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History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v3.c40: Chapter XXX. The Last Years of Shah Jahan

History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v3.c40

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Chapter XXX. The Last Years of Shah Jahan

§1. Shah Jahan strictly confined in Agra fort.

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When Shah Jahan opened the gates of Agra fort to his victorious son, he became a prisoner for the rest of his life. To the "king of kings" the change was very bitter indeed, and it was only after many a struggle that he accepted it. But, from the circumstances of the case, it was impossible for him to free himself; he was old and infirm; all his officials had deserted to the victor; harem women and eunuchs were the only counsellors and executive instruments left to him. Outside, he was girt round by an unbroken ring of his enemy's guards and watched with sleepless vigilance by his enemy's spies; his loyal son Dara Shukoh was far away beyond the reach of his letters, for his emissaries were all intercepted by Aurangzib's men. A Great Mughal who could not himself ride to battle and had no faithful noble to fight for him, was a superfluity in Nature's economy. He must retire from the stage. This stern law Shah Jahan was slow to admit.

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When, on 8th June, 1658, Prince Muhammad Sultan, on behalf of Aurangzib, first visited the fallen Emperor in Agra fort, he was well received by his grandfather. There is a story that Shah Jahan greatly flattered the young man and urged him to seize the throne and rule as his deputy, promising to lend him the prestige of the lawful Emperor's authority in a war with Aurangzib. But if any such temptation was really offered, Muhammad Sultan was too wise to yield to it. For, he had no independent position or power, he was acting merely as his father's agent, as a channel of communication between Aurangzib and Shah Jahan. He had to report every incident and conversation in the fort to his father very promptly and obey his written directions implicitly at every step of the negotiations with Shah Jahan, and the troops guarding the captive Emperor were under Aurangzib's own orders. No one could visit the ex-Emperor without Aurangzib's permission. The least breach of these precautions brought down on Sultan's head the sharp rebuke of his father.*

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According to another story current at the time and recorded in contemporary histories of secondary value, Shah Jahan invited Aurangzib to Agra fort, intending to have him assassinated by the fierce Tartar women who formed the Amazonian guard of the harem. But the plot, if ever it was formed, proved futile, for treachery of this kind was the first thing to be suspected and guarded against in that age; and Aurangzib's advisers, Shaikh Mir and Shaista Khan in particular, dissuaded him from visiting his incensed father. A slave named Nahar-dil is said to have betrayed the plot and an alleged incriminating letter from Shah Jahan to Dara. (*Ante*, Ch. 17 §7.)

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∗ Muhammad interviews Shah Jahan, Bernier, 62. Muhammad as Shah Jahan's keeper, Adab, 188a & b, ante, Ch. 17 § 7n.

§2. Shah Jahan's futile attempts to regain liberty.

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Shuja's historian, Muhammad Masum, who lived in Bengal and heard only the most distorted versions of Court incidents, records what was probably no better than bazar gossip. According to him, Shah Jahan wrote a letter to Murad urging him to assassinate Aurangzib and Muhammad Sultan at a banquet, release his father and reign in his name; the careless Murad thrust the letter into a book and forgot all about it; but his librarian discovered it and sold the secret to Aurangzib, who promptly removed the danger by imprisoning his younger brother.

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We may reject these stories as false, but there is evidence of the fact that the fallen Emperor continued to address letters to Dara breathing undiminished affection and offering him help and advice. The eunuchs who tried to smuggle these notes out of the fort were intercepted by Aurangzib's men and severely punished. The captive made a last bid for liberty when Shuja was reported to be advancing from Patna to seize Agra. The old Emperor sent out letters blessing the enterprise and calling upon all loyal subjects to rally round his coming deliverer. A letter of encouragement written by him in Hindi reached Shuja, but only to draw that prince on to his doom at Khajwa.*

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All the attempts of Shah Jahan failed, and their only result was to tighten the bonds of his captivity. He became, in effect, a prisoner doomed to the strictest confinement. Immediately on getting possession of Agra fort, Aurangzib had posted a strong body of guards there. Prince Muhammad Sultan was soon afterwards ordered to take up his residence in the fort, and all the houses near it were compulsorily vacated by order of Government and given to the officers of the guard, "so that they might live close to the fort and be present at all hours." (Adab, 188a, 189a.)

