History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v1.c3.16

v1.c3.16

Most fortunately, for several portions of Aurangzib’s reign I have been able to secure the very raw materials of history,—a source of information even more valuable than the contemporary official annals described above. These are the LETTERS of the actors in the political drama of the 17th century, of which nearly three thousand are in my possession. In them we see events as they happened day by day, and not as they were dressed up afterwards by writers with a purpose. In them we see the actual hopes and fears, plans and opinions of those who made Indian history. To this class belong the letters of Aurangzib (forming many different and bulky collections, to be described in the bibliography), of his father, brothers and sisters (in the Faiyaz-ul-qawanin, Lucknow MS.), of Jai Singh (in the Haft Anjuman, Benares MS.), of Aurangzib’s fourth son Prince Akbar (in the Adab-i-Alamgiri, the Zahur-ul-insha, and the Khatut-i-Shivaji), of Shah Abbas II. (in a MS. picked up by me in the Lucknow bazar), the Mughal-Maratha correspondence in the Khatut-i-Shivaji, and the letters of various officials such as Nur-ul-Hassan, Radandaz Khan, and Lutfullah Khan, besides several miscellaneous collections in the libraries of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, the India Office of London, and the Nawab of Rampur. Mr. P. V. Mawji of Bombay has collected some Persian letters addressed to Shivaji and his father, but he has declined to let other scholars use them.