The Twentieth Wife

by Indu Sundaresan

  She had won a first victory over Jagat Gosini. Hoshiyar Khan, chief eunuch of the zenana, who had been with Jahangir for thirty-five years and wielded enormous power in the harem, had been taken from Jagat Gosini and appointed as personal eunuch to Mehrunnisa.

  Although she had never been a member of the harem, Mehrunnisa had spent enough time within the walls of the zenana to know that Hoshiyar would be a powerful ally. But as long as he was in service to Jagat Gosini, Mehrunnisa would have no chance of wresting power from her. The Empress had too long been chief lady of the harem to give up her position to a relative newcomer like Mehrunnisa.

  Her first step upon entering Jahangir’s harem would be to gain that power, because she disliked the Empress and because she knew from Ruqayya that in this world of women only the Padshah Begam was supreme. Discretion was key, for Jahangir hated to see his ladies fight. The moment one of them came to him with a complaint, she was banished from his presence for an indefinite time. To live in the zenana and not be noticed by the Emperor was sure death as far as the ladies were concerned. Their lives revolved around him; he gave them the power and could just as easily take it away.

  Mehrunnisa smiled wryly. She was no fool; she knew how to play the power game in the zenana and was going to call all her forces to hand right from the first moment. To start with, she needed Hoshiyar. A word in Jahangir’s ear had been enough for that, and although Jagat Gosini fumed inwardly, she dared not complain to her lord. Which was just as well, for if the Empress had objected, Mehrunnisa would have had to withdraw for the moment. Much as Jahangir adored her—and adore her he did—she would still have to be careful. For now, though, the smell of victory was sweet indeed.

  The suggestion had come from Ruqayya in the past week. “You do not want a bumbling idiot of a man around you, Mehrunnisa. Get Hoshiyar Khan,” she said.

  “The Empress will not like it, your Majesty,” Mehrunnisa replied automatically.

  Then the two women smiled smoothly at each other. Jagat Gosini would not like it. So Mehrunnisa got Hoshiyar Khan.

  The slave girls bustled into the room, carrying caskets of jewels, the wedding dress, and various bottles of perfumes and oils. Hoshiyar pranced around the room, busily directing their movements and shouting orders.

  He seems perfectly at home here, Mehrunnisa thought. And why not? Although he had been at Jagat Gosini’s side for twenty years, Hoshiyar was a shrewd man and saw immediately that Mehrunnisa had a hold over Jahangir that no other lady had been able to duplicate. She could trust him—but not completely. As long as she remained in authority, Hoshiyar would be her ally, but once she lost it, he would fly to her opponent. However, while she was supreme in the zenana, Hoshiyar would do everything in his power—even lay down his life—to serve her.

  “We are ready now.” Hoshiyar’s voice was respectful.

  Mehrunnisa rose and stood still as the slave girls took off her robe. Then the process of dressing began. An hour later, a full-length mirror was brought to her.

  Mehrunnisa gazed at her reflection.

  She reached out and touched her garments with unsteady hands. Hundreds of tiny ruby buttons glittered all over the mango-leaf green ghagara and choli of raw silk. She wore two huge ruby earrings, a ruby and gold necklace, ruby bracelets and rings, and ruby-studded armlets. The only other colors on her body were the deep blue of her eyes and the ebony of her hair. A slave girl placed a green silk turban on her head; a single white heron feather, another gift from the Emperor, sprang from the aigrette that was a lime-sized vermilion ruby surrounded by pearls. Below the turban, her green muslin veil, transparent as pond water, flowed down her back, almost reaching the ground.

  “The Emperor awaits, your Majesty,” Hoshiyar said at her shoulder.

  Your Majesty! A rush of excitement flowed through her veins. In a few short minutes she would be Empress. She took a deep breath to steady herself and walked slowly out of the room to the Emperor’s apartments.

