Page:Aurangzíb and the Decay of the Mughal Empire.djvu/18

12 thirty-seven, offered a striking contrast to his incomparable father, against whom he had openly rebelled. His temper was violent and he was a notorious drunkard. In his astonishingly candid 'Memoirs,' he relates how (like his wretched brothers Murád and Dániyál) he had been addicted to intoxicating liquors from the age of eighteen, and used to drink as much as twenty cups a day, at first of wine, then of 'double-distilled liquor' of such potency that it made Sir Thomas Roe, the British ambassador, sneeze, to the delight of the whole Court. As he got older, he reduced his potations, but still was in the habit of becoming unconscionably muddled every night, insomuch that at supper he had to be fed by his servants, after which 'he turned to sleep, the candles were popped out,' says Sir Thomas, 'and I groped my way out in the dark.' But, sot as he was, Jahángír was no fool. He kept his orgies for the evening, and during the day he was sobriety personified. None of his nobles dared risk the faintest odour of wine at the daily levees; and an indiscreet reference to the 'obliterated' revels of the previous night was severely punished. The Emperor even went so far as to issue a virtuous edict against intemperance, and, like his contemporary James I, wrote a treatise against tobacco, though he said nothing about his favourite opium.

He must have inherited a splendid constitution from Akbar and his mother, a Rájput princes, for his debauchery does not seem to have materially injured his mind or body. Sir Thomas Roe formed