An Afghan by birth, Mahabat Khan held only a mansab of 500 in the beginning of Jahangir’s reign. Being rapidly promoted to higher ranks, he rendered conspicuous services to the Emperor, especially in suppressing the rebellion of Shah Jahan. But his success excited the jealousy of Nur Jahan and her brother, Asaf Khan, and the queen’s hostility drove him to rebellion. By a bold coup de main he made Jahangir a prisoner on the bank of the river Jhelum, while the Emperor was on his way to Kabul. Nur Jahan managed to escape, but all her attempts to rescue her husband by force having failed, she joined him in confinement. She and her husband were finally able, by outwitting Mahabat Khan, to effect their escape to Rohtas, where the partisans of Jahangir had collected a large force. Mahabat Khan ultimately ran away to Shah Jahan and made peace with him. But Nur Jahan’s triumph was short-lived, for the Emperor died on the 28th October, 1627. His body was buried in a beautiful tomb at Shahdara, on the banks of the Ravi.
Jahangir is a complex personality in Indian history. Terry writes of him: “Now for the disposition of that King it ever seemed unto me to be composed of extremes: for sometimes he was cruel and at other times he would seem to be exceedingly fair and gentle.” Beveridge remarks: “Jahangir was indeed a strange mixture. The man who could stand by and see men flayed alive . . . could yet be a lover of justice and could spend his Thursday evenings in holding high converse. He could procure the murder of Abul Fazl and avow the fact without remorse, and also pity the royal elephants because they shivered in winter when they sprinkled themselves with cold water. . . . One good trait in Jahangir was his hearty enjoyment of nature and his love of flowers.” In the opinion of the Emperor’s latest biographer, he was “a sensible, kind-hearted man, with strong family affections and unstinted generosity to all, with a burning hatred of oppression and a passion for justice. On a few occasions in his career as prince and emperor, he was betrayed, not without provocation, by fits of wrath into individual acts of cruelty. But, as a rule, he was remarkable for humanity, affability and an open mind”. Francis Gladwin has also observed that “from the beginning to the end of his reign, Jahangir’s disposition towards his subjects appears to have been invariably humane and considerate”. He removed some vexatious transit duties and taxes and made an attempt to prohibit traffic in eunuchs. He had a strong sense of justice. “The first order that I gave,” he writes, “was for fastening up the Chain of Justice.” This chain, bearing sixty-bells, could be shaken by the humblest of his subjects to bring their grievances to his notice. He imposed penalties without any consideration for the rank of the accused. Thus on passing the capital sentence on an influential murderer, he observed: ” God forbid that in such affairs I should consider princes, and far less that I should consider Amirs.” His reign saw the beginning of a new intercourse between Europe and India.
Possessed of a fine aesthetic taste, and himself a painter, Jahangir was a patron of art and literature and a lover of nature. His Tuzuk (Memoirs) is a brilliant proof of his literary attainments. But he was given to excessive intemperance, which gradually spoiled the finer aspects of his character and was responsible for the inconsistency of his temper. Jahangir’s attitude towards religion was not so rational as that of his father, but he was not an eclectic or a Christian at heart. With a sincere belief in God, he did not remain satisfied with mere dogmas of any particular creed but was a deist. He loved to converse with Hindu or Muslim saints, and Christian preachers, and valued religious pictures, notably of Christians, but he did not accept the practices or rites of the Hindus, the Zoroastrians or the Christians.
Shahjahan
The Struggle for the Throne
The death of Jahangir was followed by a short period of struggle for succession to the throne. Shah Jahan was still in the Deccan when his father died in October, 1627, and though two of his brothers, Khusrav and Parwez, had already expired, there was another, Prince Shahryar, with a position of advantage in tile north. At the instance of his mother-in-law, Nur Jahan, Sbahryar lost no time in proclaiming himself Emperor in Lahore. But Shah Jahan’s cause was ably served by Asaf Khan, father of Mumtaz Mahal. With much alertness, Asaf Khan sent a message to Shah Jahan asking him to come to the north. At the same time, with a view to satisfying the people of the capital, he installed Prince Dawar Bakhsh, son of the late Prince Khusrav, on the throne as a stop-gap Emperor, pending the arrival of Shah Jahan. Having won over to his side the Mir Bakhshi, Iradat Khan, Asaf Khan marched to Lahore, defeated the troops of Shahryar, made him a prisoner and blinded him. Shah Jahan hurried to Agra from the Deccan and was proclaimed Emperor in the metropolis in February, 1628, under the lofty title of ‘Abul Muzaffar Shihab-ud-din Muhammad Sahib-i-qiran IT, Shah Jahan Padshah Ghazi. Soon after this, Prince Dawar Bakhsh, whom the contemporary chronicler has aptly described as a ” sacrificial lamb “, was removed from the throne and consigned to prison, but he was subsequently released and ‘Went to reside in Persia as a pensioner of its Shah. Shah Jahan managed to remove all his possible rivals “out of the world” He lived to we two of his sons executed, a third driven out of the country. He himself spent his last days as a captive.