The
best thing about Mughals is that they are known today for what they built and
what they ruined; but never for what they stood for.
If
we think about what they stood for, we would be aghast. They had a history of
cold blooded murders, execution of people from other religions, sons fighting
war with fathers, and brothers killing brothers for throne.
Here,
some history of Shah Jahan, of Taj Mahal fame:
Some excerpts:
Shah
Jahan was born on January 15, 1592 in Lahore to Mughal emperor Jahangir and his
Rajput princess Jagat Gossain, also called Jodh Bai, whose father was Uday
Singh Rathor of Marwar. On the sixth day of his birth, the child was named Khurram
(Joyous) by Akbar, and was handed over to Ruqaiya Begum -- Akbar's childless
wife -- who became his foster mother when the little prince was four years,
four months and four days old.
In
1607, when Shah Jahan was 16, he married Arjumand Banu Begum aka Mumtaz Mahal.
Shah Jahan had two other wives. However, their children did not survive. Only
Mumtaz Mahal gave him an heir. Seven of the royal couple's children survived,
four boys and three girls: Jahanara Begum, Dara Shikoh, Shah Shuja, Raushanara
Begum, Aurangzeb, Murad Bakhsh and Goharara Begum.
Shah
Jahan went to war against his own father Jehangir. Shah Jahan was defeated and
was imprisoned. Jehangir later took pity on his son and released him from
prison. After Jehangir's death, his wife Nur Jahan passed on the baton to
Jehangir's other son, Shahryar, and not Shah Jahan. Shah Jahan took Shahryar on
in battle and killed him. He also killed his other brothers, Dawar Bakhsh and
Garshasp.
Mumtaz
Mahal died on June 17, 1631 while giving birth to her 14th child, Goharara
Begum. Devastated by his wife's death, the emperor withdrew from public life
for a week. Mumtaz Mahal was buried at Burhanpur on the banks of the Tapti
river. Six months later, her body was exhumed and she was re-interred on
January 8, 1632, on the banks of the Yamuna where the Taj Mahal was built.
Initially, Shah Jahan called her tomb the Rauza-i-Munavvara (the illumined
tomb). It was later called Mumtaz Mahal, then the Taj Mahal.
37
creative minds worked on the design on the Taj Mahal. 20,000 labourers toiled
day and night from 1631 to 1654. Ustad Isa -- a Turk who either came from
Constantinople (today's Istanbul) or from Shiraz or Isfahan in Persia -- is
usually credited as the Taj's architect. From Turkey came Ismail Afandi, a
designer of hemispheres and a builder of domes. To oversee the finances and the
daily supervision of work on the site, the emperor chose Abdul Kari and
Mukarrimat Khan, seasoned administrators from Shiraz, Persia. Master
calligrapher Amanat Khan -- whose name is located at the base of the Taj's
interior dome near the lines from the Quran -- was also a native of Shiraz. The
lines, by the way, read, 'Written by the insignificant being, Amanat Khan
Shirazi.'
Though
he did not impose jiziya on the Hindus (the practice was abolished by Akbar) Shah Jahan, an orthodox Sunni Muslim, was harsh towards Hindus.
According
to Abraham Eraly's book, Emperors of the Peacock Throne, '76 temples were
destroyed in Benares and so were many churches in Agra.'
'Shah
Jahan also prohibited Muslims from changing their religion but encouraged
conversions to Islam by offering stipends and other favours to converts,' Eraly
writes.
Eraly
quotes Abdul Hamid Lahori, who wrote Padshanama during Shah Jahan's time and
notes, 'Shah Jahan also issued an order that if a Hindu had a Muslim wife he
could keep her only if he became a Muslim, otherwise he was to be fined and his
wife separated.'
'He
also directed that Hindus should keep to their own style of dress, tying their
tunics on the left, unlike Muslims, who tied it on the right. Further Hindus
were asked to discontinue practices which were offensive to Islam, such as the
sale of alcohol, the cremation of the dead of the performance of sati near a
Muslim cemetery.'
'He
only mellowed down in final years of his reign and that too under the influence
of his son, Dara Shikoh, and he presented a stone railing to the great temple
built in Mathura by Bir Singh.'
Shah
Jahan took ill in 1657 and shortly thereafter declared his eldest son, Dara
Shikoh, as his successor. This was contested by his other sons and a battle
broke out. At the end of the bloody campaign, Aurangzeb triumphed and got
killed his all three brothers Shuja, Murad and Dara. After he declared himself
emperor, Aurangzeb kept Shah Jahan in prison till death in 1666.
Taken from:
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