By IANS,
Yangon : India’s last Mughal emperor, Bahadur Shah Zafar, lay buried here for nearly 130 years in a forgotten grave until 1991 when his final resting place was chanced upon during digging.
His mausoleum in this former capital of Myanmar is frequented by those who want to have a glimpse of the tomb of the man who was the last emperor of India. He died Nov 7, 1862, after being exiled by the British.
After the first war of independence in 1857, the British whisked the emperor away to Myanmar, then Burma, where he died at the age of 87 at Rangoon, now Yangon.
After the 1857 revolt, he had hid at Humayun’s tomb in the Indian capital where he was caught.
The mausoleum gets visitors, some of whom pray. Bahadur Shah Zafar had become a saint in his last days. Buried alongside his grave are his wife Begum Zeenat Mahal and granddaughter Raunaq Zamani Begum.
While digging to lay the foundations of a memorial hall in 1991, a subterranean grave was discovered.
It is believed that this grave is the true grave of the last Mughal, the graves on the ground being decoys constructed by the British to ensure nationalist sentiments centred around the last emperor were not aroused.