VALENTINE’S DAY

How the heartless emperor Aurangzeb fell in love at first sight

The Mughal ruler is usually portrayed as a calculating, warring ruler. But that is just part of the story.

by  Rana Safvi

Published Feb 13, 2015 · 06:33 pm

Wikimedia Commons

This story is not an average Valentine’s Day tale. It is about a love affair of a different kind, of a prince known today only as strong-willed, calculating and devoid of a loving bone in his body. It is about Aurangzeb falling in love at first sight.

In 1636, Aurangzeb was a prince and the Governor of Deccan. En route to Aurangabad, he stopped at Burhanpur to pay his respects to his maternal aunt, who was married to Saif Khan, the Governor of Burhanpur. What followed varies in detail in different tellings. But all of them agree that the austere prince fell in love at first sight with one of the women in his uncle’s harem. Her name was Hirabai.

Ma’asir al-Umara, written by Nawab Shams ud Daula Shah Nawaz Khan and his son Abdul Hai Khan, in the 18th century provides a detailed description of the episode:

“One day the prince went with the ladies of his harem to the garden of Zainabad Burhanpur, named Ahu-khanah [Deer Park], and began to stroll with his chosen beloved ones. Zainabadi, whose musical skill ravished the senses, and who was unique in blandishments, having come in the train of Khan-i-Zaman’s wife (the prince’s maternal aunt), on seeing a fruit-laden mango tree, in mirth and amorous play advanced, leaped up and plucked a fruit, without paying due respect to the prince’s presence. This move of hers robbed the prince of his senses and self-control.”

Despite his extremely religious bent, Aurangzeb was a connoisseur of music and a proficient Veena player. Hirabai’s looks, combined with her musical accomplishments, proved irresistible for the prince. He is said to have been so infatuated with her that he gave in to her demand that he taste wine. But before he could, Hirabai revealed that she was just testing his love for her.

A religious prince ready to taste wine, that shows the extent of his feelings for her.

Akbar, in his bid to regulate the harem, had ordered that all concubines should be named after the place they belonged to. So once Hirabai entered Aurangzeb’s harem she was called Zainabadi.

Grieving in solitude

In Ahkam e Aurangzeb, written in 1640, Aurangzeb’s biographer Hamiduddin Khan Nimchah recounts the Burhanpur encounter differently. According to him, the meeting took place when the prince entered the harem unannounced. He fell into a swoon and, on being asked by his aunt, described the reason for the malady and asked for a remedy. He was given Hirabai in exchange for one of his concubines.

The ensuing passion and infatuation is described the same way in Nimchah’s account.

It is said in Ma’asir al-Umara that Aurangzeb’s love affair proceeded to such lengths as to reach Shah Jahan’s ears. Dara Shikoh, who had no love lost for his brother Aurangzeb, is said to have remarked to their father Shah Jahan, “See the piety and abstinence of this hypocritical knave! He has gone to the dogs for the sake of a wench of his aunt’s household.”

But as destiny would have it, Hirabai did not live for long. Her death affected the prince greatly. She is buried in Aurangabad.

Ma’asir al-Umara records that Aurangzeb was so upset by the death of his beloved that he left the palace to go on a hunt. When reproved by the poet Mir Askari (Aqil Khan) for risking his life in that agitated state, the prince replied:

“‘Lamentation in the house cannot relieve the heart,

In solitude alone you can cry to your heart’s content.”

Aqil Khan then recited this couplet of his own composition:

“How easy did love appear, but alas how hard it is!

How hard was separation, but what repose it gave to the beloved!”

The prince could not check his tears. He committed the verses to memory after vainly trying to learn the modest poet’s name.

Incomplete portraiture

Niccolao Manucci, the Italian traveller and writer (1639–1717), too describes this period in Aurangzeb’s life:

“Aurangzib grew very fond of one of the dancing-women in his harem, and through the great love he bore to her he neglected for some time his prayers and his austerities, filling up his days with music and dances; and going even farther, he enlivened himself with wine, which he drank at the instance of the said dancing-girl. The dancer died, and Aurangzib made a vow never to drink wine again nor to listen to music. In after-days he was accustomed to say that God had been very gracious to him by putting an end to that dancing-girl’s life, by reason of whom he had committed so many iniquities, and had run the risk of never reigning through being occupied in vicious practices.”

