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WOMEN IN MUGHAL INDIA
India’s history goes back to at least 2500 B.C.E. when the
Ancient Indus Valley Civilization began along the Indus River. It is
difficult to reconstruct this history as there are no written records
although they had seals that were probably used to designate
ownership for commercial purposes. We have artifacts from the
major cities Mohenjo-Daro, Harappan, and Lothal that give us some
clues that women were held in high esteem. Small statues of
goddess figures appear, and in these regions today crafts people are
still making similar models. This Indus Valley Civilization was well
organized with pre-planned streets, homes, and buildings all using
the same size brick. They had wells, indoor toilets, and running
water, all signs of a sophisticated society. There is evidence that
some of the beginnings of Hinduism began during this time. For
instance, the lingam of the god Shiva was a sacred symbol rising out
of the ground and water. Probably one of the goddess figures was a
mother goddess, but that is not known for sure. Due to weather or
other natural disasters, the Indus River changed course. The
Aryans, nomadic tribesmen came into India via the Hindu Kush area,
and later when they achieved writing they made the claim that they
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conquered the ancient civilization. Unfortunately, for them and
India, nothing of their early writings survive until about the third
century B.C.E. when their emperor Ashoka erected huge pillars with
the three-sided lion figure (India’s symbol today) that were inscribed
with his edicts. At this time too, we finally have written manuscripts
of the famous Indian epics, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana.
Later the sacred Vedas, and Upanishads, were added that further
delineated Hinduism, but these too saw subtle negative changes for
women. The Laws of Manu written earlier but utilized through much
of India’s history has specific stipulations addressing women’s
restrictions and allowances. Please see the lecture on “Women in
Ancient India.” The avatars that developed during these ancient and
early medieval times, are still worshipped today in India, but as a
mainly Hindu country, individuality of religious beliefs is allowed. On
the façade on their Hindu temples, all the avatars are carved, while
inside are the various individual shrines to these avatars. As
Hinduism has the belief that by following the necessary tenets, all
people will eventually unite with the universal soul or Brahman in
nirvana. Thus we who might perceive these as deities are actually
reincarnated avatars of this universal soul, but they are treated as
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deities. Families and individuals have their favorites, and massive
festivals are held around India to propreciate these figures. Kali, for
whom we get the name of the city Calcutta, is both a destroyed and
creator, who accidentally killed her husband Shiva. Kali is also an
avatar for Parvati, who was married to Shiva too. Thus, throughout
Indian history, both genders of avatars are consistently worshipped.
The caste system probably started with the arrival of the Aryans, as
the color of the skin denoted your status. Starting with four castes,
the system ultimately developed into hundreds of castes. While
outlawed today, the structure of society especially in the villages still
follows the caste system. Individuals must do their duty or dharma,
and good or bad karma will ensue. When a person dies, their soul is
reincarnated either into a higher or lower caste depending on their
actions in their previous world. Being born a woman eventually was
considered a punishment for men, and society moved to a more
misogynistic structure.
Buddhism developed in India around 480 B.C.E., but never
achieved the following that it did when Buddhism was introduced to
China, where Buddha became a god, and had bodhisattvas as
helpers for people to achieve nirvana. Virtually the last Mauryan
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Emperor, Ashoka, converted to Buddhism to assuage his guilt
feelings for killing many fellow Indians in order to win some coveted
land. He practiced religious toleration, though; the majority of the
Indian people did not convert to Buddhism.
The next major historical period in Indian History was the
invasion of the Muslims from Persia, eventually forming the Delhi
Sultanate, and then several hundred years later another invasion
occurred from the North, when the Mongols and other Central Asian
tribes invaded India. From these various invasions (including
descentants of Genghis Khan and Tamerlane) the Mughal Empire
was created in India where Muslim emperors ruled a Hindu country
that was multi-cultural of Persian, Muslim, Mongol, and Indian
influences. The number of practicing Muslims always was small for
Hinduism was still the preference for the majority of the subcontinent.
Muslim aristocratic women during the Mughal Dynasty that we
know of were talented and capable royal women that achieved much
during their lives. The greatest Mughal Emperor was Akbar (15451605), and it is during his time and later that our knowledge of
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women’s contributions is manifested. As a Sufi Muslim, Akbar
practiced religious toleration, and he refused to accept the absolute
primacy of Islam, but did model his court on Persian ideas of Pomp
and glitter, due to Persian Sufism he adopted. He was a great patron
of the arts even images of human beings as he said that he could not
believe God, the giver of life would be repelled by the human beauty
portrayed in works of true art. These paintings give us many images
of women at this time. The chief industries under Akbar employed
many women in India, especially in the textile production, which was
the major industry. Indian cotton goods clothed most of Africa and
Asia. Indigo dye and opium were other important Mughal exports.
