Page:Aurangzíb and the Decay of the Mughal Empire.djvu/20

14 of gifts. No one ever dreamt of coming to the Empress or her ministers empty-handed.

Jahángír died suddenly in November, 1627, at the age of fifty-eight, whilst on his way back from his usual summer visit to the refreshing valleys of Kashmír. After a brief delay, during which his grandson Búlákí was provisionally set on the throne with the title of Dáwar-Bakhsh, Prince Khurram assumed the sceptre at Agra in January, 1628, with the title of Shah-Jahán, or King of the World.'

Like his father, Sháh-Jahán was the offspring of a union with a Rájput princoss, a daughter of the proud Rája of Márwár, and had more Indian than Mughal blood in his veins. Yet he was a good Muhammadan of the orthodox Sunní profession, compared with his ancestors, and showed a tinge of intolerance which was wholly foreign to his easy-going father and broad-minded grandfather. His orthodoxy was fostered by the influence of his best-beloved wife, Mumtáz-Mahall, the mother of all his fourteen children, whose monument, erected by a devoted husband, is the famous Táj at Agra. But Sháh-Jahán was too prudent a king to let religion override statesmanship. He did not object to the presence of Jesuit missionaries, and, like Akbar, he employed Hindús to command his armies. The wars of his reign were unimportant: the Deccan was, as usual, a source of trouble, but the kingdoms of Bíjápúr and Golkonda were brought to temporary submission and compelled to pay tribute; and several campaigns were undertaken in the hope of recovering