The Lesser-known World of Mughal Emperor Jahangir

Som Prakash Verma

• Publisher: Routledge India
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781000546835
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Indian & South Asian History
• Index: History

This volume depicts the life and times of the Mughal emperor Jahangir in the light of his memoirs, Jahangirnama, popularly known as Tuzuk-i Jahangiri. With its fresh treatment of source material and a vivid account of historical events, the book tells the history of Jahangir's India through his intimate and confessional memoirs incorporated in the genre of Mughal manuscript painting. The work is noteworthy for its historical portraits as well as Jahangir's visual realism, his remarkable knowledge of natural history, and the perceptive and detailed descriptions of the world around him.

Moving away from conventional historical writing, the book is a psychological study of an individual, his innate qualities, behavioural moves and instinctive affinities. Jahangir's memoirs reveal deeper facets of him as a person as well as a poet, aesthete, connoisseur of painting and a keen observer of nature, both human and that of the natural world. The author also includes other contemporary literature of the period that narrate Jahangir's life, such as Akbarnama, Ma'asir-i Jahangiri, Iqbalnama-i Jahangiri, Intikhab-i Jahangiri, Tatimma-i Waqi'at-i Jahangiri and Zakhirat-ul Khwanin, as well as Jesuits accounts and travelogues. He further analyses the influence of European Renaissance art on the history of Mughal paintings.

A first of its kind, this book will greatly interest scholars and researchers of medieval history, Indian history, Mughal history, art history, popular culture and South Asian studies, as well as the general reader.

1

JAHANGIR

The birth of Prince Salim (later known as Jahangir) took place on Wednesday, 17th Rabi’u-l-awwal of 977 AH (August 31, 1569) and is best prefaced with a story narrated in the Jahangirnama (1624):

One day, when waiting on him [the Shaikh] and in a state of distraction, he asked him how many sons he should have. The Shaikh replied, ‘The Giver who gives without being asked will bestow three sons on you’. My father said, ‘I have made a vow that, casting my first son on the skirt of your favour, I will make your friendship and kindness his protector and preserver’. The Shaikh accepted this idea, and said, ‘I congratulate you, and I will give him my own name’. When my mother came near the time of her delivery, he (Akbar) sent her to the Shaikh’s house that I might be born there. After my birth they gave me the name of Sultan Salim, but I never heard my father, whether in his cups or in his sober moments, call me Muhammad Salim or Sultan Salim, but always Shaikhu Baba.

[R & B, I. 2]

The sufi sage Shaikh Salim Chisti (1479–1570), a master of all schools of Islamic theology and a believer in the most austere of penances and in long meditation, assured Akbar that he would have an heir and visited him more than once at Sikri. Akbar called the child Shaikhu Baba and the infant was given the name Sultan Salim. Week-long celebrations were held at Agra [Figures 1.1 and 1.2] and the poets presented odes in honour of this auspicious event, the most distinguished of which was recorded by Abu’l Fazl in his Akbarnama and reads thus:

God be praised for the glory of the King

A splendid pearl came ashore from the ocean of justice

A bird alighted from the nest of grandeur

A star appeared from the zenith of glory and beauty

Such a rosebush cannot be shown in the parterre

Such a tulip has not opened in the tulip-bed,

Hearts were gladdened because the world revived

From the heaven of justice as spring does from the sun

That new moon of the house of power, beauty and pomp came forth

That nursling of the soul’s desire of the King fruited,

The King of faith’s realms, the Sultan of purity’s portico,

The lamp of the disheartened, the desire of the expectant,

The just and perfect Muhammad Akbar, Lord of Conjunction

The renowned King, seeking and attaining his desires,

Perfect in wisdom, the most just of Kings,

Just, noble, unparalleled for understanding,

Pleasing shadow of God, worthy the diadem and signet,

Defender of the faith, just centre of the world,

Know that the fourth heaven (the sun) is the cancer for his assembly

That Arcturus has come as spearman for his cortege

Light of the mansion of existence, pearl of liberality’s sea

A falcon who hunts souls from his desire of capturing the summits of hearts.

O King, I have brought a chain of exquisite pearls

A gift from a glorious mine: seek it out, hang it in thine ear.

