Page:Aurangzíb and the Decay of the Mughal Empire.djvu/28

 CHAPTER I

The Prince

The four sons of Sháh-Jahán who made ready in 1657 to fight for their apparently dying father's throne were Dárá the oldest, a man of forty-two, Shujá', a year younger, Aurangzíb, almost thirty-nine, and Murád-Bakhsh, the youngest, then in his thirty-fourth year. Their characters have been drawn by Bernior, who know Dára and Aurangzíb personally, and acted an physician to each in succession. Dárá Shukóh, he tells us, was not wanting in good qualities, and could be both gracious and generous; but he was inordinately conceited and self-satisfied, very proud of his intellectual gifts, and extremely intolerant of advice and contradiction, which easily roused his imperious and violent Mughal temper. Though