Nadira Banu Begum (14 March 1618 – 6 June 1659) was a Mughal princess and the wife of Crown Prince Dara Shikoh, the eldest son and heir-apparent of the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan. After Aurangzeb's rise to power, Dara Shikoh's immediate family and supporters were in danger. Nadira died in 1659, a few months before her husband's execution, and was survived by two sons and a daughter.
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Family and lineage
Nadira Banu Begum was born a Mughal princess and the daughter of Sultan Parvez Mirza, the second son of Emperor Jahangir from his wife Sahib-i-Jamal Begum. Her mother, Jahan Banu Begum, was also a Mughal princess and the daughter of Sultan Murad Mirza, the second son of Emperor Akbar. Nadira was a half-cousin of her future husband, Dara Shikoh, as her father was the older half-brother of Shikoh's father, Shah Jahan.
Marriage
In 1631 arrangements for the planned wedding of Dara Shikoh and Nadira Begum were halted when Shikoh's mother, Empress Mumtaz Mahal, died while giving birth to her fourteenth child, Gauharara Begum. After the Empress' death, the Mughal Empire plunged into mourning. Shah Jahan was consumed by grief but, after the coaxing of many including his favorite daughter Jahanara Begum, Shah Jahan allowed wedding plans to resume under her oversight.