Jagat Gosain

• 1. Introduction

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  Jagat Gosain was born on the 13th of May 1573 as Manavati Bai, a Rajput princess from Marwar, the region that is now Jodhpur. She would grow up to become the empress consort of the fourth Mughal emperor Jahangir and the mother of the man who built the Taj Mahal. Her story reaches across two of the most powerful dynasties in Indian history, and it begins with a family that had spent generations refusing to bow to any empire at all.

  The questions her life raises are not simple ones. How did the daughter of a kingdom that resisted Mughal rule end up at the very center of the Mughal court? What kind of woman earns a title meaning, in effect, "goddess of the world"? And what happens to a mother whose son is taken from her almost at birth and raised in another palace altogether? Those answers play out across decades of court politics, personal loss, and a marriage complicated by the arrival of one of the most powerful women the Mughal empire would ever see.

• 2. A Kingdom That Resisted

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  Maldeo Rathore, her paternal grandfather, turned Marwar into a stronghold of Rajput power that challenged invaders for supremacy over northern India. He refused to ally with either the Sur Empire or the Mughal Empire even after Humayun reclaimed control of North India in 1555. That defiance was continued by his son, Chandrasen Rathore.

  When Maldeo died in 1562, a fratricidal war for the throne broke out. Chandrasen crowned himself in the capital, Jodhpur, but his reign collapsed quickly. Emperor Akbar's forces took Merta the same year and seized Jodhpur itself in 1563. By January 1581, after the death of Chandrasen, Marwar had come under direct Mughal administration.

  In August 1583, Akbar restored the Marwar throne to Udai Singh, Jagat Gosain's father. Udai Singh, popularly known by the sobriquet Mota Raja, meaning the fat king, chose a different path from his predecessors. He submitted to the Mughals and entered their service. That submission set the stage for everything that followed for his daughter.

• 3. The Marriage of 1586

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  According to Muni Lal, the young Jagat Gosain caught the eye of Prince Salim when he was at a function with his mother and senior women of the Mughal harem. He is said to have proposed immediately. Emperor Akbar was reluctant to agree and gave his consent only after the intercession of Hamida Banu.

  She married the sixteen-year-old Prince Salim on the 11th of January 1586. The marriage settlement was fixed at seventy-five lakhs tankas. Akbar himself traveled to the Raja's house for the ceremony, accompanied by the women of the harem. The wedding blended two religious traditions: Hindu fire ceremonies with a priest chanting Sanskrit verses, and Muslim observances in the presence of a Qadi, alongside military and civilian dignitaries.

  Not everyone accepted this union. Her paternal cousin, Rana Kalyan Das Rathore, took deep offense. He threatened to kill both the prince and Mota Raja, asking why a daughter had been married to the Turks. When Mota Raja reported this remark to Akbar, the emperor ordered Kalyan Das killed. Kalyan Das fled to the fort at Siwana. Two of Mota Raja's sons, Bhopat and Jaisingh, were sent to subdue him but failed. Mota Raja himself then led a force against Siwana. Kalyan Das, seeing defeat approaching, had his wives perform Jauhar and led his own men into a final battle. The fort of Siwana was afterward handed to Mota Raja. The marriage, though political in origin, carried consequences that drew blood within the family itself.

• 4. A Title and a Son

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  Jagat Gosain was granted the title "Jagat Gosain" in recognition of her ability and learning. She was known not only for her beauty, charm, and soft voice but for wit, courage, and a spontaneous quickness of mind that endeared her to Jahangir in the early years of their marriage. She was believed to be a good singer and was placed under a group of expert musicians for formal training after the wedding.

  In 1590, she gave birth to her first child, a daughter named Begum Sultan, who died at the age of one. On the 5th of January 1592, in Lahore, she gave birth to Salim's third son. Emperor Akbar named the boy Khurram, meaning joyous.

  Akbar considered the prince's astrological signs auspicious and insisted on raising Khurram himself in his own palace. The boy was placed under the care of Akbar's first wife, Ruqaiya Begum, who raised him affectionately. Jagat's own son was carried into another household.

  After Akbar died in 1605, the young prince returned to his father's household and to his mother's care. He had grown devoted to her and designated her Hazrat in his court chronicles. In 1597, before that reunion, Jagat had given birth to her third and last child, a daughter named Luzzat-un-Nissa, who died in infancy.

• 5. Nur Jahan and the Shift of Favor

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  Scholars differ on exactly when Jahangir's attention drifted from his wife. According to Findly, Jagat Gosain lost her husband's favor quite early in their marriage. According to S. S. Gupta, she remained his favorite wife until the arrival of Nur Jahan.

  Jahangir married Nur Jahan in 1611. From that marriage until his death, Nur Jahan was indisputably his favorite wife, and Jagat was said to be scornful of her. Even before Nur Jahan's arrival, Jahangir's chief consort and the holder of the Padshah Begum title was Saliha Banu Begum, who held that position from their marriage until her death in 1620.

  The Jahangiri Mahal at Agra Fort was chosen by Jahangir as Jagat Gosain's residence. The west side of its quadrangle, surrounded by oblong niches bearing portraits of Hindu deities, served as her temple. The Kanch Mahal at Sikandra, sometimes called Jodh Bai's Mahal, is said to have been built by Jahangir for her. The area in Agra known as Taj Ganj is said to bear her name. She is also credited with founding a village called Sohagpura, which became wholly dedicated to the manufacture of glass bangles.

• 6. Death and Its Aftermath

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  In 1619, during her stay at Fatehpur Sikri, Jagat Gosain fell ill and her treatment had no effect. She died on the 8th of April 1619 at Akbarabad, present-day Agra. Jahangir recorded the moment in his chronicles: "On Friday, the 30th, the mother of Shah Jahan attained the mercy of God."

  Shah Jahan was inconsolable. Jahangir wrote that the next day he went himself to his son's house and took him back to the palace. According to Muni Lal, Shah Jahan attended no public entertainments for twenty-one days and subsisted on simple vegetarian meals. His wife Arjumand Banu personally supervised the distribution of food to the poor throughout the mourning period, led recitations of the Quran each morning, and urged her husband to accept his loss.

  Jahangir ordered that Jagat Gosain be referred to as Bilqis Makani, meaning the Lady of Pure Abode, in all official documents from that point forward. Her death, alongside the retirement of Mariam-uz-Zamani, contributed to the decline of Rajput influence on the Mughal court.

  She was buried at Dehra Bagh near Noor Manzil in Agra, as she had wished. Her tomb was a square structure measuring 78 feet on each side, with a high dome, gateways, towers, and a garden. Beneath the structure lay a large vaulted underground chamber reached by four inclined passages, with a marble cenotaph believed to have existed below. The tomb stood on two platforms: the first extending 38 feet from the structure, the second rising 44 feet from the first. A grand gate stood 670 feet to the east; a mosque stood 657 feet to the west. In 1832, the entire complex was demolished with gunpowder by the British, who wanted the site and its stone and brick for other purposes. In 1921, a chhatri was constructed on the exact site of the original crypt chamber, funded by the Maharajadhiraja of Burdwan at a cost of approximately Rs 200.