omrahs, who maintained numerous troops, and were able to chastise invaders, his jealous policy made him afraid to trust with the command of provinces. He therefore made choice of persons without reputation or power, who satisfied themselves with plundering the provinces they were unable to protect. It is even said, that Aurungzebe's generals purposely prolonged the war in the South, both for the sake of the plunder which it furnished, and from the apprehension that, on the reduction of the Peninsula, they should be employed in some harder and more hazardous service. In this harassing and unavailing contest were the last years of the aged Emperor consumed; and he appears, during the season, to have kept the field to the last, retiring to Ahmednuggur as his winter-quarters. There, in the February of 1707, at the advanced age of ninety, he at length perceived that the angel of death was rapidly approaching. He was seized with a fever, which deprived him of his remaining strength, but left his faculties unimpaired; and nothing can be more solemn and affecting than the farewell letters which, in this state, he addressed to his favourite sons, Azim and Kâmbuksh; the dying confessions of a conqueror, who found that "the instant which passed in power, had left only sorrow behind," with a dread of the great account to be rendered for the awful trust.* He expired, according to his wish, on a

*These letters were first given to the English public in the Memoirs of Eradut Khan, (a nobleman of Aurungzebe's court,) translated from the Persian by Captain J. Scott, 1786. They are inserted by Mr. Maurice in his History of Hindostan, vol. iv. p. 494. If genuine, of which there seems no reason to entertain doubt, they must be regarded as highly interesting documents. To Azim Shah, the aged Emperor writes:

"Health to thee! My heart is near thee. Old age is arrived; weakness subdues me, and strength has forsaken all my members.

Friday, the 21st of February, in the forty-eighth year of his reign, and the ninetieth of his age.

*

It is difficult to hold the pen steady in attempting to do justice to the character of this able monarch, who has been held up in opposite representations, as a monster of cruelty and hypocrisy on the one hand, and a model for sovereigns on the other. It is remarked, that he attained the throne by deposing his father and murdering his brothers; but Shah Jehan had already resigned the empire to Dara, when the fratricidal contest began; nor was the conqueror the only criminal. Shah Jehan, too, had himself rebelled against his father, and had sealed his own accession by the murder of unoffending rivals. But Aurungzebe is accused of having assumed the mask of religious austerity in order to gain the throne. That he was an ascetic and a rigid moslem, is true; but if he was

A stranger I came into this world, and a stranger I depart. I know nothing of myself, what I am, or for what I am destined. The instant which passed in power, hath left only sorrow behind it. I have not been the guardian and protector of the empire. My valuable time has been passed vainly. I had a patron in my own dwelling (conscience), but his glorious light was unseen by my dim sight. Life is not lasting; there is no vestige of departed breath, and all hopes of futurity are lost. The fever has left me; but nothing of me remains but skin and bone....I brought nothing into this world, and, except the infirmities of age, carry nothing out. I have a dread for my salvation, and with what torments I may be punished. Though I have a strong reliance on the mercies and bounties of God, yet, regarding my actions, fear will not quit me ; but when I am gone, reflection will not remain. Come what may, I have launched my vessel on the waves."

In the letter to Kâmbuksh occurs this striking expression:"Wherever I look, I see nothing but the divinity."

*See authorities in Mill, ii. 273. If, however, his reign began in August 1658, as Mr. Mill affirms, he died in the 49th year of his reign; but Mr. Orme says, Aurungzebe dated it from May 12, 1659. The Mohammedan computation would, of course, increase the number of years. He was born in 1618.

a hypocrite, "we cannot but admire," to adopt the remark of Mr. Maurice," the unshaken fortitude with which, during so prolonged a life, he submitted to privations of every kind, while presiding in the most luxurious' court, and wielding the richest sceptre of Asia." Of the four brothers, Dara was suspected of Hindooism; Sujah was a libertine; Morad, a drunkard; and Aurungzebe was assuredly the most respectable. Bernier informs us, that the fate of Dara was decided upon in a council of omrahs, and that those who insisted upon the necessity of his death, urged, that he had long abandoned the religion of Mohammed; and we are told, on another authority, that it was his attachment to the Brahmins, together with a work which he wrote in defence of the Vedas, that cost him the empire.* Aurungzebe was a persecutor: he attempted to effect the conversion of the Hindoos by the sword. But, in our reprobation

