Like grandson, like grandpa

An ageing emperor and a rebel son is a story well known to the Mughals. In a similar episode, prince Khusro was defeated by his father Jahangir, crushing his rebellion.

A painting of Prince Khusro, after probably waking up from a nightmare that predicted his defeat; Source: The Weekender

Handling a kingdom is no child’s play. Even more so when it is an empire- an empire as vast as the Mughal Empire in India that existed between 1526 and 1761 C.E. .

It was but natural for situations of resentment and dissent to arise among members of the Royal family, especially the male members who watched over the throne with a hawk’s eye. As soon as the current ruler would expire or would even so much as to fall fatally ill, the probable heirs to the throne would begin conspiring against one another to secure their position as the new Mughal Badshah of Hindustan.

The story of Prince Khusro is no different. Giving in to the temptation of power and authority, the Prince conspired a rebellion against his father, Prince Salim (who later came to be known as Emperor Jahangir).

Khusro had successfully detected the deep disappointment Akbar had in his son, Jahangir. Prince Khusro was quick to grab the opportunity and chalked out a revolt- plan accordingly.

As per the plan, Khusro set out the pretext of visiting the tomb of Akbar that was located in Sikandra. He, along with 350 of his horsemen, disbanded the rest of the group. His army grew in number with the joining of Hussain Beg and Abdur Rahim, along with their respective armies. Having grown in military strength, Khusro seized Lahore, backed by Dilawar Khan. Jahangir, upon learning about the attempted rebellion rushed to Lahore with a large army and inflicted a crushing defeat on Prince Khusro in the battle of Bhairowal.

Prince Khusro realized a little too late that he was militarily no match against his father. He was caught along with his soldiers while they were crossing river Chenab, on their way to seek refuge in Kabul.

Khusro was brought to Delhi, before Jahangir. Jahangir devised a novel punishment for Khusro as a means to show appreciation of his efforts to sidetrack Jahangir and accede to the coveted throne. Made to sit on an elephant in keeping with ‘Mughal grandeur’, the Prince was paraded through the street of Chandni Chowk. On each side of the street, at specific intervals, he was made to see the humiliating and torturous death and hear the painful cries of those who had dared to support him in his rebellion. This happened numerous times throughout the length of the narrow street of Chandni Chowk.

Meting out punishment to Khusro was not over yet. Jahangir ordered that he be blinded (however it is believed that he never completely lost his eyesight) and was imprisoned in Agra the following year. Needless to say, Khusro’s life from this point onwards only went from bad to worse. He was surrendered to Asaf Khan in 1616, who was the brother of his stepmother, Nur Jahan.

Incidentally, Khurram's son Aurangzeb would end up imprisoning him in a bid to claim the throne, almost in a similar way in which Khusro was imprisoned

In 1620, Prince Khurram (who later came to be known as Shah Jahan) was given the responsibility for his elder brother, Prince Khusro. Wanting to eliminate all chances of further rebellion from his partially blind brother, Shah Jahan gave orders for the execution of Prince Khusro, which were carried out on 26th January 1622.