Empire of the Moghul: The Serpent's Tooth (47 page)

After their capture, Aurangzeb paraded Dara and Sipihr in rags on a filthy elephant through the streets of Delhi. Frenchman Bernier witnessed the ‘disgraceful procession’.

In reality, Dara was beheaded in his cell, not in public, in late August 1659. His tomb is on the platform surrounding Humayun’s tomb in Delhi.

Chapter 21

There is clear evidence that Roshanara had early allied herself with Aurangzeb and was one of his chief sources of information about what was happening at court, especially in the period of Shah Jahan’s illness.

Aurangzeb did cut off the water supply to the Agra fort.

Manucci recounts that a vengeful Aurangzeb sent Dara’s head to Shah Jahan.

Chapter 22

Aurangzeb indeed captured Murad through subterfuge and dispatched him on one of four elephants sent to the four points of the compass to hinder Murad’s supporters from following him. Murad was later executed on the charge of having murdered his finance minister, Ali Naqi.

Aurangzeb first declared himself emperor in a simple ceremony on 21 July 1658. Nearly a year later, on 5 June 1659 – a day deemed auspicious by his astrologers – he held a second and far more elaborate ceremony.

Chapter 23

The story that Shah Jahan ground up his pearls rather than surrender them to Aurangzeb is true. It is my suggestion that Shah Jahan tried to save Suleiman’s life. Whatever the case, he didn’t succeed. Aurangzeb ordered Suleiman Shukoh to be fed daily on
pousta
which first turned him into a zombie and eventually killed him. Aurangzeb kept Dara’s other son Sipihr in prison for many years and then married him to one of his daughters.

Shah Shuja was last heard of in the lands of the pirate king of Arakan, east of Bengal, where most believe he perished.

Chapter 24

Jahanara was her father’s companion throughout his imprisonment.

Shah Jahan never saw Aurangzeb during his imprisonment although during the first year of Shah Jahan’s incarceration father and son exchanged letters, full of reproaches on Shah Jahan’s side and pious self-justifications on Aurangzeb’s. In one letter Aurangzeb wrote, ‘I was convinced that Your Majesty loved not me’ – a clue to his long-standing sense of alienation.

The only evidence that Shah Jahan wished to build a black marble Taj Mahal as his own tomb comes from Frenchman Jean-Baptiste Tavernier who wrote that ‘Shah Jahan began to build his own tomb on the other side of the river but the war with his sons interrupted his plan.’ Shah Jahan had previously counterpointed white marble buildings with black ones. If he had wished to build his own Taj Mahal the place he would surely have chosen would have been his
mahtab bagh
, or moonlight garden. Archaeologists have found no foundations for such a building in the
mahtab bagh
yet the idea would not have been out of keeping with Shah Jahan, a man who saw art on a grand scale. Also, he loved to contrast white marble with black. This is exemplified by his building of a counterpointing black marble pavilion in the Shalimar Gardens in Srinagar in Kashmir in 1630, just before Mumtaz Mahal’s death. The Taj Mahal also contains much black marble. For example the joints between each of the white marble blocks of the four minarets are inlaid with it, the low wall around the mausoleum plinth is inlaid with the same material and the mausoleum itself has black marble in its framing and calligraphy – what better transition to a black Taj over the water? However, we shall probably never know the truth. What is clear is that he did not intend to be buried in the Taj Mahal, which he designed for Mumtaz alone. Her sarcophagus lies on the central axis of the complex, his is squashed in to one side, the only asymmetrical element in the whole design. It encroaches on the black and white tiled border surrounding Mumtaz’s tomb while lacking one of its own. Again, for more details see
A Teardrop on the Cheek of Time
.

Shah Jahan died in the Agra fort in the early hours of 22 January 1666. Aurangzeb did not sanction a grand state funeral but ordered his father to be laid quietly beside Mumtaz in the crypt of the Taj Mahal.

Shah Jahan’s close family

Mumtaz Mahal (formerly Arjumand Banu), Shah Jahan’s wife

Jahanara, eldest surviving daughter of Shah Jahan and Mumtaz

Dara Shukoh, eldest surviving son of Shah Jahan and Mumtaz

Shah Shuja, second surviving son of Shah Jahan and Mumtaz

Roshanara, second surviving daughter of Shah Jahan and Mumtaz

Aurangzeb, third surviving son of Shah Jahan and Mumtaz

Murad, youngest surviving son of Shah Jahan and Mumtaz

Gauharara, youngest surviving daughter of Shah Jahan and Mumtaz

Nadira, Dara Shukoh’s wife

Suleiman, Dara Shukoh’s elder son

Sipihr, Dara Shukoh’s younger son

Jahangir, Shah Jahan’s father

Akbar, Shah Jahan’s grandfather

Humayun, Shah Jahan’s great-grandfather

Khusrau, Shah Jahan’s half-brother and Jahangir’s eldest son

Parvez, Shah Jahan’s half-brother and Jahangir’s second son

Shahriyar, Shah Jahan’s half-brother and Jahangir’s youngest son

Mehrunissa (known also as Nur Jahan and Nur Mahal), Jahangir’s last wife and aunt of Mumtaz Mahal

Asaf Khan, father of Mumtaz Mahal and brother of Mehrunissa

Jani, Khusrau’s widow

Ismail Khan, Jani’s nephew

Imperial household and members of the court

Satti al-Nisa, Mumtaz’s confidante and later Jahanara’s friend

Aslan Beg, Shah Jahan’s elderly steward

Tuhin Roy, Moghul ambassador to Shah Abbas of Persia

Ustad Ahmad, architect of the Taj Mahal

Nasreen, Jahanara’s attendant formerly in Roshanara’s employ

Ali Naqi, revenue minister of Gujarat

Shah Jahan’s chief commanders and officers

Ashok Singh, Rajput prince and friend of Shah Jahan

Nicholas Ballantyne, Englishman and former squire to the English ambassador to the Moghul court

Kamran Iqbal, commander of the Agra garrison

Ahmed Aziz, commander in the Deccan

Abdul Aziz, son of Ahmed Aziz

Zafir Abas, Ahmed Aziz’s second-in-command

Mahabat Khan, Shah Jahan’s commander-in-chief early in his reign

Malik Ali, Shah Jahan’s master of horse

Sadiq Beg, Baluchi veteran.

Rai Singh, a Rajput and one of Shah Jahan’s chief scouts

Suleiman Khan, an officer

Raja Jaswant Singh of Marwar

Khalilullah Khan, an Uzbek veteran

Raja Jai Singh of Amber

Dilir Khan, an Afghan general

Raja Ram Singh Rathor, a Rajput ruler

Others

Malik Jiwan, betrayer of Dara Shukoh and his son Sipihr

Makhdumi Khan, governor of the Agra fort and Shah Jahan’s jailor

Itibar Khan, Aurangzeb’s chief eunuch and later Shah Jahan’s jailor