Part 2 : The Feast Of Roses

The feast of Roses By Indu Sundaresan

The Feast of Roses is the second novel of The Taj Mahal trilogy written by Indu Sundaresan. The novel is the continuation of the life of the Mughal empress Mehrunnisa who married Jahangir at the age of 34. The first novel ‘ The Twentieth Wife’ was about the struggle of Mehrunnisa's life to marry her childhood love Salim till her marriage after being a widow with a daughter.

Mehrunnisa was the daughter of a humble Persian courtier Ghias Beg who happens to meet Akbar and Mehrunnisa was sent to royal harem where she was taught about ways of Court life. Mehrunnisa was married to a soldier and was sent with him. After some years, she gave birth to a girl child and due to courtly conspiracies, her husband was killed by Jahangir. Jahangir tries to go back to her. The first Novel portrayed Mehrunnisa’s earliest years and her youthful attraction to the emperor ending in their wedding tie.

The result of this beautiful historical novel is “ The feast of Roses “, which leads the life of Mehrunnisa and shows her as the most influential wife and an intellectual empress of Jahangir's reign. Mehrunnisa was older enough to charm the emperor with her beauty but her dominance was such that no wife or concubine of the emperor could resist being jealous of her. Nur Jahan ( The light of the world) is the most ambitious and self-indulgent character for an empress to be.

She insists her presence in the Court and her opinions to be heard. Even Jahangir could never dismiss her statements regarding politics and Court affairs. Her request of standing beside the emperor at the balcony was granted without any questions. Nur Jahan with her atrocious and ambitious nature had acquired many enemies within the periphery of the empire. Her enemies were the friends of Emperor and forgotten wives and concubines who found themselves deserted within the opulence of the empire.

Mehrunnisa ( Nur Jahan) was an extraordinary woman with bravery, loyalty, faith and burning turmoil of the 17th century Court of life and rituals where women were considered as a beauty charmer and birth giver, Mehrunnisa could not settle herself with the restricted area rather she persuaded herself as a shining star among all the women who desire to rise above time and place. Mehrunnisa was the dearest to the emperor and her condition began to wither after the death of Emperor as Mehrunnisa was banished by her enemies.

It is very difficult on the side of an author to maintain the same essence of the first book in the following sequence and Indu Sundaresan with her well researched and powerful characterization has brought the most beautiful and vivid portrayal of Nur Jahan. This is a romantic historical novel as Mehrunnisa and Jahangir struggled to marry and their love spread as the fragrance of flowers. Opulence and power don’t come easily. Mehrunnisa who always wanted to be a man took the charge of being an advisor of Emperor which erupted bricks of hatred in the minds of Emperor's ministers who considered Mehrunnisa nothing but a woman who doesn’t have a voice in the outside world.

Mehrunnisa battles with all with her everlasting intellectual capacities. She does not hesitate to become cunning to get what she wants even at the cost of her daughter's love. She never fails to achieve love from Jahangir who till his last breath loved Mehrunnisa like a Rose. The feast of the Roses is a tale of a lady not behind the veil but in the battlefield among so many known enemies. The Feast of Roses is the real success of womanhood.