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Her seal read, “With the grace of Allah, became in this world, Emperor Jahangir’s consort and confidant.”

Her name was not read in the khutba (religious sermon) and aside from religious edicts and rulings; she was running all the affairs of the empire. The emperor kept her with him at all times. When he held court she used to sit behind the curtain with her hand on the Emperor’s back. When the Emperor got on the elephant she also accompanied him behind the veil. Noor Jahan was a woman of distinct deportment, an embodiment of intellect and in possession of exquisite splendour, in a few days she enslaved the Emperor in such a way that he started saying I have sold my Empire to Noor Jahan for two cups of wine and one Seekh Kebab. This intelligent and benevolent woman started trends in dresses and jewellery for the women of Hind that are still being followed in the Royal Court and Mughal nobles.’

His book mentions one of her innovations called Chandni which was used to cover the floor. It covered flaws of the poor man’s floor and enhanced the beauty of the floors of the rich and wealthy. She set fashion trends at court with her designs of silver-threaded brocades. For cost-conscious brides, she is also credited with creating the nurmahali, an inexpensive set of wedding clothes. She was a great philanthropist and every year financed and arranged trips to Mecca, Medina and Karbala for a large number of destitute Mughals.

Noor Jahan was a beauty with brains. Not only was she multilingual, she also wrote poetry in Persian. She was a composer and had composed many of her Persian poems. About her literary prowess, Maulvi Zakaullah Dehlvi writes in his book Tareekh-e-Hindustan, “It is said that she had a literary mind and used Makhfi as pen-name. While relating jokes and anecdotes she was like a nightingale that had a thousand tales to tell. Her wit was matchless. People to this day copy her witticism in the gatherings of the nobles and the elite. One day, the emperor glanced at the moon and said, ‘The Eid moon is sighted on the horizon’. Noor Jahan promptly replied, ‘The lost key of the bar is found.’ She recognised the worth of poets. One day, she met Taleb Amoli who was Malikul Shu’ara (king of poets) in Jahangir’s era and said that you haven’t written anything to eulogise me. Taleb Amoli replied that how one can praise someone whom one hasn’t laid eyes upon. In reply, Noor Jahan read the verses, ‘Bulbul would leave the flower if laid eyes on me in the garden. Brahmin would give up worshipping idols if beheld me. Like fragrance in the flower, I am veiled in my poetry. He who desires to lay eyes on me should see me in my poetry.’ On one occasion, she read the verse about the bejewelled clasp of a king’s robe, ‘Thy silken robes have ruby clasp, it has turned to blood while seeking courtesy of neckline’.”

The following verses are also from her writings,

“I wouldn’t give my heart for beauty till I get to see the nature, A slave of love, I know of the nation of the 72. O virtuous one, don’t put the dread of the Dooms Day in our hearts. We know the feeling of Dooms Day as we have been through the dread of the parting.”

In the waning years of Jahangir’s reign, the wars of succession started. Noor Jahan wanted Prince Shehryar to accede the throne. On the other hand Prince Khurram wanted the throne. He raised an army and rebelled against his father in 1622. The rebellion was quashed and he was forgiven but Jahangir took away his title of Shah Jahan and gave him the title of Bay Doulat (Penniless man). Jahangir died in 1627 on his way from Kashmir to Lahore. Prince Khurram emerged victorious from the war of succession that ensued. Asif Jah whose assent to power was the due to magnanimity of Noor Jahan proved himself as a power hungry and ungrateful man. Siding with his own son in law, he imprisoned his sister and benefactress Noor Jahan and got Prince Shehryar blinded and later on killed, in order to control the situation. Mughal princes were the luckiest or the unluckiest people on earth as they either ended up on the throne or in the coffin. Prince Shehryar ended up in the coffin and Prince Khurram got the throne.

After ascending to the throne in 1628, Shah Jahan released Noor Jahan and gave her due respect and honour. Following the demise of her husband and the murder of her son in law, Noor Jahan gave up politics completely. She had enough property from her father and husband to spend her life in comfort but as a token of respect Shah Jahan gave her annual stipend of Two Lakh rupees, which was a massive amount at that time.

Noor Jahan devoted her time, energy and resources for the welfare of poor, destitute orphan girls and arranged marriages of hundreds of them. She passed after eighteen years of widowhood at the age of 72 on 29 Shaawal, 1055 AH. Some historians cite Saturday, 2nd Rabi Us Sani 1055 as the day of her passing. She was buried in the mausoleum that she had gotten constructed herself. Her daughter was also buried in the same tomb. The love of a mother for her daughter endured.