On this Valentine’s Day, remember that Aurangzeb’s portraits may depict an austere man reading the Quran, but there once lurked in him a passionate young man who had considered the “world well lost” for the love of his life.

Grave of Mughal Emeperor,Aurangzeb at Khuldabad, Aurangabad, 1850s.

Date1850-1856 SourceBritish Library

William Carpenter (1818–1899)

On a recent trip to Khuldabad I visited Aurangzeb ‘s grave. It was initially just a simple grave in the courtyard of his spiritual master’s dargah.

The entrance of the dargah of Shaikh Zaynuddin Shirazi

The name of the area was Rauza because it housed the shrines of in numerous Sufi saints. Since Aurangzeb was given the posthumous title of khuld-makani it was called Khuldabad.

Aurangzeb had willed that he should be buried here—‘they should carry this sinner drenched in sins to the neighborhood of the holy Chishti tomb of the revered leader, Sayyid and Shaykh Zaynuddin Husayn Shirazi, since without the protection of that court (of the saints), which is the refuge of forgiveness, there is no refuge for those drowned in the ocean of sin’ (Ernst 2004a:223-24).

The epitaph :

Az tila o nuqreh gar saazand gumbad aghniyaa! Bar mazaar e maa ghareebaan gumbad e gardun bas ast!.

Translation: “The rich may well construct domes of gold and silver on their graves! For the poor folks like me, the sky is enough (of a dome to shelter my grave

It is said that Aurangzeb paid for his burial place by stitching caps during his last years and that it cost only 14 rupees and 12 annas.

He had wanted a simple grave but the seventh Nizam of Hyderabad got a delicate marble screen placed around it, as well as a marble platform in the 20th century. Lord Curzon also helped in its beautification.

Today it’s within the city

I visited it a few days before Eid is Azha or Bakreid

Shahi Eidgah was built on a area of 31,484 sq yds land, surrounded by thousands of sq yds / sq ft open maidan ( grounds ), which were also for the namazi.

The Shahi Eidgah complex has 2,83,257 sq fts, which at any time can be used by 50,000 namazi. The main gate at the front side has also two small gates besides it for the entrance and exit of the devotees. The same pattern is followed on the north and south sides of the Shahi Eidgah.

( from shahi eidgah’s official website)

As hard as in the pearl to pierce a hole

Without the needle-point of diamond.

day.”

~ Princess Zebun-Nisa

We often hear of her aunts the famous Princess Jahanara and Princess Roshanara, sometimes of her sister Princess Zeenat-un-Nisa because of the famous mosque in Delhi made by her but not much is known about Princess Zebun-Nisa who true to her penname Makhfi has been concealed from the public eye.

She was the eldest daughter of Emperor Aurangzeb and his wife Dilras Bano, born in Daulatabad on 5th February 1638. Dilrus Banu Begum, was the daughter of ShahNawaz Khan a high ranking Mughal officer descended from the Safavis of Persia.

Her siblings from her mother were Zeenat-un-Nisa, Zubdat-un-Nisa, Mohammed Azam, Mohammed Akbar.

ZebunNisa came from a family skilled not only in battle but with considerable literary talent as well. Babar displayed freshness in his memoirs, as did his daughter GulBadan Begum, biographer of Emperor Humayun, Jahangir and JahanAra Begum. Whether Akbar, Jahangir, Shahjahan or even Aurangzeb they all displayed a keen intellect and literary taste.

As was usual in those days she committed the Quran to memory under the guidance of Hafiza Mariam and was rewarded 30,000 gold-pieces by her delighted father.

A lady named Miyabai was appointed her tutor, and she learned Arabic mathematics and astronomy and sciences from her and other teachers.

Many poets sought her patronage and she employed many scholars on liberal salaries, who produced literary works at her bidding or copied manuscripts for her. This was a boon to them as Aurangzeb did not encourage or patronize poets and non-religious scholars.

She employed skilled calligraphers to copy rare and valuable books for her and, as Kashmir paper and Kashmir scribes were famous for their excellence, she had a ‘scriptorium’ also in that province, where work went on constantly. She personally supervised the work and went over the copies that had been made on the previous day.

Mulla Safiuddin Ardbeli translated the Arabic Great Commentary under the title of Zeb-ut-tafsir under her patronage, though it is rumoured that it was the Princess herself who was the real author of the commentary.

