HOW DID DARA SHIKOH ACTUALLY DIE?
A STATE COMMISSION DELIVERED VERDICT

Speculative stories with out substance

Shah Jahan the father, and Arjumand Bano (Mumtaz Mahall) the mother, and of all the children, two brothers resenting each other from day one. The personalities of both were different, but the resentment was in more emotional terms. The father, Shah Jahan loved his eldest son Dara Shikoh so much, that he was not willing to see anyone else, not even his other children. Whereas Dara Shikoh was not coming up to any standards, Aurangzeb excelled in everything. Dara Shikoh was arrogant and rude with people. Aurangzeb was so polite, that even the father forbade him to carry such a character. On a military mission Dara Shikoh (to Qandahar) failed, and started using the help of magicians (homosexual pervert) to win wars. Aurangzeb was battle hardened and with enormous guts by any standards. A famous incident occurred when an elephant lost his cool and ran towards the brothers. Dara Shikoh scampered away scared for his life while Aurangzeb stood his ground as a mere teenager. His bravery won him the heart of courtiers. Scared of the popularity of Aurangzeb, Shah Jahan kept Dara Shikoh near him and sent Aurangzeb far away.

Fearing Aurangzeb Alamgeer’s credentials to be a King, the father planned his very end. Yes this was not enough, Shah Jahan planned the assassination of his own son. Aurangzeb was invited to court and plans were laid to kill him. The sister Roshan Ara discovered the plan and warned Aurangzeb not to come to court, and his life was saved, much to the resentment of both Shah Jahan and Dara Shikoh. Now was this known by people who without knowing anything, resort to fantasy versions put in books as well as the internet. A detailed discussion can be found in my book AINAH KHANAH LAHORE OF PRINCE DARA SHIKOH, published in January, 2014.

The official history ‘Maaseray-Alamgeeri’ tells us:
“At this time Bahadur Khan brought Dara Shikoh to the exalted court, he was kept in the palace of Khizirabad. As it was necessary for various reasons to remove the dust of his life, from the plain of the world of the living, on the night of tuesday, the 30th August, the lamp of his light was quenched, and he was buried in Humayoun’s tomb.”
Today there are two graves in the mausoleum of Humayoun pointed out as the possible grave of Dara Shikoh. But both have very respectable sarcophagus on them, and it is considered, that Dara Shikoh was given a dignified burial, details of death obviously are unknown.

DEATH OF PRINCE DARA SHIKOH

When two parties fight and the fight reaches a zenith, it is inevitable that one party will lose, and the other will win. If Aurangzeb Alamgeer would have lost, surely Dara Shikoh would not have forgiven him but meted out a horrible end to him. As to what the end would be is hypothetical, given that Dara Shikoh lost. Foreign travelers are fond of spreading canards, and claim to be where they were not. Obviously Dara Shikoh was brought to Delhi humbled in all ways on an elephant and later put to death. But the death was not whimsical. A regular committee of various people (including Islamic scholars) sat and deliberated on the fate of Dara Shikoh. There is plenty of evidence to this day that his statements literally amounted to heresy (he held that the Quran cannot be understood without reading the Gitas), but even then his life was considered to be spared. Votes were cast, for and against, and he lost. A group of Ulema (not Mullahs) of the times judged him to be a heretic. But the decision for his death was political. Sparing him would have resulted in endless strife for the newly oriented kingdom.

The foreigners Francois Catrou, Niccolao Manucci and Francois Bernier had all tried to paint a pathetic picture of his end, as they may have been a witness to the end of Dara Shikoh. Whatever happened and Nazer is considered by them to be the person who beheaded Dara Shikoh, cannot be known. But there is a marked paradox attached to the story of the death of Dara Shikoh! If Dara Shikoh was really beheaded, then how come his body was put on an elephant again and paraded in Delhi? How could a headless body be paraded in Delhi? It is literally not possible for anyone to do, otherwise it would have invited endless wrath of people. But the real joke goes further. If these foreigners had pinpointed that Dara Shikoh had died a Hindu, it was obviously believable. But their statement borders on ridicule of the highest order. That Dara Shikoh died a Christian.

