Indian Painting under the Mughals, A.D. 1550 to A.D. 1750 c16.16

c16.16

Among those who took a keen pleasure in pictures was the heir-apparent, Shah Jahan’s eldest son Dara Shikoh (Plate XXIX). This gifted prince was a collector of these works of art, as is proved by a precious album of miniatures bearing his signature and now in the India Office Library, London.² Apart from its artistic value, his book has no little historical interest, as it is a record of a very pathetic incident in what was destined to be a most unfortunate career ending in a miserable death. Owing to his younger brother Aurangzeb’s clever intrigues, Dara Shikoh was defeated in battle, and pursued with relentless vigour. To avoid capture he took refuge in the trackless wastes of Sind, but even there treachery followed him, and he was betrayed by one whom he had thought a friend. Then, as if his cup of bitterness was not yet filled, he ‘received by a foot messenger the sad intelligence of the death of that one of his wives whom he loved most, and who had accompanied him always during his misfortunes. He learnt that she had died of heat and thirst, not being able to find a drop of water in the country to assuage her thirst. The prince was so affected by the news that he fell as though he were dead.’³ And written on the title-page of the beautiful little volume—squandered across a splash of gold—is the following inscription: ‘This album was presented to his dearest and nearest friend, the Lady Nadirah Begum, by Prince Muhammad Dara Shikoh, son of the Emperor Shah Jahan, in the year 1051 (=A. D. 1641-2).’ As a criterion of the artistic taste of a cultivated Mughal prince this *muraqqa* is of interest; it shows that its original owner, while attracted by weak prettiness in some of his selections, was on the whole a good XXIX. Portrait of Prince Dara Shikoh, eldest son of Shah Jahan Painted by Hunhar *c.* A.D. 1650; size 8" × 6½".