History of Aurangzib Vol 1/Chapter IV

by Jadunath Sarkar

CHAPTER IV.

Marriage and Family—Viceroyalty of Guzerat.

The fort and Persian princes seek refuge in India. district of Qandahar had been given by the Persian king Shah Tahmasp I. of the house of Safawi, to his nephew, Sultan Husain Mirza as an appanage. Husain's son Mirza Muzaffar Husain exchanged the lordship of barren Qandahar for a high rank and splendid salary in the service of Akbar. His younger brother Mirza Rustam, too, emigrated to India in Akbar's reign and rose to eminence under Jahangir.

and marry into the imperial family. The Mughal emperors made the most of this opportunity of ennobling their blood by alliances with the royal family of Persia even through a younger branch. Muzaffar Husain's daughter was married to Shah Jahan, and two daughters of Mirza Rustam to the princes Parviz and Shuja. Rustam's son was now a high grandee with the title of Shah Nawaz Khan.^[1] One daughter of Shah Nawaz, named Dilras Banu, was betrothed to Aurangzib, 1637, and next year another daughter was married to Murad Bakhsh.^[2]

Aurangzib married Dilras to Banu Begam. On 15th April, 1637, Aurangzib arrived at Agra for his marriage.^[3] Shah Jahan wrote him a most loving invitation in verse to come and see him quickly and without ceremony. Next day the Prince had audience of his father. The royal astrologers had fixed 8th May as the date of the marriage. In the preceding evening was the ceremony of henna-bandi or dyeing the bridegroom's hands and feet with the red juice of the henna (Lawsonia inermis). Following the Indian custom, the bride's father sent the henna in a grand procession of the male and female friends of his house, servants and musicians. With the henna came an infinite variety of presents, a costly full dress suit for the bridegroom, toilet needments, embroidered scarfs for his kinsfolk, perfumed essence, sugar candy, huge quantities of confects, dried fruits, prepared betel-leaves, and fire-works.

The henna-bandi ceremony. In the Private Hall of the Palace, the Prince's hands and feet were stained red with the henna, by ladies concealed behind a screen, and he was robed in the bride's presents, smeared with perfumes, and fed with the lucky sugar-candy. Then he held a reception of his male guests, which his uncle Yaminuddaula and other nobles attended, while the ladies looked on from behind lattice-screens. In the richly furnished hall the wedding gifts were displayed on trays, the scarfs, confects and betel-leaves were distributed, and the fire-works let off outside. All the time singing and dancing went on. The night's work was concluded with a supper to which the bride- groom sat down with all his guests.

Next night the marriage took place. The astrologers had selected four hours before dawn The marriage procession. as the luckiest time for the ceremony. A long while before that hour the grand wazir Yaminuddaula Asaf Khan and Prince Murad Bakhsh went to Aurangzib's mansion on the Jumna, and conducted him by the river-side road to the fort-palace, to make his bow to the Emperor, who gave him costly presents of all kinds,—robes, jewels, daggers, horses, and elephants, and with his own hands tied to the bridegroom's turban a glittering sehra or bunch of pearls and precious stones falling over his face like a veil. Then the marriage-procession was formed. Led by Murad, Yaminuddaula and other grandees on horseback, the long line paraded the streets of the capital, with music, lights, and discharge of fireworks that baffle description. When it reached the bride's house, the guests were made welcome and entertained by her father. Shah Jahan arrived by boat just before the ceremony, and in his presence the Qazi united the young pair in wedlock. The bridegroom promised his wife a dowry (kabin) of four lakhs of rupees; this she was to get from him in case of divorce. Her father kept himself aloof from the ceremony, for such is the custom of the Indian Muslims.

