74 
Shyamal Das —The mother of Jahangir. 
[No. 2, 
him as lier son. But it should be borne in mind that there was no system 
of adopting children among the Muhammadans, if the word adoption is 
taken in its legal sense. 
Q. 11. Can there be any doubt that Salimah was Jahangir’s 
mother ? 
Salimah was only a step-mother of Jahangir. His own mother was 
the daughter of Bhar Mall.* 
Q. 12. Was Shahzada Khanam, the daughter of Salimah Sultan, 
Jahangir’s full sister ? 
As Salimah Sultan was not Jahangir’s own mother , her daughter 
was not his full sister. 
Before concluding this paper, I must criticise a statement of Abu-1- 
Fazl, implying flattery to the Muhammadan emperors. He says that, 
a certain Hindu Raja offered his daughter in marriage to the emperor 
Akbar, beseeching His Majesty to honour him, by keeping her in his 
liaram. 
This statement is totally incorrect. The Hindu Rajas did not 
give away their daughters voluntarily to the Muhammadan emperors; 
the origin of the practice is given in the following paragraph s.f 
When Humayun had been expelled from India by the Pathan 
Sher Shah Sur, and in his flight reached Tran, he was taken to task 
by the Persian king Tahmasp, that he could not have lost his hold on 
India, had he been prudent enough to have contracted marriage-ties 
with the Hindu Rajas, as Babar had done. In that case, he said, the 
Hindu Rajas would have assisted him in times of need. 
Humayun perceived the value of the important political dodge 
suggested by Tahmasp, and was determined to act up to its very letter, 
on his return to India, but he died no sooner than he returned. 
His son Akbar was fully alive to the advantages likely to accrue 
by adopting such a policy ; and once he told Raja Bliar Mall, that the 
relatives of the Imperial family, equal to them in rank and nobility, had 
been left in Turkistan, and it would be a good thing if the Hindu 
Rajas, belonging to ancient independent royal families, were to contract 
marriage relationship with the imperial household. 
Raja Bhar Mall, looking upon it as objectionable, on religious grounds, 
for Hindu Rajas to marry Muhammadan princesses, preferred the alter¬ 
native of giving his daughter to the emperor in marriage, as stated by 
Sujan Rai.f 
* Vide ante Q. 5. 
f [It would be interesting to know the Kaviraj’s authority for his statements in 
those paragraphs regarding Tahmasp’s advice and Humayun’s and Akbar’s attitude 
towards it. Ed.] 
% See Q. 5 of this paper. 
