Nathalie Moreira-Ramirez
Professor Zaman
05-10-2015
HIST 388
The Mughal Empire successfully ruled for nearly two hundred years and their greatness was something that could not have been foreseen. According to Nur Jahan, Empress of Mughal India by Ellison Findly there were three things that aided and sustained a Mughal emperor his army, his treasury, and his women.[1]
Elite Mughal women such as the queens and the princesses of the Mughal Empire had many more roles than only being a part of the emperor’s zanana, the harem. Behind great emperors such as Babur, Humayun, Akbar, Jahangir and Shah Jahan there were also great women who with their economic patronage, their charitable endowments, and their architecture all contributed to the grandness of the Mughal Empire. Women in the Mughal empire were both invisible and visible depending upon the type of patronage in which they pursued and the amount of influence and power they possessed. One thing is for certain the emperor governed these women’s lives and that did not dissuade them from leaving their mark on the history of the Mughal Empire.
First and foremost the zanana commonly known as the harem is
much more than what western orientalism has visualized it to seem. Ruby Lal’s
book Domesticity and Power in the Early
Mughal World criticizes one sentence on the harem in John F. Richards book The Mughal Empire for being in line with
the fantastical ideas.[2]
“Ideally the harem provided a respite, a retreat for the noblemen and his
closest male relatives- a retreat of grace, beauty, and order designed to
refresh the males of the household.”[3]
In actuality it is under Akbar’s reign in which the harem becomes institutionalized
into a well-structured quarter just for females, a sacred space that was
distinctly separated from any male domains. During the time of the Mughals parda the veiling and seclusion of women
was an already an accepted practice among many upper class families and the
emperor. Findly states that Alexander Dow speculates the reasons for parda were religious, social, and a
class arrangement. It was believed that only through seclusion of women could
their modesty and the honor of their families be protected.
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The harem was the living quarters for
the emperor’s wives, their slave-girls and his concubines. Accessibility to the
harem was extremely restricted and only a few selective males such as the
emperor’s servants or eunuchs could enter the harem. In the harem itself
according to Findly “The palaces in which the zanana women lived were self-sufficient cities with a full range of
castes, occupations, and administrators, and were as cosmopolitan a mix of
religions, nationalities, and artistic talents as to be found in any metropolis
of the time.”[4]
According to Richards the noble households were divided into the inner private
household that women occupy and the external public household that men
dominated.[5]
Not only was the harem a private space of Mughal women but also it was a space
that was inaccessible to strangers. It is from the harem itself in which powerful
elite women such as Maham Begum Babur’s wife and Humayun’s mother, Hamideh Banu
Begum Humayun’s wife and Akbar’s mother, Mariam-us-Zamani Begum Akbar’s wife
and Jahangir’s mother, Mehr-un-Nissa Jahangir’s wife and Mumtaz Mahal Shah
Jahan’s wife emerge as powerful and influential Mughal women.
Bearing in mind that women of the
Mughal Empire were to a high degree secluded it might be difficult to perceive
how these women were active participants in various activities. There is also
sparse documentation dedicated to the lives of women in the harem that
represents them as powerful women and not just exotic subservient women of the
emperor. Women’s roles in the day to day functioning of state administration
and long-term political and economic planning in kingdoms before the Mughal
Empire as Karuna Sharma explains in her journal article A Visit to the Mughal Harem: Lives of Royal Women were largely neglected
because court historians were thought to believe that history was exclusively a
domain of men and no place for women.[6]
Under the Mughal Empire there is a deviation from their predecessors in how
they understand their women’s roles in the empire. This can be observed not
only in the assorted patronage these elite women commissioned but also in the
duties some of the elite Mughal women of the harem were appointed by men.
