09-07-2006, 08:06 AM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Other than rajputs, are there recrds of any other Hindu princes giving their daughters in marriage to Muslims?<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
There was Ala-ud-din Khalji who is said to have made a matrimonial aliance with the Yadavas of Devagiri (Maharashtra), then there is Firuz Tughlaq who had a Jat mother, etc. Aurangzeb married off captive Maratha princesses to his Muslim underlings.
Even besides Mewar there were states like Kota and Bundi in Rajasthan that had no matrimonial alliance with the Mughals...but they were hardly more powerful than Jaipur or Jodhpur.
Secondly Rajput states in Himachal, Uttaranchal, Gujarat, Malwa, Bundelkhand, also did not have any marriages with the Mughals...but they were definitely weaker than the Rajasthan states. So this coercion into marriage needs to be properly investigated (Bikaner and Jaisalmer were allies of Akbar, there was no war with them, but they still married princesses to him late in his reign).
About Mughal princesses marrying Rajput Kings, only pureborn Rajputs can head a Rajput clan, and a Mughal emperor would have moved heaven and earth to make his (muslim) grandson the ruler of a Rajput state. Apart from this a Mughal princess in a Rajput household would have converted her husband and children to Islam.
There was a Hindu historian of that time named Ishwardas Nagar who said that Akbar offered to marry his daughters to the Rajput cheifs but they refused (because of the above reasons) but to save his face they said that we are your generals and servants, therefore we cannot presume to claim superiority to you (in North India girl's father is socially inferior to boy's father). for this reason Akbar made a rule that Mughal princesses will not be married to ANYONE...this was contrary to Islam and therefore Aurangzeb later changed this rule.
Before that Mughal princesses lived and died as virgins (ideally <!--emo&
--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo--> )
There was Ala-ud-din Khalji who is said to have made a matrimonial aliance with the Yadavas of Devagiri (Maharashtra), then there is Firuz Tughlaq who had a Jat mother, etc. Aurangzeb married off captive Maratha princesses to his Muslim underlings.
Even besides Mewar there were states like Kota and Bundi in Rajasthan that had no matrimonial alliance with the Mughals...but they were hardly more powerful than Jaipur or Jodhpur.
Secondly Rajput states in Himachal, Uttaranchal, Gujarat, Malwa, Bundelkhand, also did not have any marriages with the Mughals...but they were definitely weaker than the Rajasthan states. So this coercion into marriage needs to be properly investigated (Bikaner and Jaisalmer were allies of Akbar, there was no war with them, but they still married princesses to him late in his reign).
About Mughal princesses marrying Rajput Kings, only pureborn Rajputs can head a Rajput clan, and a Mughal emperor would have moved heaven and earth to make his (muslim) grandson the ruler of a Rajput state. Apart from this a Mughal princess in a Rajput household would have converted her husband and children to Islam.
There was a Hindu historian of that time named Ishwardas Nagar who said that Akbar offered to marry his daughters to the Rajput cheifs but they refused (because of the above reasons) but to save his face they said that we are your generals and servants, therefore we cannot presume to claim superiority to you (in North India girl's father is socially inferior to boy's father). for this reason Akbar made a rule that Mughal princesses will not be married to ANYONE...this was contrary to Islam and therefore Aurangzeb later changed this rule.
Before that Mughal princesses lived and died as virgins (ideally <!--emo&
--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo--> )