Aurangzeb’s camp was by no means a unified Sunni front against his brother. Ghauri identifies Hoshdar Khan, renowned as a superb shot, as a prominent Sunni figure. But the khan’s primary role was that of a second-generation imperial servant whose father also served Aurangzeb—not a religious official.63 Aurangzeb had Shias on his side as well, such as Iftikhar Khan Sultan Husain, who defected from Jaswant Singh’s army to join him after Dharmat.64 Indeed, though Sunni-Shia divisions existed in the seventeenth century, they did not play a defined role in the war of succession. Ethnicity, whether Afghan, Maratha, or Abyssinian, was a powerful marker of identity. Unlike Dara Shukoh, Aurangzeb had a significant number of Afghan nobles. Aurangzeb’s household and army at Samugarh reflected the striking range and depth of his support across all levels. There is no evidence that Aurangzeb roused a widespread Sunni military revolt against his brother and the imperial army.
The battlefield at Samugarh thundered with artillery fire. Dara Shukoh’s army discharged round after round at the opposing forces. They met with a surprisingly weak response; only a few rockets whizzed over to their side. Had the initial rounds inflicted sufficient damage? Manucci was one of the artillerymen operating the cannons under Barqandaz Khan, the former Jafar who had fought on Dara’s side at Qandahar. The Italian gunner noticed that Aurangzeb’s army seemed far enough away to remain relatively unscathed. The orders from above, though, pressed the men to keep firing. The enemy then sent out three shots. Was this a warning, a hidden message, or an exhausted army’s last show of strength?65
Khalilullah Khan left his position in search of Dara. He advised the prince that now was an opportune moment to stop firing and directly attack the enemy. The artillery had achieved its goal, and now “little effort [remained] to gain a complete victory.” Rustam Khan was summoned for a second option. He hesitated, preferring to wait for the enemy to attack first. Khalilullah Khan mocked Rustam Khan’s courage. Dara Shukoh decided to go with Khalilullah Khan’s advice. Rustam Khan attacked Aurangzeb’s wing, and Khalilullah Khan led his troops toward Murad’s army. Dara Shukoh himself marched forward on his elephant.66
As the men of the imperial army approached, Aurangzeb’s army suddenly released a relentless torrent of bullets and cannonballs, like the April rains, says Masum.67 Dara’s own artillery had been left behind, advancing only belatedly. Rustam Khan was brutally wounded and would succumb to his injuries. Rao Satarsal Hada, too, lost his life.68 Dara fought on, firm on his elephant, clearing a path through Aurangzeb’s men. Aurangzeb sent reinforcements under Shaikh Mir. But as Manucci recalls, the enemy was taken aback by Dara’s valor and, seeing themselves all but abandoned, “were forced to retreat.”69
Dara Shukoh’s goal was to advance far enough to fell one of his brothers. Manucci reports that he paused for a rest, when Khalilullah Khan, who had conveniently stayed out of danger, made an appearance. They could still reach Aurangzeb, the khan urged, if Dara were to dismount his elephant and proceed on a horse.70 But in Masum’s account, the prince found himself surrounded on all sides and feared that his height on the elephant would make him an easy target.71 Whether or not the disloyal khan deceived him, when the prince slipped off the elephant, he was now lost in the throng, no longer visible from afar. His men scattered and fled, thinking that he had been killed. Aurangzeb’s army beat the drums of victory. The battle ended swiftly.
A tinted drawing from the time survives, illustrating this final episode at Samugarh. Dara Shukoh, thinly encircled by his soldiers, descends his kneeling elephant using a ladder. Around them, bodies are splayed, cannons abandoned, horsemen and an elephant ride amok. The arrow-pierced body of Rustam Khan lies slumped on his dead horse. Opposite Dara, on the right, Aurangzeb perches aloft his elephant amid a solid barrier of horsemen and fiercely armed soldiers on elephants. Before them, a formidable wall of cannons discharges toward Dara’s side. In the far right corner, Murad hastens from the battlefield on his elephant. This drawing is attributed to Payag, who worked at Shah Jahan’s court and painted other battle scenes as well as portraits of Dara Shukoh conversing with his Sufi teachers. We do not know if the drawing was commissioned (by Aurangzeb, perhaps), or if the artist decided on his own volition to memorialize this momentous event, as did so many writers of the age.72
Battle of Samugarh.
