Empire: World History - 221. War of Succession: The Battle That Shook India (Ep 2)

Episode Date: January 16, 2025

With their father in very bad health and rumours of his death swirling around the empire, Shah Jahan’s four sons decide it is their time to take his place. Only one has been chosen by Shah Jahan… The accomplished oldest son Dara Shukoh. However the war of succession has begun, and it will be brutal and stained by betrayal.  The people of Delhi are terrified at the coming storm. Shops are boarded as they prepare for a possible bloodbath. Two of Shah Jahan’s sons, Murad and Shuja, make the first move. They go through coronation ceremonies while Aurangzeb bides his time. He sends his father letters and fruit from the Deccan, acting like a loyal son.  Miraculously Shah Jahan does not die but begins to recover, only to see his sons tear each other apart and in open rebellion against him. Dara Shukoh, his anointed heir, rallies the imperial army to protect the weakened emperor. Aurangzeb, springs into action, rallying his own armies to advance not only on his brother but his father too. This will be one of the most crucial battles in the subcontinent’s history… Listen as William and Anita are joined again by Supriya Gandhi to discuss the rise of Aurangzeb, one of the most controversial historical figures in India today. Twitter: @Empirepoduk Email: [e-mail] Goalhangerpodcasts.com Assistant Producers: Anouska Lewis & Becki Hills Producer: Callum Hill Exec Producer: Neil Fearn Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

If you want access to bonus episodes reading lists for every series of Empire, a chat community. Discounts for all the books mentioned in the week's podcast, add free listening and a weekly newsletter, sign up to Empire Club at www.mparpoduk.com. Hello and welcome to Empire with me, Anita Arnh. And me, William Durhampool. And in the last episode, we ended on a cliffhanger. Shah Jahan has got some terrible illness. He's in bed, he isn't being seen in public,

and the rumors are spreading that a civil war is about to break out. The shopkeepers in Delhi are hunkering down, rumors are flying around, post messengers are taking messages down to the deck and over to Gujarat, to Bengal, that Shah Jahan is finally heading for his deathbed and a war is about to begin. Spies in the Red Fort are reporting developments in the city

to each of Shah Jahan's four sons, and this is the moment of crisis that all these children have known will come at one point in their life, and everyone is now assuming that this is about to happen. The big succession struggle, the big war, the civil war between the different brothers, is about to break out. Who Supriya Gandhi makes the first,

move? Well, I think they all spring into action. Again, you know, this is sort of a very complicated time. There's a chronicler who's attached to one of Shahjaha's sons, Shudha, who's in Bengal, who says that the times are as agitated as these sort of curly, tortuous ringlets of moon-faced beauties. That's quite an image. That is, yes. It's, you know, it's a fairly common image, but it does reflect the times. And Shujah, who is far away in Bengal, takes the opportunity to pronounce himself emperor, and he styles himself by all kinds of titles, including Alexander of the Age. And Alexander is important here, and we're going to get to that in a bit. This is a reference to Alexander the Great, who's remembered in Islamic law as Ascundar,

the great conqueror. Absolutely. So Iskander or Alexander is very, very important. in the whole tradition of Persian literature, from, you know, Nizami to Amir Hussro and so on. And anyway, so Shujah is the son who's been settled in Bengal for a while. He's had this post as governor. He's away from the imperial center. And he thinks, well, you know, with the news of his father's illness, you know, it's sort of inevitable, you know, why not stake my claim to succession? It's far away, but Bengal is also very rich at this point, isn't it? It's the center of the textile industry, and it's quite a good place to be based and to make your fortune if you were so minded. It's a very good place. It is very fertile. There's been a lot of settlement

of forested land for agriculture, which then, of course, increases the wealth of that particular region, and it has been absorbed into the Mughal state. I feel like we haven't really done justice to poor old Shujha and the other brother who is going to be quite, you know, they're going to be quite pivotal right now, Shuzha and Marad. So, I mean, what were the things? they like? I mean, we sort of spoke a while ago about the different attitude that Shah Jahan had, both to Dara Sukk, who he sort of coddles and keeps quite close to him and micromanaging Orangzeb and developing his own sort of shadow state and never doing anything that's good enough to please his father. Daddy issues. But what about the other two? How do they fit into this family? And what are they like?

And what does their relationship with their father like? So one thing that we know about Shujha, when he was much younger, was that Shudja was actually kind of taken in a way to be raised by his grandfather, Jahangir, and Jahangir's wife, Nurja. So he spent his early years being raised by them. Where he has the cutest ever picture of a mogul baby painted of it, is it the greatest mogul baby painted that Shudja looking like the most adorable six-month-old kid you've ever seen. It is a very cute picture.

And actually, there are lovely pictures of, you know, a lot of mogul babies during this Jahangir period, either with Shams. There's one of Darashika playing with jewels sitting next to Shah Jahar. And then there's another one in that court. And then there's another very cute one of Orang Zay being held by Shah Jahar also. So yes, there are quite a few of them. So Shujah had that, you know, perhaps sort of unusual time. And he was very close to his grandfather.

