History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v1.c7.25

v1.c7.25

Her death removed the last rival of Aurangzib’s youngest and best loved concubine, Udipuri Mahal, the mother of Kam Bakhsh. The contemporary Venetian traveller Manucci speaks of her as a Georgian slave-girl of Dara Shukoh’s harem, who, on the downfall of her first master, became the concubine of his victorious rival.* She seems to have been a very young woman at the time, as she first became a mother in 1667, when Aurangzib was verging on fifty. She retained her youth and influence over the Emperor till his death, and was the darling of his old age. Under the spell of her beauty he pardoned the many faults of Kam Bakhsh and overlooked her freaks of drunkenness,† which must have shocked so pious a Muslim.‡