Power in medieval India has always been seen as analogous to shining crowns, raging battles and sweeping edicts and ishtehars of emperors engraved on stones or proclaimed on elephant howdahs. But the empire’s most remarkable political architects were forged in quiet spaces – the shrouded corridors of the Andarun – the courtyards of the Mughal household, where whispers carried more weight than war cries.
This was the case with Empress Nur Jahan, the leading lady of the empire during Emperor Jahangir’s reign, whose growing enjoyment of wine and opium often distanced him from direct governance. Nur Jahan issued farmans (royal decrees) in her own name, established her own political faction in the Mughal court, and actively participated in imperial decision-making. While Nur Jahan enjoyed fairly direct authority over the day-to-day apparatus of the empire, this was not the case with Princess Jahanara Begum, the daughter of Emperor Shah Jahan. Despite the enormous role it played within the empire at the time of the fitna (crisis), it remained largely in the shadow of formal power. In contemporary historiography, Jahanara is depicted merely as the daughter of the Emperor and later the Sahebat al-Zamani (Lady of the Age) and the Padshah Begum (Chief Consort), after the death of Mallika-e-Hindustani (Empress of Hindustan) Mumataz Mahal, when Jahanara was just seventeen years old.
Yet behind this muted image, Jahanara emerged as a crucial political player in reshaping the troubled empire, not only mediating between the rival princesses but also playing an important role in managing imperial relations and court politics, quietly helping to maintain and recalibrate Mughal authority.
But behind this muted image, Jahanara emerged as a key political player in reshaping the troubled empire, beyond just mediating a bloody conflict between rival princesses War of Succession (1657-59) after Shah Jahan’s illness, but also played an important role in managing imperial relations and court politics, quietly contributing to the preservation and realignment of Mughal power at a time of great uncertainty, even after Aurangzeb ascended the throne. This essay examines how seventeen-year-old Padshah Begum exercised influence without a formal throne, drawing on contemporary feminist theory to reveal gender not as a mere identity but, as Joan Scott (1986) describes, as a “category of historical analysis” – a structural force of power itself.
The Padshah Begum and the Politics of Succession
What is most highlighted about Jahanara Begum is her role as an intermediary between the rival princes Dara Shikoh, the heir apparent to the Peacock Throne, and Aurangzeb, who was the nominal governor of Deccan during the War of Succession, which ultimately led to the defeat of Dara Shikoh at the Battle of Samugarh (1659) and ultimately led to his capture and execution. While her father, Shah Jahan, languished in prison, her daughter Jahanara became his confidante and caregiver. Far from the cliché of the zenana as a cage, here was a vibrant political life in which women like Jahanara navigated fitna – those seismic crises of succession and loyalty that could topple empires.
The death of Shah Jahan alongside his daughter and carer Princess Jahanara. Painting by Abanindranath Tagore, 1902 (Source: Wikipedia)
Jahanara’s open support for the secular, rationalist and philosophically oriented Dara Shikoh over her fanatical younger brother Aurangzeb left her politically isolated after the latter emerged victorious. Aurangzeb, who was supported in court by his sister Roshanara Begum, then stripped her of the title of Padshah Begum, which Roshanara briefly accepted. However, this arrangement proved to be short-lived, as Jahanara resumed the position after the death of Shah Jahan, thereby restoring the prominent place she once held in the Mughal household. Contemporary accounts, including the Shah Jahan Nama of Inayat Khan, suggest that she attempted to communicate between factions of the royal family even as the empire moved steadily toward open conflict.
Wealth, patronage and urban power
Jahanara’s influence was not inherited; This was achieved through wealth and patronage. Her personal wealth financed a transformation of Shahjanabad. She built the famous Chandi Chowk Bazaar, which became the busiest public and commercial space in the city. The bazaar’s grandeur was not charity but a conscious project that earned it the loyalty of not only the urban merchant elites but also the ulema and ensured that their moral capital flowed through the veins of Mughal society. As historian Ruby Lal (2005) notes in “Domesticity and Power in the Early Mughal World,” such patronage blurred the boundaries between household and polity and made the Andarun a linchpin of statecraft.