And then later on, he was actually known for his cultural patronage. So he had, you know, like poets and writers, produce all kinds of literary works and other kinds of writings in his court, and he had a fair amount of independence in Bengal. So Shujah was very close to Jahangir and Nurja, having been raised by them. And then, of course, he's close in age to Dharashoko. He's the second eldest son. He has spent a long time in this position in Bengal, enough to really get comfortable there, have his own little court, have a fair amount of independence from his father. He still, of course, has to carry out his father's orders, make visits to the imperial court and so on. Just like his father and his siblings, Darashoka and

Jahanara, he even pays respects to Mullah Shah, who is, you know, Darushiko's Qadari sort of Sufi spiritual teacher. He has his own Sufis whom he corresponds with. So he's really doing a lot of what Darashuka was doing, except that he's not doing this in the embrace of the imperial court. He's doing it in the province of Bengal. And Marad, he's not doing this. is the youngest of these surviving sons of Shah Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal. I'm the youngest of four sons. I'm on Murad. Your team Marad, I am. Your own team Mara. Spoiler, not going to go well. Anyway, Carol, what was Marad like? Was he sort of the precocious

baby of the family? What was his personality like? So we won't hear as much about Morad, is that, but we do know that Marad, again, was very close to certain spiritual Sufi teachers and he'd have correspondences with them and sort of They'd encourage him to do the sorts of things that he wanted to do. But he was, like Shujah, decided to spring interactions. When he heard of his father's illness, he actually put to death one of his officials whom he thought was sympathetic to Darushiko. Oh, really? Just on the suspicion.

Okay. Right. Gosh. Yes. And then he plunders a fort. He, like, seizes a lot of money. And then he coronates himself as well. And he has a poet, you know, a sort of distinguished Iranian's religious.

to return, right? This amazing long narrative poem about it ends up being about the war of succession, but it also talks about how Marath coronated himself and those sort of gold and diamonds everywhere. And he's in Gujarat in Western India. And so he is trying to raise money and troops to make his bid for the throne in the West. Shujah is already doing that in the northeast. So already Dara Shuko is potentially facing a war on these two fronts. And then Orong Zab sprints into action. Orang Zab, he actually is a little more reserved. He doesn't sort of go ahead of himself and say, I'm the emperor now. Or have someone write poetry about what a great ruler he is. Yes, yes. And have, like, you know, jewel scattering clouds and sort of flinging gold coins to the crowds and all of that.

So he actually, he's much cleverer. And he's like, he keeps sending Shard Shah, a lot of letters and like fruits and grapes and all kinds of things. He wants to find out a little more information. Shah Jahan has been using him as a sort of source of fruit for some time. As a source of fruit, yes. And sometimes, you know, this gives Shahjah opportunities to be sort of very dissatisfied with him. The pomegranates aren't good enough. The musk melons are old and rotten.

Yes. And, you know, and what Orangze probably really remembers is that Shahjah accused him of pilfering these emperor's special mangoes that were really like grown for the emperor. The name was sort of, you know, the emperor's choice. Padshawa mango. Yes, the Pachar Passen. And of course, he, you know, he retorts and reiterates that he had nothing to do with the loss of that delivery, but something that annoys short to her.

I mean, this sort of banana and mango diplomacy is absolutely astonishing that this could drive a wedge between two people. I find that often at home here, actually. My boys often eat my favorite mangoes. before I get a chance to read it. And it is a cause of conflict in our eyes. It's currently excommunicated. Okay.

You say that he sort of, he bides his time. But is he doing things secretly on the down lobe? Because from what you've painted a picture of Orang Zeb, he's smart. He's smart and he's a mover. So he may not seem to be doing anything, but is he under the water paddling away? Absolutely. And he knows that it doesn't really make sense to fight multiple wars. I mean, if Orang Zab crowned himself emperor, he then have to

fight a war with Murad. He knew that Shah Jahar was still alive, so he'd have to fight the imperial forces, and he'd have to eliminate Shudha in Bengal. And he certainly wasn't prepared to do all of that, you know, not immediately. And in fact, he'd already had some kind of alliance with Shujha, because they'd had a secret meeting, a meeting actually that was arranged by Jahanara, you know, without perhaps knowing the outcome. But, you know, she'd been trying, of course, to get the brothers to meet. And this was earlier when Shadah was keeping all of them very busy with their assigned activities. And now what he does, is he reaches out to Orang Zab.

He fixes on a plan and then he reaches out to Marath because both of them are sort of in the general sort of south. So they could possibly team up. They could pool their forces and then they could march on Agrao if they got there and then face the imperial army together. So he puts his hand impression and his signature on this letter to prove that it's authentic. And he suggests to Marath that maybe we can pull. forces. And, you know, maybe if we can decide that our friends will be our friends and our

enemies will be our joint enemies. And then if we were to succeed, Murad would get all of the Western territories of the empire. Now, you know, this may seem unusual, but it actually wasn't completely impossible. And this is because the way the Mughals operated, you know, had a variety of influences. But there also was an earlier Central Asian tradition. of kind of shared kingship or a sort of joint rulership. So it wasn't something that was completely out of the blue. And Marad goes for it. He bites the carrot.

And Marad goes for it. Do you think Orang Sab means it? Do you think he means it or he doesn't mean it at all? Not at all, as we will see. No, it's a... We'll have to wait and see. But the fact is he's doing that at the same time, playing nice with Marad saying, yeah, yeah, we'll share.

