Nurjahan's Daughter (34 page)

‘But he is inexperienced. He is too young and the Qandahar campaign would require a tough and experienced commander.’

‘Send Mahabat Khan with him. Give him a chance at least.’ Nur Jahan knew the Qandahar campaign was an important one and if Shahryar were victorious, his path to the throne would be clear.

‘Mahabat Khan cannot be spared for the Qandahar battle. I have decided to send him to capture Shah Jahan. No one else can bring that fool back to my feet. But I can depute Mir Kamran and Prince Vijay Pratap of Amber to assist Shahryar. They are valiant and experienced commanders and will steer Nashudani on the right path. That is if he heeds them.’

The decision was conveyed to Shahryar and the preparations for the Qandahar campaign began in earnest. Troops were amassed and Nashudani strutted off to battle, bloated with self-importance.

Meanwhile, a desperate and exhausted Shah Jahan was kept on the run by the combined Mughal forces led by Mahabat Khan and his brother Prince Parvez. Jahangir had discounted the possibility of Parvez being his heir. Prince Parvez was addicted to wine and opium and had never displayed any interest in taking part in campaigns. Happy with his luxuries and addiction, he had remained unnoticed by the emperor as well as Nur Jahan. When Parvez realised that the emperor was upset with Shah Jahan and was ready to reconsider the matter of succession, he knew that the time had arrived for him to act. He kept up the heat on Shah Jahan, determined to eliminate him from the line of succession.

The emperor had devised a three-pronged attack on Shah Jahan. While Parvez led one contingent which followed the rebel to Mandu, Dawar Baksh, Khusrau’s son, marched with another contingent towards Ahmadnagar. The emperor himself proceeded to Ajmer to be closer to the operations. It was a difficult battle; hot weather, humidity and heavy rainfall hampered the operations. Many of Shah Jahan’s soldiers deserted him, reducing his already depleted forces to a bare minimum.

Escaping from the royal army, Shah Jahan made his way to Ahmadnagar where he sought the assistance of Malik Amber. The Abyssinian, however, saw his opportunity to make a good impression on the emperor and refused to help the prince. Shah Jahan was forced to flee to Bengal.

Fighting valiantly, he captured the fort of Rohtas. By now, his wife and children were tired of having to move around. Arjumand, ailing and pregnant, needed comfort, so he installed his family at Rohtas and made his way back to Deccan once again. He appealed to the Ahmadnagar ruler for compassion and promised great rewards when he inherited the empire.

A year passed and the fugitive realised the futility of fighting the mighty forces of the emperor. Beaten by hunger, sickness and poverty, his forces had turned against him. A few of his faithful nobles continued to support him, but several had returned to Agra to surrender to the emperor’s forces. Shah Jahan himself was seized with illness. Arjumand had just gone through a stillbirth and her health required the attention of skilled physicians, which he could ill afford while on the run.

‘Why don’t you appeal to the emperor for clemency?’ asked Arjumand. ‘It aches me to see the children suffering in this manner. Is there no way out of this mess?’

Shah Jahan let flow a flood of invective against Nur Jahan. ‘That woman is the worst kind of serpent–dangerous and slimy. She will ruin my father and the kingdom with her plotting. If she puts Nashudani on the throne, it will be disastrous. I have to stop her.’

‘But, My Lord, your rebellion may just put the trump card in her hands. She will use it to poison the emperor’s mind against you.’

Frustrated, Shah Jahan realised the wisdom of his wife’s words, but his ego would not allow him to beg for Jahangir’s forgiveness. He travelled through the deserts of Rajputana seeking shelter from his Rajput clan, but they were frightened of facing the emperor’s wrath and refused to help him. Shah Jahan’s mother, Jagat Gosain, had forbidden her clan from assisting her son.

‘My mother will always side with her husband. It is an unwritten Rajput convention that women must stick with their husband against their own sons,’ Shah Jahan explained to his wife, sadly. ‘Even Queen Jodha Bai, the emperor’s mother, had sided with Shahenshah Akbar when Jahangir had rebelled. She had disowned her own son and supported her husband. I can expect nothing different from my mother, who is a proud Rajput queen.’

Shah Jahan then turned to his friend, Rana Karan Singh, the valiant prince of Mewar, and reminded him of their friendship. Years back, it was Shah Jahan who had vanquished the Rana and brought him to Ajmer with honour. It was on his word that Jahangir had received the ruler of Mewar with much respect and honour. Since then, the two had maintained a cordial friendship that extended much beyond the required protocol of a court. The Rana readily extended a warm welcome to the prince and his family and promised to stand loyal to him.

