Original language:
English Translated from: English
Authors: Sundaresan, Indu
Translated by: Žalytė, Danguolė
ISBN: 978-9955-38-853-1
Published in: Vilnius
Published on: 2011
Publisher: Alma littera
Mehr un Nissa, a daughter of emperor Akbar’s courtier, fell in love with forthcoming heir to the emperor’s throne – prince Salym , when she was just a child. The girl cherished her dreams about him for many years, until they finally met. From that moment they started to live in each other’s thoughts. However, they did not meant to be together. They lived in a culture, where obedience and loyalty could not be ignored. Mehr un Nissa, of an edict of emperor Akbar, married Ali Quli, a man who served in the army.
Shortly after the marriage, emperor Akbar died and Salym inherited the throne and received a new name – Jahangir. However, even when he fulfilled his biggest dream to become an emperor of Mughal, he could not forget Mehr un Nissa. A girl, who was burdened by unhappy marriage and inability to have children, had only one bright thing in her life – memories of prince Salym and thoughts about what her life would be if she became Jahangir’s wife and empress. The emperor and Mehr un Nissa lived in different worlds, but together, with their love, they created the separate world, that gave them hope that one day they will be together. After many years they met again and this time emperor Jahangir put every effort that he and Mehr un Nissa would be together.
In “The twentieth wife” intertwines many based on real facts events: Salym’s rebellion against his father Akbar for the throne, then for the same reason Khusraw against Salym; a threat to the north-western border of the empire, posed by Uzbek king’s and Persian shah; wars in Dekan. In this novel characters goes through a lot of suffer, disappointment. They have many doubts, do not trust each other and become betrayed ones. However in this story there is one good and incontestable fact – the love of Emperor Jahangir and Mehr un Nissa, who later became empress Nur Jahan, overcame all barriers.
Indu Sundaresan – a writer of fiction based on real historical facts, was born in India, and then migrated to United States. The author of “The twentieth wife” mostly wrote about the life of Mughal dynasty princesses. This writer with her work manages to drag in the reader by showing mysterious and majestic life of India.