Masum relates that as Dara escaped, Sipihr Shukoh came up to him, breaking down in shuddering sobs and clawing at his face. Dara Shukoh managed outwardly to hold himself together as he consoled his son. They left on horseback with a few close servants. A few miles out they stopped by a shady tree. The exhaustion of the battle and the fierce heat had caught up with them. They sat down, planning to rest for an hour or so. Just then, they heard the sound of kettledrums. Some of Dara’s stirrup attendants implored him to leave immediately. The prince, utterly debilitated, was unwilling to move. “How much better it would be,” he said, “if someone were to come and liberate me from the abjectness of this life.” With much effort, he was persuaded to get up, and the small party set forth toward Agra.73 At some point in this story, Masum’s informant Muhammad Said must have stayed behind. He later joined Aurangzeb’s son, Muhammad Sultan, in the same role of paymaster that he held under Sipihr Shukoh.74
Dara Shukoh went straight to his mansion, declining his father’s entreaty to join him inside the fort. He gathered up the members of the household: Nadira and other women of his family along with the “secluded ones” of his harem, including, according to Manucci, two other wives and his daughter Jani Begam and son Sipihr Shukoh. Then they all fled to Shahjahanabad.75
Shah Jahan made generous reconciliatory overtures to Aurangzeb. He sent letters and splendid gifts through Fazil Khan, the same chamberlain who years before had been involved with the fatwa against Mulla Shah.76 Aurangzeb thought it prudent to disregard them.77 The prince moved to surround the fort at Agra, cutting off its water supply.78 Shaista Khan and Khalilullah Khan defected to Aurangzeb’s side. The prince coerced Shah Jahan into complying with his wish to replace all the fortress’s officials with his own.79 He had effectively taken his father prisoner.
With his father safely under guard, relates Masum, Aurangzeb summoned Jafar Khan and subjected him to a tirade about Dara Shukoh’s heresies. Dara, he claimed, “tempted by heresy-purveyors of the drunken persuasion, deviated and severed [himself] from the straight path of the Prophet’s shariat and the creed of the lofty way of the Mustafian (i.e., Muhammadan) order.” Day and night, the prince consorted with “a group of shameless, apostasy-dispositioned ones,” brazenly drinking alcohol with them in public. He would openly tell people that it was permissible to imbibe the Indian arrack made of sugar, though fermented grape wine was prohibited. It was thus expedient, Aurangzeb argued, to deal with the prince. Surely the emperor would also wish to save the empire from falling into infidelity.80
In Masum’s portrayal of Aurangzeb’s accusations at Agra, Dara Shukoh’s actual religious explorations find no description. If drinking alcohol was indeed his main sin, he was in the fine company of his brothers Murad and Shuja, not to mention his grandfather and several other ancestors. And if Shah Jahan once renounced alcohol as a prince, only the previous year, in 1657, he had a wine cup carved out of translucent white jade, its handle a ram’s head that curved gracefully into a fluted bowl.81 This account certainly reflects what Masum thought to be striking and important, probably filtered through his brother’s reports. But Aurangzeb now had good reason to publicly bring up accusations of unbelief and apostasy. At this point, he could hardly criticize Dara Shukoh’s injustice toward their father and brothers. After all, he himself had just imprisoned Shah Jahan and forced Dara to become a fugitive.
Jahanara once more attempted to plead with Aurangzeb. She came to meet him in the harem of his mansion, bearing Shah Jahan’s solution for his four warring sons: Dara Shukoh would keep his Punjab assignment, Murad would look after Gujarat, and Shuja would remain in Bengal. Muhammad Sultan, Aurangzeb’s son, would govern the Dec
can. And Aurangzeb, instead of Dara, would get the title of “Buland Iqbal,” as well as all the other lands of the empire not mentioned above.82 Shah Jahan’s proposal recalled the old Timurid model of furnishing each prince with his own territory rather than preserving an undivided kingdom. Shah Jahan also entreated Aurangzeb to have an audience with him. The prince, advised by Shaikh Mir and Shaista Khan, decided against even meeting his father.83
Bihishti corroborates Masum’s account that Aurangzeb denounced Dara’s religious leanings after securing the Agra Fort: “As Dara has strayed far from the path of sharia / By God’s decree, he is subject to jihad.” This version, too, skips the details of Dara’s heresies. The poet also describes Aurangzeb’s fear that Dara would escape to Iran and the shame that this would entail for the Mughals, “If he manages to turn his face to Iran / He would throw to the air the name of this lineage.”84
Dara Shukoh now had to swiftly plot his future course. He was guided by Shah Jahan, who pleaded with Mahabat Khan, son of the general who had helped him in his own path to the throne, to assist the prince at Lahore. “Can it possibly happen, that Mahabat Khan, at dread of whom mortals tremble, while his sovereign Shah Jahan is in the hands of traitors, will not fly to his relief, bring the two undutiful rebels (Aurangzeb and Murad) to the deserved punishment of their actions, and rescue his master from a prison?85 The letter was intercepted by Aurangzeb. Dara and his family hastily proceeded toward Lahore via Shahjahanabad, where he raised a small army with the help of his father’s governor. As he traveled, he released a flood of letters to Jai Singh, informing him of the defeat, summoning him to court, and at least twice sending him ceremonial cloaks (khilats).86
Dara tried to ally with Shuja after Samugarh, roping in Murad and Jaswant Singh as well; the brothers together might have had a shot at vanquishing Aurangzeb.87 In the heat of the moment, though, Shah Jahan and Dara reckoned it would be most judicious to rely on the allies they still had in the empire’s west. If Dara suffered more failure in battle, he could still hold out the hope of escaping to Iran.