The words used are:

“The Christian sentiments with which the missionaries had endeavoured to inspire him, were revived in the closing hour of his life. He requested to be allowed a conversation with Father Busee, a Flemish Jesuit, who had formerly instructed him in our sacred Mysteries. All communication with the Europeans was denied to him. In this universal desolation, the Prince sought for consolation in God. He was heard to say more than once: Mahomet has destroyed me, Jesus Christ the son of the Eternal will save me.”

In Persian the words used are:

“Mahammad ma-ra mikushad, ibn Allah Maryam mibashaid.”

These pesky travelers are saying that all communication with the Europeans was denied to the Prince, and yet they seem to be in communication with him all the time. Even the most obvious things reveal glaring lies, and yet people are reluctant to see them in perspective.

These travelers state that when the head of Dara Shikoh was brought to Aurangzeb Alamgeer, he wept and blurted out his sentiments by calling Dara Shikoh as ‘Kam-bakht’. Why was there even a need to see the head? These are stories made by the priests merely to defame Aurangzeb Alamgeer, who they rightly feared, for his faith in Islam. The ‘Fatwa Alamgeeri’ is a magnum opus of those days. Indeed Dara Shikoh had everything and a thinking mind too, and it was his bad luck to find wrong companionship and to be swept away from the annals of truth. The most destructive company was that of Sarmad, the Armenian Jew, who was a professed homosexual and roamed around totally naked on the streets of Delhi (naturally not befitting the heir to the throne to be seen with such bohemians). It is indeed a tragedy to have everything and to lose it. Dara Shikoh had everything, but lost the confidence of the people. Even if a referendum had been held, the people would have voted against him. Allah tests us all the time!

LORD MAYO, MAYO SCHOOL OF ARTS AND SHER ALI
THE STRANGEST INCIDENT OF AN ISLAMIC FANATIC

Assassination in the Adaman Islands 1872

After the famous Punjab Industrial Exhibition, there was felt a need to make an Industrial College in Lahore. It was made next to the Lahore Museum and John Lockwood Kipling became its first Principal. It was named after Lord Mayo. Lord Mayo was of course the Viceroy and Governor General of India.

On a visit to the Adaman Islands, a convict there named Sher Ali, was convinced that he was ordained by Allah to get rid of this rascal who was usurping their country. With least expectation, he got hold of a dagger and stabbed Lord Mayo to death. The murder happened on 8th February, 1872. Lord Mayo struggled for survival in his cart as the blood started to flow in streams. His last words were LIFT UP MY HEAD. And then he died.

It was an ominous beginning for an art institution and this label is there on the background of a college with its founder dying an awry death. And the assassin seems to be like ones we hear nowadays. Sher Ali was 30 years of age and from clan of Kokee Kheyal from Khyber. Before his execution, he termed himself as a ‘Shaheed’. Today the story seems strange in perspective, when the same thing is literally happening every day. It is like the world never changes; everything remains the same.

LOVE PAKISTAN OR LEAVE PAKISTAN
MANTRA AGAINST PAKISTAN FOREIGN GENERATED AGENDA

Thanks Allah for Pakistan all the time!

The rant against Pakistan is not gone. You come across people talking against Quaid e Azam and Dr Allama Iqbal. Why? They feel that Pakistan should not have been created and it would have been better to remain with India. ASTAR KURWILLA! Study the position of Muslims in India and see the degeneration of Muslims there. Reduced to poverty of every kind, material yes, but even intellectual poverty is very much there. A few people visit Pakistan and start talking of feeling at home here. Do we go there and feel at home there!

A nation where clapping for the Pakistan cricket team is treason, they feel perplexed when we show no prejudice here at all. We have no small hearts. We are willing to accept many things, but not insult to our national leaders. A slap on the face of these idiots may bring them to their senses. A world famous zoologist recently visited India and bought coconut strips from a vendor outside his hotel. After a few purchases, they got friendly, and our Pakistani found out that this Muslim vendor had a PHD degree and was vending coconut for his daily living. Real great chance for Muslims there, yes! People who bask in glory here, should go there for some days and experience the real India, not the worthless hype on media.