  The corridors and verandahs leading to the Emperor’s palace were lined with slave girls and eunuchs. Mehrunnisa heard them gasp as she passed. At her approach, the two huge doors to Jahangir’s rooms swung open silently to reveal only a handful of people inside. This Mehrunnisa had insisted upon. Jahangir protested at the beginning, wanting a public, more extravagant ceremony. But Mehrunnisa said no. Why? Because they would spend the rest of their lives together in front of the empire. This moment of their joining must be private, so even the ceremony was curtailed. In her heart she was already married to him, had been married to him for a long time. This ritual was only a formality.

  When she entered, she saw him immediately. The Emperor came up to her, his hand stretched out, and she put her hand in his. They had not seen each other in ten days, bowing to the rituals of marriage. That had not mattered to Mehrunnisa; just knowing they would be together soon was enough. They had filled the time with letters, two or three a day. She told him of her pleasure in his gifts; he told her he would send more, anything she wanted. He sent her the keys to the imperial library; to thank him she roamed the vast rooms looking for a book to send to him. She found a Persian translation of the Jataka tales. He came furtively to visit that night, and they sat on either side of a silk screen, delighted like children breaking a rule, obeying the spirit of the law if not the law itself. They took turns reading from the book, growling like the lion and squeaking like the monkey in the stories. As they passed the book under the screen, their hands touched, and they kissed with the cloth between them. As she drew back, Mehrunnisa asked if Hoshiyar could be part of her personal entourage. Jahangir agreed instantly. Now their wedding was at hand.

  “You look wonderful, my darling,” Jahangir said, his eyes filled with love.

  “Thank you, your Majesty,” Mehrunnisa replied softly as she took her place next to him.

  She glanced around the room. Ruqayya sat in one corner, her face inscrutable, a tiny smile touching her eyes. Ghias Beg was flushed, his expression drenched in pride. Her mother had a worried look on her face. Two nights ago she had asked Mehrunnisa if this was what she really wanted. Mehrunnisa had simply nodded, tired of giving explanations. The only other person in the room was her brother Abul. He too had come to her two nights ago, but for a different reason. Arjumand Banu Begam had been engaged to Prince Khurram for four years—a long engagement by any standards. He was hoping his sister would expedite the marriage. She looked at him and nodded reassuringly, noting the relief on his face with amusement.

  Then she turned to Jahangir, her attention riveted to him, a feeling of security washing over her as his large hand covered her smaller one.

  Jahangir bent over to Mehrunnisa. “In a few minutes we will be married.”

  Her heart leaped at the words. “Yes, your Majesty.”

  Mehrunnisa leaned briefly against Jahangir’s shoulder, letting her forehead rest on his arm, and his hand came up to touch her face just as briefly.

  The Qazi called them to attention. He raised his hands and uttered a short prayer; all present joined in. Mehrunnisa held her breath as the Qazi asked Jahangir if he would take her for his wife.

  “Yes, yes,” Jahangir replied impatiently. “Get on with the ceremony.”

  The Qazi turned to Mehrunnisa and repeated the question. She watched his mouth move with the words, but they didn’t seem to register. When he repeated the question, Jahangir’s grip tightened on her hand. She heard a voice, her own, replying that she would take Nuruddin Muhammad Jahangir Padshah Ghazi to be her husband.

  The Qazi registered the marriage and asked the Emperor to place his royal seal on the page. They were officially man and wife. Mehrunnisa watched in a daze as her family crowded around with congratulations. In the distance she could hear the trumpets informing the city that the wedding had taken place. Suddenly everyone fell silent. Mehrunnisa shook herself out of her reverie and looked around. Jahangir had his hand up.

  “I have an announcement to make.” He glanced down at her. “From today, my
beloved Empress shall be given the title Nur Jahan.”

  Mehrunnisa’s heart thundered in her chest. The Emperor had already given her so much. In the outer courtyard of the palace a black stone bathtub, commissioned as part of her gifts, had engraved on its side the date in Persian: the 25th of May, 1611. And now he had given her a brilliant title: “Light of the World.”

