Jodha Bai in Popular Imagination
Among the many puzzles associated with the history of the Mughals of India is the persona of Queen Jodha Bai, daughter of Raja Bharmal/Biharimal of Amber (modern Jaipur). In popular imagination, she is generally identified with Emperor Akbar’s chief wife and the mother of the crown prince Salim, who succeeded Akbar as Emperor Jahangir (r. 1605-27). This riddle is reinforced by the iconic Bollywood movie Mughal-e-Azam (1960), in which she is depicted as Akbar’s chief consort. Another Bollywood film, Ashutosh Gowariker’s Jodha Akbar (2008), repeats a similar sequence of events. A popular TV soap opera, Jodhaa Akbar (2013), which ran for more than 500 episodes, romanticized the love story of Akbar and his favorite wife, Jodha Bai. Even in Shyam Benegal’s hugely popular TV serial Bharat Ek Khoj (1989), based on Jawaharlal Nehru’s Discovery of India, Jodha Bai was also portrayed as the wife of Akbar.
Akbar Marries the Amber Princess
All Mughal historians have narrated in detail the events leading to Akbar’s marriage with the daughter of Raja Bharmal of Amber in 1562. They point out that Akbar was highly impressed by the bravery and valor of the Rajputs. In support of this argument, these historians have described an event from 1556 when Raja Bharmal visited Delhi along with his contingent of soldiers. One day, when Akbar was riding a “mast” (intoxicated) elephant, his bodyguards and other commanders panicked and began to run helter-skelter. Raja Bharmal and his soldiers, however, stood their ground and faced the elephant fearlessly. Akbar was therefore keen to establish intimate relations with the Kachwahas of Amber. When, in 1562, Raja Bharmal approached Akbar to rescue him from the excesses of the Mughal governor of Malwa, Sharfuddin Mirza, the emperor readily acceded to his request. Sharfuddin not only released three close relatives of the Raja from his captivity but also pledged to remain at peace with Amber. A grateful Raja offered his daughter in marriage to Akbar, which was formally solemnized at Sambhar. This marked the beginning of a very friendly and long-lasting relationship between the Mughals and the house of Amber. Seven years later, when the Amber princess gave birth to Prince Salim, this relationship was further cemented and energized. According to Dr. Beni Prasad, this marriage “symbolized the dawn of a new era in Indian politics; it gave the country a line of remarkable sovereigns; it secured to four generations of Mughal emperors the services of some of the greatest captains and diplomats that mediaeval India produced” (History of Jahangir, Allahabad, 1930).
Preserving Royal Privacy
Despite a marriage of such consequence in the annals of Mughal India, none of the Mughal historians have mentioned the name of the Amber princess. Abul Fazl and all other contemporary and near-contemporary historians have referred to her by her titles Wali Nia’mat Begum and Mariam-uz-Zamani. Even her son Jahangir, in his autobiography, referred to her as Hazrat Mariam-uz-Zamani. Jahangir’s love and respect for his mother knew no bounds. He writes that he respects his mother in the same way his slaves and servants revere him. While narrating the major events of his first regnal year, Jahangir writes that “I ordered my son Khurram to attend upon Hazrat Maryam-zamani and the other ladies, and to escort them to me. When they reached the neighborhood of Lahore, I embarked in a boat and went to meet my mother, and I had the good fortune to be received by her. After the performance of obeisance and prostration and greeting which is due from the young to the old, I obtained leave to return and re-entered the fort of Lahore” (Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri, English translation, A. Rogers & H. Beveridge, Delhi, 1989).
But the question is, why have the Mughal historians concealed the maiden name of the Amber princess and Akbar’s first Hindu wife? The answer lies in a decree that Akbar issued early in his reign. We are told that the Emperor had issued a royal order that prohibited citing the names of the royal ladies in public in order to preserve their privacy and honor. Instead, they were generally addressed by the name of their place of birth, country of origin, the city where their marriage was solemnized with members of the royal family, or by the titles given to them by their royal husbands. This practice gave ample scope to later writers to guess or speculate on the maiden names of the royal ladies.
Colonel Tod’s Enduring Error
This was done precisely by Colonel James Tod. In his book Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan (1829), he erroneously identified Mariam-uz-Zamani as Jodha Bai. Fiction writers and filmmakers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries repeated the mistake committed by Col. Tod, and Mariam-uz-Zamani came to be permanently styled as Jodha Bai in public imagination. Even in Fatehpur Sikri, the Mughal capital between 1571-1585, whose buildings were named in the nineteenth century, there is the famous Jodha Bai palace, which is known as the residence of Akbar’s chief wife.
