Once Jehangir and Nur Jahan visited Mandu. Jehangir loved the place and wanted to explore it. He took Nur Jahan along with him to go around and visit the madrasa, hoshang shah’s makbara and various palaces. Now the madrasa’s were built at a height and they had to climb a lot of stairs to go on top.
Nur Jahan refused to climb up as there were too many stairs to climb. Jehangir then promised her that for each stair she climbed he will give her a gold coin or ashrafi. Nur Jahan climbed a stair and Jehangir gave her one ashrafi, this went on till she climbed all stairs and reached the top. They saw all the places and then climbed down and again Jehangir had to give her a gold coin for each step she climbed down.
When both got down Nur Jahan gave all the gold coins she had got from Jehangir to be distributed to the poor. The locals named the place Ashrafi Mahal after this incident. Jehangir loved Mandu and visited it two-three times. Once he stayed 7 months in mandu unwilling to return to Agra or Lahore palace. Akbar was in his late 40s and Nur Jahan in 40s at the time this happened.
History and Chronicles 