History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v1.c5.36

v1.c5.36

But their lot was happy in comparison. Happy too was Rani Parvati, Bir Singh’s widow, who died of her wounds. A more terrible fate awaited the captive ladies who survived: mothers and daughters of kings, they were robbed of their religion, and forced to lead the infamous life of the Mughal harem,[*]—to be the unloved plaything of their master’s passion for a day or two and then to be doomed to sigh out their days like bondwomen, without knowing the dignity of a wife or the joy of a mother. Sweeter far for them would have been death from the hands of their dear ones than submission to a race that knew no generosity to the fallen, no chivalry to the weaker sex.