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ABSTRACT
The nature of service and submission in Mughal India was starkly different from modern times. The rhetoric of complete submission to the person of the Emperor guided the social relations of all orders. A reflection of this must have been experienced at the level of the household service gentry. Important elements in this service class were chelas (freed male slaves), sahelis (freed slave-girls) and khwajasaras (eunuchs). All three sections had an ambiguous placement in the social order. The chelas and sahelis were in principle free but their social realities and the nature of their services were similar to that of slaves. Eunuchs, on the other hand, provided widely varied services, ranging from administrative duties to mere harem attendance. The conditions of all these groups depended largely on the interactions between them and their immediate masters. The paper explores the dynamics of the varying nature of social realities and mobility experienced by these different sections, locating them within class and gender contexts.
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Notes
1. Richards, “Norms of Comportment,” 263.
2. Kumar, Emergence of Delhi Sultanate, 115.
3. Kumar, “When Slaves were Nobles,” 42.
4. Kumar, Emergence of Delhi Sultanate, 84.
5. Thapar, Somanatha, 41.
6. Bush, Servitude in Modern Times, Preface, x.
7. An example of such form of downward shift of the consciousness of service and submission is given by J.F. Richards in the relationship between Bhimsen and Dalpat Rao which was of the same order as between Dalpat Rao and Aurangzeb. Richards, “Norms of Comportment,” 282.
8. Bush, Servitude in Modern Times, Preface, xi.
9. Fazl, Ain-i-Akbari, 17.
10. Bhakkari, Zakhirat-ul-Khwanin, II, 129.
11. Moosvi, Economy of Mughal Empire, 344.
12. Fazl, Ain-i-Akbari, 12.
13. Total jama was 3,96,03,27,106 dams. Moosvi, Economy of Mughal Empire, 215.
14. Fazl, Ain-i-Akbari, 12.
15. Fazl, Ain-i-Akbari, 16.
16. 8,28,57,600 dams per annum; I Rupee (silver coin) = 40 dams (copper coin).
17. Fazl, Ain-i-Akbari, 138.
18. Fazl, Ain-i-Akbari, 138–9; Moosvi, Economy of Mughal Empire, 343.
19. For details regarding the wages of the elephant, camel and cow stables see, Fazl, Ain-i-Akbari, 125, 147, 150.
20. Fazl, Ain-i-Akbari, 125.
21. Fazl, Ain-i-Akbari, 44–5.
22. Richards, “Norms of Comportment,” 282.
23. Jahangir, Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri, I, 151.
24. Bhakkari, Zakhirat-ul-Khwanin, II, 57.
25. Lal, Muslim Slave System, 112.
26. Fazl, Ain-i-Akbari, 202.
27. Manucci, Mogul India, II, 56.
28. Bhakkari, Zakhirat-ul-Khwanin, II, 57.
29. Khan, Maathir-Ul-Umarâ, I, 705.
30. Shaikh Farid Bhakkari, author of Zakhiratul Khwanin one of the biographical dictionaries of nobles, informs about Miyan Ambar, the khwajasara of Islam Khan Mashhadi, who gave advice to the latter in case of an adversity suggesting that Islam Khan should burn all records of his possessions and should distribute his property amongst his sons and relatives, Bhakkari, Zakhirat-ul-Khwanin, III, 26.
31. Khan, Maathir-Ul-Umarâ, I, 705.
32. Bhakkari, Zakhirat-ul-Khwanin, III, 53-54.
33. Badauni, Muntakhabu-t-tawarikh, II, 232.
34. Manucci, Mogul India, II, 351.
35. Ovington, Voyage to Surat, 127.
36. Bernier, Travels in Mogul Empire, 97.
37. Manucci, Mogul India, II, 351.
38. Bhakkari, Zakhirat-ul-Khwanin, III, 53–4.
39. Rezavi, “Early Historian of Mughal Nobility,” 317–26.
40. Manucci, Mogul India, II, 74.
41. Ibid.
42. Ibid.
43. Manucci, Mogul India, II, 35–6.
44. Bhakkari, Zakhirat-ul-Khwanin, I, 139–41.
45. Bhakkari, Zakhirat-ul-Khwanin, I, 216.
46. Rosalind, “Kingdom, Household and Body History,” 889–923.
47. Bernier, Travels in Mogul Empire, 97.
48. Dinshaw, “Eunuch Hermeneutics,” 28.
49. Manucci, Mogul India, II, 80.
50. Hambly, “Note Trade in Eunuchs”, 130.
51. Manucci, Mogul India, II, 216.
52. Ibid.
53. Fazl, Ain-i-Akbari, 44.
54. Manucci, Mogul India, 51.
55. Ibid., 60.
56. Hathaway, “Eunuchs and the State,” 316.
57. Toledano, “The Imperial Eunuchs of Istanbul,” 381.
58. Hathaway, “Eunuchs and the State,” 322.
59. Tavernier, Travels in India, I, 91.
60. Fazl, Ain-i-Akbari, 160.
61. Jouher, Tezkereh al Vakiat, 53.
62. Ibid., 71.
63. Ibid., 48–9.
64. Manucci, Mogul India, I, 202.
65. Badauni, Muntakhabu-t-tawarikh, II, 24.
66. Ibid., 55.
67. Ibid., 60.
68. Bhakkari, Zakhirat-ul-Khwanin, III, 209.
69. Bhakkari, Zakhirat-ul-Khwanin, II, 100.
70. Bhakkari, Zakhirat-ul-Khwanin, III, 52–3.
71. Lal, Muslim Slave System, Introduction, 7.
72. Bhakkari, Zakhirat-ul-Khwanin, I, 138.
73. Bhakkari, Zakhirat-ul-Khwanin, II, 67.
74. Manucci, Mogul India, I, 217.
75. Bhakkari, Zakhirat-ul-Khwanin, II, 49–50.
76. Fazl, Ain-i-Akbari, I, 44.
77. Manucci, Mogul India, II, 152.
78. Bhakkari, Zakhirat-ul-Khwanin, II, 94.
79. Khan, Maathir-Ul-Umarâ, II, 84.
80. Bhakkari, Zakhirat-ul-Khwanin, I, 81.
81. Bhakkari, Zakhirat-ul-Khwanin, II, 90.
82. Bhakkari, Zakhirat-ul-Khwanin, II, 30.
83. Manucci, Mogul India, II, 338.
84. Bhakkari, Zakhirat-ul-Khwanin, II, 124.
85. Manucci, Mogul India, II, 80.
86. Ibid., 192.
87. Manucci, Mogul India, II, 80.
88. Manucci, Mogul India, II, 216.
89. Bhakkari, Zakhirat-ul-Khwanin, III, 117.
90. Ibid., 190.
91. Manucci, Mogul India, II, 338.
92. Bhakkari, Zakhirat-ul-Khwanin, III, 210.
93. Bhakkari, Zakhirat-ul-Khwanin, III, 213.
94. Bush, Servitude in Modern Times, Preface, xi.
95. Sinha, Varma and Jha, Servants’ Pasts, Vol. 1, 92.
96. The two Volumes of Sinha, Varma and Jha edited Servants’ Pasts become important points of reference in furthering the study and research in this area.