Shah Jahan: Executed Rivals, the Deccan Famine and Aurangzeb's Prisoner

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Born in 1592 as Khurram, the future Shah Jahan was taken from his parents by his grandfather Akbar and raised by the senior consort Ruqaiya. He favored Hindi literature over ancestral Turki, stayed at the dying Akbar's bedside in 1605, and later mourned his mother Jagat Gosain for 21 days. As his father Jahangir sank into wine and opium, Nur Jahan ran the state and backed his half-brother Shahryar. Ordered to Kandahar in 1622, Khurram rebelled instead, was defeated in 1623, sheltered in Mewar and submitted. When Jahangir died in 1627, his father-in-law Asaf Khan confined Nur Jahan and secured the throne for him in 1628.

His first act, on January 23, 1628, was to have Shahryar and every rival male relative executed, the logic of throne or coffin. India's share of world GDP reached an estimated 24.4 percent, and after Mumtaz Mahal died in Burhanpur in 1631 giving birth to their 14th child he spent some 20 years building the Taj Mahal, along with the Red Fort and the Peacock Throne. Meanwhile the Deccan famine of 1630 to 1632 killed upwards of two million people. When he fell ill in 1658, Aurangzeb defeated Dara Shikoh, executed his brothers and held Shah Jahan in Agra Fort until his death in 1666.

• Mumtaz Mahal held the imperial seal and reviewed state orders as his chief advisor.
• After her death his hair reportedly turned white almost overnight and his daughter Jahanara gave royal jewels to the poor.
• Famine accounts describe dog flesh sold in markets and bones ground into flour despite free state kitchens.
• In 1632 he ordered new Hindu temples destroyed, and court records list 76 demolished in Benares.
• Jahanara cared for him in captivity, and he was buried beside Mumtaz Mahal at night without a state funeral.