New Delhi: Shahjahan’s son Dara Shukoh’s tomb was discovered by an assistant engineer of the South Delhi Municipal Corporation, Mr. Sanjeev Kumar Singh who located it as an unmarked grave in Humayun’s tomb complex. Mr. Singh lectured on his findings at Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts(IGNCA) on 21 March 2023, Tuesday. The lecture titled ‘Discovery of Tomb of Dara Shikoh in Delhi’ was part of numerous events organized by the center on its 36th Foundation day.

The lecture was attended by Persian scholars and historians including Prof S.H Kazmi, former Head, Department of Persian, Delhi university. Mr. Singh stated that the first mention of Dara Shukoh is found in Jahangirnama. Emphasizing on his name, he said, “It is Shukoh, not shikoh.” The distinction is important to get rid of the negative connotations of his name, 

Dara Shukoh was the eldest son of Shah Jahan. He was given the title of Padshahzada-i-Buzurg Martaba ("Prince of High Rank"). Since his early life, he was trained in martial arts, horse riding, philosophy, and calligraphy.  “It was in the latter that he was interested in,” said Mr. Singh. This highlights his liberal attitude as opposed to his more orthodox brother Aurangzeb. Dara Shukoh was favored by his father as the successor. However, in the war of succession, he was defeated by Aurangzeb and was executed on his orders in 1659.

Francois Bernier in his book Travels in the Mogul Empire describes how, on his defeat, Dara Shukoh was tied to a worn-out elephant and was paraded through the streets of the capital. He was later buried in an unmarked grave in the Humayun’s tomb.  In 2020, the Ministry of Culture formed an expert panel to locate his grave. The panel was headed by T.J. Alone, director-monuments, of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI). R.S. Bisht, B.R. Mani, Sayeed Jamal Hassan, KK Muhammed, Satish Chandra, and B.M. Pandey.

For his own research, Mr. Singh visited Mughal cemeteries and studied cenotaphs. He also took the aid of the records such as travelogues. “For Persian translation, I took the help of Dr, Aleem Ashraf Khan, a former HOD of the Department of Persian at DU.” He said. There are 140 graves in Humayun’s tomb. out of these, 24 are on the terrace floor. 15 out of these 24 belong to men, 7 to women, and 2 to children. The motifs present at the grave distinguish between the male and female graves.

In his lecture, Mr. Singh differentiated between graves belonging to the Akbar period and those belonging to the Shah Jahan period. He also refuted alleged graves that are passed off as Dara Shukoh’s grave. The major clue for his findings comes from the Alamgirnama. It was written by Aurangzeb’s court historian, Mirza Muhammad Kasim, to record his reign. It suggested that Dara Shukoh is buried in a chamber with Akbar’s sons Murad and Daniyal.

Mr. Singh attests that the middle grave in the chamber belongs to Murad, the one on the far end belongs to Daniyal and the third grave that is nearest to the entrance belongs to Dara Shukoh. The rationale behind this is that the grave that was added last must be nearest the entrance. On the inspection of the said chamber, It was found that the third grave is considerably different from the other two. This is what Mr. Singh's study postulated. 

Mr. Singh’s work was praised by scholars like prof Irfan Habib, professor emeritus, Department of History, Aligarh Muslim University, and Dr. B. R. Mani, former Additional Director General, the Archaeological Survey of India.

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