by S L Bhyrappa
‘I mean, were you really born to your parents? Or were you abandoned as a child and then adopted by the people you call your parents, who were childless? Or were you adopted at all? I know that Hindus have the custom of adopting children of other parents.’
‘Why this doubt, Respected Teacher?’
‘Just tell me the truth. Swear on the Holy Koran and tell me the truth.’
‘I swear on the Holy Koran that what I’ve told you earlier is the truth. I was really born to the people I call as my parents. According to the custom of my previous religion, if my parents had to adopt, they would have adopted the child of my father’s brother or the child of my sister. Moreover, if I was really not their son, I would’ve heard it from someone long ago. Please do not have any doubt.’
He emitted a deep sigh and said, ‘Fine. Let’s begin your lessons for today.’
I didn’t ask him the reason for his question again. It was not my place to.
However, a month later, he told me the reason on his own. Hamdullah Sahib had a son from his first wife. When he was a boy of six years, he strayed in the crowd after the namaz at the Jama Masjid and was lost forever. All attempts to search him yielded nothing. Hamdullah Sahib had been unable to overcome this loss till this day. His first wife had died from this grief. On some days, it seems, he would talk about his son and his first wife in his sleep. His second wife, if she was awake, taunted him when she heard this—a fact Hamdullah Sahib himself told me.
‘When I first saw you, I thought my son had returned. You have the same angelic face…if he was here with us he’d be a fine young man like you…but beware! My second wife hates me talking about my lost child. She taunts me with very bitter words if I mention his name even in my sleep! If I ever told her that you resemble him, she’ll simply poison you. Keep this in mind always and don’t tell this to anyone.’
~
The news that Aurangzeb Badshah’s father, Shahjahan Badshah, had died in the fort at Agra quickly spread throughout the zenana in cautious, fearful whispers. This news had severe political repercussions as it would determine the momentous subject of the political fate of the entire Hindustan. In the past, Aurangzeb Badshah had rebelled against his own father and in the ensuing battle, roundly defeated him. Shahjahan Badshah was made prisoner in his own seat of power, the Agra Fort. Aurangzeb Badshah had then turned against his brothers. He defeated his two elder brothers and a younger brother in a deceitful battle and took them prisoners and then had them murdered. These murders were calculated and different. Aurangzeb Badshah first won the trust of one of his brothers and then fed him opium. It was then easy to capture him and put him in prison. Over time, he was slowly fed with poison till he finally died. Another brother fled the country after he was badly routed in battle. However, he was pursued till he ran out of men and energy and had to submit. He was killed shortly. But for some reason, he didn’t have his father murdered. Shahjahan Badshah was kept as a prisoner for eight years before he died of old age. All these happenings reached my ears in bits and pieces and I was filled with both dread and curiosity.
I decided to risk asking Hamdullah Sahib. I chose a day when there was nobody in the mardana.
‘Is it true, Respectful Master, I heard that Shahjahan Badshah has reached the feet of God in the Agra Fort.’
He stopped me with a wave of his hand,
‘You must always take a king’s name by his title—Badshah Shahjahan…well, in his case it is fine because I’m not sure if that title will be bestowed upon him.’
‘I did not understand. Can you kindly explain?’
‘See, after the badshah begins his journey towards heaven, the next badshah usually confers a title of honour upon him. This title will be affixed to his name in all the official records of the Empire. Once this title is conferred, everybody should address him by only this title and not his real name. Anybody failing to do this will face the punishment reserved for disrespecting an emperor.’
This was the vent I needed to probe further.
‘Please tell me the titles of the previous badshahs of Hindustan.’
‘Zahiruddin Babar Badshah, the monarch who founded the Mughal Empire in Hindustan, was honoured with the title Firdous Makani. His son Humayun honoured with Jannat Ashyani; Humayun’s son Jalaluddin Akbar with Arsh Ashyani; and Akbar’s son Sultan Nooruddin Jahangir honoured with Jannat Makani. Shahjahan has not yet been given a title and we must wait and see if he is indeed bestowed with one.’
‘Why do you doubt?’ I asked, in a low, intimate tone.
He didn’t reply. I decided to ask again.
‘This won’t go out of this room till I’m alive. I swear on the Holy Koran.’
