Historicizing the Harem: The Challenge of a Princess's Memoir
Author(s): Ruby Lal
Source: Feminist Studies, Vol. 30, No. 3 (Fall, 2004), pp. 590-616
Published by: Feminist Studies, Inc.
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20458986
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HistoricizingtheHarem:
TheChallenge
of a Princess's
Memoir
RubyLal
AFTER
THE BATTLE OF PANIPAT
Mughal
king, a foothold
a desire to return
permission
in 1526, which
gave Babur,
in Kabul. As Babur (reluctantly)
to his home
to go, he asked him to carry "valuable presents
[tuhfehva hadyeh]of Hind"
Two
generations
Mughal
forefathers
ter, Gulbadan
the first
in India, his close friend, Khvajeh Kilan, expressed
to his relations and other people
later, when
asked
in Kabul.'
to record her memories
for the imperial history,
Banu Begum,
gave him
and curiosities
reconstructed
of the
the Akbarnama,Babur's daugh
Babur's
conversation
with
Khvajeh Kilan as follows:
I shall write a list, and you will distribute them [the gifts] according to it....
To
each begam is to be delivered as follows: one special dancing-girl of the dancing
girls of Sultan Ibrahim [Ibrahim Lodi, the king Babur defeated at Panipat], with
one gold plate full of jewels-ruby and pearl, cornelian and diamond, emerald
and turquoise, topaz and cat's-eye-and
two small mother-o'-pearl
trays full of
and all sorts of stuffs by nines-that
ashrafis,and on two other trays shahrukhis,
is,
four trays and one plate. Take a dancing-girl and another plate of jewels, and one
each of ashrafisand shahrukhis,
and present, in accordance with my directions, tomy
elder relations the very plate of jewels and the self-same dancing-girl which I
have given for them [sic]. I have made other gifts; convey these afterwards. Let
them divide and present jewels and ashrafisand shahrukhis
and stuffs tomy sisters
Feminist
Studies
30, no. 3 (Fall2004).C 2004by Feminist Studies, Inc.
590
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591
Ruby Lal
and children and the haramsand kinsmen, and to the begams and aghas and nurs
es and foster-brethren and ladies, and to allwho pray for me.2
Gulbadan's recordof her father's inventory is strikingfor several reasons.
Itbrings to lifequestions of correct deportment in the preparationof gifts
and themanner of presenting (and accepting) them-so central to the sen
sibilities of the Timurid-Mughal world. It isparticularly notable for
depictingBabur'sdomestic life.The Begum gives us glimpses of the range
of Babur'sdomestic relationshipsand associations,with the old aswell as
the young. The
list of gifts is a pointer
to the centrality
and the hierarchi
cal character of these relationships.Babur gave clear instructions about
what
should be given
to whom
and in what
order. So the elder relations
were to be given the following presents first:a dancing girl,
(vali-u-niImatan)
a plate of jewels, and a plate each of ashrafis and shahrukhis(designation
for
coins), to be followed by "other gifts" that Babur had listed for them.
Similarlyhis sisters,kinsmen and theirwives, heads of households, nurses,
and childrenwere to receivepresents later in accordancewith Babur's list.
The Begum's memoir pays a great deal of attention to such illustrative
inventories.Inher elucidation, the detailsof presents and invitationsserve
not merely
as a descriptive
seniority. They
catalog,
index the creation
but as symbols
and maintenance
of the privileges
of hierarchical
of
rela
tionships, aswell as the importanceof building alliances and reinforcing
kinship solidarities.
At another point in hermemoir, Gulbadan discussesthe timeHumayun,
the second Mughal
settled for awhile
king, spent with
the royal women
when
his court was
in Agra:
On court days [ruzhayedivan],which were Sundays and Tuesdays, he used to go to
the other side of the river. During his stay in the garden, ajam (Dil-dar Begam)
and my sisters and the ladies (haraman)
were often in his company. Of all the tents,
Sultan Begam's was at the top of the row. Next came Gul-rang
Begam's, and ajam'swas in the same place. Then the tent of my mother, Gul-barg
Ma'suma
and
Begam and of Bega Begam and the others. They set up the offices (kar-khanaha)
got them into order. When
they had put up the pavilions (khaima)and tents (khar
gah) and the audience tent (bar-gah),the Emperor came to see the camp and the
splendid set-out, and visited the begams and his sisters. As he dismounted some
what near Ma'suma Begam's (tent), he honoured her with a visit. All of us, the
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592
RubyLal
begams and my sisters, were in his society. When he went
to any begam's or sis
ter's quarters, all the begams and all his sisters used to go with him.3
Note
the careful attention
paid to precise
rules: designated
of the tents of women,
the other side of the river, the careful arrangement
the king himself
to see the arrangement,
coming
of his visits, the deportment
days to go to
the manner
required of those who
and timing
accompanied
him, and
so forth.
Now
compare
the above extracts with
a statement
on the Mughal
harem
that appears in K.S. Lal's TheMughal Harem (1988), one of the few academic
accounts of the subject:
The termMughal
harem conjures up a vision of a sequestered place ensconcing
forms in mysterious
beautiful
exposed to all the celebrations
magnificence....
[T]he young girls were not
in the Mahal [palace] in which
sex orgies domi
nated or the master bargained for beauty and love on occasions....
competed
to gain ascendancy in the harem. Women's
as undefined
Naturally,
tried to win the master's undivided love and openly
every lady of consequence
as unique....
beauty gave them a power
There were other tensions though not so deep in
effect. These may be classed under the generic term jealousy. But on this we
for the harem was not meant
need not dwell much
for the old and ailing. Itwas
to be a bright place, an abode of the young and beautiful, an arbour of
pleasure and retreat for joy.4
meant
we have here
What
is the portrait
principle
of sensual pleasure
lives of imperial women
volume
of a sexualized,
secluded,
(albeit not for the "old and ailing"), centrally premised
domain
on the Mughals
John F. Richards's
that was supposed
and men.
to regulate
The single sentence
in the "New Cambridge
of India" series'
this image: "Ideally,
a respite, a retreat for the nobleman
male
relatives-a
males
of the household."5
and his closest
retreat of grace, beauty, and order designed
It is echoed
the "private"
on the harem in the
History
TheMughal Empire (1993) reproduces
the harem provided
feminine
on a crude
again in R. Nath's
to refresh the
description
in his
Private Life of theMughals (1994). The emperor Jahangir, for instance, was in
view "a sensuous person" who "indulged excessively" both in wine
Nath's
and women.
women
"By a routine estimate, he had nearly 300 young
attached
to his bed, an incomprehensible
This shows his over-indulgence
and beautiful
figure in the modern
in sex and his excessive engagement
age.
in the
harem [sic]."6
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This receivedimageofMughal private lifehas been powerful in blinding
historians to the density and variation of domestic lifeprojected in the
contemporary records, such asGulbadan Banu Begum's Ahval-iHumayun
Badshah,
which Iuse asmy central counterpoint in this article.The extracts
from Gulbadan's memoir cited at the beginning of this article,which
fardifferentfrom
could be set besidemany others in her text, reveala harem
that commonly presented to us. The complexity of relationships that
emerges in these isnotable. By contrast, the academicaccounts that I jux
taposewith the Begum's memoir appear devoid of any historical depth
and unaware of the intricacyof relationshipsand activitiesand themulti
facetedand intimatecommunity found in the harem.
This article examines the possibility of writing a history ofMughal
domestic life. In thinking about this question, I have not unearthed any
new sources. Instead, I have returned to sources that have been available
all along (imperialchronicles, ethical digests, visual representations,and
architectural remains).This revisitinghas involved listening to "peripher
al" stories and voices, "drowned in the noise of statistcommands."7It has
alsomeant looking atwell-known but neglected sources (such asGulba
dan'smemoir) and using themmore centrally.The return to themain
stream officialchronicles in the light of theseperipheral sources isno less
instructivefor themany new insights it allows.On the basisof this "redis
covered" archive, then, I suggest severalways inwhich another history
may
be brought
into view.
