Page:History of Aurangzib (based on original sources) Vol 1.djvu/345

CHAP. XII.] and order suddenly disappeared in many places. Such is the curse of autocracy: when the one central authority, from which all have been accustomed to receive their orders and to which they have ever taught themselves to look up for guidance, ceases to exist, all the officers become bewildered and helpless like children.

The younger princes in their provinces got ready to contest the throne. Shuja and Murad crowned themselves. Aurangzib played a cool and waiting game, while carefully increasing his resources and army. Even when Shah Jahan began to show his face to the public again, the mischief did not cease. It was openly said all over the empire that Shah Jahan was really dead, and that a slave who bore some resemblance to him, disguised in the Imperial robes, personated him on the high palace-balcony, and received the salams of the public standing below. Letters in Shah Jahan's hand and seal were issued to the princes and the nobles, but they did not remove the suspicion. Murad