The hunting party had been stalking the tiger all day long. It was a man-eater who had been terrorizing the villages for months. From her howdah (canopied chair) atop an elephant, Nur Jahan could hear a slight rustle in the bushes. Her elephant’s ears flapped anxiously. It stepped backward. She knew it could smell danger. She glanced knowingly over at her husband, Emperor Jahangir. He had recently promised to give up hunting, so Nur Jahan knew it was all up to her.
The elephant was backing up in alarm now. The howdah lurched as if it would topple off. Nur Jahan grasped the side of her seat to steady herself. Just ahead, the tiger’s head emerged from the bushes. Nur Jahan lowered the rifle and steadied her sight just as it lunged out of the vegetation. In a split second, she pulled the trigger. The tiger crumpled. Mission accomplished. It wasn’t the first time she’d done this. Years before, she’d killed four tigers with only six shots. This earned her the nickname the Tiger Slayer.
It was also not the first time that this powerful seventeenth-century queen defied a convention of her time. Gifted with a brilliant mind, seemingly endless creativity, and bravery and generosity in equal measure, she was a force to be reckoned with. In the seventeen years that she held power in the Mughal Empire, she achieved what was thought impossible for a woman of her time.
The queen, who came to be known as Nur Jahan, was born with the name Mehrunnisa outside of what’s now Kandahar, Afghanistan, around 1577. Her parents had fled Persia (modern-day Iran) in search of better opportunities. This was during the time of the Mughal emperor, Akbar the Great, who welcomed immigrants to his realm. His kingdom spanned current-day Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and much of central India.
Mehrunnisa’s parents held high status at Emperor Akbar’s court. Although not much is known about life in the women’s quarters where she grew up, it’s clear that Mehrunnisa learned to read and write poetry. The talent she later developed for singing, painting, and doing intricate embroidery was probably nurtured at this time too. When she was a teen, her parents arranged her marriage to an adventurer of Persian heritage. Together they had a daughter named Ladli. When Mehrunnisa was 30 years old, her husband was killed, and she was taken in by the court of Emperor Jahangir in Agra to work as a lady-in-waiting. At court, everything changed.
As a lady-in-waiting, Mehrunnisa was assigned to help Jahangir’s step-mother. She lived in the zanana or the ladies’ quarters. Some historians suspect that there were around 300 women in Jahangir’s zanana: royal mothers, aunts, sisters, cousins, wives, princesses, dancing girls, and maids. The women’s quarters were separate from the palace, surrounded by a high wall with enclosed gardens. Only members of the royal court were allowed in and out. If the women had to travel outside the zanana, they did so in palanquins. These were a kind of wooden compartment carried by four or more bearers. Sometimes, they traveled in canopied boats.
In the zanana, Mehrunnisa quickly became known for her outgoing personality and her amazing artistic talent. She wrote poetry and held poetry competitions for the other women. As a child, she had learned Persian zari and kimkhab (translated as “woven flower”) embroidery, a kind of brocade embroidery that uses silver and gold thread to create rich patterns. She taught other women this craft, and soon they were producing highly sought-after textiles that caught the attention of court traders and fetched high prices. The women of the zanana appreciated Mehrunnisa’s leadership and energy. She eventually caught the attention of Emperor Jahangir, who is said to have met her at a festival. Her active mind and quick wit enchanted him. He soon declared he would marry her. At this time, it was customary for Mughal rulers to have more than one wife. Mehrunnisa became his twentieth wife in 1611, and Jahangir began to call her Nur Mahal, which means “Light of the Palace.”
From the start, this relationship was different from Jahangir’s other marriages. While Mehrunnisa was said to have been beautiful, her other qualities elevated her in a position far above his other wives. She was a brilliant conversationalist who could hold her own with the men of the court. While his father, Akbar, was known for his empire-building, Jahangir was more relaxed.
