JAHANGIR AND SHAH JAHAN

The story of Dara Shukoh’s end is no less sad and pathetic than that of his brother, Maurad, or of his son, Sulaiman Shukoh. After the capture of Agra by Aurnagzeb and the captivity of Shah Jahan, Dara Shukoh fled from Delhi to Lahore, where he busied himself in preparations to encounter the pursuing troops of Aurangzeb. He adopted some measures to guard the ferries over the Sutlej and hoped that as the rains set in, it would take some time for Aurangzeb to reach Lahore. “But in hoping thus, 11 writes Sir J. N. Sarkar, ” he had counted without Aurb’s energy and strength of will, before which every obstacle-h or physicalave way.” About a month after I”‘a arrival at lahore, his “dreaded rival” crossed the Sutlej with his army and drove Dara with his family to Multan. The fugitive prince, still chased from place to place by the chief officers of Aurangzeb, who himself had returned to the east in September, 1657, to remove the dangers created by Shuja and Sulaiman Shukoh, at last succeeded in reaching- Gujarat. Here lie was unexpectedly fortunate in being welcomed (January, 1659) and helped financially by its newly appointed governor, Shah Nawalz Khan, who cherished resentment against Aurangzeb. Being thus able to recuperate his strength to some extent, Dara was thinking of returning to the Deccan, where he expected support from the Shiah rulers of Bijapur and Golkunda. This would have been the right policy for him. But Jaswant Singh, who had been already won over by Aurangzeb, lured him by promises of help to march towards Ajmer. The Rajput chief, whose conduct during this war of succession was questionable, proved false to his promises and Dara, could not get the much-hoped-for Rajput help. He was forced to fight with Aurangzeb, who had arrived near Ajmer.

Consider g it inadvisable, in view of his scanty resources, to meet the overwhelming strength of his enemy’s army in a pitched battle in the open field, Dara entrenched himself in a strong and admirably selected position at the pass of Deorai four miles south of Ajmer, and fought for three days, 12th-]4th April, 1659. But he was ultimately defeated and found safety in hurried flight. Hunted from place to place (Rajputana, Cutch and Sind) by the troops of Aurangzeb under Jai Singh and Bahadur Khan, Dara, found no-asylum in India. He hurried towards the north-west frontier in June, I(‘)59, and sought shelter with Jiwan Khan, the Afghan chief of Dadar (a place nine miles cast of the Bolan Pass), whom he had saved, a few years back, from the sentence of death passed on him by Shah Jahan. But on the way to Dadar ” the greatest of all misfortunes” befell him. His wife, Najma Begam, who had been his devoted companion in his days of wanderings and bad been suffering for some time from an attack of diarrhoea, now succumbed to prolonged hardships and want of medicine and rest. This Dara into utter bewilderment and intense grief.’ “Mountain after mountain of trouble,” remarks Khafi Khan, “thus pressed upon the heart of Dara, grief was added to grief, borrow to sorrow, so that his mind no longer retained its equilibrium.” To add to his misfortune, the faithless Afghan chief betrayed him and made him over, with his two daughters and his second son, Sipihr,Shukoh, to Babadur Khan, who brought the captives to Delhi on the 23rd August, 1659. On the 29th of the same month they were paraded throughout the city. “To complete his humiliation,” writes Sir J. N. Sarkar, ” Dara was seated in an uncovered howdah on the back of a small female elephant covered with dirt. . . . Exposed to the full blaze of an August sun, he was taken through the scenes of his former glory and splendour. In the bitterness of disgrace, he did not raise his head, nor cast his glance on any side, but sat like & crushed twig.” His tragic plight excited pity in the hearts of the citizens. Bernier, an eyewitness of the scene, writes: “The crowd assembled was immense; and everywhere I observed the people weeping, and lamenting the fate of Dara in the most touching language. . . . From every quarter I heard piercing and distressing shrieks . . . men, women and children wailing as if some mighty calamity had happened to themselves. But not a single hand could be raised to rescue the unfortunate prince, as he was girt round by cavalry and archers. Then & popular riot, directed against the traitor Malik Jiwan Khan, broke out on the 30th August. This riot hastened the end of Dara whose life could no longer be prolonged by Aurangzeb order his corpse was placed before the Doctors of Muslim law, who condemned him on a charge of deviation from the Islamic faith. On the night of the 30th August the executioners snatched Sipihr away from his father’s embmm and beheaded Dara. By Aurangzab’s order his corpse was paraded throughout the city to let the people know that their favourite was no more, and then buried in a vault under the dome of the tomb of Humayun. Thus the reign of Shah Jahan, which had begun with high prospects, came to a close in a series of dark tragedies.

