DEATH OF MUZAFAR SHAH

attack, and were given back Morvi, which district had
formerly belonged to him. The Viceroy acquiesced in
these terms, and Muzafar Shah was captured and sent
back across the Rann in custody of a guard of Moghal
troops which had been sent to secure him. The Viceroy,
however, was yet destined to be cheated of his quarry,
for while on the journey, after reaching Dhrol, Muzafar
Shah obtained possession of a razor and cut his throat.
His head was sent to Delhi for the Emperor to see, and
the Viceroy journeyed to Verawal, where he took ship
with the object of performing a pilgrimage to Mecca.

With Muzafar Shah's death in A.D. 1592 another short
period of peace ensued in Saurashtra, and the oppor-
tunity was taken of effecting some reforms. One of
these which came as a great boon to the cultivating
classes was to the effect that of all produce, the State
should take half, and half should be left to the cultivator.
Five per cent, as dues was to be deducted from each
share equally, and no other taxes of any kind were to
be levied. It can be easily imagined that after so much
turmoil and fighting throughout the peninsula, reforms
such as the above must have come as a godsend to the
classes which perforce had suffered most severely in
quarrels which did not at all concern them, and of the
causes of which in all probability they knew nothing.

The great Emperor Akbar died in A.D. 1605, and
after he had been buried at the Sikandra Bagh, near
Agra, with great simplicity, his son Jehangir ascended
the throne of Delhi. He came no nearer to Saurashtra
than Ahmadabad, which place he visited in A.D. 1616,
and so thoroughly disliked it that he never again went
to that part of his dependencies.

In A.D. 1608 Chandrasinhji Jhala, who had inherited
Jhalawad from his father Raisinhji, on the latter9 s death
in A.D. 1584 became the object of the first of a series
of attacks made upon him by Jam Jasaji of Nawanagar.

Ill