Two nations lived together for a 1000 years and never became one. It is not Ideology they are craving for, it is merely geography. The need to annex territory. Expansion, that is all.

We find it written on car bumpers , windscreens as well as rickshaws. We should make it more clear now for all. Love Pakistan or Leave Pakistan! Or Pakistan will take you to task, as said by many about dhobi kay kutay; na ghar kay, na ghat kay. It is high time that our beloved Pak Army teach a lesson to these political dogs of our country.

NO SWORD NO SUFI CHANT,
REVOLUTION OF PERCEPTION

Conversions to Islam from a way of life

If somebody was to put a sword to my throat, will it change my faith? If some Sufi tries to recite a chant? Would these approaches have any effect. ZERO. No one can change another’s way of life except through a revolution of perception.

Mental growth is not possible without exposure to a greater truth. When the brain acknowledges that the present way of life is poorer than the exposed new one. Only then! And that may take a long time, even a generation or two. When Muhammed bin Qasim defeated Raja Dair and became the ruler of Sind, was the conversion overnight? Absolutely not. It took time for the people to realize the way of life being offered to them was a way of life of emancipation. Riddled in a racial distinct class, egalitarianism was a new experience.

In the Hindu Times a Jatt or Gujar was held in so much contempt, that one could not come out of the house or dwelling without a dog accompanying him. The class was equated with the repulsiveness of being a dog. This is not what I am saying, this is written history of that time. So when such a society is exposed to equality of all, what would a person feel? Relieved that in front of Allah, everyone is equal, and everyone should be treated with love, respect and dignity. This is ground for conversion. No Amir, no ruler ever bothered to convert people. Who would want to put a sword on a person throat for conversion? Only a silly person who would not know the behaviour of people cannot be manipulated in any such way.

The ruler long with all others, knelt in front of their God, together in mosques, which were airy, roomy, full of light and sunshine. Nothing secretive about them. No hidden machinations at all. And what did the initials words they heard said? In the name of Allah, the Most Compassionate, Beneficent, the Merciful, all words of love, contrary to fears generated by other religions. Love and caring won. It always does!

KHUSHWANT SINGH AND M.A. RAHMAN CHUGHTAI
RECOGNITION OF EACH OTHER

The spirit of Lahore

There used to be a lot of visitors at home at the studio of M.A. Rahman Chughtai. Even after partition a lot of Sikhs used to frequent the place. The story writer Satyarti was one of them. Another was Khushwant Singh who came to visit Chughtai with his wife. The Sikhs always considered M.A. Rahman Chughtai a Punjabi representative in a Bengal dominated art environment in India.

I remember I wrote a letter to Khushwant Singh when I started my research and he wrote back to me with a reply. The same letter I addressed to Ganda Singh too. The Sikhs related to me as they related to the artist himself.

The Illustrated Weekly of India carried many articles on M.A. Rahman Chughtai. The strangest coverage was a central spread on the book Amal-Chughtai and Dr Allama Iqbal during the 1971 war days. We will take it out of our archives and put it on one day. The man knew no boundaries. Sir Abdul Qadir and Manzoor Qadir were great friends of M.A. Rahman Chughtai and strangely Manzoor Qadir was a great friend of Khushwant Singh. As foreign minister of Pakistan, Manzoor Qadir did things and somehow or the other, at times the discussion of Chughtai artist came between the two stalwarts of their countries.

Khushwant Singh called himself a SON OF A GUN and in all ways he was not merely a Sikh but a GRAND PERSONALITY of our times. May God bless his soul!

HINDU MUSLIM AMITY
OLD PICTURE GIVE CLUES

Krishna with Muslim friends

Hindus and Muslims assemble together to look for the New Moon in celebration of the EID festival. A rare miniature of assembly of the of two nations. Krishna himself is showing the New Moon to his Muslim friends, who are praying at the site of the New Moon., One picture worth more than a thousand words in fostering goodwill between nations. Praying facing the New Moon is an active tradition of the Muslims.

