NEW DELHI: Efforts being made to locate the exact burial site of Mughal Prince Dara Shikoh have come to an abrupt halt after no development in the matter for months now.
The officials of Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), privy to the subject, said that following the difference of opinion among the members of the panel to identify the final resting place of Dara Shikoh and change of guard in the culture ministry, the matter is in abeyance.
"Members could not reach a consensus, hence no conclusion was drawn. However, individuals submitted their reports. The role of ASI was limited. It forwarded their observations to the ministry. Later, cabinet reshuffle took place, and since then there has been no development," said an official.
It is believed that Dara Shikoh was laid to rest in Humayun's tomb complex. However, historians are divided over the fact. In February 2020, the then culture minister Prahlad Singh Patel made an announcement about the formation of a seven-member committee to look for the grave of ill-fated royalty who was killed by his younger brother Emperor Aurangzeb.
The panel was headed by TJ Alone, now joint director general (Jt DG) of ASI, and senior archaeologists BS Bisht, KK Muhammed, KN Dikshit, BR Mani, BN Pandey, and Syed Jamal Hasan.
In December 2020, Patel said that the panel was likely to submit its final report within 7-10 days after which the controversy on Dara Shikoh’s grave would hopefully end. A month later, the members examined a set of graves inside Humayun's Tomb Complex and held an on-site discussion to reach a conclusion during which Sanjeev Kumar Singh, a civil engineer with the SDMC who claimed to have identified the crypt of the prince, was also present.
Singh, based on his research in historical records and texts, had argued that the prince was buried in one of the chambers below the dome of Humayun's Tomb along with Emperor Akbar's sons Daniyal and Murad. Majority of the members endorsed his submissions, but Hasan opposed his theory. "I said that there were three graves which don’t have any inscription, so Dara Shikoh's grave can’t be identified," said Hasan.
When The New Indian Express reached out to Alone, he refused to comment. Union culture minister G Kishan Reddy said that he would check with officials. Mani said that he had handed over his report to the ASI.