Page:History of Aurangzib (based on original sources) Vol 1.djvu/98

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
68
HISTORY OF AURANGZIB.
[CHAP. IV.

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."[1]

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,[2] 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,[3] a daughter, born at Daula-

  1. Anecdotes of Aurangzib, § 5.
  2. M. A. 465, 318.
  3. 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