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If you’re more interested in reading about eunuchs than UNIX,and you’ve been wondering about the private lives of men in turbans and women in burkas in 16th and 17th century Mughal India, then you might want to pick up a copy of “The Twentieth Wife” by first-time author, Indu Sandaresan. 

This gorgeously jacketed book, which is being given enormous publicity while the author is on a 13-city tour, is a romance novel based on the true story of the birth, childhood, young womanhood, disastrous first marriage, and then triumphant second marriage of Mehrunnisa, the “sapphire-eyed” Sun of Woman, to Emperor Jahangir.  

At her marriage – which takes place when Mehrunnisa is at the advanced age of 34 – she becomes known as Empress Nur Jahan. She is Emperor Jahangir’s 20th, and final, wife. Although women were not usually said to have much power during this period, after the Emperor Jahangir’s death, the Empress has the personal and political skills to rule the empire for 15 years. 

Indian children know this history well. The Empress Nur Jahan is best known, in Indian history books, for her connection to the Tah Mahal. A year after Empress Hur Jahan joins the imperial harem, Emperor Khurram marries Mehrunnisa’s niece, Arjumand Banu Begam. This niece later dies while giving birth to her 14th child, and, in her memory, the emperor – supposedly with help from Empress Nur Jahan, the former Mehrunnisa and the heroine of this book – builds the Taj Mahal.  

“The Twentieth Wife” covers the first thirty-four years of Mehrunnisa’s life. A sequel, titled “The Power of the Veil,” will continue where “The Twentieth Wife” leaves off. 

The non-working class women of Mughal India – which in 1601 stretched from Bengal, India to Kandahar, Afghanistan – wore burkas and looked out at the world through a veil. They spent most of their time behind the walls of the harem enclosure, listening to the sounds of camels, horses, and sheep; their bare feet walking on stone. 

Most women of this period had little power over the shape and texture of their lives. It is interesting to note, though, that women of the working class, such as potters and builders, were more commonly considered the equal of their husbands, and were not required to wear a veil. Mehrunnisa, a member of the semi-nobility, was fortunate to be trained in music, dance, poetry, and painting. Though she’s born to a father subject to the throne of Persia and fleeing debtor’s prison and, possibly, death, due to some temporary bad luck, the family is soon living a life of privilege and comfort. 

Many of the descriptions in “The Twentieth Wife” are quite pleasing to read. When Mehrunnisa is born she is described as having “Well-formed arms and legs, a thick head of shiny black hair, and long, curling black eyelashes curling over delicate cheeks.” We hear about the tent sides that flap in the wind, and “steaming dishes of saffron-tinted pulavas cooked in chicken broth, goat curry in a rich brown gravy, a leg of lamb roasted with garlic and rosemary, and a salad of cucumber and plump tomato, sprinkled with rock salt, pepper, and a squeeze of lemon.” 

Occasionally, though, descriptions of people, places, and things are described with romance novel clichés: Mehrunissa has “mischief in her eyes.” On the other hand, The Twentieth Wife provides an important and fascinating perspective to the drama taking place in Afghanistan and India today. 

Sari Friedman can be reached via Sari2@Earthlink.Net.