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Dara Shikoh

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Shah Jahan with his son Dara Shikoh, from album made for Shah Jahan, ca. 1620.

Dara Shikoh (Persian: دارا شكوه ) (March 20, 1615 - August 30, 1659) was the eldest son and the heir apparent of the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan and his wife Mumtaz Mahal. His name دارا شكوه in Persian means "Darius the Magnificent". He was favoured as a successor by his father and his sister Jahanara Begum, but was defeated by his younger brother Aurangzeb in a bitter struggle for the Mughal throne. The trajectory of the historical evolution of the Indian subcontinent, had Dara prevailed over Aurangzeb, has been a matter of some conjecture among historians.[1][2][3].

The struggle for succession and death

Dara's brothers (left to right) Shah Shuja, Aurangzeb and Murad Baksh in their younger years, ca 1637.
Humayun's Tomb, where the remains of Dara were interred in an unidentified grave.

On September 6, 1657, the illness of emperor Shah Jahan triggered a desperate struggle for power among the four Mughal princes, though realistically only Dara and Aurangzeb had a chance of emerging victorious.[4] Shah Shuja was the first to make his move, declaring himself emperor in Bengal and marching towards Agra while Murad Baksh allied himself with Aurangzeb.

Despite strong support from Shah Jahan, who had recovered enough from his illness to remain a strong factor in the struggle for supremacy, and the victory of his army led by his eldest son Sulaiman Shikoh over Shah Shuja in the battle of Bahadurpur on February 14, 1658, Dara was defeated by Aurangzeb and Murad at the battlefield of Samugarh, 13 km from Agra on May 30, 1658. Subsequently Aurangzeb took over Agra fort and deposed emperor Shah Jahan on June 8, 1658.

After the defeat Dara retreated from Agra to Delhi and thence to Lahore. His next destination was Multan and then to Thatta (Sindh). From Sindh, he crossed the Rann of Kachchh and reached Kathiawar, where he met Shah Nawaz Khan, the governor of the province of Gujarat who opened the treasury to Dara and helped him to recruit a new army.[5] He occupied Surat and advanced towards Ajmer. Foiled in his hopes of persuading the fickle but powerful Rajput feudatory, Maharaja Jaswant Singh of Marwar, to support his cause, the luckless Dara decided to make a stand and fight Aurangzeb's relentless pursuers but was once again comprehensively routed in the battle of Deorai (near Ajmer) on March 11, 1659. After this defeat he fled to Sindh and sought refuge under Malik Jiwan, a Baluch chieftain whose life had on more than one occasion been saved by the Mughal prince from the wrath of Shah Jahan.[6] However, Malik betrayed Dara and turned him (and his second son Sipihr Shikoh) over to Aurangzeb's army on June 10, 1659.

Dara was brought to Delhi, placed on a filthy elephant and paraded through the streets of the capital in chains.[7] Dara's fate was decided by the political threat he posed as a prince popular with the common people - a convocation of nobles and clergy, called by Aurangzeb in response to the perceived danger of insurrection in Delhi, declared him a threat to the public peace and an apostate from Islam.[8] He was murdered by assassins on the night of August 30, 1659.

