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They were pragmatic about women who ‘fell’ to an enemy, unlike their contemporaries, the Rajputs, who invested so heavily in their women’s sexual chastity that death, through sati, was preferred to ‘loss of honour’ to an enemy.
The honour of Mughal men was not as irretrievably bound to the sexual chastity of their women.
Because the Mughals did not follow a system of primogeniture, any Mughal prince, sufficiently ambitious and talented, could hope to ascend the throne one day.
It is through Gulbadan’s account, and only hers, that we can see Babur as a loving father, a tempestuous family man and a devoted husband. The fiery warrior or the marauding opportunist is for the other biographers.
Sher Shah the Lion King, no stranger to matters of gallantry himself, is so impressed by the valour of this one lone woman that he not only leaves the grave unmolested but sends an escort with Bibi Mubarika and has Babur’s remains transported to Kabul, where they lie today in the Bagh-e-Babur.
The only way to maintain the illusion of this increasing sanctity is to veil, to sequester and to hide the women behind the anonymity of the high walls of Fatehpur Sikri and the grandeur of their titles.
Indeed, the Mughal women will be better educated than most of their contemporaries anywhere in the world.
The Rahimi is one of the largest vessels of any kind to sail the Indian seas.