Nevertheless, Shah Jahan also tried to enlist Murad against Aurangzeb, even writing to promise him the throne. The emperor instructed him to invite Aurangzeb to a banquet and then to do away with him. Murad was so disturbed and bewildered when he read his father’s letter, writes Masum, that he did not know whether to rip it to shreds or hide it.88 He had come to suspect Aurangzeb of not honoring his pledge, reports Bihishti.89 But while Aurangzeb was capturing Agra, Murad had built up his army, luring men with good salaries. Through assurances laced with a tempting share of the spoils from Agra, Aurangzeb persuaded Murad to accompany him to Shahjahanabad in Dara’s pursuit.90
The brothers pitched camp near Mathura but did not meet in person. Murad was still wary of his brother’s intentions. They had been there for a few days when Murad’s servant Nuruddin rushed with an urgent message: Aurangzeb was ill with dysentery and had been calling out for Murad. The prince went to his brother, forgetting his earlier apprehensions. He was led into a private enclosure in the tent complex. Aurangzeb was clearly well enough to welcome him warmly.91
An opulent feast was laid out. Did Aurangzeb also offer alcohol? Some chroniclers mention that he did. Masum describes jewel-encrusted pitchers brimming with the purest wine. The cup-bearer was surreptitiously instructed to refill Murad’s goblet more generously than usual, he says. These details do not feature prominently in the accounts of Bihishti and Razi, though Bihishti does describe ruby-hued betel cones being consumed, staining mouths coral red. Out of etiquette, Murad was reluctant to imbibe before his elder brother, says Masum, but Aurangzeb persuaded him to do so.
After the repast, Murad rested in a bed prepared for him, making sure to keep his weapons by his side. Bihishti adds that a beautiful slave girl gently massaged Murad’s feet, sending him into sleep’s warm intoxication.92 Finally, “the wine of action had fermented (mukhammar shud),” pronounces Aqil Khan Razi.93 The comatose Murad was skillfully stripped of his weapons. In Manucci’s account, Aurangzeb bribed his four-and-a-half-year-old son Sultan Azam with a shiny jewel to retrieve the arms.94
Murad awoke only to discover that he was a weaponless prisoner. According to Masum, the prince wailed, “What a calamity that the covenants and agreements of Muslims can be dissolved all at once!” He declared that since life was as transient as a bonfire of twigs, it is best that people seek to please God and do good to others. One should not, he went on, just for the sake of acquiring more worthless worldly ephemera, break off from not only the path of Islam but also blood relatives linked by the same womb and oaths sworn on the Quran, only to perpetrate acts despised by all religions and minds. In reply, Aurangzeb’s servants pronounced that he had brought his fate upon himself.95
Eventually Aurangzeb seized Murad’s property and army and incarcerated him and his family in Shahjahanabad’s Salimgarh Fort. He had been holding off his own claim to the throne, but now was an opportune time. The astrologers agreed, fixing the thirty-first of July as the auspicious date. Aurangzeb held a hasty coronation in the Aizzabad Gardens outside Delhi.96
In mid-July, Dara Shukoh reached Lahore, where he attempted to raise a new army. His son Sulaiman was still far away. He received a long overdue letter from Jai Singh, full of excuses about how his return was delayed and he had to stop in Chetpur, an outpost in Bengal.97 In contrast, Manucci braved roads beset by thieves to come to him. Dara was moved to tears upon meeting the Italian gunner. “See the loyalty of this firangi boy,” he exclaimed.98
A glimmer of hope crept in when the Jammu ruler Raja Rajrup came to see Dara and offered to raise an army of Rajputs if the prince provided the funds. Nadira played her part in sealing the bond between the two men, by making them into milk kin. She was well past nursing children at this time, but she had Rajrup sip water that she had used to wash her breasts. This ritual ensured that Rajrup was now Dara and Nadira’s milk child and Sulaiman Shukoh’s milk brother. Manucci reports that “drinking with tremendous gratitude, he swore to always be loyal and to never fail in the duties of a son.” With that, Rajrup took off back to his own kingdom.99 The army never materialized.