* Orme, pp. 73, 240. Dara had written a treatise endeavouring to reconcile the doctrines of the Vedas with those of the Koran A copy of this ironical treatise, entitled Mujmah al Bahrain, the Uniting of the Two Seas, was brought to England by Mr. Fraser, and is in the Radcliffe Library. His writing this book gave great offence to the Moslems. Dara also caused a Persic translation to be made by the Brahmins of Benares, of the Oupaneeshat (Unutterable); an abstract of the four Vedas, which gives, in fifty-one sections, the complete system of the Hindoo theology. A copy of the Persian version, with a MS. translation by Mr. Halhed, is in the British Museum; and a French translation by M. Anquetil du Perron has been published at Paris in 2 vols. 4to.—Ibid., p. 239. In the preface to the Mujmah, Dara styles himself a fakeer, and ascribes his theological acquisitions to the instructions received during a visit to Cashmeer, from "that sage of sages, Molana Shah." Bernier represents him as a moslem in public, and in private" a pagan with pagans, a Christian with Christians. He had constantly about his person some of the Heathen doctors, on whom he bestowed pensions to a large amount. He had, moreover, for some time lent a willing ear to the suggestions of Father Buzée, a Jesuit."-BERNIER, 8vo (1826), vol. i. p. 6.

of his sanguinary zeal, we must recollect, that he acted consistently with his principles as a moslem, not in defiance of them. Those writers who affect surprise that a Mogul sovereign should not have displayed a spirit of enlightened toleration towards his idolatrous subjects, seem to forget the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, and the recent date of our own Toleration Act. When it is recollected that Aurungzebe was the contemporary of Louis XIV. and of the Stuarts, it will hardly be contended that, on this point, the Mohammedan Emperor discovered less liberality or humanity than most of the Christian sovereigns of his day.

Aurungzebe is represented by the Author of the Allumghire Nameh, as naturally mild and affable in his manners; in his disposition, placable and humane; in his judicial administration, indefatigably vigilant and impartially just. When he appeared in public, he clothed his features with a complacent benignity; and those who had trembled at his name, found themselves at ease in his presence. In support of this representation of his character, it is mentioned to his honour, that capital punishments were almost unknown during his reign. The traveller Gemelli, who saw him at Bejapore in 1695, gives a pleasing description of his venerable appearance. In stature, rather below the middle size, of a slender make, an olive complexion, with an aquiline nose and a white beard, he walked leaning on a staff formed like a crosier; for age had in some degree bowed his back, though it had not dimmed the lustre of his eye. Benignity reigned in his features, and his manners were still marked by affability. His dress was always plain and simple. Except upon public festivals, the vest he wore seldom exceeded the value of eight rupees; nor were his sash and tiara loaded with jewels.

In 'camp, he was the most indefatigable man of his army; the first to rise, and the last to retire to rest; and in his younger days, he generally slept on the bare ground, wrapped in a tiger-skin. He was, at the same time, remarkably cleanly both in his person and his dress. His diet consisted, for the most part, of herbs and pulse: no fermented liquor ever passed his lips. He spent little time in the seraglio; and though, according to the custom of the country, he maintained a number of women, it was only as a part of imperial state, as he, in fact, contented himself with his lawful wives. He was the severe enemy of immoralities of every description. He discouraged gambling and drunkenness, both by prohibition and example; and the long train of dancers and singer, actors and buffoons, in which his father Shah Jehan had taken so much delight, were banished from his court as destructive of morals and degrading to majesty.

His public buildings partook of the character of his mind: they were useful, rather than splendid. At every stage from Caubul to Aurungabad, and from Gujerat to Bengal, he built and maintained caravanserais, furnished at the public expense. In all the principal cities, he founded universities : in the inferior towns, he erected schools. He also built and endowed numerous hospitals for the poor and maimed. He was the liberal patron and frequent correspondent of learned men throughout his dominions, and was himself not the least accomplished prince of the house of Timour. He was master of the Persian and Arabic languages, and he wrote the Tourki and most of the Indian dialects with ease and elegance. Many of the government despatches, written with his own hand, are remarkable for brevity and precision; and he is reported always to have corrected the diction