Dara Shikoh and Related Topics

Aurangzeb

The sixth emperor of the Mughal Empire, reigning from July 1658 until his death.

A painting from c. 1637 shows the brothers (left to right) Shah Shuja, Aurangzeb and Murad Baksh in their younger years.

The Mughal Army under the command of Aurangzeb recaptures Orchha in October 1635.

A painting from Padshahnama depicts Prince Aurangzeb facing a maddened war elephant named Sudhakar.

Sepoys loyal to the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb maintain their positions around the palace, at Aurangabad, in 1658.

Mughal Empire under Aurangzeb in early 18th century

Aurangzeb compiled Hanafi law by introducing the Fatawa-e-Alamgiri.

Aurangzeb seated on a golden throne holding a Hawk in the Durbar. Standing before him is his son, Azam Shah.

Aurangzeb Receives Prince Mu'azzam. Chester Beatty Library

Dagger (Khanjar) of Aurangzeb (Badshah Alamgir).

Manuscript of the Quran, parts of which are believed to have been written in Aurangzeb's own hand.

The Birthday of the Grand Mogul Aurangzeb, made 1701–1708 by Johann Melchior Dinglinger.

Josiah Child requests a pardon from Aurangzeb during the Anglo-Mughal War.

By 1690, Aurangzeb was acknowledged as: "emperor of the Mughal Sultanate from Cape Comorin to Kabul".

Aurangzeb spent his reign crushing major and minor rebellions throughout the Mughal Empire.

The tomb of Akbar was pillaged by Jat rebels during the reign of Aurangzeb.

Aurangzeb leads the Mughal Army during the Battle of Satara.

Raja Shivaji at Aurangzeb's Darbar- M V Dhurandhar

Aurangzeb dispatched his personal imperial guard during the campaign against the Satnami rebels.

Gurudwara Sis Ganj Sahib in Delhi is built at the place where Guru Tegh Bahadur was beheaded.

Zafarnama is the name given to the letter sent by the tenth Sikh Guru, Guru Gobind Singh in 1705 to Aurangzeb. The letter is written in Persian script.

Aurangzeb in a pavilion with three courtiers below.

Bibi Ka Maqbara, the mausoleum of Aurangzeb's wife Dilras Banu Begum, was commissioned by him

Aurangzeb's tomb in Khuldabad, Maharashtra.

The unmarked grave of Aurangzeb in the mausoleum at Khuldabad, Maharashtra.

Tughra and seal of Aurangzeb, on an imperial firman

In the year 1689, according to Mughal accounts, Sambhaji was put on trial, found guilty of atrocities and executed.<ref>{{cite book |last=Mehta |first=J. L. |title=Advanced Study in the History of Modern India: Volume One: 1707{{snd}}1813 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=d1wUgKKzawoC&pg=PA50 |access-date=29 September 2012 |date=2005 |publisher=Sterling Publishers |isbn=978-1-932705-54-6 |pages=50–}}</ref><ref name="google2">{{cite book |last=Stein |first=Burton |author-link=Burton Stein |year=2010 |orig-year=First published 1998 |editor-last=Arnold |editor-first=David |editor-link=David Arnold (historian) |title=A History of India |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QY4zdTDwMAQC&pg=PA180 |publisher=Blackwell Publishers |edition=2nd |page=180 |isbn=978-1-4051-9509-6}}</ref>

Guru Tegh Bahadur was publicly executed in 1675 on the orders of Aurangzeb in Delhi<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.allaboutsikhs.com/Sikh-Guru-Ji'/Sri-Guru-Tegh-Bhadur-Sahib-Ji.html |title=A Gateway to Sikhism {{!}} Sri Guru Tegh Bhadur Sahib |website=Gateway to Sikhism |access-date=28 October 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140327223831/http://www.allaboutsikhs.com/Sikh-Guru-Ji'/Sri-Guru-Tegh-Bhadur-Sahib-Ji.html#12 |archive-date=27 March 2014 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

Sarmad Kashani, a Jewish convert to Islam and Sufi mystic was accused of heresy and executed.<ref name="David Cook 2007">{{cite book |last=Cook |first=David |author-link=David Cook (historian) |year=2007 |title=Martyrdom in Islam |publisher=Cambridge University Press |page=80 |isbn=978-0-521-85040-7}}</ref>

Seventeenth-century Badshahi Masjid built by Aurangzeb in Lahore.

Tomb of Sufi saint, Syed Abdul Rahim Shah Bukhari constructed by Aurangzeb.

Shawls manufactured in the Mughal Empire had highly influenced other cultures around the world.

François Bernier, was a French physician and traveller, who for 12 years was the personal physician of Aurangzeb. He described his experiences in Travels in the Mughal Empire.

Map of the Mughal Empire by Vincenzo Coronelli (1650–1718) of Venice, who served as Royal Geographer to Louis XIV of France.

Aurangzeb leads his final expedition (1705), leading an army of 500,000 troops.

Mughal-era aristocrat armed with a matchlock musket.

Aurangzeb, in later life, hunting with hounds and falconers

In September 1657, Shah Jahan nominated his eldest and liberalist son Dara Shikoh as his successor, a move repudiated by Aurangzeb, who proclaimed himself emperor in February 1658.

Jahanara Begum

Mughal princess and later the Padshah Begum of the Mughal Empire from 1631 to 1658 and again from 1668 until her death.

