accession of the emperor. Though no verifiable historical evidence has been provided to substantiate this or any other claims relating to his "special relations" with the Mughal Court. His existence within a cultural framework where myth is well intertwined with verifiable historical events, raises the possibility that most of these stories are no more than apocryphal. In 1644, Shantidas bought the royal haveli of Haji Ikhlas for approximately Rupees 6,000. In a Farman dated 5th March 1647, 38 bighas of land and a well in Asarwa, which belonged to Shantidas' sons, were now given to Shantidas as a gift after their death. In 1657, the lease-grant of Shankeshwar was renewed for the sum of Rupees 1,050. He was also directed to work for the welfare of its inhabitants, and consider the matter "very urgent". In addition to this, he was also given possession of Shatrunjaya, Girnar, and Abu (then under the Raja of Sirohi, Maharao Akheraj II) hills by Aurangzeb. However, the firman for this grant was issued on March 12, 1660, a year after Shantidas' death. In 1645, the Mughal prince Aurangzeb desecrated the Chintamani Parshvanath temple constructed by Shantidas, after being appointed the Governor of Gujarat. According to the French traveller Jean de Thévenot (1666), Aurangzeb caused a cow to be killed in the temple premises, destroyed the noses of all idols in the temple, and then converted the place into a mosque called Quvval-ul-Islam ("the Might of Islam"). Shantidas complained to Aurangzeb's father Emperor Shah Jahan. In 1648, the Emperor issued a firman declaring that the building should be handed over to Shantidas, and a wall should be raised between the mihrabs (niches in the mosque walls) and the rest of the original temple building. It also declared that the Muslim fakirs housed in the mosque premises should be removed, and the materials carried away from the temple should be restored. After becoming the emperor, Aurangzeb acknowledged the influence of Shantidas in the merchant community. In 1657, Shah Jahan's son Murad Baksh had compelled Shantidas to lend him Rupees 550,000. After Shah Jahan's death, Aurangzeb imprisoned Murad. Shantidas managed to secure from the new emperor, a firman ordering the imperial dewan Rahmat Khan to pay him Rupees 100,000 from the royal treasury as part of the loan recovery. Aurangzeb also sent a firman asking him to convey the emperor's goodwill to the merchants and other inhabitants of