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Tuesday, November 28, 2006

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humayun "The King"

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The Reign of Shah Jahan, 1628-1658

The Reign of Shah Jahan, 1628-1658

Prince Khurram was 35 years old when he ascended the throne as Shah Jahan (King of the
World). Succeeding Jahangir in 1627, Shah Jahan enjoyed the support of experienced
administrators and advisors -- like his father-in-law Asaf Khan -- who were holdovers from
the previous reign.
Shah Jahan, notes Hambly, revived Akbar's policy of pressing southward against the
independent Muslim Sultanate of the Deccan. But almost all of his expansion expeditions
were unsuccessful. The expenditures resulting from Shah Jahan's failed attempts at
frontier expansion, as well as his insatiable appetite for new and grand architecture, were
appreciable factors in the empire's eventual financial crisis.
During the early years of his reign, Shah Jahan preferred Agra to Delhi as a place of
residence. This preference is reflected in his selection of Agra as the site for a number of
building ventures including the world's most famous and beautiful mausoleum, Taj Mahal.
Many historians have -- perhaps unfairly -- accused Shah Jahan of building the glorious
tomb as a tribute to himself and his rule rather than as a tribute to his wife.
Shah Jahan was an exceedingly able man -- although less able than his father Akbar and
less conscientious than his son Aurangzeb. Still, Shah Jahan is in the first rank of Indian
rulers. Endowed with all the qualities required of a medieval Muslim ruler, he was a brave
and competent commander; a generous master who treated his servants with respect,
dignity and affability; and a far-sighted leader with a strict sense of justice.
Shah Jahan was an active patron of palaces and mosques. Blair and Bloom write that upon
Shah Jahan's accession, the fort at Agra was renovated to include three major courts:
Halls of Public and Private Audience (Diwan-i Khass wa 'Am); an area for treasures and
private audience (Machhi Bhavan); and a residential court known as the Garden of Grapes
(Anguri Bagh). The first court, note Bloom and Blair, is close to the entrance, while the
other two courts, which were used by the emperor and his entourage, overlook the river.
Inside the fort, write Blair and Bloom, is a congregational mosque known today as the
Moti (Pearl) Mosque because of the translucent white marble used on the interior. The

mosque, continue Blair and Bloom, comprises a rectangular prayer hall, about 53 by 21
yards, divided by cruciform piers into three aisles of seven bays supported on cusped
arches and surmounted by three bulbous domes. The additive system of vaulted bays
used in the Moti Mosque at Agra is the type of plan favored for smaller mosques
constructed under imperial patronage.
According to Blair and Bloom, the single-aisled plan that had been used for Shir Shah's
mosque in Delhi was preferred for large, urban congregational mosques which have
immense courtyards with narrow prayer halls fronted by pishtaq and surmounted by three
or five domes. The mosque of Vazir Khan at Lahore, constructed by the court physician
Hakim Ali of Chiniot in 1635, is but one example of this group. The congregational mosque
at Agra, continue Blair and Bloom, was completed in 1648 under the patronage of the
emperor's daughter Jahanara. Constructed of red sandstone, the mosque used white
marble sparingly for calligraphic bands.
In 1638, Shah Jahan moved his capital from Agra to a city in Delhi. Known as
Shahjahanabad, the new capital city was laid out under the emperor's auspices from
1639-1648. According to Blair and Bloom, the massive project was designed by Ahmed
Lahwari, the chief architect of the Taj Mahal, and by the architect Hamid. Ghayrat Khan
and Makramat Khan, who also worked on the Taj Mahal, supervised the construction. The
walled city, note Bloom and Blair, included broad avenues with water channels, souqs
(markets), mosques, gardens, houses of the nobility, and the fortified palace known as the
Red Fort or Lal Qala. Twice the size of the fort at Agra, the Red Fort was named for the
high, red sandstone wall that surrounded the white marble palaces.
From Shah Jahan to the end of the Mughal line the famous Red Fort was heart of the
empire and the principal residence of the emperors. Hambly writes that in the 17th
century, at the height of the Mughals' power, the Red Fort constituted not only the
esidence of the emperor and his court but also housed the central dministrative machinery
of the empire, a military garrison, an arsenal, the imperial treasury, factories (karkhaneh)
for the manufacture of luxury commodities, and much more.
Shah Jahan, like his father Jahangir, was a notable patron of gardens, write Blair and
Bloom. Jahangir had developed Kashmir as a summer residence for the court where he
constructed a garden around the natural spring at Vernag south of Srinagar. Shah Jahan
received an order from his father to dam the stream around Shalimar on Lake Dal at
Srinagar. This garden, known as Farah Bakhsh (Joy Giving), became the lower garden of
Shah Jahan's famed Shalimar Garden. In 1634, Shah Jahan, note Blair and Bloom, added
another quadri-partite garden named Fazd Bakhsh (Bounty Giving) to the northeast.
Water was supplied by a canal linking the Ravi River to the city. The canal was dug by Ali
Mardan Khan, an Iranian nobleman and engineer who had defected to the Mughal court in
1638.
Lahore is also another site of the greatest of the Mughal water gardens known as Shalimar
(Abode of Bliss), Brend (1991) notes. The garden was constructed in 1642 . Water flows
under the bluster-legged throne and into the tank, whose edge is treated with a lotus
ornament. The patform in the center of the tank, called a mahtabi or place for viewing
moonlight, might be used for musicians. The gangways from it lead to pavilions on
graceful sandstone columuns.

