On November 7th, 1862, the last Mughal Emperor, Bahadur Shah Zafar, passed away in Burma.
King of India Bahadur Shah Zafar lived the life of a destitute during his exile. King was given a two-room modest house in Burma. Poet King, deprived of paper and pen, used a half-burned wooden stick as a pen and a wall as paper to write his poems. He spent almost four years away from his homeland, preparing for a new journey into eternal life.
Bahadur Shah Zafar died on November 7, 1862, at 5 a.m., at the age of 87. News of Zafar’s death reached Delhi a fortnight later, on November 20. Ghalib read the news in the Avadh Akhbar on the same day that it was announced that the Jama Masjid was finally going to be given back to the Muslims of Delhi. Already numbed by the news of so many other deaths and tragedies, Ghalib’s reaction was resigned and muted: ‘On Friday, the 7th November, and the 14th Jamadu ul Awwal, Abu Zafar Siraj ud Din Bahadur Shah was freed from the bonds of the foreigner and the bonds of the flesh. “Verily we are for God, and verily to him we shall return"
The Last Mughal, by William Dalrymple, pp. 475
Below are photographs of the last Mughal taken before his exile to Rangoon. Another engraving of the King in his full Imperial attire.
#thehistorybuff #india #इतिहास #history
No comments:
Post a Comment