Shah Jahan : lit. Lord of the World, (1592-1666), he was the second son of Jehangir & the fifth Moghul emperor of India (1628-58). “Hindu rulers had charged [cultivators] one-sixth of the produce as tax, Akbar raised it to one-third, & Shah Jahan to one-half” writes L.S.S. O’Malley, editor of Modern India & the West: A Study of Interaction of Their Civilisations, 1941, 1968) [K.R.S. Srinivasa, Sri Aurobindo: A biography & a history, 1985]. Shāh Jahān was favoured by his father since his elder brother Khushrav had been put up as Akbar’s successor & was kept in confinement. In 1612 he married Arjumand Bāno daughter of the richest & most powerful noble Asaf Khan, brother of Empress Noor Jahan, while his youngest brother married Noor Jahan’s daughter. (Khushrav had refused to marry Noor Jahan’s daughter by a previous husband & Shah Jahan had him killed in 1622.) When Noor Jahan plotted to place her son-in-law on the throne, her brother upheld Shah Jahan’s right & installed him in 1628. “Shah Jahan,” writes R.C. Majumdar, “was a zealous champion of his faith. He revived the pilgrimage tax & took steps not only to check the conversion of Muslims to other faiths but also to add to their number” – all that his unzealous grandfather Akbar suppressed; & extended his dominions south by annexing Ahmadnagar. He had an intense love for Mumtaz Mahal (1592-1631), whom he had married in 1612.” No wonder than that in 1618 his zealous genes brought forth in the Ahmedabad created by Ahmad Shah, no less renowned for his jihadi zeal, the greatest Mogul jihadi Aurangzeb (q.v.). Shah Jahan built for himself the Peacock Throne at a cost of one crore rupees. At Agra, which was his capital till 1648, he built the Jāmā Masjid, the Red Fort containing the Moti Masjid, the Dewan-i-Khās & Dewan-i-Am & the incomparable Taj Mahal (q.v.). In 1648 he transferred his capital from Agra to Delhi where also he built a gorgeous palace with its own Dewan-i-Khās & Dewan-i-Am. He recovered Kandahar, lost it the next year & made three attempts to recover it but gave up after the last in 1653. He fell ill in 1657 & at once began the war of succession amongst his four sons: Dara, Shuja, Aurangzeb, & Murād ending with Aurangzeb imprisoning his illustrious father until death released him in 1666 from his only birth on this earth.
... NECKLACE 30.RAJA HARISHCHANDRA 31.THE MAGIC POOL 32.SWAMI WANTS TO BE BEATEN- RKNarayan 33.THE DRAGON WHO GREW—Joan E. Cass 34.THE KING WHO LOST HIS MEMORY 35.LONG LIVE SHAH JAHAN 36.THE LIVING SAINT OF CALCUTTA 37.HOW THE BISHOP HUNTED ROBINHOOD 38.A FEW RECOLLECTIONS OF BERTRAND RUSSEL'S CHILDHOOD DAYS 39.THE SUPREME QUALITY 40.THREE QUESTIONS ...
... pleasant break from the ritualism of early Vedic period. Here a tribute must be paid to the spirit of inquiry of medieval ages, and also to the efforts of Prince Dara Shikoh, the eldest son of Emperor Shah Jahan that introduced Upanishads to the outside world. He came to know about them in Kashmir in 1640. With the help of Sanskrit Scholars of Benares, he translated them mw Persian during 1656-1657. However ...
... was pampered by all her elder brothers and sister. She was a good old soul, lissome and gentle. She too passed away very young, the youngest of the dynasty. (I heard it said she was Noorjahan — Shah Jahan’s queen — in a previous birth!) Jyotsna (meaning moonlight) was Manoranjan’s wife’s name — and moonlight-like she was — (a full moon). She was also of a large build. She was as fair as Manoranjan ...
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