On the 12th, afar Khān, who had been removed from the Subah of Behar, came and waited on me, and made an offering of 100 muhrs, as well as three elephants. On the 15th of Day I increased the mansab of Qāsim Khān, the Subahdar of Bengal, by 1,000 personal and horse, so as to make it 4,000 personal and horse. As the diwan and bakhshi of Bengal, Ḥusain Beg and āhir, had not done approved service, Mukhliṣ Khān, who was one of the confidential servants of the Court, was nominated to these duties. I conferred on him a mansab of 2,000 personal and 700 horse, and also gave him a standard. The duty of ‘arẓ-mukarrir (reviser of petitions) I ordered to be given to Dayānat Khān. On the 25th, Friday, the weighing of my son Khurram took place. Up to the present year, when he is 24 years old, and is married and has children, he has never defiled himself with drinking wine. On this day, when the assembly for his weighing was held, I said to him: “Bābā, thou hast become the father of children, and kings and kings' sons have drunk wine. To-day, which is the day of thy being weighed, I will give thee wine to drink, and give thee leave to drink it on feast days and at the time of the New Year, and at all great festivals. But thou must observe the path of moderation, for wise men do not consider it right to drink to such an extent as to destroy the understanding, and it is necessary that from drinking only profit should be derived.” Bū ‘Alī (Avicenna), who is one of the most learned of hakims and physicians, has written this quatrain—

“Wine is a raging enemy, a prudent friend;
A little is an antidote, but much a snake's poison.
In much there is no little injury,
In a little there is much profit.”

With much trouble wine was given to him. I had not drunk it till I was 15* years old, except when in the time of my infancy two or three times my mother and wet-nurses gave it by way of infantile remedy. They asked for a little spirit from my revered father, and gave it me to the extent of a tola mixed with water and rosewater to take away a cough, designating it as medicine. At the time when the camp of my revered father had been pitched in order to put down the disturbance of Yūsufza'e Afghans at the fort of Attock, which is on the bank of the Nīlāb (Indus) River, one day I had mounted to go out to hunt. When I had moved about a good deal and the signs of weariness had set in, a gunner of the name of Ustād Shāh-qulī, a wonderful gunner out of those under my revered uncle Mīrzā Muḥammad Ḥakīm, said to me that if I would take a cup of wine it would drive away the feeling of being tired and heavy. It was in the time of my youth, and as I felt disposed towards it I ordered Maḥmūd, the Āb-dār (person in charge of drinking water, etc.), to go to the house of Ḥakīm ‘Alī and bring me an intoxicating draught. He sent me* the amount of one and a half cups of yellow wine of a sweet taste in a little bottle. I drank it, and found its quality agreeable. After that I took to drinking wine, and increased it from day to day until wine made from grapes ceased to intoxicate me, and I took to drinking arrack (‘araq, spirits), and by degrees during nine years my potions rose to twenty cups of doubly distilled spirits, fourteen during the daytime and the remainder at night. The weight of this was six Hindustani sirs or one and a half maunds of Iran. The extent of my eating in those days was a fowl* with bread and vegetables (lit. radish).* In that state of matters no one had the power to forbid me, and matters went to such a length that in the crapulous state from the excessive trembling of my hand I could not drink from my own cup, but others had to give it me to drink, until I sent for Ḥakīm Humām, brother of Ḥakīm Abū-l-fatḥ, who was of the most intimate with my revered father, and informed him of my state. He, with excessive sincerity and unfeigned burning of heart, said to me without hesitation, “Lord of the world, by the way in which you drink spirits, God forbid it, but in six months matters will come to such a pass that there will be no remedy for it.” As his words were said out of pure good-will, and sweet life was dear to me, they made an impression on me, and from that day I began to lessen my allowance and set myself to take filūnīyā.* In proportion as I diminished my liquor, I increased the amount of filuniya.

I also ordered that the arrack should be diluted with wine of the grape so that there should be two parts wine and one part arrack. Every day I diminished the quantity I took, and in the course of seven years I brought it down to six cups. The weight of each cupful was 18 1/4 misqals. It is now fifteen years that I have drunk at this rate, neither more nor less. And my drinking time is the night except on the day of Thursdays, as it is the day of the blessed accession. Also on the eve* of Friday, which is the most blessed eve of the week, and is the prelude to a blessed day (I do not drink). I drink at the end of each day with these two* exceptions, for it does not appear right that this eve (Thursday night) should be spent in neglect, and that there should be an omission (on Friday) of returning thanks to the True Benefactor. On the day of Thursday and on the day of Sunday I do not eat meat. Not on Thursday, because it is the day of my auspicious accession, and not on Sunday, because it is the birthday of my revered father, and he greatly honoured and held dear the day. After some time I substituted opium for filuniya. Now that my age has arrived at 46 solar years and 4 months, I eat eight surkhs (a red berry used as a weight) of opium when five gharis of day have passed, and six surkhs after one watch of night.

I gave a jewelled dagger to ‘Abdu-llah Khān by the hand of Maqṣūd ‘Alī. Shaikh Mūsā, a relation of Qāsim Khān, was dignified with the title of Khān, and pro­moted to the mansab of 800 personal and 400 horse, and was allowed to go to Bengal. The mansab of afar Khān was increased to 500 personal and horse, and he was appointed to duty in Bangash. On the same day Muḥammad Ḥusain, brother of Khwāja Jahān, was given the faujdarship of the Sarkar of Ḥiṣṣār and dis­missed, his mansab being increased by 200 horse to raise it to 500 personal and 400 horse, with the gift of an elephant. On the 5th Bahman an elephant was conferred on Mīr Mīrān. When the merchant ‘Abdu-l-Karīm left Iran for Hindustan, my exalted brother Shāh ‘Abbās sent me by his hand a rosary of cornelian from Yemen and a cup of Venetian workmanship, which was very fine and rare. On the 9th of the same month they were laid before me. On the 18th some offerings of many kinds of jewelled ornaments, etc., which Sulān Parwīz had sent to me, were laid before me. On the 7th Isfan-dārmu z, Ṣādiq, nephew of I‘timādu-d-daulah, who was permanently employed as Bakhshi, was honoured with the title of Khān. I had also conferred this title on Khwāja ‘Abdu-l-‘Azīz. According to what was right, I called him by the title of ‘Abdu-l-‘Azīz Khān and Ṣādiq by that of Ṣādiq Khān. On the 10th, Jagat Singh, son of Kunwar Karan, who had obtained leave to go to his native country, when he took leave was presented with 20,000 rupees, a horse, an elephant, a dress of honour, and a special shawl. Five thousand rupees, a horse, and a dress of honour were also given to Haridās Jhālā, who was one of the confidants of the Rānā and tutor to Karan's son. By his hand I also sent a mace of gold (shashparī) for the Rānā.

On the 20th of the same month, Rāja Sūraj Singh, son of Rāja Bāso, who on account of the nearness of his dwelling-place to it had been sent with Murtaẓā Khān to capture the fort of Kāngra, came on my summons and waited on me. The aforesaid Khān had entertained certain suspicions with regard to him, and on this account, considering him an undesirable companion, had repeatedly sent petitions to the Court, and wrote things about him until an order was received to summon him.