I hope
that this will be a gendered
and more
self-consciouslypolitical history that cannot simply be hived off as "sup
plementary,"
and that accounts
such as the one
I put forward here will
serve to reopenother questions of central importance toMughal history.
THE KINGS AND THEMEMOIRIST
As a first step, I provide
Gulbadan
Banu Begum
a brief introduction
to the Mughal
and to the first three Mughal
memoirist
kings before
I dis
cuss the possibilityof constructing a history of earlyMughal domestic life
through theBegum'smemoir.
Zahir
Mongol
al-Din Muhammad
ruler Chingiz
Khan
Babur
(1483-1530) was a descendent
(1167-1227) on his mother's
of the
side and Timur
(1336-1405),theTurkic-Mongol ruler,on his father's.He spentmost of his
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594
the princes of other Timurid
life fighting with
Most
tral Asia and Afghanistan.
long drawn-out
Chingiz Khan
notable
with
struggles
are Babur's
these combats
the Uzbiks,
the direct
of
descendants
in these struggles
his son Juchi. Defeated
through
in parts of Cen
territories
among
to gain a
territorialfoothold, Baburwas pushed toAfghanistan.He finallyacquired
a territorial base in Hindustan
in 1526 by defeating Sultan
Delhi. Thus he laid the foundation
Ibrahim Lodi of
rule in India.
ofMughal
Nasir al-DinHumayun (1508-1556),Babur's son, encountered massive
in retaining
difficulties
came from Sher Khan Sur who
lenge to his kingship
in eastern
India. After being defeated
became
Humayun
an exile
the Mughal
monarchy.
ruled southern
in Persia and parts of Afghanistan.
What
a victorious
is called the Mughal
In 1554,
battle and restored
"empire" of India with
all its pomp and splendor
came to be securely established
of Jalal al-Din Muhammad
Akbar (1542-1605), the son of Humayun.
Banu Begum was
Gulbadan
the daughter
and aunt of Akbar. She was born
the senior wife
reveals, Gulbadan
of Babur,
witnessed
reigns: she and her husband,
of their time wandering
much
patetic Mughal
and traveled
Gulbadan
Khizr Khvajeh
of Babur and Humayun's
Khan,
with what may
seem
be described
to have spent
as her peri
family home.8
was thus a close witness
kingdom
dor in Akbar's
but Maham
of her. As her memoir
took charge
the early turmoil
to
some substan
was Dildar Begum,
to the making
of the Mughal
chy, seeing it through many vicissitudes-from
Mughal
sister of Humayun,
in 1523 in Afghanistan
in that region. Her mother
tial conquests
Begum,
of Babur,
only in the time
(to Agra) at the age of six, after Babur had made
Hindustan
Bihar
in 1540 near Kanauj,
by Sher Khan
he led his army back and fought
however,
in India. The biggest chal
his father's conquests
in the early conquests
reign. She came to write
of Babur
monar
the inception of the
to its established
splen
about all this at the behest of her
nephew, Akbar,whose efforts to consolidate and institutionalizeMughal
power
included
the command
official history be written
context
that a comprehensive
and authoritative
of its early stages and of his reign. It was
that Gulbadan wrote
in this
her Ahval-i Humayun Badshah.
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THE RECEIVED
HISTORY
It isperhapsnot too far-fetchedto suggest that India'santicolonialnation
alism has provided the frameworkfor themost important recentwritings
on Mughal
In line with
history.
the nationalist
agenda, Mughal
historians
have labored(explicitlyor implicitly) to demonstrate the political consoli
dation and "unity" of India under
the Mughals,
the autonomous
develop
ment of the subcontinent, and even its secular inclinations. Indeedmany
have been written
histories
Mughal
as if the empire was no more
than a
preamble to "modern" India.Since the 1950s,historians ofMughal India
have concentrated heavily on the political administrative institutions of
allied to these are studies focused on agrarian condi
rule. Closely
Mughal
tions, economic change, traderelations,and the attendant class struggles.
There has been considerable writing
socio-economic
history, both
in the area of what might
in the context
be called a
of agrarian relations
and in
that of trade and trading networks.
Apart
revenue,
from
the close and detailed
and agrarian matters,
selectively, mainly
investigation
the Mughal
of political, military,
court has also been studied
as a site for factions and party politics.
Inmost
of these
histories of theMughal court and political institutions, the premise of
is that these are sites of "high" politics and that this political
investigation
world iscuriously unified.9In addition, receivedhistories treat these insti
tutional sites as fully developed
from the moment
of their birth, fixed and
knowable, if occasionally complicated in form.Numerous studies of the
Mughal
it as it appears from the heyday
empire present
from the capital cities Fatehpur-Sikri
nalia, grandeur
and Agra, with
of Akbar's
the picture backward
and power, and project
rule
all its regal parapher
to cover the
time of his two predecessors.
What
happens
existing
ment
literature,
to the history ofMughal
this history
that appears under
people." This amounts
takes two main
the generic
to no more
forms. The
title "social conditions
than a journalistic
daily use and festivities and pastimes, which
commonsensical
social life in this context? In the
are described
terms that they give the reader a history
valid for all times.'0Within
this genre of Mughal
remaindered
be noted:
category may
first is a state
and life of the
listing of items of
in such general,
that seems to be
social histories,
"culture," which
another
refers to works
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and intellectual
art, architecture,
nalistic manner
it is not glossed
life.When
above, this area becomes
pointed
(art for art's sake): art forms, history of styles, painting
eties of artifacts, and so forth. Where
cern, histories
the historian
art and architecture
of Mughal
the glory of an emperor.
It is only
the thrust of this legacy and tomake
question
techniques,
vari
retains a political
con
the
indicator of the rule and
that historians
recently
of specialists
have demonstrated
court as the legitimizing
splendor of the Mughal
in the jour
the domain
to
have begun
broader suggestions
regard
ing the importanceof architecturalhistory for allMughal historians.11
More
to the subject of the current
relevant
directly
second strand inMughal
ing to the genre of biographies
of "women worthies."
is a
investigation
is best described
social history, which
as belong
Studies of this kind
focus on the visibilityof imperialwomen and theirpower. An interesting
feature of this writing
is that it has come
to its subject (that is,women),
sufficient
to rethink
long-held
too-some
women's
alone. There
Mughal
women
biographers
is greater
themselves
ing new questions
excluded
not restricted
the possibility
these biographies,
one
elite women
making
of this monarchy
and conditions
and therefore
an early book
to "history," with
in the imperial
ended up with
power.
that the communities
that an investigation
In
of
of their lives
of it.
in this style of reinstating Mughal
an appropriately
travelers) in the form of biographical
prisingly
or even rais
of family and house
indicative
India (1967). It is a study of the visible aristocratic Mughal
been given a place
the women
a part and parcel of imperial designs and the
is vital to any understanding
Rekha Misra wrote
women
histo
these studies of
relations and political
to suggest
finds little
were
toMughal
of querying
boundaries
hold, public and private spheres, gender
Mughal
to think about
area of investigation,
the accepted
about
there were
of course,
irony here. Although
up a neglected
opened
as
and society. At
talented! This reluctance
as "history" is obviously
histories
riography
court
are seen as (mild) correctives:
of them quite
historians
and there has been little attempt
about Mughal
assumptions
best, such biographies
women
to be seen by male
title, Women inMughal
women
records or the narratives
sketches,
inwhich
a fairly close replication
three years later this was still the dominant
(who had
of European
the author unsur
of the sources. Twenty
trend in writings
on Mughal
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women.
mode,
597
In 1990, Renuka
a few more
adding
merely
a book
Nath wrote
in the same biographical
elite women
list. In 1993,
to Misra's
Ellison Banks Findly produced another biography, farmore detailed than
the above,but following prettymuch in the footstepsof her predecessors.