Jahangir, Akbar’s son was the next ruler, but he rebelled
against his father, and likely had him poisoned. Jahangir’s name
means world-seizer. It is his wife Nur Jahan that became the de
facto ruler of India intermittently between 1611-1627. Nur Jahan’s
first husband was probably killed at Jahangir’s instigation for as a
widow she was brought to court as a lady-in-waiting to Salim (the
widow of the previous ruler Akbar). Jahangir married her four years
later, giving her the name Nur Mahal, which means light of the
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palace.1 She was thirty-four at the time of the wedding. She soon
gave her brother a high-ranking position, second only to that given to
her father, who was promoted to chief minister. Nur Jahan soon
made herself indispensable to the dependent alcoholic and drug
addict husband/emperor. It was Nur Jahan that made the decisions
and others carried them out since as a Muslim woman she was to be
hidden or in purdah. The British Ambassador Sir Thomas Roe wrote
home to the English monarch that Nur Jahan governed Jahangir and
wound him up at her pleasure. During the final five years of Nur
Jahan’s rule and life she basically ruled without her relatives who
were occupied elsewhere, and her husband was too ill for governing.
During this time she built the “Baby Taj”, a mortuary tomb for her
parents, siblings, and later for her deceased husband. There is no
evidence that Nur Jahan ever broke purdah. She even hunted tigers
from the closed howdah on top of an elephant with only the barrel of
her musket exposed between the curtains. In 1626 she rode into
battle in an elephant litter dispensing her orders through her
eunuch. She also carried on business of the realm, specializing in
indigo and the cloth trade. While trying to keep Shah Jahan from
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Her originally Persian name was Mehr-on-Nes or Mehrunissa who was born in 1577
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becoming the next emperor after Jahangir died, she was not
successful, but she accepted retirement with a pension of 200,000
rupees a year, dying just under the age of seventy. Perhaps her
major legacy is the influence of Persian attitudes and culture on
India. As the noted Historian Wolpert wrote: “Love of silks and
perfumes, the custom of draping both male and female figures with
jewels, diaphanous veils, and peacock feathers, and the delight in
song and dance, intoxicating drink, and the pleasures of the harem
are habits…as deeply rooted in India as in Persia.”
Jahangir’s son by another woman other than Nur Jahan, Shah
Jahan became the next ruler. He had hundreds of wives in his
harem, but his favorite wife was Mumtaz Mahal, the niece of Nur
Jahan. She died in childbirth delivering his fourteen child, and built
the famous Taj Mahal as a memorial and burial site for her.
Apparently she had requested such an idea, referring to a better
structure than her aunt had built.
Jahanara Begum, 1614-81, was the eldest daughter of the
Emperor Shah Jahan.2 A Sufi Muslim too like her ancestors, she was
also influential in politics. After the death of her mother, Mumtaz,
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Traditionally the title Begum was conferred upon women of royal or aristocratic rank, and was often used to
mean Queen.
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she enjoyed the status of first lady of the realm. She was given the
port of Surat (the major port on the west of India), and revenues from
its maritime trade made her extremely wealthy. She paid for the
construction of the famous Jama Masjid Mosque in Agra in 1638
besides building other mosques and public buildings. She cared for
her father while he was imprisoned by his son Aurangzeb for eight
years, and she was considered a saint of deep faith with mystical
understanding, qualities she used to comfort her father in the last
years of his life. Zebunnisa (1638-1702), was the daughter of
Aurangzeb, and remained unmarried. She was a poet, a scholar of
Arabic and Persian, a hafiza of the Qur’an, and an excellent
calligraphist.3 Zebunnisa was an active patron of learning, and her
court was a literary academy crowded with renowned scholars and
poets of the time. Her Persian poems frequently include the motif of
the soul as a captive or caged bird. She was ultimately imprisoned
by her father for plotting against him with her brother.