The marriage being over, another reception Reception. was held (14th May) in Aurangzib's house at which the Emperor was present. Wedding gifts were presented to the nobles, who bowed their thanks first to the Emperor and then to the bridegroom. The newly married Prince spent more than three happy months with his father at Agra and then, on 4th September, took his leave for the Deccan.^[4] We may here conveniently describe Aurangzib's wives and children.Aurangzib's wives: Dilras Banu. Dilras Banu, his consort, bore the high title of Begam or Princess. She died at Aurangabad on 8th October, 1657, from illness following child-birth,^[5] and was buried in that city, under the title of 'the Rabia of the Age' (Rabia-ud-daurani.) Her tomb was repaired by her son Azam under order of Aurangzib, and is one of the sights of the place. She seems to have been a proud and self-willed lady and her husband stood in some awe of her.^[6]

The Emperor's secondary wives were styled Báis and Mahals. To this class Nawab Bai. belonged Rahmat-un-nissa, surnamed Nawab Bai, the mother of Bahadur Shah I. She was the daughter of Rajah Raju of the Rajauri State in Kashmir, and came of the hill-Rajput blood.^[7] But on her son's accession to the throne of Delhi a false pedigree was invented for her in order to give Bahadur Shah a right to call himself a Syed. It was asserted by the flatterers of the Imperial Court that a Muslim

saint named Syed Shah Mir, sprung from the celebrated Syed Abdul Qadir Jilani, had taken to a life of retirement among the hills of Rajauri. The Rajah of the country waited on him and in course of time so adored the holy man as to offer him his maiden daughter. The saint accepted the virgin tribute, converted and wedded her, and thus became the father of a son and a daughter. Then he went on a pilgrimage to the holy land of Islam, where all trace of him was lost. The Rajah brought up his deserted grand-children as Hindus, keeping their parentage a secret. When Shah Jahan demanded from him a daughter of his house, the Rajah sent him this grand-daughter, who was noted for her beauty, goodness and intelligence. In the Imperial harem the girl was taught languages and culture by a set of masters, governesses, and Persian women versed in good manners, and in due time she was united to Prince Aurangzib. Such is one of the many conflicting accounts of the origin of Nawab Bai. Khafi Khan narrates it as mere hearsay,^[8] and we may reject it as the invention of courtiers eager to flatter their master.^[9]

She built a serai at Fardapur, at the foot of the pass, and also founded Baijipura, a suburb of Aurangabad.^[10] The misconduct of her sons, Muhammad Sultan and Muazzam, who disobeyed the Emperor under the influence of evil counsellors, embittered her latter life. Her advice and even personal entreaty had no effect on Muazzam,^[11] who was at last placed under arrest. Nawab Bai seems to have lost her charms and with them her husband's favour rather early in life, and ended her days some time before the middle of 1691^[12] at Delhi, after many years of separation from her husband and sons.

Another secondary wife was Aurangabadi Mahal, so named because she entered the Mughal harem in the city of Aurangabadi Mahal Aurangabad. The bubonic plague carried her off in October or November 1688, at the city of Bijapur.^[13]

Her death removed the last rival of Aurang-zib's youngest and best loved concubine, Udipuri Mahal, Udipuri Mahal the mother of Kam Bakhsh. The contemporary Venetian traveller Manucci speaks of her as a Georgian slave-girl of Dara Shukoh's harem, who, on the downfall of her first master, became the concubine of his victorious rival.^[14] She seems to have been a very young woman at the time, as she first became a mother in 1667, when Aurangzib was verging on fifty. She retained her youth and influence over the Emperor till his death, and was the darling of his old age. Under the spell of her beauty he pardoned the many faults of Kam Bakhsh and overlooked her freaks of drunkenness,^[15] which must have shocked so pious a Muslim.^[16]

Zainabadi. Besides the above four there was another woman whose supple grace, musical skill, and mastery of blandishments, made her the heroine of the only romance in the puritan Emperor's life. Hira Bai surnamed Zainabadi was a young slave-girl in the keeping of Mir Khalil, who had married a sister of Aurangzib's mother. During his viceroyalty of the Deccan, the Prince paid a visit to his aunt at Burhanpur. There, while strolling in the park of Zainabad on the other side of the Tapti, he beheld Hira Bai unveiled among his aunt's train. The artful beauty "on seeing a mango-tree laden with fruits, advanced in mirth and amorous play, jumped up, and plucked a mango, as if unconscious of the prince's presence." The vision of her matchless charms stormed Aurangzib's heart in a moment; "with shameless importunity he took her away from his aunt's house and became utterly in- fatuated with her." So much so, that one day she offered him a cup of wine and pressed him to drink it. All his entreaties and excuses were disregarded, and the helpless lover was about to taste the forbidden drink when the sly enchantress snatched away the cup from his lips and said, "My object was only to test your love for me, and not to make you fall into the sin of drinking !" Death cut the story short when she was still in the bloom of youth. Aurangzib bitterly grieved at her loss and buried her close to the big tank at Aurangabad.^[17]

More than half a century afterwards, when this early love-passage had become How she was won. mere memory, the following inaccurate version of it was recorded by Hamiduddin Khan, a favourite servant of the Emperor, in his Anecdotes of Alamgir. It is extremely amusing, as showing that the puritan in love was not above practising wiles to gain his end!