I don't know it's sharing his caring, brother. We'll do it fine. But he's also, isn't he making moves to try and recruit some people who were once loyal to Dara Shuka as well? I mean, he's on manoeuvres, big time. He's trying to charm the Rajasani's, indeed, in particular. So he's trying to charm the Rajboots, and he's been on the Rajputs charm offensive for a while. You know, he's been sending them like beautiful diamonds and sort of nice gifts and all of that. Because being in the deck and he has access to the diamond mines, of course.

He has access to the diamonds, yes, of course. That's a handy little gift to be able to hand out. Yes. I mean, he doesn't have access to as much as he would want, but that comes later during his reign. He also writes a very nice letter to Rana Raj Singh, who is a prominent Rajput. Which of the kingdoms is he associated with? Mawar. And in this letter, he says, you know, because rulers are shadows of God, he's going to follow his ancestors and ensure that people of different schools of thought and of very, religious hues are cradled in security and tranquility and pass their days in repose. That's certainly like Trump, the last election, going to Detroit and appearing on stage with all the

Muslim leaders, isn't it? It's the very opposite of what he's actually going to do. Trump's case was more ironic and insincereer, I think. Ornogseeb has actually had very good relationships with Rajputs throughout. You know, it's not as though, you know, he's sort of... He's knocked down a few temples in Gujarat, hasn't he, as a young man? He knocked down a temple that was connected to a prominent gen merchant called Shantidas, who had good relations with the Mughal Court. The interesting thing is, you know, well, eventually the temple was rebuilt. And Orang Zab still continues to have relationships with Shanty Das. This is the complex thing about Orang Zab.

Almost anything you say about him can be upended or re-examined. And all are comfortable assumptions about him being this sort of nasty bigot. Darth Vader of history. The Darth Vader of the mogul empire. You can always find evidence that he's done something slightly less wicked at another time. Well, the thing is I'm just more interested in Shanty Das. Oh, yes, you knocked down my temple, but we'll still manage a friendship of sorts. I mean, that to me is intriguing.

Shanty Das, of course, is lending money, is procuring jewels. And there are times when, you know, Dara Shuku and Shah Jahar annoyed with him. They don't like the quality of the gems that he's provided and so on. So it's a contractual sort of business relationship, and there are ups and downs in these relationships, of course. And of course, with Orangzeb is that he's around for a very, very long time. So we're going to see different phases and we're going to see complexity and we're going to see sort of change and, you know, sort of evolution in all of these phases. But, Supriya, I mean, very bluntly, you don't buy the idea of Orangze, which is, I suppose, very common in India today that he's this far brief. bigot who goes around destroying temples and hates Hindus.

So Orenzib does destroy temples. Shah Jahar has also destroyed temples. Shah Jahar destroyed a lot of unfinished temples that weren't, you know, sort of quite built yet in Benares soon after he comes to power. And he's doing this because it, you know, shows the Rajputs, many of whom had influence in Benares and had ties to Banaras and patronized temples there and so on. It shows them that he's the leader. it's a way of asserting authority.

It's not a permanent feature of his rule, but it was certainly an action of his early on. So, you know, Orang Zab certainly wasn't sort of unique in destroying temples. Certainly, destroying temples wasn't the only thing he did. He also had relationships with, you know, a whole variety of Hindu religious figures. This crucially is seen at this point when it isn't what you'd expect. You don't see all the Hindus supporting Dara Shuko and all the Fundo, sort of beardy, mullahs, supporting Orang Zem. In actual fact, as many Hindus support Orang Zeb as Dara. Yes. So, again, this is something that's in flux. You know, at this point, when war of succession hasn't begun yet, it's looming and each side is sort of gearing up. He's trying to get Rana Raj Singh on his side. He has been cultivating another really important Rajput who's actually currently with Dara right now and with sort of Dara's son right now. Orang Zab has been cultivating ties with him also for a long time.

And Jasing has a little bit of falling out with Dara Shuku. Dharashuq was getting his son married to a Rajputt as well. So they're all trying to cultivate the Rajputs. So all of this is like a whirlpool of preparation. Who makes the first move and when does it all kick off? Orang Zab and Murad pull their armies. And they go to this place in central India. And actually, they're facing a Rajput at this point.

into they're facing just one thing. Who is from what we would call the Jodpur Maharaja family? And he is, again, representing the Imperial Army. He's team Dara Shoko, right. He's representing sort of Shahjah and Dara Shukh. He's team Dara. And there's another general, Qasem Khan, who's kind of also team Dara and team Shajaha.

And they're trying to monitor the, I mean, because there's only a few crossing places, aren't there? And you have to cross these rivers. And so armies can wait. at the fords. At the crossing and wait and just cut people down as they try and cross. So what happens then, Suprio? Where does the imperial army go?

So Murad and Orangzeb actually made quick work of them. They send them off. They send them packing. There's a battle. Yes, it's a battle. And Murad is jubilant. And he actually writes to his Sufi teacher because he's in touch with him. He's getting his spiritual guidance.