Despite the strict religion followed by her father, Aurangzeb, like her aunt Jahan Ara and uncle Dara Shukoh, Zebun-Nisa was a Sufi in her inclinations and her poetry bears it out. In fact she was a great favourite with her uncle Dara Shukoh and she modestly attributed her verses to him when first she began to write, and many of the ghazals in the Diwan of Dara Shukoh are said to be by her.

LIFE passes by, a caravan of shadows,

Leaving no track or voice upon its way;

Only the torch of beauty, where it flashes,

Spreads in the world disaster and dismay.

She helped her father in affairs of the court too but was always veiled when not in the women’s quarters.

She started writing Persian verses under the pen- name of Makhfi or the Concealed One.

This was a popular pseudonym and was used by many other royal ladies. However, the Deewan e Makhfi from which I will quote her poems (translated from Persian by Magan Lal and Jessie Duncan Westbrook is attributed to her and widely recognized as her work.

Zebun-Nisa’s verses testify to her skill as a poet.

Not much is known about her life as she had earned the displeasure of her stern father and no court chronicler dared to speak of her. According to the editors of Deewan e Makhfi from her early youth she wrote verses, at first in Arabic ; but when an Arabian scholar saw her work he said : “Whoever has written this poem is Indian. The verses are clever and wise, but the idiom is Indian, although it is a miracle for a foreigner to know Arabian so well.” This piqued her desire for perfection, and thereafter she wrote in Persian, her mother tongue.

She had as tutor a scholar called Shah Rustum Ghazi, who encouraged and directed her literary tastes.

On the request of Shah Rustam Ghazi, Aurungzeb who himself cared little for poetry made an exception in favour of Zebun-Nisa andinvited poets to his court.

Some of the poets whom she interacted with were Nasir Ali, Sayab, Shams Waliullah, Brahmin, and Behraaz and Nasir Ali.

This group of poets would match each other in skill and often have a ‘tarahi’ competition where each poet completed a given line within the same metre in his/her own way. Zebun-Nisa excelled in tarahi muqabala.

Mushairas or poetic soirees would be held .

Though it is often said that Mughal princesses were not allowed to wed, its not true. The stricture was that the groom had to be from within the family or another suitable royal family. Her sister Mehrun-Nisa was married to her first cousin Izid Bakhsh,a son of Murad Bakhsh.

Zebun-Nisa too was betrothed as per the wish of Shah Jahan, to Suleiman Shikoh, son of Dara Shikoh. This might have been a very compatible match but Aurangzeb who had no time for the more popular Dara is said to have had the young prince poisoned.

In a very Indian tradition, she had her own variation of the swaymvara arranged to meet and test the attainments of the many suitors for her hands.

One of those who wished to marry her was Mirza Farukh, son of Shah Abbas II of Iran ; she wrote to him to come to Delhi so that she might see what he was like.

Marrying the daughter of the Mughal Emperor was a matter of pride and Mirza Farukh came with a magnificent retinue. She held a feast for him in her garden but herself appeared with a veil on her face.

The young Prince offended her sensibilities by asking for a sweetmeat in a play of words which meant a kiss.

“Ask for what you want from our kitchen,” was her response.

She refused to marry him informing her father that despite his rank and royal descent his manners did not find favour with her.

Her personal life was not destined for happiness and she could not find true love or a companion. Sulaiman Shikoh was poisoned and Mirza Farukh she found discourteous and too forward.

Her pen name Makhfi also bears testimony to her Sufi leanings as it could be that only after death and in union with the true Beloved, God would she disclose her face.

Once Nasir Ali asked her to unveil with the verse:

“0 envy of the moon, lift up thy veil

and let me enjoy the wonder of thy beauty.”

She answered :

“I will not lift my veil,

For, if I did, who knows ?

The bulbul might forget the rose,

The Brahman worshipper

Adoring Lakshmi’s grave 

Might turn, forsaking her,

To see my face”

In personal appearance she is described as being tall and slim, her face round and fair in colour, with two moles, or beauty-spots, on her left cheek. Her eyes and abundant hair were very black, and she had thin lips and small teeth. In Lahore Museum is a contemporary portrait, which corresponds to this description. She dressed simply and in later life she always wore white, and her only ornament was a string of pearls round her neck.

