#tagged:daughtersofthesun

[maketeaa]

daughters of the sun - ira mukhoty

most of the women of the mughal haraman were, in fact, not wives at all; they were mothers, like hamida banu and harkha bai, unmarried sisters, like jahanara and roshanara, divorced women, like khanzada, single daughters, like zeb-un-nisa and zeenat-un-nisa, aunts, like gulbadan, distant relatives, like salima sultan, elderly dependents, etc. they were not sexually available women at all. and yet they all had a role to play, a duty to perform, and they were respected, and paid, for these crucial jobs.

who were the mughal women behind the veil of the zenana? hidden behind the purdah, little historical accounts were recorded of the ongoings within the harem, and those that were are steeped in orientalism, western curiosity (and ethnocentricism alike) sprouting ideas of languor, lasciviousness, blouseless indian women waiting in their haveli for their shahenshah to visit them. such a lack of probing into the real story led to a disappointing overshadowing of the role played by the harem in the empire. but ira mukhoty casts this shadow away, shining the light of her in depth research and impeccable narrative to delve into the lives of some of the most influential women the world has seen.

mukhoty takes her readers through each reign of the mughal emperors, from babur's escape from samarkand to aurangzeb's mammoth of expanded territory. we hear of khanzada begum, babur's eldest sister, surrendered to shaybani khan and separated from her timurid family for almost a decade; gulbadan begum, who authored the famous humayunama, the biography of her father; nur jahan, the chief consort who had coins struck in her name, who was short of only being announced in the khutba from being the padshah herself; and jahanara begum, the daughter of shah jahan, who went from her glorious reign as padshah begum to her imprisonment in agra fort with her ailing father as her brother took the throne. interspersed are the stories of other, lesser known women of the harem -- wet nurses such as maham anaga; second, third, and fourth wives; and sisters and daughters that fall back to the sidelines. most beautifully of all, mukhoty weaves this all into a complex tapestry of female power, ambition, companionship, and spirituality, displaying in rich hues the kaleidoscope of lives suffusing the mughal harem.

after four-hundred years, the curtain of the zenana is finally pulled back -- along with the misconceptions colouring a vital chapter of female history.