Page:History of India Vol 4.djvu/180

138 Indeed even his wives played but a small part in his life. According to Manucci, the chief wife was a Rajput princess, and became the mother of Mohammad and Mu'azzam, besides a daughter. A Persian lady was the mother of A'zam and Akbar and two daughters. The nationality of the third, by whom the emperor had one daughter, is not recorded. Udaipuri, the mother of his youngest son, Kam Bakhsh, was a Christian from Georgia, and had been purchased by Dara, on whose execution she passed to the harem of Aurangzib.

Even on every-day occasions, when there were no festivals in progress, the Hall of Audience presented an animated appearance. Not a day passed but the emperor held his levee from the window of the jharukha, while the bevy of nobles stood beneath and the common crowd surged in the court to lay their grievances and suits before the imperial judge. The ordinary levee lasted a couple of hours, and during this time the royal stud was brought from the stables opening out of the court and passed in review before the emperor, so many each day; and the household elephants, washed, and painted black, with two red streaks on their foreheads, came in their embroidered caparisons and silver chains and bells, to be inspected by their master, and at the prick and voice of their riders saluted the emperor with their trunks and trumpeted their taslim, or homage.

These gorgeous functions had little interest for Aurangzib. The art of government was his real passion. Of course, with his mixed and jarring popula-