Contemporary feminist theory, such as Joan Scott’s, provides a powerful lens through which to analyze Jahanara’s unique form of power exercise. As they described While Jahanara views the life of Jahanara as a “useful category of historical analysis” and emphasizes that gender reflects power structures rather than mere identity, it reflects a similar framework in which Mughal women exercised influence across the andarun or courtyards. Far from being a passive or isolated domain, the Andarun functioned as a dynamic place where royal women managed resources, maintained alliances, and participated in the political life of the Empire.
Spiritual Authority and Sufi Networks
Jahanara’s authority was not limited to the political sphere; She also became deeply rooted in spiritual networks. A devoted murad (disciple) of the Sufi Qadiri order, she wrote a comprehensive biography of the revered Sufi priest Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti in her Munis-al-Arwah (The Familiar of Spirits, 1640) – charting a mystical path to divine union by weaving Quranic ethics with Persian poetic flourishes.
Jahanara represented a politics based on moral trust rather than warmongering, promoting a new understanding of medieval Indian politics that goes beyond kings and their pursuit of glory and militarism.
Through her celebrated work In Risalah-i-Sahibiyah (Treatise of a Lady, 1641), she describes her entire spiritual journey in the Qadiri Sufi order, praises Adl (justice), Akhlaq (moral conduct) and leadership as Amanah (trust), and defines rule not as rule but as administration. The text later reflects the political-social landscape of the Mughal court and connects her personal Sufi journey with her family’s Timurid-Persian heritage. This is important because despite being a high-ranking Mughal princess living in a patriarchal society, Jahanara asserts her own spiritual authority. She positions herself as a follower and not just a queen and is guided by Sufi practices within strict Muslim constraints.
Reform within Tradition: A Protoliberal Feminist Framework
However, this power requires crucial analysis. Jahanara was not a rebel who trampled on the patriarchal base of the imperial government, but rather functioned as a reformist agent within the system and possessed a proto-liberal feminist undercurrent. Saba Mahmood (2011), in her “Politics of Piety,” effectively Analyzes Such phenomena: the system is being reformed, not broken. And for Jahanara, this reform was possible through the application of the Islamic ethics of hikmat (practical wisdom), honored by persuasion, social capital, and resource mastery. Even after the defeat of Dara Shikoh, Jahanara remained an important asset to the empire. As Audrey Truscke (2018) points out in her book Aurangzeb: The Man and the Myth, Jahanara’s immense reverence for the Sufi order allowed her to manipulate Aurangzeb’s orthodoxy. She refused to become invisible, even when her closest associates – her mother, father and her beloved brother Dara Shikoh – were dead. For Jahanara, power was achieved through ethical commitment rather than isolation.
Rethinking Medieval Political Culture
In a crisis-ridden empire, such as the Portuguese naval actions, the Rajput rebellions and the frequent riots in the Deccan, Jahanara’s subtle actions ensured stability in the empire. She advocated a policy based on moral trust rather than warmongering, and promoted a new understanding of medieval Indian politics that went beyond kings and their pursuit of glory and militarism.
Therefore, the figure of Jahanara is not just “another woman” in Indian feminist historiography. Rather, it encompasses a new kind of politics that was actually revolutionary given the socio-political culture of medieval politics in India. By establishing a new definition of power, not in the vocabulary of wars, battles, kingship or rivalries, but in terms of trust, morality, ethics and administration, it followed what, many centuries later, it could be argued, figures such as Mahatma Gandhi advocated. Jahanara was not a political philosopher or official chronicler of the Mughal Empire, but by rearranging the scattered fragments of her life and activities we can explore a newer perspective on medieval political thought in India that significantly complicates and challenges the persistent narrative of “medieval barbarism” among the contemporary Hindu right.
References
- Lal, R. (2005). Domesticity and Power in the Early Mughal World. Cambridge University Press.
- Truschke, A. (2018). Aurangzeb: The Man and the Myth. Penguin books.
- Scott, J. W. (1986). Gender: a useful category of historical analysis. The American Historical Review, 91(5), 1053. https://doi.org/10.2307/1864376
- Mahmood, S. (2011). Politics of piety. In Princeton University Press eBooks. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvct00cf