"When Aurangzib as Governor of the Deccan was going to Aurangabad, on arriving at Burhanpur he went to visit his aunt. The Prince entered the house without announcing himself. Hira Bai was standing under a tree, holding a branch with her right hand and singing in a low tone. Immediately after seeing her, the Prince helplessly sat down there, and then stretched himself at full length on the ground in a swoon. The news was carried to his aunt. She clasped him to her breast and began to wail and lament. After three or four gharis the Prince regained consciousness. However much she inquired about his condition, saying, 'What malady is it? Did you ever have it before?' the Prince gave no reply at all, but remained silent. At midnight he recovered his speech and said, *If I mention my disease, can you apply the remedy ?' She replied, 'What to speak of remedy? I shall offer my life itself to cure you!' Then the Prince unfolded the whole matter to her The aunt replied, 'You know the wretch, my hus- band. He is a bloody-minded man and does not care in the least for the Emperor Shah Jahan or for you. At the mere report of your desire for Hira Bai he will first murder her and then me. Telling him about your passion will do no other good.'

Next morning the Prince came back to his own quarters and discussed the case in detail with his confidant, Murshid Quli Khan, the Diwan of the Deccan. The Khan said, 'Let me first despatch your uncle, and if anybody then slays me, there will be no harm, as in exchange of my life my master's work will be done.' Aurangzib forbade him to commit a manifest murder and turn his aunt into a widow . . . Murshid Quli Khan reported the whole conversation to the Prince's uncle, who exchanged Hira Bai for Chhattar Bai, a slave-girl of Aurangzib's harem."^[18]

History records the name of a certain Dilárám, a hand-maid of Aurangzib's early life. But though she is described in the same terms as Aurangabadi Mahal, viz., parastar-i-qadim-ul-khidmat,^[19] it appears from the context that she was not his mistress, but only a servant. Her daughter was married to an officer of the Emperor's bodyguard. On her tomb at Delhi the Emperor placed an inscribed stone in 1702, many years after her death.

Aurangzib had a numerous progeny. His Aurangzib's children principal wife, Dilras Banu Begam, bore him five children:

1. Zeb-un-Nissa,^[20] a daughter, born at Daulatabad, on 15th February, 1638, died at Delhi on 26th May, 1702, buried in the garden of 'Thirty Thousand Trees', outside the Kabuli gate. Her tomb was demolished to make room for a railway. But her coffin and inscribed tomb-stone are now in Akbar's mausoleum at Sikandra, where the epitaph can still be read.

She seems to have inherited her father's keenness of intellect and literary tastes. Educated by a lady named Hafiza Mariam she committed the Quran to memory, for which she received a reward of 30,000 gold-pieces from her delighted father. A mistress of Persian and Arabic, she wrote different kinds of hand with neatness and grace. Her library surpassed all other private collections, and she employed many scholars on liberal salaries to produce literary works at her bidding or to copy manuscripts for her. As Aurangzib disliked poetry, her liberality compensated for the lack of Court patronage, and most of the poets of the age sought refuge with her. Supported by her bounty, Mulla Safiuddin Ardbeli translated the Arabic Great Commentary under the title of Zeb-ut-tafasir, the authorship of which is vulgarly ascribed to his patroness. Other tracts and works also unjustly bear her

name. She wrote Persian odes under the pen-name of Makhfi or the Concealed One. But the Diwan-i-Makhfi which is extant cannot with certainty be called her work, because this pseudonym was used by many other royal ladies, such as one of the wives of Akbar.

Scandal connected her name with that of Aqilmand Khan, a noble of her father's Court and a versifier of some repute in his own day.

