At a time when debates around identity, pluralism and cultural memory are increasingly shaping public discourse in India, writer and scholar Amit Ranjan’s new book Dara Shukoh revisits the life of one of the Mughal era’s most intriguing and overlooked figures — a prince who believed spiritual traditions were meant to engage in dialogue, not conflict.

The book explores the life, philosophy and tragic downfall of Dara Shukoh, the eldest son of Mughal emperor Shah Jahan and the heir apparent to the Mughal throne before he was defeated and executed by his brother Aurangzeb in 1659.

Through a richly detailed narrative drawing from Mughal chronicles, Sufi traditions, Bhakti poetry and European travel accounts, Ranjan brings Dara back into the centre of India’s historical and cultural imagination.

Remembered as a scholar, patron of the arts and a student of comparative religion, Dara Shukoh is best known for translating the Upanishads into Persian and attempting to build intellectual bridges between Islamic and Hindu philosophical traditions. He believed spiritual truth transcended religious boundaries and described this synthesis as the “meeting point of two oceans”.

The book also revisits the violent Mughal war of succession that changed the course of Indian history. Following his defeat, Dara was paraded through the streets of Delhi in chains before being executed on Aurangzeb’s orders — an event the author presents as not just a political defeat, but the suppression of a more cosmopolitan and intellectually open vision of India.

Blending literary storytelling with historical scholarship, Dara Shukoh examines a larger historical question: what might the subcontinent have looked like had Dara, rather than Aurangzeb, ascended the Mughal throne.

Amit Ranjan is a writer, poet and scholar and a three-time Fulbright scholar. He is the author of John Lang: Wanderer of Hindoostan and the poetry collections Find Me Leonard Cohen, I’m Almost Thirty and The Knot of Juggernaut. Educated at St Stephen’s College and JNU, he has worked as a journalist, playwright, actor and academic.