There was not much time to build support in Lahore, because Aurangzeb’s pursuing forces were drawing close. For the next year, Dara and his family became fugitives on the run. His surviving children with Nadira, apart from Sulaiman Shukoh, included their son Sipihr Shukoh, not yet fourteen in mid-1658, as well as their daughters Paknihad Bano, in her late teens, and little Jahanzeb Bano.100 Also in Dara’s care were Sulaiman Shukoh’s children.101 Masum records that Dara found it hard to keep up his morale. He vacillated between staying in Lahore and leaving. Sometimes, he would lament, “because no good scent wafts to my nose from any side, it is better that I take this half-life, which has remained safe from fate’s claws, to a place where I won’t see my wife and children killed before my eyes.” Daud Khan, his longtime servant, consoled him, saying that despair was associated with unbelief. Eventually they decided to send young Sipihr Shukoh east to Sultanpur with Daud Khan to try to fend off Aurangzeb’s army, led by Bahadur Khan and the turncoat Khalilullah Khan. With both her sons thrown to an uncertain fate, Nadira spent her days and nights in restless anguish and lamentation. Masum describes Sipihr Shukoh’s absence as a dripping wound in Dara’s heart.102
Masum and Manucci recount that Dara came by a letter purportedly written by Aurangzeb to Daud Khan.103 According to Masum, it praised Daud Khan for his loyalty to Aurangzeb and promised that Sipihr Shukoh and other “deniers of the straight path” would become the prisoners of “Islam’s holy warriors.”104 The letter was a ruse that Aurangzeb engineered, meant to spark Dara’s distrust of Daud Khan. Despite the khan’s remonstrations, the ploy drove a wedge between the two. Dara Shukoh had to flee Aurangzeb’s advancing forces, his army shedding soldiers as he left. He headed with his family for the fort of Bhakkar, also taking along Sipihr Shukoh, whom he recalled from Sultanpur. Daud Khan insisted on coming with him until
the prince finally made him leave.105 Dara Shukoh had to keep traveling south to stay ahead of the imperial army.
Aurangzeb reached as far as Multan before departing abruptly to deal with another imminent threat: Shuja and his forces were approaching Agra from the east.106 Aurangzeb appointed Shaikh Mir and Bahadur Khan to hunt down Dara and turned back. En route, he crossed paths with Jai Singh, who was finally returning to his kingdom. The two had already been corresponding, and Manucci notes that Aurangzeb quickly won the raja over by promising him the governorship of Delhi and a lucrative land assignment.107
Aurangzeb’s army drove Dara Shukoh farther and farther south. Dara eventually ended up in Gujarat via Sindh. There, he found hospitality with the local elites—the governor, Shahnawaz Khan, father of Aurangzeb’s late wife Dilras Bano, virtually handed him the city. Manucci observes that the khan did this out of deference to Dara’s superior status as a prince and as heir to the empire. Further, Manucci rejects the rumor, later circulated by the likes of Bernier, that Shahnawaz Khan merely feigned loyalty to Dara, all the while secretly keeping Aurangzeb, his son-in-law, abreast of Dara’s moves.108 In Gujarat, Dara acquired an army of ten to fifteen thousand cavalry, according to Masum’s count.109 Suddenly it seemed as though he might be able to turn his fortunes around if only he could drum up some allies.
Jaswant Singh wrote Dara while the prince was in Gujarat. He encouraged Dara to march toward Hindustan’s northwest, so that he could serve him by putting a Rajput army at his disposal. Dara headed back north to Ajmer. But meanwhile, Jai Singh warned Jaswant Singh not to ally with Dara.110
The Emperor Who Never Was Page 31
