260
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[SEPt. 6, 1872.
and Mumtāz Mahall); other wives had the titles
Afghāns, when the royal power was on a firmer
of Begum, Báná, Khánum, Gáhibah, and Bibi, and were by outsiders and at court often geo
basis.
graphically distinguished as Akbarābādi Mahall (the Agrah Lady), Aurangābādi Mahall, &c. Within the harem the principal queens held dar bars and conferred titles. Standing epithets were also common ; thus Akbar's mother is in
variably called Mariam Makſinė (holding the
The title
of ‘khánkhánán'
was
the
highest, and “Khán Jahán' was the second in rank. Under the Mughuls, the Pádishah was considered the sole fountain of honours, and the
power of the nobles being limited and confined, they were anxious to obtain personal distinctions for which formerly there had been no need. The Mughul emperors considered themselves
rank of the Virgin Mary); Jahāngir's mother,
the lawful rulers of the whole of India.
a Hindú princess, Mariam uzzamón (the Mary of the age); Mumtāz Mahall, Mahdi 'alyti (the high cradle); Odham Bái, the mother of Ahmad Sháh, Góhibah Zamāni (the Lady of the age), &c. The grandees, as mentioned above, had the title of malik before the Mughuls. The early kings of Dihli rarely conferred titles as personal
existing dynasties in the Dak’hin, or Hindú răjes, were invariably ascribed to the fact that Timur left India; and the founders of dynasties
distinctions. There were, of course, titles at tached to officers, as vazir, finance minister ;
4khurbak (for ſikhurbeg), master of the horse; dād bak, chief justice; barbak, master of ceremonies; 'driz, presenter of applications; sarjándºr, quarter-master general ; shihnah-i-pil, master of the elephants; dabir, councillor; barid (the Latin weredus), the court intelligencer; kotwil bak, the commandant of the capital and the
were only successful rebels.
The
Thus there was a
constant reason for attacking and reducing in dependent states and restoring the empire to its old limits. The titles and rights of indepen dent kings were never acknowledged by the Mughul emperors; the kings of the Dak'hin are never even called ‘Sultáns,’ and had to be satis
fied with general epithets as hikim, wall, marzbān, or dunyadir (holders of worldly pro perty—a word successfully coined by Abulfazl), and no Hindú Rajah was called otherwise than zamindår, until he had made his submission,
when he received the title of Rajah from the
palace; the Cadr-i-jahán, who conferred lands
emperor and entered the service of the Mançab
as madadma'dish, ranking as highest authority in law matters and higher than all Maliks and Princes; Vakil dar, or Vakil-i-dar, the Vakil of the ‘Porte,’ and many more; but with the exception of titles conferred on princes, I think
dárs. From the time of Akbar, the succession in Hindú reigning families required the sanction
but few Maliks in the beginning of the Dihli empire got titles. It was as if the idea still lingered among the courtiers that the Khalifah alone was the fountain of honours.
This did not
of the emperor, and the tilak, (or qashqah, as the Muhammadans called it) was, in the case of great Rájahs, put on by the Emperor himself. Aurangzib, from religious motives, abolished the custom *
The Hindús had
different
titles from the
and inscriptions shew that they even assumed the epithets of royalty, leaving the emperors
Muhammadans, viz.: Ráná, Mahārājah, Ráo, Ráwul, Rájah, Räi, Rái Rāyan, Jám, &c. These titles were conferred. ‘Mahārājah' occurs rarely and only in later times; but Rájahs often assumed it or were so called by their subjects. There is no case on record that the title of Khán was ever conferred on a Hindú, though many assumed it or made it part of
nothing but the khutbah and sikkah, the honour
their names; and similarly, the title of Rájah
of the Friday prayer and the right of striking
was never ‘conferred on Muhammadans, though now-a-days there exist a few Muhammadan Rājahs.f Epithets also occur; thus—Mán Singh was called ‘Farzand', or ‘son’; several
prevent the Maliks from assuming titles as Zafar Khán (a favourite title), Nuçrat Khán, &c., and poets and flattering dependents may have given currency to such assumptions. The power of the Maliks was almost absolute,
coins.
From the time of 'Alā'uddin and Firüz
sháh titles become more common, and are a re cognized institution under the Lodis and the
- It had formerly been customary with the emperors to
put the washqah with their own hands on the foreheads of
i. Rājahs, and in the present
reign [Aurangzib's] Asad Shán had been ordered to put it on Rûm Singh : but now
the custom was abolished, and
Rājahs
were directed to
make the taslim.— Madsir i 'A'lamgiri, p. 176. . The taslim or salam, usual at the Dihli court, consisted
in placing the upper surface of the right hand near the
ground, the body being bent forward, and then raising the hand slowly to the forehead. When Sháhjahān, on his accession, abolished the prostration, which Akbar had introduced and Jahāngir retained, the taslin was performed four times.
+ An older example is Rájah 'Ali Khán of Khándesh
under Akbar. In MSS. his name is often corrupted by well-meaning copyists to Raji Alikhan—raji in Arabic means ‘hoping'. -