One such noteworthy duty that was
assigned to an elite woman of the Mughal harem was the duty assigned to
Gulbadan Begum, Babur’s daughter. Gulbadan Begum as Lal states, “she spent her
childhood under her father’s rule in Kabul and Hindustan; her girlhood and
young wifehood shared the fall and exile of Humayun; and her maturity and
failing years slipped past under the protection of Akbar.”[7]
It was during the reign of her nephew Akbar that Gulbadan was ordered to write
an official history of the Mughal Empires early stages and of Akbar’s reign. The
Humayun Nama written by Gulbadan was
written in a very distinct style that sets it apart from the Akbarnama. Lal argues that a historiographical
document like Gulbadan’s Humayun Nama
which offers the reader a women’s perspective of Mughal history and a modest
look at the lives of Babur her father and Humayun was different from the court
chroniclers at the time who tended to not deviate from the generic panegyric
genre.[8]
Unfortunately sources such as
Gulbadan’s and “visual materials, architectural remains, the anecdotal and
poetic accounts of women and servants- have been marginalized by modern
historiography…”[9]
This is an example of how elite Mughal women have been kept invisible, Mughal
sources have been assigned authenticity, accuracy, and objectivity dependent
upon the gender of its creator. Lal comments on historian Ishantiaq Husain
Quershi statement about the Akbarnama:
“The foundations of any historical study of Akbar must rely solidly upon
Abu-l-Fadl’s Akbarnama. It is full,
detailed and mainly authentic, because it was written by a man who was fully
familiar with the official policies and actions of the government and enjoyed
not only the confidence but actually the friendship of the emperor.”[10]
Although it has been argued that Abu-l-Fadl’s Akbarnama depicts a fuller picture of Akbar’s life and the empires
political and religious issues, Gulbadan was Babur’s daughter, Humayun’s
sister, and Akbar’s aunt her depictions of Babur’s and Humayun’s lives is
important because it is from an individual in their inner circle. Her account
of their lives includes details that Abu-l-Fadl’s might have thought were not
noteworthy. Lal believes that Gulbadan’s memoirs are special because they
depict this other image of her father and his relationship and it is a rare
account of the domestic life, Gulbadan goes in depth on details of events that
are only casually mentioned or not mentioned at all in other documents.[11]
Lastly Gulbadan sheds light onto the lives of elite Mughal women and their
activities, marriages, deaths, and intimate relationships that otherwise have
gone undocumented.
Despite the fact of parda elite women in the harem were given enough liberty to
patronize architecture and participate in the empires pursuit of greatness.
Sharma elaborates on how elite Mughal women were assigned important new
opportunities that contributed to the structure of the state although it was
contingent upon their proximity to the emperor. ”The wives, concubines, and
female relatives of the master were ranked by seniority, blood ties, and favor
in a strictly prescribed hierarchy.”[12]
In the harems hierarchy the mother of the emperor was the most influential and
important person. Sharma notes that the emperor’s mother was responsible for
upholding the family values and guiding and educating the younger generations.
A strong mother-son relationship was
that of Emperor Humayun and his mother Maham Begum, Babur’s wife. Their
relationship can be identified in Gulbadan’s memoirs, “My lady Maham Begum, had
a great longing and desire to see a son of Humayun.”[13]
As an elder elite Mughal woman it was her responsibility to insure that her son
reproduced, keep the family name thriving, and preserve the linage. Lal
explains how Maham Begum is portrayed by Gulbadan as a busy woman that does not
allow the parda to impede her from doing
her diligent duties for her son Humayun. Lal observes that Annette Beveridge
drew from Gulbadan Begum the following picture of Maham Begum:
Maham Begam was a clever woman, and
both as wife and as widow made herself felt in her home. Lady Rosebody
[Gulbadan Begum] lifts the parda and
shows us the Empress-mother busied in duties not often disclosed to the outside
eye. In telling the story, which for the sake of its many special points we
quote in full, she has no air of being indiscreet, and is, as may be seen,
quite matter-of-fact.[14]
Maham Begam is one of a selective few elder Mughal
woman whose relationship with their sons has allowed them to exert decisive
decisions in their son’s lives and to the same degree exercise decisions on the
direction in which the Mughal Empire was heading towards.
Lal asserts the importance of the
elite older matriarchs such as the emperor’s mother by addressing to an
occasion documented in the Akbarnama
in which Akbar’s mother Hamideh Banu Begum along with other elite Mughal women
from the harem plead for Prince Salim’s forgiveness from the emperor Akbar.[15]
This is an example of the degree in which the influence and authority of
Akbar’s mother Hamideh Banu Begum could extend to and influence. Hamideh Banu
Begum was a powerful Mughal woman who was visible in the public sphere because
of her frequent involvement during Akbar’s reign. Lal comments on a Jesuit
priest Father Rudolf Aquaviva letters to Rui Vicente Provincial regarding
Akbar’s reign.[16]
In these letters Father Rudolf regularly mentions Queen Hamideh Banu Begum,
this speaks to her regular public appearances. Akbar’s relationship with his
mother is widely evident in the Akbarnama,
the degree of respect and honor Akbar had for his mother can be extracted from
this document. Akbar refers to his mother as “the visible God” which Lal claims
amplified the queen’s status.[17]
The queens numerous visits to her son also serve as an example to her central
presence in the imperial order.
