Imperial wet nurses in the reign of Mughal Emperor Akbar

Abstract

Mughal chronicles frequently refer to royal Mughal infants being entrusted to wet nurses for breastfeeding and nurturing. The women chosen for this purpose were invariably the wives of important Mughal officials. It was believed that the quality of milk the baby received determined its future disposition. Therefore, these nurses needed to possess desirable psychological qualities and moral temperaments. They were accorded a high status and usually established a lasting relationship with their charges. As a result, the children of the emperor developed a close association with their wet nurses and their families who, in turn, became the staunchest supporters of their wards. The success, influence, and prestige of these families depended on the political fortune of the royal child they had cared for. If the prince became an emperor, they gained immense power and prestige both in life and death. They were honoured with elaborate funerals and buried in imperial tombs. This article argues that the rationale behind the use of wet nurses by Mughal royalty during Emperor Akbar's reign was not simply a medical or physiological one, it was equally a political instrument for forging ties between prominent families and royalty.

Introduction

A wet nurse—daya or dayeh in Persian (anageh or anakeh in Chagatay Turkish)—¹was a woman who had newly borne a child and could thus breastfeed another woman's child. The use of wet nurses for new-born children was well known among the social elite since ancient times.² The methods and rituals of this practice varied in different periods and different societies. By the late medieval period it was customary for royalty and wealthy families across cultures to employ wet nurses to breastfeed their infants.³ Wet nursing became a means of forming familial alliances in many hierarchical societies. It therefore served a religious and strategic purpose.⁴ In the Mughal imperial household—wherein royal and governmental interests coalesced―the practice fostered allegiance, trust, and loyalty. Numerous sources testify to royal children being entrusted to the care of multiple wet nurses within the harem (or zanana) of the imperial household. The nurses and their families gained prestige because of this intimate connection with the emperor's children. The bond thus formed between the child and the wet nurse and the rest of her family was equivalent to that of a blood relationship.⁵ This mark of trust between them and the royal family enabled the former to intervene actively in court politics.⁶ While this article discusses the reign of Jalal al-Din Muhammad Akbar (r. 1556–1605), sources from different periods have also been drawn upon by way of illustration and elaboration.

When a royal birth was imminent, some women of amiable disposition (latif-masharib) were chosen from leading families close to the imperial household. It was believed that the quality of milk the baby obtained determined their future dispositions. Wet nurses were chosen well before the birth of royal children. It was a high stakes game because one of the children was likely to be a future emperor. Once designated, they would sport a Turkish-style ‘headdress (mi‘jar) and dress in a cloak of distinction (kher‘qa)’ like a noble woman.⁷ They enjoyed a high status among the princely and imperial households. This act of designation was a favourite subject of court painters illustrating imperial chronicles. Mughal miniature paintings represent these women very prominently, interacting intimately with children of the royal family.⁸ The responsibilities of the wet nurses did not end when the child was weaned, but lasted throughout their lifetime. Wet nurses and their families became loyal followers as their own fortunes hinged upon the success of their charges. This probably made them the most influential clique in each princely household. Presumably, they were the ones who actually groomed the princes to become sovereign. The selection of wet nurses was, possibly, the first step towards the formation of a princely household.⁹ If the child nursed was a prince, the family of his intimate anakeh (wet nurse) gained immense power and prestige when the prince reached maturity and assumed his political responsibilities. It is likely that this practice was designed to increase and strengthen the links of loyalty and service between a powerful noble family and the Mughal dynasty. Consequently, each designated wet nurse, her husband, and her extended family, along with its associates, became the most trusted supporters of the prince in adulthood.

Spiritual implications

Normative and theoretical writings of the medieval world assumed that a maternal inheritance was transferred through breast milk. Breast milk was considered a refined and purer form of uterine blood that was conveyed through the veins linking the womb to a woman's breasts. This drew upon a Greco-Roman idea that was imported into Arabo-Islamic medical theories between the ninth and eleventh centuries.¹⁰ Ancient philosophers and moralists such as Favorinus of Arles believed that the semen of the father influenced the milk (‘milk is from man’):

[but] there is no doubt that in forming character the disposition of the [wet] nurse and the quality of the milk play a great part; for the milk, although imbued from the beginning with the material of the father's seed, forms the infant offspring from the body and mind of the mother as well.¹¹

