Thread by @meemainseen

A Fairy Tale Couple
A Lonely Princess
A Banished Prince
___
West of Dharampura across Infantry Road, adjacent to what once was a village named Hashim Pur, in the middle of an eroded Mughal garden stands a wretched tomb
Inside a white marble cenotaph is draped as if it's a shrine

Lifting the chadar (the covering on cenotaph) from a side would reveal a modern day plaque that gives us a name Nadira Begum wife of Dara Shikoh
The rightful successor to Shah Jahan, Shah Dara after whom is named a town across Ravi
The plaque also gives us a year of death 1659 CE

Adjacent to Nadira Begum's mausoleum stands Mian Mir's tomb, a saint much revered by her husband
We know that Dara Shikoh, the eldest of Shah Jahan's sons was much into Sufi tradition
We dear reader, will not dwell much on it for this thread focuses on the princess and her prince

What we also know about Dara Shikoh is that he was a learned person with a refined taste in poetry and art
A famed Dara Shikoh Album is now treasured in the British Library as a collection of the finest calligraphic and miniature paintings hand picked and compiled by the Prince

Now this refined collection 'muraqqa e nafees' was gifted by the prince to his 'hamdam o hamraz', a very dear and intimate companion, our princess of great charms Nadira Banu Begum
She was the daughter of Prince Pervez, brother of Shah Jahan, hence a cousin of Dara Shikoh

Dara was engaged to be married to Nadira Begum by his mother Mumtaz Mahal of Taj Mahal fame
Her untimely death in child labor delayed the event
It was Jahan Ara Begum the eldest sister of Dara Shikoh who took charge of the affairs and gave us a fairy tale wedding of Mughal times

The wedding arranged in all enthusiasm by Jahan Ara was an extravagant affair
Padshahnama a chronicle from Shah Jahan's court gives us the details complemented by miniatures
A watercolor by Bulaqi from 1656-57 portrays the proceedings from the day of wedding Feb 12th, 1633

Just outside of Diwan e Khas Shah Jahan is fastening the 'sehra' (veil for the bridegroom)
The Padshahanama records that this 'sehra' decorated with pearls, rubies and emeralds was the blessed heirloom Jahangir first tied on Shah Jahan's forehead on the eve of his marriage

On the night sky in the distance we see a magnificent display of fireworks
Peter Mundy a British merchant traveler was in Agra as he witnessed the fireworks from across the river
He describes the display taking "fantastic forms, terrible noise and a cost and labour enough"

The wedding budget inflated to an enormous figure, so we are told
Balchand in painting the presentation of Dara Shikoh's wedding gifts brings us a scene from Diwan e Aam (King's Public Audience)
It's still more than a week to Prince's wedding and festivities are about to begin

This event in Diwan e Aam was organized by Jahan Ara Begum
Our emperor Shah Jahan is in the very center with our Prince Dara Shikoh towards the left standing beside the Jharoka
The young boy with him is the youngest of Shah Jahan's sons, Murad Bakhsh

The lavish presents on public display include an array of gems, gold utensils, rugs, carpets and textiles
A fair estimate of 16 lakh rupees of which seven lakh in jewels, one lakh in cash, four lakh in gold & silver and the balance in the number of finest elephants and horses

Now this fairy tale wedding led to a fairy tale married life
Our prince remained a one woman man fully devoted to Nadira Begum
Now if we say they lived happily ever after that would be factually incorrect
As Shah Jahan fell ill, our heir apparent faced a war of succession

With his forces divided Dara met a formidable army of Aurangzeb & Murad to taste successive defeats near Ujjain and then at Samugarh near Agra
Dara would then rally his forces one final time to another defeat at Ajmer but all this, dear reader, is beyond the scope of this thread

What is of interest here is that in the final bid to escape to Persia a haggard Dara with remnants of his force travelled west towards Bolan Pass in Balochistan
Nadira Banu Begum accompanied her husband
Dara was betrayed yet again in the hands of one Jiwan Khan, chief of Dadar

Majid Sheikh our storyteller of Lahore in his interesting articles on the pirates and mercenaries in the Mughal court tells of one Niccole Manucci
A Venetian who served Prince Dara Shikoh as a gunner Now he composed his writings in 'Storia Do Mogor' or 'Mogul India'

In line with his reputation his stories tend to exaggerate but in that they do give us a fairly detailed account of events, one of which is about the final moments of Nadira Begum
Manucci brings to us the details of the betrayal from Jiwan Khan's camp in Dadar

When all hope was gone for Dara Shikoh and the end seemed apparent (being handed over to soldiers sent by Aurangzeb) our princess in exile decided to take her own life
Here we are told of one Faridun the house-slave of Nadira Begum who in all desperation planned a daring move

In planning to kill Jiwan Khan, Faridun borrowed the Dutch pistol from Dara Shikoh "one that had never been known to miss fire"
He then approached Jiwan Khan, a cocked pistol hidden under brocade presented as a gift from Nadira Begum
When it was time to fire the pistol misfired

With all hope lost our princess Nadira Begum then took her own life
"Could I survive without sons, without a husband? Could I endure the deeper disgrace of becoming a concubine to Aurangzeb?"
Having said the words she took the poison that was swift to take life out of her

With heavy heart the body was arranged to be sent to Lahore as Dara desired his beloved wife to be interred next to the saint he revered the most, Mian Mir
There now stands the mausoleum of our lonely princess distanced from her husband, but is that so?
there's more to our story

In the backdrop of alma mater UET of Lahore are the gardens of Kot Khawaja Saeed
For once this area was known as Pervezabad
What now survives is grassy enclosure with a tomb, two in fact
Our main tomb built on octagonal plan is attributed to Prince Pervez father of Nadira Begum

Now we know that Prince Pervez, by one account was killed on the orders of his brother Shah Jahan (by delirium as per another account) but the location and year are undisputed, 1625 CE at Burhanpur and was buried at Agra
Who is then buried in this tomb attributed to Prince Pervez

A little to a side in the same enclosure is another Mughal era tomb attributed to one Mai Dai
She was the daughter of Khawaja Saeed, the mahout of Prince Pervez, after whom this area is presently known
Mai Dai was deputed to look after the sons of Prince Pervez so we are told

Historian Latif tells the two sons of Prince Pervez were murdered on the orders of (yet again) Shah Jahan and that the princes were then buried here
Legend has it that Mai Dai the caretaker of the princes was also murdered with them and had her unfortunate tomb built onto a side

Another legend places one of the sons of Dara Shikoh buried in the Pervezabad tomb who was murdered on the orders of Aurangzeb The Pious
In an interesting endeavour to twist history there is another legend, absurd yet fascinating

We know that Dara Shikoh having been put under captivity was treacherously murdered in the prison and his severed head in all indifference was dispatched by Aurangzeb to torment his father Shah Jahan
The prince was later buried in Humayun's tomb in Delhi

Storytelling concessions keep the prince's torso in Delhi but some untold account transports the head to Lahore and of all the places to Pervezabad tomb
With tomb's construction dating back to the times of Shah Jahan a whole lot of murdered royalty seems to be interred here

My dear reader, if we let our imagination run a bit wild, we now in Lahore have our fairly tale couple from Mughal yesteryears buried in eternal peace
Our lonely princess in the neighborhood of Mian Mir's shrine and the head of our banished prince not very far from Ghoray Shah...

A while back we did a thread on "Anarkali of Lahore"
It was then that our friend @sebibandesha mentioned this tomb of Nadira Begum and asked me to write about it

https://twitter.com/meemainseen/status/1300293143603142658

This thread is shared in fulfilment of that request and very dearly dedicated to @sebibandesha