Garden where Aurangzeb was crowned

Tucked away in northwest Delhi’s Shalimar Bagh is a Mughal royal retreat by the same name that dates back to the 17th century. One of the many royal gardens built during this period, this particular complex includes an imposing palace known as Sheesh Mahal that served as the site where emperor Aurangzeb’s coronation ceremony took place in 1658.

- Sadia Akhtar

 

Today, however, Shalimar Bagh — under the jurisdiction of the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) — is a shadow of its glorious past, and the palace complex within it has become a site of neglect and deterioration, despite its status as an Archaeological Survey of India (ASI)-protected monument.

Shalimar Bagh finds a mention in various historical documents — it was planned by Aurangzeb’s father Shah Jahan, and some accounts say that it was commissioned by Shah Jahan’s wife, Akbarabadi Begum.

According to Maulvi Zafar Hasan, the ASI archaeologist who prepared the first list of monuments worthy of conservation in 1916, Shalimar Bagh was originally known as Aizzabad Bagh. “It is probable that the garden was known after Aizzun Nisa Begum also known as Akbarabadi Begum, a mistress of Shahjahan,” he wrote.

Author Khafi Khan, in Muntakhab-ul lubab, a historical account of the Mughal empire which was completed around 1732, wrote that Aurangzeb completed ceremonial procedures for his ascension to the throne at Shalimar Bagh.

“Aurangzeb, not caring to enter the fortress of Delhi, encamped in the garden of Aizzabad, now called Shalimar, and he sent out on advanced force, under Bahadur Khan, in pursuit of Dara (Shikoh, his brother and rival for the throne). On Friday, the first of Zulqada (July 31, 1658), after saying his prayers, and at an auspicious time, he took his seat on the throne of the empire of Hindustan, without troubling himself about placing his name on the coinage and the sending of presents to other sovereigns and nobles were all deferred to his second accession to the throne,” he wrote.

Shalimar Bagh also finds a mention in Sir Syed Ahmad Khan’s