CHILDREN OF DARA SHIKOH
JAHANZEB BANU BEGUM

She loved and died for son of Aurangzeb Alamgeer

Jahanzeb Bano (Jani) daughter

Jahanzeb Bano was also known as Jani Begum, and after the issues of the war of succession, when Dara Shikoh was deposed, she was adopted as a daughter by her aunt Jahan Ara Begum. Jahanzeb Bano had a charming personality, and enamoured everyone. Aurangzeb Alamgeer liked her so much that he proposed the hand of his favourite son Muhammed Azam for her and the marriage was celebrated with great pomp. She used to accompany her husband everywhere and used to be with him even in the battlefield. She gave a birth to a son, and Aurangzeb Alamgeer himself named him ‘Bidar-Bakht’, along with valuable presents. And all his life Bidar-Bakht remained the favourite grandson of Aurangzeb Alamgeer.

Prince Muhammed Azam did become an Emperor on 14th March, 1707 AD, but Jahanzeb Bano daughter of Dara Shikoh died on 13th March, 1705 AD due to breast cancer. She could have been treated as a French lady surgeon was present to do the same, but she refused to let someone who took wine to mess up with the private parts of her body. She preferred death over being shamed by a foreign lady. Her life is a record of vicissitudes of the times.

If one looks dispassionately at the whole affair, one is kept wondering at the way of the Mughals. It is hard to understand them. But one thing is clear. These children of Dara Shikoh held their father in guilt, and the biggest guilt was his apostasy from Islam itself. But that is another story for another time.

ART FOR HARMONIOUS CO-EXISTENCE BETWEEN NATIONS
M.A. RAHMAN CHUGHTAI’S HOMAGE TO KRISHNA

Abundant of Hindu friends in region
(Dedicated to memory of Prakash Sahib)

Contrary to retold stories, the Muslims were not unwanted in India. They came here to trade and were busy in their profession. The oldest mosque in India is attributed to these traders here in the region. It was the capture of some Muslim ladies by Raja Dair that things went out of control. They wrote to the Caliph for their release, who sent a request for same but Raja Dair paid no heed to the request. The result Muhammed bin Qasim.

The Muslims wanted to know about Hindus in this region. A study of their books for references and legends was there. Emperor Zainul Abedeen was the first Muslim Emperor of Kashmeer who commissioned translations of Hindu texts in Arabic and Persian. This was long before Emperor Akbar, who is unnecessarily given the credit of the start of these translations. But Akbar went one step further. He had their texts illustrated too. Did the Hindus like this? No, never. They did not like the idea of sacred texts going into the hands of everybody and their clergy deprived of the manipulation of masses. The concept of emancipation bought by the Muslims was a death blow to the class ridden societies of this region. Muslims introduced egalitarianism which is the song even today.

It was obvious that the greatest Muslim Artist of this century would try his hand at these illustrations too. M.A. Rahman Chughtai treated the Hindu subjects in the Central Asian tradition. Various Hindu woks were made before partition but these he continued to make even after partition, and some of them were done in his last days too. Jawaharlal Nehru commissioned a CHUGHTAI INDIAN PAINTINGS book in Delhi in 1952, published by Dhoomi Mal Dharam Dass. Nehru collected 15 of these works and put them in the National Museum of Modern Arts in New Delhi, a separate room for Chughtai’s works. There is so much more here. Suffice to say we present some Krishna themes of M.A. Rahman Chughtai for our Hindu friends. Two nations can have their own way of life, and yet be happy in co-existing with each other.

CONVERSIONS OF MUHAMMEDANS
SIX FAMOUS EXAMPLES ALL OVER INDIA

Reverend Imaduddin converted in Lahore

There are not many examples of Muslim conversions in Punjab, not even in India. The best examples that we have are of Abdul Masih (Agra), Jan Ali (Hyderabad), Dilawur Khan (Kharrack), Munshi Abdul Rahman (Kathiawar), and of course Imaduddin (Panipat). Imaduddin is not only a converted Christian, he even obtained a Doctrate degree from Calcutta University. He was writer of multiple books (at least 24) which were available from the Punjab Religious Book Society, Anarkali, Lahore.

