Early Life
Aurangzeb was born on 4 November 1618, in Dahod, Gujarat. He was the third son and sixth child of Shah Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal. His father was a governor of Gujarat at that time. In June 1626, after an unsuccessful rebellion by his father, Aurangzeb and his brother Dara Shikoh were kept as hostages under Nur Jahan at their grandfather Jahangir's Lahore court. On 26 February 1628, Shah Jahan was officially declared the Mughal Emperor, and Aurangzeb returned to Agra Fort to live with his parents. It was here that Aurangzeb received his formal education in Arabic and Persian. His daily allowance were fixed to 500, and while he spent his allowance on religious education and the study of history he accused his brothers of alcoholism and womanizing.
On 28 May 1633 Aurangzeb escaped death when a powerful war elephant stampeded through the Mughal Imperial encampment. He rode against the elephant and struck its trunk with a lance, and successfully defended himself from being crushed. Aurnagzeb's valor was appreciated by his father who conferred him with the title Bahadur (Brave) and had him weighed in gold and presented gifts worth 2 lakhs. This event was celebrated in Persian and Urdu verses and Aurangzeb said:
If the (elephant) fight had ended fatally for me it would not have been a matter of shame. Death drops the curtain even on Emperors; it is no dishonor. The shame lay in what my brothers did!Read more about this topic: Aurangzeb
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“Many a woman shudders ... at the terrible eclipse of those intellectual powers which in early life seemed prophetic of usefulness and happiness, hence the army of martyrs among our married and unmarried women who, not having cultivated a taste for science, art or literature, form a corps of nervous patients who make fortunes for agreeable physicians ...”
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