Shortly thereafter, ten-year-old Dara and seven-year-old Aurangzeb journeyed to the court, leaving behind their father and mother, brothers and sisters, milk siblings, foster mothers, tutors, and other familiar people. They brought lavish gifts, including elephants, jewels, and chased weapons worth at least seven lakh rupees.66 Khurram had to provide an entourage he could ill afford to spare, in order to protect the boys and the bounty they carried. Around May, the boys reached Agra, from where they traveled westward through the subcontinent’s northern plains in the hottest months of the year.
There were new developments at Jahangir’s court. Mahabat Khan had allowed the imperial party to continue onto Kabul and to carry out their activities as usual, except that they were constantly under his watch. There, his overconfident soldiers had a run-in with some elite members of the imperial guard, and the khan lost a good number of men. In the Deccan, Malik Ambar, Khurram’s host, had died, at the age of eighty. By June, Khurram heard about Mahabat Khan’s coup and headed north from Nasik to join the fray with a straggling band of soldiers, which was all he had left. Perhaps he thought he and Mahabat Khan would join forces against the emperor, or that he and his father would make amends by uniting against a common enemy, Mahabat Khan, and that by proving his loyalty he might draw his father away from Nur Jahan. On his way, his makeshift army dispersed, leaving him with only about five hundred men. Realizing that his earlier plan was not feasible, Khurram went to Thatta, in Sind, to fight against the imperial army, crossing the blistering Thar Desert. Arjumand, heavily pregnant, made the difficult journey with him. It is likely that the rest of their children, apart from the three eldest sons, also accompanied them.67
Word had recently arrived that Parwez was seriously unwell. When the imperial couple was in Kabul, official reports from the Deccan mentioned that the prince was ill with colic. Then, after the family hastened toward Hindustan, Khan Jahan Lodi, whom Jahangir treated as a foster son, wrote, saying that Parwez had become unconscious and the physicians had decided to cauterize him on the head and face. He drifted in and out of consciousness. The doctors diagnosed him with the malady caused by excessive drink, the same illness that felled Parwez’s uncles Murad and Daniyal.68
In August, by the time Dara Shukoh and Aurangzeb arrived at their grandfather’s court, Mahabat Khan’s grip over the emperor and Nur Jahan had loosened. Kami’s panegyric to Nur Jahan’s stand against Mahabat Khan’s insurrection depicts the empress riding on horseback and showing off her skill in archery and hunting. Kami has Jahangir, impressed, exclaim: “You and I are partners in kingship.”69 The imperial household was returning back from Kabul to Lahore. The boys met up with the camp along the way. Entering Jahangir’s audience tent, the young princes thrice bowed low in the kornish, bringing their right hands to the ground and then to their foreheads, before performing the ceremony of kissing the ground, the zamin bos. This elaborate set of obeisances had, since Akbar’s reign, been reserved for the emperor. The boys must have been duly coached to perform it correctly, as even the slightest breach of etiquette was looked upon sternly. The chronicler Mutamad Khan tells us that they then presented their tribute of three hundred thousand rupees in addition to the other gifts they brought in kind.70
The emperor and Nur Jahan were still under Mahabat Khan’s surveillance when Dara and Aurangzeb arrived. Then, at the beginning of September, the princes witnessed Mahabat Khan’s final undoing. The end of his coup was far less dramatic than its beginning. Jahangir lulled him into complacency by letting him believe he was a close confidant. Apparently, though, Nur Jahan and Shahnawaz Khan’s daughter, who was also Ladli’s daughter’s nurse, were out to kill Mahabat Khan. Nur Jahan secretly arranged for military reinforcements from her eunuch Hoshyar Khan. At the Bahat River, the emperor ordered Mahabat Khan to go ahead of the imperial party. The khan complied, now more docile after his Kabul misadventure. Jahangir and his retinue swiftly outpaced him and crossed over to the other bank. Nur Jahan then sent Mahabat Khan a list of orders, including one directing him to go to Thatta and to fight against Khurram. The commander instead fled to the mountains of Mewar.71
It is during the period in Kabul, with Jahangir and Nur Jahan now emerging from Mahabat Khan’s clutches, that Kami composed his panegyric for the empress. Kami’s epic flows with devotion to Ali, whom the Shia particularly revere as the first Imam, and the Prophet’s family. He presents Jahangir as a second Solomon and Alexander and a champion of Ali. Kami likens Nur Jahan, the poem’s heroine, to Bilqis, Solomon’s wife, and extols her piety in very Shia terms. Years later, the question of Nur Jahan’s Shiism and its influence over the court would be associated with her ward Shuja.