Jahan, wife of Jahangir (the fourth Mughal
The subject here isNur
India" as Findly calls her.'2What
or), the "Empress of Mughal
emper
is astonish
ing is that these relativelyconventionalworks of the 1990sareproduced at
a time of lively, engaged debates concerning feminist historiographyand
the agency of women
high and low.13
There have nonetheless been some significantexceptions to the kind of
socialhistory outlined above.Aside fromTapanRaychaudhuri'searly and
of social life under
investigation
unusual
in Bengal,
several recent writings
in the realm of Mughal
Mughal
have opened
the structure
that the Mughal
up new avenues of analysis
social history. The work
of Stephen
Blake on the
in the years 1639-1739, for exam
imperial capital, Shahjahanabad,
ple, examines
the reign of Akbar and Jahangir
He makes
of the imperial household.
state was a patrimonial
bureaucratic
structure,
the case
in which
the emperor and his household were of overwhelming importance.
Historians
Burton
like John Richards,
Stein, Noboru
Karashima,
and G.
Berkemer have acceptedBlake's formulations, albeitwith slightmodifica
tions. Following this line of enquiry, Rosalind O'Hanlon has recently
examined
of an imperial masculinity
the construction
part of the strategy of governance
However,
willful
this welcome
attention
the other
regulation,
as
under Akbar
monarch.'4
images of power,
the
still tends to remain excessively
In spite of their proposition
the model
the society-at-large)
much
to the changing
attention
and bodily
emperor-centered.
hold was
the third Mughal
of imperial "charisma" and the related details of spa
construction
tial arrangements
under
on which
were
other
that the imperial house
realms of the empire
to be built, neither
(the court and
Blake nor O'Hanlon
to the activities and relationships-or
pays
even the identity-of
inhabitants of the imperial family. Thus we find little discussion
of how the denizens
scriptive norms,
of the inner apartments
and of how
these were
the king appears in these accounts
frame of inherited ethical moral
adopted and negotiated
contested
and negotiated.
as an abstract category, produced
texts. When
pre
Even
in the
the figure of the monarch
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in this way,
represented
it is not surprising
that the king's intimate
circle,
the invisiblemembers of the domestic world-who struggled to fashion
themselvesand surely contributed to the emergence of new attitudes,val
ues, and behavior-form littlepart of the investigations.
THE QUESTION
How
then might
one
OF SOURCES
we work
that takes distance
accounts
that follows, centering
the time of the first three Mughal
inadequacy
the accepted
the most
perhaps
that the
a small part-of
of the records that make
court of Akbar. Muhammad
The
up
times. For Babur, his memoir,
the
Haydar
texts for scholars. Babur wrote
popular
1526-1529
between
today as Chaghatay.'s
in his native Turkic
text was
translated
Haydar Dughlat
in 1545-1546) is valuable as it highlights
language,
into Persian
in the
of his career in
spent most
Kabul. He was in close contact with Babur during
(composed
of the archive in
to show
help
the Tarikh-i Rashidi of his cousin Muhammad
have remained
the Baburnamamainly
known
an examination
archive for early Mughal
Baburnama, and
Dughlat,
on the question
kings, should
is only part-and
of source materials
the problem. Let us begin with
first thing to do is to
that surviving sources are inadequate.
the received wisdom
The discussion
in
and of those social histories
image of royalty valid for all times and places? The
challenge
political,
in such static terms that it gives the reader an
is presented
history
history of the Mughals,
the legacy of overwhelmingly
and institutional
administrative,
which
toward an alternative
from
this period, and his work
the political and cultur
al intricacies of those parts of Central Asia and Afghanistan
that Babur was
dealing with at the time.
The chronicles usedmost extensively for information on Humayun's
reign are the following:
ordinances
Khvandamir,
of the king's
the Qanun-i Humayuni, an account
reign, composed
and the Tazkirat-ul-Vaqi
of the rules and
in 1534 by one of his officials,
'at, a rather
candid
account
put
together in 1587by JawharAftabchi,Humayun's ewer-bearer.16
Then there
is the Tazkireh-i Humayun vaAkbar of Bayazid Bayat, an officer of Humayun.
is a history of the reigns of Humayun
This
which
Mughal
was
completed
in 1590-1591.'" The
court was commissioned
and Akbar
from 1542 to 1591,
first official
history
by Akbar, and the biographies
of the
by Jawhar
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Aftabchi and BayazidBayatmentioned abovewere produced in response
to his order
that servants
of the state record
their impressions
times as part of the process of collecting material
of past
for the book. The result
ing volume, Akbarnama
(completed in 1596), and its official and equally
voluminous appendix, the A 'in-iAkbari(an administrativeand statistical
report on Akbar's
in all its branches),
government
written
by a close
friend and courtier of the emperor, Abu'l Fazl 'Allami, have remained
most
sources
important
for all histories
of his reign. Apart
Akbarnama, the Muntakhab-ut-Tavarikhof 'Abd al-Qadir Badauni,
of Akbar's policies who wrote
tant. Historians
the panegyric
have found
account
the
a severe critic
in secret, has also been impor
the Muntakhab-ut-Tavarikh a useful counter
of Abu'l
have found a neutral middle
of description
his history
the
from
Fazl
ground
'Allami. In the same way,
in the cautious,
of the Tabaqat-i Akbari, written
evenhanded
by another
to
scholars
manner
member
of
al-Din Ahmad."8
Akbar's court, Nizam
For a long time now,
a canonical
position
has been ascribed
to these
kinds of sources. The choice of certain sources as basic and central has in
turn tended to perpetuate
certain kinds of histories. The interest in agrari
and institutional
an, administrative,
any undertaking
have been
has made
singled
out
as "foundational"
in this way,
not only
"accuracy" and "objectivity," but because
closest in that sense to amodern
such as the Akbarnama, historians
themselves
chronicler's
assessments
ed matters.
In this way many
be not very different
sources
they
dealing directly with political administrative mat
are official compilations
sources
to
history. The Akbarnama and the A 'in-iAkbari
inMughal
because of their supposed
primary
for example,
such as the Akbarnama and the A'in-i Akbari appear essential
chronicles
ters-and
histories,
state's archive. Relying
have often uncritically
and therefore
of the empire,
reproduced
the
one or another
imperial relations, and other
of our modern
from the primary
duplicated
on texts
relat
histories have turned out to
text (or texts) out of which
they
are constructed.
andHistoriography
HarbansMukhia's well-known study entitled Historians
during theReign of Akbar (1976) serves to illustrate my point about the pivotal
sources. In the three central chapters
ascribed to certain Mughal
position
of the book,
the author
discusses
the three "major" historians
of Akbar's
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600
empire: Abu'l
Ahmad.
Fazl
and Nizam
'Abd al-Qadir Badauni,
'Allami,
He goes on in his penultimate
chapter
to discuss
al-Din
"Some Minor
HistoricalWorksWritten duringAkbar'sReign."While reading this chap
works."
text among
to find Gulbadan's
ter, I expected
Instead, all we find is a footnote
he has not
"that I feel I have practically
Beveridge,
Mukhia's
nothing
has said in her introduction
memoir
the fact that the author
the author explains why
"The reason
to add to what
distinguishes
its translator, Mrs.
stem partly of course
between major
and minor
sources
the "soft society" of the latter. The presumption
of some sources,
(political,
as opposed
texts like the Akbarnama are authentic
events."20Mukhia,
as memoirs
of course,
ser
(of royal women,
of the supposedly
to the peripheral
of others, derives in this case from a belief that despite
as well
from
adminis
the "hard politics" of the former against
vants, and so forth), privileging
documents
is," he explains,
to the translation."'9
in his monograph
trative, and emperor-centered)
character
historical
invites some reflection. His reasons for not includ
comment
ing the Begum's
in which
memoir.
included Gulbadan's
the "minor
because
of persons
status
limitations,
certain
they were based on "official
involved
is not alone
central
(or minor)
in, or witness
to, the
in this belief in the "authentici
of these sources.2'
ty,"hence "reliability,"
It is in this troubling
context
you will, of the Mughal
of a rather simple (transparent)
archive
that Iwish
to explore
the Ahval-i Humayun Badshah, left to us by Gulbadan
show by a critical engagement
Mughal
with
it, how many
hidden
text,
and to
dimensions
of
OF A PRINCESS'S MEMOIR
In 1587, in preparation
for the writing
of the Akbarnama,Akbar issued an or
der to the "servants of the State" and "old members
to write down or relate their impressions
dance with
markedly
Banu Begum
history may yet be probed.
