History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v3.c40.s1: §1. Shah Jahan strictly confined in Agra fort.
History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v3.c40.s1
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§1. Shah Jahan strictly confined in Agra fort.
v3.c40.s1.1
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.
v3.c40.s1.2
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.*
v3.c40.s1.3
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.)
v3.c40.s1.4
∗ Muhammad interviews Shah Jahan, Bernier, 62. Muhammad as Shah Jahan's keeper, Adab, 188a & b, ante, Ch. 17 § 7n.