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Sarmad the Armenian and Dara Shikoh

Sarmad the Armenian and Dara Shikoh

By Majid Sheikh

Dawn 6th May, 2006

D ARA Shikoh, the eldest son of Shah Jehan, has a very special place in the hearts of the people of Lahore. He was known as Shah Dara, the rightful heir to the Mughal throne. Shahdara, the settlement on the banks of the Ravi, is named after him. Above all, he was a man of immense learning and scholarship, and his inclination towards Sufism and negation of rigid fundamentalism endears him, still, to the people of the walled city.