Person · Mughal princess, Sufi author and patron

Jahanara Begum

Also known as Jahānārā Begum, Jahan Ara, Padshah Begum, Begum Sahib, Sahibat al-Zamani

Date

1614–1681

Function

Authority & administration

Patron dynasty

Mughal

Confidence

Established / referenced

Worth knowing

Her tomb at the Nizamuddin dargah is open to the sky, and its inscription asks that only greenery cover the grave, since grass suffices as a covering for the poor. Her ship, the Sahibi, was ordered on its first voyage in 1643 to carry rice every year for the needy of Mecca.

Connections (6)

• Buried atHazrat Nizamuddin Dargah, Delhi

  Jahanara had her own tomb built in her lifetime, of white marble with a trellis screen and open to the sky, in the dargah complex of Nizamuddin in Delhi, where it is noted for its simplicity. She died in 1681 under Aurangzeb, who gave her the posthumous title Sahibat-uz-Zamani. The Persian inscription calls her the mortal, simple princess Jahanara, disciple of Khwaja Muinuddin Chishti and daughter of Shah Jahan, and asks that nothing but greenery cover her grave.

• Devotional corpus onMuinuddin Chishti

  Jahanara wrote Mu'nis al-Arwah, a biography of Muinuddin Chishti, whom she held to be the highest Sufi saint of India and her own spiritual master four centuries after his death. In it she described her pilgrimage to his shrine at Ajmer, made after she recovered from severe burns in 1644 and following the example of her great-grandfather Akbar, and called herself a faqirah. The book is regarded for its judgement and literary quality, and her tomb inscription names her the Khwaja's disciple.

• Historical linkDara Shikoh

  Jahanara and her brother Dara Shikoh were both disciples of Mullah Shah Badakhshi, who initiated her into the Qadiriyya in 1641 and would have named her his successor had the order's rules allowed it. She wrote that she and Dara were the only descendants of Timur to embrace Sufism. In the succession war of 1657 and 1658 she backed Dara, wrote to Aurangzeb urging him not to fight, and after Samugarh proposed dividing the empire, with the Punjab for Dara. Aurangzeb refused.

• Succession in timeMumtaz Mahal

  When Mumtaz Mahal died at Burhanpur in 1631, her seventeen-year-old daughter took her place as first lady of the empire, with the title Padshah Begum and charge of the imperial seal, although Shah Jahan had three surviving wives. Shah Jahan gave Jahanara half of her mother's personal fortune of ten million rupees and divided the rest among the other children, and Jahanara gradually brought him out of a year of mourning. She also saw through Dara Shikoh's wedding, which her mother had planned.

• Associated withAgra Fort

  In June 1658 Aurangzeb besieged Shah Jahan in the Agra Fort and forced his surrender by cutting off the water supply. When Aurangzeb took the throne, Jahanara joined her father in confinement there and cared for him until his death in 1666, while her sister Roshanara took her titles. Earlier she had been the one princess allowed her own palace outside the fort, and in 1648 she paid from her own allowance for Agra's Jami Masjid and the madrasa attached to it.

• FoundedChandni Chowk, Delhi

  Chandni Chowk and its three bazaars were designed and established in 1650 by Princess Jahanara Begum, Shah Jahan's favourite daughter. Her plan was a market 40 yards wide and 1,520 yards long with 1,560 shops, divided by a channel of Yamuna water and centred on a square whose pool reflected the moonlight. The shops were set out in a half-moon pattern, since lost, and the bazaar became known for its silver trade; Paranthe Wali Gali, one of its lanes, was first known for silverware.

Sources

Wikipedia, "Jahanara Begum"; "Mumtaz Mahal". K. S. Lal, The Mughal Harem (1988); Catherine Asher, Architecture of Mughal India (1992); François Bernier, Travels in the Mogul Empire, as quoted there.

• Wikipedia — Jahanara Begum