On Prince Khusro...My Hapless Mughal.

For those who wonder why history retains remnants of memory of someone like Prince Khusro,who never won any battles or excavated any jheel and, therefore, never had the fortune or misfortune to have any question framed on him in school and college history exams, i have an answer.
His memory remains, atleast in old,historical tomes, so that anoraks-especially maudlin anoraks-can have someone to brood upon.He was a prince, a Mughal and Akbar Badshah's dearest grandson so much so that the great emperor of Hindustan had actually contemplated to have him as his heir instead ofhis son and khusro's father,Jahangir.And if that was not all,what made his astoundingly good fortune all the more astounding and enviable was his popularity amongst the masses. When his father was rousing apprehensions by his excessive fondness for wine and luxury, and his brother Khurram was incurring wrath by his no less excessive arrogance; he, Khusro, was winning many a heart in the Mughal realms by his secular mindset and high ideals. To put it succintly,if Akbar ever had a flesh and blood reflection, it was Khusro!
But he-and it is does not surprises me at all-was destined to become the protagonist of a heart searing tragedy. He, encouraged by a faction of nobility who prefered him to his perpetually inebriated father, revolted against Jahangir;when defeated,gallantly accepted his fate only to be blinded and later on, killed by his father,at the instigation of his brother Khurram.Later,Khurram was to become the subject of many a panegyric and the idol of many a lover,as the builder of an ineffably beautiful marble mausoleum on the bank of Yamuna in Agra.Later,he was to become the great Mughal empereror and the immortal lover, Shahjahan....But, before he became all that, he didn't mind being a fratricide by heaping false accusations on his brother.But this post is not about Shahjahan;its about Khusro.It doesn't matter by whom or how he was killed.His death had pushed him into oblivion and need not be dilated upon. What strikes me as a rather cruel irony,is his life.To be bestowed with all the means,yet not allowed to reach the end is sad.And, he was a sad figure because his nobility, magnanimity,gallantry were all mocked at by his life and completely forgotten, after his death, by history......But he remains my hero, my hapless Mughal.