History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v1.c19.60

v1.c19.60

Mir Jumla returned to Aurangabad about 1st January, 1658, avowing that he was going to Agra to wait on the Emperor. But a plot had been already contrived between him and Aurangzib, and a little play was acted to save the Mir's family at the capital from Dara's vengeance. Mir Jumla feigned fear of Aurangzib's intentions and refused to see him, saying, "As I have been ordered by the Emperor to go to him, I have no choice but to obey." Aurangzib sent him a friendly message through his son Muhammad Sultan, "to drive all suspicion out of his mind" and to persuade him to visit the Prince in order to receive an important oral message for the Emperor. As soon as Mir Jumla entered the chamber of Aurangzib, he was arrested at a preconcerted signal,* and all his property and artillery seized by Aurangzib in the name of the State. But the mask had not yet been thrown off, and so Aurangzib gave an ostensible reason for this act: he publicly announced that Mir Jumla was thus punished because he had not sufficiently exerted himself against Bijapur and was in secret collusion with the two Deccani sultans! But his real motive comes out in the letter which he wrote to the Mir after defeating Dara, when he set him free and said, "You insisted on going back to the Court at an inconvenient time in spite of my urging you to the contrary."† The captive wazir was lodged in the prison-fort of Daulatabad, to be released, restored to his property, and promoted to the highest rank of the nobility with the honoured titles of Premier Peer (Khan-i-khanan) and Faithful Friend (Yar-i-wafadar), as soon as Aurangzib made himself Emperor.[*]