These notions were apparently shared by the Mughals. Court chronicles argue that the physical attributes and characteristics of a wet nurse could be passed onto the nursing infant through breast milk. Therefore, it was not simply nourishment but the wet nurse's very being that was conveyed through the milk. In keeping with the belief mentioned above, the personal attributes of the wet nurse's husband, too, had to be suitable. Medieval treatises—which propagated the notion that ‘good milk’ produces good progeny and ‘bad milk’, bad progeny—made the selection of a wet nurse all the more important.¹² Thus, a ‘chaste’ wife of a ‘nobly born’ husband made for an ideal wet nurse for royal Mughal offspring.¹³ This is the sense one gets from ‘official’ records, Persian couplets, and even from the morals taught through miracles described in Mughal chronicles.¹⁴

They also believed that dispositions were influenced by the close intimacy that gradually developed between the wet nurse and child: ‘after being together for a long time the character of nurse and child become assimilated’.¹⁵ This notion of ‘intimacy’ was the same for both the wet nurse and the (dry) nurse with little difference seen (in our sources) between the two.¹⁶ Both categories of nurses were essential and valued members of the royal household: caring for the nutritional and emotional needs of the growing child. It was, however, the wet nurses who displayed special fidelity and attachment. In referring to the selection of wet nurse and the influence of breast milk, Emperor Akbar's minister and historian Abu'l Fazl (1551–1602) in his great imperial chronicle, the Akbarnamah (circa 1598), records that ‘… the wet nurse did not just provide physical nourishment of the child, but her milk was a conduit for her necessarily good temperament and spiritual inclinations’.¹⁷ Abu'l Fazl believed that the disposition of wet nurses had to be ‘fused with spirituality’, for it was through their ‘benign breasts’ that the prince's (Akbar) ‘mouth was sweetened by the life-giving fluid’.¹⁸ He thus describes how ‘chaste ladies of holy characters’ first introduced milk into the infant Akbar's lips:¹⁹

Nurses of balanced temperament mingled with spirituality then wrapped him in a blanket that was purer than a veil before the eyes of an immaculate, and laid that divine, heavenly body politely and respectfully upon the breasts and bosoms of chaste ladies of holy character, who placed the breast of kindness to his lips and sweetened his plate with soul-nourishing milk.

An appropriate verse is cited:

They induced milk for his lips; they mixed together milk and sugar

He drank not milk from the nurse of hope but water from the spring of the sun.

This imagery of almost divine nursing seems to depict a royal infant being suckled by ‘goddesses’ in the form of women and is reminiscent of ancient Egyptian and Near Eastern tradition.²⁰ In order to bolster their political legitimacy, Mughal literature depicts divine and royal human kings as those who had nursed at the breasts of ‘goddesses’. In the religious realm, currency was given to the idea that the milk of divine wet nurses (goddesses) transferred the essence of divine power through suckling.²¹ The premise was interpreted similarly by Abu'l Fazl:

Herein lies the divine wisdom of inducing various natures (masharib) through a variety of classes in order that the regal body might reach various stages and be acquainted with different type of divine manifestation, or it might be in order that it be obvious to intelligent persons of insight that this fresh sapling of fortune [Akbar] is from the limpid water of the brook of divine emanation, and not that he ascended spiritual levels through physical nourishment, since it is obvious to all what these persons’ level of spirituality is and what the degree of these chosen ladies’ exalted and holy rank is.²²

Miniature paintings prepared in the Mughal atelier also dwell on the theme of divine wet nurses suckling royal children. The babies wrapped in swaddling bands are shown being suckled by feeders depicted as deities (or wet nurses) wearing distinguished headdresses (comparable to Egyptian Hathor, the goddess of fertility), as the royal mothers lie magnificently in bed.²³

Considerations of faith also, perhaps, influenced the choice of wet nurses. The Mughals had ancestral links with the nomadic Mongols. We learn that the wet nurses of Chinggis Khan's children and grandchildren were chosen from among the Buddhist Naiman and Tangut people, sometimes out of ‘religious’ inspiration.²⁴ The wet nurses that Emperor Nasir al-Din Muhammad Humayun (r. 1530–40 and 1555–56) selected for his son (Akbar) were described as ‘blissful and spiritually moulded cherishes (qawabil-i-ruhani-qawalib)’.²⁵ Emperor Akbar, in turn, appointed a number of women of Chishtiyya Sufi lineage to nurse his sons Salim, Murad, and Danyal. ²⁶ A medieval Sufi text makes the connection even more explicit: ‘the infant[s] drinks the milk of the [Sufi] Path and of Truth from the wet nurses of sainthood (wilayat)’.²⁷ Mughal emperors Shihab al-Din Shah Jahan (r. 1628–1658) and Muhi al-Din Muhammad Aurangzeb (r. 1658–1707) had wet nurses who belonged to noble families known for their ‘virtue and piety’.²⁸ Apart from spiritual factors, physical attributes were another important part of selection. Nicolao Manucci, a Venetian adventurer who lived in India during Aurangzeb's reign, recounts that the emperor agonised over choosing the ‘right nurse’ to nurture the ‘body and spirit’ of the prince. He adds:

