Debamitra
asked
Indu Sundaresan:
I am half way through the Twentieth Wife and I am completely swept up by the story and the manner in which fiction has been seamlessly blended into the facts which are known to us. I am curious to know about the kind of research which went in to create this tale of yours ?
Indu Sundaresan
Thank you, Debamitra! We all know of Mehrunnisa, Empress Nur Jahan, from our history lessons, but it's mostly as Emperor Jahangir's wife, a powerful one, who still shows up in history texts without having given him an heir.
When I began researching Mehrunnisa's story, or backstory before she became Empress, there was a paucity of readily available material on her. What came through, of course, was that she had been married before, had a child from that marriage, and married Jahangir 'late' in life, when she was 33 years old, aged by Mughal standards.
But, to find who she was before she became powerful, I had to seek out the stories of the men in her life. Her father, Ghias Beg, before she was married to Ali Quli, and her first husband after. Interestingly enough, there's a lot of backstory for Ali Quli, because he killed Jahangir's cohort, Koka.
And then, Sir Thomas Roe, the first official English ambassador to the Mughal courts, also left little indications of who she was even though he never met/saw her. But, her father talked to him about her, her brother mentioned her.
THE TWENTIETH WIFE is really then, a sort of investigative novel about her life, and who she was before she became the most powerful woman in the Mughal dynasty. Her childhood, and her early adult years shaped her into the woman she becomes in the sequel, THE FEAST OF ROSES.
When I began researching Mehrunnisa's story, or backstory before she became Empress, there was a paucity of readily available material on her. What came through, of course, was that she had been married before, had a child from that marriage, and married Jahangir 'late' in life, when she was 33 years old, aged by Mughal standards.
But, to find who she was before she became powerful, I had to seek out the stories of the men in her life. Her father, Ghias Beg, before she was married to Ali Quli, and her first husband after. Interestingly enough, there's a lot of backstory for Ali Quli, because he killed Jahangir's cohort, Koka.
And then, Sir Thomas Roe, the first official English ambassador to the Mughal courts, also left little indications of who she was even though he never met/saw her. But, her father talked to him about her, her brother mentioned her.
THE TWENTIETH WIFE is really then, a sort of investigative novel about her life, and who she was before she became the most powerful woman in the Mughal dynasty. Her childhood, and her early adult years shaped her into the woman she becomes in the sequel, THE FEAST OF ROSES.
More Answered Questions
Girish
asked
Indu Sundaresan:
Hi. It's not just the costumes and the customs that have 'evolved' but also the value systems and the societal norms. So does the author make a conscious effort to go back to the norms or present it with today's values for the reader to digest? Ex: The misogyny and oppression women faced by women in history, from today's stand point might be judged, but they were the norms of the time. what does the author do?
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