Gulbadan Begum was meant to live a quiet life in the confines of a Mughal harem. Instead she made her mark on history twice: first, embarking on a pioneering pilgrimage to Islam’s holy cities; second, writing a remarkable history of her dynasty. RUBY LAL tells her story
It all began in early 1576. Princess Gulbadan Begum sat opposite her nephew, the Mughal emperor Akbar, waiting for her turn to speak. The princess was of medium height, with distinctive straight eyebrows over penetrating eyes. She was dressed in a flowing long top over loose trousers, her chest covered with a stole thrown casually over her shoulders and head. Ruby and pearl necklaces adorned her neck.
Gulbadan dressed and carried herself like a woman of great standing. And why shouldn’t she? She was, after all, the daughter of Babur, the revered warrior-king who had conquered Delhi in 1526 and in doing so laid the foundations for the Mughal empire. Bearing the wisdom of the decades she had spent on the move across Afghanistan and India, Gulbadan was now a key matriarch in Akbar’s harem. As for the emperor, he was fully cognisant of her status as a powerful elder. But he hadn’t granted his aunt an audience just to pay his respects to her. Gulbadan had asked for the meeting without revealing the topic.
And when Gulbadan began to speak, she presented something even Akbar couldn’t fathom. She wished to embark on a journey across the seas to the Muslim holy cities, she informed him. That way – through the act of pilgrimage – she would fulfil her pledge to God.
What Gulbadan was proposing was extraordinary. The harem where Gulbadan and other women of the Mughal court were living was fundamental to Akbar’s plan to broadcast his image as an invincible sovereign. Since ascending the Mughal throne in 1556, Akbar had extended Babur’s realm through a mixture of war and canny diplomacy. Now he was determined to have all of India at his feet. Decreeing that all women attached to the Mughal dynasty must move into their designated harem apartments in the new capital of Fatehpur Sikri was central to that design. No more wandering the lands as his forefathers and their women had done. The women were now to be fully settled, mysterious and invisible. This was how Akbar advertised
