'Alamgir and Imperial Eunuchs

Munis D Faruqui’s Aurangzeb ‘Alamgir and the Mughal Empire: A History Retold is an expansive book on the Mughal emperor’s reign that, the author writes, “aims to dislodge the most entrenched scholarly and popular views of ‘Alamgir, which either write him off as a hopeless bigot or extol him as a Muslim hero.” This excerpt contains selections from the book’s fourth chapter, which focusses on the eunuchate—an institution overlooked in writing about ‘Alamgir’s reign, because, Faruqui notes, “sources reproduced the patriarchal mores of the times, ignoring or dismissing evidence of ‘Alamgir’s reliance on women and eunuchs.” There is also a lack of firsthand accounts of eunuch lives before the eighteenth century. “Since many of the highest-ranking imperial eunuchs were well educated, this silence was clearly deliberate,” Faruqui writes. Eunuchs had played a part in Mughal court since at least the sixteenth century, but ‘Alamgir’s first decade as emperor points to “a deepening and widening role that expanded over the rest of his reign.”

THERE IS A STRIKING MINIATURE—by some accounts from the early 1660s, but possibly from the last years of ‘Alamgir’s reign—depicting a Mughal court scene.

The central focus is the recently enthroned Emperor ‘Alamgir attended by a crowd stretching all the way to a distant gate. Among the throng of royals, courtiers, soldiers, clerics, scribes, mahouts, mendicants and a dancing girl are at least seventeen eunuchs in key and honoured spaces around ‘Alamgir. Right behind the emperor, a eunuch holds an imperial fan. He shares this space with four bearded (and therefore uncastrated) men, holding vital symbols of imperial authority. In the lower-right and left-hand areas of the image are two groups of four eunuchs. Their distinct lack of facial hair and slightly heavy build sets them apart from others who either have facial hair or are marked as musicians or animal keepers. Four of the eunuchs hold ceremonial maces. Along the carpet’s other edge, on ‘Alamgir’s left side in front of the great mass of people, two more groups of eunuchs occupy both sides of a path leading directly to ‘Alamgir. Two carry maces, the others are heavily armed; all are either attentively scanning the crowd or looking directly at the emperor, ready to spring into action at the slightest potential threat. This image foregrounds eunuchs’ importance in controlling access to the emperor’s presence from all four corners of the patterned carpet, and underscores eunuchs’ central role in ‘Alamgir’s early reign.

The contested nature of ‘Alamgir’s accession, lingering opposition across the empire, and Shah Jahan’s survival made him rely more heavily than his predecessors on princely loyalists, including a vital group of trusted eunuchs. One of ‘Alamgir’s first acts following his capture of Agra in 1658 was to appoint I‘tibar Khan (the former head of his princely harem) to the position of superintendent/ overseer (nazir) of the imperial harem. The harem was a key power centre in the Mughal Empire and a source of considerable opposition to ‘Alamgir before his final victory. Working with Roshanara (‘Alamgir’s second sister and a close ally), I‘tibar Khan immediately initiated personnel changes. Besides sidelining some eunuchs associated with the former dispensation and getting others to swear loyalty to ‘Alamgir, I‘tibar Khan inducted princely loyalist eunuchs—such as Khidmat Khan Khwajasara, Mahram Khan, Khwaja Anwar/Jawahar Khan, and Khwaja Nazir Khan—into harem-based administrative positions.