History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v3.c40.s3.3

v3.c40.s3.3

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.