Shah Jahan (1627-58)
Jahangir’s death made war for the throne imminent. Asaf Khan asked Khurram to come to Agra and played for time by proclaiming Khusrau’s son Dawar Baksh, king. Shahryar proclaimed himself king but Asaf Khan defeated and imprisoned him. Before Khurram reached Agra, Dawar Baksh and his brother Shahryar were beheaded. Khurram proclaimed himself emperor as Shah Jahan. The coldblooded murder of all possible contenders for the throne had removed any threat from the imperial family to Shah Jahan’s rule. Nur Jahan was pensioned off to Lahore where she stayed till her death.
Shah Jahan waged a war against the Bundela chiefs. Jujhar Singh, and his son, Vikramajit. defeated and eventually murdered them. But Shah Jahan’s imperial policies were more successful in the Deccan. Malik Ambar had died and Shah Jahan enticed some Maratha leaders into his service. The most eminent among them was Shahji Bhonsle, Shivaji’s father. In 1633. Shah Jahan arrived at Daulatabad and the Ahmadnagar kingdom was unable to resist the Mug onslaught and was annexed. Both Bijapur and Golconda signed a treaty with the Khandesh, Berar, Telengana and Daulatabad were made into four Mughal provinces.
When Iranians invaded Kandahar, Khurram was given the command to repel the Iranians, Khurram hesitated and Shahryar was commissioned to lead the campaign. Finding no way out, Khurram rebelled and marched towards Agra. Asaf Khan supported Khurram in the civil war (1622-24) but Khurram was unable to stand the harassment by the powerful general, Mahabat Khan and so ultimately surrendered and was pardoned. Jahangir’s health declined and in 1627, the emperor died at Bhimbar in Kashmir.
The emperor’s dead body was sent to Lahore for burial in the Dilkusha garden of Shahdara. Jahangir wrote his autobiography, Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri, in which he frankly talks about his vices and reflects his deep appreciation of nature, as well as his passion for painting. The first viceroy, Aurangazeb governed all four provinces twice (1636-1644 and 1652-1657). He made Khirki, founded by Malik Ambar, the capital of the Mughal Deccan and named it Aurangabad.
War of Succession
Shah Jahan’s sudden illness in 1657 plunged the empire into a civil war among his four sons – Dara Shikoh (crown-prince), Shuja (governor of Bengal), Aurangazeb (governor of Deccan) and Murad Baksh (governor of Malwa and Gujarat). Though Shah Jahan had recovered by November 1657, the princes refused to believe the news and because they wanted to liberate Shah Jahan from Dara’s control. Aurangazeb rejected all Shah Jahan’s invitations to visit him and confined him within the ladies’ palace, and Aurangazeb refused to see his father until he had killed Dara, whom he declared an infidel. Aurangazeb treacherously murdered Murad and later Shuja after defeating him in the battle of Khajiva. Before he defeated Shuja, he had crowned himself emperor with the title Alamgir (conqueror of the universe). He defeated Dara at Samugarh forcing him flee to the north-west where he was betrayed by an Afghan chief and handed over to the Mughals. Dara was brought to Delhi, in 1659, humiliated and sentenced to death for stating in his Majma-ul-Bahrain that Islam and Hinduism were twin brothers. Shah Jahan died only in 1666, and was tended throughout his captivity by his daughter, Jahanara. His remains were buried beside his wife’s grave in the Taj Mahal.