At Mewar, Shah Jahan and his beloved wife finally found peace and happiness. The Rajputs swore to defend the prince with their lives. The Rana constructed a beautiful marble palace in the placid waters of the Pichola Lake for the comfort of his revered guests. When the emperor learnt about the impudence of the Rana, he was livid. Jahangir despatched Mahabat Khan to Mewar to capture his rebellious son. There were only two options before the Rana–either hand over Shah Jahan or fight against the Mughal forces.

When Shah Jahan realised that Jahangir would go to any length to capture him, he decided to surrender before Mahabat Khan. He could not allow the Mughal forces to destroy the beautiful kingdom of Mewar where he had spent a full year in happiness and peace. Although the Mewar soldiers were valiant, they were no match for the emperor’s powerful army. Swallowing his pride, Shah Jahan finally wrote a letter to his father, expressing his repentance and begging pardon for all his faults. It was pointless to continue his rebellion when defeat was inevitable.

Jahangir’s reply was that, if Shah Jahan would send his sons Dara Shikoh and Aurangzeb to court, and surrender the captured forts of Rohtas and Asir, he would be forgiven.

‘Damn the woman. I can see her hand behind this letter,’ Shah Jahan fumed on reading his father’s letter. His heart broke at the thought of sending his sons as hostage to Agra, and Arjumand wept endlessly, trying to stop him from acquiescing, but they both knew that it was the only way out. As a gesture of repentance he also sent offerings of jewels, arms, horses and elephants, valued at ten lakhs of rupees. The forts were handed over to Mughal commanders. Thus ended Shah Jahan’s rebellion after three years of bloodshed.

Meanwhile, news arrived that the imperial army had been defeated at Qandahar. Shahryar returned defeated, much of his ego deflated after the failure of the campaign.

‘It is due to Shah Jahan’s rebellion that the campaign did not succeed,’ Nur Jahan stated, adding fuel to fire. To some extent, she was not wrong: the army and resources had been split between the Qandahar campaign and the rebellion. Jahangir, chagrined that his attempt at regaining Qandahar had come to a naught, once again, could not bring himself to forgive Shah Jahan.

An uncomfortable peace returned to the empire. Parvez had proved himself and the emperor wondered if he should be the one to succeed to the throne. Would he be able to prove himself an able and just administrator? Jahangir consulted his empress about the matter. She dismissed the idea immediately. There was no worthier heir than Shahryar, she said. The emperor, however, did not agree with her. For the first time, it occurred to him that she was promoting her own cause rather than that of the empire.

Nur Jahan had other things to worry about. Mahabat Khan–one of the emperor’s most trusted friends, and a skilled general–who she had been trying to suppress, had grown in stature after having subdued Shah Jahan. The trouble between the general and the empress had begun when the former had rebuked the emperor for taking orders from his wife. Mahabat Khan was opposed to the caucus that the empress had created around herself. He was most vociferous when her brothers had been appointed to important positions and given powers, while other able ministers had been sidelined. He had voiced his opinion to the emperor and assured him of all assistance if he would take up the reins of the empire in his own hands.

‘There are able ministers and capable soldiers still left to serve the empire. Under such circumstances, the mighty Mughal emperor has no need to resort to the advice of a woman,’ declared Mahabat Khan, disgusted with the way Nur Jahan controlled matters of the empire.

Ashamed on hearing the rebuke, the emperor had acted in some measure on his friend’s advice for some time, but he soon fell captive to his wife’s charms and influence once again. The empress, on finding out what Mahabat Khan had done, decided that the general would need to be stripped of his power and influence.

For several years, she denied him a promotion and pressurised the emperor into sending him for the worst campaigns, keeping him away from the court. He was driven from the Deccan to the frontiers of Afghanistan, across harsh and unfriendly terrains, wherever the most strenuous service was needed. But now, having quelled Shah Jahan’s rebellion, Mahabat Khan had not only grown in stature, he had also become close to Prince Parvez. That a legitimate heir had the backing of the emperor’s trusted friend was particularly dangerous in Nur Jahan’s eyes.