2. Zinat-un-Nissa, afterwards surnamed Padishah Begam, born probably at Aurangabad, 5th October, 1643. She looked after her old father's household in the Deccan, for a quarter of a century till his death, and survived him many years, enjoying the respect of his successors as the living memorial of a great age. Historians speak of her piety and extensive charity.^[21] She was buried in the Zinat-ul-masajid, a splendid mosque built (1700) at her expense in Delhi, but her grave was removed elsewhere by the British military authorities when they occupied the building.^[22]

3. Zubdat-un-nissa, born at Multan, 2nd September, 1651, married to her first cousin, Sipihr Shukoh (the second son of the ill-fated Dara Shukoh) on 30th January, 1673, died in February, 1707.^[23]

4. Muhammed Azam, born at Burhanpur on 28th June, 1653, slain at Jajaw, in the war of succession following his father's death, 8th June, 1707.^[24]

5. Muhammed Akbar, born at Aurangabad, on 11th September, 1657, died an exile in Persia about November, 1704.^[25] Buried at Mashhad.

By Nawab Bai the Emperor had three children:

6. Muhammed Sultan, born near Mathura, 19th December, 1639, died in prison, 3rd December, 1676.^[26] Buried in the enclosure of Khawajah Qutbuddin's tomb.

7. Muhammed Muazzam, surnamed Shah I., born at Burhanpur on 4th October, 1643, died 18th February, 1712.^[27]

8. Badr-un-nissa, born 17th November, 1647, died 9th April, 1670.^[28] Of her we only know that she learnt the Quran by rote. Aurangabadi Mahal bore to Aurangzib only one child:

9. Mihr-un-nissa, born 18th September, 1661, married to her first cousin Izid Bakhsh (a son of the murdered Murad Bakhsh) on 27th November, 1672, died in June, 1706.^[29]

Udipuri Mahal was the mother of

10. Muhammed Kam Bakhsh, born at Delhi, 24th February, 1667, slain in the war of succession, near Haidarabad on 3rd January, 1709.^[30]

We shall now resume the story of Aurangzib's career. His first viceroyalty of the Deccan which extended over eight years, ended strangely in his disgrace and dismissal.

On the night of 26th March, 1644, the princess Jahanara burnt. Jahanara was coming from her father's chambers to her own in Agra fort, when her skirt fell on one of the candles lighting the passage. As her robes were made of exquisitely fine muslin and were besides perfumed with atar and other essences, the flames wrapped her round in a moment. Her four maids flung themselves on her to smother the fire with their persons, but it spread to their own dress and they had to let go their hold in agony. By the time aid arrived and the fire was put out, the princess had been dreadfully burnt: her back, both sides, and arms were severely injured.^[31]

She was the best loved child of Shah Jahan, and well did she deserve his Her character. affection. Ever since her mother's death, her care and forethought had saved him from domestic worries. Her sweetness of temper and gentleness of heart, even more than her mental accomplishments, soothed his mind in fatigue and anxiety, while her loving kindness healed all discords in the Imperial family, and spreading beyond the narrow circle of her kinsfolk made her the channel of the royal bounty to orphans, widows, and the poor. In the full blaze of prosperity and power her name was known in the land only for her bounty and graciousness. In adversity she rose to a nobler eminence and became an Antigone to her captive father. Happier than the daughter of much-enduring Œdipus, she finally won her father's forgiveness for the son who had wronged him so cruelly. And after death the memory of her piety and meekness of spirit has been preserved by the lowliest epitaph ever placed on a prince's tomb. The stone records her last wish:

Cover not my grave save with green grass,
For such a covering alone befits the tomb of the lowly in spirit.

Shah Jahan was in anguish at this accident. Her treatment He was ever at her bed-side, for his hand must lay the medicine to her wounds, and hold the diet up to her lips. All but the most urgent State affairs were neglected; the daily darbar was reduced to a sitting of a few minutes. Every physician of note from far and near was assembled for treating her. Vast sums were daily given away in charity to win Heaven's blessings on her. Every night a purse of Rs. 1000 was laid under her pillow, and next morning distributed to the beggars. Officials undergoing imprisonment for defalcation were set free, and their debts, amounting to seven lakhs, written off. Every evening Shah Jahan knelt down till midnight, weeping and imploring God for her recovery.

For four months she hovered between life and and recovery. death. Indeed, there was little hope of her recovery, as two of her maids, though less severely burnt, died in a few weeks. By a happy accident, the physician of the late king of Persia, who had fled from the wrath of his successor, reached Agra only twenty days after this mishap. His judicious medicines removed many of her attendant troubles, especially fever and weakness.