He looked at me briefly and to my delight, decided to believe me.
He said nothing for two minutes at the end of which he began to slowly stroke his flowing white beard. His bright eyes now took on a remote look, as though they were gazing at the truth of the distant past. Then he spoke slowly.
‘I find it tough to believe that you know nothing. I’m very certain that the lies, which the badshah’s enemies, and the vile whispers which Dara’s group have been spreading, has reached your ears. Everybody knows about these lies and about the people spreading them…everybody, including the badshah. Equally, every true Muslim knows that whatever the First Alamgir, Muhiuddin Mohammad Aurangzeb does, he does it in the service of Islam’s victory. All the ulemas have supported him from the start and he continues to enjoy their wholehearted support. If the alamgir had lost the battle for the throne, Islam’s purity would have been polluted forever! But do you know what the real danger would be? The kafirs, the apostates, the impure, the zimmis and all such wretched creatures would gain the upper hand and ensure that Islam was completely erased from here. But Islam is not a religion to be erased. Nor will it ever be invisible. Which is why Muhiuddin Mohammad Aurangzeb Alamgir won the struggle and ascended the throne.’
‘You must show more mercy and explain the alamgir’s struggle in more detail.’
‘Oh! I had set out to explain that but…all right, listen. Shahjahan Badshah had four sons: Dara, Shuja, Alamgir and Murad Baksh. Shahjahan Badshah was blinded with love towards his eldest, Dara. He had decided very early to make him his successor. He was so attached that from a very young age, he kept Dara in his court and groomed him in statecraft. He made sure that Dara was popular, influential, feared and well-respected by the vazirs, mansabdaars, kotwals and the rest. On the other side, he kept his other sons away, far away from Delhi by dispatching them as subedaars to remote principalities lest they pose a threat to Dara. He sent Shuja to Bengal, Murad to Gujarat and…do you know where he sent Aurangzeb Badshah? Deccan! Shahjahan Badshah knew that the dullard Dara’s light would be dimmed the moment he was surrounded by accomplished warriors, solid statesmen and strategists who knew the nuances of pitting the enemy rank against itself. Moreover, Aurangzeb Badshah has always been a pure Muslim. Even in a raging battle where he was surrounded on all sides by the enemy, he would dismount his horse or elephant, turn in the direction of Qibla and do his namaz! This very sight would boost the fighting spirit of his Muslim soldiers by a hundredfold. Prophet Mohammad (sallallahu alaiyhi wassallam) used to perform namaz this way in the battlefield. No emperor, general or solider after him followed this custom…nobody….nobody except Aurangzeb Badshah! You tell me if you know of any emperor, any Muslim warrior who did this!’ he looked at me.
I didn’t know what to say and stared at him blankly. He asked me again.
‘I…umm…I…I don’t know history. You must show kindness and tell me.’
He was pleased.
‘Hmm. I will. Some other day. But now don’t you wonder what kind of a man was Dara? He used to imitate his great-grandfather, Arsh Ashyani Jalaluddin Akbar. You don’t know, but there is a faction in this Mughal Empire that glorifies Akbar. Oh, you must see them extolling his greatness as the ideal Mughal badshah! They copy his so-called ideal of searching for the common thread
that supposedly unites all religions and then urge everybody to follow just that unifying strand. He used to discuss the Bible with the foreigners, Zend Avesta with the Farsis, Talmud with the Yahudis and Vedanta with the Hindus. He would engage in laborious discussions with the Hindus to find out what teachings in their Vedas and Vedanta matched with the teachings in Islam—how did it matter if their religion of Vedas was the majority? Islam was the religion of the rulers! He prohibited people of one religion from converting people of another. He said converted people were free to return to their original religion if they wished. He withdrew jaziya, and abolished the pilgrim tax that Hindus were required to pay. He allowed Hindus to build new temples and renovate old and damaged temples at their own cost…he…he did everything that wounded and weakened the might and purity of Islam. Akbar! He was an irreligious man! If that was not enough, he polluted Islam right inside the royal palace! You ask me how? He let his Hindu begums keep prayer rooms of their gods and he allowed them to perform their fire worship. These begums built their dwellings according to Hindu architecture. Now you tell me, if Islam is polluted on this scale by the badshah himself within his own household, how do you expect it to remain pure in the kingdom? Remember: Akbar is another name for a traitor of the Only True Faith!
