Revolt of Prince Khusrau

Revolt of Prince Khusrau

Revolt of Prince Khusrau

Prince Khusrau was the second child and eldest son of Jahangir from his Rajput wife Man Bai. He was born on 6^th August, A.D. 1587. He was a handsome youth of sharp intellect. Terry writes about him, “He was gentleman of a very lovely presence and fine carriage and was exceedingly loved by the common people.”

As Khusrau was the nephew of Raja Man Singh and son-in-law of Mirza Aziz Koka, the two notable grandees of Akbar’s court, he had become a serious candidate for the throne of Akbar. Seeing the irresponsible activities of Salim some of the courtiers, noble and relatives wanted to enthrone Khusrau in place of Jahangir after the death of Akbar.

But Khusrau narrowly missed the goal and Salim came to be known as Jahangir. He forgave all his political opponents. Raja Man Singh who was the supporter of Prince Khusrau felt some trouble at the hands of Jahangir, so after hearing about the death of Akbar and accession of Jahangir, he thought to slip away to Bengal along with his nephew. But on immediate intervention of Jahangir into the matter and promise to forgive and forget, Man Singh visited the royal court along with Khusrau where both of them were welcomed warmly. Aziz Koka was also forgiven and permitted to retain his titles and posts.

Jahangir allotted a separate apartment to Khusrau to live therein in the premises of the fort at Agra, which, Khusrau soon realized, was semi-confinement, hence the relations between father and son began to be tense. Actually neither the father had forgiven his son from the core of his heart not the son had forgotten the splendid past. Jahangir mentions in his memoirs, “I invariably found Khusrau preoccupied and distracted. However much in favour and affection for him, I wished to drive from his mind some of his fears and alarms but nothing was gained.”

Jahangir did not behave properly with the friends and associates of Khusrau. It annoyed Khusrau and his own position of semi-confinement added fuel to his ‘fiery temper and weak judgment’. So he began to plan to get liberation form the fort.

On 6^th April A.D. 1606 in the evening he escaped from the fort with about 350 horsemen from the semi-confinement under the pretext of visiting his grandfather Akbar’s tomb at Sikandra. Husain Beg with troops joined him at Mathura. Khusrau advanced towards Delhi. On his way, he plundered the royal treasure which was being sent to Agra. Soon the news of his escape became an open secret and a vast number of soldiers joined his troops which swelled to about 12,000 when he invaded Delhi. Seeing the security arrangements of the royal forces, Khusrau marched towards Punjab. At Lahore, Abdur Rahim, the Diwan of the province also joined him. Khusrau tried to attain victory against the in-charge of Lahore fort but Dilawar Khan proved to be a hard nut to crack.

Sharif Khan, the prime Minister of Jahangir, was the first person to inform this rebellious activity of his son. He also wanted to chase the rebel prince post-haste and sought the permission of the Emperor. As Jahangir was extremely shocked to know this rebellious activity of his son, he at once ordered Sharif Khan to chase the prince but soon he changed his mind and deputed Sheikh Farid to punish him. Orders were issued to the provincial governors, military officers, nobles and feudatory chiefs to be alert against the prince. As the prince was closely related with Raja Man Singh, all the police posts on the route of Bengal were also warned to be vigilant for he might proceed to Bengal.

Jahangir was so much annoyed with his son that on enquiry about the treatment with him, he told his Prime Minister, “If he will join no way on the right road, do not consider a crime anything the results from your action. Kingship regards neither son nor son-in-law. No one is a relation to king.” Emperor Jahangir was not satisfied with the orders he had given to his Prime Minister, hence he himself proceeded after his son.

He fought a pitched battle against the royal forces at Bhaironwal where he was badly defeated but escape with a handful of his supporters but at the ferry of Sodhara he was caught and brought before Jahangir in chains in the garden of Mirza Kamran. His supporters like Husain Beg and Abdur Rahim were punished severely. Jahangir in order to teach a lesson to the rebels hanged all other supporters of Khusrau on gibbet and brought Khusrau to watch this scene.

Guru Arjun, the fifth Guru of Sikhs, was put to death on 30^th May, 1606, A.D. as a result of the revolt of Khusrau.

However, Khusrau who was the chief culprit was imprisoned in the fort of Agra. Where we hatched a conspiracy to assassinate Jahangir on his way to Kabul but before it could be executed, it was disclosed as a result, his followers were killed and the prince was blinded.

Milan Tomic

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