Ministry’s committee to find truth of Dara Shikoh tomb

By Navneet Mishra/Mohammad Suaib Khan

Dec 25, 2020

New Delhi: A committee constituted by the Ministry of Culture to find the tomb of Dara Shikoh, eldest son of the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan, in January this year will visit Humayun’s tomb again on January 11, 2021 to find out the truth behind the claim of Municipal Corporation of Delhi engineer Sanjeev Kumar Singh.

The decision was taken in a meeting of the committee on Thursday. R. S. Bisht, B. R. Mani, K. N. Dixit, Dr. K. K. Muhammad, Syed Jamal Hasan and B. M. Pandey are also in the committee.

Singh had claimed that he found the tomb of Dara Shikoh in Humayun’s tomb. Sources said that members of the committee agreed to his claims and they also matched to the estimates of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI).

After a meeting on Thursday to locate the tomb of Dara Shikoh at Humayun Mausoleum, committee member BR Mani told IANS, “In today’s meeting it is decided that in January the committee members will visit the site. Municipal Corporation of Delhi engineer Sanjeev Kumar Singh will also be called. Only then will a decision be taken on the tomb of Dara Shikoh. The report will go to the ministry after the committee’s visit. Some members have visited the site earlier. ”

After the meeting, the committee member BR Mani told IANS, “It has been decided that the committee members will visit the site in January again. Any decision on the tomb of Dara Shikoh will taken after that only. A report will be sent to the ministry after the committee’s visit. Some other members had already visited the site earlier.”

He said that when the Persian book Alamgirnama written by Mohammed Kazim, who wrote the official history in the era of Aurangzeb, was translated it was found that it has complete information about the killing and cremation of Dara Shikoh. According to the book, Dara’s body was buried in the basement of Humayun’s tomb, where Akbar’s other sons Daniel and Murad were buried.

Singh said, “He successfully found the grave of Dara Shikoh after four years of rigorous efforts. The grave of Dara Shikoh was found after studying the styles of the tombs of all times. The Alamgirnama book showed the way. I made this report on my own will and the report was praised by all. It is a pleasure to bring this into light.”

Darashikoh, one of the four sons of the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan, was assassinated in 1659 by his own brother Aurangzeb. Dara Shikoh was not only a scholar of Indian Upanishads and philosophy but was liberal as well. Due to his liberal view, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh likes the character of Dara Shikoh among the other Mughal rulers. In such a situation, the discovery of Dara Shikoh’s tomb holds extreme importance for the government.IANS