In the war of succession which ensued after Shah Jahan's illness in 1657, Dara was defeated by his younger brother Prince Muhiuddin (later, the Emperor Aurangzeb).

[13] 'Dara' means owner of wealth or star in Persian while the second part of the prince's name is commonly spelled in two ways: Shikoh (terror) or Shukoh (majesty or grandeur).

[17] In October 1627,[18] Dara's grandfather Emperor Jahangir died, and his father ascended the throne in January 1628 taking the regnal name 'Shah Jahan'.

[21] During the life time of his mother Mumtaz Mahal, Dara Shikoh was betrothed to his half-cousin, Princess Nadira Banu Begum, the daughter of his paternal uncle Sultan Parvez Mirza.

[27] On 10 September 1642, Shah Jahan formally confirmed Dara Shikoh as his heir, granting him the title of Shahzada-e-Buland Iqbal ("Prince of High Fortune") and promoting him to command of 20,000-foot and 20,000 horse.

[28] On 6 September 1657, the illness of emperor Shah Jahan triggered a desperate struggle for power among the four Mughal princes, though realistically only Dara Shikoh and Aurangzeb had a chance of emerging victorious.

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

[33][34] His translation is often called Sirr-i-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.

[39] The library established by Dara Shikoh still exists on the grounds of Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, Kashmiri Gate, Delhi, and is now run as a museum by Archaeological Survey of India after being renovated.

It was presented to his wife Nadira Banu in 1641–42[42] and remained with her until her death after which the album was taken into the royal library and the inscriptions connecting it with Dara Shikoh were deliberately erased; however not everything was vandalised and many calligraphy scripts and paintings still bear his mark.

Among the existing paintings from the Dara Shikoh Album, are two facing pages, compiled in the early 1630s just before his marriage, showing two ascetics in yogic postures, probably meant to be a pair of yogis, Vaishnava and Shaiva.

[43] Dara Shikoh is also credited with the commissioning of several exquisite, still extant, examples of Mughal architecture – among them the tomb of his wife Nadira Begum in Lahore,[44] the Shrine of Mian Mir also in Lahore,[45] the Dara Shikoh Library in Delhi,[46] the Akhund Mullah Shah Masjid in Srinagar in Kashmir[47] and the Pari Mahal garden palace (also in Srinagar in Kashmir).

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

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

After this defeat he fled to Sindh and sought refuge under Malik Jeevan (Junaid Khan Barozai), an Afghan chieftain, whose life had on more than one occasion been saved by the Mughal prince from the wrath of Shah Jahan.

After which, he ordered the head to be put in a box and presented to his ailing father, Shah Jahan, with clear instructions to be delivered only when the old King sat for his dinner in his prison.

[57] After four years of research, Singh concluded that one of the three unmarked cenotaphs in the north-western chamber beneath the dome of Humayun’s Tomb marks Dara Shikoh's grave.

His claim is based on the Alamgirnama, a biography of Aurangzeb, which mentions that Dara Shikoh was buried below the dome of Humayun’s Tomb, alongside Akbar’s sons, Danyal and Murad.

At least five of the seven members have acknowledged and supported Sanjeev Kumar Singh’s research, agreeing that he has correctly identified the grave of Dara Shikoh.

In March 2021, the then culture Minister Mr. Prahlad Sigh Patel stated in the Rajya Sabha that the committee was studying Dara Shikoh’s heritage, but the final report is still awaited.

Padma Bhushan Irfan Habib, Professor Emeritus at Aligarh Muslim University, stated, "I am not an archaeologist or indeed an architect myself, but as far as I can comprehend, the identification of Dara Shikoh's grave seems to be quite definitive and should secure general acceptance.

Qasemi, former Head of the Department of Persian at the University of Delhi, expressed his agreement with Singh's findings, stating, "I have myself gone through the reference to Dara Shukoh's burial in the Alamgirnama and also saw the location identified by Sanjeev in Humayun's Tomb.