THE CHALLENGE
What
reading, if
the "minor"
this order that Gulbadan
Gulbadan
different
wrote,
however,
from anything
of the Mughal
family"
of earlier times.22 Itwas in accor
Banu Begum
produced
was no panegyric.
that others
her memoir.'
Her writing
produced
was
at the time
(including biographies, exemplary accounts, chronological narratives,
and normative
accounts),
as the list of the sources used for the compila
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tion of the Akbarnama
shows.24Interestingly, the genre title thatGulbadan
chose was different from all of these: ahval,aword meaning conditions,
state, circumstances, or situations.' Does this title index a different con
ception ofwhat a history of the times should be? It isnot possible to give
a straightforward answer to this question. A disadvantage is that only
one copy of Gulbadan'sAhvalsurvives today.26This
manuscript, now held
at the British Library, is incomplete, ending abruptly some three years
beforeAkbar's accession.
Turki was Gulbadan's
native
language,
and one can trace many
Turki
words in the Persianmanuscript. Yet we do not know if shewrote both in
Turki and in Persian.FromHumayun's time on, the influence of Persian
had clearly increasedin theMughal court.GulbadanBanu Begum, his sis
ter is almost certain
to have learned the language as she grew up in these
surroundings. By the time shewrote her memoir, Persian had already
been declared the language of administration at all levels.As Muzaffar
Alam
puts
it, it had emerged
as "the languageof the king, the royal house
hold and the highMughal elite."The nomination ofGulbadanBegum to
amemoir
write
as the Persian verse attributed
of the times, aswell
to her,
indicatesher standing as a "learned"person.27
For all that,we know littleaboutGulbadan's total literaryoutput or her
education.We cannot know thereforewhat models theBegum drew on
to write
text. It iswithout
her own
any didactic purpose,
and lies outside
the "mirror for princes" genre that seems to have been prevalent then.
Gulbadan readsome contemporarymemoirs and chronicles of the kings,
her father's memoir,
including
but the Baburnamawas clearly not the liter
for her Ahval.7 Annette
ary model
Beveridge
tells us that the Begum
had a
copy of Bayazid Bayat's Tazkireh-i Humayun vaAkbar in her library, and that
she found
Begum's
accounts,
a copy of Khvandamir's
name.'
which
were
perhaps unavailable
might
Qanun-i Humayuni inscribed with
at the time of her writing.
The Ahval-i Humayun Badshah
thus be classed as an "open" text belonging
Whatever
the
did not imitate the styles of either of these
with her own and
in any case contemporaneous
Yet Gulbadan
we may
conclude
about
to no recognized
the problems
of authorship
genre.
and of
personal memory, given the uncertainties surrounding the Begum's
memoir,
one
thing
is clear.
Ifmost
chronicles
of the age aimed
to be
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602
authoritativehistories in themanner of the generic (panegyric)historiesof
rulers, Gulbadan moved
more modest
incidents
the everyday
away from this genre to produce
in the lives of Babur and Humayun.
in peripatetic
lives of this royal family
Even a brief description
piece of writing.
unique
an account
Her account
of the contents
of Ahval serves to illustrate
the memoir
is divided into two parts. In the first part, Gulbadan
in Babur's memoir,
that contained
this point. The
life. This
is a
and the
copy of
surviving
discusses
includes detail quite similar to
about his peripatetic
life, his wars and
at the time, and the early years of his establishment
victories
of
circumstances
organization
the period of her father Babur's
of far
of Mughal
rule inHindustan. The specialnessof theBegum'smemoir, however, is to
in the images she provides
be found
information
ships with
is remarkable
not only
life, but also for the complexity
that are discussed
the inventory
of gifts and instructions
same event, Babur makes
life: extensive
and his relation
of the Mughal
for this rare account
of
brings out
that the author
in other chronicles
those episodes
tioned at the beginning
and children,
the senior women
his kith and kin, especially
lineage. The memoir
domestic
of her father's "home"
his wives
about his marriages,
in
of the time. Consider
that Imen
for their presentation
of this article. In his own brief discussion
of the
only a casual, and far less interesting, mention
of the presents.'
second part of Gulbadan's
The
with
memoir
the reign of her brother, Humayun.
of the king's expeditions
and reconquest
begins on the nineteenth
Here
too, alongside
of Hindustan,
folio
a discussion
the memoir
pro
vides other kinds of fascinatinginformation.We learnofMughal women
lost during wars, as well
the itinerant
badan's
marry
record of royal women's
articulations
provided
about
on various
camp brought
to these continual
about how
the celebrations
occasions,
to life in a way
visits. Add
they should
frequent
visits to
that arose between
him
to these the impressive
and feasts held
and we have a lost world
that no other
of
Banu Begum. Gul
of Humayun's
of the family and the tension
and his wives owing
women
and his wife, Hamideh
are telling. So is her elaboration
the senior women
detail
as of Akbar's birth in the harsh circumstances
lives of Humayun
chronicle
by the senior
of the court
in
of the time even
approaches.
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Gulbadan's substantialtreatmentof the involvement of severalMughal
women inmoments ofmarriage, childbirth, "adoption,"and death; in the
of feasts; and in times of strategy and planning
celebrations
to the
points
complexweb of people and practices involvedwith the processesof early
Mughal imperialformation. Inhermemoir, we hear of forbiddenfeelings,
to the logic of
and acts contrary
relationships,
but intimate
hierarchical
In this way, we are reminded of the flesh and blood of his
imperial power.
and not so well known,
torical figures, well known
as the limita
is a rich,
the text provides
of their lives. What
tions and inventiveness
as well
inflectedsenseof the domestic livesof the earlyMughals.
The
two extracts
from the Ahval-i Humayun Badshah cited in the first sec
to indicate
tion of this article are enough
imbrication
everyday
life of the domestic world.
delineate
further
the potential
and
in the production
not
of imperial rituals and of "cor
oneself.
and his stepbrother
of a protracted war between Humayun
there was a brief pause when
Humayun
march
to Kabul and he himself
left for Bikaner. At Pat, Humayun's
Dildar Begum
an entertainment
of the court were present." Among
daughter
of the preceptor
Humayun
made
hearing
enquiries
this, Mirza Hindal
here to do me honour,
pleased Humayun,
not
"atwhich
these was Hamideh
of another
step
all the ladies
Banu Begum,
the
of his stepbrothers, Mirza Hindal.
about her and stated his wish
is reported
to
Kamran
permitted
mother
organized
It
in a royal marriage,
and men were partners
rect" ways of being and conducting
Kamran,
that I
of both Jawhar and Gulbadan.
only of heirs but also in the enhancement
In the midst
to
episode
The event
memoir.
of negotiation
the place and meanings
women
discuss one more
of Gulbadan's
in the accounts
consider here is described
shows how Mughal
Let me
in the
of courts and kings
the imbrication
the
life of the
in the everyday
world
domestic
of the Mughal
courts and kings or, equally,
concerns
for us to ask about
raises, and that it is necessary
text immediately
that the
the kinds of questions
to marry
to have said: "I thought
to look out for a young
and he left. Dildar Begum
bride....
then patched
her. On
you came
This dis
up matters:
to his Majesty, whom you
"you [Hindal] are speaking very improperly
ought to consider as the representative of your late father." Dildar Begum
gave "a nuptial
banquet"
the next day, "after which
she delivered
the
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lady to his Majesty,
young
and gave them her blessing." Humayun
and
Hamideh Banu Begum then proceeded to Bhakkar.31
Mirza Hindal's
response toHumayun's expresseddesire tomarry Hamideh Banu Begum,
are both statements
firm chiding of Hindal
and Dildar Begum's
about the
necessity and importance of correct behavior in thematter of seeking
as also in interaction
brides and making marriages,
a younger
between
and
older brother.
in the Tazkirat-ul-vaqi 'atof Jawhar. However,
The above details are found
the same affair is given
a somewhat
different
in Gulbadan's
rendering
Badshah.
Ahval-iHumayun
Although the account of Hindal andHumayun's
argument
Banu Begum
over Hamideh
dan's does, is that Hamideh
Humayun.