§3. Jealous watch kept over Shah Jahan.

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Shah Jahan was now completely ringed round by enemies. No one could interview him except in the company of Muhammad Sultan and with Aurangzib's previous sanction. Every remark made by the captive had to be reported promptly to Aurangzib. The same attitude of suspicion and watchfulness continued to the end. As the Italian gunner Manucci writes, "Going several times into the fort, I noted that the imprisonment of Shah Jahan was closer than can be expressed. There passed not a day, while I and others were in conversation with the governor, that there did not come under-eunuchs to whisper into his ear an account of all the acts and words of Shah Jahan." (*Storia*, ii. 77.)

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∗ Masum, 79a—81a, (alleged letter to Murad). Adab, 262a (ref. to Hindi letter to Shuja; eunuchs smuggling letters out of the fort punished).

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Aurangzib repeatedly asked his father to stop writing letters to people outside, as they only tended "to raise tumults and increase disorder in the realm." Shah Jahan declined, saying in anger, "Am I his son that I should obey his orders? I cannot possibly give up this practice." Aurangzib, therefore, had to take rigorous measures, "by way of precaution, and to destroy the root of the mischief by removing from Shah Jahan's Court the eunuchs who used to smuggle such letters outside." A warning was given to the remaining eunuchs that "if they behaved like Wafa (the offending eunuch), they would suffer like Wafa." Even writing materials were withheld from the captive; whenever he had occasion to write a letter, a particular eunuch who alone could act as clerk had to be summoned, and this man wrote from Shah Jahan's dictation. (*Adab*, 262, 261b.) All such correspondence was open and had necessarily to pass through the hands of the royal jailors. It was now impossible for the deposed Emperor to send out any autograph letter for gaining the belief of his partisans and rousing them to make an effort for his restoration.

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It is very curious that forty years afterwards the same suspicious watch was kept by Aurangzib over his son! Shah Alam had been kept in confinement for years on suspicion of disloyally intriguing with the Deccani Powers, and when he was released and sent to Multan as governor, he was not allowed to take his writing-case with himself to his harem, but it was kept in charge of Aurangzib's female agent and spy (*mahaldar*) who was under orders to attend and watch the prince while writing. (*Anec.* §16.)

§4. Aurangzib's wrangles with Shah Jahan for the jewels in Agra fort.

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The fall of the most magnificent of the Great Mughals was robbed of dignity by Aurangzib's insatiable cupidity. History records many sordid wrangles between father and son for the possession of the crown jewels worn by Shah Jahan or kept in Agra fort. The captive Emperor could never forget that he was their lawful owner and that his son was an usurper without any moral right to State property. To this argument Aurangzib replied, "The royal property and treasures exist for the good of the community, because these pay no tithe... The king is only God's chosen custodian and the trustee of God's money for the benefit of the people." All the crown property in Agra fort, therefore, belonged to him as the reigning sovereign, while Shah Jahan had not only lost his right to them, but, as he had now taken to a life of religious meditation and retirement, even the jewels he wore on his person were unseemly and inconsistent with his present character of a recluse!

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The gossipy Masum tells us that Aurangzib sent his eldest son to beg the Peacock Throne from Shah Jahan, and that the old man, under the pretext of having a last look at it, took away two of its panels which were most richly set with diamonds and rubies, but afterwards gave them up, partly at his grandson's entreaty and partly in fear of violence.

