Jodha Akbar

There is a lot of talk on who Jodhaa actually is !? Is she a wife of Akbar? or Is she the daughter-in-law of Akbar? I watched the movie yesterday and the movie was so appealing that I got tempted to conduct my own secondary research on the subject.

The name Jodhaa Bai is not from the literary manuscripts of those days. This was first used in 19th century by some historian (Tod) in one of his works. Akbar had primarily 4 wives, Ruqayya Sultan Begum, Salimah Sultan Begum, Mariam-uz-Zamani or Maan Kunwar
and Sakinah Banu Begum. He had married some more who were of not much historical significance. Out of these, Mariam-uz-Zamani was the closest that comes to the story of Jodhaa Bai that is shown in the movie. She was a Rajut princess by the name Maan Kunwar who later converted to Islam post-marriage. She was the daughter of the King of Amber (the present day Jaipur). She was the mother of Salim or Jahangir. We dont see the names of the queens in the popular literature like Ain-I-Akbari and Akbar-Nama because it was not appropriate to mention the queens' names as per the Islamic customs. Whatever we know therefore is from other not-so-popular sources.

Historians argue that Jodhaa Bai is in all probability actually the wife of Jahengir. As one of his wives had a distant connection with Jodhpur and thus she earned the nick name Jodhi Bai (not Jodhaa Bai). The Jodhaa-Akbar combination was first made popular with the blockbuster Mughal-E-Azaam. Bollywood is anyday more powerful than Age-Old History Text books and thus the popular belief is that Akbar and Jodha were indeed lovers.

Ashutosh should have actually followed the factual history rather than popular history and call the movie Kunwar-Akbar and not Jodhaa-Akbar. Many of the other facts were indeed represented correctly, for Fathepur-Sikri does have one part which has elements of Hinduism where Kunwar/ Jodhaa might have stayed. The first war sequence shown in the movie when Prince Jalauddin (later Akbar) was 13 years old is the Second Battle of Panipat (between Mughals and King Vikramaditya alias Hemur). Adham Khan (the brother of Akbar, aunt's son) indeed murders the Primeminister and enters the harem where Akbar was staying to assassinate him. He was given the exact death penalty as shown in the movie. Akbar's aunt Maham Anga was indeed shrewd and manipulative and hoped to rule herself by proxy through her son. Akbar indeed abolished the jizya and the pilgrimage taxes with which he became quite popular. The final fight sequence between Akbar and Sharifuddin Hussain (Akbar's Sister's Husband) must be pure Bollywood Masala as I couldnt find much evidence of it anywhere.

And a short note on the movie itself..The sets are grand and I got transported back to 16th century. The sword-fights, hand-to-hand combats, Bow-Arrows , Wild Elephants, Horses, Fantastic Costumes, Armored Suits, Elaborate Dances are some of the elements that will make one want to live in those ages. The love story was subtle and Ash was sporting her best looks..One would fall in love with the songs esp after they watch the movie as the piturization was out of the world. Akbar's tolerance for Hindus and Hindu customs was inspiring and should sure give a lesson or two to all the religious fanatics.

PS: The movie would have been great with English subtitles as half the movie was in Urdu! One has to otherwise put all his human instincts to exertion and interpret the dialogs from emotions of the characters!!