The young princes Dara and Aurangzeb had an uneasy status as hostages in their grandfather’s household. They did not know when they would see their parents again or even how long they would be allowed to live or remain unmaimed. While they were under Jahangir and Nur Jahan’s watch, imperial artillery fired upon their parents’ tent in Thatta.72 Khurram’s siege failed and his army was cornered and trapped. The Shah of Iran had once again rebuffed the prince’s plea for help or refuge. Khurram fell severely ill.73 Amidst all this, in the third week of October, Mumtaz gave birth to a son whom they named Lutfullah, God’s grace.74
Then a threatening missive arrived from Nur Jahan. She wrote that Mahabat Khan was upset that the imperial retinue went off without him. She added, “Hopefully he is not in such a foul temper that anything would happen to your sons along the way.” Of course, Mahabat Khan, now practically disarmed, was not in a position to harm the boys. Nur Jahan, grasping the reins of power more tightly after emerging from the coup, had no compunctions about using Dara Shukoh, Aurangzeb, and probably Shuja, too, as pawns. Khurram was forced to take his family and retreat; he traveled in a palanquin because he was too unwell to mount a horse. Lutfullah was only four days old when they departed. They returned to the Deccan where Malik Ambar’s son found them a house.75
Parwez had died in the first week of October, his body ravaged by drink.76 Khurram, however, did not know the fate of his fallen brother and one-time rival until he left for the Deccan, by which time word had swiftly reached the court. When she wrote her aforementioned letter to Khurram, Nur Jahan could see that the real battle for succession would now be between Khurram and Shahryar, unless Khusrau’s son Dawar Bakhsh suddenly found himself some very strong supporters. Between the lines of her letter was also the wish to prevent Mahabat Khan from joining forces with Khurram. But eventually Mahabat Khan, who had once pursued Khurram as the emperor’s general, decided to cast his lot with the rebel prince. No longer bound by loyalty to Parwez, and in rebellion against the emperor, Mahabat Khan traveled to Khurram’s camp with gifts and a plea to make amends.77
By this point, Khurram’s sons had already journeyed south to Lahore with Jahangir’s party. The city, one of the largest and most populous in the world, spilled out beyond the Ravi River’s banks. A decade earlier, the late English traveler Coryate had recorded that Lahore “contayneth at least sixteen miles in compasse and exceedeth Constantinople itself in greatness.”78 Hewn from dusty red sandstone, Lahore’s expansive fort rose sharply from the Punjab’s flat terrain, its massive ramparts extended over roughly fifty square acres. The Ravi flowed along its north side, adjoining gardens and pavilions from which the imperial household and select guests watched elephant fights and other spectacles put up for their entertainment.
The boys, confined in the fort, would have had scarce opportunity to sample the city’s sights and pleasures. The sources provide very little insight into the private lives of the children during this time. We may picture their reunion with their younger brother Shuja, who had entirely grown up in the court, having lived with Nur Jahan throughout his father’s rebellion. There were other princely grandchildren of Jahangir, older than Khurram’s sons, whom Nur Jahan had rounded up and placed under close guard in the sprawling fort: Khusrau’s sons; the sixteen-year-old Dawar Bakhsh and his younger brother G
arshasp; as well as sons of Jahangir’s younger brother named Tahmuras and Hoshang, who had been missing for years and were recently found and sent over by Mahabat Khan. All these male scions were possible threats to Shahryar’s enthronement, which Nur Jahan openly championed. Shahryar kept a special eye on Dawar Bakhsh and supervised his confinement. As potential claimants to the throne, the emperor’s grandsons were highly valuable in the governing economy of kingship. Others more experienced and capable could use them as fronts to wield their own power. These boys and young men were likely kept from mingling amongst themselves or developing any sort of camaraderie.
Nur Jahan may have also discouraged her brother Asaf Khan, the maternal grandfather to Dara Shukoh and his brothers, from spending much time with the boys. After Mahabat Khan’s failed insurrection, Asaf Khan was disgraced and sidelined. He had been stripped of his rank and land allotment. Jahangir now rehabilitated him somewhat by restoring his rank to that of seven thousand cavalry.79 Nevertheless, Asaf Khan would still have to tread carefully so that his loyalty to the imperial couple was not questioned.