A modification of the Turkish dress is attributed to her: the angiya kurti which suited the Indian conditions.

Distrust between father and daughter meant that the last 20 years of her life were spent imprisoned in the fortress of Salimgarh,. There are various reasons given for it, including her friendship with her brother, Prince Akbar, who had revolted against him. The Deewan e Makhfi even suggests it was because of her sympathy with the Mahratta chieftain Shivaji.
There she spent long years, and there she wrote much bitter poetry :

So long these fetters cling to my feet !

My friends have become enemies,

My relations are strangers to me.

What more have I to do with being anxious

To keep my name undishonored 

When friends seek to disgrace me ?

Seek not relief from the prison of grief,

Makhfi ; thy release is not politic.

Makhfi, no hope of release hast thou

Until the Day of Judgment come.

Even from the grave of Majnun the voice comes to my ears

” Leila, there is no rest for the victim of love even in the grave.”

She died in 1702 and was buried in Delhi in the garden of ‘Thirty Thousand Trees’, outside the Kabuli gate. Her tomb was razed to the ground when the British laid the railway lines. It is said her mortal remains were shifted to Sikandra in Agra

References: Translations of the verses from the Persian are taken from Deewan-e-Makhfi translated by Magan Lal and Jessie Duncan Westbrook & Zeb-un-nissa; Tr. by Paul Whalley (1913). The Tears of Zebunnisa: Being Excerpts from ‘The Divan-I Makhf’
This appeared on 30th July 2016 in newsd.in http://newsd.in/the-concealed-princess/#mobile-site-navigation

Be zat e ousefat e kard e gar ast
Ke khod penham o fazaish ashkar ast
(In her personality she has all the qualities of the Creator
She herself concealed but her bounties revealed)
— Mirza Mohammed Ali Jauhar

April 2 marks the birth anniversary of a princess who had everything and yet nothing. She was the eldest child of Shah Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal and was born in Ajmer in 1614.

She was the Sahibat al-Zamani (Lady of the Age) and Padshah Begum (Lady Emperor), or Begum Sahib (princess of princesses), yet that had come to her because of her mother Mumtaz Mahal’s death.

She was the closest companion of her father, Shah Jahan, but that coveted position was because her brother Aurangzeb Alamgir had put him under house arrest.

She had been a close friend, supporter of her brother Dara Shukoh and fellow disciple of Mullah Shah Badakhshi, who initiated her into the Qadiriya Sufi, but Aurangzeb had put him to death.

The princess who was said to be the epitome of everything maidenly was revered and maligned by European writers.

François Bernier (a French traveller to the Mughal empire), relying on bazaar gossip, had gone to the extent of hinting at incest between Jahanara and her father but Bernier was on the side of Aurangzeb and both sides were levelling charges at each other. Niccolao Manucci, the only European to have actual access to the Mughal harem, soundly repudiated this and said it was ‘founded entirely on the talk of low people.’

Also read: ‘The Mughals were struggling financially after Shah Jahan’

She was a paragon of virtues: well-educated, well-versed in statecraft, even-tempered, beautiful. However, though there were many proposals of marriage, none worked out some because she overturned the proposals, some because of the exigencies of royal protocol.

Dara had promised her that when he became the emperor he would grant her permission to marry whomever she wanted. But he never became the emperor. Aurangzeb did and she went into voluntary house arrest with her father.

Her word could change fortunes of people and who was sought by foreign emissaries to put in a good word for them.

In 1654, Raja Prithvichand of Srinagar in Garhwal sought the pardon of Shah Jahan through the offices of Jahanara.

She also intervened on his request for Abdullah Qutb Shah and gained him a pardon from Shah Jahan.

Yet, when she was a mediator between her bothers in the war of succession, she failed to have an impact. She admonished Aurangzeb for fighting against his eldest brother and advised him to observe the path of loyalty and obedience but it was of no avail. However, it does show her importance in the court.

She even visited Aurangzeb on June 10, 1658, to try and bring about a reconciliation of the two brothers but again it was unsuccessful.

Her alleged role when Maratha king Shivaji, who had become a major force in the Deccan, paid a visit to Agra in 1666 left a permanent mark on India.