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Again, Dara at the time of his flight had deposited 27 lakhs of Rupees worth of jewels, belonging to his wives and daughters, in the strong room of the ladies' quarters inside Agra fort. Aurangzib demanded their surrender. Shah Jahan long resisted and remonstrated; but at last he yielded them. According to Khafi Khan and Manucci, Aurangzib's greed was insatiable: he asked for the rosary of 100 round pearls,—all of one colour, size and weight,—worth four lakhs of Rupees, and the thumb-ring (arsi) of diamond, which his father constantly wore on his person,—saying that they became a king better than a recluse such as Shah Jahan now was! The deposed Emperor sorrowfully gave up the ring, but said, "I use the rosary in saying my prayers. I shall give it up only after pounding the pearls in a mortar!"—at which Aurangzib desisted.*

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Again, Aurangzib demanded that Dara's women singers should be sent to him "as there is no skilled songstress with me whose music may soothe my heart, and as you have no liking for songs in these days." Shah Jahan flew into a rage at the proposal, but Aurangzib replied, "If your objection is due to their being Dara's concubines, well, other persons of the same class have been taken into my house. What harm is there if his servants live with me?" (Adab, 263b.)

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Immediately after the capitulation of Agra fort (8th June 1658), Aurangzib had sealed up all the rooms of royal apparel, furniture, plate, jewels and treasure,—both those attached to the Hall of Private Audience and also those in other places outside the harem. All the property was ordered to be "attached strictly and with every possible care." The jewels and jewelled ware, in particular, were ordered to be kept constantly under lock and seal in the rooms of the *Ghusal-khanah* in charge of Aurangzib's trusted eunuch Mutamad. They were opened very rarely and always in the presence of that eunuch and the responsible superintendent (*darogha*) and keeper (*tahvildar*), and immediately afterwards locked and sealed with triple seals.

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∗ Dispute about the Peacock Throne, Masum, 77a—79a. Dispute over jewellery, Bernier, 127; Storia, ii. 20-21; K.K. ii. 106. Adab, 261b (in December 1658 Aurangzib thanks Shah Jahan for presenting him with some jewels of Dara). A.N. 662 records, "On 10 Feb. 1662, Shah Jahan sent to Aurangzib jewellery worth 16 lakhs of Rupees." Cf. Bernier, 166; Storia, ii. 117

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At first out of consideration for Shah Jahan's feelings he was allowed to have a look at any of these carefully guarded articles at his pleasure. Prince Muhammad Sultan was directed to omit no caution when opening the store-rooms of the fort for taking anything out for Shah Jahan, but at the same time "to manage the affair in such a way that he might not be pained in mind by the occurrence." Evidently the rooms in the harem portion of the fort were always accessible to the captive, for he now lived within its bounds. Here his drinking vessels were kept.*

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On the departure of Muhammad Sultan, the eunuch Mutamad became all in all and treated Shah Jahan with great harshness and neglect. "He sometimes allowed it to be seen that he treated him (i.e.

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∗ Property in Agra fort how safeguarded, *Adab*, 137 (may be shown to Shah Jahan when desired), 262 (wardrobe), 262b (*abdar-khanah*.)

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Shah Jahan) as a miserable slave. Once an under-eunuch came to tell him that Shah Jahan was in want of slippers. . . The eunuch, immeasurably stingy, sent him shoes neither of eight Rupees nor of four nor of two, but the common leather shoes. He smiled over it as if he had done some great deed...One day he (Shah Jahan) sent him two violins he used, asking for them to be repaired, and sent inside again as quickly as possible. The eunuch did not trouble himself about having them repaired; then three days afterwards Shah Jahan sent to inquire. At this the eunuch flew into a rage." (*Storia*, ii. 77-78.)

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When Khwajah Mamur the keeper of the ex-Emperor's wardrobe died, the rooms of that department were kept sealed up for some days, and Shah Jahan experienced great difficulty and delay in getting a change of apparel, till a successor was appointed.

§5. Bitter correspondence between Aurangzib and his deposed father.

