Jahanara princess of princesses kathryn lasky biography

Mughal Princess from 1631 to 1658

This article is about the Mughal princess. For other uses, see Jahanara Begum (disambiguation).

Jahanara Begum (23 March 1614 – 16 September 1681) was a princess of the Mughal Empire.

She was the second and the eldest surviving child of Mughal EmperorShah Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal.

After Mumtaz Mahal's untimely death in 1631, the 17-year-old Jahanara was entrusted with the charge of the royal seal and conferred the title of Padshah Begum (First lady) of the Mughal Empire, even though her father had three surviving wives.

She was Shah Jahan's favorite daughter and she wielded major political influence during her father's reign, and has been described as "the most powerful woman in the empire" at the time.^[2]

Jahanara was an ardent partisan of her brother, Dara Shikoh, and supported him as her father's chosen successor.

During the war of succession which took place after Shah Jahan's illness in 1657, Jahanara sided wi