Shah Jahan was the third son of Jahanghir and his Rajput queen.he was born January 5 1592, in lahor, India.During his father reign, Shah Jahn was part of the clique that dominated Mughal dynasty politics. After his father`s death, he garnered engough support to proclaimhimself emperor. He conducted a very expensive military campaign to recover Kandahar, Balkh, and Badakshan.But this only wasted four crore rupees in two years with no land acquisition as such. However ,the Mughal entrapment of the two states of Deccan, Golcunda and Bijapur as vassal states by 1636. They were assisted by the cunning son of Malik Ambar of Ahmadnagar , called Fateh Khan. He had antipathy against the Nizam of Ahmadnagar. The Mughals accomplished their mission of controlling the Peninsular realm of Deccan.A distinct feature of Shah Jahan`s reign was that the country luxuriated in the peace of no-foreign invasion.

The regime of Shah Jahan was marked by the birth of trade and commerce in Delhi, Agra, Lahore, Ahmadabad through an improved network of roads and waterways.


The actual achievement of this great connoisseur of art was the the architectural structures and monuments carved out in that period.A major metamorphosis we notice, is in the substitution sandstone as a building material in Akbar,s Red Fort with costly marble as in the Diwan-i-am(hall of public audience) or the black marble pavilion of the Shalimar Gardens in Srinagar. The Juma Masjhid , the Moti Masjhid , the tomb of Jahanghir in Lahore definitely deserve mention. Finally,the architectural masterpiece, embodying Shah Jahan`s eternal romance with his beloved wife ,Arjuman Begum,later named as Mumtaz Mahal is the exquisite Taj Mahal , situated in Agra.

Chaos and bloodshed related to wars of succession for the throne had become the order of Mughal era. All his four sons,Dara, Shah Shuja, Aurangzeb and Murad, started fighting among themselves during the last years of Shah Jahan`s rule. Shah Jahan personally chose Dara as the would-be-heir.But the Muslim nobles disliked the popular Dara for his liberal mindset. Ultimately the awful Aurangzeb cleansed all obstructions through coercion and blood-drain. He imprisioned Shah Jahan, heinously murdered Murad and Dara,while the hapless Shah Shuja ran away for his life from India. Shah Jahan died January 22 1666, in Agra.