Established by man, made by women – The story of Purani Dilli

Discover how the women of the Mughal empire shaped Purani Dilli's architecture and heritage, reclaiming their pivotal roles in history.

History has often been miserly in giving women their due. For over two centuries, they played a significant role in defining the architectural skyline of the Mughal empire’s capital, yet their contribution has rarely found mention.

Today’s Old Delhi, which started taking shape in 1639, came to be called Shahjahanabad after the Mughal emperor, but it was his harem that decided what it should look like. The harems, or zenanas, which were hierarchically structured private areas for females and children, got their misconstrued sexualised and oppressive classification as a result of colonial discourse. The influence of the leading ladies of the harem more often extended to political, cultural, and social state of affairs. In her book Domesticity and Power in the Early Mughal World, first published in 2005, Ruby Lal, acclaimed historian and professor of South Asian History at Emory University, writes ‘Mughal men and women were partners in the production not only of heirs but also of imperial genealogies and new royal rituals, in the establishment of new traditions, and even in the practice of governance...’

Jahanara, the eldest surviving child of Shah Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal, was 17 when she became Padshah Begum (the first lady of the empire) after her mother’s death. She was 26 when work started on what was to be the new capital. Armed with her inheritance of ₹50 lakh ( ₹3,000-plus crore in modern purchasing power) and a desire to make her name more than just a footnote in history, she commissioned numerous architectural projects. Other prominent royal women also joined in.

A book by Ira Mukhoty | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

‘In 1650, Shahjahanabad is being shaped in the furnace of the imperial women’s ambition. Of the 19 major structures that Mughal women will build in the city, 14 are completed by 1650 by the wives and daughters of Shah Jahan…’ writes Ira Mukhoty in Daughters of the Sun: Empresses, Queens and Begums of the Mughal Empire published in 2018 by the Aleph Book Company.

The historical Rani Ki Vav stepwell in Gujarat | Photo Credit: Ozbalci