Dara’s time as a hostage in Lahore with his brothers, though long in the life of a child, was not interminable. It was interrupted by a trip north to the mountains. By March of the next year, the heat was beginning to affect Jahangir, whose constitution had taken a turn for the worse. The members of the imperial household, including the confined princes, wound their way toward the higher elevation of Kashmir. Yet, even in the shadow of the towering peaks, the emperor’s chronic asthma bothered him and his appetite declined. Even worse, Shahryar, once a rival to Khurram, came down with an embarrassing illness. He was afflicted with what Mughal physicians referred to as “fox-mange,” a term drawn from the ancient Greek medical tradition. The prince’s hair, perceived as a symbol of manhood, fell out from his head, as well as his beard, eyebrows, and elsewhere. The doctors could not treat him successfully and it was rumored that he been stricken with syphilis. Regardless of the cause, the ailment was exceedingly humiliating. Shahryar decided to retire to the Lahore Fort with the hope of privacy, if not a cure. Jahangir gave him permission to take leave. Before departing, Shahryar entrusted the custody of Khusrau’s son Dawar Bakhsh to Iradat Khan, courtier and brother to Asaf Khan and Nur Jahan.80
Meanwhile, Jahangir, who was still unwell, also set off on the journey back. Despite his ill health, he continued his habit of stopping to hunt along the way. In one incident, his attendants drove stags to the top of a precipitous cliff so that the emperor, in his weakened state, could easily shoot them. Jahangir fired at one but missed. The animal fled to a bush on the sharp edge of the mountain face. A servant chased after it, and crashed off the precipice to his death. The emperor was deeply troubled. After returning to camp that night, Jahangir’s condition worsened. By the next morning, on the seventh of November 1627, the emperor was dead. At sixty years old, Jahangir had ruled India for over two decades.81
Khurram’s boys saw Asaf Khan, their maternal grandfather, take charge instantly. At the time of the emperor’s demise, Asaf Khan was with the royal entourage. Though he had just recently made amends with the court, the nobleman faced a unique, if perilous, opportunity. The once powerful khan, who had been keeping close tabs on Jahangir’s health, quickly appraised the situation. Shahryar’s move to Lahore gave Asaf Khan an opening. But there was no time to lose. With the aid of his brother Iradat Khan, Asaf Khan immediately had Jahangir’s grandson, young Dawar Bakhsh, freed and proclaimed emperor. He persuaded the wary prince that his motives were genuine. Only days before, Dawar Bakhsh had been in Shahryar’s custody. But Asaf Khan’s loyalties at this point were by no means transparent.
The khan placed Nur Jahan, his own sister, under guard, ignoring her requests to meet him. He then entrusted his signet ring to one Banarsi, a Hindu manager in the elephant stables, with instructions to convey the news as swiftly as possible to his son-in-law Khurram. Banarsi started the long journey to the Deccan, traveling almost nonstop, day and night, on a series of post horses. His speed became legendary and some even claim that he ran the whole distance on foot. Asaf Khan also seized custody of his three grandsons, Dara Shukoh, Shuja, and Aurangzeb, as well as the other young princes, from Nur Jahan.82 But, fearing their fate under Dawar Bakhsh, Asaf Khan soon then transferred his grandsons into the care of Sadiq Khan, who was both his nephew and son-in-law. The historian Qazwini later writes that Khurram’s three sons, mounted on an elephant on their way back to Lahore, were like “three jewels in one treasure-casket” or “three stars in one constellation.”83
Meanwhile, when Shahryar, who was back in the fort of Lahore, heard of his father’s death, he raided the imperial treasury and bought the support of as many noblemen as he could muster. As Asaf Khan approached Lahore, leading his troops with Dawar Bakhsh, the two armies faced off. The experienced officers and soldiers of the imperial guard on Asaf Khan’s side were more capable than the army Shahryar had hastily put together. After many of the prince’s soldiers scattered and fled, Shahryar and his wife scrambled for shelter in the women’s quarters of the Lahore Fort’s imperial apartment. Two of Jahangir’s chief eunuchs located and imprisoned the couple. Shahryar was brought before Dawar Bakhsh. A searing punishment was yet to come. A day or two later, on Asaf Khan’s orders, Shahryar was blinded. Qazwini puns with wordplay to describe this incident, as the term for blinding someone (mil kashidan) and desire or inclination (mayl) have exactly the same spelling in Persian: “The good-for-nothing’s eyes were scratched out so that the desire for rulership would no longer remain.” The loss of the prince’s eyesight extinguished the possibility that he might become emperor.
