History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v5.c86.s1.5

v5.c86.s1.5

grandsons, had personal courage; but in him this virtue was combined with a coldness of temperament and a calculating spirit which we have been taught to believe as the special heritage of the races of Northern Europe. Of his personal fearlessness he had given ample evidence from the age of fifteen, when he faced a furious elephant unattended, to his 87th year, when he stood in the siege trenches before Wagingera. And further testimony was borne to it by the fact that two of his sons fell on the battle-field, which were the first examples of such death among the descendants of Babur. [Dil. ii. 166b. Character sketch 159a-160b; K. K. ii. 550; A. N. 1070—1096; M.A. 525—533.] His calm self-possession, his cheering words amidst the thickest danger, and his open defiance of death at Dharmat and Khajwa have passed into the famous things of Indian history.