unscrupulously. So complete was the estrangement that, during this long viceroyalty of more
than five years, Aurangzib was not once invited
to visit his father in Northern India, and, what
is almost incredible, among the presents made to
the Emperor on his birthdays and the anniversaries of his coronation none from Aurangzib
is mentioned in the official history, though the
other princes made costly offerings! While
Dara's sons were basking in the Imperial favour
and every year receiving jewels and cash gifts
worthy of princes, only once did Aurangzib's sons
get anything from their Imperial grand-father.
At the very time of his appointment to the Deccan Aurangzib objected to it as his jagirs there would yield 17 lakhs of rupees less than the fertile fiefs he was holding in Sindh. "What, I wonder, is the reason of this decrease and of my transfer?" he asked. Before he had reached the Deccan, he was taxed by the Emperor with moving too slowly and taking four months in going from Peshawar to his charge, which had been without a ruler for two months. Aurangzib's explanation was the difficulty of the roads and the unpreparedness of his troops, who had just returned from the arduous campaign of Qandahar and had got no time to visit their jagirs and collect money for fitting themselves