The strange part is that Imaduddin was a descendant of Saint Qutub Jamal, of Hansi, and he knew his previous 30 generations. Actually he was born in Panipat, north of Delhi. Then he came to Agra too. There he was actually teaching the Quran and the tafsir of same. Dr Wuzeer Khan had put him on the job, but he felt disappointed and betrayed by his bigotry (as understood by him). There he met Dr Pfander who impressed him very much. Afraid of the repercussions in Agra, he came to Lahore. Here he was employed by Mr Mackintosh, head master of Lahore Normal School, Lahore. He was also indoctrinated by W.C. Forman and Rev. Isura Dass. He said that he was no longer afraid of death or humiliation, and in April, 1866, went to Amritsar, where Rev Robert Clark baptized him. Later on on 3rd December, 1868, he also got his brother Munshi Khair-uddin and father Maulvie Sirajuddin baptized from the same place.

Everybody left him and were not willing to even be seen with him. Only his brother and father were left, and as said, they too were converted in due time. As far as Inam Shah is concerned of Lahore, he too was of a very religious family. We will research on him.

THINGS YOU NEVER KNEW ABOUT,
MUHAMMED BIN QASIM AND ‘CHACH-NAMA’ IS SILENT

Facts about the Conqueror of Sind

Let us first see his family tree. MUHAMMED BIN QASIM BIN MUHAMMED BIN HUKAM BIN ABU-AQEEL BIN MASOOD BIN AAMER BIN MUQAB BIN MALIK BIN KAAB BIN UMARO BIN SAAD BIN AUFF BIN TUSI URF SALKEEFI. Interesting tree, when we are told that Muqab bin Malik was the first to accept Islam.

Muhammed bin Qasim’s father was the Amir of Iraq and Basra, and it was there that Muhammed Bin Qasim spent his early days in growing up. The most interesting information is that Muhammed Bin Qasim was very fond of Architecture and Caliph Hajaj had made him Nazim of Buildings of Sheraz. He was truly involved in giving Sheraz a new look of Islamic Architecture. Muhammed Bin Qasim was governing Sheraz and responsible for beautifying it with Islamic Architecture.

Another interesting fact revealed from letters of the Caliph at that time is that the father of Muhammed Bin Qasim was with him in his conquest of Sind. Father accompanied his son in this mission. But the story told in Chach-nama which is the Sindhi version (the popular version of being ordered to put a wet leather skin as reprisal for rape of Raja Dair’s daughters) from ages is totally wrong as it was differently stated by the historian Baladhuri long before the Chach-nama was even written. He says:

“After death of Caliph Waleed , Salman became Caliph. He appointed Salih bin Abdur Rahman as Amir of Iraq and Yazeed bin Abu Qasba as Amir of Sind. Abu Qasba had Muhammed bin Qasim arrested and sent to the custody of Amir Salih in Iraq. There he was imprisoned in jail with other family members, and tortured beyond recognition. Eventually he could not sustain the torture and died in prison”.

A sad end for a worthy man. Interesting there are poems written by Muhammed bin Qasim during his imprisonment and that too provides another insight in his character. The most interesting part is that he left a son Umrao bin Qasim in Sind, who went into hiding, because the people of Sind loved Muhammed bin Qasim and had made a statue of him in the main square of the city. When the reign of these Caliphs was over, people sought Umrao bin Qasim and put him on the throne of Sind. Umrao bin Qasim as sub-ruler served Sind from 105 AH to 120 AH, and as Acting Amir from 120 AH to 122 AH, and ruled Sind as Amir from the year 122 AH to 125 AH, and was most able in doing same. He was also responsible for the laying and beautification of the city of Mansoorah. He even defeated Raja Rai in battle, and won many other battles. But then Caliphs changed again, and Umrao bin Qasim was caught and put in prison and tortured like his father. An fearing an undue death, Umrao bin Qasim committed suicide in prison. It took him two days to die and the Amir questioned why he had done this sorry part as he would not have killed him. But Umrao bin Qasim suspected an unfair treatment and the story of Sind and Qasim came to a tragic end.

The in-fighting in Islam was responsible for death of many of its heroes.