Rajput troops fighting for the Mughals introduce to Assam the habit of taking opium, which the soldiers receive as a daily ration.

Mughal prince Aurangzeb, reappointed governor of the Deccan in 1652, in 1657 attacks the border kingdoms of Golconda in an effort to extend the empire.

Dara Shikoh, the eldest son of Shah Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal, is an erudite champion of mystical religious speculation and a poetic diviner of syncretic cultural interaction among people of all faiths.

This makes him a heretic in the eyes of his orthodox younger brother Aurangzeb and a suspect eccentric in the view of many of the worldly power brokers swarming around the Mughal throne.

Dara is a follower of Lahore's famous Qadiri Sufi saint Hazrat Mian Mir, to whom he had been introduced by Mullah Shah Badakhshi, Mian Mir's spiritual disciple and successor), and who had been so widely respected among all communities that he had been invited to lay the foundation stone of the Golden Temple in Amritsar by the Sikhs.

Dara had subsequently developed a friendship with the seventh Sikh Guru, Guru Har Rai.

Dara has devoted much effort towards finding a common mystical language between Islam and Hinduism.

Towards this goal, he completes the translation of fifty Upanishads from its original Sanskrit into Persian in 1657 so it can be read by Muslim scholars.

His translation is often called Sirr-e-Akbar (The Greatest Mystery), where he states boldly, in the Introduction, his speculative hypothesis that the work referred to in the Qur'an as the Kitab al-maknun or the hidden book.

is none other than the Upanishads.

His most famous work, Majma-ul-Bahrain ("The Mingling of the Two Seas"), is also devoted to a revelation of the mystical and pluralistic affinities between Sufic and Vedantic speculation.

A desperate struggle for the succession begins among the Mughal princes after Shah Jahan falls ill on September 6, 1657.

Murad Baksh, the youngest son of Shah Jahan and empress Mumtaz Mahalp, proclaims himself emperor after reports that his father had died.

Aurangzeb's eldest brother, Dara Shikoh, is regarded as heir apparent, but the succession proves far from certain when Shah Jahan's second son Shah Shuja immediately declares himself emperor in Bengal and marching towards Agra while Murad Baksh, receiving the news that Shah Jahna still lives, allies himself with Aurangzeb.

Imperial armies sent by Dara and Shah Jahan soon restrain Shuja’s effort, and he retreats.

Shuja marches again to the Mughal capital, this time against Aurangzeb.

A battle takes place on January 5, 1658 at Khajwa (Fatehpur district, Uttar Pradesh, India) where Shuja is defeated, after which he retreats towards Bengal, pursued by the imperial army under Mir Jumla.

Dara has strong support from Shah Jahan, who has recovered enough from his illness to remain a strong factor in the struggle for supremacy, and his eldest son Sulaiman Shikoh had led his army to victory over Shah Shuja on February 14, 1658,
in the battle of Bahadurpur.

Dara had nevertheless been defeated by Aurangzeb and Murad on May 30 at the battlefield of Samugarh, thirteen kilometers from Agra.

Aurangzeb subsequently takes over Agra fort and on June 8 deposes his father.

Murad Baksh, while in a tent with his brother Aurangzeb in 1658, is intoxicated and sent in secret to the prison in Gwalior Fort ,where he faces a trial that sentences him to death for having murdered someone in the past.

Dara had retreated after the defeat from Agra to Delhi and thence to Lahore.

His next destination was Multan and then to Thatta (Sindh).

From Sindh, he had crossed the Great Rann of Kutch and reached Kathiawar, where he had met Shah Nawaz Khan, the governor of the province of Gujarat who had opened the treasury to Dara and helped him to recruit a new army.

He then occupied Surat and advanced towards Ajmer.

Foiled in his hopes of persuading the fickle but powerful Rajput feudatory, Maharaja Jaswant Singh of Marwar, to support his cause, the luckless Dara had decided to make a stand and fight Aurangzeb's relentless pursuers but on March 11, 1659, was once again comprehensively routed in the battle of Deorai (near Ajmer).

After this defeat he had fled to Sindh and sought refuge under Malik Jiwan, a Baluch chieftain whose life had on more than one occasion been saved by the Mughal prince from the wrath of Shah Jahan.

However, Malik had betrayed Dara and on June 10, 1659, turned him (and his second son Sipihr Shikoh) over to Aurangzeb's army.

Brought to Delhi, placed on a filthy elephant and paraded through the streets of the capital in chains, Dara's fate is decided by the political threat he poses as a prince popular with the common people—a convocation of nobles and clergy, called by Aurangzeb in response to the perceived danger of insurrection in Delhi, declares him a threat to the public peace and an apostate from Islam.

He is murdered on the night of August 30, 1659, by assassins.