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navyasinha 's review for:
This well-researched book is enormously successful in what it set out to do - to bring back the women of the Mughal dynasty to our collective memories, and furthermore present them as far more than mythical love interests.
Through reconstructions of the lives of around fifteen women who play varied roles in the zenana, from the time of Babur down to Aurangzeb, this book achieves several things - it directly counters the Orientalists narratives around the royal harem and instead details its function as a place of empire building; it provides a more textured historical account of the Mughal period by bringing in sources, incidents and perspectives that are often overlooked; and, most of all, it brings back the histories of phenomenal women who shaped the Mughal empire in important ways, whose legacies continue to be felt, and about whom we clearly need to hear more.
Through reconstructions of the lives of around fifteen women who play varied roles in the zenana, from the time of Babur down to Aurangzeb, this book achieves several things - it directly counters the Orientalists narratives around the royal harem and instead details its function as a place of empire building; it provides a more textured historical account of the Mughal period by bringing in sources, incidents and perspectives that are often overlooked; and, most of all, it brings back the histories of phenomenal women who shaped the Mughal empire in important ways, whose legacies continue to be felt, and about whom we clearly need to hear more.