Page:History of Aurangzib (based on original sources) Vol 1.djvu/230

This page needs to be proofread.

200 HISTORY OF AURANGZIB. [CHAP. IX. unscrupulously. So complete was the estrange- ment 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 anni- versaries 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. Aurang- zib'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 Digitized by Microsoft Ⓡ