On the farther bank of River Ravi, in Shahdara which is close to the Lahore city, there used to be Qasim Bagh (Qasim Garden). It was one of the most beautiful gardens of the Akbar and Jahangir era. It was included in Mughal holdings as per Noor Jahan’s wish and was named as Bagh e Dilkusha (Garden that delights the heart). In one part of the garden lies the tomb of her husband the Emperor Jahangir and that of her brother Asif Jah in another compound.

After the demise of Jahangir, Noor Jahan spent most of her remaining years in Lahore as she had a special emotional connection with the city. She also constructed a palace adjacent to Dilkusha garden. Towards the south of the palace there were four smaller gardens not more than a hundred square feet across, they were named as Chahar Chaman (Four gardens). Noor Jahan got her tomb built, in the centre of these gardens. The construction cost more than three lakh rupees and took almost four years to complete.

Red sandstone is used in the basic structure of the tomb. A beautiful Asian Dome was also a part of the tomb but it doesn’t exist now. Towards the south of the mausoleum a beautiful mosque was also built but it too has vanished due to ravages of time. Marble and many other precious stones were also used to beautify the structure.

The account of the tomb’s original construction is given thus in Naqoosh Lahore Number:

‘I would first briefly give the description of Noor Jahan Begum’s tomb that is mentioned in Zafar Nama with the reference of ShahJahan Nama , then I would describe its current condition:

‘This tomb is located to the west of the main gateway of Jahangir’s mausoleum, it’s tomb from the base to the summit was octagonal. Its circumference was 15 yards. With eight sides, there were eight resting places on the inside and eight Pishtaq (rectangular frames around arched opening). Every arch is 7 in length, 4 in width and 11 Krud in height, and is in half octagonal style. Precious stones, like Marble in the interior and Sang e Abri; Marble and Yellow stone are used on the exterior as well. The tall podium of the tomb and interior of the building is adorned with mosaic of unique variety of stones. Quranic verses and Names of Allah are inscribed in mosaic art. The floor is also inlaid with a variety of stunning stones. The circumference of the octagonal platform around the dome is sixty yards. It is entirely constructed of red stone. This platform is surrounded by ponds. Every pond is nine yards in length and seven and a half yards in width. The eastern wall of Jahangir’s tomb and this tomb is common i.e. the wall that surrounds Jahangir’s tomb and Asif Jah’s tomb. The same wall joins Char Chaman (four gardens) and Noor Jahan’s tomb with the mausoleum of Jahangir. On the western side of this tomb there is a mosque and in its east there is a beautiful mosque like building. There is a garden and a door towards the south. Noor Jahan constructed all these buildings, her own mausoleum and gardens during her lifetime at the cost of three lakh rupees and over a period of four long years.

The tomb was surrounded by ponds and their remains can still be seen. Kanhaiya Lal Hindi, in his book Tareekh e Punjab (History of Punjab) describes the tomb (page 339) thus;

“This mausoleum is situated, towards West across the railway track, outside the boundary wall of the mausoleum of Asif Jah. The building is constructed in a strange fashion as the whole structure stands on high vaulted arches and domed ceilings. In every direction there are seven openings, there are thus twenty eight openings. In the centre there are four corridors running east to west and north to south. In the centre there is an open courtyard that has three entrances on every side. There are a twelve entrances overall.

Noor Jahan was a beauty with brains. Not only was she multilingual, she also wrote poetry in Persian. She was a composer and had composed many of her Persian poems. About her literary prowess, Maulvi Zakaullah Dehlvi writes in his book Tareekh-e-Hindustan, ‘It is said that she had a literary mind and used Makhfi as her pen-name’

In the midst of the building, there is a raised platform and on that platform there are two cenotaphs. One is of Noor Jahan the Empress and the other is that of her daughter. The whole building has vaulted ceiling. Towards the south there is a stairway leading to the roof, under the ground floor there is an ornate basement. Its entrance is towards the south and following this, people can go in the basement.

This building was beautified with intricate stone work during the reign of Emperor Shah Jahan.