Gulbadan
Dildar
does not mention,
someone;
"If it is to pay my
insistence:
respects the other day. Why
veracity)
Begum,
in Gulbadan's
her text. This says something
tices of the time. One may
inmatters
Dildar
the concern
is
hand can touch,
is not the facticity (or literal
Begum
and Hamideh
Banu
to put such a conversation
about her understanding
thus see Gulbadan's
of appropriate behavior
time it is forbidden
collar my
rendering
between
as a statement
of the communications
sent to the emperor,
than a king who
response was: "Oh yes, I shall
skirt it does not reach."32
of this exchange
reluctance
Banu
Hamideh
Better
someone.
reported
but the fact that she was willing
Begum's
I
should
time. Finally, Dildar Begum
but he shall be aman whose
is important
What
to Gulbadan,
a second
Banu Begum's
and not one whose
to
Banu
on Humayun's
advised her, "After all you will marry
marry
Hamideh
she was invited to
resisted seeing Humayun
there?" Hamideh
between
The former objected when
again?" For forty days, according
Begum
interven
but Gulba
initially refused to be married
an exchange
Iwas exalted by paying my
respects,
come
's quarters
Begum
Banu Begum
reports
and Dildar Begum.
Begum
and of Dildar Begum's
Jawhar's memoir
tion is very similar, what
account
about continuous
into
of the cultural prac
of Hamideh
Banu
debate, and tension,
in the lives of people at the court. In one
that Hamideh
Banu Begum
is supposed
to have
she says: "To see kings once is lawful [jayizast];a second
responds to
[na-mahramast]. I shall not come." Humayun
implicit in Hamideh
ond time: "If she is not a consort
Banu Begum's
refusal to visit him a sec
we will make
[na-mahram-and],
her a consort
Theirmarriage follows.
[mahram
misazim]."33
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The marriage ofHumayun andHamideh Banu Begum shows thatwom
in matters
en's choice
of matrimony
was amatter
concern,
of widespread
aswere genealogy and dynasty, especiallyin theTimurid-Mughalcontext.
In this instance the details of the negotiation of marriage are especially
striking for the careful attention paid to tradition,protocol, and legality,
and to the minute
legitimate
number
rules of social interaction-the
of times it was
(jayiz) to visit a king, the equal status that had to be sought
in
marriages, aswell as the importance of getting married when a king
desired to enter into a relationshipwith a noblewoman.
QUESTIONS
OF TRANSLATION
Annette Beveridge, the colonial scholar, accomplished the truly com
mendable task of unearthing, translating, and presenting the Ahval-i
to the scholarlyworld. Yet itwould be surprising if,one
Badshah
Humayun
hundred
years on, we did not have some questions
about
the way
in
which thatwork was done. The process bywhich Gulbadan'smemoir was
made
that took place in the course of
available to us, and the mutations
thatprocess,need to be borne inmind by themodern historian.
As a first step, it will help to keep in mind
Beveridge's
own
social and
intellectual context. She was born Annette Akroyd (1842-1929)in Stour
England. A daughter
bridge, a small town just west of Birmingham,
self-made man
Unitarian
of England's
class," she was brought
rising middle
in religion and "radical" in politics.4
In 1861, she enrolled
of "a
up as a
at the
Unitarian-supported Bedford College in London. Her education was
shaped by the ideology of nineteenth-century scientism,with an added
She shared the nineteenth cen
emphasison domestic and personal life.35
in
tury'sunquestioned belief science'sobjectivityand its ability to "repre
sent" reality. In this triumphalistvision, the institutions,practices, tradi
tions, and belief-systems
of the West were
rational,
and those of other
(non-Western)partsof theworld were presented asbeing backward,ifnot
uncivilized.Beveridge'spublic opposition to the IlbertBill of 1883,seeking
to empower Indiancivil servantswith criminal jurisdictionover European
subjects in country
stations, was very much
in accord with
these views.'
How does this self-confidentcolonial context affectBeveridge's transla
tion of the Ahval-i Humayun Badshah?The
first point
to note
is that the Vic
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606
torian translator's
reads in the Ahval. As a result, numerous
what
the reader
appears before
life. This may
domestic
many
instances
Persian words
also "fixes" the stories she
fixed frame of knowledge
be witnessed
that have complex
nuances
picture
in Beveridge's
and in her attempt
seen in the "aristocratic"
interesting
is a flattened
histories
in
literal paraphrasing
to find exact English
(yet colonial
are lost and
of early Mughal
of
equivalents
and associations.
Itmay
also be
sensibility with which
bourgeois)
she regards the characters of the memoir.
this passage, which
Consider
In the memoir,
Humayun.
is placed
others
evokes marriage
the conversation
practices
between Maham
two years after Babur's death
in the time of
Begum
(1532) when Humayun
trying to retain and expand his father's territories
and
was
in India. In Beveridge's
translation,Gulbadanwrites:
My lady,who was Maham Begam, had a great longing and desire to see a son of
there was a good-looking
Humayun. Wherever
her into his service. Maywa-jan,
and nice girl, she used to bring
[?Khazang], the cham
was
in
One
the
death of his Majesty
berlain (yasawal),
my employ.
day (after)
my
Firdaus-makani,
a daughter of Khadang
is not bad.Why do you not
lady said: "Humayun, Maywa-jan
take her into your service?" So, at her word, Humayun married and took her
that very night.
Three days later Bega Begam came from Kabul. She became in the family way.
In due time she had a daughter, whom
they named
'Aqiqa.Maywa-jan
said to
Lady (Aka)Maham Begam, "Iam in the family way, too." Then my lady got ready
two sets of weapons, and said: "Whichever of you bears a son, Iwill give him good
arms.".. . [She]was very happy, and kept saying: "Perhaps one of them will have a
son." She kept watch till Bega Begam's 'Aqiqawas born. Then she kept an eye on
Maywa-jan. Ten months went by. The eleventh also passed. Maywa-jan
maternal
said: "My
aunt was inMirza Ulugh Beg's haram.She had a son in the twelfth
month; perhaps I am like her." So they sewed tents and filled pillows. But in the
end everyone knew she was a fraud.37
"My ladyMaham
Humayun,"
Begam,
Gulbadan
of the younger wives
had a great longing and desire to see a son of
tells us. In this world,
to produce
as elsewhere,
itwas
the role
heirs; in their turn, at a later stage, they
themselves instructed younger wives about such responsibilities.This
duty of elder women
ward
to advise the young
the name of the family through
and of the young
reproduction
to carry for
was of no small mo
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ment
607
and her "services" would
world. Maywa-jan
in the Timurid-Mughal
fit this tradition.The production of royal children was amuch-desired
event, for such an esteemed
birth meant
Babur and Humayun
when
very real, on account
of the Uzbik
It was an urgent
It was
challenge
of the family was
encountered
by Humayun
in these circumstances
in
to pre
and the birth of children
that, marriages
in this context
that Maham
heirs. She looked for wives
about male
in the time of
threat that Babur faced in Central Asia,
requirement
serve the lineage, and, to achieve
was essential.
of the eminent
crucial
the risk of the disappearance
and later because of the Afghan
Hindustan.
the perpetuation
task was especially
family. The
Timurid-Mughal
Begum made
the point
for the momentous
for Humayun
heirs to the throne.8
task of producing
In her discussion of the episode described above,Beveridge draws the
followingpicture ofMaham Begum:
and both aswife and aswidow made herself
Maham Begam was a clever woman,
felt in her home. Lady Rosebody [Gulbadan Banu Begum] lifts the pardaand shows
us the Empress-mother
busied in duties not often thus disclosed to the outside
eye. In telling the story, which for the sake of itsmany special points we quote in
full, she has no air of being indiscreet, and is, asmay be seen, quite matter-of-fact.39
sees inMaham's
Beveridge
than a senior woman
with wisdom,
have seen it as her duty
sustain
activities more
that is far removed
world
from the projection
of
in
participation
to become
seems
continued
The
networks
talk of blood
was also built around
of fostering. Many
influential
of
characteristic
to be that kinship
communities.
in the affairs of the monarchy
and communities
a striking
memoir,
familial
and notions
their husbands were
and to
this "elder" to a
circles of intimates and authorities
but the idea of consanguinity
such aswet-nursing
who would
kinsfolk
of Gulbadan's memoir.
to form new
extended
remained,
world
domestic
the early Mughal
were
overlapping,
to Gulbadan's
Indeed, according
and authority,
status,
of her family. She elevates
rarefied and singular position
the peripatetic Mughal
... Empress-mother"
to advise and guide her younger
the name and honor
plural, and sometimes
"a clever
practices
of Akbar's nurses and
in his court. Their many-sided
shows how these relationships
to shape notions
of family and kinship,
and
court politics itself.
