Once Jehangir visited a temple in Agra. He took his grandsons Dara Sikoh and Aurangzeb along for the visit. While Dara had no issues visiting the temple with their grandfather, Aurangzeb a young kid at that time refused to enter the temple saying it will make him a Khafir “non believer” and its blasphemy for him to enter a temple. Jehangir tried to convince the kid Aurangzeb to come inside the temple but Aurangzeb simply refused and Jehangir left Aurangzeb outside and went inside with his other grand kid to offer prayers. Jehangir had puja offered and than went outside and Aurangzeb was waiting for him.
Jehangir was so angry at aurangzebs attitude during temple visit that he came back and called Shah jahan, his son and complained about aurangzebs behaviour in temple. But Aurangzeb never changed his attitude and remained defiant and disliked anything to do with hindu or any other religion. Shah Jahan himself was an orthodox muslim from a young age. That was more to do with his being adopted and brought up by Ruqaiah Begum, Akbars first wife than his own parents Jodha Bai and Prince Salim. Akbar had handed over Prince Khurram aka Shah jahan to Ruqqaiah for upbringing as a 4 days old baby. Only later on in his life in his mid 40s did Shah Jahan become liberal and allowed Diwali and Holi celebrations in Delhi fort. The change occurred because Dara Sukoh showed inclination towards Hinduism and Sufism and even Sikhism. And Shah Jahan’s favourite son was Dara Sukoh, so father just had to become more liberal to accomdate his loving sons interest in Hindu religion and Sufism. Otherwise for most of his life even Shah Jahan remained orthodox muslim rather than a follower of many religions like his father Jehangir or grandfather Akbar.
Jehangir was born to a Rajputh Princess Hira Kunwari. Although he practiced Islam and to some extent Din e Illahi his fathers Akbars religion, he had no issues in participating in various other religious practices or going to their temples. The British felt he was an aethist because he had Jesus and Mary pictures in his bedroom and also had Persian version of Bhagvad Gita in his bed room. Thomas Roe felt he was an muslim when required and hindu other times. Willam Finch wote that he was a Christian sometimes. Some felt he was a Jain other times because he loved to hold discussions with Jadrup Gosain the jain muni in his ant mound(in forest). Jehangir celebrated holi, diwali, raksha bandhan and duseerha in agra fort. He also celebrated Christmas and Easter with Christians in court and visited churches in Delh, Lahore and agra. He celebrated the Parsee festival of nauroz with fervour in his palace. He was multi religious in celebrating various religious functions in his palace. Indeed he was so impressed with Jainism as a religion that he converted to Jainism and called himself jagat guru and his chief consort Jodha Bai as Jagat Gosain. Although converting to Jainism did not stop him from following Islam and hindu rituals and celebrating various religion festivities. Basically all the ambassadors of other countries and his courters were confused which religion he practiced or belonged to.
History and Chronicles 
Great white washing of barbaric Jehangir … ! He was a destroyer of temples, murderer of Hindus, just like any other Muslim ruler. Read this – 1) Tuzuk-I-Jahangiri’, the autobiography of Jahangir, tells about an Incident when he visited Pushkar in Rajasthan. He very jealously ordered to demolish a Varaha Temple situated there. In his own words –
“I went to see that temple. I found a form cut out of black stone, which from the neck above was in the shape of a pig’s head, and the rest of the body was like that of a man. The worthless religion of the Hindus is this, that once on a time for some particular object the Supreme Ruler thought it necessary to show himself in this shape; on this account they hold it dear and worship it. I ordered them to break that hideous form and throw it into the tank” 2) Intikhab-I-JahangirShahi’, an account contemporary of Jahangir, tells that when he came to know about Jain Temples in Ahmadabad, he instantly ordered to demolish them.
“The Emperor Jahangir ordered them to be banished from the country, and their temples to be demolished. Their idol was thrown down on the uppermost step of the mosque, that it might be trodden upon by those who came to say their daily prayers there. By this order of the Emperor, the infidels were exceedingly disgraced, and Islam exalted”
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Jehnagir was a complex man. He held ibadat khana like his father where discussion was held on various religions. He definitely was no saint or saviour. He had definitely ordered the idol to be broken and jain temples to be broken. But at same time he visited church in delhi and agra on Christmas. He celebrated Christmas and Diwali in his palace with his wife and kids(picture there in mughal paintings). He played holi and did Dusserha procession of his elephants horses and costly items. He went and held discussion on relgion with jadrup a jain monk in forest. He celebrated rakhi festival where his servants and his mothers servants daughters(hindu maids) could tie him rakhi. So he was a complex human you could never predict when he landed at temple to worship and when he could order demolitions. He was not one way person like Aurangzeb who hated anything hindu or christian. He was a complex man tough to predict. He even put his own ullema in jail for opposing his rules that they thought are against muslim religion. So what jehnagir may do could not be predicted by anyone at any moment actually. Jehangir ordered ban of animal slaughter on jain festival days. So predicting such an emperor was complex whether he hated hindu or jain relgion cannot be truly said. Because some days he himself visited temples and celebrated their festivals or banned animal slaughters on jain festivals. The travellers from europe even wrote he carried his mothers palaquin on his shoulders when she went to temple. Jehangir was a complex human when he did something against other religion or suddenly started celebrating them could never be predicted actually. So Jehangir visiting temple with Aurangzeb cannot be ruled out. We must first think that was 16th century norms were different than unlike 21st century.
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