Page:History of Aurangzib (based on original sources) Vol 1.djvu/91

CHAP. IV.] We may here conveniently describe Aurangzib'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.

The Emperor's secondary wives were styled Báis and Mahals. To this class

belonged Rahmat-un-nissa, surnamed 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