‘And his great-grandson, the Alamgir’s brother Dara, inherited this same trait. I know how he used to invite all kinds of scholars and holy men from all religions and took lessons in the New Testament, Sufi philosophy, Talmud, Vedanta… Oh wait! He used to visit some Hindu yogi, Lal Das, very often. Also Sarmad, some Muslim fakir. And he used to expound elaborately on jihad—that it didn’t mean we had to wage jihad against people of other faiths, that it was wrong to forcibly convert other people to Islam, and that jaziya was bad. Now the ulemas were naturally worried. If this man became the badshah tomorrow, Islam would be in mortal danger. And they were right, weren’t they? No, no, no…you tell me if they were right!’ He stopped and looked at me pointedly.
I nodded, knowing that it was the only response that would make him continue.
‘But Shahjahan Badshah thought he had scored victory over his other sons. He had not fully understood the fact that a firm grip over the affairs of the Mughal court in Delhi doesn’t mean much. A truly powerful badshah is one where even the remotest corner of his empire feels his power to the same degree as those in his court feel. And so, eight years ago when Shahjahan Badshah became seriously ill, he realized that he wouldn’t live long. He decided to spend the rest of his days in the company of his favourite wife Mumtaz, whom he had immortalized in a tomb in Agra. The moment this news reached all corners of the empire, Shuja in Bengal and Murad in Gujarat declared themselves the badshahs of the Mughal Empire. Aurangzeb committed no such foolishness. He wasn’t sure of what news to trust and he was unsure of the real state of his father’s health and so he decided to find out for himself. He took a large army and set out for Delhi. On the way, he camped briefly at Gujarat and worked out a pact with Murad—they would split the Mughal Empire between them. Murad would become the independent badshah of Punjab, Afghanistan, Kashmir and Sind while Aurangzeb would rule over the rest. Murad would get one-third of the treasury and Aurangzeb would keep the rest. They sealed this pact by swearing on the Holy Koran. He was so tactful, so willing to submit when time was not in his favour, and when the tide turned, he’d break any pact, the wondrous statesman that he is!
‘Meanwhile, Dara had caught on to this somehow and came personally to stop him. But he was no match for the alamgir, who vanquished him in no time causing him to flee to Delhi. By now, Shahjahan Badshah understood what he had unleashed and sent personal invitations to all his sons to sit together and work out an amicable treaty. Aurangzeb Badshah was careful, he didn’t go to Agra. He was certain that if he trusted his father, a band of deadly Tartar warriors would be waiting to butcher him the moment he set foot in Agra. When Shahjahan Badshah realized that he wouldn’t come, he sealed the fort from inside. It would take months to break that fort and Aurangzeb didn’t have time because on the other side, the defeated Dara was now amassing a massive force.
‘Aurangzeb reached Agra and disconnected the water supply to the fort. Shahjahan Badshah had to surrender. Aurangzeb put his father under house arrest and appointed his trusted men to guard the fort and only then prepared to face Dara. He had the full force of Murad behind him as he prepared to launch the offensive against Dara. Murad, on his part, was drunk with the spectacular first victory against Dara. Aurangzeb seized this chance and organized a lavish party and in the party, fed Murad with inordinate amounts of liquor with the help of Murad’s trusted aides, whom he had already bribed. Barely conscious, it was easy to divest Murad of his arms and capture him and pack him off to the large jail in Gwalior. Once there, Murad was tried by a qazi, a judge who was on the side of Aurangzeb. Murad was naturally found guilty and sentenced to death.
‘With his rapidly-expanding power, Aurangzeb went after Dara and hunted him down relentlessly all over in Rajaputana, Sind, Kutch and Simistan steadily weakening him till he had no choice but to surrender. In the end, Dara was brought to Delhi and paraded in the streets in a wretched manner. The ulemas tried him and found him guilty of preaching beliefs that were forbidden by, and were against Islam. He was sentenced to death.
‘Actually, I have heard that Aurangzeb Badshah himself recommended the death sentence. Dara was hacked into pieces and these pieces were piled on an elephant and paraded through every street and gully in Delhi—it was a warning of the fate that awaited anybody who deviated from the tenets of the Only True Faith. In this way, the last fruit of Akbar’s vile heritage was finally crushed and with it, our faith’s foundations were reinforced. As for Shuja, he escaped to the forest and was killed by the tribal people.’
