“Shadow Princess” - Indu Sundaresan

 (book 3 in series)

🌹I read books one and two in this series twelve years ago. I can’t believe it’s taken me so long to pick up book three (it’s been purchased and waiting in my Kindle library since it was released). Once I started it, I was immediately reminded of just how much I’d enjoyed the first two. SP is a real treat for anyone interested in Mughal history and/or Indian history.

🌹 Sundaresan’s writing is so thorough and well-researched that it feels like she is transporting us to those palace halls where schemes bloom behind every intricate jali. I’ll talk about books 1 and 2 in a separate post. SP deals with the actual inspiration and construction of the the Taj Mahal. Mumtaz Mahal, is the absolute beloved of Emperor Shah Jahan, and the mother of fourteen children. But SP is only obliquely about Mumtaz. The real star of this story, is her eldest daughter Jahanara. Upon her mother’s sudden death, Jahanara manages to retain Mumtaz Mahal’s power (though she had to contend with her father’s two other wives to do so). It is Jahanara who aids her grief stricken father. His first wife would have expected to ascend in the power vacuum in the zenana upon Mumtaz’s death, but Jahanara makes sure she does not.

🌹In SP, the exiled Mehrunissa (more on her later) and Shah Jahan continue their battle from book 2, but this time it’s not for power, but for architectural legacy. Mehrunissa’s architectural legacy includes the Nur Sarai in Halandhar, Itimadaddaula’s tomb in Agra, and Jahangir’s tomb Dilkush in Lahore. Shah Jahan was undeniably influenced by these and borrowed freely from Mehrunissa’s innovations in the design and construction of the Taj Mahal.

🌹 I loved the rivalry between the sisters Jahanara and Roshanara. The elder, Jahanara, reigns supreme in her father’s zenana, is politically astute, beautiful, and beloved of Shah Jahan. The younger, Roshanara, lacks these blessings, yet she is sly and manipulative and determined to carve out a better life for herself even at Jahanara’s expense. In Sundaresan’s narrative, Shah Jahan is so crippled by the loss of his wife that he nearly abdicates. Jahanara is only able to convince him to remain in power (and thus avoid a chaotic and bloody succession crisis) but she and her sister effectively lose their freedom to marry and leave their childhood home. In this telling, Jahanara trades freedom for power, and ultimately pays a harsh price for the bargain.

🌹 The plotting between the youngest brother Aurangzeb and Roshanara, to have Aurangzeb somehow leap ahead of his two elder brothers in succession to the throne is the plotting of mere teenagers, and yet, there is something. I do wish Sundaresan had built up a bit how Roshanara supported Aurangzeb’s claims. She herself held little power, so I suppose all her practical assistance came in the form of gossip, but surely most of this also passed Jahanara’s ears. Jahanara maintained her support for her eldest brother, Dara Shikoh’s ascension to the throne. Despite this snub, Aurangzeb loved Jahanara like she was his mother; a love that surely rankled Roshanara.

🌹Sundaresan begins each chapter with excerpts taken from near-contemporary sources (i.e. Francois Bernier’s “Travels in Mogul India”). We are given historical observations about the characters themselves, as well as of typical succession in Mughal India where the crown was openly disputed by all the many sons of the emperor, regardless of place in line. I was interested to learn more about the Portuguese presence in India post-Vasco de Gama, and that the Portuguese presence actually predated the Mughals themselves.

Sundaresan’s research heavily relied on court papers and the travelogues of Europeans (traders from British and Dutch East India companies) as references to the status of women in Mughal palaces. Even those ostensibly cherished like Mumtaz Mahal or highly regarded like Nur Jahan (Mehrunissa), were rarely mentioned in their male relatives’ memoirs or official biographies.

🌹 The relative tolerance accorded to other faiths by Shah Jahan (while far less than under Akbar), is contrasted with the open hostility to pluralism by Aurangzeb. We continually to see this archetype repeat in other cultures: when the ruling minority begins oppressive faith-based measures, unrest brews among the majority subjects.

🌹I want to make a special note that this series will strike a chord with your parents if they grew up in India. I merely mentioned the name Jahanara to my Dad and it triggered his childhood memory of a poem he learned in school lauding her “pitru bhakti” which in Sanskrit means her devotion to her father. He was able to recite the relevant stanza of the poem! He’s not normally a big reader of historical fiction, but he enjoyed the first two books, as did my Mom. My Mom recently picked up SP and I have no doubt my Dad will follow suit eventually.

🌹Interestingly, Sundaresan omits from her narrative several well known stories swirling around Shah Jahan. First, she makes no mention of the emperor ordering the hands of his lead architects and artisans to be cut to prevent them from building a rival monument. In this narrative, Aurangzeb does imprison his father in the Agra fort across from the Taj Mahal, but does not banish him to the side facing away from the mausoleum. At the Agra fort during childhood travels, we were shown the small mirror attached to a wall (supposedly by Jahanara herself) to allow Shah Jahan to gaze at the reflection of the Taj Mahal since he could not view it directly.