DARA SHIKOH – The ‘Unlucky One’

The art of reigning is so delicate that a king must be jealous of his own shadow

Advice of Emperor Aurungzeb

The glorious Mughal Empire began with Zahīr ud-Dīn Muhammad Babur in the year 1526, and ended, theoretically, with the death of Bahadur Shah Zafar II in 1857. However, most historians consider the year 1707 to be the actual end of the Mughal Dynasty. The reason being that all the emperors post the death of Alamgir (Aurangzeb) in 1707, were incapable of handling such a vast empire. Their reigns lasted for, not more than a few years, at best. With the end of Shah Jahan’s rule in 1658, Aurangzeb took over the throne. Dara Shikoh’s story is one of the biggest ‘what-ifs’ of Indian history. How different would it have been, had Aurungzeb not won the war of succession?

Dara Shikoh (circa 1640)

Shah Jahan’s marriage to his beloved wife Mumtaz Mahal, bore 14 children, out of which only 7 survived. The four prominent ones were – Jahanara Begum, the eldest, Dara Shikoh, Roshanara and Aurungzeb. These four, played a major role in the war of succession that began in the year 1657. But before that, let me give you a glimpse into the life of a Mughal prince.

Dara Shikoh in his early years

Dara Shikoh was born on 20^th March 1615, exactly 405 years ago. He was the second child of Shah Jahan and his wife Mumtaz, and the eldest son. During the early years of his life, when Shah Jahan had been banished from the kingdom by Jahangir, him and his siblings spent their life outside the walled city of Agra. After an unsuccessful rebellion led by his father against Jahangir, in June 1626, Dara (11-years-old) and Aurungzeb (7-years-old), were held hostages by Jahangir and his wife Nur Jahan. Two years later, in the year 1628, when Shah Jahan officially became the fifth emperor of the Mughal Empire, both the siblings went back to live with their parents. In the year 1633, he was appointed the heir-apparent to the throne. Not a lot of information is available about the early life of this Mughal prince.

Aurungzeb

Aurungzeb and Dara never gelled well right from the start. The differences in their line of thought, soon came up and put up a barrier between the two. One such instance can be seen when their eldest sister Jahanara Begum, was injured very badly in a freak accident, in the year 1644. She suffered third-degree burns, that scarred her face and arms permanently. During the time when she was recovering, her brothers came to visit her, every single day. Once when Aurungzeb was visiting her, he picked up a book gifted to Jahanara by Dara. The book was a collection of poems written by Dara. Aurungzeb’s problem with him was that he was too liberal a Muslim, and that he was too tolerant. In his mind, this made Dara a ‘bad and unfaithful Muslim’’. In his poems, Dara wrote lines like these, “I rejoice that it is for every man to find God in his own way.” This angered Aurungzeb greatly, and he told Jahanara:

“I have seen how arrogant Dara has become and how he disregards others views. He was bad enough as a child, always thinking he knew best and telling the rest of us what to do. He doesn’t realise the bad example he’s setting.”

‘Empire of the Moghul: The Serpent’s Tooth’ by Alex Rutherford

Of course, this is simply an author’s view point of how the conversation must have flowed between the brother and sister. However, in my view these lines give a very accurate representation of the relationship between Dara Shikoh and Aurungzeb.

Jahanara Begum

As mentioned before, Dara was a liberal. He believed that each man should be given the liberty and freedom to choose their own faith. It was this thought, that led him to author a number of books, all of which are dedicated to finding a common-ground between the Hindu and Islamic religion. But before authoring these books, he did an extensive research on these topics. He was a follower of a famous Sufi saint named Mian Mir and he also developed friendly relations with the seventh Sikh Guru, Guru Har Rai. All of this, finally led to Dara completing his translation of all the 50 Upanishads from the original Sanskrit to Persian in the year 1657. His motive behind doing this was so that they could be studied by the Muslim scholars as well. This entire compilation of the Upanishads in Persians is called “Sirr-e-Akbar” or ‘The Greatest Mystery’. In this book, besides the translation, he also boldly writes, that the work mentioned in the Quran as ‘Kitab al-maknun’ or the ‘hidden book’ is actually a reference to the Upanishads. Although this book is considered one of Dara’s greatest achievements, it further intensified the hatred between the two brothers.

