[jyotirmoy]

When you visit the Hazarat Nizamudin Auliya in Delhi do go and sit for a while in the small, but beautiful tomb-chamber made of polished white marble with delicately carved latticework. Here she sleeps, one of the most beautiful and accomplished princesses of yore, with the green grass covering her grave. Now raise your eyes to read the striking epitaph inscribed above the tomb entrance.

He is the Living, the Sustaining.
Let no one cover my grave except with greenery,
for this very grass suffices as a tomb cover for the poor.
The annihilated faqir Lady Jahanara,
Disciple of the lords of Chishti,
Daughter of Shah Jahan the Warrior
(may God illuminate his proof).

She is Jahanara the most beloved daughter of Shahjehan, first lady of the country at an age of seventeen, the lady who brought her father out of mourning and restored normality to a court darkened by her mother's death and her father's grief, a passionate and abiding disciple of the Chishti saints of India, especially Khwaja Moinuddin, to whose sanctuary at Ajmer, she added a large and beautifully decorated hall.
She was a woman who had numerous powers in a time when royal women were secluded and not allowed many liberties. She was an engineer, a writer, a painter, and an activist. She made a significant impact on the landscape of the capital city of Shahjahanabad (Old Delhi around Red Fort). Of the eighteen buildings in the city of Shahjahanabad commissioned by women, Jahanara commissioned five of them. All of Jahanara's building projects were completed around the year 1650 inside the city walls of Shahjahanabad. The most well known monument is Chandni Chowk which you must have visited.

When Aurangzeb imprisoned his father Shajehan at Agra fort Jahanara accompanied her father. It is said that after lodging Shajehan at Agra Aurarngzeb deprived his father of drinking water facility. Shahjehan wrote in his diary “ O Aurangzeb , the Hindus  the original inhabitants of Hindustan  continue to  give water  to their dead relatives and how  cruel son  you are who is not allowing his servants to deliver water to your living father .”

During Shajehan’s rule Jahanara was consulted for every important decision which made her other sister Roshanara and Aurangzed very jealous.
Shajehan loved this daughter so much that while attending a garden party in 1644, when Jahanara's clothing caught fire, she became seriously sick and Shah Jahan himself nursed his beloved daughter back to health, which took many weeks.
It is said that once, some tradesman had visited the Red Fort and, having lost his way, found himself in the Zenana Khaana, the female quarters. He was soon discovered. Jahanara, in a fit of royal anger, had a cruel punishment inflicted on the hapless person. A venomous snake was set upon him and the poor man died a most painful death. Shortly afterwards, there was a conflagration in the Zenaan Khaana, when some draperies caught fire, and it spread rapidly. The princess was engulfed in the flames and suffered very grievous burns. When hopes of her recovery began to recede, recourse was had to a pious "darvesh" who opined that this was a sort of divine retribution for the previous act of cruelty. "That person was no doubt guilty of trespass, but didn't deserve this kind of death".
Another remedy suggested by the darvesh was that mothers nursing infants in the royal palace should pour milk over her burns. The royal chamber then simply overflowed, so much milk was poured on her. In fact, she is reported to have said : "Unless you stop now, I think I would die of cold". Miraculously, she made a complete recovery.

The Mughal princesses were never married as it was thought that no one is worthy of marrying them. It is said that Jahanara fell in love with a valiant Rajput nobleman. Shajehan got wind of his visit one day and went over to her quarters. Jahanara hid her lover in a huge copper vessel used for heating water for taking bath. Shajehan suspected that & ordered the servants to heat water for him. The lover died with out making a sound.

It is also said that Jahanara looked so much like her mother Mumtaj that Shajehan was attracted to her. Several European chroniclers suggested that Shajehan had an incestuous relationship with his daughter Jahanara Begum. The European traveler Francois Bernier wrote, "Begum Sahib, the elder daughter of Shah Jahan was very beautiful... Rumour has it that his attachement reached a point which it is difficult to believe, the justification of which he rested on the decision of the Mullas, or doctors of their law. According to them it would have been unjust to deny the king the privilege of gathering fruit from the tree he himself had planted. Joannes de Laet was the first European to write about this rumour. Peter Mundy and Jean Baptiste Tavernier wrote about the same allegations. Others point to Aurangzed spreading this rumour.

Jahanara's final years are mysterious. She did leave the royal palaces and lived in her father's city of Delhi for the rest of her life.

[priya]

The story has a folklore sound to it more than historical.  Beautifully written!!