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In this context of highly open and variegated domestic relations, the
of "cleverness"
attribution
Beveridge
is perhaps
something
more
recognizably
of early Mughal
Victorian,
Lady" for Akam and other cognate
throughout
persed
Begum
by
too hasty. One example of this kind of slanting, which
by an assimilation
is accompanied
to Maham
and "singularity"
society and mores
into
is the use of the honorific
"My
terms. This form of address is found dis
as also in the first line of the extract
the translation,
fromGulbadan thatwe have been considering here. Beveridge ponders
of "Akam"at one point. She writes: "the Turki Aka is used
over the meaning
as a title of respect from a junior to a senior. It has also the sense
brother,' which
word
makes
to a woman
application
... and Mr. Erskine [a contemporary
read 'my Lady' [sic]."' Beveridge
'elder
Babar uses the
scholar of Beveridge]
suggests to
it hard to find the equivalent word
declares
for akam in English, but her eventual
doubtful.
choice of "My Lady" fails to capture
the tone of affection and respect in the original and calls up inappropriate
associations
with
in the late-medieval
and romance
elevation
European
(knightly) tradition.Aka, aTurki word (used formen), is close in essence
to khanumor begum.Reverence, privileged status, and deference (that came
with enhanced age) are marked characteristics of all of these words, and
they are somewhat
lost in Beveridge's more
In a similar way, we might
translation
ask questions
Persian dictionaries,
caprice. Although
havasak.The
is an affective
Beveridge
latter, which
text of the politics of marriage
diminutive
nancy-amounts
to a reduction
marks Gulbadan's
text.41
the evident problems
rich potential
in the making
the background
of fragments
the conditions
the word
"fraud" is
is not found as such in
desire,
given
con
the Timurid-Mughal
and the quick dismissal
than, say, as a case of hysterical
of the ambivalence
of translation,
in helping
of the Mughal
havasak in the
of havas,meaning
and reproduction,
of her state as "fraudulent"-rather
to consider
the word
interprets havasakas a pejorative, Maywa-jan's
craving for a child is hardly unexpected,
Despite
about
cited above. In the last line of the passage,
used for the Persian word
memoir's
rarefied phrase.
it is not difficult
us comprehend
monarchy
and tension
preg
that
to see the
the processes
at work
and its domestic world.
Against
from the Ahval-i Humayun Badshah, it is possible
and ways
of domestic
life under
the early
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Mughals. Gulbadan's documentation of the place and responsibilitiesof
Mughal women andmen allows us to explore themeanings of relation
ships and the kinds of conflict, and solidarities,making for diverse forms
of community among them.Different kinds of relationshipsare indexed
in the participation
of women
in the making
and men
in fes
of marriages,
tivitiesand other celebrations, and in the observance of rituals at births
and deaths andmore everyday occasions. It is through an excavation of
these relationships and events that we are able to delineate forms of
Mughal sociability aswell as think through other concepts: those of
motherhood and wifehood, for instance; the ways inwhich marriages
were effected (andwhy in thoseways); or the prevailingnotions of duty,
loyalty,and love.42
thus allows
Gulbadan
us to imagine
as a realm in which many
Mughals
life of the early
the domestic
different kinds of duties and activities,
bonds of solidarity,notions of sexuality, questions of reproduction and
reproductiverights (and duties), and varyingmoments of celebrationand
joy and loss and grief come together.She takesus through the complex
set of relations inwhich women of the nobility were involved in the
domestic sphere,pointing to the public political affairsthatwere necessar
here aswell as in the courts, and through
ily conducted
all this to the very
differentmeanings attaching to family,married life,and domestic affairs
in this sixteenth-centuryworld.
CONCLUDING
THOUGHTS
If themultiplex characterof Gulbadan'smemoir opens some fascinating
arenas for us, it also helps us read other Mughal
ly, for these too are richer in meaning
have made
chronicles
and content
very different
than the historians
them out to be.
In histories of the Mughals,
there is a sharp focus on the personality
and
politics of theMughal kings and theirmost prominent lieutenants.The
emperor, his nobles, and theirpoliticalmilitary exploits are explored over
and over again; other worlds
are hardly even noticed. There are two prob
lems that flow from this. First, as feminist writings
other
contexts,
a large part of human
This happens partly because ordinary,
experience
have shown
falls outside
everyday, domestic
in so many
"history."
events
are not
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neatly documented
by the state or institutionalized
in public archives. As a
consequence, the account of the great historical changes and develop
to life. Few Mughal
also fails to come
ments
people
building
histories have been histories of
or domestic
lives, relationships,
and even
worlds;
the
descriptionof themomentous and the extraordinarysometimes becomes
Ahval-i Humayun Badshah draws our attention
empty. Gulbadan's
at the very moment
of the quotidian
portance
to the im
of extraordinary,
momen
tous events.
of her memoir
The challenge
to note
haps the easiest point
Mughal
institutionalized.
Although
ways. Per
about
questions
text
Gulbadan's
too. Gulbadan
challenge
in a very different
of its subsequent
and much
of the early Mughals.
and less obvious,
empire
up in many
be summed
is that she raises important
in the household
life and activities
poses a second,
may
shows us the
light from that of the official histories
Her empire
historiography.
is not yet fully
text was actually used as a source
Gulbadan's
it is her text, and
for the official chronicle
of Akbar's empire,
not the imperial history,
that tells us about the making of theempire.
What
interestingly
Akbarnama (and the A 'in-iAkbari) provides
is an institutionalized
an empire already in place-fully
so to speak. Gulbadan's
formed,
text, by
shows us the empire (and its history)
contrast,
beingfonned.
in at least three ways. First, chronologi
Thus her Ahval appears important
cally speaking,
it evokes
a powerful
already known
or made,
a political
infancy tomaturity.
Second,
life, the text provides much
documentable)
impression
formation
of an empire
that is not
taking unsteady
steps from
in terms of domestic manners
food for thought
aspects of Mughal
tory (and empire)
and emotional
on the less tangible (and less
history. Finally, on the question
of his
itself, the text serves as a symbol of how official "history"
to be written.
came
the
history of
Of course, Gulbadan's
memoir
ended up as historio
graphical flotsam, suggesting both the entrenched politics and the
machinations involved in the construction of historical archives.
Once
we have been
Mughal
formation
to some of these hidden
history by a text like Gulbadan's,
mainstream
questions:
alerted
sources
on many
unusual
we discover
long used by Mughal
"hidden" matters
and unexpected
historians
when
evidence
dimensions
of
that the canonical,
themselves
yield in
we go to them with
new
on the rough and tumble of
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6II
social life;on everyday struggles, fears,and pleasures;on the construction
of new subjectivitiesand new historicalconditions.
