Director K. Asif’s 1960 movie ‘Mughal-e-Azam’ portrays the love of Mughal Prince Salim (who later became Emperor Jehangir) and Anarkali, a courtesan. The movie revolves around the affair that led to differences between Salim with his father, Emperor Akbar. Prithviraj Kapoor, Dilip Kumar and Madhubala had played the role of Akbar, Salim and Anarkali respectively.
It is said that Asif got the idea of doing this movie after reading a 1922 play ‘Anarkali’. The movie gained worldwide accolades, but many questioned the historic truth to it. The existence of Anarkali in real is debatable.
To support their point, historians point to Jehangir’s autobiography, ‘Tuzuk-i-Jehangiri’, which has no mention of any woman named Anarkali.
There is also no mention of her in ‘Akbarnama’, a book written by Emperor Akbar’s friend and biographer Abul Fazl.
Even Imtiaz Ali Taj, the author of the play ‘Anarkali’, said that the legend had no historical base.
However, there is another theory about a tomb in Lahore. Locals believed that after becoming emperor, Salim got tomb constructed in a place where Anarkali was allegedly buried.
Historians dispute the claim, saying that the place where the tomb is, was a site of a pomegranate garden named Bagh Anarkali. People started creating stories around the unnamed tomb and hence came the existence of Anarkali.
Historian Abdullah Chagatai also partially supports the theory. He had said that the tomb contains the grave of Jehangir’s wife Saheb Jamal. With time, her name disappeared into oblivion and the local residents named it as the tomb of Anarkali based on the surrounding pomegranate gardens.
The mystery of Anarkali remains, but the size of the burial chamber and the presence of a grave inside the mausoleum, suggest that the deceased person was of a significance.
‘Mughal-e-Azam’, the so-called fictional story based on Anarkali and Salim love affair, went on to become one of the most iconic movies in Indian Cinema.
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