No one has brought a better gift, if any has

Tell him to bring it, let him produce what he has,

The first hemistich contains the King’s accession

From the second, receive the birth of the Light of the eyes

That the count of years, months and days may last

And that it may endure for cycles

May our King be permanent and also the Prince

For countless days and unnumbered years

[Beveridge (1897–1921), III. 507–8]

Figure 1.1 Rejoicing on the birth of Prince Salim at Fathpur in 1569. By Kesav the Elder and Dharamdas. Mughal, ca. 1590–5. Folio from the Akbarnama, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, no. IS 2-1896 78/117

Figure 1.2 News of Salim’s birth brought to Akbar at Agra. By Kesav the Elder and Chetar. Mughal, ca. 1590–5. Folio from the Akbarnama, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, no. IS 2-1896 79/117

Akbar, not content with prayers alone, sought the blessings of saints, living or dead, for the fulfilment of his only wish, that of a son and heir to his throne. Akbar bowed several times at the tomb of Khwaja Mu’inu-d-din Chisti (d. 1236) at Ajmer. He resolved to travel on foot from Agra to Ajmer to offer thanks if blessed with a son. Highly affected by the ethereal charm of this sage, Akbar, the spiritual King of Islam, hastened to perform a pilgrimage on foot to the sage’s blessed shrine to pay his devotions to God [Figure 1.3]. Abu’l Fazl wrote:

As the holy understanding of the King desires inspiration from saints, he, at the time when he was seeking for a son, had made a vow to his God that if this blessing should be attained, he would perform an act of thanksgiving which should be personal to himself, viz., that he would walk from Agra to the shrine of Khwaja M’uinu-d-din Chishti, and there pay his devotions to God. It was settled in Rajab (the 7th month), which was the month of the saint’s anniversary (‘uras), that this intention should be carried into practice. When such a night-gleaming jewel of the casket of the Caliphate arrived at the shore of hope, he recognized his obligation and set out on foot from Agra on the day of Aban 10 Bahman, Divine month, corresponding to Friday 12 Shaban (the 8th month), January 20, 1570, and traversed stages and deserts. Each day he journeyed ten or twelve kos, less or more.

The following is the list of the stages of the journey from Agra:

1. Mandhakar.
2. Fathhpur.
3. Passed Khanwa and halted near Juna.
4. Karoha.
5. Basawar.
6. Toda.
7. Kalawali.
8. Kharandi.
9. Disa.
10. Passed Hansmahal and encamped near Phulmahal.
11. Sanganir.
12. Near Neota.
13. Jhak near M‘uizzabad (Jarrett II. 273).
14. Sakhun.
15. Kajbil.
16. The holy dwelling of the Khwaja in Ajmer.

Then he straightway went to the shrine and placed the forehead of sincerity on that spot and implored help. He spent several days there in devotion and good works. He distributed gifts among the attendants of the shrine.

[Beveridge, 1897–1921, III. 510–11]

Figure 1.3 Akbar’s pilgrimage on foot to the shrine of Khwaja Mu’inu-d-din Chisti at Ajmer. By Basawan and Nand Gawalyari. Mughal, ca. 1590–5. Folio from the Akbarnama, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, no. IS 2-1896 77/117

The village of Sikri had now emerged as a royal place of stay due to the regular visits of Akbar to Shaikh Salim Chisti, who had settled there in 1564 and practised an austere life and meditation. With the shift of the Mughal capital from Agra to Sikri, within a short time the latter emerged as a glorious city, named Fathpur Sikri.

Jahangir, too, had a deep reverence for Khwaja Mu’inu-d-din Chisti and visited the sacred shrine to him several times; during the period 1613–16, Jahangir visited the shrine nine times [R & B, I. 341]. On his first visit, Jahangir, similar to his father, travelled about 1 kos on foot:

As the astrologers had fixed an hour in this night for starting for Ajmir, when seven gharis of the night of Monday, the 2nd Sha‘ban (September 7, 1613), corresponding with the 24th Shahriwar, had passed, I started in happiness and prosperity with intent to go there from the capital of Agra. In this undertaking two things were agreeable to me, one a pilgrimage to the splendid mausoleum of Khawaja Mu‘inu-d-din Chisti, from the blessings of whose illustrious soul great advantages had been derived by this dignified family, and whose venerable shrine I had not visited after my accession to the throne … On Monday, the 5th Shawwal (November 8, 1613), corresponding to the 26th Aban, the hour for entering Ajmir was fixed. On the morning of the said day I went towards it. When the fort and the buildings of the shrine of the revered Khwaja appeared in sight, I traversed on foot the remainder of the road, about a kos. I placed trustworthy men on both sides of the road, who went along giving money to fakirs and the necessitous. When four gharis of day had passed, I entered the city and its inhabited portion, and in the fifth ghari had the honour of visiting the venerated mausoleum.