Intellectual pursuits

Dara Shikoh (with Mian Mir and Mullah Shah Badakhshi). ca. 1635

Dara Shikoh is widely renowned[9] as an enlightened paragon of the harmonious coexistence of heterodox traditions on the Indian subcontinent. He was an erudite champion of mystical religious speculation and a poetic diviner of syncretic cultural interaction among people of all faiths. This made him a heretic in the eyes of his orthodox brother and a suspect eccentric in the view of many of the worldly power brokers swarming around the Mughal throne. Dara was a follower of Lahore's famous Qadiri Sufi saint Hazrat Mian Mir [10], whom he was introduced to by Mullah Shah Badakhshi (Mian Mir's spiritual disciple and successor) and who was so widely respected among all communities that he was invited to lay the foundation stone of the Golden Temple in Amritsar by the Sikhs. Dara subsequently developed a friendship with the seventh Sikh Guru, Guru Har Rai. Dara devoted much effort towards finding a common mystical language between Islam and Hinduism. Towards this goal he completed the translation of 50 Upanishads from its original Sanskrit into Persian in 1657 so it could be read by Muslim scholars[11]. His translation is often called Sirr-e-Akbar (The Greatest Mystery), where he states boldly, in the Introduction, his speculative hypothesis that the work referred to in the Qur'an as the "Kitab al-maknun" or the hidden book is none other than the Upanishads.[12] His most famous work, Majma-ul-Bahrain ("The Mingling of the Two Seas"), was also devoted to a revelation of the mystical and pluralistic affinities between Sufic and Vedantic speculation.

The library established by Dara Shikoh still exists on the grounds of Indraprastha University, Kashmiri Gate, Delhi, and is now run as a museum by Archeological Survey of India after being renovated [13][14].

Patron of art

A Prince in Iranian Costume by Muhammad Khan. Dara Shikoh Album, Agra, 1633-34.

He was also a patron of fine arts, music and dancing, a trait frowned upon by his sibling Aurangzeb. In fact many of his paintings are quite detailed and compare well to a professional artist of his time.[citation needed] The 'Dara Shikoh album' is a collection of paintings and calligraphy assembled from the 1630s until his death. It was presented to his wife Nadira Banu in 1641-42 [15] and remained with her until her death after which the album was taken into the royal library and the inscriptions connecting it with Dara Shikoh were deliberately erased; however not everything was vandalised and many calligraphy scripts and paintings still bear his mark.

Dara Shikoh is also credited with the commissioning of several exquisite, still extant, examples of Mughal architecture - among them the tomb of his wife Nadira Banu in Lahore,[16] the tomb of Hazrat Mian Mir also in Lahore,[17] the Dara Shikoh Library in Delhi,[18] the Akhun Mullah Shah Mosque in Srinagar in Kashmir[19] and the Pari Mahal garden palace (also in Srinagar in Kashmir).[20]

In art

The issues surrounding Dara Shikoh's impeachment and execution are used to explore interpretations of Islam in a 2008 play, "The Trial of Dara Shikoh",[21] written by Akbar S. Ahmed.[22] Dara Shikoh is also the subject of a 2007 play "Dara Shikoh", written by Danish Iqbal. Dara Shikoh is also a character played by Vaquar Sheikh in the glossy 2005 Bollywood film Taj Mahal: An Eternal Love Story, directed by Akbar Khan.

Dara Shikoh is also the name of the protagonist of Mohsin Hamid's 2000 novel Moth Smoke, which reimagines the story of his trial unfolding in contemporary Pakistan. The novel concludes with these words: "It is perhaps between hope and memory, in the atomized, atomic lands once Aurangzeb's empire, that our poets tell us Darashikoh, the apostate, called out to God as he died."[23]

Works

  • Majma-ul-bahrain Or The Mingling Of The Two Oceans, Adam Publishers & Distributors. ISBN 8174354611. [24]

