Points to ponder about Shahjahan

1. Shahjahan was a cruel king. On becoming the king, Shahjahan imprisoned his step mother Nur Jahan. He sent brother Shahryar to the gallows. He had earlier got rid of brother Khusrau. Now he got Khusrau's sons Dawar and Garshasp executed.

Jahangir's brother Daniyal had died earlier. Shahjahan now killed Daniyal's sons Tahmuras and Hoshang ― all on 23 January 1628.

2. He loved only violence and sex. He has no artistic sensibilities. *He raped his own daughter Jahanara and justified it, saying that a gardener

must enjoy the fruit he produced.*

3. A ruffian by nature, Shahjahan refused to be tutored by the plethora of tutors appointed from time to time. His misdeeds of dacoity and arson throughout India, while in revolt against his emperor father Jehangir, made the latter record,

in sheer despair and anguish, that his son Shahjahan was a wretch and a scoundrel.

How dare any historian ignore the father's estimate of his own son and call the miscreant a noble lover of art and finer things.

3. There is no evidence of Shahjahan being deeply attached to

Mumtaz-ul-Zamani (so called Mumtaz Mahal) except few Bollywood films. Mumtaz-ul-Zamani was only one among Shah Jahan's various wifes and hundreds of sex slaves. To marry her he killed her husband. *She died giving birth to her 14th child. (She died in Burhanpur, 1000 kms away