CHAP. IV.] DILRAS BANU BEGAM. 61 We may here conveniently describe Aurang- Aurangzib's wives: Dilras Banu. zib's wives and children. 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,* 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.f The Emperor's secondary wives were styled Báis and Mahals. To this class Nawab Bai. belonged Rahmat-un-nissa, sur- named 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. 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
- Kambu, 6b, Adab-i-Alamgiri, 198a, Kalimat-i-Tay-
yibat, 36 & 39a. † Anecdotes of Aurangzib, §27. Irvine's Storia do Mogor, ii. 57n, 276n. Digitized by Microsoft Ⓡ
