DAUGHTERS OF THE SUN

In 1526, when the nomadic
Timurid warrior-scholar Babur rode into Hindustan, his wives, sisters,
daughters, aunts and distant female relatives travelled with him. These women
would help establish a dynasty and empire that would rule India for the next
200 years and become a byword for opulence and grandeur. By the second half
of the seventeenth century, the Mughal empire was one of the largest and
richest in the world. The Mughal women unmarried daughters, eccentric
sisters, fiery milk mothers and powerful wives often worked behind the scenes
and from within the Zenana, but there were some notable exceptions among them
who rode into battle with their men, built stunning monuments, engaged in
diplomacy, traded with foreigners and minted coins in their own names. Others
wrote biographies and patronised the arts. In daughters of the sun, we meet
remarkable characters like Khanzada begum who, at sixty-five, rode on
horseback through 750 kilometres of icy passes and unforgiving terrain to
parley on behalf of her nephew, Humayun, Gulbadan begum, who gave us the only
document written by a woman of the Mughal royal court, a rare glimpse into
the harem, as well as a chronicle of the trials and tribulations of three
emperors Babur, Humayun and Akbar her father, brother and nephew, Akbar?s
milk mothers or foster-mothers, Jiji Anaga and Maham Anaga, who shielded and
guided the thirteen-year-old emperor until he came of age, Noor Jahan, ?light
of the world?, a widow and mother who would become Jahangir?s last and
favourite wife, acquiring an imperial legacy of her own and the fabulously
wealthy begum sahib (princess of princesses) Jahanara, shah Jahan?s favourite
child, owner of the most lucrative port in medieval India and patron of one
of its finest cities, (No Suggestions). The very first attempt to chronicle
the women who played a vital role in building the Mughal empire, daughters of
the sun is an illuminating and gripping history of a little known aspect of
the most magnificent dynasty the world has ever known.