CHAPTER V
The Court[1]
Simple of life and ascetic as he was by disposition, Aurangzíb could not altogether do away with the pomp and ceremony of a Court which had attained the pinnacle of splendour under his magnificent father. In private life it was possible to observe the rigid rules, and practise the privations of a saint; but in public the Emperor must conform to the precedents set by his royal ancestors from the days of Akbar, and hold his state with all the imposing majesty which had been so dear to Shah-Jahán. Little as he was himself disposed to cultivate 'the pomps and vanities of this wicked world,' he was perfectly aware of their importance in the eyes of his subjects. A Great Mogul, without gorgeous darbárs, dazzling jewels, a glittering assemblage of armed and richly habited courtiers, and all the pageantry of royal state, would have been inconceivable, or contemptible,
- ↑ The prime authority on Aurangzíb's Court at Delhi is Bernier's Travels. His admirable description, full of the graphic power of an observant eye-witness, has been excellently rendered by Mr. Archibald Constable in his translation (Constable's Oriental Miscellany, vol. i. 1891), which I have been permitted to quote.