Lal also notes that there are hardly
any documents that mention Akbar as having a loved wife associated with him
although his marriage with Mariam-uz-Zamani Begum was important it was not
distinguishable in many documents, which allowed Akbar’s mother to be the only
central women in his life that was fairly documented. Hamideh Banu Begum
visibility beyond the harem suggests that the public presence of women in the
Mughal Empire was also contingent on their seniority. The importance of elite
elder matriarchs is still clearly evident during the reign of later emperors
such as Aurangzeb who advised his son A’azam, “Be kind towards older members of
your family, because those favoured by you will never prove faithless.”[18]
Therefore the presences of younger women and less centrally placed women of the
harem were not frequently recorded in documents as were the presence of older centralized
matriarchs.
Mughal women were particularly
important in forging marital alliances, connections with other prestigious
families, and producing a good offspring for the emperor who needed heirs. The
forging of elite Muslims families and elite non-Muslims families were for the
most part out of political and religious motivations, these relationships
produced gradual but significant shifts in an emperor’s policy depending upon the
amount of influence the wife had over the emperor. One such relationship was
that of Emperor Akbar and Empress Harkha later known as Mariam-uz-Zamani, she
was one of Akbar’s non-Muslim wives and the first Rajput women to marry into
the Mughal family. Mariam-uz-Zamani’s marriage to Akbar influenced his personal
feelings and policies towards Hindus and his Hindu subjects; their relationship
represented the emperors and the Mughals openness and tolerance of difference. “Thus
Akbar’s marriages with the Rajputs and other Hindu nobles become an index of a
power that incorporated the universe in quite unprecedented ways.”[19]
Their multi-ethnic relationship cleared the path so that noble non-Muslim men
could also enter the royal court of Akbar.
Elite Mughal women were also a means
for cultural syncretism. A few Mughal empresses retained their heritage, such
as Nur Jahan. The syncretism of cultures is visible in the details of art pieces
and architectural structures commissioned by these women. Elite Mughal women
such as Gulbadan according to D. Fairchild Ruggles book Women, Patronage, and Self-representation in Islamic Societies, found
appealing Hindu art and the representation of the Hindu female form.[20]
In these different forms of artistic patronage one can find connotations to
cultural syncretism with the Hindu culture.
As Jahangir’s mother Mariam-uz-Zamani
exerted power and influence by doing something that usually women of the Mughal
Empire were not credited for doing, issuing a document that stated her name has
Jahangir’s mother. Here again we see women’s role swept under the rug, it was
typical at the time of the birth of an emperor’s son for the emperor to be
glorified. Women were not recognized for their accomplishment and it was common
to find their names missing from records and on occasion they were mentioned
metaphorically but never by name. According to Lal the only edict that clearly
states the name of the mother who bore an emperors son is that issued by
Mariam-uz-Zamani.[21]
“They were present but hidden away, crucial to the maintenance of the empire
but unnamed in its annals.”[22]Although
the young wives reproductive function was an important asset to the
continuation and survival of the empire, it was remarkably trivialized. Once
more this shows how the presence of younger Mughal women was not frequently
documented in comparison to older matriarchs.
As Findly states women of the harem
were diverse, internally mobile, and a highly vociferous group.[23]
One woman that doubtlessly set her self apart from other women in the harem was
Mehr-un-Nissa also known as Nur Jahan. It is broadly agreed that Nur Jahan was
one of the most powerful and influential woman of the seventeenth century and
the entire Mughal Empire. Nur Jahan was the love and light of her husband
Jahangir, and likewise Nur Jahan was deeply in love with Jahangir. As a woman in
Jahangir’s harem Nur Jahan immensely contributed to the arts, architecture,
religious policies, and many charitable acts during Jahangir’s reign. It has
also been implied although no one can know for certain, Nur Jahan dominated
decisive decisions in affairs having to do with the state during Jahangir’s
reign because not only did she have a powerful influence over him but
Jahangir’s abuse of opium often left him indisposed and Nur Jahan in power. Nur
Jahan was loyal and faithful to her husband and has been the only women in the
entire history of the Mughal Empire that has occupied such decisive position of
power in the empire. Nur Jahan was clearly a woman that could not be kept
secluded by the parda or made
invisible in history because of her active participation in various activities.
Findly agrees that Nur Jahan made
herself visible to the public through her patronage of buildings, gardens, and
investments in the arts. It is through these forms of patronage that Nur Jahan
represented herself in the public sphere and in history, unlike others who have
only been represented or briefly mentioned in peripheral secondary accounts.