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During the first year of his captivity a very acrimonious correspondence passed between father and son. Throughout the controversy Aurangzib poses as the champion of Islam and good government, as the humble instrument of God in the work of reform and popular beneficence; he condemns his father's incompetent and unjust rule, and defends his own conduct with all the mingled self-righteousness and affected humility of a Pharisee.* To the charge of being an unnatural son and a rebel, he replies thus :

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“So long as you held the reins of government, I never did anything without your permission, nor did I ever step beyond my jurisdiction. The Searcher of Hearts be my witness for this. During your illness Dara usurped all power, girt up his loins to promote Hinduism and destroy Islam, and acted as king, totally setting you aside. The government fell into disorder. None of your servants durst inform you of the true state of the realm......If, God forbid it, the aim of that infidel had succeeded, and the world had been obscured with the gloom of infidelity, and Islam had lost its lustre, it would have been hard [for us] to answer for it on the Last Day.” And, again, “My march on Agra was not due to a rebellious spirit, but to a desire to put an end to Dara’s usurpation, his lapse from Islam and his exaltation of idolatry throughout the empire......I was compelled, out of regard for the next world, to undertake the heavy load of this task and engage in looking after the interests of the populace and peasantry."

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∗ Of this correspondence we possess only the letters of Aurangzib to his father,—eight in number,—given in Adab, 260a—264a. Three of them are reproduced inaccurately in K.K. ii. 101-106, and brief summaries of a few are given by Bernier, 167-168, and Manucci, ii. 19-20. The contents of the letters that Shah Jahan wrote to Aurangzib we can infer from the quotations made from them by the latter before answering them.

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As for the fratricidal war, he ascribes its origin not to his own ambition but to Shah Jahan's partiality to his eldest son and the mortal enmity of his brothers to himself. "Although I heard that the raising of disturbances and the throwing of [my] affairs into confusion were due to your instigation, and that my brothers were acting under your orders, I was not moved by the news, but remained loyal to you.........till I knew for certain that you did not love me but were trying to place some other son in power.........

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If you had not helped in various ways and raised to a position of trust, your eldest son,—whose ability and God-fearing character are probably manifest to you now,—and if, out of regard for him, you had not failed to make any provision for the safety of your other sons, then all the brothers would have lived together peacefully and the fire of civil war would not have blazed forth."

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Aurangzib was convinced that there could be no peace in the realm until Dara and Shuja were driven out of India or sent to share Murad's captivity. He, therefore, had to exercise some of the prerogatives of the crown, such as enlisting officers and granting titles and posts, for, without such means "the work of God and the people" that he had undertaken could not have been carried to a successful end. He had at last "to take up the perilous load of the crown, out of sheer necessity and not from free choice,—for restoring peace and the rules of Islam in the realm so as to be able to answer on the Day of Reckoning, and for saving the people from destruction and the affairs of my ancestral kingdom from confusion."

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His own idea of the king's position and duty is high, even stoical: "Kingship means the protection of the realm and the guardianship (of the people) and not the enjoyment of bodily repose or the lusts of the flesh."

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§6. Aurangzib's self-righteous exultation.

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He points exultantly to his own success against heavy odds, as a proof of God's favour to him and of the righteousness of his cause: "As my aim was good, I gained the victory in spite of my small force, in both the battles (viz., Dharmat and Samugarh.) ......If God had not approved of my enterprise, how could I have gained victories which are only His gifts?"

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Shah Jahan, therefore, as a wise man must submit to the divine dispensation and accept Aurangzib's triumph as the best thing that could have happened to him! "Nothing can happen without God's will. Therefore, this great event is not due to any mortal’s power or will. Why do you, though a wise man, consider another as the author of what is (really) God’s doing? Submit to the will of God, and your sorrows and tribulations will turn into peace and contentment!” Nay more, the deposed Emperor must thank the son that had deposed him: “If you look (at the matter) with eyes of justice, you have no cause of complaint in that I have relieved you of such a heavy load and taken it on my own shoulders and made my (hitherto) free mind the slave of a thousand afflictions and fatigue.”