Just as Darashoka was getting the spiritual guidance of his own Sufi teacher, you know, Mullah Shah when he was sort of going into battle and all of that. And this is when Jahanara tries to step in. And she gets a letter delivered to Orangsev. And in this letter, you know, of course, she talks about the importance of filial duty, that you shouldn't go against your father. It's a horrible thing. It's against religion to do that. And then your elder brother, too, she says, is like your father. And you shouldn't go against him either. This wasn't first rebellion, but it was certainly, you know, we see now a concerted effort, you know, that is being led by Orang Siep, against his father and brother. Can I revisit somebody who we've taken our eye off?

Because the last time we saw him, he was in bed, in pain, in agony, not feeling very well at all. And that was, you know, Shah Jahar. Sort of rumors of his demise are very premature. Does he rally and wake up and amidst this turmoil? Where is he, well, all this is going on? So he does rally and he's still, he's very dependent on Jahanara and on Dara Shoko. I think he's in a weakened, enfeebled state. But he's alert to this. He can see what his other children are doing and he can't like it one little bit. No. And, you know, of course, he had rebelled against his father and now he has, you know, three of his children rebelling against him.

Do we have any sort of first person accounts of what he threatens his wayward children who are threatening him? What does he say about them? What does he want to do to them? Because as you say, he's done it before. So I wonder whether that teaches him a little bit of, you know what, if I speak softly or if I just tell them to snap into line, I can learn from what was done to me. And maybe this can go a different way. Well, I think he actually tries to reconcile.

No doubt Jahanara is writing with his blessings and trying to get Orangzeb to change his mind. They're focusing on Orangzeev at this point. And is there a sense of panic in the Red For example? as Shahjahan and Dara are sitting and these two armies are coming up the spine of India, moving ever further northwards, threatening now, Agra? Absolutely, because, you know, again, the imperial army has been defeated. You have Murad and Orangzeb swiftly moving, and that's why they're not sort of issuing a threat at first. They are actually asking for a kind of reconciliation and sort of persuasion.

And they're saying that, you know, it's the holy month of Ramadan that's coming up. and you shouldn't spill like the blood of other Muslims during this time. And why not just pause and write down your grievances and then maybe we'll see how to address them and how to help you? We're about to head into a break. But we have now, Orang Zeb has got into Madhya Pradesh. He's with his brother Murad. The two hostile armies have united.

they have managed to cross the various rivers blocking their path. They've defeated the Imperial Army and panic is growing in Agra. Dara Shuko is about to leave the Red Fort and face his brothers in battle. More after the break. Welcome back. So we left it with Dara marching out of the Red Fort in Agra with the Imperial Armies. His father's rallied a bit. is better, and he's now anxiously waiting the outcome of the battle. And Dara lines up his troops

quite near Agra, isn't it? So, Priya, where is Samuga, this famous battle? Samogar is this area that's quite near Agra, where Darashuko and Shah Jahan are based. And actually, I must add that there's also action in Bengal. But one of the people who's actually helping Dara's young son, Suleiman Shoko, to sort of lead the armies. there is another Rajput, Mirza Raja Jasing. And Jasing is waiting to see what's going to happen. He's sort of stalling a little bit. So we have the ambivalent, vacillating Jasing trying to handle Shujah in Bengal.

We have the Imperial Army already defeated in Central India. And now there is this looming battle that's in Samogar, because Orang Zab has paid no heed to his sister. entreaties and her desire to have a peaceful reconciliation, and he's pressing on. Now, our old friend Manucci, who at this stage is part of Dara's army or claims to be an artillery man and to be present at the battle, he says that Orang Zeb is already sending bribes and missives to all of Dara's generals, and that he's waging this sort of brilliant intelligence campaign, splitting and dividing the loyalties of Dara's troops. He even describes

various soldiers crossing the battlefield before the battle begins. So Manucci at this time was, you know, he was quite young, barely 20. Handsome young Italian man, Anita, very much your sort of Oh well, thank you. That's great. I hadn't looked him up, but thank you for the official image. These things are important, Supriya. What can I tell you? This is all part of history. And so he was supposedly operating artillery. It wasn't unusual for the muggles to hire European artillery experts. They had hired some to sort of help with the Kandahar campaign. There was a general impression that Europeans were better at Canon, weren't there? There was a Ferengi Pura outside Delhi, which was entirely the habitations of European artillerymen.

Yes. Ferengue meaning sort of, you know, foreigners. So Ferengue Pura would be, you know, the foreigner enclave, Fornerville. Yes. So not all foreigners, but sort of Europeans, you know, Franks and so on. So Manucci was supposedly recruited into the army, and it's quite plausible that he was. And he did notice people trickling into Orensseb's camp before the war had started. Poor Dara, all these people sort of stabbing him in the back. And he may not even know how many people are skulking in and talking to his enemies. So, I mean, the writing seems to be on the wall for Dara. But, I mean, how does it actually happen?

Well, I think the Imperial Army did have a lot of prominent people. They arrayed themselves in this battle formation. There's a wonderful picture of the battle, isn't there, which you reproduce in your book, of these two leaders or the elephants, surrounded by this wall of cannon and armies with the space in between and clouds of gumpowder rising in the air as the cannons fire their first follies. Yes, it's a picture of the battle. And, you know, it seems to me to be the kind of picture, a painting that was, sponsored by the winning side.