During his father’s lifetime, as he was imprisoned in Agra fort, Aurangzeb did not visit Agra. It was only after Shah Jahan’s death on January 22, 1666, that he decided to hold court in Agra. Mirza Raja Jai Singh had persuaded the Maratha chief to visit the Mughal court and had given him hopes of high rewards.

May 12 was also Aurangzeb’s 50th lunar birthday and it was the date settled for his first darbar in Agra. Sir Jadunath Sarkar writes in his book Shivaji and His times that Shivaji was to reach on May 11 so that he could attend the birthday celebrations. However, he got delayed and reached on the 12th to find that his reception was not as per his expectations.

To compound that, Shivaji went straight to the court without being familiarised with court etiquette. The reception in Diwan-e-Aam was over and Aurangzeb had moved to Diwan-e-Khas. He paid perfunctory notice to the gifts of 1,000 gold coins and Rs 7,000 that Shivaji presented as nazrana (tribute). He was made to stand in the third row with the panj-hazari (5,000) mansabdars (minor landlords). This annoyed the Maratha chief who turned his back and walked out of the darbar.

Here power politics came to play and the faction that opposed Jai Singh urged the emperor to punish Shivaji for his ‘insolence’ in overturning court etiquette.

Shivaji had earlier raided the port of Surat whose custom revenue went to Jahanara and, according to Nausheen Jaffery in her book Jahanara Begum, the princess too vehemently opposed lenient treatment towards the Maratha king.

This combined with the other voices led Aurangzeb to imprison Shivaji and the rest is history!

Her power was such that, unlike the other royal princesses, she was allowed to live in her own palace, outside the confines of the Agra fort; yet she spent many years in house arrest along with her father.

I suppose it is in keeping with the rest of her life that the beautiful Chandni Chowk that she had built as a Moonlit Street is today a warren of shops, hanging wires, colliding crowds, conniving pickpockets and careering cars and rickshaws. There is only ugly commerce and no beauty left there.

The famous Begum Bagh (now Gandhi Maidan) and sarai are no more.

The British razed the sarai, which Bernier compared to the Palace Royale of Paris, to the ground after the first war of independence of 1857.

She laid a number of beautiful gardens in Delhi, Kabul, Agra, Ambala, Kashmir and Surat, many of them called Sahibabad after her title.

She patronised scholars, artists and poets and wrote herself. Her works include two biographies of Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti and her spiritual mentor, Mulla Shah Badakshi. She was also a proficient poet and calligrapher, yet her most famous verse is the one on her tombstone.

She was very active in trading activities and owned a number of ships. One of her ships was called Shaibi after her own title and took passengers to Mecca for Hajj.

It says much for her stature that after Shah Jahan’s death, when she returned to Delhi, she was once again made the chief lady of the court by Aurangzeb and accorded every respect.

Jahanara was possessed of enormous wealth, given to her by her father from her mother’s properties but she could not dispose of it as per her own will. She built a tomb for herself in the dargah of Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya and endowed its khadims (caretakers) with property worth Rs 3 crore. But after her Aurangzeb Alamgir only gave property worth Rs 1 crore and said that only 1/3rd of one’s property can be willed away by a person as per law.

Her tomb is a simple yet elegant marble enclosure with a tombstone that includes her own verse:

Huwal Hayyul Al Qayyum
Baghair subza na poshad kase mazar mara
Ki qabr posh ghariban hamin gayah bas-ast
Al faqeera, Al faaniya Jahanara mureed
Khajgaana Chist, Bint e Shah Jahan
Badshah Ghazi Anar Allah Barhana
1052 AH (1681 AD).

(He is the Living, the Sustaining
There cannot be any other curtain of my tomb except the humble covering of grass.
Grass alone is sufficient to cover the grave of a poor person, as I am
Disciple of the Khwaja Moin-ud-Din Chishti,
Daughter of Shah Jahan the Conqueror
May Allah illuminate his proof.)

Today the tomb of one of the most powerful princesses of the Mughal empire is used as a place for keeping mentally ill ladies by their guardians, often by force.

Translations by Nausheen Jaffery.

