The Shadow Princess

A long time ago I have fallen under Indu Sundaresan's spell in her storytelling of the Mughal Empire. Under her expert prose I became fascinated with this slice of India's history especially the women she wrote about.  Mehrunissa, the twentieth wife of Emperor Jahangir, was the main character in her novels The Twentieth Wife and Feast of Roses.  And so I picked up her new book The Shadow Princess thinking it was the story of Arjumand, Mehrunissa's niece who married her stepson Khurram and was after the throne even while Jahangir, his father, was still alive. Because of this powerplay, Jahangir and Mehrunissa sent Khurram on exile. But as history would have it, Khurram became Emperor Shah Jahan, the emperor suceeding Jahangir and Arjumand became Mumtaz Mahal, his 3rd and most beloved wife.

Shadow Princess starts at Mumtaz Mahal's deathbed where she is about to give birth to her fourteenth child. With her is Jahanara and Rosharanara her 2 teenage daughters. Her final wish is to be with her husband, Emperor Shah Jahan, so inlove and inseparable were they. Upon her death, the Emperor commissioned work on a lavish tomb to house her remains which would become the Taj Mahal.  What I love about Mughal court life which is exquisitely described by Sundaresan in her novels, is the various lavish ways they lived their everyday lives. From the jewels in their hair, face, buildings, the imperial elephants and peacocks that would accompany them when they traveled from one place to the next, rose=strewn marble floors they would walk on and the Persian carpets that would adorn their walls and floors.

The Shadow Princess does not disappoint. But it is really the story of Jahanara, the Emperor's most beloved and trusted daughter who became the head of the Imperial Zenana at such a young age, who advised her father, who commanded her family and who was given an unrivaled income of jewels, land and money from the Imperial Treasury. Jahanara who was not allowed to marry but who was loyal to their father until the bitter end. She is a strong force to be reckoned with and yet imprisoned by her high status in court, unable to marry the man she loved and forever relegated to the back of the throne because she was a woman.  And posterity was not good to her as she was always the Shadow Princess.