Consider an extraordinarymoment that brings together the power of
regime on the one hand and the contrary nodes of power on the
Akbar's
toMecca
other: the pilgrimage
should
in 1578. This pilgrimage
by the women
undertaken
be set in the context
of Akbar's harem
of Akbar's
reign in
which courtly and domestic spacescame, for the first time, to be distinctly
separatedfrom each other. A neatly compartmentalized harem(shabistan-i
to place women
Iqbal), designed
in a strictly
place, now
segregated
ap
Akbar's cho
peared-for "good order and propriety,"Abu'l Fazl argued.43
sen chronicler
a full chapter, A 'in 15, to the imperial regulations
devoted
statement
of the harem, the first official
career of Mughal
on the royal household
In this statement,
dynasty.
the women
were
in the
officially
the veiled ones. This increasedthe invisibilityof
designated the pardeh-giyan,
the royal women,
now more
elevated and at the same time more
of the sacred, incarcerated
organization
cessful as to wipe out contradictions,
harem,was however
tensions, human
that is the stuff of human
pected departures-all
changing
secluded
theory of Akbar's empire, seen to good effect in the
than ever before. The
environment
of Akbar's
never so suc
or unex
volition,
in the
history. Although
reign, a great deal was done
to regulate
the domestic arrangements, there is (not surprisingly)considerable evi
this hajj of imperial women
dence-like
led by Gulbadan
show
Begum-to
how women andmen continued to negotiate the prescriptive, thereby
translating, and recasting the imperial vision inmany ways.
appropriating,
It is interesting
to note
Although
this unique
this polyglot
that the most
this journey, at the same time, maps
empire,
The hajj of Gulbadan
that were
us the kinds of activities
palaces of Fatehpur-Sikri
restrictive
other
planned
and Agra
adventure,
circumstances,
by the elder women.
an unparalleled
of this women's
event
the Akbarnama.
be seen as a sign of the "Islamic" claims of
hajjmay
agency of imperial women.
bold and significant
detailed account
in Abu'l Fazl's official compendium,
hajj is in fact contained
still possible
in the red sandstone
in the late sixteenth
given
the constraints
and one
the desires and
and her relations shows
that was
This collective women's
in the annals of the Mughals,
century.44 It was a
of the passage and
largely
initiated
pilgrimage
highlighting
and
remains
for us
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that although
most
people,
Akbar's
haremwas secluded,
it was by no means
sacred, and even inaccessible
closed off from the world,
to
unconcerned
with politics, or bereft of power or interest inpublic affairs.
again in the reigns of Akbar's well
We never hear of such an incident
established successors.Although people continued to perform the hajj
under
the later Mughals,
the extraordinary
women
going
on a pilgrimage
because
the empire was now
venture
was never
too well
of a group
to be witnessed
of royal
again.
Is this
the royal
established? Or because
women, now better "incarcerated,"had far lessopportunity to takeexcep
tional
and set off on such
initiatives
women's
hajj led by Gulbadan
a pilgrimage?
Begum
the royal
Indeed,
as a startling
comes
discovery
because, although the Akbarnama
provides considerable detail about the
hajj, historians
ing complexities
historian will
Thus,
to it.45Once
have paid little or no attention
are noted
look at other
in one set of materials,
texts with
memoir
about aMughal
of aMughal
"becoming"
princess
that Mughal
torians have all too often skirted. This relates both to the coming
of an empire, and to the simultaneous
institution
it possible for us to see how one of the most
Akbarnama) came into being, rendering
so, the memoir
raises questions
Gulbadan's
beloved
his
into being
of an archive. By making
vaunted Mughal
sources (the
its own "sources" peripheral
as it did
opens up the question of the making of sources, even as it
about the assigned limits ofMughal history.
text challenges
some of Mughal
such as the one
propositions,
involved
in the establishment
historiography's
that the sources
available for this or that inquiry. Sensitized
struggles
that the
a different eye.
the easily available but neglected
enables us to raise questions
such challeng
it is to be hoped
by the Begum's
of a new
most
are simply
account
not
of the
royal life and culture,
one also learnswhat other ("central,"official) frequentlymined sources
are capable of telling us about these processes. For what Gulbadan's
Humayun Badshah suggests very clearly
contestation
ting-not
only
that went
to the history
into the founding
its new power
and accommodations,
of this new polity
and grandeur,
in its new set
but also its new
regulations
its traditions and its hierarchies. Her writing
of a subjectivity
social relationships,
Ahval-i
indeed is the fact of the fluidity and
and a culture,
of political
struggling to be born. Historians
wishing
power
points
and of
to extend
the
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history cannot but ask, as part of this endeavor,
frontiers of Mughal
for a
more sustainedhistory of everyday livesand associationsbasedon sources
such asGulbadan's memoir,
but hardly on that alone.
Notes
at the
sem
earlier draft of this article was presented
Johns Hopkins University
History
Women's
and
the
Berkshire
conference
Connecticut,
History
(Storrs,
(April 1999)
to my col
to thank the participants
in those
June 2001). Iwish
meetings.
Special thanks
at
to
and
for their readings, criticisms,
Johns Hopkins
leagues
encouragement?especially
Veena Das, Toby Ditz, Rita Costa Gomes,
Poole,
Jane Guyer, Gyan Pandey, Deborah
An
inar
Pamela
CM.
Reynolds,
Gabrielle
Nairn,
Dale,
also to Talal Asad,
My gratitude
Spiegel, and Judy Walkowitz.
Leslie
Afsaneh
Peirce,
Prakash, Tapan
Najmabadi,
Gyan
for
their
careful
and
sug
Thapar
reading
thought-provoking
Stephen
and Romila
Raychaudhuri,
over the years. Thanks
Khan for her response
and to Brinkley
also to Naveeda
gestions
on the
and Nick Dirks for an extended
conversation
Messick
of the archive.
question
A Note
on Transliteration and Citations. There
Persian
into
is no
from
system for transliteration
of the InternationalJournal ofMiddle East
Studies (IJMES) system developed
and used by Layla S. Diba and Maryam
Ekhtiar for their
edited volume,
LB. Taurus,
Royal Persian Paintings: The Qajar Epoch, 1785-1925 (New York;
in association with
For
of
Museum
better
the
Art,
1998).
publishers
Brooklyn
readability,
all diacritical
I have used
English.
marks
have been
tations. As a result,
spellings
1.
certain
in the quotations.
the modified
removed.
The
have been retained in quo
spellings
in my text that differ from some
spellings
in square brackets
ismine.
included
original
names
All
standard
version
appear with
the information
Gulbadan
Banu Begum,
Ahval-i Humayun Badshah, British
Library MS, Or. 166; The
trans. Annette
Susannah
2d ed. (1902;
of Humayun: Humayun Nama,
Beveridge,
use the Persian
Low
I
Delhi:
Price
and the
Publications,
reprint,
1994).
manuscript
see Gulba
in
this
translation
article.
94;
simultaneously
English
Beveridge, Humayun,
dan, Ahval, fol. 9b.
History
2.
3.
4.
Ahval, fol. 9b-10b.
Beveridge, Humayun, 95-96; Gulbadan,
A. Beveridge, Humayun, 129T130; Begum, Ahval, fol. 29b-30a.
Kishori Saran Lai, The Mughal Harem (Delhi: Aditya Prakashan,
1988), 19, 135, 139, 143,
152.
5.
John F. Richards,
The Mughal
Empire (Cambridge,
U.K.:
Cambridge
University
Press,
1993),62.
6.
R. Nath,
tion
7.
Private Life of theMughals
1526-1803
(Jaipur: Historical
Research
Documenta
1994), 13,15,17.
"The Small Voice
Program,
in Subaltern Studies IX: Writings on South
of History,"
Ranajit Guha,
Asian History and Society, ed. Shahid Amin
and Dipesh
Chakrabarty
(Delhi: Oxford
Press, 1996), 3.
University
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RubyLal
614
8.
9.
Beveridge, Humayun,
See Satish Chandra,
House,
Publishing
1, 8-9, 2.
Parties and Politics at theMughal Court, 1707-1740 (Delhi: People's
1959); M. Athar Ali, The Mughal Nobility underAurangzeb (London: Asia
The Mughal Empire.
1966); Richards,
Publishing House,
10. Ramesh Chandra Majumdar,
ed., The Mughul Empire (Bombay:
Bhartiya
Vidya
Bhavan,
1974).
11. Monica
Black, 2001).
Juneja, ed., Architecture inMedieval India (New Delhi: Permanent
12. Rekha Misra, Women in
Manoharlal,
Mughal India, 1526-1748 (Delhi: Munshiram
1967).
Renuka Nath, Notable Mughal andHindu Women in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries A.D.
Inter-India
Publications,
1990); Ellison Banks Findly, Nurjahan: Empress of
(New Delhi:
India
Oxford
York:
Press, 1993).
