Abdul Rahim Khan-i-Khana started building a mausoleum for his Begum in India, he built a mausoleum for his Begum family in 1598, 5 decades before the construction of Taj Mahal by Shah Jahan. This tomb is located near Humayun’s Tomb in Delhi. Rahim was also buried here after his death in 1627. Here we are talking about Abdul Rahim who was among the successors of Akbar.
Apart from being a good poet, Rahim was also a warrior. He also held the post of commander of a contingent of the Mughal Sultanate’s army. There is a famous story about Rahim that whenever he begged from someone, he did not even look at him. Today we are talking about the same story.
Abdul Rahim was born in 1557. He was the son of Bairam Khan. Bairam Khan was one of Humayun’s most trusted people. When Akbar was 13 years old, Humayun gave the responsibility of taking care of Akbar to Bairam Khan. According to Ulvoor (Alwar) Gazette, Rahim was only five years old when Bairam Khan was murdered in Patan city of Gujarat. After this, Rahim was brought up under the care of Akbar.
After completing his education, Akbar gave Abdul Rahim the title of Mirza Khan and then married him into his family. Akbar included him among his Navaratnas, after which he also made him the commander of a contingent of 5 thousand soldiers. He also won some battles and attained the highest title of Mir Arj. In 1984, Akbar honored Rahim with the title of Khan-e-Khana. However, in the meantime he also had to face defeat.
In a report quoting historian Satish Chandra, it has been told that once Rana Pratap’s son Amar Singh had taken captive the women and children of the family of Khan-e-Khana, the Governor of Ajmer. This Khan-e-Khana was Abdul Rahim. In the same report, historian Reema Huja mentions that when Maharana Pratap came to know about this, he immediately asked everyone to leave from there. Later Rahim also wrote some couplets in his honour.
Abdul Rahim was most famous for his way of giving alms to the poor, it is said that he never even looked at the beggar. Famous critic Ramchandra Shukla has written that Rahim was considered a leader of his time and no one returned empty handed from his place. The special thing is that whenever he gave alms to someone, he looked down with great humility. When Tulsidas ji came to know about this, he wrote a couplet and sent it to Rahim.
“Such a give and take, how much you have learned, sir. Make it as high as you can, never pull it down.”
(That is, why do you give alms like this? Where did you learn this? Your hands are high, your eyes are low…)
On this Rahim wrote that
“Everyone is someone else, the day is sending rain. Ugar Baram Hum Par Daren, Yete Jet Neen”
(i.e. a giver who gives day and night to someone else, but the world gives me credit, so I lower my eyes)
Abdul Rahim, a contemporary of Tulsidas, besides writing a couplet, also translated Baburnama from Persian into the Chagatai language. Which was completed in 1589-90. He had a good command over Sanskrit. He also wrote two books on astrology named Khetakautukam and Dwatrinshadriogavalli. The special thing is that despite being a follower of Muslim religion, Rahim has done a lot of work in Hindi literature.
