History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v5.c85.s6.21

v5.c85.s6.21

Hence, in the houses of the Delhi nobility luxury was carried to an excess. The harems of many of them were filled with immense numbers* of women, of an infinite variety of races intellect and character. Under Muslim law the sons of concubines are entitled to their patrimony equally with sons born in wedlock, and they occupy no inferior position in society. Even the sons of lawfully married wives became, at a precocious age, familiar with vice from what they saw and heard in the harem, while their mothers were insulted by the higher splendour and influence enjoyed in the same household by younger and fairer rivals of servile origin or easier virtue. The proud spirit and majestic dignity of a Cornelia is impossible in the crowded harem of a polygamist ; and without Cornelias among the mothers there cannot be Gracchi among the sons.