This book is the grandiloquent story of Mehrunnisa alias Nurjahan, the Mughal empress of Jahangir, through her various stages of life. The satisfaction derived from the first part of this trilogy vastly depends on the reader’s expectation. If one dives into this book expecting the rise of a strong woman to power and a vivid portrayal of her astute ruling capabilities, they will be sorely disappointed. This first book of the trilogy has been used merely for setting up the stage for the actual story in the upcoming sequels (hopefully).

In this book, Nurjahan’s happy childhood and disastrous first marriage have been speculated upon. It’s presumptuous of the author to imagine her first marriage to be woe-filled just for the sake of glorifying her marriage to Jahangir. But if she meant to expound upon the suffering and tolerance of the women of that period, she was spot-on.

Towards the end of the book, Nurjahan refuses to be Jahangir’s concubine and demands that she will only become his wife. This was during a period when parents were vying for their daughters to become one of the emperor’s concubine so that she shall lead a life of comfort in the royal harem. This was also during times of a religious custom, where it was legal for every man to have four wives. The reason Nurjahan proposes for such a demand, such an act, for denying the undying love of the most powerful man in the empire was because she found it difficult to share him with anybody else. This is hilarious because she demanded this of a man who had several wives already lined up from his marital conquests that began at the age of sixteen and continued annually or biannually and also possessed nearly 300 concubines in his royal harem.

The scenes of romantic angst where both Jahangir and Nurjahan suffer because they still can’t unite after overcoming several obstacles belies the actual underlying intent. Nurjahan was vying for power and had strategies in place for upending his already well-established queens-to-be. And she wouldn’t accept anything less. During times when women were considered so inconsequential that even information on them for research is scarce, it is a marvel how Nurjahan went on to become the wife as well as the master puppeteer of her powerful husband, who wasted away on alcohol and women. Her cunning manipulations and master scheming made her an unprecedented empress and an influential strategist. This must make for an exciting read in the next two sequels.