Aurangzeb's letter to Shah Jahan,quoted in Kishore, Kunal (2016). Ayodhyā revisited. ch. 15
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“So long as you held the reins of government I never did anything without your permission, nor did I ever step beyond my jurisdiction. During your illness Dara usurped all power, girt up his loins to promote Hinduism and destroy Islam, and acted as king, totally setting you aside. The government fell into disorder... . My march on Agra was not due to a rebellious spirit, but to a desire to put an end to Dara’s usurpation, his lapse from Islam, and his exaltation of idolatry throughout the empire.... I was compelled, out of regard for the next world, to take up the perilous load of the crown, from sheer necessity and not from free choice, for restoring peace and the rules of Islam in the realm.”

— Aurangzeb on Dara Shukoh

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "“So long as you held the reins of government I never did anything without your permission, nor did I ever step beyond my jurisdiction. During your illness Dara usurped all power, girt up his loins to promote Hinduism and destroy Islam, and acted as king, totally setting you aside. The government fell into disorder... . My march on Agra was not due to a rebellious spirit, but to a desire to put an end to Dara’s usurpation, his lapse from Islam, and his exaltation of idolatry throughout the empire.... I was compelled, out of regard for the next world, to take up the perilous load of the crown, from sheer necessity and not from free choice, for restoring peace and the rules of Islam in the realm.”" in the context of "Aurangzeb's letter to Shah Jahan,quoted in Kishore, Kunal (2016). Ayodhyā revisited. ch. 15" to mean that wisdom is timeless.

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Source: Wikiquote: "Dara Shukoh" (About) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
Aurangzeb

About Aurangzeb

Muhy-ud-Din Muhammad Aurangzeb Alamgir (4 November 1618 – 3 March 1707), more commonly known as Aurangzeb ("Jewel in the crown") or by his chosen imperial title Alamgir ("Conquerer of the World"), was the sixth Mughal Emperor, whose Islamic reign across most of the Indian subcontinent lasted from 1658 until his death in 1707.