Why Mughal princesses did not marry Rajput Kings?

Donjas thumbnail
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Posted: 9 years ago
#1
Many of us have wondered, why only Rajput Princesses married Mughal Kings and not the other way around, that is Mughal princesses marrying Rajput Kings.

The answer will astonish you as it did me. According to the book Maharana Pratap by Dr Bhawan Singh Rana, it is written in Rajput records called the Vir Vinod that Akbar had put several marriage proposals of Mughal princesses before Rajput kings, but to maintain purity of blood or for some other reasons, they were refused.

Now you know, Akbar wanted two-way matrimonial alliance. This is vital knowledge because it explodes the argument that Mughal Emperors forced Rajput Kings to hand their daughters in marriage when they were not willing to do the same with their own daughters.

The author Dr Bhawan Singh Rana writes 'It is sad that the Rajput Kings of that era did not feel much shame in marrying off their sisters/daughters to the Mughal kings, but they developed a sense of shame on the issue of marrying Mughal princesses.'

By the way, I highly recommend this book if you want to know more about the life history of the Great warrior Maharana Pratap.
Edited by Donjas - 9 years ago

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Bond_7 thumbnail
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Posted: 9 years ago
#2
TFS Donjas 😊
This is really interesting piece of information.
Akbar's broad mindedness is clearly seen here.
Those Rajput kings who didn't accept Mughal princesses might not have given their sisters and daughters too.
But if the Rajput clan felt marrying Mughal princess is unacceptable and the other way round is fine..their thought process is not agreeable.
After all blood has no religion.
Donjas thumbnail
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Posted: 9 years ago
#3
C'mon on folks comment! This is very interesting info. Something which most people, including myself did not know before and goes against all the preconceptions I had about Mughal-Rajput relations.

It shows that the equation between the Mughal Emperors and Rajput Kings was on more equal footing than one would believe.

The Mughal Emperors were obviously more powerful so the Rajput Kings had to maintain good relations with them. But the early Mughals, especially Akbar and Jahangir, needed the support of the Rajput Kings just as much, to get legimaticy and rule effectively.

Of course by the time of Shah Jahan, all this hardly mattered. He was too rigid in his religious views to even consider this option.
Edited by Donjas - 9 years ago
harshu27 thumbnail
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Posted: 9 years ago
#4
hey donjas thnx fr sharing d info is quiet interesting I 2 hd dis qustn in my mind sumtimes bk bt dint bothr 2 find it bt nywyz sincu hav givn d reasn its gd I cme 2 knw I wil try reading dis bk...thnx once agn... 😃
Donjas thumbnail
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Posted: 9 years ago
#5

Originally posted by: Bindu_nhbr

TFS Donjas 😊
This is really interesting piece of information.
Akbar's broad mindedness is clearly seen here.
Those Rajput kings who didn't accept Mughal princesses might not have given their sisters and daughters too.
But if the Rajput clan felt marrying Mughal princess is unacceptable and the other way round is fine..their thought process is not agreeable.
After all blood has no religion.


No, the author of the book says that according to Rajput records Vir Vinod, they were willing to give their sister/ daughter hand in marriage but not marry Mughal princesses themselves.

I personally would not be harsh in my judgement. That was a different era, the way people thought about culture, religion and gender equality was different.

That is why it so difficult to understand people from a distant era, they are different. Not necessarily good or bad, simply different.


Edited by Donjas - 9 years ago
Bond_7 thumbnail
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Posted: 9 years ago
#6

Originally posted by: Donjas


No, the author of the book says that according to Rajput records Vir Vinod, they were willing to give their sister/ daughter hand in marriage but not marry Mughal princesses themselves.

I personally would not be harsh in my judgement. That was a different era, the way people thought about culture, religion and gender equality was different.

That is why it so difficult to understand people from a distant era, they are different. Not necessarily good or bad, simply different.




Thnx for the clarification and I agree with you..they were different.
I'll try to read the book u mentioned.
myviewprem thumbnail
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Posted: 9 years ago
#7
If you read history books and articles on mughal-rajputh alliance there are many reasons given for this
1) The most important fact was that Rajputh royals wanted to maintain purity of their race. So they would never allow their sons to marry a mughal or muslim ruler. This way they preserved their race without any inter religion or inter caste mix. Then why did they marry their daughters freely to mughals even till 18th century- this was basically for political gains. They wanted to have their kingdom secured for their sons and grandsons so they had political tie ups and agreed to be vassals first of mughals and next of British. Some of the major reasons to lose the 1857 war of independence was that the North indian kingdoms like Gwalior, pataudi etc who had promised to send the troops and money to the warriors led by tantya tope etc (to mughal emperor Bahadur shah zafar) joined hands with britishers in last minute and did not send the money. Daughters did not really matter in carrying forward the family name etc only sons mattered hence daughters could be married off to buy peace or buy gaurantee to kingdoms with enemies and that included afghand and mughals too. Mahmood Shah an afghan too was married to a marwar princess.
2) Second factor was that the muslims customs varied a lot and muslim woman had much more freedom in those times compared to an hindu wife, Like muslim widows could remarry, could divorce, need not wear white only after husband death and also need not burn with husband in funeral pyre. Hence the mughal emperors themselves were wary of marrying their daughters and sisters to rajpuths. (Aram Bano was not married to anyone for this same reason that Akbar had faced issues with his brother in laws who were contending for the emperor throne, the same with his other son in laws, as aram was youngest he did not want her to face the issues his sisters and daughters faced hence he and salim decided that she need not marry and stay with salim all life)
3) The mughal rajputh wives converted to islam to marry but could freely follow their hindu customs in house but the rajputh would not allow that.
So all these factors and more(that i cannot remember right off) are reasons for rajputh not marrying mughal
Edited by myviewprem - 9 years ago
melovesja thumbnail
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Posted: 9 years ago
#8
Thanks donjas for this interesting info of Mughal Rajput era. Akbar was such a broadminded person who give freedom of follow their religion to his wife and others,but unfortunately girl marriage was use to gain political benefits only.
Donjas thumbnail
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Posted: 9 years ago
#9

