Every now and then, some silly comments are seen in Internet. The following is one of them.
This attack on Shah Jehan is false, misleading and maligning the monument which is the pride of India and needs to be countered point by point.
- Mumtaz was Shah Jehan’s third wife out of very many. Probably the emperor himself couldn’t have kept count. But she was undoubtedly his principal queen and there was genuine love. In fact, she became No. 3 only because the astrologers set a date five years later for the marriage. In the intervening period, he married twice, but even their names are not recorded in history. We should not match the family life of medieval kings against the moral enlightenment of a future era.
- The second point is totally false. Probably the writer is confused with the case of Nur Jahan and Jahangir where it is alleged that Jahangir plotted the killing of Nur Jahan’s husband. Mumtaz was Nur Jahan’s niece (daughter of Asaf Khan, who was Nur’s brother) and her marriage with Shah Jehan was arranged by their parents.
- Mumtaz indeed died during her 14th delivery out of 19 years of living together. What other avenues existed in those days to express love? She accompanied him even in battles and her death after 30 hours of painful labour in a case of post-partum haemorrhage occurred at far away Burhanpur, while Shah Jehan’s Deccan campaign was on. Out of the 14 children, only 7 reached adulthood. All the four male offsprings who fought for the throne - Dara Shukoh, Aurangzeb, Murad Baksh and Shah Shuja - were Mumtaz’s children, emphasizing the point that she was his favourite queen.
- After Mumtaz’s death, Shah Jehan married but there is no evidence that Mumtaz’s sister was one of them.
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