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| tomb of Roshanara begam, Delhi. wikipedia common org |
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| tomb of Roshanara Begum, Delhi wikiwand org. |
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| tomb of Roshanara Begum, Delhi. wikipedia common org. |
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| lattice window tomb of Roshanara Begum, fotosearch.com |
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| Roshanara Begum d/o emperor Shahjahan madhukidiary.com |
Above image: Roshanara Begum 3 September 1617 – 11 September 1671), a Mughal princess was the second daughter of Emperor Shah Jahan and his wife, Mumtaz Mahal. She is best known for the building of her garden Roshanara Bagh in Delhi where her tomb lies in the middle. The garden is itself laid out according to the pattern in which Paradise (jannat) is believed to be laid out (the same layout was used by Shah Jahan while building the Taj Mahal). The baradari (named so because of the twelve arches in the structure) was built originally by Roshanara Begum in the 1650s as a pleasure garden for herself. She built the nice building as a pleasure garden, but the fate had a different plan. she found a resting place for eternity after her death in 1671............
After ascending the throne in 1658 upon murdering his own
brother in public, ruler Aurangzeb gave the title of Padshah
Begum to Roshanara for her support in the struggle. It is said, Roshanara had been been the mastermind behind Aurangzeb's accession to the Mogul throne. This made her become the First Lady of the Mogul Empire and a powerful woman. In the later years, her relationship with her elder sister and also Aurangzeb soured. She was fond of gold and began abusing special power. In her early years she was over pampered and was disrespectful to her mother and even minorities in the harem, Hindu or Christian girls. Frequently, she was haunted by her wrong political action and its implications. When Aurangzeb publicly beheaded his elder brother Dara, she was unmoved. Roshanara was the one who had Aurangzeb send the bloody severed head of Dara to Emperor Shah Jahan (who was in prison). The great emperor, upon seeing his son's severed head, felt horror and swooned. Later years, Roshanara moved away from Mogul politics and had a palace built and spent her time peacefully. She remained single through out her life. Once unjust, hot headed and corrupt, she had a painful death in 1671 at the age 54. It is said she was poisoned by Aurangzeb because of her sexual overtures with a secret lover in the place; the emperor himself had his elder sister body interred there in the place where she had resided.
of India. This garden was designed and commissioned by
herself in 1650s. At the same time Shah Jahan was building Shahjahanabad.
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| tomb of Roshanara Begum darweshdiaries.wordpress.com / |
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| Roshanara Begum, tomb, Delhi. wikipedia common org |
Today, however, Roshanara is best remembered for the Roshanara Bagh, a pleasure garden located north-west of the walled city. . With the passage of time, only two buildings have survived. - a central pavilion or baradari and an entrance gate. The original char bagh became an English garden and the pavilion that once stood is no more intact.
The bagh - garden can be entered through the remains of the original gateway that is finished in lime plaster with damaged fine glazed tiles, a typical Mogul feature. A channel runs all the way from the gateway to the pavilion and it is said that there must have existed some water fountains to enhance the beauty of the garden.
Standing at the end of a square pool, the building can be accessed from two sides. The pool that is decorated with sculpted kangura pattern on its edges makes the well proportioned pavilion look majestic; the bulbous columns of the arcade are typical of late Shahjahani design. Like Shalimar Bagh, it is decorated with Lakhori bricks and sandstone and covered with lime plaster decorations. Light painting in lime paster is noticed on the interior.
Roshanara’s grave is in the center of this pavilion in an enclosure created by four marble screens with jali (screen with ornamental patterns) work, but is an open grave now, only covered with earth, the marble cenotaph ismissing, may be stolen sometime in the past. The original shape of the Roshanara garden was obliterated when the British converted part of it as the English garden.
In the later years, burdened by sins, misdeeds and accessory to the murder of her brother Dara, Roshanara turned to spirituality . Initiated to Qadiriyya branch of Sufism by Mullah Shah Badakhshi of Lahore, in the later years she became a follower of the Chisti saints Nizamuddin Auliya of Delhi and Kwaja Moinuddin Chisti of Ajmir. The Mogul princess wrote a biography on the Sifi saint of Ajmir. She lived in many places, Delhi, Lahore, Agra and other places.
She was the favorite daughter of Shahjahan and she loved her father very much. In a moment of aberration she went against her father Shah Jahan in support of Aurangzeb. After her father's imprisonment in 1658, she took care of him till his death eight years later. Unmarried Roshanara died on 6 Sept, 1681 at the age of 67. Aurangzeb gave her a posthumous title ''Mistress of the Age'' (Shazibat-ul-Zamani). Her tomb is in the Hazrat Nizamuddin Durgah complex, Delhi.
Being pious, every year she used to send roughly 2000 pounds of rice to Mecca and Medina through her ship called ''Shahibi'', an ocean going ship built on her personal order. When treacherous Aurangzeb imposed tax on non-Muslims like Hindus, she vehemently protested against it and told him this would alienate him from majority Hindus and later it would weaken him as a strong ruler.
Being ruthless, despotic and a war monger in the later years, Aurangzeb's treasury ran out of money and he laid the foundation for the fall of Mogul rule in India.
http://madhukidiary.com/shahzadi-jahanara-begum-sahib-facets-of-her-life/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/smitsandhir/8251967602/in/photostream/
https://darweshdiaries.wordpress.com/2014/10/09/mughal-women-and-architecture/
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