ABSTRACT
In spite of much constant maladministration, in spite of occasional convulsions which shook the whole frame of society, this great monarchy, on the whole, retained, during some generations, an outward appearance of unity, majesty, and energy. Bernier reached India in time to witness the death-grapple between the four sons of Shah Jahan for the throne which had not yet been vacated by him. In 1657 Shah Jahan's sins at last found him out. In that year an illness, induced by a life of continual excess and debauchery, struck him down, and though he subsequently rallied, it was too late. Scarcely a man, of all those whom he had raised to affluence and power, dared to uphold the cause of the slighted emperor. It is a universal tendency in frail humanity to desert the losing side; but in the case of a fallen Mogul prince it was nothing less than political and social suicide.
