Dara Shikoh
Dara Shikoh (
1615–
1659) was the eldest son of the
Mughal Emperor
Shah Jahan and his wife
Mumtaz Mahal. His name is from
Persian داراشكوه meaning "The possessor of Glory". He was favored as a successor by his father and his sister
Jahanara Begum, but was defeated and beheaded by his younger brother
Aurangzeb in a bitter struggle for the Mughal throne.
In
1657, the illness of emperor Shah Jahan triggered a fierce and desperate battle for power among the four Mughal princes, though realistically only Dara and Aurangzeb had a chance to emerge victorious.
Shah Shuja declared himself emperor in
Bengal. Despite strong support from Shah Jahan, who had recovered enough from his illness to remain a strong factor in the struggle for supremacy, and victories over Shah Shuja, Dara was defeated by Aurangzeb at the battlefield of
Samogarh, 13 km from
Agra on
8 June 1658.He attempted to rally support after this defeat, but was betrayed and turned over to his brother. Marched through the streets of the capital in chains, he was at first held prisoner, and then cruelly killed by men seeking the favor of his brother. It is said that Aurangzeb beheaded the corpse of Dara Shikoh and had his severed head taken to their father.
Dara Shikoh was a gentle and pious
Sufi intellectual. He favored religious tolerance, and coexistence between
Hindus and
Muslims. Many historians have speculated how different India would have been had he prevailed over his fierce fundamentalist brother Aurangzeb.
Dara Shikoh was a follower of
Lahore's famous
Qadiri Sufi saint
Mian Mir, whom he was introduced to by
Mullah Shah Badakhshi (Mian Mir's spiritual disciple and successor). Shikoh devoted much effort towards finding a common mystical language between
Islam and
Hinduism. Towards this goal he translated the
Upanishads from its original
Sanskrit into
Persian so it could be read by Muslim scholars. His translation is often called "Sirre Akbar" or The Greatest Mystery while in Arabic, the Upanishads are referred to as "Kitab al-maknun" or the hidden book. His most famous work,
Majma ul-Bahrain ("The Mingling of the Two Oceans") was also devoted to finding the commonalities between Sufism and Hindu Monotheism. 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. The Dara Shikoh album is a collection of paintings and calligraphy assembled during the 1630s until his death. It was presented to his wife
Nadira Banu 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's Quest for Spiritual Unity*
The Battle of Samugarh