“Nur Jahan was carful to bring out items that would not only have a broad
appeal but, in some cases, be inexpensive enough for many to afford.”[24]
Nur Jahan’s artistic achievement such as new textiles and designs patterns on
stonewalls of various building were a representation of the innovative and
creative ideas Nur Jahan was contributing to her community. Beautiful ornamental
patterns can be found in the interior surfaces of her father’s tomb in Agra, it
was one of the grandest gestures an empress could do by creating a mausoleum
fitting for a her father. The creation of this mausoleum would eternally be
attributed to the ingenious work of Nur Jahan, the commissioning of such a
structure was a mode of public display of Nur Jahan’ presence. This mausoleum
has been compared to the Taj Mahal and has coined the name little Taj Mahal
because of its likeness and elegance.
The Empress also commissioned the
construction of the Nur Mahal Sarai in Jalandhar according to Findly.[25]
A sarai
is a living quarters for travelers such as merchants, soldiers, or people on
pilgrimage. Nur Jahan later also commissioned the construction of a mosque in
Kashmir, the Pattar Masjid. All of this was feasible because of Jahangir’s ample
resources and his support of various forms of patronage by the women in his
harem. As Nur Jahan’s power and presence declined after the death of her
husband Jahangir, the last building Nur Jahan erected was her own tomb. Nur
Jahan’s mausoleum although never entirely completed was near the tomb of her husband
Jahangir. The determination of Nur Jahan to construct her mausoleum near her
husbands displays the amount of power and love for her husband Nur Jahan held.
In addition to Nur Jahan’s
contributions and commissioning of beautiful architecture, the empress was also
partly responsible for the development of the religious policy during Jahangir’s
reign over the empire. Findly questions whether the development of religious
conservatism in the Mughal Empire was due Nur Jahan’s influence on Jahangir
which already religious himself. The change of the religious perception of Jahangir
and development of the empires religious policy is significant because
Jahangir’s perception and policies was contradictory to those of his father
Akbar. Findly agrees that Jahangir’s more narrow view of religion is reasonably
different from his father’s universalist sentiment.[26]
Nur Jahan’s various charitable acts
were occasionally invisible because they were considered to not be momentous as
other patronage she pursued. Findly states that it was said that “thousands
were grateful for her generosity” and “if ever she learnt that any orphan girl
was destitute and friendless, she would bring about her marriage, and give her
a wedding portion.”[27]
Charitable acts such as these by Nur Jahan were not given plenty of credit;
some have argued that these chartable acts by Nur Jahan and other Mughal women
were due to their Muslim conviction. Findly proposes that a Muslims conviction
to charity and responsibility for others financial well-being could have
contributed to the empresses chartable acts and economic patronage.[28]
Findly also defends Nur Jahan’s actions and suggests that it could have been
entirely in Nur Jahan’s nature to be charitable and not due to any of her religious
convictions.
Nur Jahan was not only acknowledged for her contributions to architecture and charitable causes but also for her involvement of both domestic and foreign trade markets. According to Ruggles, “Her domestic revenues derived from collecting duties on textile goods, spices, and other consumer stuff as they passed through trading centers, and her foreign trade involved the export of textiles and indigo and the import of various luxury items.”[29] Such involvement in domestic and foreign affairs by an empress counters Ishantiaq Husain Quershi statement that suggests that he believes only men were familiar with the official policies and actions of the government. As his wife Nur Jahan occupied an intimate position that allowed her to be in Jahangir’s inner circle of trust. As an educated woman Nur Jahan clearly demonstrated her knowledge of the official policies and actions of the Mughal government through the management of these trading centers. Nur Jahan could have acquired this knowledge by observing her husband or through her early education.
To conclude on Nur Jahan’s
significance and power she held in the Mughal Empire one should acknowledge the
minting of coins as one of Nur Jahan’s most public creations. After Nur Jahan’s
marriage to Jahangir the emperor ordered the minting of both gold and silver
coins with the inscription of Nur Jahan’s name stamped onto them. Findly
suggests that it could have been possible that Nur Jahan was as an equal or
close to an equal to Jahangir because there were some coins of Nur Jahan that
were similar in value to those of Jahangir. According to Findly the minting of
coins is one of two forms a Mughal emperor could use to symbolize his supreme
sovereignty and a mark of total sovereign responsibility. The fact that Nur
Jahan achieved the minting of her own coins serves as a perfect example of just
how much power and influence Nur Jahan possessed.
As previously stated Arjumand Banu
Begam later known as Mumtaz Mahal also represented a visible women of the
Mughal Empire. Shah Jahan gave his wife the title “Exalted One of the Palace”,
and the monument built in her honor by Shah Jahan visibly illustrated the value
of Mumtaz Mahal. Lal cites Francois Bernier’s own words found in Archibald
Constable’s European travel account Travels
in the Mogol Empire AD 1656-1668, “the wife od Chah-Jehan [Shah Jahan]- so
renowned for her beauty, and whose splendid mausoleum is more noteworthy of a
place among the wonders of the world…”[30]
The Taj Mahal was not only the resting place for Mumtaz Mahal and eventually
Shah Jahan himself but also represented to the public an image of the beauty of
the Empress Mumtaz Mahal. It went against the tradition of keeping a Mughals
wife faceless, secluded, and invisible.