Unveiling Harkha Bai: Akbar’s Rajput Queen
Modern historians, however, assert that the maiden name of the Amber princess was Harkha Bai or Hira Kunwar. Ira Mukhoti has noted that “there is only one record that clearly states that the mother of the much longed-for Mughal heir, Salim, was indeed Harkha Bai Kachhwaha” (Ira Mukhoti, Akbar: The Great Mughal, New Delhi, 2020). It is also plausible that Harkha Bai had great influence on Akbar’s mind and policies. Akbar’s abolition of Pilgrim Tax (1563) and Jizya (1564), taxes levied exclusively on Hindus in the Mughal realm, within two years of her marriage to the Emperor, certainly lend credence to this hypothesis. Harkha Bai also freely participated in the commercial activities of her husband’s empire. She possessed several ships that plied regularly between Surat and West Asian ports, bringing huge profit to her personal exchequer. In fact, the ship Jahaz-i-Ilahi, on which Gulbadan Begum and the royal ladies traveled to Jeddah for the Hajj, was owned by her. In 1619, she sent 1700 pilgrims on Hajj at her own expense. Mariam-uz-Zamani died in 1623 and lies buried in her tomb in Agra.
Jodha Bai: Mother of Shah Jahan
Needless to say, Harkha Bai or Mariam-uz-Zamani was Akbar’s chief Rajput wife and the mother of Prince Salim. But the mystery of Jodha Bai’s identity remains to be resolved. All contemporary and modern historians agree that Jodha Bai was the daughter of Mota Raja Udai Singh of Marwar/Jodhpur, and hence the epithet Jodha Bai came to be associated with her. Her maiden name was Rajakumari Mani Bai (also known as Jagat Gosain). In 1586, she was married to Prince Salim. Abul Fazl writes that Akbar personally visited the residence of Raja Udai Singh along with other royal ladies, where the marriage between Salim and the Raja’s daughter was solemnized with great pomp and show. Akbar also gave her the title of Taj Bibi after the wedding. Six years later, she gave birth to Prince Khurram, as recorded by Jahangir in his autobiography. Earlier, Akbar had personally intervened to prevent Jodha Bai’s elder sister from committing sati at her husband’s funeral pyre (1583). Mughal records don’t refer much to the activities of Jodha Bai. Jahangir’s modern biographers, Dr. Beni Prasad and Parvati Sharma (Jahangir: An Intimate Portrait of a Great Mughal, New Delhi, 2018), have likewise refrained from providing details of her life and works. It is also plausible that following Jahangir’s marriage with Nur Jahan (1611) and the consequent domination of Nur Jahan in the Emperor’s private and public life, Jodha Bai led a largely uneventful life in the Mughal seraglio. In 1619, Jodha Bai passed away. We are told by Jahangir that “On Friday, the 30th (March), the mother of Shahjahan attained the mercy of God. The next day I myself went to the house of that precious son, and having condoled him in every way, took him with me to the palace.” She was buried in the midst of a spacious garden known as Bagh-i-Jahan Ara in Agra, and a sumptuous tomb was built by Jahangir over her grave.
Demolition of Jodha Bai’s Tomb by the British
We, however, know the cruel fate that the tomb of Jodha Bai suffered at the hands of the British. In a paper “The Pre-Mutiny Records in Agra,” presented at the XXI session of the Indian Historical Records Commission (1940), Dr. Agha Mahdi Hussain informed, on the basis of his examination of documents preserved at the Collector of Agra, that the Bagh-i-Jahan Ara, which probably belonged originally to Shahjahan’s daughter Princess Jahan Ara, consisting of 80 bighas of land, a vast number of trees, a pavilion, and the tomb of Jodha Bai, was sold by the British in 1820 to a local landlord, Kishen Chand or Lalla Babu, for rupees 2800 (roughly 350,000 dollars in today’s currency). The tomb was accordingly demolished, leaving absolutely no trace of the buildings and the garden. The stones of the two monuments were used for the repair of the Agra Fort. We are also informed by Dr. Hussain that in the year 1918, the Maharaja of Burdwan identified the site of Jodha Bai’s tomb in the vicinity of the ground lying between Shahgunj and Agra Cant. The Maharaja also built a monument in memory of the tomb of Jodha Bai, known as Jodha Bai ki Chhatri. This pavilion had the following inscription in English as well as in Persian: “Near this spot once stood the Tomb of Jodhpur Princess called Jagat Gosain afterwards known as Jodha Bai, wife of Emperor Jahangir and Mother of the Emperor Shahjahan, who died in the year 1028 H., 1618 A. D.”
Thus, the story of Jodha Bai, which had begun with great pomp and show, came to an end in a sordid and sad manner. The callous, disrespectful, and carefree attitude of the British rulers of India towards Mughal monuments also stands exposed.
