
An utterly busy routine has not helped me to be a regular at these events but I have been part of some interesting ones at Sanjay Van, Old Fort and Qutab Minar. After a gap of almost a year I had joined one more event last month, we had assembled at the Humayun’s tomb on a Sunday evening and the point of discussion was Aurangzeb’s love for Begum Zainabadi.
Our history texts are superficial, always overpowered by a halo where the narrative focuses only on a selected aspects of a character, the background is lost for the paucity of space in the text and perhaps for enabling an easier curriculum. Therefore for most of us Aurangzeb was a tyrant, a man who killed his own father and siblings in order to accede to the throne of Delhi. For most of us the deeper shades of the this man’s character have forever been understated. So when Asif Khan Dehlvi, the man behind Delhi Karavan, asked us to speak out what came to mind when Aurangzeb was mentioned the top of the mind words only connoted violence and tyranny. Once the amateurs like me had spoken, others who knew a little more of history gave their accounts of what they thought about the man touted as the most cruel of the Mughal emperors. All of them agreed that casting him as either good or bad would be a great injustice to the complex persona of Aurangzeb. So after this brief session which in a way set everyone’s perspective Asif began telling us the story of the love which got away from Aurangzeb.

What would have become of Aurangzeb had his love not been taken away from him can be anybody’s guess. Would he have been the same tyrant which the history books depict him to be no one can tell. One thing this session has indeed done is to arouse a curiosity about Aurangzeb and find more about the most cruel of the Mughal emperors
Event organised by Delhi Karavan
Other Sources of Information: Excerpts from Akham – E – Alamgiri ( Anecdotes of Aurangzeb)
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