SHAH JAHAN

Shah Jahan is portrayed as a very extravagant, cruel, reckless and reckless person. This is hardly true. Whether during his reign or later, he did not hesitate to remove close relatives from his path, as was the custom of other Asian rulers. Like these rulers, he did not shy away from self-indulgence. But he was not one to waste time in idleness either, he had an ideal sense of his royal duties. There is abundant evidence that his life was a model of hard work. The accusation of self-indulgence against him in his old age has been exaggerated by Western tourists. This should be seen in the light of the intense love he had for his late wife, who was the mother of twelve of his fourteen children, the grief he felt for her death and his own heartbreak. The monument to these impressions is the majestic beauty of Agra. The palaces of Delhi and many other buildings are the distinctive features of Shah Jahan's architectural taste, but the Taj Mahal, the answer to the monumental love, is not found in the whole world. It is surprising that the reign of such a ruler has not yet become the center of attention of any English-writing historian. The late Mrs. Beveridge, through her works, has made Babur and his son a monument of the times. Others, who made history or fiction the center of their thought and art, have written so much about the prince of dreamers, Akbar, that there is no room to list them here. Jahangir has not been neglected here either. Aurangzeb's detailed account was given by the esteemed historian Sir Jadunath Sarkar, but Shah Jahan has not been studied so far. The information about his reign, which has been generally published in histories, is still lacking. The author says that this article is an attempt to fill this gap. On this, I would like to add that this initiative has been very successful. Dr. Saxena has written down the subject under discussion with admirable impartiality. In his hands, Shah Jahan is neither so virtuous as to have no stain on his face, as Indian historians have written. On the contrary, he is not so morally inclined as to be considered a monster as some Western tourists have presented him. These tourists have tried to make their writings attractive with the spice of court gossip. I heartily recommend this book to the students of Timurid history, because this article on the subject is a great addition to our knowledge. (Wills-le-Hague, London)