Akbar also brought in an order in 1587 permitting widows to remarry, ‘in the manner that the people of India do not prohibit’. He was greatly saddened by the notion that ‘here in India among the modest, a woman once married cannot go [again] to anyone else’. That Akbar would find the idea of widows not being allowed to re-marry puzzling and distressing is understandable given the Timurids’ pragmatic approach to women’s chastity. Women who ‘fell’ to enemies in times of war were never blamed for their predicament, and were taken back with honour by their families when they were returned.
Remarry during Akbars time
