Latest / Aurangzeb: The Emperor Who Expanded and Broke the Mughal Empire — Fexingo History / Aurangzebs Daughter Zeb-un-Nisa The Rebel Princess Poet
Transcript
- Lucas: So we've talked a lot about Aurangzeb's policies, his wars, his religious decrees. But I think it's time we look at someone who lived right inside his own household and quietly defied everything he stood for — his eldest daughter, Zeb-un-Nisa. Luna: His daughter? I don't think we've mentioned her before. Lucas: No, and she's a fascinating figure. Zeb-un-Nisa was born in 1638, when Aurangzeb was still a prince serving as governor of the Deccan. Her mother was Dilras Banu Begum, a princess from the Safavid dynasty — so she had Persian royal blood on both sides. Aurangzeb adored her as a child; he personally oversaw her education, which was unusual for a Mughal princess. Lucas: He appointed two learned women as her tutors: Hafiza Mariam and later a scholar named Mulla Sadiq. She mastered Persian and Arabic, studied astronomy, mathematics, and Islamic jurisprudence. By her teens, she was writing poetry under the pen name 'Makhfi' — 'The Hidden One'. Luna: Makhfi — that's beautiful. So she was essentially a prodigy. Lucas: Absolutely. And she wasn't just writing verse for herself. She became a major patron of poets and scholars. She sponsored a new Persian translation of the Quran, which was a huge undertaking. She also supported the poet Mirza Abdul Qadir Bedil, who later became one of the most influential Persian poets in India. Her court in Delhi was a rival intellectual hub to her father's. Luna: Wait, her own court? Was that normal for Mughal princesses? Lucas: It wasn't unusual. Mughal royal women often managed large households and even held their own courts. But Zeb-un-Nisa went further. She was drawn to Sufi mysticism and philosophical debates — exactly the kind of free-thinking Aurangzeb was clamping down on. Her library was said to contain thousands of manuscripts, and she commissioned works on everything from history to medicine. Lucas: By the 1660s, Aurangzeb had become more orthodox. He banned music at court, destroyed temples, reimposed the jizya tax. Zeb-un-Nisa's world of poetry, music, and open intellectual inquiry became a quiet rebellion. She was known to host musical gatherings, which her father had explicitly forbidden. Luna: That must have put her in a dangerous position. Lucas: It did. The breaking point came in 1681. Her younger brother, Prince Akbar — who was also a poet and a free spirit — rebelled against Aurangzeb with Maratha support. The rebellion failed, and Akbar fled to Persia. But during the investigation, letters were discovered between Akbar and Zeb-un-Nisa. She had been corresponding with him, though the content was mostly literary. Aurangzeb saw it as treason. Lucas: He ordered her imprisoned in the Salimgarh Fort in Delhi — a damp, gloomy fortress. She was stripped of her wealth, her library was confiscated, and she was forbidden from writing to anyone. She spent the last twenty years of her life in that cell, composing poetry on the walls. Luna: Twenty years? That's brutal. Did she stop writing? Lucas: Not at all. In fact, her best-known poetry comes from this period. She wrote ghazals full of longing and defiance. One couplet goes: 'Though they lock me in a cage, my soul remains free; no prison can hold the one who has known the open sky.' She also managed to maintain contact with some of her former poets through bribed guards. Bedil even dedicated a poem to her from outside. Lucas: After Aurangzeb died in 1707, her brother Bahadur Shah I ascended the throne and immediately released her. But she was already frail. She died in 1702, actually — five years before her father. So she never saw freedom. Luna: She died before Aurangzeb? So he outlived her. Lucas: Yes, and that's a poignant detail. The man who imprisoned his own daughter for writing poetry lived to be 88. Her Divan — her collected poems — was published posthumously and became popular across the Mughal world. But over the centuries, she was largely forgotten, overshadowed by her father's notoriety. Luna: It's amazing — and heartbreaking. I'm thinking about what it means to be a hidden voice in an empire that tried to silence you. Lucas: Exactly. Zeb-un-Nisa's story reminds us that the Mughal Empire wasn't just about emperors and battles. There were women, poets, thinkers — people who carved out spaces of freedom even under the most oppressive rule. Her pen name, Makhfi, 'The Hidden One,' now feels almost like a prophecy. But her words survived. Lucas: If you ever visit Delhi, you can still see Salimgarh Fort — it's right next to the Red Fort, now a UNESCO site. And if you sit quietly, you might imagine a princess whispering ghazals to the night air. Luna: I'd like that. Thanks, Lucas.