  A sudden anxiety whipped through her. Before now she had been anonymous in this harem of women—one of many, a beautiful face in a handsome crowd. But now she would be watched, thought of, deferred to. This was not a simple marriage. Marrying an Emperor never was. She was married not just to Jahangir but to the empire.

  But the power gave her a chance to influence events. It would not be easy; women were given no such importance. All her life Mehrunnisa had known this. Bapa, when he had talked to her of his work, of the court proceedings, had not thought of her as a woman but as an equal. Much as he loved Maji, he had very rarely talked thus with her. Would Jahangir treat her the same? Would he think her worthy?

  She would have to fight for supremacy in the imperial harem, and then at court. If what the infidel William Hawkins reported was true, European queens shone in court beside their husbands. Why, there had been one English queen who ruled alone, who had come to the throne in her own right as the daughter of a king.

  Mehrunnisa knew she had no such advantages. She would not be able to rule beside the Emperor, only behind him, hidden by the veil. Jahangir wanted his name to glow in posterity—and it would, for his life had been entrenched in history from the day of his birth. Mehrunnisa, perhaps few people would remember. Would someone—a hundred, three hundred, four hundred years from now—take in their mouths the name of Empress Nur Jahan?

  Together, Jahangir and she would make the Mughal empire the brightest and most brilliant in the world. She wanted to do this for the man she loved so deeply, because this was what he wanted. And, Nur Jahan thought—already at ease with her new title—she wanted to be the force to reckon with behind the throne.

  She wanted to be the power behind the veil.

  AFTERWORD

  THE TWENTIETH WIFE is a work of fiction, although it is based on reality. Mehrunnisa was thirty-four when she married Emperor Jahangir, and over the next fifteen years she ruled the empire in his name. Seventeenth-century travelers to Emperor Jahangir’s court lavished attention on her in their accounts at home, for she was at the height of her powers then. None of the men actually saw her; their reports to their employers at the British and Dutch East India Companies are part fact, part legend, part gossip from the local bazaars.

  They all invariably hinted at the drama surrounding her birth, a love affair with Salim before he came to the throne, and the suspicion on him regarding her husband’s death. Contemporary historians usually do not agree. Yet, all the authors agree on some points: Jahangir never married again; Mehrunnisa was his twentieth—and last—wife. Although he alluded to her only briefly in his memoirs, she was the most important person in his life until 1627, when he died. Theirs was a love that formed the basis of poems, songs, and ballads in India. (Thomas Moore’s Lalla Rookh is also based on their story.)

  My interest was piqued. Who was this woman hidden behind the veil, around whom legend swirled wraithlike? Why was she so firmly placed in the Emperor’s affections? Why did he give her so much power? In an age when women were said to have been rarely seen and heard, Mehrunnisa minted coins in her name, issued royal orders (farmans), traded with foreign countries, owned ships that plied the Arabian Sea routes, patronized the arts, and authorized the building of many imperial gardens and tombs that still exist today. In other words, she stepped beyond the bounds of convention. All this came through the man who adored her to the point of obsession.

  The accounts of her were conflicting. She was generous. She was cruel and mean-spirited. She loved Jahangir passionately. She so enamored him that he could no longer think for himself. She dulled his senses with wine and opium. Yet she was the one he turned to in illness, not trusting even the royal physicians. From all these reports of Mehrunnisa, written mostly after her death and during her reign as Empress, came The Twentieth Wife.

  It is a fictional account of her life before her marriage to Jahangir, but it is rooted in history. Salim’s rebellion against Akbar, Khusrau’s against him, the punishment inflicted on Khusrau’s men after his flight to Lahore, the threats on the northwestern frontier of the empire by the Uzbeg king and the Shah of Persia, the Deccan wars—even Mehrunnisa’s niece’s betrothal to Prince Khurram—all are based on historical fact. Also true are the accounts of Ali Quli’s desertion of Prince Salim at Agra after the storming of the treasury, his support for Khusrau, his slaying of Qutubuddin Khan Koka, and his death at the hands of the imperial army. As for the rest, I relied on bazaar gossip, the narratives of seventeenth-century travelers to India, the legend of Mehrunnisa, and my own imagination.

