The Misconception of Jodha Bai as Akbar's wife

First Previous

Page

Next Last

Frequent Posters

Ruchira

@nobodyatnotime

Navigator

Posted: 12 years ago

#41

Years ago I went to Agra fort- more than 10 years ago, perhaps- and our guide showed us a flight of stairs and said-from here Akbar's wife Jodha Bai and Jahangir's wife JodhBai went down to the Yamuna- also, elsewhere I've read, that JodhBai, Akbar's daughter-in-law was named so as princess of Jodhpur whereas JodhaBai was really Hirabai but she was given the name of 'Jodha' because of her fighting skills and courage.

Whatever the truth is, the thing is, the name JodhaBai exists in popular culture and even in few historical writings. The thing is- whether you call her Jodha or Hira or Harkha, this person who as Bharmal's daughter and was married to Akbar in a political marriage- the person existed. I don't think it would make any difference to the show (or the film, for that matter) if it was called Hira-Akbar.

But yeah, for those being unnecessarily rude to the TM for making this thread- this is a historical show, and while historical shows/novels may take creative liberties with fact, the element of history will always remain and you can't just say- this is fiction, so let's not talk about history. When you work with characters/events that happened, you have a certain responsibility.

I was a huge PRC fan but I could never fathom how Sanyogita could travel from Kanauj to Ajmer/Delhi and back in one day in horse-driven carts. You can't get away with that sort of thing just because it's a tv show. Even a film as huge as Troy with quite a few big stars including Brad Pitt had to deal with criticism because they took liberties with historical facts.

In fact, even when you show/write something completely fictional comparisons with real life/events will always be there.

So while I personally don't care whether the female protagonist was called Hira or Jodha or Harkha, I do think the TM made an interesting thread with lots of hard work and it should be appreciated. She wasn't even criticizing the show.

@TM- I really like your P& P memes. Colin Firth is my favourite Darcy.

Quote

Janaki

@RamKiSeeta

Achiever

+ 6

Posted: 12 years ago

#42

Originally posted by: nobodyatnotime
Years ago I went to Agra fort- more than 10 years ago, perhaps- and our guide showed us a flight of stairs and said-from here Akbar's wife Jodha Bai and Jahangir's wife JodhBai went down to the Yamuna- also, elsewhere I've read, that JodhBai, Akbar's daughter-in-law was named so as princess of Jodhpur whereas JodhaBai was really Hirabai but she was given the name of 'Jodha' because of her fighting skills and courage.

Wow, that is really interesting! Thank you for sharing this fact...it proves that both Jodha Bai and Jodh Bai existed. You are right that Hira Bai got the name "Jodha" later on...she was originally known as Hira only so it would be nice if serials and movies showed that detail. Not many people know about it.

Originally posted by: nobodyatnotime
Whatever the truth is, the thing is, the name JodhaBai exists in popular culture and even in few historical writings. The thing is- whether you call her Jodha or Hira or Harkha, this person who as Bharmal's daughter and was married to Akbar in a political marriage- the person existed. I don't think it would make any difference to the show (or the film, for that matter) if it was called Hira-Akbar.
But yeah, for those being unnecessarily rude to the TM for making this thread- this is a historical show, and while historical shows/novels may take creative liberties with fact, the element of history will always remain and you can't just say- this is fiction, so let's not talk about history. When you work with characters/events that happened, you have a certain responsibility.

I was a huge PRC fan but I could never fathom how Sanyogita could travel from Kanauj to Ajmer/Delhi and back in one day in horse-driven carts. You can't get away with that sort of thing just because it's a tv show. Even a film as huge as Troy with quite a few big stars including Brad Pitt had to deal with criticism because they took liberties with historical facts.

In fact, even when you show/write something completely fictional comparisons with real life/events will always be there.

Quote

Looks like you are new here. Register for free, learn and contribute.

disha

@disha15

Stunner

+ 5

Posted: 12 years ago

#43

Originally posted by: nobodyatnotime
Years ago I went to Agra fort- more than 10 years ago, perhaps- and our guide showed us a flight of stairs and said-from here Akbar's wife Jodha Bai and Jahangir's wife JodhBai went down to the Yamuna- also, elsewhere I've read, that JodhBai, Akbar's daughter-in-law was named so as princess of Jodhpur whereas JodhaBai was really Hirabai but she was given the name of 'Jodha' because of her fighting skills and courage.

This is something new!and it makes sense!thank you for sharing this

I had read it somewher that the name 'jodha' was somehow associated with jodhpur,but this logic didn't strike me at that time

now both of the wives having the same name(with different origins ofcourse) makes total sense!

thank you so much for sharing this piece of information.really appreciate it 😊

Quote

Ruchira

@nobodyatnotime

Navigator

Posted: 12 years ago

#44

Originally posted by: disha15

Glad you liked my post.Thank you.😊

Quote

disha

@disha15

Stunner

+ 5

Posted: 12 years ago

#45

do let us know,if u find some other interesting info :)

Quote

doyel

@doyelpakhi

Voyager

Posted: 12 years ago

#46

Thanks for bringing up this topic.😊

I was googling about Akbar's wives and I found that most of the sources agreed about one point -

Akbar had married many other princesses as a part of political alliance to expand his empire.

In some cases, the number of his legal wives said to be 35-36, while in some cases it's said to be around 300!

In one blog I read that besides Hirabai, he also married daughters of King of Jaisalmer and Bikaner. Now I do not know how much authentic information is present in that blog but my common sense says that it is quiet possible that Akbar had more than one Hindu wife. If he used to marry for political alliance, then there should be several Hindu wives because most part of India was then ruled by Hindu kings.

So, while Hira bai could be one of his chief queen, Akbar might have a wife called Jodha Bai.

Only Akbar could have confirmed if he really had a wife called Jodha or whether Hirabai was turned into Jodha or Jodha did not exist in his life at all!

Personally I feel that it is a kind of crime if the film/serial makers completely twist the historical facts in the name of creativity and show us something fictional. Public will believe the "fiction" to be fact and wrong information would be spread.

Still, I love this serial only because of Rajat and the "fictional" love-hate relationship b/w Jdoha-Akabar that Ekta's team are showing. 😉

P.S. Just found a link of the English translation of Abul Fazal's Akbarnama. Translation was done by Asiatic Society.

http://persian.packhum.org/

Edited by doyelpakhi - 12 years ago

Quote

Sanjeeda

@.Sad.But.True.

Sparkler

+ 3

Posted: 12 years ago

#47

Thank you so much for this topic hun😳... I was very confused...The more I read about Akbar-Mariam's story the more confused I get..But thanks for the information :))

Quote

Gargi

@sweet_gargi

Dazzler

+ 3

Posted: 12 years ago

#48

very nice post dear.👏👏..thanks for sharing this information...i didn't know this much...but ya i had read it earlier that Akbar's wife's name was not Jodha but Harkha...Ekta must have just got influenced by Ashutosh's movie jodha-akbar n kept this name...she wcould have better kept it as harkha instead of jodha...