The Filial Daughter and Padshah Begum: Jahanara

We're quick to remember the opulent and grandiose Shah Jahan endowed the subcontinent with. However, we easily forget the role his filial daughter played in keeping the Empire intact. Here is her story.

jahanara's grave at mehboob e illahi's dargah source: the indian express

As the daughter of a devout romantic, Jahanara Begum had the privilege of witnessing the love of her parents unfold. Limited to a catastrophic end but consistently recalled through the grandiose of the marbled mausoleum, the affections that Shah Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal shared continued long after. However, for the filial daughter, the death of her mother brought more than just woes. As the smartest of the lot and learned in different areas, Jahanara was not limited to the conventions that otherwise curbed princes and princesses at the time. Not only was the princess skilled in art, poetry and architecture, but her affinities for these things also made her an excellent connoisseur and aficionado as well.

The woman who designed Chandni Chowk and endowed the city with its everlasting legacy was one of the most powerful women to ever exist in the Mughal harem. In her book, ‘Daughters of the Sun', Ira Mukhoty recalls how Jahanara played a pivotal role in the Mughal Empire. As the preferred child of her father, she enjoyed privileges that weren’t shared by her siblings. Francois Bernier, the French Traveller who was also the physician of Crown Prince Dara Shikoh for some time wrote on Jahanara at length. The traveller recalls that so vigilant was the dutiful daughter that no dish could appear on the royal table and before the Emperor if it wasn’t prepared in front of her.

However, with the affections of her father also came unbound responsibilities and duties. When the Mallika e Hindustan succumbed to a dreadful fate, the seventeen-year-old grieving daughter was anointed with the responsibility of becoming the next Queen of Hindoostan. Sharing resemblances with her mother, Jahanara was a natural pick for Shah Jahan. However, for the daughter of the Emperor, the title came with more sacrifices than privileges. As the only daughter to ever be anointed Queen, she was forbidden to marry on her own. So, naturally, Jahanara had to acclimate to a reality wherein the only love story she’d ever know, would be her parents'.

Even in the opulent grandiose of the Mughal Empire that swelled with multiculturalists and liberalists, all Jahanara could do was take lovers and see them fated to a sad end. Bernier and Manucci, both French travellers record how a lover of Jahanara, a commoner was boiled to a gory death. When Jahanara’s father abruptly came into her palace, she had hidden the commoner in a cauldron used for baths. The emperor had commanded the eunuchs of the harem to light the cauldron for Jahanara’s bath and only left the palace when the man was boiled to death.

Such was the life of Jahanara, the daughter who gave her life for an Empire without expecting anything in return.