Despite Laadli’s warnings, she appointed Mahabat Khan as the governor of Bengal so as to keep him away from Agra. Then she, along with her supporters, convinced Jahangir that Mahabat Khan was plotting against him. Mahabat Khan had remained stationed at his castle in Ranthambore with Prince Parvez despite being asked to go to Bengal. Finally, Jahangir issued a farman ordering the general to either proceed to Bengal or to come to the court at once. Deciding to challenge the absurd accusations against him, the general marched with 4000 seasoned Rajputs to the court at Agra. In the meantime, Nur Jahan had trumped up several malicious charges against Mahabat Khan, alleging that he had misappropriated large sums of money. Another ridiculous charges was that Mahabat Khan had, without royal permission, affianced his daughter to the son of Khwaja Umar Nakshbandi. The emperor was offended by this breach of protocol. He sent for the young man and threw him into the prison. Orders were given to seize whatever dowry Mahabat Khan had given to the youth and place it in the imperial treasury.

Mahabat Khan was not the man to put up with these affronts. He could discern the empress’s hand behind the allegations and realised that she would even resort to his execution to get rid of him. Determined to teach the emperor a lesson, the general decided on a plan.

The royal entourage–having just returned from Kashmir, and about to set out for Kabul–had set up camp near the river Jhelum. While Jahangir rested in his tent, Asaf Khan left him with a couple of attendants, and ordered the royal escorts and soldiers to cross the bridge in order to set up camp on the other side of the river. The royal harem, including Nur Jahan, had already crossed to the other side.

Mahabat Khan had been waiting for an opportunity like this. He had never imagined that Asaf Khan would be foolish enough to leave the emperor virtually unprotected. With 5000 Rajputs, Mahabat Khan proceeded to the head of the bridge. He ordered his soldiers to burn the bridge and proceeded to the royal quarters where Jahangir was resting. The servants who were in attendance rushed to inform Jahangir of the general’s daring action. Enraged, the emperor emerged from his tent and took his seat in the royal palanquin. But as soon as he sat down, armed Rajput soldiers closed in and obstructed his path. There was no one with Jahangir but his faithful valet and a few attendants. Realising the futility of resistance, he went back to his tent. The emperor of the Mughal Empire was under house arrest.

When the emperor did not join their camp, Nur Jahan first assumed he had gone hunting. However, she soon found out that he was being confined to his apartment by Mahabat Khan. Furious at her brother’s blunder, she summoned the chief nobles including Asaf Khan and reproached them–‘How could you allow such gross negligence to take place? You have imperilled the Emperor’s life! You must go immediately and free him from Mahabat Khan’s clutches.’

The sun had set and the nobles, tired after the long journey, demurred. Reluctant to take on the valiant Mahabat Khan, but unable to say so, they advised that nothing could be done that evening. They assured the empress that they would embark on a rescue mission the next morning after sunrise and they would defeat the rebel.

The next morning, impatient with the nobles’ dithering, the empress herself took charge of the situation. ‘I can’t think of a more humiliating situation when my brother, who I trusted with the security of the emperor, is not ready to rescue him. If you can’t fight Mahabat Khan, I shall do it myself.’

Asaf Khan tried to reason with his sister: ‘Your Majesty, most of our soldiers have proceeded to Atak and only a small band remains with us. It is not prudent to take on the enemy with an inadequate number of soldiers. We will have to plan a workable strategy, and this will take time.’

‘You are a coward. I shall prove to you that the emperor can be released with a direct attack on the enemy camp.’

Gathering her soldiers, she harangued them for their lack of courage. ‘Has the Mughal Empire turned so unfortunate that there are no brave soldiers left to defend the emperor’s honour? Shame on you, who call yourselves soldiers, brag about the prowess of your ancestors and wear the uniforms of the imperial army!’

Prince Jai Singh was the first one to respond: his proud Rajput warriors were stung by her remarks and he promised that they would not rest till they had released the emperor from captivity. Leading the band of his valiant soldiers, the young prince charged towards the river, his sword flashing in the rising sun. Unmindful of the danger, Nur Jahan–seated on her elephant along with Laadli’s daughter and her nurse–also joined them. Her hair flying loose and her veil thrown back, she shouted at the soldiers to follow her to the other side of the river. Inspired by her command, the soldiers urged their horses into the stream. Soon soldiers, horses, camels and carriages, were in the midst of the river, jostling each other, and pressing to the opposite shore. Brandishing their swords and scimitars, they rushed to fight the soldiers of Mahabat Khan who waited on the other side of the ford. An amused Mahabat Khan, seated on his charge, watched the disorderly army advancing with the empress.