num; and resigning his office at court retired to his jageer of Belgam with all his family, and Ismael Khan Deccany was raised to the office of prime minister in his stead. *

Mulloo Adil Shah, free from all restraint, abandoned himself to excess as to women, wine, music, dancing, and low vices; in the indulgence of which he spent the whole of his time, leaving the direction of his affairs to a few profligate favourites. His conduct soon became offensive to all the respectable part of his subjects, whose children, if they pleased him, he seized by force, and dragged to his palace for shameful purposes. At length, he insisted on having one of the children of Yoosoof Khan, a Turkish nobleman of rank, sent to him. Yoosoof Khan refused compliance; and the King became so incensed, that he sent some of his guards, with orders, if Yoosoof Khan persisted in his refusal to bring his head. Yoosoof Khan being prepared for resistance repulsed the soldiers, and on the same day retired, in spite of great opposition, to his own jageer of Kittoor, with all his family and followers. Other persons of distinction soon followed his example, left court, and repaired to their estates; but the King took no notice of these indications of revolt, nor did he alter his conduct.

The Dowager Booboojee Khanum, mother to the late king, equally offended at the King's shameful vices, resolved to depose him, and wrote

* The value and authenticity of the Mahomedan historian will be fully appreciated by all those readers who take the trouble to consult the confused Portuguese accounts of these

events.

to Yoosoof Khan, that as Mulloo Adil Shah was unworthy to reign, she wished he would assist her in dethroning him, and in elevating his younger brother Ibrahim to the musnud. Yoosoof Khan, despatching one of his friends to Belgam, informed Assud Khan, that owing to the tyranny of Mulloo Adil Shah he had fled from Beejapoor, and explained the overtures made to him by the Dowagerqueen. Assud Khan, in reply, observed, that as the conduct of the King had disgusted all ranks, the safety and honour of the state required that he should follow the council of Booboojee Khanum without delay; on which Yoosoof Khan sent back the Queen's messengers with assurances of implicit compliance with her commands; and shortly after, on a day fixed on between them, he arrived by forced marches at Beejapoor, and suddenly entered the citadel with two hundred armed soldiers. Noor Khan, the commander of the garrison, made little opposition. Mulloo Adil Shah was seized, and blinded, by orders of his grandmother, together with his youngest brother, Alloo Khan, after an inglorious reign of only six months. The Prince Ibrahim was immediately after seated on the throne, amid the acclamations of the nobles and the people.

78

IBRAHIM ADIL SHAH I.

The King proscribes foreigners from his court, with a very few exceptions—he entertains thirty thousand cavalry, composed of the inhabitants of the Deccan causes the accounts of government to be kept in the language of the Deccan. History of the civil war in the government of Beejanuggur. - Accession of the minister Ramraj to the throne - his title is disputed by Ibrahim Adil Shah.. War ensues, which ends in favour of the Hindoos. - Ibrahim Adil Shah becomes jealous of his minister and general Assud Khan. The kings of AhmudThe nuggur and Bidur unite against Ibrahim Adil Shah. King of Berar mediates a peace between the parties, and Ibrahim becomes reconciled to his minister. Serious confederacy of the kings of Ahmudnuggur and Golconda, and the Raja of Beejanuggur, against Ibrahim Adil Shah. - The Prince Abdoolla flies to the Portuguese at Goa, and induces them to promise him aid to dethrone the King. The Prince Abdoolla is taken, and suffers death. War with the King of Ahmudnuggur, during which he dies. War continued with

his successor.— - Death of Ibrahim Adil Shah.

IBRAHIM ADIL SHAH, on his accession to the throne, having rejected the names of the Imams from the Khootba, restored the exercise of the Soony rites, and commanded that no person should in future wear the scarlet cap of twelve points, which had been adopted by all the troops of his father, in imitation of the Persians. Instead of foreign troops he enlisted Deccanies in his service, and permitted only four hundred foreigners to remain in his body-guard. All the foreign officers, with the exception of Assud Khan Lary, Khoosh Geldy

Agha, Roomy Khan, and Shoojat Khan Koord, were degraded, and Deccanies and Abyssinians were promoted in their stead. All the foreign troops which were thus dismissed entered into the service of different princes. Ramraj, the Hindoo Prince of Beejanuggur, entertained three thousand of them; and in order to reconcile them to the act of making obeisance to him, he caused a Koran to be placed before him when they came to pay their respects; which enabled them to do so without a breach of the ordinances of their religion.

Ibrahim Adil Shah, by this new regulation, created an army of thirty thousand cavalry composed of men who rode the King's horses. The

Some observations on the constitution of the Indian governments may be necessary in this place. Each Hindoo principality seems to have been originally subdivided among the great military officers of the state, whose administration was regulated on some generally fixed principles, but the details of which did not come under the direct cognisance of the head of the government. The Mahomedans, at a very early period, fell into the same practice, and each governor of a province was at the same time a military leader and a civil ruler. One portion of the estimated revenue was set aside for the civil expenses, a second portion for the governor's establishment, and the balance was made applicable for the support of the troops. These were enlisted wholly on the responsibility of the governor, and consisted chiefly of cavalry. This latter body was composed of silehdars, literally, mail-clad, or men at arms, and bargeers: the latter seem to have been like the squires of the feudal time in Europe, retainers of the silehdars, or knights. The word bargeer, "one who has charge of baggage," is sometimes changed to bangeer, literally, rocketeer, because, in later times, they carried rockets on their horses, and were employed in night-attacks to harass an enemy. The silehdars were the owners of their own horses, and supplied them to their bargeers, or retainers.

customs which prevailed in the reign of Ismael Adil Shah were wholly laid aside; and the public accounts, formerly kept in Persian, were now written in Hindvy, under the management of bramins, who soon acquired great influence in his government. Assud Khan was ordered to enlist Deccanies in his service, and to adopt the Soony faith. Out of a thousand foreigners, he discharged six hundred, but refused to change his persuasion, and both in his camp and on his own jageer he publicly exercised the Sheea ceremonies, an indulgence the King thought it prudent to allow. The year after his accession, the King led his army to Beejanuggur, on the requisition of the Ray; but before the particulars of the expedition are recited, it is necessary to relate the causes which led to it, and to give some account of the revolutions which had taken place at that court.

The government of Beejanuggur had remained in one family in uninterrupted succession for seven hundred years, when Shew Ray dying, he was succeeded by his son a minor, who did not long survive him, and left the throne to a younger brother. Not long after, he died also, leaving an infant only three months old. Timraj, one of the principal ministers of the family, celebrated

In order to insure the fidelity of the governors of provinces, each governor maintained a portion of his followers at court, under the command of his eldest son or nearest relative; and the king preserved his own dignity and strength with the aid of a formidable body of household troops (frequently foreigners), who were entirely dependent on the crown.