The Passing of Shah Jahan beside his daughter and caretaker Princess Jahanara. Painting by Abanindranath Tagore, 1902

Jahanara's tomb (left), Nizamuddin Auliya's tomb (right) and Jamaat Khana Masjid (background), at Nizamuddin Dargah complex, in Nizamuddin West, Delhi.

Jahanara was an ardent partisan of her brother, Dara Shikoh, and supported him as her father's chosen successor.

Shah Jahan

The fifth emperor of the Mughal Empire, reigning from January 1628 until July 1658.

Shah Jahan, accompanied by his three sons: Dara Shikoh, Shah Shuja and Aurangzeb, and their maternal grandfather Asaf Khan IV

Rosette bearing the names and titles of Shah Jahan

The Taj Mahal, the burial place of Shah Jahan and his wife Mumtaz Mahal

The Submission of Rana Amar Singh of Mewar to Prince Khurram, Tuzk-e-Jahangiri.

Shah Jahan on horseback (during his youth).

Shah Jahan at his Durbar, from the Windsor Padshahnama, c. 1657

Throne of king Shah Jahan, Red Fort, Delhi

Painting of Shah Jahan hunting Asiatic lions at Burhanpur, present-day Madhya Pradesh, from 1630

Shah Jahan and his eldest son Dara Shikoh.

The actual tombs of Mumtaz Mahal and Shah Jahan in the lower level of Taj Mahal

The elegant Naulakha Pavilion at the Lahore Fort was built during the reign of Shah Jahan.

Shah Jahan and the Mughal Army return after attending a congregation in the Jama Masjid, Delhi.

Lahore's Wazir Khan Mosque is considered to be the most ornate Mughal-era mosque.<ref>{{cite book |last=Dani |first=A. H. |date=2003 |chapter=The Architecture of the Mughal Empire (North-Western Regions) |editor-last1=Adle |editor-first1=Chahryar |editor-last2=Habib |editor-first2=Irfan |editor2-link=Irfan Habib |title=History of Civilizations of Central Asia |volume=V |chapter-url=http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0013/001302/130205e.pdf |publisher=UNESCO |page=524 |isbn=978-92-3-103876-1}}</ref>

Finial, Tamga of the Mughal Empire (combining a crescent and a spear pendant with the word Allah).

Silver rupee coin of Shah Jahan, from Patna.

In September 1657, Shah Jahan was ailing from an illness and he appointed his eldest son Dara Shikoh as his successor.

Mumtaz Mahal

The empress consort of the Mughal Empire from 19 January 1628 to 17 June 1631 as the chief consort of the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan.

A UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Taj Mahal is the final resting place of Mumtaz Mahal and Shah Jahan.

Tomb of Mumtaz Mahal in the Taj Mahal, alongside her husband Shah Jahan

Mumtaz and her husband had 14 children, including Jahanara Begum (Shah Jahan's favorite daughter), and the Crown prince Dara Shikoh, the heir-apparent, anointed by his father, who temporarily succeeded him until deposed by Mumtaz Mahal's sixth child, Aurangzeb, who ultimately succeeded his father as the sixth Mughal emperor in 1658.

Nadira Banu Begum

The wedding of Nadira Begum and Dara Shikoh

Outside view of Nadira Begum's tomb during winter

Nadira Banu Begum (14 March 1618 – 6 June 1659) was a Mughal princess and the wife of the Crown prince, Dara Shikoh, the eldest son and heir-apparent of the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan.

Murad Bakhsh

Mughal prince.

Murad Baksh, younger brother of Aurangzeb

Murad's siblings included his two politically powerful sisters, the princesses Jahanara Begum and Roshanara Begum, as well as the heir-apparent to his father, his eldest brother, Crown Prince Dara Shikoh and the future Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb.

Shah Shuja (Mughal prince)

The second son of the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan and Empress Mumtaz Mahal.

The Mughal armies of Aurangzeb and Shah Shuja confront each other.

A painting from circa 1637 shows the brothers (left to right) Shuja, Aurangzeb and Murad Baksh in their younger years

An etching of Bara Katra by Sir Charles D'Oyly in 1823

Shuja's siblings were the eldest sister Jahanara Begum, Dara Shikoh, Roshanara Begum, Aurangzeb, Murad Baksh, Gauhara Begum and others.

Jahangir

The fourth Mughal Emperor, who ruled from 1605 until his death in 1627.

Potrait of Empress Mariam-uz-Zamani, giving birth to Prince Salim in Fatehpur Sikri.

Emperor Jahangir weighing his son Prince Khurram (the future Shah Jahan) on a weighing scale by artist Manohar (1615).

The Tomb of Jahangir in Shahdara, Lahore

A Mughal miniature dated from the early 1620s depicting the Mughal emperor Jahangir preferring an audience with Sufi saint to his contemporaries, the Ottoman Sultan Ahmed I and the King of England James I (d. 1625); the picture is inscribed in Persian: "Though outwardly shahs stand before him, he fixes his gazes on dervishes."

Portrait of Mughal Emperor Jahangir's making a Dua

Jahangir's Jade hookah, National Museum, New Delhi

Italian writer and traveller, Niccolao Manucci, who worked under Jahangir's grandson, Dara Shikoh, began his discussion of Jahangir by saying: "It is a truth tested by experience that sons dissipate what their fathers gained in the sweat of their brow."

Genealogy of the Mughal Dynasty. Only principal offspring of each emperor are provided in the chart.

Mughal emperors

The Mughal emperors were the supreme head of state of the Mughal Empire on the Indian subcontinent, mainly corresponding to the modern countries of India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh.