Page:A Comprehensive History of India Vol 1.djvu/151

 Chap. V.J

THE USURPER ADILF.

117

Tib.

SuKKH SiiAU's .Mausoleum at tSA.s.sKKAii.' From UiinicUs Oriental .iinunl.

brother, Jelal Khan, wlio a.ssnineJ the title of Selim Shah. Hi.s reign, which a d i.w. lasted nine years, durinor which several important internal improvements were made, and public works erected, was on the whole peaceful He left a son of succeo-u. tlie age of twelve, but he was nuu'dered by his uncle, Ma- homed Khan, who usurped the throne, and is known by the title of Adili. His conduct on the throne was such as miglit have been expected after the atrocity by which he had oained it, and he made him- self universally odi- ous by his follies and ini([uities. For a time, however, the abilities of Hemoo, u»uri«tioii

TT- 1 1- 1 1 1 1 • of iMaliiiiii.-il

a Hindoo oi low origiji, to whom he had committed the government, kept him Kiian^.r on his seat ; and he pm'sued a course of utter lawlessness, first scjuandering liLs treasury, and then indiscriminately confiscating the property of his subjects, in order to procm'e the means of indulging in his extravagances and low debauch- eries. After he had naiTOwly escaped the dagger of .an assassin, a confederacy was formed against him. It failed in the first instance, but other revolts were succes.sful ; and Ibrahim Sur, making himself ma.ster of Delhi and Agra, Adili was left in possession only of the eastern pronces. Ibrahim, having in his turn been driven out of Delhi and Agra by Sikundur Sur, who h.ad proclaimed himself King of the Punjab, endeavoured to compensate himself by wresting some more territory from Adili, but was repulsed by Hemoo. This success did not at all improve his condition, for intelligence immediately arrived that Bengal and Malwah had both revolted, and that Hoomayoon, who had returned, had defeated Sikundur, and was once more seated in Delhi. Tiiis la^t intelligence proved the most fatal of all ; for though Hoomayoon soon died, his son Akber succeeded, and brought the Mogul empire to its highest pitch of glory. Adili was maintained for some time by Hemoo ; but on that Hindoo's death his success was at an end, and he lost his life fighting in Bengal.

Hoomayoon's rece])tion by Shah Tamasp, the second of the Safavi or Sophi Kings of Pei"sia, had been (m the whole favourable, though accompanied with

' Sheer Shah's mansoleu'.ii .at S-is-scram. near ]?e- iiavaa. is built in the midst of .v hirge tank, altoiit a niile iit circumference. Tiic I'uiUling is r.ipidly falling to decay, and the stone i.s now grsafly di-icolonred hy age. The remains of Sheer Sliah,vitli those of several

nicnilier.s of lii.s faniilj- were dei>osited in the lower story of the mausoleum. The central apartment is an octagon, 100 feet in diimeter, standiiig on a nias- sivo square terrace, each angle of which is ornamented with an octagonal kiosk.