History ever fascinates

Picked up 'Gulbadan' from a 'Book Sale' on account of love for history and interesting cover besides the tone of the author in the initial pages; she translates the name to 'rose-body'.

Gulbadan was the youngest daughter of Babur, first Mughal emperor of India and lived almost through three reigns: her father Babur’s, her brother Humayun’s and her nephew Akbar’s, till two years of his death.

This I find interesting on account of my interest in wildlife; recent reading of Valmik Thapar's Exotic Aliens : The Lion and The Cheetah in India brought forth the clear distinction between 'maintained forests' and 'natural wilderness' during those times!

As Akbar grew older and the Empire more settled, hunting took the place of battles; it, too, was cruel. Hundreds of soldiers would surround some chosen miles of jungle and gradually beat inwards, driving the animals until they were in a vast net. The Emperor went in first to take his prey – no other word for it because the animals, though dangerous, were helpless. Then the nobles took their turn and, lastly, the common soldiers. Akbar hunted on a favourite elephant or horse, sometimes with a hawk, but his favourite way was with cheetahs, the small lithe Indian leopards.

They were trapped in pits or nets and Akbar himself would often ride out to see them taken out blindfolded and put in strong wicker cages. Skilled keepers trained them and soon they could stalk and kill and bring the kill back. Akbar loved his cheetahs and personally oversaw their food; they were groomed, wore jewelled collars and were carried to the hunt blindfolded as a hawk is hooded, but sitting on a precious carpet. One which jumped, with amazing courage, over a gorge to catch a deer and jumped back carrying it, was made ‘chief cheetah’, and was entitled to have a drum beaten before it when it went out in the hunt procession.

This is purely fascinating given that it was during Akbar’s reign; makes one wonder why history which is taught in schools and colleges is so dry!

At Surat they (Gulbadan and her group  on way to Mecca for Haj) were held waiting for a year, because their ‘passes’ were not in order; each pilgrim had to have a pass stamped with a picture of the Virgin Mary and the Infant Christ, this because the Portuguese were masters of the sea. The ships were Turkish transports, heavy sailing ships, with oarsmen for times when the wind dropped.

Gulbadan : Portrait of a Rose Princess at the Mughal Court

By Rumer Godden

Tara Press, New Delhi, South East Asia Edition 2006