But both he and Hakim Mumana, the Physician Royal of Delhi, laboured in vain to heal her burns. Where the medical science of the age failed, quackery succeeded. A slave named Arif prepared an ointment which entirely healed her sores in two months.

On 25th November began a most splendid and costly festivity in celebration of her complete Rejoicing at it. recovery.^[32] Jahanara was given jewels worth ten lakhs by her rejoicing father; every member of the household and every officer of the State received a gift on the joyous occasion; the beggars got two lakhs. The princes who had hastened to Agra on hearing of her accident, had their share of the Imperial bounty. But none of them was so great a gainer as Aurangzib, for, at her request he was restored to his father's favour and his former rank and office, which he had lost in the meantime.

Aurangzib had arrived at Agra on 2nd May to see his sister. Here three weeks afterwards he Aurangzib's dismissal. was suddenly dismissed from his post, and deprived of his rank and allowance. The reason as given by the historians is obscure. The Court annalist, Abdul Hamid Lahori, writes that Aurangzib was thus punished because "misled by the wicked counsels of his foolish companions, he wanted to take to the retired life of an ascetic, and had also done some acts which the Emperor disapproved of." Khafi Khan says that the Prince in order" to anticipate his father's punishment of his bad deeds, himself took off his sword and lived for some days as a hermit," for which he was dismissed. But neither of them describes the exact nature of his misconduct.^[33]

From one of Aurangzib's letters we gather Why he resigned. that he resigned his post as a protest against Dara's persistent hostility and Shah Jahan's partiality to his eldest son which robbed Aurangzib of the Emperor's confidence and support. The Prince's recommendations were overridden and he was so often interfered with and trusted with so little power that his prestige was lowered in the public eye and he could not govern the Deccan consistently with self-respect or with any chance of doing good service. As he wrote indignantly to his sister Jahanara in 1654, when similar distrust and hostility were shown to him by the Court during his second viceroyalty: "If His Majesty wishes that of all his servants I alone should pass my life in dishonour and at last perish in an unbecoming manner, I have no help but to obey. . . . . . . But as it is hard to live and die thus and I do not enjoy [his] grace, I cannot, for the sake of perishable earthly things, live in pain and grief, nor deliver myself up into the hands of others,—it is better that by order of His Majesty I should be released from the shame of such a life, so that harm may not be done to the good of the State and [other] hearts may be composed about this matter. Ten years before this I had realised this fact and known my life to be aimed at [by my rivals], and therefore I had resigned my post, . . . so that I might retire to a corner, cause no uneasiness to any body's heart, and be saved from such harassment."^[34]

A literal interpretation of a Persian phrase^[35] has given rise in some English histories to the myth that young Aurangzib turned hermit in a fit of religious devotion. The fact is that at this time he felt no religious call at all; his motive was political, not spiritual: he merely resigned his office, but did not actually take to a hermit's life. Under the Mughals, every officer, civil or military, had to hold a rank in the army and wear the sword as a part of his full dress. Hence, laying the sword aside from one's belt was a visible symbol of resignation.

If we may trust the gossipy anecdotes compiled Quarrel with Dara. in Aurangzib's old age by Hamiduddin Khan Nimchah, the Prince's disgrace was the outcome of his open jealousy of Dara Shukoh, his eldest brother and the intended heir to the throne. It is narrated that Dara invited his father and three brothers to see his newly built mansion at Agra. It was summer, and the party was taken to a cool underground room bordering on the river, with only one door leading into it. The others entered, but Aurangzib sat down in the doorway. To all inquiries of Shah Jahan about the reason of his strange conduct he gave no reply. For this act of disobedience he was forbidden the Court. After spending seven months in disgrace, he told Jahanara that as the room had only one entrance he had feared lest Dara should close it and murder his father and brothers to clear his own way to the throne. To prevent any such attempt Aurangzib had (he said) occupied the door as a sentinel! On learning this Shah Jahan restored He is reinstated, him to his favour. But it was impossible to keep Aurangzib at Court with Dara, whom he hated so bitterly and suspected so cruelly.^[36] Therefore on 16th February, 1645, he was sent off to Guzerat as Governor.^[37] His viceroyalty of this province ended in January, 1647, when he was appointed to Balkh. But even in this brief period of less than two years he showed his administrative capacity and firmness.

