Rambles and Recollections of an Indian Official (Paperback)

Excerpt: ...'The sacred sepulchre of His Moat Exalted Majesty, nesting in Paradise, the Second Lord of the Conjunction, Sh h Jah n, the Emperor. May his mausoleum ever flourish. Year 1076 Hijr .' The inscription on Sh h Jah n's cenotaph adds more titles and gives the exact date of death as 'the night of Rajab 28, A.H. 1076'. 1040 H jr corresponds with the period from July 31, A.D. 1630 to July 19, 1631; and 1076 Hijr with the period July 4, A. D. 1665 to June 23, 1666, Old Style. The dates in New Style would be ten days later. The epithet 'nesting in Paradise' (firdaus shiy n ) was the official posthumous title of Sh h Jah n, frequently used by historians instead of his name. The title 'Second Lord of the Conjunction' means that Sh h Jah n was held to have been born under the fortunate conjunction of Venus and Jupiter, as his ancestor T m r had been. 10. The details in the text are inaccurate. Arjumand B n B gam, daughter of saf Kh n, brother of N r Jah n, the queen of Jah ng r, was born in A.D. 1592, married in 1612, and died July 7, 1631 (o.s.), at Burh npur in the Deccan. After a delay of six months her remains were removed to Agra, and there rested six months longer at a spot in the T j gardens still remembered, until her tomb was sufficiently advanced for the final interment. Her titles were Mumt z-i-Mahall, 'Exalted in the Palace'; Qudsia B gam, and Naw b Aliy B gam. She bore her husband eight sons and six daughters, fourteen children in all, of whom seven were alive at the time of her death. The child whose birth cost the mother's life was Gauhar r B gam, who survived for many years (Irvine, Storia do Mogor, iv. 425). Beale wrongly gives her name as Dahar r . Sh h Jah n, two years before his union with Arjumand B no B gam, had been married...