: to them, under the authority of the Great Mogul, the greatest part of Indostan is now subject: but, although the reigning nation, they are out-numbered by the Indians ten to one. ”

“ He who has the pay of 5000, is bound to have 2000 always on foot ready for service, and so in like proportion for all others. This absolute dependence renders them dissolute parasites. When the Mogul gives advancement to any one, he adds a new name or title, as Pharaoh did to Joseph. ”

“ During the prosperous period of the Mogul dynasty the population included a number of mixed tribes, which each began to assert its independence, so that the utmost anarchy prevailed until Hazara attracted the attention of the rising Sikh monarchy. ”

“ Amongst other instances of the contempt with which the majesty of the emperor has been treated, the governors of provinces have of late years not only counterfeited without hesitation, letters, orders, and patents, from the court, but have even hired men to act the part of officers invested by the Great Mogul with the power of conferring with them on the affairs of their government. ”

“ My friends and countrymen! you have frequently been imposed upon, no doubt, by, quacks and ignorant pretenders to the noble art of physic; who, in order to gain your attention, have boasted of their many years' travels into foreign parts, and even the most remote regions of the habitable globe. One has been physician to the Sophi of Persia, to the Great Mogul, or the Empress of Russia ”

“ The many examples of a similar fate, which are perpetually produced by the contests of ambition in this unsettled empire, have established a proverb, that fortune is a throne; and therefore he who falls in such contests is only reckoned unfortunate, without having the odium of rebellion or treachery charged on his memory, unless he opposes the sovereign of sovereigns, the Great Mogul; all the rest is reckoned the common course of politics: for there is scarcely throughout the empire a Nabob, who has not an open or latent competitor. ”

“ The sovereign reserved to himself the power of life and death. Civil causes were reserved to the Cadi, and the revenues and expences of the province were subject to the examination of the Duan, who managed the customs and took possession for the emperor of the estates of the feudatories who died. The Great Mogul gave the government of the strongest holds in the province to governors who were in nothing subject to the Nabob. ”

“ But indeed, Josh Perrott's luck was worse than he thought. For the gross, pimply man was a High Mobsman—so very high a mobsman that it would have been slander and libel, and a very great expense, to write him down a mobsman at all. He paid a rent of a hundred and twenty pounds a year, and heavy rates, and put half a crown into the plate at a very respectable chapel every Sunday. He was, in fact, the King of High Mobsmen, spoken of among them as the Mogul. ”

“ They reached Allahabad next day, and the local Kotwal was minded to give them some trouble. He was cowed instantly when Walter exhibited Akbar’s order to the Treasurer, which [Pg 220] he had forgotten to hand to Ibrahim with the receipt. Nevertheless, being now well versed in the ways of Indian officials, he marveled at the man’s hectoring manners, since this city, situated at the confluence of the Ganges and the Jumna, was one of the chief resting-places for merchants passing between the Mogul capital and the Hughli delta. ”

“ From the word Soubah, signifying a province, the viceroy of this vast territory, is called Soubahdar, and by Europeans improperly Soubah. Of the countries under his jurisdiction, some are entirely subjected to the throne of Delhi, and governed by Mahomedans, whom Europeans as improperly call Moors; whilst others remain under the government of their original Indian princes or Rajahs, and are suffered to follow their ancient modes on condition of paying tribute to the Great Mogul. ”

“ CIRCARS, n.p. The territory to the north of the Coromandel Coast, formerly held by the Nizam, and now forming the districts of Kistna, Godávari, Vizagapatam, Ganjám, and a part of Nellore, was long known by the title of "The Circars," or "Northern Circars" (i.e. Governments) , now officially obsolete. The Circars of Chicacole (now Vizagapatam Dist.) , Rajamandri and Ellore (these two embraced now in Godávari Dist.) , with Condapilly (now embraced in Kistna Dist.) , were the subject of a grant from the Great Mogul, obtained by Clive in 1765, confirmed by treaty with the Nizam in 1766. ”

“ That in all questions of wrongs and injuries offered to us and to our nation, we shall receive speedy justice from the judges and others in authority, according to the nature of our complaints and the wrongs done to us, and shall not be put off by delays, or vexed by exorbitant charges or loss of time.
On the 24th October, I landed the present intended for the Great Mogul, which I brought to the tent of the governor of Ahmedabad, who took a memorandum of all the particulars, as also a copy of our king's letter to their sovereign. ”

“ As your heart is noble and upright, so may God give you a prosperous reign, because you powerfully defend the majesty of Jesus, which may God render yet more flourishing, having been confirmed by miracles," &c.
We travelled two years with the Great Mogul, who was in progress through his dominions, moving only during the temperate months, between October and April. On this occasion, I am confident that the leskar, or camp, contained not less than 300,000 persons, including men, women, and children, besides elephants, horses, and other beasts, that were fed upon grain ”

“ Ormus is their best place in the Indies except Goa. At Muskat they have a fort and some small trade, keeping the natives in such awe by land and sea, that they dare not trade without their licence, and this practice they follow in all parts of India where they are strong. Diul-sinde on the Indus in the dominions of the Great Mogul. Diu, where they have a strong castle. Damaun, where they have a castle, and are said to have an hundred villages under their authority. ”

“ Still, however, if they find any one straggling or lagging behind, they are very apt to make them slaves, selling them into the mountains, and houghing them to prevent their running away, after which they are set to grind grain in handmills, or to other servile employments. The chief city, called likewise Candahar, is very ancient, and was in old times inhabited by Banians. At this place the governor of the whole country resides, who has a garrison of twelve or fifteen thousand horse, maintained there by the Great Mogul, in regard of the neighbourhood of the Persians towards the north. ”