Originally posted by: myviewprem

If you read history books and articles on mughal-rajputh alliance there are many reasons given for this

1) The most important fact was that Rajputh royals wanted to maintain purity of their race. So they would never allow their sons to marry a mughal or muslim ruler. This way they preserved their race without any inter religion or inter caste mix. Then why did they marry their daughters freely to mughals even till 18th century- this was basically for political gains. They wanted to have their kingdom secured for their sons and grandsons so they had political tie ups and agreed to be vassals first of mughals and next of British. Some of the major reasons to lose the 1857 war of independence was that the North indian kingdoms like Gwalior, pataudi etc who had promised to send the troops and money to the warriors led by tantya tope etc (to mughal emperor Bahadur shah zafar) joined hands with britishers in last minute and did not send the money. Daughters did not really matter in carrying forward the family name etc only sons mattered hence daughters could be married off to buy peace or buy gaurantee to kingdoms with enemies and that included afghand and mughals too. Mahmood Shah an afghan too was married to a marwar princess.
2) Second factor was that the muslims customs varied a lot and muslim woman had much more freedom in those times compared to an hindu wife, Like muslim widows could remarry, could divorce, need not wear white only after husband death and also need not burn with husband in funeral pyre. Hence the mughal emperors themselves were wary of marrying their daughters and sisters to rajpuths. (Aram Bano was not married to anyone for this same reason that Akbar had faced issues with his brother in laws who were contending for the emperor throne, the same with his other son in laws, as aram was youngest he did not want her to face the issues his sisters and daughters faced hence he and salim decided that she need not marry and stay with salim all life)
3) The mughal rajputh wives converted to islam to marry but could freely follow their hindu customs in house but the rajputh would not allow that.
So all these factors and more(that i cannot remember right off) are reasons for rajputh not marrying mughal


I was just about to send a P.M to you because I know that no such historical post would ever be complete without your comment on it. As always your post was enlightening. Thank you so much.
melovesja thumbnail
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Posted: 9 years ago
#10

Originally posted by: myviewprem

If you read history books and articles on mughal-rajputh alliance there are many reasons given for this

1) The most important fact was that Rajputh royals wanted to maintain purity of their race. So they would never allow their sons to marry a mughal or muslim ruler. This way they preserved their race without any inter religion or inter caste mix. Then why did they marry their daughters freely to mughals even till 18th century- this was basically for political gains. They wanted to have their kingdom secured for their sons and grandsons so they had political tie ups and agreed to be vassals first of mughals and next of British. Some of the major reasons to lose the 1857 war of independence was that the North indian kingdoms like Gwalior, pataudi etc who had promised to send the troops and money to the warriors led by tantya tope etc (to mughal emperor Bahadur shah zafar) joined hands with britishers in last minute and did not send the money. Daughters did not really matter in carrying forward the family name etc only sons mattered hence daughters could be married off to buy peace or buy gaurantee to kingdoms with enemies and that included afghand and mughals too. Mahmood Shah an afghan too was married to a marwar princess.
2) Second factor was that the muslims customs varied a lot and muslim woman had much more freedom in those times compared to an hindu wife, Like muslim widows could remarry, could divorce, need not wear white only after husband death and also need not burn with husband in funeral pyre. Hence the mughal emperors themselves were wary of marrying their daughters and sisters to rajpuths. (Aram Bano was not married to anyone for this same reason that Akbar had faced issues with his brother in laws who were contending for the emperor throne, the same with his other son in laws, as aram was youngest he did not want her to face the issues his sisters and daughters faced hence he and salim decided that she need not marry and stay with salim all life)
3) The mughal rajputh wives converted to islam to marry but could freely follow their hindu customs in house but the rajputh would not allow that.
So all these factors and more(that i cannot remember right off) are reasons for rajputh not marrying mughal

yeah ,it's true they don't want relation vice versa and other side the girls get much freedom which they don't get in own cast.they don't have that tolerance and many ill customs in society. .
Edited by melovesja - 9 years ago

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