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The Kashmir Timeline

Dara Shikoh

The scholar prince who built Pari Mahal.

Dara Shikoh photograph

Photo: Gurkan1526 · CC0 · Wikimedia Commons

Dara Shikoh, eldest son of Shah Jahan, was drawn to Sufism and to the meeting points of Islamic and Hindu thought. He oversaw a Persian translation of the Upanishads and built Pari Mahal for his Kashmiri Sufi teacher. He lost the war of succession to his brother Aurangzeb and was executed in 1659.

Facts

  • His book Majma-ul-Bahrain, the meeting of the two oceans, compares Sufi and Hindu mystical ideas.