Princess Jahanara

Jahanara is the main character of the novel. It is her story and she tells it from her point of view in first person. She is the eldest daughter of the seventeenth century Mughal Emperor, Shah Jahan, and his beloved wife, Arjumand. Her brother, Dara, heir to the throne, is older by one year. Jahanara describes her appearance as a combination of her parents' features, but thinks that she does not come close to matching her mother in either beauty or cleverness. Her father, and later Isa, makes comments that indicate she is indeed beautiful, but she is unsure of her beauty and does not use it as a weapon. Her best friend and confidant is Ladli, a Hindu servant at the palace. Her mortal enemy, though she tries to prevent it, is Aurangzeb, her younger brother. At age sixteen, she marries Khondamir, a brutish older man...