Who is Jodha Bai?
Who is Jodha Bai?
Bollywood has been making movies on the historical characters but many a time the history is not depicted correctly by the movie makers and the audience suspect the story depicted in the movies. Many times in a run to provide entertainment the facts are neglected. Ashutosh Gowarikar will be trying to depict the Mughal Empire in his upcoming movie Jodha-Akbar that will be released in February but the question who Jodha Bai is?
As per historical facts none called Jodha has ever been associated to Mughal king Akbar. The name comes mostly from the Bollywood movies but history admits that a Hindu princess called Hira Kunwari was the wife of Akbar.
In history it is admitted that Mughals who came to India from Mongolia and Turkey fought with the local Hindu Rajput kings and when they were not successful in winning over the king they made relations with the kings and married with their daughters.
It was Hira Kunwari daughter of Raja Bharmal of Amber who married to the king Akbar as a political contract and out of the main three wives of Akbar, Hira was only one who gave birth to a son to take over the dynasty to the further generations. Though many still suspect that the only son of Akbar called Salim was not of Hira, the Hindu queen.
Akbar after taking over the rule over major northern parts in India was considered to be a very powerful king and created the religion called Din-E-Ilahi. He allowed his Hindu wife to practice Hinduism after he made his own religion.
Hira Kunwari or more popularly named Jodha to today’s genre was the lady who actively participated in the ruling of Akbar and she initiated the pilgrims to Mecca and arranged ships for it. She was called Mariam-uz-Zamani (Mary of the Universe) by Akbar.
It is also said that the long Parda system in the Northern India resulted due to Mughal rule and we know that parda system is not found in South and East India. As the people are more and more getting educated about the religion and historical relations, the movie maker need to be careful for what they are making and delivering to the Indian audience. The movie Umrao Jaan lost because it looked unreal. The success of Jodha Akbar will also be based on how the facts have been revealed in the movie.
More: Opinions
Related Posts
Jodha Akbar into historical controversy
Jodha Akbar into historical controversy
The Rajput groups of India are...
Jodha Akbar lead cast includes animals
Jodha Akbar lead cast includes animals
The lead casts of the...
Hrithik in Akbar-Jodha
Hrithik in Akbar-Jodha
According to sources very close to Hrithik Roshan,...
none
Rizwan Uddin Ansari
Bhopal
Today is Jodha-Salim’s Marriege anniversary
On 13 th Feb 1585 Salim Married Jodha Bai at the age of 10 while salim was 15years old ,the celebration continued till 15th.Man Bai Became Taj Bi Bi to be known later as Jodha Bai.
Jodha the son of Raja Rao Ranmal was born in 1415 AD and accepted Ruler from 1438 to 1488 AD.Jodha’s son Suja Ji was born in 1429 took over from 1491 to 1515 AD. His son Rao Bagha had Balram and Ganga singh and two daughters. Ganga married to Rani Padmawati Sirohi which gave birth to Raja Maldev Singh. He in turn married to Uma Devi and Pran Kunwardha . Raja Maldev Singh died in 1562 AD. At this point Akbar had a alliance with Rajputs. Thus in 1561 Akbar married Rukma Bai who was Later known as Maryam Zamani Begum. Rukma Bai was the daughter of Raja Maldev Singh. Even four more daughters of Raja Maldev Singh married in Moghal Family. Among the children of Raja Maldev Singh were also Chandar Sen and Udai Singh. Chandar Sen was elder so he took over after his father from 1562 to 1581 AD and Udai Singh after him from 1583 to 1595. Akbar also married after a while with the daughter of Chandar Sen i.e. Rukma Bai’s niece.
Rukma Bai gave birth to Fatma Begum in 1562 , then twins Mirza Hasan & Mirza Hussain were also born but all of them died soon. Some more children were born of cocumbines also died. On 30 August 1569 Salim was born of Maryam Zamani Begum i.e. Rukma Bai daughter of Maldev Singh. After Salim, Murad on 7th June 1570. Danyal on 9th Sept 1572 were born while from Bi Bi Daulat shah two daughters Shakr un Nisa and Aaram Bano were born.