Crucially, what we see is Dara getting down from his elephant, which Manucci says was the moment which everything begins to go wrong. Everything's looking okay, but according to Manucci, Aragzeb has spies in Dara's army, and they persuade him to get off his elephant and to get onto a horse and to charge Orangzeb. And that this is actually a treachery. This is a clever ruse that are rang Z.

Yes, as long as he's on his elephant, he's seen as being in control. He's visible. But, you know, the fact, by mere fact of tricking him and saying, you know, what, you're less exposed on a horse, they're actually making it look as though he's not in charge anymore. It is, I mean, it's dark ops. It's black ops, but it's very effective, isn't it? Yes, they clearly seem to have a plan because you do have this very impressive army that is sort of, again, a raid in this splendid formation, and then they start firing.

And then they don't actually receive anything in response. And then they try again. And again, there's just this very tepid response. So they're sort of wondering, what is actually going on? And of course, this was a ruse. You know, it was a ruse to kind of play with them psychologically and eventually, of course, you know, destabilized Dara as the leader. I have to say that we've been rude on this podcast and the previous episode about

Manucci. And we've questioned his credentials as a Harim doctor. but his sort of psychological portrait of the Battle of Samuga, with Orangzeb running the dark ops and the clever intelligence operations, reads quite plausibly to me. Do you buy it some prayer? Are you skeptical? I mean, he does position himself as an eyewitness observer and, you know, as someone who was actually sort of in the battle. So, I mean, it's definitely an interesting perspective. It's not the only perspective, but it's a perspective that one adds to.

again, this whole kaleidoscope of other perspectives, because we have people who are supporting Murad and kind of, you know, for whom Murad is sort of the centre and, you know, this person who crowned himself emperor. And then we have others who are supporting Shujah. We have then Shahjah's historians who then are writing retrospective accounts sort of as things are unfolding before them. So it's a very interesting time, you know, when it comes to like history writing. But in this kaleidoscope, the one picture that is clear is, you know, Dara is not seen. and therefore his troops, the discipline, starts ebbing first of all, and then melting, then disintegrating altogether. They can see that the elephant is empty. They think he's been killed or something's got desperately wrong.

Yes. Well, you know, sort of in Manuji's account, it's sort of Khalilullah Khan, who is really sort of this, you know, the pivot, the person who is really responsible for getting Dara to dismount for him as elephant and sort of see what's happening because, you know, why isn't the enemy firing back? He's presented as being in Arangzeb's pay, that he's acting for Arangzeb. So he gets off, he gets onto his horse, and his army panics. It begins to disintegrate. His army panics, and then Orangzeb's army, then takes that chance to really release a volley of, you know, like cannonballs and bullets and so on, onto the Imperial Army. They were tinkering them like a cat playing with a mouse, and now they're going to let loose. And as a result, everything just fragments on Dara's side.

forced to flee, and he flees to Lahore, you know, all he's left with is just get the hell out of here and try and save my life. And he's got allies there who he can seek refuge with. Yes. There are other accounts that just say that the prince dismounted from his elephant because, you know, just because of what was going on. And he thought that he'd be an easy target. You know, it's, because they held off firing and then they started firing. So again, you know, not everyone goes along with Manucci's account. Okay. All right. So you've got. Shah Jahanah left behind and Jahanara left behind, Darra has fled. Oringsab has never had animosity towards his sister, it seems. He may have grief with his critical father, belittling father.

What does he do to his family members now that Dar has gone? Shah Jahan is detained and he's like put under the control of Orangseeb's guards. And Jahanara, no doubt together with Shah Jahan, they come up with this last ditch solution that harks towards, again, this earlier central Asian model of shared governance. So again, it wasn't something that was totally unheard of, but, you know, clearly not something that the sons wanted. And they say that, you know, it's okay if you come to the throne. But how about actually sharing the kingdom and dividing it between the brothers?

So keep Murat and Gujarat, keep Shaja in Bengal, kind of far away, so they can, you know, hopefully not bother you too much. and then let Dharashuku be in Punjab. Darishiko had been governor of Punjab in the northwestern region, and Orang Zab would look after the rest. And Orang Zab's own son would govern the Deccan, just as Orangzeb had. But this is too little too late. Oragshir has won a battle.

He's not going to accept this, is he? He doesn't need to. Why does he need to? So how does he reply? Does he straight out say no? It doesn't seem to be his style to be sort of as candid as that, or does he just, right, I don't need to talk to you anymore at all? He certainly doesn't respond positively.

And again, of course, he has his own sort of things to worry about now, which is how to eliminate Murad and Shudha. So he leaves Dad bottled up in the Agra fort. Tell us about what he does with Murab, because this is very clever. He invites him over for dinner and plies him with wine. He invites him and plies him with wine. But he sort of leaves Shudha aside for now.

And Darashoko, you know, has fled away from that region. He's fled west to sort of right now he's in the Delhi region. So he then tries to rope Murad in to pursuing Dara with him. And of course, you know, he and Murad have signed the agreement and all of that. Orang Saib then pretends to be ill. He pretends to be horribly ill with dysentery. And like he's sort of begging for his brother. So Marad kind of, you know, drops everything, goes to his brother's tent.