The podium inside and the cenotaphs were made of Marble and the outer walls were made of Red stone. The floor was constructed with using Sang e Abrak. When her brother’s tomb was stripped of its stone the same calamity befell this mausoleum. All of the stone was removed on Maharaja Ranjeet Singh’s orders. On opening the basement’s door it was discovered that the ebony coffins of both bodies were kept in stone sarcophaguses. Hence, the sarcophaguses were removed and the bodies were buried in the ground and the tomb was repaired with brick and lime.”

Time hasn’t been kind to this mausoleum. As if the loot and plunder during the Sikh era wasn’t enough, during the British Rule the destruction further escalated when in order to lay down a railway track, the boundary wall of this magnificent edifice was demolished and the tomb was separated from those of Jahangir and Asif Jah. The distance between the buildings kept increasing due to railway track and road. Before partition the basement, that housed the graves as a mark of privacy, was used as lavatory by the rural population.

The tomb, even today, is in a very dilapidated condition. A huge part of the gardens surrounding the main building have been fenced off and are being used by a Government department. A short while ago, however, reconstruction of boundary wall started. The original area of the tomb has diminished to a large extent. In the 70s some restoration work was carried out on the western and northern walls. The eastern and southern walls stand bare to this day, without any stone work. There is some mosaic work left on the outer walls, at a few places. Inside the mausoleum, there are elevated sarcophaguses of white marble, the sides of which are covered with flowers of mosaic in the same style as the tombs in the Taj Mahal at Agra. On the two sides of the graves ninety-nine names of Allah are inlaid in black. The real graves of Noor Jahan and Ladli Begum are in the basement over which the ground has been leveled. An iron chain cordons off and marks the place of the graves, as a sign of respect. On the ground floor there were intricate marble lattices to allow sunlight and air into the basement. They have since been replaced with limestone. On the eastern side of the tomb there is a stairway that leads to the basement but an iron gate stands guard over it and it has been closed to the general public. Towards the right there is an entrance to a tunnel which has also been closed. Beyond that, there is an arched corridor. One has to bow one’s head to pass. There are no electric lights here so those who do go in take candles with them after obtaining special permission.

The present floor of the tomb was built by Hakim Hafiz Muhammad Ajmal Khan Dehlvi in 1912. He also installed an epitaph that read:

Empress Noor Jahan’s Date of passing

The distance of parting just eighteen steps

Thus is the path of Mehr un Nisa begum towards eternity

The archangel commemorated empress of Hindustan

Passing of life (from one realm to another) is but a date

She faced long trail filled with anguish of separation

But Jahangir went ahead to welcome her

Haziq Ul Mulk Hakeem Ajmal Khan Dehlvi affixed this epitaph in 1913 AD according to 1430 AH.

The exterior of the tomb paints a sorry picture. There is also an office of the Archaeology Department in the north, where the people get their tickets to visit the monument. The eastern courtyard is being used as a garbage dump by the local population. As the evening falls drug addicts and junkies gather here to have a drag. There are fruit stalls beside the rundown northern iron fence.

The atmosphere of the basement that houses the graves of Noor Jahan and her beloved daughter is quite gloomy as there is nothing but deafening silence and blinding darkness. The visitor is confronted with unadorned and unembellished final resting place of the most powerful Empress of Asian history.

Perhaps Noor Jahan had a premonition about the treatment that her mausoleum was going to receive and that is why for a long time her gravestone read her own couplet, which is mentioned in the memoirs of Pran Nevile.

On my grave, there are no candles, no flowers

Neither any moth’s wings are burnt, nor does any nightingale sing songs over here.

This mausoleum is a part of our national heritage. The present state of the place is also a point to ponder, for the organizations working for women rights. Noor Jahan was the Empress who had rendered commendable services for girls and women. Her final resting place deserves better. It’s sound structure, arched corridors and vast gardens should be preserved otherwise the coming generations would rank us lower than the Sikh Rule and British Imperialism as we fail to conserve this invaluable piece of history.

A few verses from Ehsan Danish’s poem that poignantly describe the state of this tomb, seem befitting in the end

“Noor Jahan Kay Mazar Pay” (At the Tomb of Noor Jahan)

This land of Shahdara, abode of grief and admonition

Every particle a victim of ravages of time Exhaustion rules very blade of grass, each speck of dust

Antiquity hovering over the whispering ambiance

Dry soil marked with ancient drops of water dying moments surmising the passing time

Seeping cold in the rivers of bluish fog Environs of darkness, resting place of the mists of time

These desolate surroundings, this mausoleum of Noor Jahan

Engulfed forever in the dust of the trails nearby *