History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v4.c68.s3: § 3. Shah Alam's offences.
History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v4.c68.s3
- Language
- English
§ 3. Shah Alam's offences.
v4.c68.s3.1
The siege began under the Emperor's own eyes, but at the very outset his arms were paralysed by a conflict of policy and a bitter personal jealousy in his camp. The greatest sinner in this respect was his eldest surviving son and intended heir, Shah Alam. This Prince was of a soft pleasure-loving nature, and constitutionally averse to strenuous exertion and heroic enterprise. He did not wish to see a brother sovereign like Abul Hasan utterly ruined. This generous impulse was mingled with a more sordid feeling: if Golkonda were taken by assault, all the credit of the achievement would go to the commander-in-chief Firuz Jang, as the credit of the capture of Bijapur had gone to his younger brother Muhammad Azam. But if he could induce Abul Hasan to sue for peace through his mediation, then he himself would be proclaimed in the official reports as the captor of Golkonda. Abul Hasan knew it and worked on the Prince's feelings. His agents secretly visited Shah Alam with costly presents, begging him to use his influence with the Emperor to save Abul Hasan's throne and dynasty. The Prince gave encouraging replies, in order to induce Qutb Shah to look up to him as his only friend at Court and not to seek any other intercessor. For some time envoys and letters continued to pass between the two.*
v4.c68.s3.2
In thus negotiating behind the Emperor's back and with an enemy beyond hope of the Emperor's pardon, Shah Alam was playing a dangerous game. And he had enemies in the camp ever on the look out for a chance to ruin him. His rival, Azam, was no doubt absent, but had friends in the imperial army and Court, who were glad of an opportunity to trip up Shah Alam. The Prince's position was rendered still more dangerous by dissensions in his harem. His favourite wife, Nur-un-nisa (the daughter of Mirza Sanjar Najam Sani) had monopolized his heart by her accomplishments as a Hindi poetess, devotion and care for his comfort, and charity to all, so that his other wives were jealous of her to the death. Azam's partisans revealed to the Emperor the secret of the communications passing between Shah Alam and Abul Hasan, while the neglected wives of the Prince denounced Nur-un-nisa as her husband's counsellor and agent in these treasonable negotiations. They even spread the false tale that she had shamelessly gone to the fort in disguise and assured Abul Hasan that Shah Alam would come over to him if the Emperor rejected the proffered peace. An order of Shah Alam to bring his women's tents closer to his headquarters, really a precaution against surprise by the enemy, strengthened Aurangzib's suspicion that the Prince was meditating flight to the enemy's fort with his family. All doubts were set at rest when Firuz Jang intercepted and showed to the Emperor one night some letters which the Prince had been trying to send to the fort.
v4.c68.s3.3
∗ The captivity of Shah Alam M A 293—295, K K ii 330—334, Ishwardas 113b—116a (gives a different cause), Dil 207 (only five lines), Hamid ud din's Ahkam §9, Storia, ii 302—'4 Relaxation of captivity M A 335 341—345 350—351, 370—373, K K ii 397—'98 404, 407—418 437, 443, Ishwardas 148b, Ahkam §10 and 11, also Akhbarat