‘But didn’t Dara’s supporters and Shahjahan Badshah’s loyalists oppose Aurangzeb?’
‘Eh? How could they even dare to dream of it? They had, by now, realized that Dara was a weak match to Aurangzeb Badshah in war, cunning, courage and cruelty. Shahjahan Badshah’s supporters knew that the old emperor would die any day now—not only was he old, he was suffering from a disease which had no cure. Whatever the reasons, always keep in mind that courtiers have a keen sense of detecting the winning side and they switch their loyalties accordingly.’
Over time, I learned many other details. With his father safely imprisoned in the Agra Fort, Muhiuddin Mohammad Aurangzeb ascended the throne at Delhi and crowned himself in great haste as the Mughal emperor, bearing the title of Alamgir Ghazi. The haste was required to send the decisive message: he was now the absolute monarch of the entire Mughal Empire in Hindustan. Besides, he had other worries: while Murad was already dead, he still had to hunt down Dara and finish off Shuja. Crowning himself the Mughal emperor would give him the legitimacy, authority and sanction to carry out these expeditions.
Aurangzeb Badshah had crowned himself in Delhi, whereas Agra was the capital of the empire. Delhi paled in comparison with Agra’s wealth, splendour and pomp. He had to therefore conduct the crowning ceremony in Agra and seat himself on the throne there—the final mark that truly proclaimed him as the badshah of the Mughal Empire of Hindustan.
But there was an even more crucial reason why he hurriedly crowned himself in Delhi. He was scared of losing his influence over his powerful courtiers. If he had crowned himself in Agra, he would immediately become the target of ridicule of his courtiers, mansabdaars, subedaars and the powerful diplomats and representatives of other Muslim countries. Getting crowned in Delhi ensured that he was openly proclaiming to the world that he had deposed his father, made him prisoner when he was still the badshah, and he had no qualms about it—the diplomats would send this message to their kings.
But why did Aurangzeb Badshah choose to keep his father alive when he could have killed him slowly, over several months by adding small quantities of poison in his food? Nobody would suspect murder. If he had spared his brothers, they were sure to gang up against him some
day in future, an avoidable risk that he had preferred not to take. But Shahjahan Badshah? He was a captive in his own house and he could do nothing to save himself.
Nobody really knew what was in Aurangzeb Badshah’s mind. The public could recall no instance of Aurangzeb Badshah breaking an oath he had taken by swearing upon the Holy Koran. But he would do the exact opposite, using well-refined tricks of conspiracy, and make it look like he was actually adhering to his oath.
Shahjahan Badshah breathed his last in winter, a week after the Makara Sankranti festival of the Hindus. The Hindus had many severe prohibitions regarding the celebration of their festivals. Despite this, I saw that large numbers of Hindus had walked the long distance from Delhi to the lowermost part of the Yamuna and there they paid obeisance to the departed souls of their ancestors. Aurangzeb Badshah, who had never set foot in Agra, then announced that he planned to celebrate his birthday in Agra that year—that is, eight years after he proclaimed in Delhi that he was the badshah. I knew it was going to be an extremely grand event. But this one would be the grandest, for it was his fiftieth birthday. Enormous quantities of gold, diamonds, pearls, rubies, silver, silk, elephants, steeds…the unimaginable wealth of the empire collected over eight years lay in Delhi while the grand palaces, stately forts, sprawling mahals and awe-inspiring buildings lay in Agra. Moreover, Agra had always been the Mughal capital.
The badshah decided to transport all that wealth to Agra and dazzle the whole capital with it, and ensure that word of this extraordinary opulence spread to near and far lands in Hindustan and outside. This exhibition was the necessary next step to command the fear and loyalty of his subjects, courtiers, nobles, tributaries, and kings and emperors of foreign lands. And so, 1,400 twin-bullock carts left from Delhi under the ruthless watch of some of the finest soldiers in the kingdom. But that was not all. Our entire zenana was ordered—together with its decorations, clothes and jewellery—to come to Agra. After all, the size of the zenana was another indicator of the extent of the badshah’s power.