And his brother has dysentery, but he's clearly well enough to sort of lay out this amazing feast at which there's wine served and quite a bit of wine, these beautiful jeweled coblets that is then being plied upon Murad. And then Murad falls asleep. There's a slave girl who massages his feet, as I seem to remember. So Morad is encouraged to have a nice snooze after lunch. And he wakes up and he's a prisoner without any weapons. His weapons have been taken from him discreetly while he's sleeping. And he's put in chains and sent off to Gualio, which is the state prison. Yes, and he's initially sent off to Salimgar, which, because they're kind of on their way to Shah Jahanabad and pursue Ravdara. And apparently he wakes up from his snooze, his fateful snooze, to see that he's got no weapons left and, you know, the writings on the war for him as well.

What a calamity that the covenants and agreements of Muslims can be dissolved all at once, so it is said. So he's off to jail. Orangzeb is now free to break that deal. Doesn't have to share anything with anyone. And, you know, Charles Zahari never thought he would. Yes. So in Delhi, he crants himself because his dad is imprisoned. Dara's on the run.

Murad's in prison, too. And Murad's also in prison. Murad is out of the way. And Shudar is, like, you know, for him at the moment, too far away to really do anything. And this is in the then-lovely Shalimar bug, which is now a rather sort of stinky suburb on the edge of Delhi, with sort of crumbly pavilions and no water and no runnels. But in those days, was a magnificent Mughal garden with jets of water. and gorgeous places to throw a big coronation.

Yes. I mean, there are lots of sort of beautiful gardens, and Orang Zab has a couple of coronations. So at this point, then Dara Shoko is in Lahore. And now he is desperately trying to sort of drum up support from really, from anywhere. Jay Singh is still like stalling, giving him all kinds of excuses.

I've seen those letters. They're up in Bicken there at the moment in the archive. Jay Singh's very dodgy. letters where he's giving all sorts of incredibly implausible excuses, as is that wonderful handprint you talked about earlier. Anyone that goes to the wonderful archives in Bikina, they can see them on display. And these are the crucial letters that means that Dara does not get the support of the House of J-Paul and is left in the Punjab with no one to turn to. Yeah, I mean, like a beggar with a bowl, no one is helping.

It's one of those sort of moments like in a Shakespeare play, when after a defeat the God of leaving Anthony and the sound of all the support disappearing, and one by one, the allies make themselves scarce, and he's left on his own. But what astonishes me about this is that Orangzeb doesn't catch up with him sooner, because he is sort of left to do this rather sad and heartbreaking lobbying for about a year and a half, isn't he, before Orangzeb catches up with him? Well, Orangzeb is, again, you know, busy with a variety of things. And Darushu is in, you know, he's moving to the Punjab.

where he thinks he can get support. And one important thing, though, is of course, Tarushiko isn't completely bereft. He does have his wife, Naderah. So we haven't talked about her. Nader is a very important figure for him, isn't she? So Naderah was his cousin, the daughter of his uncle Pervais, and they had this grand and lavish wedding, which is also beautifully illustrated in the Pachanama.

With all those wonderful presents being presented, it is, it's the kind of the Ambani wedding of the 17th century. Maybe more aesthetically appealing. Supriya, that was almost catty, and I applaud it. Okay, so the golden couple, is she pivotal to his thinking and decision-made? Does he love her? Like so many of his four bears have loved their partners. He seems to.

Now, again, of course, there wasn't this idea of monogamy that one might have sort of later in times. But he really does seem to have. loved her. We know that, of course, always were together. They traveled together. And in the 1640s, and this happens around the time that Naderah is, you know, perhaps she suffers an illness, she's sort of indisposed for a while, Darashuko gifts her this most magnificent Mughal album of miniature paintings. And it's one of the few Mughal albums that's actually still intact, you know, so it hasn't been sort of disintegrated with each folio, like being auctioned off separately, and he inscribes it with a note where he actually calls her his most intimate

friend. You know, it really is sort of this beautiful glimpse of affection. We do hear rumors of other women in Dara's life. There are some portraits of a woman called Gulsafa. We don't really sort of have too many accounts of who she was or, you know, sort of anything like that. So again, seems that there might have been other women in Dara's life. But he and Naderah were sort of very close. She's one of the people who's standing by him and she actually tries to help him get support. So they're trying to get the support of a Rajputt ruler, another Rajputs ruler, who's like promising, like, you know, maybe if you sort of raise the money, I can like give you an army. Another actually performs this ritual where she is making the Rajput her foster child so that their

bonds would be bonds of kinship. And actually, you know, we haven't talked about this, but foster family, foster kinship was very important for moguls. It's not only a mogul practice. It's a central asian practice. It's been a Rajput practice. It's quite sort of common in a variety of areas. It's a way of ensuring that your children have a whole foster family that are linked through ties of milk. So all the children of your wetness are going to be your foster brothers and your foster sisters. And it's a way of noble family is furnishing foster kin for their children. You write very specifically, Soprea, something that we haven't seen before in this series, that she sends the Rajput a bowl of water which she's used to wash her breasts with.

Is that a common practice? Well, it's a symbolic act. So what's more common is that if you're a noblewoman and you have a child, a newborn, that you would give that infant to some other noble women or important ladies to nurse and that their children would then be the foster brothers and sisters of your child. And it means that they would support your child no matter what, because they weren't your sort of blood. They were linked through milk. They're not in the line of succession.

