No call for dismay about Akbar's earlier marriage

I see that many here are getting very agitated about Akbar, or Jalal as he is at this point of time, having been married before he met Jodha, and worse, his having a child with that wife. This is just to set out the factual position and, in the process, dispel all these doubts and worries about Ab Jodha-Akbar ke amar prem ka kya hoga?

Relax, folks, you are all getting worked up for nothing. Kings in those days married several times for political reasons. Love was never in question. The Hindu kings could have many wives, and the Muslim ones were limited by their religion to four at a time, unless they divorced one and married one more.

Now as for Akbar, he must have been about 20 - he became Shahenshah at just 13 after the Emperor Humayun died in 1556. He would definitely have already been married - he mentions one Begum Ruqaiya when he talks to his mother Hamida Banu - and it would not be surprising if his wife was expecting a child. He would very likely have had other mistresses in his harem as well. These were the facts of life in those days with kings. Just look at the casual way in which he handles that pretty girl at the market! He is a man and an emperor, not a hermit!

But as he himself tells Sharifuddin, he has NEVER been in love with any of them. He thinks it is because he has no dil, but of course it is because he has not yet met the right girl, Jodha.

When he falls in love with her, he will finally realise what it means to belong to one person body and soul, and she will be the be all and end all of his life. It was the same with Shahjehan and Mumtaz Mahal later. This was so rare in a king, who had the world at his feet, that it is truly remarkable, and much more admirable than in an ordinary person.

The last point. Salim, who later became the Emperor Jahangir, was Jodha's son, and Akbar's eldest son. The mother of the heir apparent is the Malika-e-Hindustan. So there is no confusion there. All it means is that Ruqaiya's child was a daughter.

So please do not get upset about Akbar's earlier marriage and even about his having children with his other wives. These things were normal then and accepted by all the queens. But Jodha was the only one he loved. plus she was the mother of the heir.The other queens thus ranked automatically below her.

Does that make you all feel better?

Shyamala B.Cowsik

One more point. If the Emperor Jalaluddin, a strapping lad of 20 and married, had no children by his wife/wives, it would not have been good for his reputation. Wagging tongues would made fun of him, of course without getting caught!😉

There was no question of his waiting to fall in love and get married to that girl before deciding to have children. It was his duty to provide a successor for the empire, and the sooner the better, from the point of view of his Ministers. Not having a clear successor at the earliest was a recipe for disaster, as with such frequent military campaign,s in which Jalal fought personally, there was always the chance of serious injuryto him or even of his death.

Moreover, just as Jodha was trained and willing to do her duty in a political marriage without worrying about being in love, so too would Jalal have been. And as a man, it would have been much easier for him.

Shyamala B.Cowsik

Originally posted by: sashashyam

I see that many here are getting very agitated about Akbar, or Jalal as he is at this point of time, having been married before he met Jodha, and worse, his having a child with that wife. This is just to set out the factual position and, in the process, dispel all these doubts and worries about Ab Jodha-Akbar ke amar prem ka kya hoga?

Relax, folks, you are all getting worked up for nothing. Kings in those days married several times for political reasons. Love was never in question. The Hindu kings could have many wives, and the Muslim ones were limited by their religion to four at a time, unless they divorced one and married one more.

Now as for Akbar, he must have been about 20 - he became Shahenshah at just 13 after the Emperor Humayun died in 1556. He would definitely have already been married - he mentions one Begum Ruqaiya when he talks to his mother Hamida Banu - and it would not be surprising if his wife was expecting a child. He would very likely have had other mistresses in his harem as well. These were the facts of life in those days with kings. Just look at the casual way in which he handles that pretty girl at the market! He is a man and an emperor, not a hermit!

But as he himself tells Sharifuddin, he has NEVER been in love with any of them. He thinks it is because he has no dil, but of course it is because he has not yet met the right girl, Jodha.

