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Lost and never found
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Delhi is replete with tales of mysteries, curses, disappearances and the like. Find out with R.V. SMITH
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Where is the head of Dara Shikoh? His headless body, of course, lies buried in a neglected vault in Humayun's Tomb
The killer stair from which Humayun fell to his death at the Sher Mandal in Purana Quila is still there, but what happened to the huge bed on which Shah Jahan died while viewing the Taj? Where's the body of Abul Fazl? Some say it was buried in Bagh Ladli Begum, along with that of his brother, Faizi, and father, Sheikh Mubarak, as also his sister, Ladli Begum.
The Bagh was purchased by a Seth of Mathura in the last decades of the 19th Century. While digging was going on, a corpse, believed to be that of Abul Fazl, covered with a green cloth was unearthed. But as soon it was brought out into open air, the body disintegrated. The event was witnessed by Mukand Lal, Assistant Civil Surgeon of Agra. Three days later the seth died and within the course of the next few months all his family members expired one by one. Was it due to the curse incurred because of a supposed sacrilege?
Talking of other missing links, where is the sword of Mallu Khan, who resisted the might of Taimur Lang in 1398 before the invader entered Delhi? Mallu Khan was leading the Tughlak forces. Similarly there's no trace of the head of Abdul Rahim Khan-e-Khanan's son killed on Jahangir's order, along with his younger brother, and the head sent wrapped in a fine piece of cloth as a present from the Emperor to his father - who was told that it was a melon. Where was it buried?
The tawiz (amulet) given to Bahlol Lodhi by a dervesh, who predicted that the little boy who had given him alms would become a mighty ruler one day, was presumably buried in his tomb in Delhi. But what about the drum (Danka) that was beaten whenever Zeenat Mahal came to her ancestral house in Lal Kuan from the Red Fort? It was probably taken away by the British or sold to the kabari when Zeenat Mahal's palace fell into disarray after "Mutiny".
History scatters the mighty and powerful just as it does the poor and lovely. Huge edifices may serve as memorials for some, but these too are forgotten in course of time. True, the pyramids survive. As do the Sphinx, the Iron Pillar and the Taj.
But like Ozymandais, King of Kings, their creators have disappeared. What did Aurangzeb do with the head of his exalted elder brother? Being a pious Muslim, he couldn't have destroyed it. Burning was out of the question and so buried it must have been, but where?
Even a king's tooth was worthy of a memorial. Remember Mohammad bin Tughlak who lost a tooth near Bir village on the way to Daulatabad and had it buried in a domed monument about the year 1336.
Surely the head of the heir-apparent of the Great Moghul was worth much more than a tooth!And what happened to the body of Prince Shuja who, after his defeat in the war of succession among the sons of Shah Jehan, fled to Arakan and was killed by the tribals.
Did they carry away his head as a trophy and burn the body - or bury it? What was the fate of the princesses accompanying him? Did some of them escape death and marry tribal chiefs? And do their descendants exist somewhere with a drop of Moghul blood still in their veins?
War of succession
Aurangzeb in a way did avenge Shuja's death by sending first Mir Jumla and, after that worthy's death, Shayasta Khan, who defeated the King of Arakan and annexed Chittagong. Of the four who fought the war of succession, only Shuja did not find a burial place anywhere. He was even more unfortunate than Bahadur Shah Zafar. While lamenting the fate of the Moghuls, one wonders what happened to the eyes of Shah Alam, which were gouged out by Ghulam Qadir Rohilla in 1788? Did the marauder throw them on the dung heap or did some loyal noble bury them secretly near Salimgarh, where the hapless ruler was imprisoned until his rescue by the Marathas? One is reminded of him now only by the slum locality of Andha Mughal.
The blind Moghul reigned for 18 years over a decadent empire but he was a mere puppet. And so history laid low the mighty with nary a trace of Dara's head and Shah Alam's eyes. And the final riddle: What happened to the body of Ghulam Qadir? Did it really turn into drops of blood licked up by a mysterious block dog? The curse of Shah Alam!
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