Page:History of Aurangzib (based on original sources) Vol 1.djvu/96

66 fatuated with her." So much so, that one day she offered him a cup of wine and pressed him to drink it. All his entreaties and excuses were disregarded, and the helpless lover was about to taste the forbidden drink when the sly enchantress snatched away the cup from his lips and said, "My object was only to test your love for me, and not to make you fall into the sin of drinking !" Death cut the story short when she was still in the bloom of youth. Aurangzib bitterly grieved at her loss and buried her close to the big tank at Aurangabad.

More than half a century afterwards, when this early love-passage had become mere memory, the following inaccurate version of it was recorded by Hamiduddin Khan, a favourite servant of the Emperor, in his Anecdotes of Alamgir. It is extremely amusing, as showing that the puritan in love was not above practising wiles to gain his end!

"When Aurangzib as Governor of the Deccan was going to Aurangabad, on arriving at Burhanpur he went to visit his aunt. The Prince entered the house without announcing himself.