A History of the Mahrattas v1.c18.48

v1.c18.48

² I had fallen into the mistake of my predecessors, by writing the name Oudepooree; but I learn from my friend Major Tod, the best authority for information respecting the Rajpoots, that she was not a princess of Oudepoor, but of Kishengurh, a minor division of Joudpoor; and that the name, by which she was known, was Joudpooree. [Tod’s statement conflicts with a letter written by Aurangzeb to Kām Bakhsh, in which he says: ‘Udepuri, your mother, was with me in my sickness. She intends to accompany me’ (Bilimoria, Letters of Aurangzeb, 1908). The letter is also printed in the Appendix to Waring’s A History of the Mahrattas (1810), pp. 208-9, where the words are rendered as follows: ‘Odipooree, your mother, was a partner in my illness, and wishes to accompany me in death; but everything has its appointed time.’ Dr. V. A. Smith writes that ‘she was not so-called because she belonged to the Udaipur family. According to Manucci (Irwin), i. 361, she was a Georgian by birth, and had been in the harem of Dārā Shikoh. She is called Udaipuri in the Maāsir-i-Alamgiri (Elliot and Dowson), vii. 196). I believe she was so called because Aurangzeb met or married her at Udaipur. Grant Duff’s note is erroneous.’ See also J. Sarkar, A History of Aurangzib, i. 64; Tod’s Annals, &c., ed. Crooke (1919), i. 440; Orme, Fragments, 119.]