Dara Shikoh

Context

The Vice President calls Dara Shikoh a torchbearer of social harmony.

Who was Dara Shikoh?

• Dara Shikoh, who was Mughal emperor Shah Jahan’s son and expected heir, was killed on the orders of his brother Aurangzeb in 1659 after losing the war of succession.
• He was the eldest son and heir-apparent of the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan.
• Dara was designated with the title Padshahzada-i-Buzurg Martaba (Prince of High Rank) and was favored as a successor by his father and his older sister, Princess Jahanara Begum.
• In the war of succession which ensued after Shah Jahan’s illness in 1657, Dara was defeated by his younger brother Prince Muhiuddin (Aurangzeb).
• He was executed in 1659 on Aurangzeb’s orders in a bitter struggle for the imperial throne.

His legacy

• Dara was a liberal-minded unorthodox Muslim as opposed to the orthodox Aurangzeb.
• He authored the work Majma Ul-Bahrain (The Confluence of the Two Seas), which argues for the harmony of Sufi philosophy in Islam and Vedanta philosophy in Hinduism.
• His most important works, Majma-ul-Bahrain (Mingling of Two Oceans) and Sirr-i-Akbar (Great Mystery) are devoted to the cause of establishing connections between Hinduism and Islam.
• It was Dara Shikoh who was responsible for making the Upanishads available to the West as he had them translated.
• He translated the Upanishads and other important works from Sanskrit to Persian.
• He was convinced that the Upanishads are what the Qur’an calls ‘Al-Kitab Al-Maknoun’ (The Hidden book).
• He had commissioned a translation of Yoga Vasistha.
• A great patron of the arts, he was also more inclined towards philosophy and mysticism rather than military pursuits.
• Dara Shikoh had a keen interest in the fine arts and architecture. An album he dedicated to his wife is a treasure of Indian art. 
• A rare miniature painting showing him with his spiritual masters is preserved in the library of the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU). 
• As a talented architect, he designed the beautiful Pari Mahal Garden Palace in Srinagar and many other monuments.
• He wrote ‘Risala-i-hak Numa’ (The Compass of the Truth), the ‘Shathiyat or Hasanat-ul-Arifin’ and the ‘Iksir-i-Azam’.
• He also commissioned the ‘Jug Bashist’ and the ‘Tarjuma-i-Akwal-i-Wasili’.