History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v3.c36.s3.3

v3.c36.s3.3

At last in the afternoon of 12th May, a fever seized him; he went to the Private Audience as usual, but was forced in a few minutes to retire to the harem. Next day his temperature rose; the doctors who bled him let so much blood out that he became extremely weak; his agony was frightful; the fever-heat "scorched him like the rays of the sun"; at times he fell into fits of insensibility and a deadly pallor spread over his face. Weeping women surrounded his couch, expecting the end at any moment. The greatest anxiety and distraction reigned in the palace and the capital, and the evil was aggravated by the rival movements of his sons to gain adherents and secure their own succession. His sister Raushanara, who ruled the harem in reward of having supported him during the War of Succession, is said to have usurped the charge of the sick man and excluded all save her own friends from his bedside. Even Aurangzib’s queen Nawab Bai, the mother of his second son, was dragged away by the hair from her husband’s chamber by Raushanara during the crisis of the disease. The people of Delhi were in wild terror at the prospect of war and rapine as soon as the supreme authority would close his eyes. One man rule is not an unmixed blessing.