  When one thinks of the six main Mughal Emperors, it is usually in these terms: Babur founded the empire; Humayun lost it, was driven out of India, and returned to reclaim it; Akbar, inheriting the throne at the age of thirteen, consolidated the empire; Jahangir added few kingdoms to the legacy his father left him, but his romantic exploits are legendary; Shah Jahan built the Taj Mahal, fixing him firmly in history; Aurangzeb, steeped in religious intolerance, was instrumental in the breakup of the empire.

  There are few mentions of the women these kings married or of the power they exercised. The Twentieth Wife seeks to fill that gap.

  One fact is indisputable. The women of Ghias Beg’s family had a potent hold on their men and on Indian history. Mehrunnisa, known to posterity as Empress Nur Jahan, became powerful from the time of her marriage to Jahangir until his death in 1627. To help her rule, she formed a junta composed of three men: her father, Ghias Beg; her brother, Abul Hasan; and Jahangir’s third son, Prince Khurram. This story is told in The Feast of Roses (to be published in May 2003), the sequel to The Twentieth Wife. A year after Mehrunnisa came to the imperial harem as Empress, Khurram married her niece (Abul’s daughter and Ghias’s granddaughter), Arjumand Banu Begam. She died a few years after Khurram became Emperor Shah Jahan while giving birth to his fourteenth child. In her memory, during Mehrunnisa’s lifetime, he built the Taj Mahal.

  Although the world in general knows of Khurram’s devotion to Arjumand because of the Taj Mahal, there is no doubt that Jahangir’s devotion to Mehrunnisa equaled, if not surpassed, his son’s to Arjumand. He may not have left a monument for posterity, but he gave her—the love of his later years—free rein to do as she pleased. Mehrunnisa did so, and she loved him enough to respect his wishes. She is known to have ruled the empire. But she was powerful because of him, not despite him.

  Indu Sundaresan

  May 2001

  GLOSSARY

  Amrit

  nectar

  Bawarchi

  cook

  Beedi

  hand-rolled cigarette

  Begam

  respectful term for a woman, married or unmarried

  Beta

  literally “son”; here a term of endearment

  Burfi

  sweet cut into bite-sized cakes

  Chai

  spiced tea

  Chappatis

  a type of bread

  Charpoy

  cot with jute-knit weave tied to a wooden frame

  Choli

  form-fitting blouse

  Chula

  stove, usually fashioned from mud and bricks

  Darbar

  court

  Dholak

  drum with a leather head, usually made of neem wood

  Dhoti

  cloth wrapped around the waist, usually worn by men

  Diwan

  treasurer

  Diwan-i-am

  hall of public audience

  Diwan-i-khas

  hall of private audience

  Diya

  lamp

  Dupatta

>   veil or wrap

  Farman

  royal edict

  Firangi

  foreigner

  Gaddi

  seat or cushion

  Gajra

  garland of flowers, usually for the hair

  Ghagara

  full pleated skirt reaching to the ankles

  Ghee

  clarified butter

  Gilli-danda

  street game played with two sticks

  Gulab jamun

  milk sweet soaked in sugar syrup

  Hakim

  physician

  Halwa

  sweet, usually made of wheat or rice flour

  Hammam

  bathhouse

  Howdah

  covered litter, usually set atop an elephant

  Hukkah

  water pipe

  Huzoor

  sire

  Jagir

  district

  Jalebi

  sweet of deep-fried flour dipped in sugar syrup

  Jharoka

  balcony

  Kameez

  loose long-sleeved top worn over a salwar

  Katori

  bowl

  Konish

  form of salutation

  Kotwal

  officer of the policing force

  Kuchi

  tribe of nomads in Afghanistan

  Kurma

  a type of curry

  Kurta

  long-sleeved shirt, open at the neck

  Mali

  gardener