Notes

  1. ^ "India was at a crossroads in the mid-seventeenth century; it had the potential of moving forward with Dara, or of turning back to medievalism with Aurangzeb." Eraly, Abraham (2004). The Mughal Throne : The Saga of India's Great Emperors. London: Phoenix. p. 336. ISBN 0-75381-758-6.
    "Poor Dara!....thy generous heart and enlightened mind had reigned over this vast empire, and made it, perchance, the garden it deserves to be made". William Sleeman (1844), E-text of Rambles and Recollections of an Indian Official p.272
  2. ^ Dara Shikoh Britannica.com.
  3. ^ Dara Shikoh Medieval Islamic Civilization: An Encyclopedia, by Josef W. Meri, Jere L Bacharach. Routledge, 2005. ISBN 0415966906. Page 195-196.
  4. ^ Sarkar, Jadunath (1984). A History of Jaipur. New Delhi: Orient Longman. pp. 113–122. ISBN 81-250-0333-9.
  5. ^ Eraly, The Mighal Throne : The Saga of India's Great Emperors, cited above, page 364.
  6. ^ Francois BernierTravels in the Mogul Empire, AD 1656-1668.
  7. ^ "The captive heir to the richest throne in the world, the favourite and pampered son of the most magnificent of the Great Mughals, was now clad in a travel-tainted dress of the coarsest cloth, with a dark dingy-coloured turban, such as only the poorest wear, on his head, and no necklace or jewel adorning his person." Sarkar, Jadunath (1962). A Short History of Aurangzib, 1618-1707. Calcutta: M. C. Sarkar and Sons. p. 78.
  8. ^ Hansen, Waldemar (1986). The Peacock Throne : The Drama of Mogul India. New Delhi: Orient Book Distributors. pp. 375–377. ISBN 978-8120802254.
  9. ^ The Hindusee for example this article in The Hindu.
  10. ^ Dara Shikoh The empire of the great Mughals: history, art and culture, by Annemarie Schimmel, Corinne Attwood, Burzine K. Waghmar. Translated by Corinne Attwood. Published by Reaktion Books, 2004. ISBN 1861891857. Page 135.
  11. ^ Dr. Amartya Sen notes in his The Argumentative Indian that it was Dara Shikoh's translation of Upanishads that attracted Sir William Jones, the great scholor of indic literauture, to Upanishads, who read them for the first time in a Persian translation by Dara Shikoh.Sen, Amartya. The Argumentative Indian.
  12. ^ Gyani Brahma Singh 'Brahma', Dara Shikoh - The Prince who turned Sufi in The Sikh Review"the reference in Al Qur’an to the hidden books - ummau-Kitab - was to the Upanishads, because they contain the essence of unity and they are the secrets which had to be kept hidden, the most ancient books."
  13. ^ Dara Shikoh's Library, Delhi
  14. ^ Dara Shikoh's Library, Delhi Govt. of Delhi.
  15. ^ Dara Shikoh album British Library.
  16. ^ Nadira Banu's tomb A view of Nadira Banu's tomb
  17. ^ Mazar Hazrat Mian Mir entertaining description of the monument and its history
  18. ^ Dara Shikoh Library description of Dara Shikoh library
  19. ^ "Akhun Mullah Shah's Mosque"
  20. ^ "Pari Mahal"
  21. ^ ‘The Trial of Dara Shikoh’ - A Play in Three Acts Text of the play with an Introduction by the author.
  22. ^ Published as Akbar Ahmed: Two Plays. London: Saqi Books, 2009. ISBN: 978-0-86356-435-2, ‘The Trial of Dara Shikoh’ - A Thought-Provoking Play A review of the play.
  23. ^ Hamid, Mohsin. (2000). Moth Smoke. p. 247.
  24. ^ Book Review by Yoginder Sikand, indianmuslims.in.

References

V.D. Mahajan (1978), History of Medieval India. S. Chand.
Sarkar, Jadunath (1984), A History of Jaipur. New Delhi: Orient Longman.
Sarkar, Jadunath (1962), A Short History of Aurangzib, 1618-1707, Calcutta: M. C. Sarkar and Sons, .
Eraly, Abraham (2004), The Mughal Throne : The Saga of India's Great Emperors. London: Phoenix.
Hansen, Waldemar [1986], The Peacock Throne : The Drama of Mogul India. New Delhi: Orient Book Distributors.

Bernier, Francois Travels in the Mogul Empire, AD 1656-1668
Manucci, Niccolo Storia de Mogor or Mogul Stories''
Srikand, Yoginder Dara Shikoh's Quest for Spiritual Unity
Mittal, Aditya The Battle of Samugarh
Gyani Brahma Singh, Dara Shikoh - The Prince who turned Sufi in The Sikh Review
The Hindu, A forgotten symbol of composite culture

Sleeman, William (1844), E-text of Rambles and Recollections of an Indian Official

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