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Dāra Shukoh: A Crown Prince in search of Truth and Harmony / 333
nowned calligraphists. All this would have been enough for any scholar of today to receive more than one Honorary Doctorate from reputed Universities.
During this very period when his pen remained so fruitfully occupied, Frince Dārā Shukoh, at different periods, held the governorships of Allahabad, Punjab, Kabul, Multan and Gujarat provinces, led three expeditions to Kandhar at the head of large armies, twice to ward off Persian threat to the great fort (1639, 1642) and once to recover it (1653) from the Persians who had recaptured it in 1649,' assisted his fathre Emperor Shah Jahan in matters of government and State's policies, often acting as the ultimate refuge for all those in need of help or pardon for having incurred the royal displeasure, and provided patronage to scholars, poets, philolophers, artists and architects." Unlike his younger brother Aurangzed and others, he had no time to indulge in base intrigues and secret correspondence to win over chiefs, nobles and officials to their side with the sole aim to their side with the sole aims of acquiring the throne anyhow. Dārā had nobler and higher aims, and it has been rightly observed that 'politics had a secondary place in the thoughts of Dārā Shukoh: his first concern being the study of religious mysticism'.
He says, in a composition:
Kingship is easy, acquaint thyself with poverty: Why should a drop become a pearl when it can Transform itself into an ocean."
Though he observed the riturals ordained for all Muslims, in reality, exoteric Islam had ceased to have any real place in his life. A few years after Mian Mir's death, Dārā was formally initiated in the Qadiri order, as a result, as he wrote in one of his letters, exoteric Islam has ceased to influence the mind of this faqir and the real esoteric 'infidelity' has shown its face'.?
Dārā was above all narrow religious prejudices. To him a temple was as good a place of worship of god as a mosque. Hence he saw no objection in presenting a carved stone railing for the Keshava rai temple at Mathura. In contrast, when Aurangzeb on becoming the Emperor ordered the railing to be removed, he spoke thus: "It is a sin for a Musalman even to look at a temple and this bi-Shukoh (bereft of dignity) had presented a railing to the temple!" and later ordered the magnificent temple to be destroyed altogether (1670 A.D.), casting the idols under the steps of Begam Saheb's mosque at Agra to be trodden upon by the faithful, and even changed the name of the birth place of Lord Krishna from Mathura to Islamabad. For Aurangzeb as also for the Muilas and the Ulema it was difficult to understand, much less to appreciate, Dara's exalted ideas which crossed the narrow and retrogressive bounds of religion and soared high on the wings of universal spirit.
We may now dwell at some length on the religious and philosophical works of Dara Shukoh to understand better his true stature as a person and as a seeker of tram. We find that an insatiable thirst for knowledge and search of truth guided all his literary enterprises.
As mentioned, the twentieth year of Dārā Shukoh's life was particulari, important in his life. In this year he met Miyan Mir (7th April 1634) a saint of the Qadirī order at Lanere along with his father, Emperor Shah Jahan. In subsequent visits he received from the saint instructions in contemplation, and on one occasion experienced what the Hindu Yogis and saints call saktipata. He experinced sudden onrush of light from the master to his own heart and, to quote him, "from that moment I find
