A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day c20.s1.45

c20.s1.45

When Shahjahān began to grow old, his four sons, each eager to secure for himself the succession to the throne, engaged in bitter, internecine strife. Aurangzēb, the third son, a master of craft and guile, won the prize, imprisoned his father, and assumed power in 1658. Dārā Shukoh, his eldest brother, doubly hateful as a rival and a heretic, was pursued to the death with unrelenting rigour. Driven into the deserts of Sind, he was foully betrayed, and, to augment his affliction, before reaching the house of his betrayer, ‘received by a foot messenger the sad intelligence of the death of that one of his wives whom he loved most, and who had accompanied him always during his misfortunes. He learnt that she had died of heat and thirst, not being able to find a drop of water in the country to assuage her thirst. The Prince was so affected by the news that he fell as though he were dead.’³