Of all the provinces of the Mughal empire, Guzerat was the most turbulent. A land subject Guzerat: the land and the people. to frequent droughts and a soil mostly of sand or stone yielded a poor and precarious harvest to reward the labour of man in many parts of the province. All its ardent spirits naturally turned from the thankless task of tilling the soil, to the more profitable business of plundering their weaker and richer brethren. Robbery was the hereditary and time-honoured occupation of several tribes, such as the Kulis and the Kathis, who covered the land from Jhalor to the sea.^[38] The Guzerati artisans, whose fame was world-wide, flourished in the cities under shelter of the walls. But the roads were unsafe to trader and traveller alike. The prevailing lawlessness added to the misery of the peasants and the poverty of the land by discouraging industry and accumulation of wealth. Any rebel or bandit leader could in a few days raise a large body of fighters by the promise of plunder, and if he was only swift enough in evading pitched battles with the forces of Government, he could keep the whole country in a state of constant alarm and disturbance. Thus did the Mirzas violate public peace in Guzerat for a full generation in Akbar's reign. Many a pretender to the throne of Delhi gathered formidable military support here. Indeed, Guzerat bore the evil title of lashkar-khez, or a land 'bristling with soldiers.'^[39]

Such a province ever required a strong hand to govern it. A former viceroy, Azam Khan, (1635-41), had vigorously punished the robber tribes, built forts in their midst to maintain order, and forced the ruler of Nawánagar, to promise tribute and obedience to the Imperial Government.^[40] For a time the roads became safe, and the land enjoyed unwonted peace.

Aurangzib, too, followed an active and firm policy towards the robber tribes and rebels of Aurangzib's strong rule. Guzerat. In order to check them effectually he engaged soldiers in excess of the men whom he was bound by his present rank as a mansabdar to keep. The Emperor, pleased to hear of this ardent spirit of duty, gave him a promotion, raising his salary to sixty lakhs of rupees a year (8th June, 1646).^[41] He thus established in his father's eyes a reputation for capacity and courage, and it was not long before he was called away to a far-off scene where there was supreme need of these qualities.

On 4th September, Shah Jahan wrote to him to come away from Guzerat, after making over the Summoned by the Emperor. Government to Shaista Khan. The Prince met his father at Lahore on 20th January, 1649, and was next day created Governor and Commander-in-chief of Balkh and Badakhshan. Three weeks later he was sent off to his distant and dangerous charge.^[42]

 

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princess, provided with a dome of extraordinary height, the whole executed in marble brought expressly from the province of Ajmer." (Storia, iii. 269)

