Storia do Mogor 128.2

128.2

Thus did he reward the submissiveness with which the rajah made peace with Bijapur, under conditions favourable to the Mogul court. As a further piece of revenge for the flight of Shiva Ji, Aurangzeb ordered Ram Singh, the rajah's eldest son, to proceed upon the conquest of Assam, simply in the hope of getting rid of him, knowing what had happened there to the great Mir Jumlah. But, on the representations of several princes, he varied the order, and sent him (Ram Singh) to the farther side of the river Indus, to be under the orders of the governor of those lands, wherein to live is a severe punishment to Hindus, as I have already said (I. 223). When the news of Jai Singh's death reached the court, he who brought it believed he was the carrier of melancholy news to Aurangzeb. For the whole country knew the services rendered by the deceased rajah to Aurangzeb and his kingdom, and they supposed that the king could not but grieve greatly for him. But, although it be a truth that the great make no account of their subjects except when they have need of them, and when the service is finished make no payment but in the coin of neglect, Aurangzeb, most completely ungrateful of them all, held it a maxim to withdraw from before his eyes those who had done the most for him. Thus he publicly declared himself rejoiced at the death of that great leader, saying [116] at once to the bearer of the news that his greatest joy consisted in this death of Rajah Jai Singh.