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In utter scorn for such hypocrisy, Shah Jahan taunted Aurangzib with being a robber of other people’s property, while professing to be a true Musalman. The prince defended his conduct in a lofty strain of idealism: “You have written that it is contrary to the Muslim faith to seize another’s property. Know that the royal property and treasures exist for the good of the people……A kingdom is not a hereditary private property. The king is merely God’s elected custodian and trustee of His money for the good of the subjects.”

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Aurangzib’s harsh and contemptuous references to Dara and Shuja had greatly offended his father, and now his defence of such language touched the fallen old monarch as with a red-hot iron: “How do you still regard the memory of [your brothers] Khusrau and Parviz, whom you did to death before your accession and who had threatened no injury to you?''

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§7. The Nemesis of Aurangzib.

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Next, Shah Jahan warned his cruel son to remember that his sons might treat him as he had treated his own father! Aurangzib's reply breathes the confident self-righteousness of the Pharisee: ''Well, nothing happens without God's will. The fate that you have mentioned overtook (my) elders also. How can I escape from the dispensations of Providence? Every one gets from God a return according to his own intentions, and as my intentions are good, I believe that I shall not get anything but good [from my sons].''

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But Shah Jahan was a truer prophet than his boastful son. The Nemesis of Aurangzib came in the person of his fourth son Muhammad Akbar. When that prince rebelled in 1681, he addressed a bitter and taunting letter to his father,* which bears a striking similarity to Aurangzib's present letters to Shah Jahan. In it Aurangzib is taxed with administrative failure and advised to pass his old age in religious meditation as an atonement for the sin of having deposed his father and murdered two of his brothers. His favour to his eldest son Shah Alam is flung in his teeth, and young Akbar's revolt is justified by the same Pharisaical plea that he had taken on his own shoulders the heavy burden of kingship in order to save the people from ruin and his patrimony from waste in consequence of Aurang-zib's misgovernment! And finally, Aurangzib is asked, with what propriety he could tax Akbar with being an unnatural son when he himself had rebelled against his own father!

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∗ Prince Akbar's taunting letter to Aurangzib in January 1681,—R.A.S. MS. 71, A.S.B. MS. f. 56, and Zahir-ul-insha. Translated in my Studies in Maghal India, 98-106.

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The correspondence between Shah Jahan and his son at last became intolerably bitter, and the latter gave up writing to the ex-Emperor at first in his own hand and then even through his secretaries,—in order, as he says, "to close the path of saying and hearing [such taunts]."

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Thus, in the conflict with the pen Shah Jahan proved no more successful than in the conflict with the sword. At last he bowed to the inevitable and, like a child that cries itself to sleep, he ceased to complain.*

§8. Shah Jahan's last years in prison: life of resignation and devotion.

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He had, indeed, need of resignation to the will of God. Blow after blow fell on his stricken heart.

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∗ Shah Jahan's captive life is best described in Kambu's Amal-i-salih, 18a, 24b-25b. Bernier, 165; Storia, ii. 64-67, 77-78.

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First Dara Shukoh, then Murad Bakhsh, then Sulaiman Shukoh, were done to death by Aurangzib. Shuja and all his children were driven to destruction among the unknown horrors of the land of the Mags. "But in spite of these calamities, he never lost patience or thankfulness to God. In the seven years of his captivity many of his devoted servants were ruined and many other untoward events happened. But to the last day his heart was the home of endurance and steadiness." (Kambu, 24b.)

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Religion gave him solace. His constant companion now was Sayyid Muhammad of Qanauj. This pious man officiated as his chaplain, lector and almoner,—discoursed on the Quran and the Prophet's *Traditions*, conducted prayers at the Court, and conveyed Shah Jahan's gifts to the needy outside. "All the ex-Emperor's time was divided between (professing) obedience to God, prayer, performance of the obligatory religious services with all the *sunun*,—reading the Quran and copying its verses, reciting the *Traditions* or hearing them read, or listening to the histories of the great men of the past.

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Another no less saintly but more tender comforter he had in his daughter Jahanara, whose loving care atoned for the cruelty of all his other offspring and

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Redeemed Nature from the general curse
Which twain had brought her to.