He was happy to let his new bride take control of decisions, and she was very capable of doing so. She issued decrees from the balcony of the palace and participated in military and diplomatic decisions. Their power-sharing relationship became so strong that diplomats and visitors to the court knew they would have to go through her if they wanted to get to the emperor. Although she was never crowned, she became known as the “lady emperor.”
Now called Nur Jahan—“Light of the World” —she was considered a co-emperor and was the only Mughal woman to have her image appear on a coin. She took part in battles and even rescued her husband when a rebellious nobleman kidnapped him.
The early seventeenth-century was a time of great commercial growth in India. Traders from all over the world came to the Mughal court to try to make deals with the emperor. The Mughal Empire exported textiles, spices like ginger and pepper, and dyes such as indigo. They imported wines, perfumes, brocade, dishes from China, gold, silver, ivory, pearls, and horses.
Much of what we know about the lady emperor comes from the reports of English, Dutch, Italian, and Portuguese traders who came to the court. One English trader named Thomas Roe stayed at the court for nearly four years. To try to win special trade considerations, he brought Nur Jahan and the emperor gifts from the English royal family, including a beautiful English-made carriage. It took months before Roe realized who he needed to impress. It wasn’t the emperor. He needed to impress Nur Jahan. The emperor's powerful wife took charge of approving trade agreements for foreign traders and negotiating customs fees. She was ambitious and savvy and managed to amass a fortune. Nur Jahan even had her own ships for exporting indigo and embroidered cloth.
Nur Jahan’s love of textiles extended into fashion design. She wanted women to be more comfortable in the notoriously hot temperatures of Agra. So, she designed dresses, veils, and scarves in lightweight fabrics adorned with floral patterns. She wore her clothes sewn instead of wrapped around the body as women had done in the past. Other women followed her lead, and her style is still worn in India. Nur Jahan even made the imperial elephants stylish with embroidered “caparisons” (a kind of saddle) made from recycled mail bags!
Nur Jahan was known as a great entertainer. She served rainbow-colored yogurt, and other delights on plates decorated with candied fruit peels and rice-powder glazes painted on in intricate patterns. For festivals, she helped
prepare beautiful displays of meat and fruit and create new recipes. Some say she even invented the famous Indian dish biryani, a kind of fried rice dish flavored with fragrant spices, although others believe her niece Mumhaz Mahal may have been the true inventor of this dish.
She transformed the Mughal palace,
commissioning richly-carved walls, jewel-studded curtains, and carpets she designed herself. Her artistic vision wasn’t limited to inside the palace, though. She oversaw the design and construction of palaces and gardens around the empire. One of the most famous was the “Light-Scattering Garden” in Agra, known today as Ram Bagh.
Under her direction, beautiful walkways were placed along the river, and pavilions were built with painted birds decorating the ceilings. You can still visit the garden today and breathe in the beautiful scents of jasmine and lemon trees.
When Nur Jahan’s parents died, she designed a tomb for them in Agra. It is said to be the inspiration for the most famous monument later built in the city, the Taj Mahal, a memorial to Mumtaz Mahal, the wife of her stepson, Shah Jahan.
Not everyone was comfortable with Nur Jahan’s power. Her stepson, Shah Jahan, was Jahangir’s oldest son. The two were close for many years, but when it came time for her daughter Ladli to marry, she chose Shah Jahan’s younger brother, Sharhiyar. From that point on, Shah Jahan was against his stepmother. When he came to power, he had Nur Jahan and Ladli sent to Lahore, a distant part of the empire, so that she couldn’t be a threat to his power. The mother and daughter lived in relative comfort and spent their time aiding the poor. But in her absence, Shah Jahan had many of the coins minted with her image destroyed, and he tried to ruin her legacy.
Today, Nur Jahan is known as the most powerful of the Mughal queens. Most of what we know about her comes from the accounts of others and not from her own words. But the monuments and gardens she designed still stand and have influenced generations of architects and artisans. Her smarts, style, and bravery left an impact on India that’s still felt today.