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One has read, with avid interest, so many fictionalised versions
of the lives of the British and French kings and queens, among
them, Mary—Queen of Scots, Queen Elizabeth, 'The Bonny Prince
Charles and Marie Antoinette. We have not been aware that Indian
history too offers such a pantheon of colourful monarchs and
their ladies whose lives are endlessly fascinating, the times
they lived in, exotic, and the rules they lived by, strange even
to us, the people whose history they form. Sundaresan attempts
to bring our history to us in a highly palatable form. Says she:
" When one thinks of the six main Mughal Emperors, it is
usually in these terms: Babur founded the Empire,Humayun lost it…and
reclaimed it, Akbar…consolidated it, Jahangir's…romantic
exploits are legendary, Shah Jahan…built the Taj Mahal,
Aurangzeb…was instrumental in the break-up of the Empire.
There are few mentions of the women these kings married or the
power they exercised. The Twentieth Wife seeks to fill
this gap." Sunderasan presents the colours and textures of
the times vividly . The vignettes of court life, the endless
feuds, the revolts, the politics of the zenana, and the
pastimes of the kings, their queens, concubines and courtiers
are opulently displayed in her pages. Described in them are the
Mina Bazar that was held at the palace three days in a month,
days that Emperor Akbar named Khushroz or ‘days of
joy', where "since the ladies of the imperial zenana
went unveiled, only women were allowed to sell the goods…they
shopped, haggled and bargained to their heart's content, and the
Emperor joined them in their activities". Elephant fights
were also held to amuse the royalty with the royal elephants in
the fray and the Emperor, courtiers, the ladies of the zenana
(behind screens) and the janta watching and cheering the
elephant of their preferred prince.
The author also
represents a sociological picture of the times, where eunuchs
held a special place in armies and as attendants of the nobles
and their ladies and were important instruments in the power
play in the zenana. For example, Hoshiyar Khan,
"chief eunuch of the zenana" who had been with
Jahangir for 35 years and wielded enormous powers in the harem,
had been taken from Jagat Gosini (Jahangir's Padshah Begum) and
appointed as personal eunuch to Mehrunissa'. This, Mehrunisa
considered to be the first of her victories in tipping the
power-equation in the harem. Women were to be seen and not heard
and existed only to please their menfolk. Yet, second marriages
were not unheard of even among the women of the royalty. Akbar
married Salima Sultan, the widow of his regent, Bairam Khan, and
Jahangir married Mehrunissa, the widow of Ali Quli Khan. The purdah
system was rigorously followed, yet if the Emperor desired any
man's wife as his concubine, he could invoke the 'Tura-i-Chingezi',
in effect, ordering the man to divorce his wife, which was
considered a great honour for the husband.
Sundaresan
presents a variety of characters that are legendary, yet human
and believable and who dominate the colourful canvas of the
times that she has chosen to represent. Emperor Akbar, whose
great statesmanship cannot make up for the pain that a father
feels at the betrayal by a favourite son, his Padshah Begum,
Ruqayya Sultan, the benign ruler of the zenana who
commands Khurram, the son of Salim and Jagat Gosini as her own
because Jagat Gosini was not as respectful as she ought to have
been. Khusrau, Salim's son, who revolted against him time and
again, just as Salim had revolted against his own father and who
was finally blinded at his orders, Ali Quli Khan, the great
warrior and Mehrunissa's husband,who stood in the way of the
love of Jahangir and Mehrunissa and who was finally killed.
Through the story the growth of Salim and Mehrunissa is traced.
We see Salim growing from a petulant boy into the Emperor
Jahangir, the mighty and sometimes cruel king. Mehrunissa, the
beautiful girl of eight who vows to marry Salim and finally does
so 26 years later.
The Twentieth
Wife is a fictional
account of Mehrunissa's life before her marriage to Jahangir,
but it is rooted in history. To make the account authentic,
Sundaresan gives excerpts from sources at the beginning of each
chapter. These include excerpts from The Tuzuk-e-Jahangiri, A
Dutch Chronicle Of Mughal India, The Ain-e-Akbari and The
History Of Hindostan by Alexander Dow.
Sundaresan's debut novel is
well researched and presented and the reader waits for her
presentation of court life in her promised sequel to this novel,
'The Power Behind The Veil'.
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The Twentieth Wife, Indu Sundaresan has made use of a
readymade plot, real historical characters, a royal setting
and real life events for the progression of her story and by
skillfully juxtaposing fact and fiction, she has created a
book that is very readable indeed. More so because we've all
had to study the lives and times of the characters she has
chosen in our history lessons. Thus, they are familiar but
never have they been quite so human, fallible and fascinating.