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This princess, a disciple of the saint Mian Mir, now practically led the life of a nun in the harem of Agra fort, nursing her aged and forlorn father with the devotion of a mother and daughter in one, while she also looked after the orphan daughters of Dara and Murad whom she had gathered under her protecting wings. In such spiritual company, freed from all the world's concerns, his heart steeled by every bereavement that Fate could inflict, Shah Jahan prepared himself for the better land. He completely detached himself from this world. Death lost its terrors in his eyes, and even appeared as a welcome release from misery. He loved to discourse on it frequently.

§9. Shah Jahan's last illness and death.

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That deliverance, so wistfully desired but so calmly waited for, came in January 1666. On the 7th of that month, as the effect of rubbing him with a medicated oil, Shah Jahan was seized with a fever. Soon strangury and griping of the stomach supervened. After nine days the obstruction was removed by a surgeon named Brindaban, and the patient felt much relief. But his weakness went on increasing; he had completed 74 years of age and had gone through much hardship in campaigns and rapid marches before his accession to the throne. The intense cold of midwinter lowered his vitality. "His strength was gone; his lips and tongue were parched from drinking cold *sharbat* to allay thirst. Weakness overpowered his limbs; medicine and diet produced no effect."

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Early in the night of Monday, 22nd January, his condition was declared hopeless, and the end was expected any moment. At the news that death was near, Shah Jahan thanked God for all the gifts and favours received in life and proclaimed his resignation to the will of his Maker. With perfect composure, he gave directions for his funeral, offered consolation to his surviving wives, Akbarabadi Mahal and Fathpuri Mahal, his eldest daughter Jahanara, and the other ladies of the harem, who were weeping round his bed, and charged Jahanara to look after her half-sister Purhunar Banu and other women whom his death would leave helpless. Next, he made his will, took leave of his family and servants, giving them his last presents and keepsakes, and ordered the *Quran* to be read. Finally, while the sacred verses were being solemnly intoned, amidst the wail of the women and the sobs of his attendants, Shah Jahan, retaining full consciousness to the last and gazing on the resting-place of his beloved and long-lost Mumtaz Mahal, repeated the Muslim confession of faith, and murmured the prayer, "O God! make my condition good in this world and the next, and save me from the torments of hell-fire!"

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A moment later he sank peacefully into eternal rest.*

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It was a quarter past seven in the evening. The body lay in the octagonal tower (Musamman Burj), where life had departed, in full view of the Taj Mahal, where he wished his mortal remains to mingle with those of his queen. Then, at the order of Jahanara, Radandaz Khan, the commandant of Agra fort, and the eunuch Bahlol came inside the harem quarters, and opening the wicket (khirki) in the gate of the fort, sent men out to call Sayyid Muhammad Qanauji and Qazi Qurban of the City to come and prepare the corpse for burial.

§10. Shah Jahan's funeral.

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At midnight these two arrived and laid on the dead man a heavy fine for having neglected the fasts and prayers of Islam. Then they went to the octagonal tower, made their bow to Jahanara, removed the body to the hall near the tower, bathed and shrouded it and placed it in a sandal-wood coffin.

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Jahanara had wished that the corpse might be taken to the Taj Mahal next day in a grand procession befitting the funeral of an Emperor of Delhi,—"the officers of State carrying the coffin on their shoulders;

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∗ Last illness and death of Shah Jahan, best described in Kambu, 16b—26a, and A.N. 926, 931—932. Bernier, 198; Storia, ii. 125-126 (Jahanara gossip.) K. K. ii. 188 (Jahanara secures her father's pardon for Aurangzib; cf. Storia, ii. 127.)

