Page:Aurangzíb and the Decay of the Mughal Empire.djvu/75

the influence of the sitter for the portrait. Dr. Careri draws a precisely similar picture of the Emperor as he was in his old age in 1695. But the practice of such austerity as we see in this description is not the less remarkable because it is no more than what the religion of Islám exacts of the true believer. Aurangzíb might have cast the precepts of Muhammad to the winds and still kept – nay, strengthened – his hold of the sceptre of Hindústán. After the general slaughter of his rivals, his seat on the Peacock Throne was as secure as ever had been Sháh-Jahán's or Jahángír's. They held their power in spite of flagrant violations of the law of Islám; they abandoned themselves to voluptuous ease, to 'Wein, Weib, und Gesang,' and still their empire held together; even Akbar, model of Indian sovereigns, owed much of his success to his open disregard of the Muhammadan religion. The empire had been governed by men of the world, and their government had been good. There was nothing but his own conscience to prevent Aurangzíb from adopting the eclectic philosophy of Akbar, the luxurious profligacy of Jahángír, or the splendid ease of Sháh-Jahán. The Hindus would have preferred anything to a Muhammadan bigot. The Rájput princes only wanted to be let alone. The Deccan would never have troubled Hindústán if Hindústán had not invaded it. Probably any other Mughal prince would have followed in the steps of the kings his forefathers, and emulated the indolence and vice of the Court in which he had received his earliest impressions.