All of these women concentrated
either on one or all of the following areas, economic patronage, charitable
acts, or the development of arts and architecture. A case could be made that
the women of the harem were in fact portrayed and incorporated accurately into
the history of the Mughal Empire by men and court historians such as Abu-l-Fadl,
foreign visitors, or the works emperors commissioned. Ruggles counters this
argument by stating the fact that most empresses were represented in paintings
that were not commissioned by the women.[31]
Therefore when looking at the representation of women in Mughal history whether
it is in paintings or historical documents it is important to take into account
who is the one that commissioned these works because they are the ones that
have control of how these women are being represented. As highlighted in previous
paragraphs the importance of the of the patrons gender whether male or female
is important to historians when interpreting the picture a particular document
or painting evokes in an individuals mind. Ruggles concludes that there is no
such piece of history that is ever unmediated and objective that represents the
absolute final and truthful image. Thus it is only reasonable for historians
not to solely rely upon men’s documentation of history. History written by men
maintains the habit of overlooking women’s achievements and primarily focusing
on those of their male counterparts. Sharma states in her journal article that
the Mughal court depended upon these powerful women to survive and flourish in
the competitive environment in which they lived.[32]
Royal women and men often worked together in order to achieve a common
objective and with such responsibilities women’s roles in the empire according
to Sharma often transcended gender differences and boundaries.[33]
These were vigorous women who challenged tradition, transcended gender
boundaries, and demonstrated the tremendous value of women.
Women’s charitable acts such as feeding the poor has been perceived in countless historians minds as trivial because they were not acts that could be kept alive throughout history. Although Ruggles states that these act were witnessed by society it was men at that time that recorded history and therefore it appears that women have no power. Unlike the commissioning of buildings by Mughal women that occupy physical space, these forms of charitable acts could be kept alive so long as the structure stands. These acts represent occasions that Ruggles believes women stepped outside the harem and outside of what orientalism and earlier historians thought was an insignificant component of the Mughal Empire. The autonomy and power these women exercised in the public-private sphere of the Mughal Empire contributed to the making of one of the most powerful empires to rule over most of the Indian subcontinent.
Work
Cited
Findly,
Ellison Banks. Nur Jahan, Empress of Mughal India. New York: Oxford UP, 1993.
Print.
Iftikhar,
Rukhsana. "Cultural Contribution Of Mughal Ladies." South Asian
Studies (1026-678X) 25.2 (2010): 323-339. Academic Search Complete. Web. 17 May
2015.
Lal,
Ruby. Domesticity and Power in the Early Mughal World. Cambridge: Cambridge UP,
2005. Print.
Richards,
John F. The Mughal Empire. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1993. Print.
Ruggles,
D. Fairchild. Women, Patronage, and Self-representation in Islamic Societies.
Albany: State U of New York, 2000. Print.
Sharma,
Karuna. "A Visit to the Mughal Harem: Lives of Royal Women." South
Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies XXXII.2 (2009): 155-69. Print.
[1]
Ellison Banks Findly, Nur Jahan, Empress
of Mughal India (New York: 1993) 88.
[2] Ruby
Lal, Domesticity and Power in the Early
Mughal World (Cambridge: 2005) 2.
[3]
John F. Richards, The Mughal Empire
(Cambridge: 1993) 62.
[4]
Findly 89.
[5]
Richards 61.
[6]
Karuna Sharma, A Visit to the Mughal
Harem: Lives of Royal Women (South Asia: 2009) 155.
[7]
Lal 57.
[8]
Lal 55.
[9]
Lal 55.
[10]Lal
55.
[11]
Lal 59.
[12]
Richards 62.
[13]
Lal 62.
[14]
Lal 63.
[15]
Lal 203.
[16]
Lal 203.
[17]
Lal 204.
[18]
Sharma 166.
[19]
Lal 173.
[20] D.
Fairchild Ruggles, Women, Patronage, and
Self-representation in Islamic Societies (New York: 2000) 111.
[21]
Lal 185.
[22]
Lal 188.
[23]
Findly 89.
[24]
Findly 219.
[25]
Findly 222.
[26]
Findly 184.
[27]
Findly 205.
[28]
Findly 205.
[29]
Ruggles 108.
[30] Lal
43.
[31]
Ruggles 4.
[32]
Sharma 161.
[33]
Sharma 167.