long silence, only confirmed his suspicion that
and Bidar to the old Mughal territory.
Shah Jahan had lost his control
and that affairs at Court had
taken a new turn. Therefore,
he made up his mind, and started from Bidar
on 18th October, 1657.[1]
Immediately there was the greatest rejoicing in the Deccani kingdoms. Here were the Mughals abandoning their late conquests as untenable! In vain did Aurangzib try to put a bold face on the matter; in vain did he write to Qutb Shah: "The retreat of my army was due to a wish to reassure the people of Bijapur who were frightened by its presence and had abandoned the cultivation of their lands, and also because I had got news that my Begam's illness had increased."[2] The plea was too palpably false to be believed. While his vanquished enemies were raising their heads in the South, and a storm was brewing against him in the North, Aurangzib received one of the severest domestic shocks: the day after leaving Death of his wife Dilras Banu. Bidar[3] he learnt that his principal wife