Banarsi’s epic journey lasted twenty days, during which time he was said to average seventy miles daily. The messenger found Khurram through Mahabat Khan, who had cast his lot with the estranged prince. Asaf Khan’s signet ring allayed any doubts the prince might have had as to Banarsi’s mission. After a perfunctory period of mourning, Khurram set off toward the north with his household and men, Mahabat Khan accompanying him. Along the way he sacked disloyal governors and issued royal farman injunctions, as if he were already the emperor. It was a while before he would even know of Shahryar’s defeat, and Dawar Bakhsh’s new position.84
In Lahore, Dawar Bakhsh, too, was stamping his seal on imperial decrees, as Sher Shah, “Lion King,” a short-lived regnal name. One decree, addressed to Rai Suraj Singh, vassal ruler of Bikaner, announces Sher Shah’s accession but devotes far more space to praising Nur Jahan, through whose support, Dawar Bakhsh writes, he inherited the throne. Dawar Bakhsh also advises the empire’s servants to carry out their duties scrupulously. Another farman written to Raja Jai Singh of Amer conveys a similar message. While Dawar Bakhsh ruled from Lahore, Khurram independently sent an edict to Jai Singh informing him of Jahangir’s death and his own intention to ascend the throne.85 The Rajput vassal was more likely to have confidence in the seasoned, battle-worn rebel prince than in his callow nephew Dawar Bakhsh.
As Khurram marched through Gujarat on his way to Mewar, allies old and new paid homage. Quickly, he sent his trusted servant Raza Bahadur, infamous for his alleged role in the death of Khusrau, ahead with a decree for Asaf Khan: “In these times trouble roils the sky and sedition rises up in the earth.” The decree continued by declaring that if Dawar Bakhsh, Khurram’s “good-for-nothing” brother, Shahryar, and Daniyal’s sons were all made “wanderers in the plains of nothingness,” the empire’s well-wishers “would be freed of their mind’s anxiety and heart’s unrest.”86 Merely blinding the princes would not completely eliminate them as threats, as Khurram knew from his experience with Khusrau. The princes had to be killed—not stealthily but with full public knowledge. Then, all the kingdom’s nobles and chieftains would learn that Khurram was the unassailable emperor. Besides, this would also be the ultimate test for Asaf Khan, who throughout the rebellion had at least outwardly sided with the emperor and Nur Jahan. How could Khurram be sure that his father-in-law would n
ot conspire with Nur Jahan to eliminate him once he arrived and then position himself as the power behind Dawar Bakhsh’s throne? If Asaf Khan were to execute the lethal command to turn against Dawar Bakhsh, he would prove his eternal loyalty.
While Raza galloped to Lahore, Dawar Bakhsh continued to rule. Dara Shukoh and his brothers saw this sudden transformation of one of their cohort of hostage princes. They, too, would have had to pay their respects to him as well, participating in the performance that their grandfather directed. Asaf Khan needed to keep Dawar Bakhsh under tight control. The adolescent emperor, his life marked by the pain of his father’s blinding, imprisonment, and murder, would have had no choice but to comply, even if he saw through Asaf Khan’s scheme. Dawar Bakhsh also no doubt expected to contend with Khurram one way or the other, even if he did not know of his impending arrival, which his patron Asaf Khan had all but orchestrated.
The reign of Dara Shukoh’s older cousin lasted only a little more than three months. On the nineteenth of January 1628, Asaf Khan arranged for the Friday sermon in Lahore to be given in the name of Khurram, now known as Shah Jahan. He also had Dawar Bakhsh thrown into prison.87 A little more than three weeks later, on the second of February, Raza himself killed Shahryar, the last living brother of the new emperor, as well as Khurram’s nephews, Dawar Bakhsh and Garshasp, and his cousins, Tahmuras and Hoshang, who had been imprisoned for good measure. The cold horror of the murders leaked through the euphemisms and justifications that writers and poets of the new order used to describe them. A few years later, the celebrated poet Qudsi, who had migrated from Mashhad in Iran, spoke approvingly of Shah Jahan’s relief at the murders of his young relatives: “His mind’s tablet was cleared of anxiety / For the thicket was purged of tiger cubs.” The poet also compares these murdered princes to fingernails and toenails—extraneous features of the body that needed to be pared, just as potential threats to dynastic succession must be trimmed and discarded.88
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