Page:History of India Vol 5.djvu/349

 JAHANGIR'S FIRST ENACTMENTS 295 hangir's reign and to the Twelve Institutes which he ordained as regulations throughout his realm. A. H. (Oct. 12, 1605 A. D.), I ascended the throne at Agra, in the thirty-eighth year of my age. The first order which I issued was for the setting up of a Chain of Justice, so that if the officers of the courts of justice should fail in the investigation of the complaints of the oppressed and in granting them redress, the injured per- sons might come to this chain and shake it, and thus give notice of their wrongs. I ordered that the chain should be made of pure gold and be thirty gaz long (about sixty feet), with sixty bells upon it. One end was firmly attached to a battlement of the fort of Agra, the other to a stone column on the bank of the river. I established twelve ordinances, which were ob- served as the common rule of practice throughout my dominions. 1. Prohibition of cesses. I forbad the levy of duties under the names of tamghd (stamp-taxes) and mlr-bahrl (port-dues), together with all forms of taxes which the fief-holders ef every province and division had been in the habit of exacting for their own benefit. 2. Regulation concerning highway robbery and theft. In those roads which were the scenes of rob- bery and theft, and in those portions of road which were far from habitations, the fief -holders of the neigh- bourhood were required to build a shelter for travellers or a mosque, and were also commanded to sink a well to promote cultivation and to induce people to settle
 * On Thursday, the eighth of Jumada-s-sani, 1014