Aside from the famous women mentioned above, information on
women in India is hard to find. For the majority of women their roles
were more traditional, but there is evidence that women had the
3
A person who has memorized the Qur’an
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right to attend the court, but seated behind a screen while the
emperor did court business. Since these women could see the
reactions of petitioners when the men could not, their opinions often
held weight. Women also had diplomatic roles when they were sent
on missions to influence women in other courts or when they
represented the court at numerous public events and festivals.
At court women lived in separate quarters called the harem or
zenana including the emperor and his wives, concubines, and
children. These wives and concubines were from various ethnic and
religious cultures, resulting from his marrying to cement political
alliances. Included in this group were the emperors widowed
mother, his late father’s other wives, his daughters, and sisters. This
group were not allowed to marry to lessen the number of male
contenders to the throne. Both slaves and servants who served the
royal family lived here too. As with other Muslim Empires, there were
professional female dancers, peddlers, scribes, and artisans all
there to administer and entertain the approximately five thousand
women. Each royal woman has her own apartment and servants.
One of the major tasks was to keep these women happy by providing
entertainment. Considerable wealth was kept here too including the
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imperial seal under the protection of the emperor’s primary wife or
mother. The seal was the harem’s most valuable item. Its presence
meant that every state document had to be taken to the women’s
quarters to be authenticated. A trained corps of female guards
stood inside its walls. Since Islam emphasized female literacy some
of the women were well-educated, knew how to read the Qur’an,
read, write and recite poetry, paint, play musical instruments, write
beautiful calligraphy, and converse in a variety of languages.
Gulbadan Begam, Princess “Rose Body”, wrote in the 1580’s The
History of Humayun an account of the reign of her father the
Emperor Babur and brother Humayun. This work gives us one of the
few glimpses we have of imperial women’s lives. Court women
became patrons of the arts, literature, and architecture. In their
names there was a wide variety of construction including ornamental
mansions, tombs, bazaars, caravansaries, bathhouses, water ways,
and gardens. How were these women able to afford this? From their
own considerable wealth as royal mothers, wives, and daughters
they received generous stipends as well as periodic gifts from the
emperor. Also money came from their share of looted treasuries of
conquered rajas, and from the natural resources in India of precious
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and semi precious gem stones. They also got gifts from people who
sought their influence at court such as traders, nobles, and family
members. They also received revenue from gifts of land grants.
Muslim women were also allowed to keep whatever they owned at
the time of their marriage, and they could spend it as they wanted to.
Records show women used their own monies to hold festivals, buy
luxuries for themselves, and invest in both domestic and
international trading ventures. Women also gave contributions to
benevolent groups, female orphans for their dowries, and to pious
women or saints. In India female saints were common. Most all the
women in court wore on their right thumb a ring with a tiny mirror to
admire themselves.
Paintings of these times show activities of women outside of the
harem. Women were enjoying hunting on horseback, playing polo,
traveling in palanquins (covered litters) slung between camels or
elephants. Emperors were always on the move, and they usually
brought whole courts with them, and even to some military
campaigns. One foreign writer wrote of the women of Akbar’s court:
“The queens ride on female elephants, hidden from view in gaily
decorated howdahs. They are guarded and escorted by five
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hundred old men of very dignified and venerable appearance. Great
care is taken to drive away to a great distance all who are found in
the line of the Queen’s mark. Also, women had more opportunities
to go on pilgrimages to Mecca than men.
Women Sufi poets were part of a widespread emancipation
movement in India and West Asia that started more than a thousand
years ago, and lasted until the nineteenth century. Interestingly,
these poets fought for women’s rights at a time when that concept
was still unformulated. This movement saw the emergence of
women saints on an unprecedented scale, and was one of the most
significant characteristics of the medieval age in West Asia and
South Asia. Mystic women poets subverted conventional notions of
gendered behavior, helping women to defy stereotypes, and break
the chains of tradition and orthodoxy, which sought to control their
sexuality. In the spiritual sphere of Sufism, physical distinction
between male and female was often completely overlooked and the
two were fused and identified. Many of the saints believed that all
creation, being the product of the supreme creative power was
feminine. Wedlock, and specifically the husband, often appears in
the works of Sufi women poets as an impediment to the quest for
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truth, and is perceived not as a temptation but as an obstruction.
This is definitely not keeping with the specific Laws of Manu, where
you are to treat your husband as a “god”, as you were probably
married to him in a prior life. One of the famous Sufi women was
Mira that legend has it that she remained a virgin even though
married, considering herself wedded to Krishna.