1. For Mirza Muzaffar Husain, M. U. iii. 296; Mirza Rustam, M. U iii. 434; Shah Nawaz Khan, M. U. ii. 670.
2. A generation afterwards (4 March, 1683) Azarm Banu, the daughter of Shah Nawaz's son, was married to Aurangzib's youngest son, Kam Bakhsh (M. A. 225.)
3. Abdul Hamid, I. B. 255, 267-270.
4. Abdul Hamid, I. B. 280.
5. Kambu, 6b, Adab-i-Alamgiri, 198a, Kalimat-i-Tay-yibat, 36 & 39a.
6. Anecdotes of Aurangzib, §27.
7. Irvine's Storia do Mogor, ii. 57n, 276n.
8. Khafi Khan, ii. 604.
9. But there is nothing improbable in the story. In Bhimbhar, another district of Kashmir, Hindus and Muslims used to intermarry, and the wife, whatever might have been her father's creed, was burnt or buried as her husband happened to be a Hindu or Islamite. But in October, 1634, Shah Jahan forbade the custom and ordered that every Hindu who had taken a Muslim wife must either embrace Islam and be married anew to her, or he must give her up to be wedded to a Muslim. This order was rigorously enforced. (Abdul Hamid, I. B. 57).
10. Khafi Khan, ii. 605.
11. M. A. 101, 293, (and for Sultan) 30, 121.
12. M. A. 343.
13. M. A. 318. Her tomb is thus described by Manucci, "The king caused a magnificent tomb to be erected to the
14. Irvine's Storia do Mogor, i. 361, ii. 107.
15. Ibid, ii. 107, 108.
16. That l'dipuri was a slave and no wedded wife is proved by Aurangzib's own words. When her son Kam Bakhsh intrigued with the enemy at the siege of Jinji, Aurangzib angrily remarked,—
    'A slave-girl's son comes to no good,
    Even though he may have been begotten by a king.' (Anecdotes of Aurangzib, § 25. He is also called 'a dancing-girl's son' (Storia, ii. 316n). Orme (Fragments, 85) speaks of her as a Circassian, evidently on the authority of Manucci. In a letter written by Aurangzib on his death-bed to Kam Bakhsh, he says "Udipuri, your mother, who has been with me during my illness, wishes to accompany [me in death]." From this expression Tod, (Annals of Mewar, Ch. XIII, note) infers, "Her desire to burn shews her to have been a Rajpoot." Such an inference is wrong, because a Hindu princess on marrying a Muslim king lost her caste and religion, and received Islamic burial. We read of no Rajputni of the harem of any of the Mughal emperors having burnt herself with her deceased husband, for the very good reason that a Muslim's corpse is buried and not burnt. Evidently Udipuri meant that she would kill herself in passionate grief on the death of Aurangzib.
17. Masir-ul-Umara, i. 790 — 792. Mir Khalil was posted to the Deccan shortly before Aurangzib's second viceroyalty began, so that the earUest possible date of the episode is 1653, when Aurangzib was 35 years old.
18. Anecdotes of Aurangzib, § 5.
19. M. A. 465, 318.
20. Abdul Hamid, ii. 22; Khafi Khan, i. 590; MA. 462, 538; Rieu's British Museum Catalogue, ii. 7026: M. U. ii. 828; Makhsan-ul-Gharaib by Ahmad Ali Sandilavi (1218 A. H.) Khuda Bakhsh MS., p. 312; Gul-i-rana, f. 119; Beale's Oriental Bio. Dic. ed. by Keene, p. 428.
21. Abdul Hamid, ii. 343; M.A. 539; Khafi Khan, ii. 30 (inspires a plot against the Syed brothers). She was alive in the reign of Farukhsiyar.(Ibid, 736).
22. Fanshawe's Delhi: Past and Present, 68. Cunningham, Arch. Survey Reports, I. 230, states, "The Zinat-ul-masajid, more commonly called the Kuari Masjid or 'Maiden's Mosque', because built by Zinat-un-nissa, the daughter of Aurangzib. The people have a tradition Alam, who succeeded his father as Bahadur Shah that Zinat-un-nissa demanded the amount of her dowry from her father, and spent it in building this Mosque, instead of marrying."
23. M.A. 540, 125, 154.
24. Waris's Padishahnamah, 79b; M.A. 536.
25. M. A. 547, 483. Kambu, 6b. But the Tarikh-i-Muhammadi gives the date of his death as 31 March, 1706, New Style (Storia, iv. 257n).
26. Abdul Hamid, ii. 170; M.A. 534, 159-160.
27. Abdul Hamid, ii. 343; M.A. 534.
28. M.A. 539-540, 100.
29. M.A. 120, 515, 540.
30. M.A. 538. Alamgirnamah, 1031.
31. Abdul Hamid, ii. 363—369; Khafi Khan, i. 598—600.
32. Abdul Hamid, ii. 395-400.
33. Abdul Hamid, ii. 373, 376: Khafi Khan, i. 600, and ii. 398.
34. Adab-i-Alamgiri, 177a.
35. "Turning recluse" (manzavi ikhtiar kardan) is a phrase commonly used in the Persian histories of India to mean the laying down of (military) rank, office, and uniform in such a manner as not to imply a defiance of the Emperor's wishes. We often read how an officer under Imperial displeasure who had "turned hermit" in this sense, was afterwards reinstated in his rank and office on recovering his master's grace.
36. Anecdotes of Aurangzib § 2.
37. Abdul Hamid, ii. 411.
38. Abdul Hamid, ii. 231.
39. Kalimat-i-Tayyibat, (A. S. B. MS. E. 27), 87a, 107a.
40. Abdul Hamid, ii. 231-232.
41. Abdul Hamid, ii. 510, 715.
42. Ibid, 583, 625, 627, 532.