They're not competitors. So it comes to be really important and you actually often have, you know, buildings that are made by like the foster brother of a mogul ruler and so on. So the foster can come to be very important and influential. But it doesn't work, does it? because the wicked Rajput goes and joins Orangzeb, despite this breastwater. They just can't catch a break, can they, these two, poor things. So it's beginning to go badly wrong. Rajaradrup, who supposedly is going to join them, actually joins Orangzeb.

Potential allies like Justwant Singh and Rad Singh stay out of the conflict. They know that Dara is a loser. And so rather like his great-great-grandfather, Humayan, he ends up having to flee westwards into the desert, away from the centres. And we had that picture earlier in the series of Humayan having been twice defeated, heading westwards. Now, in Humayan's case, despite nearly running out of food, he meets his future wife on the run, and eventually makes it to Persia where he gets an army. But Dara is not so lucky.

and instead he goes to stay with a landowner who has a terrible repression for treachery. Malik Jeevan, tell us what happens there. Well, I'll just tell you actually about, again, the very sad thing that happens before this. So Darrow is being like sort of pushed westwards, you know, with these armies that are chasing him. Now including Mizorata Jasing, who had earlier recently been on his side. So everyone is turning. on him and they're supporting Orang Zib. And actually, ironically, by this time, he's gotten to be sort of a little more savvy about, you know, being a soldier and being a general and, you know,

how to plan for battle and so on. But it's sort of that experience is a sort of little bit wasted now because he doesn't have the adequate support. And, you know, with lack of resources, his wife falls gravely ill. According to one report, the grief from the separation of her older son, Salaman Shiko, and other endless tribulations. And so they have to find somewhere where they can rest. And the nearest landholder, as bad luck will have it, is a complete two-faced, treacherous. Bastard, I think is the word you're looking for.

Bastard is the word I was avoiding using Malik Jeevan. Dharth has spared Malik Jeevan from execution earlier in his life. And he hopes that Malik Jeevan will be grateful. But what happens, Sopria? So as they are approaching, now there are finally succumbs. and she passes away. Agonized and stupefied, out of misery and illness, became veiled by the curtain of God's forgiveness.

Tragic, she breathed her last. Dara Shuka's light-filled eyes clouded over with darkness, and he grew crazed with grief. A tragic moment. So by this point, Dara doesn't really have much fight left in him. So he is, of course, forced to try to get Malik Jeeban to shelter him. And, you know, in the end, again, he sort of lowers him in. And, you know, Dara by this point is really alone.

He's broken and sad and alone and no one will help him. And he's also had to send his late wife's sort of body back for her to be buried. Eventually. Next to his Sufi friend in Lahore. Next to his Sufi teacher. So then Malik Jeevan, you know, like once he has Dara, he quickly sends a message saying, I've trapped the golden-winged bird. He sends that to Jai Singh.

So, Jaising, who had been his friend, goes in hot pursuit, and the next day arrives, surrounds Jeevan's house. It's very sub-filmic. You can see the rather like in sort of Butch Cassidy, where that moment comes when the troops surround Butch Cassidy, and there's no escape. Jai Singh and the army of Orang Z surround Dara in Jeevan's home. As the pursuing army arrives and surrounds the house, Dara's one remaining. loyal supporter, who is his daughter, rushes out of the house and begs Jivan to unshackle her father, and the stone-hearted landowner refused to free him.

And he's shackled and taken off in prisoner to Delhi, to his terrible brother, to Orang Zep. And, you know, we actually don't hear anything about his daughter in most accounts, but this is Morad's poet, who's writing this sort of very dramatic, poetic account of, you know, the whole war of succession. And, you know, he clearly isn't an eyewitness, but he sort of makes the daughter into this figure who's begging for her father's life and saying, I'm ready to become a maid servant, you know, in your home. I'll say what she says. Bring me with countless gold and jewels into the train of your maid servants in your kitchen. My mother is the daughter of Parvez Shah. My father is Timor's descendant, possessor of glory.

But exhibit me to the world in the position of a maid servant, but release the fetters from Dara's legs. And he doesn't. What a bastard. So tell us the terrible fate of Dari. He's brought to Denny. He's in rags. And he and his younger son, Saperre, they're dressed in rags. They're paraded around. Really, this is a spectacle that is meant to humiliate them.

Our friend Bernier is in the crowd. Yes, your friend, Bernier. Did you know your friend, not Sopria's friend? Your friend, Bernier. One of the dodgy doctors in the court at the moment. But he does right. I mean, he says, you know, he was dressed in dirty cloth of coarse texture and his sorry turban was wrapped around with a muffler like that worn by the meanest of people. So this is like utter degradation, a portrait of an imperial fall.

