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134 gilt. Hard by the Emperor's were the Begams' tents. The whole was enclosed in a square fenced in with wooden screens; and outside the gate were the quarters of the guard, the music, and the principal officers of state, while the smaller folk ranged their tents at proper distances, the entire camp forming a circle of about five or six miles' circumference. Over all, shone the light of the Akásdiah, or Lamp of Heaven, an imperial beacon, consisting of a lantern hanging at the top of a mast forty yards high, to guide wanderers to their tents by night, while watch-fires blazed round the camp and the sentinel paced his silent round.

On his return from his long repose in Kashmír, where he seems to have spent the greater part of 1665, Aurangzíb found his empire as tranquil as he had left it, and a source of danger was removed early in 1666 by the death of his father Sháh-Jahán in his splendid prison at Agra. The news of Sháyista Khán's successes in Arakán reached him in the same year, and the most troublesome of his antagonists in the Deccan, the Maráthá Sivají, made his submission and actually ventured to present himself at Court. Soon afterwards, in 1668, the greatest of the friendly but formidable Rájput Rájas died: Jai Singh, who had been a loyal and energetic servant of the Emperor ever since his accession, and had led many a campaign in the Deccan at the head of his valiant tribesmen. The other famous Rájput general, Jaswant Singh, was far away in his government at Kábul, and was also approaching his end. At last the Emperor was free