Indian Antiquary Vol 51

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarkar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 42

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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[ FEBRUARY, 1922
design, they hastened after him and had an audience of him near Humayunpur. Here they, with the Sayyids and learned men, saluted him and implored him to resume the reins of government, saying that God had created him to rule the kingdom, that the regulation of the affairs of all its inhabitants depended on him, that to forego so great a task was repre. hensible in the eyes both of God and of the people, and that as the happiness of the world depended on the due exercise of authority, no greater act of worship that this could be conceived. The king replied that he was sick of worldly affairs, that he was firmly resolved to make a pilgrimage to the tomb of 'Ali, and that they might elect whom they would to the throne, and leave him in peace. The Sayyids, the learned men, the amirs and vazirs, chief among them Sayyid Shâh Haidar, bowed their heads to the ground and earnestly told the king that his design was neither wise nor permissible by the sacred law, as its fulfilment would lead to strife and disturbances and the ruin of the country and its people ; and especially of the Sayyids and learned men from Khurâsân and 'Irâq who had lived in peace and happiness under the protection of the king and who, by his removal of himself from the head of affairs, would be plunged into grief, trouble, and annoyance, a state of affairs which could not be but displeasing both to God and to His prophet. The arguments of the Sayyids and learned men convinced the king and he desisted from his purpose of abdicating, and appointed Shah Haidar vakil and pishvá, at the same time saying that as God had entrusted the government of His people to himself, so he in like manner handed the care of them and their affairs to Shah Haidar, whom he enjoined so to deal with the people thus placed under his care that he might earn their gratitude and God's reward, by promulgating the divine commands and insisting on the observance of the sacred law.
When the king had concluded his counsels to Shah Haidar, he returned to the capital and passed his time in ease and enjoyment in the?ort of Ahmadnagar, entrusting the whole administration to Shah Haidar, before whom all the amirs and officers of state used to assemble and transact the business of the kingdom.
When Shâh Haidar had acquired the supreme power in the state, he forgot the king's counsels and decided questions in accordance with his own personal predilections so that in & short time not only the great officers of state, but all the army, were loud in their complaints of him, for they feared and abhorred his violent behaviour and his easily excited wrath, and Maulana Vâlihî, one of the most witty and versatile men of the time, satirized him in the speech of Khurâsân as follows:
The king's mind in his cups was not so distraught As the people were dissatisfied with Asad Khan's pishva.'
چنان شے دماغ پریشان نر : کر خلق راضی بر بیشوایل اسد خان نے
بوقت کیف
Although Asad Khân had made great endeavours to bring about Shâh Haidar's eleva. tion to the office of pishvd, Shah Haidar was very suspicious of him, and was ever compassing his overthrow. At this time he made a pretext that some amírs should be sent to the bor. ders of Burhanpûr in order that they might guard the kingdom from the inroads of enemies. Asad Khân, with a number of other amfrs, was appointed and was dispatched to Daulatâbâd.
One affair which alienated all, both gentle and simple, from Shah Haidar, was his conduct in the matter of the jágirs, which had originally been granted to the late Shah Tahir. Some four hundred parganas had been thus allotted and these were now all held in in'am by various amirs in close attendance on the court. Shah Haidar, without any farmán from the king, transferred the whole to his own name and thus transferred from their holdings many who were not willing to leave them, even when receiving compensation. This matter distressed the king greatly and although he endeavoured to prevail on the dispossessed amire to accept other jagirs in lieu of those which they had lost, he failed to do so.
At this time the king gave orders for the preparation of a great banquet, and the officers and servants of the household set to work to prepare it, and on this occasion Shah Haidar ignored the orders which he had received from the king in the matter of prohibiting forbidden