On 13th Feb 1585 Salim Married Man Bai the daughter of Udai Singh .Udai Singh was the brother of Rukma Bai thus Man Bai was the first cousin of Salim.Man Bai’s name was changed to Taj Bi Bi which was later known as Jodha Bai. At the time of marriege Jodha Bai was 10 years old and Salim was 15 years old. Jodha Bai gave birth to Sultan un Nisa Begum on 16th April 1586 and on 6th August 1587 Khusro ( Shah Jahan) was born. After the birth Khusro was given to Ruqayya Begum daughter of Mirza Hindal as per Mughal Traditions.Jodha Bai died in 1603 at the age of 28. Salim also married shah Begum daughter of Bhagwan Das .Shah Begum was the neice of Man Bai as Bagwan Das was the brother of Man Bai (Jodha Bai).
This and Many more details are given in my Book “UMMUL ANSAB” i.e. mother of family trees, which is published in 2007 in Urdu and soon to be published in English and Hindi.This Book gives details starting from ADAM and on the other hand BRAMHA .Thus giving details about the trees of Prophets, Syed (Sadat) (Descendents of Prophet Mohammed SAW, Ansari, Farooqi, Siddiqi, Usmani, Pathans, Mughals, Lodhis, Ghori, Ghaznavi, and on the other hand Surya Vansh , Agni Kul , Yadu Vansh Rajputs.
RIZWAN_U_A@HOTMAIL.COM
Comment by rizwan uddin ansari — 2/14/2008 @ 2:57 pm
Was Jodha Bai the wife of Akbar ?: Some Historical Facts
R.S. Khangarot
Head, Department of History
Agrawal P.G. College
Jaipur. India
Why all this hue and cry about ‘Jodha Akbar’? Let us put this issue to rest, once and for all. Let us not behave like immature, illiterate, irresponsible and ignorant people. Let us examine this like a very serious, mature and sincere student of history.
Nowhere in history, Jodha Bai is mentioned as the wife of Akbar. No historical records or historical sources give any indication that Jodha Bai was in any way related to Akbar as his wife. Let us examine as to where it all began.
It began with Col James Tod. In his book Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan Vol II Pg. 965, he says, “on the union of the imperial house with that of Jodhpur, by the marriage of Jodh Bai to Akbar, …..”. Here Tod has mentioned Jodha Bai of Jodhpur and not of Amber. But in the same book the editor William Crooke, quoting Ain-i-Akbari I, pg 619 has clarified Tod’s version. Crooke says “there has been some controversy about Jodh Bai, but it is clear that she was wife of Jahangir, not of Akbar”(pg 965).
At another place Col. James Tod refers to Jodha Bai as the daughter of Mota Raja Udai Singh of Jodhpur (Annals…….Vol.I pg. 389). In the footnotes of the same page Crooke says– “The magnificent tomb of Jodh Bai, the mother of Shah Jahan, is at Sikandra near Agra and not far from that in which Akbar’s remains are deposited. Jodh Bai is a title, meaning ‘Jodhpur lady’. There were some doubts about her identity, but she was certainly daughter of Udai Singh and wife of Jahangir (Ain-i-Akbari pg 619).”
According to the above statement if Jodha Bai was the mother of Shah Jahan she had to be the wife of Jahangir. Also make a note that she is mentioned as ‘Jodh Bai’ and not ‘Jodha’ Bai. ‘Jodh’ naturally is a short for Jodhpur. Crooke makes it clear that Jodh bai is a title meaning ‘Jodhpur lady’.
Then came the movie ‘Mughal-i-Ajam’. The story of Mughal -i- Azam seems to have taken a clue from Tod’s version by showing Jodha Bai as the wife of Akbar. The story writer perhaps overlooked the clarification given by Crooke in the footnotes. It seems that the director, producer and storywriter took little interest in the historical facts. Moreover all those associated with the film had little idea of history.
Mughal -i-Azam was such a grand film in terms of cinematic approach that each one of us who saw the film has registered the name of Jodha Bai as the wife of Akbar. Any attempt to go against this view has therefore proved futile. This goes on to prove that how cinema, whether right or wrong, can influence the minds of a common man.
History is always based on facts and only facts. One can never and should never change the facts. Each event in recorded history has to be based on facts. What can change or be changed is the interpretation related to the event. For e.g. the I Battle of Panipat was fought on 21st April 1526 and Benazir Bhutto was killed in Dec. 2007, are facts. How, where, when, who, is a matter of interpretation.
Comment by Prof. R.S. Khangarot — 2/14/2008 @ 11:04 pm