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The tomb of mughal emperor shah jahan's daughter begum jahan ara' (23 March 1614 – 16 September 1681).
The daughter who had much similitude to her mother in terms of beauty and brains but lagged behind in terms of eminence attained by her mother arjumand banu begum aka mumtaz mahal!
We heard hardly of jahanara because there is not much written about her. But some foreign historians and travellers tried to research her life and recorded some events!
On the basis of those petty events many authors tried to pen down her story and as a result some concoctions came out... Amalgamation of facts and fiction.
A few months back i started reading a book called 'The Mistress of the Throne' by ruchir gupta in the end i was so absorbed with the character of princess jahanara that i wanted to explore her more. Also i was very curious to know that where is she now? Where is her tombstone?
The much i have read of her and her love for gardens, palaces and architecture i set my bars high and drew an image of a grand tomb amidst of a garden.
Jahanara was a very poweful women.
She was the eldest and the most beloved daughter of the mughal king, such that shah jahan granted her allowance of six lakh rupees upon becoming the fifth mughal emperor.
Jahan ara, after the death of her mother attained the position of padshah begum the empress of india.
Her mother arjumand banu lies in a tomb which is a gem among all mausoleums and an awe inspiring structure for the whole world, for jahanara i was expecting not 'Taj Mahal' but a structure which shows her status in the empire and the harem, after all she was the 'sahiba' of shahjahanabad.
And after some seconds of being lost in thoughts i googled 'tomb of jahanara' and the result was anomalous to me, as this affluent princess lies in a simple grave in the vicinity of dargah hazrat nizamuddin . She being the wealthiest of all the sons and daughters of shah jahan could have commissioned a huge structure to exhibit her status but she didn't want that. When i went to hazrat nizamuddin i was agaped and my respect for her grewed.
She commitioned this tomb during her own lifetime and her grave lies in an enclosure made up of delicately carved marble screens. There were three graves in the enclosure and the central one belonged to the princess, at its head there was a slab of marble with an inscription.
The inscription says 'this is the grave of jahan ara who was the devotee of chishti saints and wished her grave to be covered only by grass'.