How the heartless emperor Aurangzeb fell in love at first sight
The Mughal ruler is usually portrayed as a calculating, warring ruler. But that is just part of the story.
Rana Safvi  · Feb 13, 2015 · 06:33 pm
How the heartless emperor Aurangzeb fell in love at first sight
Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons

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This story is not an average Valentine’s Day tale. It is about a love affair of a different kind, of a prince known today only as strong-willed, calculating and devoid of a loving bone in his body. It is about Aurangzeb falling in love at first sight.

In 1636, Aurangzeb was a prince and the Governor of Deccan. En route to Aurangabad, he stopped at Burhanpur to pay his respects to his maternal aunt, who was married to Saif Khan, the Governor of Burhanpur. What followed varies in detail in different tellings. But all of them agree that the austere prince fell in love at first sight with one of the women in his uncle’s harem. Her name was Hirabai.

Ma’asir al-Umara, written by Nawab Shams ud Daula Shah Nawaz Khan and his son Abdul Hai Khan, in the 18th century provides a detailed description of the episode:
“One day the prince went with the ladies of his harem to the garden of Zainabad Burhanpur, named Ahu-khanah [Deer Park], and began to stroll with his chosen beloved ones. Zainabadi, whose musical skill ravished the senses, and who was unique in blandishments, having come in the train of Khan-i-Zaman’s wife (the prince’s maternal aunt), on seeing a fruit-laden mango tree, in mirth and amorous play advanced, leaped up and plucked a fruit, without paying due respect to the prince’s presence. This move of hers robbed the prince of his senses and self-control.”
Despite his extremely religious bent, Aurangzeb was a connoisseur of music and a proficient Veena player. Hirabai’s looks, combined with her musical accomplishments, proved irresistible for the prince. He is said to have been so infatuated with her that he gave in to her demand that he taste wine. But before he could, Hirabai revealed that she was just testing his love for her.

A religious prince ready to taste wine, that shows the extent of his feelings for her.
Akbar, in his bid to regulate the harem, had ordered that all concubines should be named after the place they belonged to. So once Hirabai entered Aurangzeb’s harem she was called Zainabadi.

Grieving in solitude

In Ahkam e Aurangzeb, written in 1640, Aurangzeb’s biographer Hamiduddin Khan Nimchah recounts the Burhanpur encounter differently. According to him, the meeting took place when the prince entered the harem unannounced. He fell into a swoon and, on being asked by his aunt, described the reason for the malady and asked for a remedy. He was given Hirabai in exchange for one of his concubines.

The ensuing passion and infatuation is described the same way in Nimchah’s account.

It is said in Ma’asir al-Umara that Aurangzeb’s love affair proceeded to such lengths as to reach Shah Jahan’s ears. Dara Shikoh, who had no love lost for his brother Aurangzeb, is said to have remarked to their father Shah Jahan, “See the piety and abstinence of this hypocritical knave! He has gone to the dogs for the sake of a wench of his aunt’s household.”

But as destiny would have it, Hirabai did not live for long. Her death affected the prince greatly. She is buried in Aurangabad.

Ma’asir al-Umara records that Aurangzeb was so upset by the death of his beloved that he left the palace to go on a hunt. When reproved by the poet Mir Askari (Aqil Khan) for risking his life in that agitated state, the prince replied:
“‘Lamentation in the house cannot relieve the heart,

In solitude alone you can cry to your heart’s content.”

Aqil Khan then recited this couplet of his own composition:
“How easy did love appear, but alas how hard it is!

How hard was separation, but what repose it gave to the beloved!”

The prince could not check his tears. He committed the verses to memory after vainly trying to learn the modest poet’s name.

Incomplete portraiture

Niccolao Manucci, the Italian traveller and writer (1639–1717), too describes this period in Aurangzeb’s life:
“Aurangzib grew very fond of one of the dancing-women in his harem, and through the great love he bore to her he neglected for some time his prayers and his austerities, filling up his days with music and dances; and going even farther, he enlivened himself with wine, which he drank at the instance of the said dancing-girl. The dancer died, and Aurangzib made a vow never to drink wine again nor to listen to music. In after-days he was accustomed to say that God had been very gracious to him by putting an end to that dancing-girl’s life, by reason of whom he had committed so many iniquities, and had run the risk of never reigning through being occupied in vicious practices.”

On this Valentine’s Day, remember that Aurangzeb’s portraits may depict an austere man reading the Quran, but there once lurked in him a passionate young man who had considered the “world well lost” for the love of his life.