On a deliberately filthy elephant back to front. You know, one thing that we do see a pattern of is that there seems to be a kind of popular support for hapless princes. understandably, given what's going to happen to them. Yes. So they does seem to be, again, some sympathy for these princes. It wasn't sort of just, well, they deserve their fate or kind of let's mock them to be in the good graces of the new ruler and so on. And Bernier says that the crowd even stones the horrible Malik Jeevan, that people start hurling things at it. And so while it's meant to be a crowd jeering at Dara, in fact, there's a worry on the part of the authoritative.

that they actually might free him, and they might free him and stone Malik Jeeva. So this actually, ironically, seals his fate, doesn't it? Well, you can't leave him alive. If there's that much sympathy for him in this reduced state, you can't leave him. Not if you're Orangzeb, not if he has that much sympathy left. And Orangzeb doesn't, does he, Supriya? He doesn't leave him. Well, we do get, again, in Behishti's account, sort of this reconstruction of what's

going through Orang Zab's mind, and he's very disturbed, you know, by this sort of sedition against something that is disrupting the harmony that he seeks to achieve by being a strong ruler who's binding the empire together. And he's now painting his brother as a heretic, who's embraced infidelity. In other words, has nearly become a Hindu. And he's producing all this propaganda. So that's something that actually isn't entirely clear. There are hints of this. It's not the only narrative. Because remember, Orang Zab is, you know, he's reaching out, he's reaching out to Morad, he's reaching out to all the Rajputs, he's telling the Rajputs that I'm going to follow the example of my illustrious forebears who let people of different religions live in peace and Orang Zab is saying this very explicitly. But there are some hints that Tarosha Kruko is doing isn't quite right. And of course, Orang Zab needs some justification. He needs justification especially for the very unpious and unfilial act of overthrowing his father.

So, you know, there's a way in which, again, these hints make sense. They don't cohere into a sustained account, you know. So it's not like Orang Zab is very explicitly fighting this religious war against his brother just because his brother got some Sanskrit text translated. This is an account that gathers coherence later. You know, one thing that sort of commonly thought is that there was a trial, you know, something that you see in a lot of modern plays on Dara, that, you know, once he's captured, And then there's this trial where he's accused of blasphemy and infidelity and so on.

And he, you know, tries to defend himself. And then, of course, he's sentenced to death. And it doesn't quite work that way. But, you know, there is a sense that the sympathy, that the crowd that appears when he is paraded is indeed a source of threat. And this is a threat that must be diffused immediately and swiftly. Okay. So, I mean, let's talk about the actual denouement of all of this, which is going to be so horrific. At least, you know, that's what the story tells us that there comes a point where he says, right, that's enough, he's got to go.

And you have nobles who are keen to impress Orang Zerb who break into these quarters at Dara, the poor Beliga Dara is being kept, a small garden outside the walls of Shahjahunab towards Nizamuddin. And that Dara sees that there is danger coming and he sees as a kitchen knife. He tries to defend himself, but they overpower him, they throw him to the ground, and they hack off his head in front of his son, which is just appalling. So my question to you, Sopria, because what happens next might inform us of how much Orang Zeb wanted this to happen. But did he order it, or were these people trying to impress Orang Zeb acting on their own? I mean, it doesn't feel like they would dare do a thing like this unless Orang Zeb told them to. You wouldn't kill an imperial prince without authorization. You wouldn't do that, no.

I mean, I think, you know, it clearly was happening on Orangseb's orders. And again, it wasn't the first time that that had happened. You know, Shahjah had a whole slew of imperial princes killed. Yeah, yeah, sort of slaughtered a lot of his family in a similar way. But with deniability and distance, you know, if you have a bit of distance, at least you have some cover for this. But then is it true? The prince's head is cleaned. It's wrapped in a turban and presented to Oring Zeb on a golden dish.

I mean, again, biblical drama here, isn't it? Manucci, right? Manucci tells a good story. He does tell him. He tells a good yarn, no doubt about it. And then that story is then pitched later on in 1857, and again, an equally untrue version of it has the princes of Bhanashar Zaffa set the head of one of the princes to Zaffer and he opens it up, the gets present.

And there's the head of his son. Again, not true. But it's one of these tropes. Well, I mean, since we're diving into Manucci, let's just bathe in backstroke in his prose, shall we? Because he also says that Roshanara, another bitter sister of Jahanara and Oring Zeb, says, wouldn't it be hilarious, brother? Wouldn't it be, you know, like some horrible Lady Macbeth brother in this witchy voice? Wouldn't it be lovely if we just sent the head of Darashuko, our brother, to Daddy? Let's send it to Daddy in the place where he's imprisoned in Agra.

And Manucci says the following morning, Oring Zeb's chief eunuch takes it over. and shall I read a bit of Manucci? Shall we just abandon ourselves to Manucci just for this bit? The eunuch waited until the hour Shah Jahan had sat down to dinner. And when he had begun to eat, the eunuch entered with a box and laid it before the unhappy father, saying, King Orangzeb, your son sends this plate to your majesty to let you see that he does not forget you. The old emperor said,

Blessed be God that my son still remembers me. The box having been placed upon the table, he ordered it with great eagerness to be opened. But on withdrawing the lid, he discovered that face, the face of Prince Dara. Horrified, he uttered a cry, fell on his hands, face upon table, and striking against the golden vessels broke some of his teeth and lay there apparently lifeless. Now, Manucci writes well, it's a good story. Even in its complete nonsense. We like the story. It may not have happened at all. I mean, it's brutal enough as it is, but Manucci makes it. It's unbearable. And anyway, listen, what did happen is that we were delighted to have your company. Sapria Gandhi, thank you so much for being with us. We're so grateful. That is it from us.

Till the next time we meet, it's goodbye from me, Anita Arnynne. And goodbye from me, William Duremple.