It should be noted that the Mughul princes, in spite of their polygamous habits, showed an intense passion of conjugal love. As Dr. Smith points out, “A beautiful album in the India Office Library is a pathetic memorial of Dara Shukoh’s love”, It has the following inscription in his handwriting “This album was presented to his nearest and dearest friend, the Lady Nadirah Begame, by Prince Muhhammad Dara Shukoh, son of the Emperor Shah Jahan, in the year 1051 ” (A.D. 1641-1642).

A Critical Estimate of Shah Jahan’s Character and Reign

Shah Jahan was not essentially an unrelenting or excessively pleasure-seeking ruler, as European writers like Roe, Terry, Bernier, and De Laet considered him to be, and, aa a modem writer, Dr. Smith, also holds. There are, of course, certain instances of his severity. Stem as a conqueror and unsparing to his political rivals, Shah Jahan indeed acquired his throne by means that left unpleasant memories; but when we take into consideration the circumstances in which he had been placed through the coaseless intrigues of Nur Jahan, “we lose”, as Dow writes, “half our rage in the pressure of circumstances that drove him to such a ghastly stop”. Further, “for these early crimes he made ample amends by the strict justice and clemency of his government and his solicitude for the well-.being of his subjects”. Thus he did much to alleviate the sufferings of the people during the severe famine of 1631-1632 and displayed considerable industry in the task of administration. Though not as great a warrior as some of his ancestors, Shah Jahan was not devoid of military qualities. He was a zealous champion of his faith. He revived the pilgrimage tax and took steps not only to check the conversion of the Muslim to other faiths but to add to their number. Brought up by Ruqayya, Begam, he could read and speak in Turki, and trained in his early life by such eminent teachers as Mulla Qasim Beg Tabrezi, Hakim Dawai, Shaikh ‘Abdul Khair and Shaikh Sufi, he could speak both Persian and Hindi. Not pitiless by nature, Shah Jahan was a, loving father and a devoted husband. He had an intense love for Mumtiz Mahal, whom he had married in 1612. The couple enjoyed a happy life for about nineteen years, and Mumtaz was her husband’s unfailing friend and prudent adviser in the days of his adversity. She died in child-birth in 1631, and to immortalize her name, Shah Jahan built on her grave the famous Taj Mahal, which stands unrivalled as a memorial of conjugal attachment.

The reign of Shah Jahan is usually considered to have been the golden period of Mughul rule in India, which then reached its climax. There was no serious challenge to the Emperor’s authority before the war of succession. No grave external menace threatened India itself. The period saw the development of the export trade between India and Western Asia and the beginning of the export trade with Europe, and the finances of the State were flourishing. It was also marked by pomp and splendour, which were amply attested by brilliant productions in architecture, like the magnificent Taj, the Pearl Mosque of Agra, the Divan-i Am, the Diwan-i-khas, the Jami Masjid and the “celebrated Peacock Throne”. All these lead one to believe that peace and prosperity prevailed throughout the Empire. But, a careful study of the accounts of ‘the contemporary European travellers and the records of the English factories in India, show “that there were shadows in the picture which were ignored by the court annalists”. Beneath the surface of outward splendour and apparent prosperity, there were some grievous anomalies in the economic system of the country. The factory records of the time bear out the statement of Bernier that the of the provincial governors “often deprived the peasant and artisan of the necessaries of life-“. Further, the maintenance of an elaborate bureaucracy and a large army, and the expenses incurred for the splendid architectural monuments, imposed a heavy burden upon the agriculturists and the manufacturers, on whose prosperity depended the very existence of the Empire. Thus began a process of national insolvency, which, being accelerated during the next reign, proved to be one of the potent causes of the subsequent disintegration of the mighty Timurid Empire in India, which had been reared and developed by the genius of Akbar and his coadjutors. In short, India under Shah Jahan resembles France under Louis XIV in many respects. The military system of the State was also growing weaker and the revenue administration was growing lax.