What Happened to Shah Jahan's Daughters After Aurangzeb Imprisoned Him?

In June 1658, Prince Aurangzeb laid siege to the fort of Agra, where his father, Shah Jahan, the Mughal emperor of the Taj Mahal, was living. His men seized the gate on the river and cut off the water of the Jamuna. According to Persian sources, the old emperor wrote to his son that only yesterday he had been the master of nine hundred thousand troopers, and today he was in need of a pitcher of water. The reply: it is your own doing. On the eighth of June, after three days of thirst, Shah Jahan opened the gates. He would remain a prisoner in that fort until he died. When the gates opened, four of his daughters were still alive. Parhez Banu, his eldest child, by another wife. Jahanara, first lady of the empire since she was seventeen, who owned merchant ships and paid for the great mosque of Agra and the market street of Chandni Chowk in Delhi. Roshanara, who had been secretly working for Aurangzeb inside the women's quarters. And Gauhar Ara, the baby whose birth had cost their mother, Mumtaz Mahal, her life. By old Mughal custom, none of them was expected to marry. In this video, we trace what actually happened to Shah Jahan's daughters after Aurangzeb imprisoned him. From Jahanara, who stayed with her father behind the walled-up gates and proposed to Aurangzeb that the empire be divided between the four brothers, to Roshanara, who chose the winner and became first lady of his court. From the execution of Dara Shikoh in 1659 to the January night in 1666 when Shah Jahan died in the eight-sided tower, looking across the river at the Taj Mahal, and Jahanara was powerless to give him an emperor's funeral. We follow the reversal: Jahanara restored as first lady, Roshanara pushed to the background and dead in 1671, amid a poison story never proved, Parhez Banu in 1675, and Gauhar Ara, the last, in 1706. And we end with what is left of them today: a marble grave open to the sky, a market street, a mosque, and a garden that became a cricket club. This is the story of four sisters, one siege, and four very different roads. If you made it this far, leave the word Jahanara in the comments. And if you enjoyed the video, please subscribe. These deep dives take real work, and your support genuinely makes a difference. Sources: • Jadunath Sarkar, History of Aurangzib, vols. II, III and V • Saqi Must'ad Khan, Maasir-i-Alamgiri, translated by Jadunath Sarkar (Calcutta, 1947) • François Bernier, Travels in the Mogul Empire, A.D. 1656 to 1668, ed. A. Constable (London, 1891) • Niccolao Manucci, Storia do Mogor, translated by William Irvine (London, 1907), vols. I and II • Ira Mukhoty, Daughters of the Sun (2018), excerpt on Scroll.in • Rana Safvi, The tomb of Princess Jahanara • L'Osservatore Romano, Jahanara, the wise and pious Mughal princess (2024) • The Delhi Walla, Jahanara's Tomb, Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya's Dargah (2015) • Time Out Delhi, Roshanara Baradari and Tomb in Roshanara Bagh • Feminism in India, Jahanara Begum: A Powerful Mughal Queen (2018) • Wikipedia, Jahanara Begum • Wikipedia, Roshanara Begum • Wikipedia, Gauhar Ara Begum • Wikipedia, Parhez Banu Begum • Wikipedia, Mumtaz Mahal • Wikipedia, Shah Jahan • Wikipedia, Roshanara Bagh #ShahJahan #Jahanara #Roshanara #GauharAra #Aurangzeb #MumtazMahal #TajMahal #DaraShikoh #MughalEmpire #Mughals #MughalPrincess #AgraFort #Delhi #ChandniChowk #IndianHistory #WomenInHistory #RoyalWomen #RoyalFamilies #LostKingdoms #DynastyHistory #HistoricalDocumentary #ForgottenHistory #SouthAsianHistory