(New
University
Mughal
13. To take only one example
of an extraordinary
book on the Ottoman
imperial harem
see Leslie P. Peirce, The Imperial Harem: Women
that came out the same year as Findly's,
and Sovereignty in theOttoman Empire (New York: Oxford University
Press, 1993).
14. Tapan Raychaudhuri,
Manoharlal,
Bengal under Akbar and Jahangir (Delhi: Munshiram
P. Blake, Shahjahanabad: The Sovereign City inMughal
India, 1639-1739
1969); Stephen
U.K.: Cambridge
Press, 1993); Hermann
Kulke, ed., The State in
University
(Cambridge,
India, 1000-1700
Press,
O'Hanlon,
University
1997), 38; Rosalind
(Delhi: Oxford
and the Construction
of Imperial Service
and Body: Gender
"Kingdom, Household,
under Akbar," unpublished
paper.
15. Zahir al-Din Muhammad
Babur Mirza,
Baburnama, trans, and ed. W.M. Thackston,
translation
edition, and English
(Cambridge,
Susannah
trans., Babur
1993); and Annette
Beveridge,
nama
Padshah Ghazi (1921; reprint, Delhi:
(Memoirs of Babur) of Zahiru'd-din Muhammad Babur
Low Price Publications,
Ross, trans, and N. Elias, ed., The Tarikh-i
1997); E. Denison
parts
Mass.:
1-3, Turkish
Harvard
transcription,
University
Persian
Press,
Rashidi ofMuhammad Haidar Dughlat: A History of theMoguls of Central Asia (London: S. Low,
and Co., 1895).
Indica series
16. M. Hidayat Hosain,
ed., The Qanun-i Humayuni of Khwandamir, Bibliotheca
260, no. 1488, Persian text, Preface (Calcutta: Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal,
1940);
Marston
Jawhar,
The Tezkereh al Vakiat or Private Memoirs
theMoghul Emperor
Tazkirat-ul-Vaqi'at:
of
trans. Charles Stewart
Pustak Kendra,
1971).
(1832; reprint, Lucknow:
Indica
Hosain,
ed., Tadhkira-i Humayun wa Akbar of Bayazid Biyat, Bibliotheca
Humayun,
17. M. Hidayat
series 264, no.
18. Abu'l
Fazl
1546, Persian text (Calcutta: Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal,
1941).
The Akbar Nama ofAbu-l
vAllami, Akbarnama, 3 vols., trans. Henry Beveridge,
Fazl (1902-39; reprint, Delhi:
Low Price Publications,
1993); Abu'l Fazl vAllami, Ain-i
and H.S. Jarrett, The A-in-I Akbari (1873, 1894; re
Akbari, 3 vols., trans. H.F. Blochmann
print, Calcutta:
Society,
Royal Asiatic
1993); NAbd al-Qadir Badauni, Muntakhab-ut
Tavarikh,
trans,
and
Muntakhabu-t-tawarikh,
W.H.
and Wolseley
ed. George
S.A. Ranking,
Lowe,
Haig,
vols.
1-3 (1884-1925;
Delhi:
Renaissance
reprint,
Publishing
trans. B. De and Baini
al-Din Ahmad,
Tabaqat-i Akbari, 3 vols.,
Nizam
1986);
Prasad, The Tabaqat-i Akbari ofKhwajah Nizammudin Ahmad (1936; reprint, Delhi:
House,
Publications,
Low Price
1992).
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615
RubyLal
19. Harbans
1976), xvi,
House,
andHistoriography during the Reign of Akbar (New Delhi:
154nl.
Vikas
71.
20. Mukhia,
21.
Historians
Mukhia,
Publishing
Ishtiaq Husain
Qureshi,
Akbar: The Architect
of theMughul
Empire (1978; reprint,
Delhi:
1987), 2,6.
Idarah-i-Adabiyat-i-Delli,
Ahval, fol. 2b; Akbamama, 1: 29.
Humayun, 83, and nl.; Gulbadan,
of Bayazid (Bajazet) Biyat," Journal of theAsiatic Society
"The Memoirs
1-4 (1898): 296.
of Bengal, 62, parts
24. Akbamama, vol. 1 (see introduction,
esp. 29-33, including notes).
25. Francis Joseph Steingass, A Comprehensive Persian-English Dictionary, 2d ed.; and Soleyman
22.
Beveridge,
23. Henry
Beveridge,
Shorter English Persian Dictionary, 3d ed., see "ahval."
Haim,
"Woman to Woman:
Annette,
Library, MSS Eur C176/ 221, 1-2;M.A. Scherer,
the Princess, and the Bibi," Journal of Royal Asiatic Society, 3d. series, 6 (1996): 208-9.
in
27. Muzaffar
"The Pursuit of Persian: Language
Alam,
Politics," Modem Asian
Mughal
26.
British
Studies 32, no.
"Life and Writings
2 (1998): 324, 325; Annette
Susannah
Beveridge,
Calcutta Review 106 (1892): 346-47.
(Lady Rosebody),"
Gulbadan
Begam
28.
Beveridge,
Humayun, 83; Gulbadan,
29.
Beveridge,
30.
Humayun, 76,78.
Babumama, trans. Thackston,
31.
Tazkirat-ul- Vaqi at, 31.
32.
Beveridge,
33.
Beveridge,
34.
Scherer,
35.
Pat Barr,
Humayun,
of
Ahval, fol. 2b.
634-35; and Babur-nama, trans. A.S. Beveridge,
150-51; Gulbadan,
525-26.
Ahval, fol. 43a.
Ahval, fol. 43a.
Humayun, 151; Gulbadan,
"Woman to Woman,"
198.
The Memsahibs:
Victorian India (London:
Seeker and Warburg,
of
to Woman,"
"Annette Akroyd
197, 209; also, Scherer,
The Women
"Woman
1976), 188-89; Scherer,
Reformer,
Beveridge: Victorian
Oriental
Scholar"
(Ph.D.
diss., Ohio
State University,
1995).
37.
Sinha, Colonial Masculinity: The "Manly Englishman" and the "Effeminate Bengali" in
U.K.: Manchester
the LateNineteenth Century (Manchester,
Press, 1995), 58-60;
University
"Annette Akroyd Beveridge,"
Scherer,
chap. 5.
Ahval, fol. 21b-22a.
Beveridge, Humayun, 112-13; Gulbadan,
38.
For an elaboration
36. Mrinalini
and Power
of these propositions,
in the Early Mughal
World"
Press, forthcoming
39. A.S.
see my
book,
"Domesticity
forthcoming
U.K.: Cambridge
University
(Cambridge,
2005).
"Gulbadan
Begam," 353-54.
89-90.
Beveridge, Humayun,
allow us to read havasak
41. The context of Timurid-Mughal
reproductive
politics might
as a condition
to women
of having
children
and
who
become
desirous
applicable
to have symptoms
and milk pro
breasts and stomach,
of pregnancy
begin
(swelling
as it is
of a child. Hysterical
pregnancy,
any biological
conception
duction) without
Beveridge,
40.
in current
termed
There
are several
underlying
is itself a fairly complex
phenomenon.
terminology,
in the spectrum
thus acquiring many
forms and
of hysteria,
to Dr.
at the
I am thankful
Wasan
fellow
Ajay
(research
medical
realms
conditions.
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6I6
RubyLal
and Simone
Medical
School)
and Power," chaps.
Lai, "Domesticity
43. Ain-i Akbari, 1:45.
Harvard
42.
44.
For details,
45. The
see Lai,
"Domesticity
of Gulbadan
chap. 7.
in Richards's
The Mughal Empire appears
Begum
to the women's
as the initiative of
is
The
hajj.
pilgrimage
represented
see also,
Akbar
and completely
misses
of the
the initiative
Begum;
the emperor
Michael
N. Pearson,
Markus
Wiener,
for these details.
and Power,"
mention
single
in a reference
Taubenberger
5 and 7.
Pilgrimage
Banu
toMecca:
1996), esp. chap.,
The Indian Experience, 1500-1800 (Princeton,
and the Hajj," 105-21.
N.J.:
"The Mughals
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