A prince in the shadows

Dara Shikoh, the elder brother of Aurangzeb, was a unique and marvelous personality. He was a scholar, philosopher and would have even ascended the Mughal throne, if only there was no intervention from history. Author Murad Ali Baig’s latest book Ocean of Cobras traces the life of Aurangzeb’s forgotten brother Dara Shikoh and their battle of succession for their father, Shah Jahan’s throne.

The story of the book traces the beautifully tragic life, as related in a long lost manuscript written by a fictitious palace eunuch Mubarak Ali who was Prince Dara Shukoh’s constant companion and witness to all the battles, intrigues, scholarship, trial, death and events of his tumultuous life. Talking about his book, Murad Ali Baig shares, “The book is 80 per cent history but the exciting adventures of the fictitious narrator helps bring the history alive as you see many great events happening through his eyes.”

Why did the author choose to focus on Dara Shikoh in his new book? “I was a student of history but was intrigued about why so little had been written about Dara Shikoh who seemed just a shadowy, Hamlet like, sad character in the story of other colourful Mughals,” he shares.

The book’s title, Ocean of Cobras has an interesting background as well. Murad Ali says, “It is actually based on an extraordinary event in history, recorded in Bengal. The Mughals were very superstitious, conscious of omens and this event was to give a foretaste of the high drama that was about to erupt. Strange events like millions of snakes suddenly appearing in Bengal and the predictions of a wandering fakir prejudiced Shah Jahan against Aurangzeb, which in turn made the prince bitter and determined.”

Ocean of cobras by Murad Ali Baig India Research Press pp. 360, Rs 253

The tale is packed with military action, magnificence and intrigues of the Mughal court and a battle for the very soul of India. “Mughal world in Shah Jahan’s time was quite religiously liberal or else Dara would never have been able to study Sanskrit and Hindu texts like the Upanishads and the Bhagavada Gita. Aurangzeb’s victory created not only a Hindu-Muslim divide but also a Sunni-Shia divide that I believe was to eventually lead to the India-Pakistan divide. India became a hot bed for Islamic extremism long before the Wahhabis of Arabia, so Dara’s defeat might even have created the first roots of the Taliban and ISIS,” he opines.

The author shares it took him six years to research and write a historical fiction. He quips, “I walked through many of the battlefields to research the story.” The story has ingredients of a potboiler from action, adventure, romance, and deceit to drama and intrigue. He finishes, “Every despotic court including ancient Rome, France and England was full of intrigue and drama. It was necessary to draw in these elements to make it a racy read that would add colour to the dry bones of history.”