Page:History of India Vol 5.djvu/405

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

THE DEATH OF AUKANGZIB 347 later the king breathed his last and thus was fulfilled his wish to die on a Friday. Great was the grief among all classes of people for the king's death. The shafts of adversity had demol- ished the edifice of their hopes, and the night of sorrow darkened the joyful noonday. Holy men prepared to perform the funeral rites and kept the corpse in the sleeping apartment pending the arrival of Prince Mo- hammad A'zam, who was twenty-five leagues distant from the camp. The prince arrived the following day and it is impossible to describe the grief that was depicted on his countenance; never had anything like it been beheld. On Monday he assisted in carrying the corpse through the hall of justice, whence the proces- sion went on without him. May none ever experience the anguish that he felt. People sympathized with the prince's sorrow and shed torrents of tears. Such and so deeply felt were the lamentations for a monarch whose genius only equalled his piety, whose equal the world did not contain, but whose luminous countenance was now hidden from his loving people! According to the will of the deceased king, his mor- tal remains were deposited in the tomb constructed during his lifetime near the shrine of the holy Shaikh Zain-ad-din (the mercy of God be upon him!). This place of sepulture, known by the name of Khuldabad, is eight leagues distant from Khujista-bunyad (Au- rangabad) and three leagues from Daulatabad. A red stone three yards in length, two in width, and a few inches in depth, is placed above the tomb. In this stone