A page from Majma-ul-Bahrain (a book on comparative religion written by Dara Shikoh)

Dara Shikoh was married only once in his life. This was very unusual because in those times polygamy was a very common practice. His wife Nadira Banu Begum, died just two months before his death. Dara’s love for Nadira proved to be even more faithful than Shah Jahan’s love for Mumtaz Mahal, because unlike his father, Dara never married more than once. Nadira Begum was gifted by her husband, a collection of paintings and calligraphy assembled right from the 1630’s to his death. This album is called ‘Dara Shikoh’, and was deliberately destroyed after his death. But, some of them have managed to survive.

Left: A portrait that is thought to be of Nadira Banu Begum

Right: The wedding of Nadira Begum and Dara Shikoh

The ‘War of Succession’ that began in the year 1657, finally ended on the night of 30^th August 1659, when Dara was paraded through the streets of Delhi, chained. Dara’s death was a very ugly one, and went somewhat along these lines. Two of Aurungzeb’s soldiers pushed him down to his knees, pulled both of hands back so that his head thrusted forward. The executioner looked up at Aurungzeb, who was overlooking the entire ‘demonstration’. Aurungzeb gave him a nod. The sword swung, high up in the air, and within a second’s time, sliced through Dara’s head. Dara’s second son Sipihr Shikoh, was a witness to the entire parade. Thus died, Dara Shikoh, at a young age of 44 years. But Aurungzeb’s cruelty did not end here. The head was brought up to Aurungzeb, for an inspection so that he could make sure that his brother was indeed, dead. A Venetian traveler Niccolao Manucci, has written down an exact account of what happened. After examining the head, Aurungzeb further mutilated the head three more times, with his sword. He then ordered that the head be boxed up, and presented to Shah Jahan only when he sat down for dinner. Alex Rutherford, in his book gives this description of the sight that Shah Jahan saw before him (Warning – the description is very gory):

Dara’s head, no longer handsome, with creamy white maggots crawling around his dead eyes and in and out of his gaping mouth and blood-encrusted nostrils.

‘Empire of the Moghul: The Serpent’s Tooth’ by Alex Rutherford

After this, Shah Jahan lost all will to fight. He surrendered and as history had it, Aurungzeb was finally free of competition and the only possible King of the mighty Mughal Empire. Although Aurungzeb had declared himself King in 1658 itself, the death of Dara was vital because it removed the main threat that challenged his position as the King.

A painting from the ‘Dara Shikoh‘ album, gifted to Nadira Banu Begum (1633-34)

We often say that no matter what the situation, good always triumphs over evil. Every one of the Indian mythological stories teaches us this. The Ramayana taught us this, and so did the Mahabharata. I never thought I’d say this, but the life of Dara Shikoh is a testament to the fact that it isn’t always good that triumphs over evil. In the case of Aurungzeb and his brother, it was the exact opposite. Dara Shikoh did everything ‘right’ in his life. He was a liberal, he never enforced his faith upon anyone else. He was a militarily smart man, and in short, he would’ve made a perfect king. But as fate had it, it was his orthodox and cunning brother who ascended the throne and went on to rule for 49 years. It is true that Dara was the ‘unlucky one’. He lived his life the ‘right’ way and yet died in a horrendous manner. His name seems to have disappeared from the pages of our history. This is my attempt at making sure that the name ‘Dara Shikoh’, stays etched in our minds.

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dara_Shikoh

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurangzeb

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shah_Jahan

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nadira_Banu_Begum

Alex Rutherford’s series titled: ‘Empire of the Moghul’

Link to the article about ‘Jahanara Begum’:

Women of the Past: Rediscovered – Jahanara Begum