When he falls in love with her, he will finally realise what it means to belong to one person body and soul, and she will be the be all and end all of his life. It was the same with Shahjehan and Mumtaz Mahal later. This was so rare in a king, who had the world at his feet, that it is truly remarkable, and much more admirable than in an ordinary person.

The last point. Salim, who later became the Emperor Jahangir, was Jodha's son, and Akbar's eldest son. The mother of the heir apparent is the Malika-e-Hindustan. So there is no confusion there. All it means is that Ruqaiya's child was a daughter.

So please do not get upset about Akbar's earlier marriage and even about his having children with his other wives. These things were normal then and accepted by all the queens. But Jodha was the only one he loved. plus she was the mother of the heir.The other queens thus ranked automatically below her.

Does that make you all feel better?

Shyamala B.Cowsik

i have seen you in the DKDM forum ans i was glad to see you here :D

Thank you for clearing it for me

Since i live overseas i have never been familar with indian history and so i was shocked when i found out he already had a wife...i thought he cant marry jodha due to that reason...

Thank you for the history aspect of akbar's marriage .

My dear,

You are very welcome. You will find, as the story progresses, that the political storms swirling around the young Emperor will be just as interesting as the Jalal-Jodha love story. Particularly the clash between the two he was the closest to, personally and politically - Bairam Khan, his mentor from his childhood, and Mahaam Anga. his foster mother.

Both are historical figures, and as Akbar's life and reign are well documented by historians who lived in that period, we have a lot of accurate information about them. Mahaam Anga, who had raised Jalaal and saved him repeatedly from attacks on his life, was far dearer to him than his real mother. This was shown here in his conversation with his mother Hamida Banu at his camp. The interesting thing about Mahaam Anga was that she was, very surprising in a woman then and often even now, a major political advisor to Jalal . Whence the direct clash between her and Bairam Khan. Their whole struggle for influence with the Emperor will be fascinating.

I would suggest that if you want to enjoy the story fully, you could look up some material about Akbar and his reign on the net. Jodha is not a historical figure, so you will not find any historical material about her, but about the rest,there will be plenty.

As for this serial, Ekta has hit the jackpot with her Jalal, and then with Bairam Khan and now Mahaam Anga. That is not bad for a casting score!

Shyamala B.Cowsik

Originally posted by: ARMANTHEBEST

Thank you for clearing it for me

Since i live overseas i have never been familar with indian history and so i was shocked when i found out he already had a wife...i thought he cant marry jodha due to that reason...

Thank you for the history aspect of akbar's marriage .

Yes, my dear. You are spot on.

So far, the romanticisation, in the face seen in the water haunting Jodha's thoughts, and Jalal venturing all by himself into Amer to catch a glimpse of her, has been worked out neatly, within the limits of artistic licence. A TV serial has to have a much, much longer running time than a 3 hour plus film, and so they cannot show their marriage as a convenient political arrangement to begin with, which is what it was in reality.

But then this is much more fun, right! Now we shall have Jalal pulling off a direct rescue of Abdul (and himself) in a Three Musketeers style coup, which will be thoroughly enjoyable. So we should not ask

- what did Abdul do with the two horses and Jalal's shamsheer
- how did a lame man like him manage to come down from that cliff road, acquire the jyotishi get up complete with the panchangam
- how does the uniform of that skinny guard at the prison fit Jalal without splitting under the armpits, and what does he do with the corpse of the dead guard, and finally,
- what was Jalal thinking of doing to save Abdul if Jodha had not intervened? In fact she saves Jalal's life as well as Abdul's, for there was no way the greatest of warriors could have escaped from that crowd armed with just a dagger.

But the one most important thing about Jalal that they have managed to show is that he has not only great courage, but more important, an ice cold temperament when in a very tight spot, and he will never panic, Plus, he is remarkably and cheekily resourceful in making his way in a strange city, witness his running rings round that fat merchant and finding out where the prison is!