According to Blair and Bloom, these gardens contained more than a hundred species of
plants, including evergreens, screwpines and other trees, roses, violets, sunflowers,
cockscombs, and several varieties of jasmines. The gardens were not only enchanting
places of repose but also yielded a substantial revenue in roses and musk mallow. In the
eyes of contemporary French travelers these gardens were the equal of Versailles.
During Shah Jahan's reign, the Mughals penetrated deeper into the Deccan and the
successful campaign in 1636 forced the state ruled by Adil Shah to acknowledge Mughal
dominance. Shah Jahan returned north to concentrate on his new capital at
Shahjahanabad, while his son, the young prince Aurangzeb, was appointed viceroy and
commander-in-chief of Mughal forces in the Deccan.
During the following two decades, note Blair and Bloom, the Adil Shahis at Bijabur enjoyed
peace, and the dynasty's prosperity in the mid-17th century is exemplified by the tomb
built for Mohammed Adil Shah. The tomb, known as the Gol Gumbaz, is famous for its
formal simplicity, write Blair and Bloom. The tomb has a gigantic hemispherical dome
(with an exterior diameter of 46 yards) and rests on an almost cubical mass with a staged
octagonal turret at each corner. The dome is supported internally by arches set in
intersecting squares. The floor area covered 1,725 square yards, exceeding that of the
Pantheon in Rome. At the time of its construction, the tomb was the largest space in the
world covered by a single dome, continue Blair and Bloom.
From an early age, Shah Jahan's four sons, Dara Shukoh, Shah Shuja, Aurangzeb, and
Murad Bakhsh, grew up in an atmosphere of bitter rivalry, writes Hambly, even though
they were all children of the same mother, Mumtaz Mahal. In 1657, Shah Jahan became
seriously ill. The expectation of an early death provoked the four sons into making a
desperate bid for the throne. Only two candidates, writes Hambly, stood much chance of
success -- Dara Shukoh, who was 42 years old, and Aurangzeb, who was 39.
Dara Shukoh, Shah Jahan's favorite and his heir, was a man of broad intellectual interests,
writes Hambly. He was a Sufi and a religious eclectic who had translated the Upanishads
into Persian.
Aurangzeb, notes Hambly, was well educated, knowledgeable in the traditional spectrum of
Islamic studies, and strict in his religious orthodoxy. Aurangzeb had an acute sense of
political realism and a fierce appetite for power. Although Aurangzeb's personality was
considered less attractive than that of Dara Shukoh, writes Hambly, Aurangzeb was the
superior in both military talent and administrative skills.
Aurangzeb easily outclassed his brothers in the bid for power. In the summer of 1658,
Aurangzeb held a coronation durbar, or reception, in the Shalimar-Bagh outside Delhi on
the Karnal road. This probably was done in order to strengthen the morale of his
supporters. It was not until the summer of 1659 that a second and more glorious
ceremony was performed in the Red Fort at which time Aurangzeb became the new
emperor and assumed the title of Alamgir (World Conqueror).
During his 30-year reign, Shah Jahan had never expected that his last days would be so
utterly tragic. With his old age and his poor health, Shah Jahan could only helplessly

watch the serious outbreak of hostility among his sons. Shah Jahan was a mere spectator
at the savage contest. The emergence of Aurangzeb as the undisputed victor led to the
father's imprisonment in the Agra fort.
Tended by Jahanara, his eldest daughter, Shah Jahan was confined to the fort for eight
years. According to legend, writes Hambly, when Shah Jahan was on his death-bed, he
kept his eyes fixed on the Taj Mahal which was clearly visible from his place of
confinement. After his death, Shah Jahan was buried there beside his dead queen,
Mumtaz Mahal.