[R & B, I. 249, 253]

Later, on July 6, 1616, Jahangir fulfilled his vow and had a gold railing with latticework installed around Khwaja Mu’inu-d-din Chisti’s tomb [Figures 1.4 and 1.5]: ‘I had made a vow that they should place a gold railing with latticework at the enlightened tomb of the revered Khwaja. On the 27th of this month [July 6, 1616] it was completed, and I ordered them to take and affix it. It had been made at a cost of 110,000 rupees’ [R & B, I. 329].

Figure 1.4 Jahangir at the shrine of Khwaja Mu’inu-d-din Chisti in Ajmer. From a Jahangirnama manuscript. Mughal, ca. 1620 Rampur Raza Library, Rampur. Album 1, fol. 3a

Figure 1.5 Jahangir dispensing food at Ajmer. By Fathchand. From a Jahangirnama manuscript. Mughal, ca. 1620. Rampur Raza Library, Rampur. Album 1, fol. 4a

Akbar had able tutors like Maulana Mir Kalan Harvi, Shaikh Ahmad, Qutbu-d-din Muhammad Khan Atqa and Abdur Rahim Khan-i Khanan to educate Prince Salim. But the Khan-i Khanan had the most influence over the prince who also acquired command of Persian and Turkish literature. Extensive reading of the literary works empowered Salim with a poetic disposition, skill in literal narration and a quest for diverse knowledge and innovation, which led to him becoming a connoisseur and an ardent admirer of nature. Lastly, his quest for ascertaining facts turned him into a naturalist of the highest order. In fact, Jahangir’s delight in poetry and nature, as well as his inquisitiveness about unfamiliar things and experiences, meant that Jahangir became known as an aesthete, a naturalist and, as a whole, a man of aesthetic culture.

Jahangir had a lively harem and married the Rajput daughters of Raja Bhagwan Das of Amber, Raja Udai Singh, the Mata Raja of Banswala, Raja Rai Singh of Bikaner, Raja Jagat Singh son of Raja Man Singh of Amber, and the daughter of Sa‘id Khan Ghakhar. But his betrothal in May 1611 to Meherunnisa, the daughter of Mirza Ghiyas Beg, surnamed Itimadu-d-daula, and a widow of ‘Ali Quli Istajlu, styled Sher Afkan Khan (‘tiger-thrower’, d. May 20, 1607), affected Jahangir the most, and, as such, she turned out to be the Empress of Hindustan and the famous Nur Jahan (‘the light of the world’), a title bestowed on her by Jahangir on March 20, 1616 (R & B, I. 319).

After the death of Ali Quli Istajlu, Meherunnisa had been placed in the establishment of Rukiya Sultana, one of Akbar’s wives, by the order of Jahangir. Later, during the celebration of Nawroz on March 11, 1611 Jahangir happened to see Meherunnisa, fell in love with her and later married her:

After the death of Kutbu-d-in, the officials of Bengal, in obedience to royal command, sent to Court the daughter of Ghiyas Beg, who had been exalted to the title of ’Itimadu-d-daula, and the King, who was greatly distressed at the murder of Kutbu-d-din, entrusted her to the keeping of his own royal mother. There she remained some time without notice. Since, however, Fate had decreed that she should be the Queen of the World and the Princess of the Time, it happened that on the celebration of New Year’s Day in the sixth year of the Emperor’s reign, her appearance caught the King’s far-seeing eye, and so captivated him that he included her amongst the inmates of his select harem. Day by day her influence and dignity increased. First of all she received the title of Nur Mahal, ‘Light of the Harem,’ but was afterwards distinguished by that of Nur Jahan Begam, ‘Light of the World’. All her relations and connexions were raised to honour and wealth.

[E & D, VI. 404–5 (Iqbalnama-i Jahangiri by Mu’tamad Khan)]

Jahangir makes no mention of Meherunnisa in his Memoirs and the whole event of the aforesaid Ali Quli is described thus:

The details of this matter are that the aforesaid ‘Ali Quli was sufrachi (t...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• List of figures
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• Glossary
• List of abbreviations
• 1. Jahangir
• 2. His appearance and nature
• 3. An aesthete, alive to his surroundings
• 4. Curious zoologist
• 5. Connoisseur of painting
• 6. Celebrator of diverse faiths
• 7. Justice-observing ruler
• 8. The indefatigable hunter
• 9. Graphic narrator
• 10. A man of no common ability
• 11. A modern man in the making
• Select bibliography
• Index