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all the rich men and nobles of Agra and its environs and all the scholars, theologians, and popular leaders of the capital walking beside the bier with bare heads and feet, and chanting the *credo* and *laud*; the common people in their tens of thousand forming the rear of the procession; gold and silver being scattered on both sides every now and then as they moved on." But it was not to be. Aurangzib had not cared to come to his dying father's side, nor to send instructions for his funeral, and even his delegate, Prince Muazzam, had started too late to arrive in time for the ceremony. "Jahanara was powerless, the ordering of the affair was in the hands of others;" and so the most magnificent of the Mughal emperors had to be carried to his last resting-place on earth "by a few men—eunuchs and the like, in a manner unlike the funeral of other emperors and unworthy of his ancestry."

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The officers in the fort broke open the door at the base of the staircase of the tower, which had been walled up during Shah Jahan's captivity, and took the coffin out. Passing through the gate of the outermost enclosure, opposite that door, they reached the open plain outside the fort. Here Hushdar Khan, the *subahdar* of Agra, with the local officers joined them, and led the party to the riverside at dawn. Then, conveying the coffin over the Jamuna in a boat, they reached the Taj Mahal.

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Here the qazis, respectable men, leading citizens, scholars and holy men of Agra had assembled. They read the funeral prayer over the corpse at noon and taking it inside the dome of the Taj Mahal buried it by the side of all that remained on earth of Mumtaz Mahal.*

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The public grief at the death of Shah Jahan was universal and sincere. All his virtues were told over again and his few faults forgotten. He had been a good ruler, as kind to his subjects as to his family, stern in punishing oppressive tax-collectors and governors, and erring, if at all, on the side of excessive leniency. His Court had been magnificent beyond comparison and his public buildings were the pride of the age. At his death "the cry of lamentation rose up from every house in the lanes and market-places alike."†

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Nearly a month after the event Aurangzib came to Agra and visited Jahanara, whom he showed every courtesy and favour, and promised to allow as much influence and honour as she had enjoyed in her father's reign. During the last days of Shah Jahan, her entreaties had conquered his just resentment and he had at last signed, after many previous refusals, a pardon to Aurangzib for the wrongs he had done to him.

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∗ Funeral of Shah Jahan, Kambu, 26a; A.N. 932—934; Aqil Kh. 108; Storia, ii. 126. † Character and popularity of Shah Jahan, Kambu, 27a; K.K. ii. 187; Dilkasha, 51.

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§11. Public opinion on Aurangzib’s treatment of his father.

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Aurangzib’s treatment of his father outraged not only the moral sense but also the social decorum of the age.* Rebellion against a reigning father was the curse of the Mughal imperial family. Jahangir had risen against Akbar’s Government and Shah Jahan against that of Jahangir. They had unhesitatingly encountered and even slain their fathers’ generals or rival brothers, but shrunk from facing their fathers in battle. At the arrival of the emperor in person the rebellious prince had either made his submission or fled in shame. But Aurangzib’s ambition had ridden over decency and the established conventions of society. Hence, he now came to be

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*Opinion of Amanat Khan Khwafi, diwan of Lahor, in M. U. i. 14. Khush-hal Khan Khattak (Biddulph, 54) sang of Aurangzib: "Such is the grief that he brought on the house of his own father, Arabia and Persia alike are confounded at his deeds. Who has heard of such deeds among the descendants of Adam?" Mecca opinion in Storia, ii. 3. Opinion of a former Qazi-ul-quzat (Mirat-i-Ahmadi, 216). Shah Abbas II.’s opinion, ante p. 111. Aurangzib’s letter of condolence to Jahanara on hearing of Shah Jahan’s death and her reply are given in the Ruqat-i-Hamid-ud-din Khan (my second MS.), pp. 133 and 155.

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execrated by the public as a bold bad man, without fear, without pity, without shame.

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To recover public respect, he had to pose as the champion of Islamic orthodoxy, as the reluctant and compelled instrument of the divine will in a mission of much needed religious reform. Hence he displayed extreme zeal in restoring the ordinances of pure Islam and removing heretical innovations, that the people might forget his past conduct as a son and as a brother, till at last his Court historian could write of him, "His imperial robe of state thinly veiled the *darvish's* frock that he wore beneath it." (*M.A.* 333.)

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