Forget Akbar (if
you have him on your mind), it’s some other Mogul who was really a secular
man. It is Dara Shikoh, son of fifth
Mugol emperor Shahajehan. If we say that Dara Shikoh was the most secular Mogul
or Muslim ruler, it won’t be an exaggeration. He was secular in real sense. It
is quite unfortunate that our historians who have written thousand of books
praising Akbar and his secularism and left no stone unturned to establish him to
be the “GREAT” (Though he was not), have kept mum on Dara Shikoh.
Early Life
Dara was born on
28 October 1615. He was the eldest son of Shah Jehan and his second wife,
Mumtaz Mahal and was the heir-apparent. He was the most favorite child of his
father. He was married to Nadira Banu Begum, his first cousin who was daughter
of Sultan Parvez Mirza. Apparently, it was an exceptionally happy and
successful marriage. The couple was devoted to each other, and Dara never
married again. The love between the couple shows his characteristic values
which were stronger than his father, grandfather and great grandfather. He was
not a womanizer like his ancestors.
He was a
voracious reader and had a never ending thirst for knowledge. He would spend
his lot of time in the royal library. The initial education of Dara was no difference
from other princes. He was also taught Quran, Persian and History. His tutor Mulla
Abdul Latif Saharanpuri had a great influence on him. It was Mulla
Abdul Latif Saharanpuri who inculcated in him the thirst for
knowledge and Sufi learning.
.At an early age of 18, Dara was appointed a military
commander; he was commander of 12,000-foot and 6000 horse. He was successively
promoted. In1636, he was promoted to commander of 15,000 foot and 9000 horse.
With regular promotions, in 1642 he was commander of 20000 foot and 15000 horse.
He consistently rose to prominence and till 1657 he was the commander of 50,000-foot
and 40,000 horse. Dara was most favored prince of his father Shahjehan and
Shahjehan wanted to coronet him as 6th Mogul emperor of the country.
In spite of the strong support from his father, Dara lost the battle against
Aurangjeb. He ran away and hid and tried to fight against Aurangjeb but again
defeated. Aurangjeb, the cruelest and most fanatic Mogul ruler did
not spare him and brutally killed him. He was declared an apostate from Islam. Clergies
condemned him for blasphemy and he was considered the traitor of Islam
A truly Secular
Muslim
He was truly a secular Muslim. He used
to respect all religions and want harmony between all faiths. There are a lot
of instances which establishes his secular credentials. Dara had developed a
good friendly relationship with seventh Sikh Guru, Guru Har Rai. He
endeavored towards developing a common spiritual language between Islam and
Hinduism and tried to build a platform between two communities. It was he, who translated
50 Upnishads from Sanskrit to Persian in 1657 so that Muslim scholars could
read them and know the mystical value of Hindu religion. He was known for his
work,Majma-ul-Bahrain ("The Confluence of the Two Seas"). It was also
an effort to reveal the numinous and pluralistic resemblance between Sufic and
Vedantic speculation.
He
was an intellectual epitome of divine religious assumption and a poetic spiritualist
of syncretism cultural interaction among people of all faiths. This made him a
heretic in the eyes of his orthodox brother and a suspect eccentric in the view
of many of the fundamentalist clergies and religious leaders.
Dara
spent many years to understand Hindu religious systems. For this, he studied Sanskrit
and employed a large number of Sanskrit scholars from Benaras.
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