Storia do Mogor 65.20.8

65.20.8

The reasons why no one declared that Dara must win in the struggle appear to me to be the following : Because Shahjahan meddled a great deal with the wives of the nobles, who awaited such a good opening as this to take their revenge for the insults they had received, by handing him over to Aurangzeb, his deadly enemy ; that if Dara had a failing [183], it was not to conciliate the great nobles and win them over to be his friends. The chief reason of all for his misfortunes was, however, that Sulaiman Shukoh would not listen to the advice of Rajah Jai Singh, but increased his distance from the court, and was thus unable to rejoin at headquarters in time. Thereby the best men that Dara had among his troops were lost to him. The greater number of the soldiers that Dara had newly enlisted were not very warlike; they were butchers, barbers, blacksmiths, carpenters, tailors, and such-like. It is true that on their horses and with their arms, they looked well at a review; but they had no heart and knew nothing of war. If only Sulaiman Shukoh had arrived in time, there would have been no need of men like these, nor of Khalilullah Khan. The wife of the latter had warned Dara to put no reliance on her husband nor trust his soft speeches, for she knew him well, and given the occasion, he would inevitably engineer some treachery. Nor should he rely upon the thirty thousand Mogul troopers in his father's service.