I love this Jalal, part great warrior and part impetuous schoolboy, and I am planning to do a small assessment of this Jodha Akbar a little later. You might find it interesting!

Shyamala B.Cowsik

Originally posted by: sweet_gargi

I completely agree with you...we need to have the facts of history as well in the show..Or else it will not be more than a mere fiction show. We have to remember that it is a history show after all.

My dear Disha,

How nice to find a familiar name here! Thank you for being so welcoming to a newcomer.

I dropped out of the DKDM forum once the Jalandhar track was over, in fact a little earlier, when I shifted to the writer Utkarsh Naithani's FB page, for greater freedom of comment. I wrote nothing before Jalandhar, and nothing since, as there was nothing to analyse any more in the straightforward puranic stories. Jalandhar was a complex and fascinating character, but one cannot expect that sort of thing every day.

Here, as a history buff, I was curious to see how the story would be handled. So far it has not been bad as far as the central love story goes, as I have commented in my post above, but I have definite reservations about the early image of Jalal that was presented. It was more like Mahmud of Ghanzni or Mohammed Ghori than the young Akbar. They want to show him as far more cruel than he wasin order to give Jodha that much more credit for reforming him. Well, what can one do about it?

Also, it seems, from this depiction, as if Akbar knows nothing about the Rajputs. But the fact was that he was born in a Rajput kingdom, Umarkot, while his father was given asylum while he was on the run from the new Shahenshah, Sher Shah Suri, and his early years were spent there, among them. As he was very shrewd, he must have have got to know them inside out,. and he later used that knowledge of the Rajput temperament to craft a very effective policy to win them over and make them the pillars of his empire.

Anyhow, it is going to be good fun, and this Jalal is enough to keep me interested. He is part an arrogant, great warrior, and part an impetuous young man struggling with unfamiliar emotions. It comes across very well.

Shyamala B.Cowsik

Originally posted by: disha15

i have seen you in the DKDM forum ans i was glad to see you here :D

thank you for this!

If a little bit of fiction is shown,thats a problem and now if true facts are shown,people have a problem with that as well!

Hypocrisy much? :/

Truly,we girls do not know what we want! (considering 99% here are women)

You are most welcome! And at 60+, it is fun to be called a dude for the first time ever!😉

Shyamala B.Cowsik

Originally posted by: Arya75

TFS dude...😊

Originally posted by: sashashyam

My dear Disha,

How nice to find a familiar name here! Thank you for being so welcoming to a newcomer.

I dropped out of the DKDM forum once the Jalandhar track was over, in fact a little earlier, when I shifted to the writer Utkarsh Naithani's FB page, for greater freedom of comment. I wrote nothing before Jalandhar, and nothing since, as there was nothing to analyse any more in the straightforward puranic stories. Jalandhar was a complex and fascinating character, but one cannot expect that sort of thing every day.

Here, as a history buff, I was curious to see how the story would be handled. So far it has not been bad as far as the central love story goes, as I have commented in my post above, but I have definite reservations about the early image of Jalal that was presented. It was more like Mahmud of Ghanzni or Mohammed Ghori than the young Akbar. They want to show him as far more cruel than he wasin order to give Jodha that much more credit for reforming him. Well, what can one do about it?

Also, it seems, from this depiction, as if Akbar knows nothing about the Rajputs. But the fact was that he was born in a Rajput kingdom, Umarkot, while his father was given asylum while he was on the run from the new Shahenshah, Sher Shah Suri, and his early years were spent there, among them. As he was very shrewd, he must have have got to know them inside out,. and he later used that knowledge of the Rajput temperament to craft a very effective policy to win them over and make them the pillars of his empire.

Anyhow, it is going to be good fun, and this Jalal is enough to keep me interested. He is part an arrogant, great warrior, and part an impetuous young man struggling with unfamiliar emotions. It comes across very well.

Shyamala B.Cowsik