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Outbyte Driver Updater FREEScan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Outbyte PC Repair FREERepair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →A story preserved in accounts of Aurangzeb’s youth says that, as a prince in Burhanpur, he was captivated by Hirabai, later known as Zainabadi. The best-known version begins with a mango in a garden; another describes an unexpected encounter in the harem. Because the tellings differ, the romance is best read as a transmitted historical anecdote, not a certain reconstruction of a single scene.
Who was Hirabai, later called Zainabadi?
Rana Safvi’s account places the story in Burhanpur in 1636, when Aurangzeb was a prince and governor of the Deccan. It says Hirabai became known as Zainabadi after entering his household. The article does not establish more about her background than these details, so claims about her origins or life beyond the romance should be treated cautiously. Safvi’s account in Scroll.in presents the episode through differing historical tellings.
Two accounts describe their first meeting
The accounts agree on Aurangzeb’s sudden fascination with Hirabai, but they do not agree on how he first encountered her.
| Version | What the account says | How it is transmitted |
|---|---|---|
| The mango-tree encounter | During a visit to the Zainabad garden in Burhanpur, Hirabai plucks a mango and Aurangzeb is captivated. The passage attributed to Ma’asir al-Umara says, “This move of hers robbed the prince of his senses and self-control.” | Safvi relays this version through an eighteenth-century account; it is not presented as a verified eyewitness record. |
| The harem encounter | In an account attributed to Hamiduddin Khan Nimchah’s Ahkam e Aurangzeb, Aurangzeb enters the harem unannounced, faints on seeing Hirabai, and asks his aunt for a remedy. | Safvi reports this as a different telling of the first meeting, with the ensuing passion described similarly. |
Jadunath Sarkar’s digitized The Anecdotes of Aurangzib also discusses the romance and calls it “a case of love at first sight.” That description captures the shape of the story, not proof that every dramatic detail happened as narrated. Read the digitized text.
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The wine test and the story of Hirabai’s death
Safvi also recounts an episode in which Hirabai asks Aurangzeb to drink wine as a test of his love, then reveals that the request was a test. This is an anecdote in the account, not an independently verified scene.
The same article says Hirabai died young and that Aurangzeb was deeply affected. It relates that he went hunting after her death and includes a couplet attributed to his reply to Mir Askari: “Lamentation in the house cannot relieve the heart, / In solitude alone you can cry to your heart’s content.” Treat the reported grief and the attribution of the verses as parts of the transmitted story rather than a confirmed eyewitness record.
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What Manucci’s account adds—and what it cannot prove
Safvi quotes the European traveller Niccolao Manucci describing Aurangzeb as becoming fond of a dancing woman in his harem and neglecting prayers and austerities for a time. In the passage reproduced by Safvi, Manucci begins: “Aurangzib grew very fond of one of the dancing-women in his harem, and through the great love he bore to her he neglected for some time his prayers and his austerities”. The modern article transmits this passage; without checking an edition of Manucci’s work, its exact wording should not be treated as a verified transcript.
Safvi’s account further says that, after Hirabai’s death, Aurangzeb vowed to avoid wine and music. This, too, belongs to the narrative as transmitted. Manucci’s description offers a different perspective on the prince from the familiar image of a ruler defined only by austerity, but one reported romance cannot establish the whole of Aurangzeb’s character.
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How to understand the story
- The setting and date are attributed, not certain: Safvi places the episode in Burhanpur in 1636, during Aurangzeb’s time as a prince and Deccan governor.
- The first-meeting scene varies: one telling centers on a mango in a garden; another on an unannounced entry into the harem and a swoon.
- The emotional episodes are anecdotes: the wine test, the reported grief, and the verses are transmitted accounts, not established eyewitness scenes here.
- The story complicates a simple image: it portrays a young prince caught up in passion, without serving as a complete portrait of the later emperor.
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