The first [anxiety] of a king or a prince of this world who has sons ought to be to seek out a nurse of good constitution without disease, who, giving the child to suck, should strengthen its feeble limbs. The child, sharing with her milk its nurse's health, will acquire, following the royal expectations, the vigour necessary for a good ruler of the people … as [bodily existence] of the child depends upon the milk … for want of such spiritual milk the son will not retain the paternal qualities, nor be so successful as hoped for by his people.²⁹

Throughout Mughal history, there endured an underlying anxiety about how the milk of a wet nurse affected the prince she was feeding. The spiritual and physical traits of the wet nurse were founding qualities not only for fostering a long-lasting, affectionate bond between nurse and nurseling, but also for securing the ‘loyalty and service of her family and clan [khandan] to the dynasty’.³⁰ Imperial wet nurses were, therefore, very often the wives of the highest-ranking court officials. The high status of such families prompts one to argue that, perhaps, their political connections were of greater consequence to the emperor than the personal disposition of the wet nurses that was ostensibly projected as the most relevant factor in their selection. Nevertheless, the direct impact of these nurses on the life of a young prince should not be underestimated. Women who suckled royal princes were highly regarded among the Mughal elite. Great honour was conferred upon her husband and many privileges upon her own baby, who became a ‘milk brother or sister (kukeh)’ raised alongside royal children.³¹

Getting an heir

Royal wives in the polygamous imperial household usually brought with them valuable assets or alliances to the emperor. But this did not relieve them of the responsibility to produce heirs, especially males, to perpetuate the dynasty.³² With infant mortality so high that barely half of all infants born alive survived into adulthood, this was not an easy task. The chances of success improved if the wives became pregnant more often. So it was important that they became fertile again as soon as possible after giving birth.³³A good way to ensure this was for someone else to breastfeed their infants. As a result, they did not experience the contraceptive effects of lactation (which were well known) and instead entered a rapid cycle of pregnancy, birth, and new pregnancy.³⁴ Mughal histories are replete with such examples. For instance, Mumtaz Mahal bore Emperor Shah Jahan all the children he needed: 14 in all, eight sons and six daughters, in 19 years of marriage (1612–1633). Only six of them—four sons and two daughters—survived to adulthood. In the span of eight years between 1613 and 1620, she bore a child every year. We learn that Bhagwan Das's daughter bore Emperor Nur al-Din Jahangir (r. 1605–1627) three children―Sultan Nisa Begum, Sultan Khirad, and Sultan Khusrau―between 1585 and 1587.³⁵

Moreover, there was a widespread belief that sexual intercourse during lactation would negatively affect the breast milk and, in turn, the infant itself.³⁶ Wet nurses were, therefore, warned to refrain from sexual intercourse for the entire duration of breastfeeding.³⁷ Wet nurses found indulging in sexual activity were obliged to stop breastfeeding the royal child immediately. In Jami al-Tawarikh, the Persian chronicler Rashid al-Din (d. 1317) recounts an incident from the Mongol prince Ghazan's childhood (r. 1295–1304):

When his wet-nurse, Moghalchin [Budhist origin], wife of Isheng [the Khitan], had intercourse with her husband [called nazdiki by Rashid al-Din, literally ‘getting close’], the milk of the nurse provoked diarrhea in the child, for that reason [she was dropped] and, it was decided that a new nurse of the Buddhist Suldus people, who already had a son called Hasan, would suckle Ghazan.³⁸

Apart from engaging in sex during lactation being declared a taboo, it was also believed that sexual intercourse caused menstruation and hence pregnancy. Menstruating and pregnant nurses were considered dangerous for the infants they suckled (Ar. al-ghayla, ‘little murder’).³⁹ Medical authorities such as Galen, Soranus, and Avicenna held that ‘a gestating foetus would ‘draw off’ the best available food supply, thus leaving the nursling with denatured milk’.⁴⁰ Royalty was, nevertheless, at ease from the aforesaid ‘dangers’, when a wet nurse was engaged.

Fostering ties, fostering fidelity

Notwithstanding the strictly defined qualities that steered the search for wet nurses, it appears that equal care was invested in finding them within influential families whose loyalty could be secured for the emperor. Clearly, the nurses who nurtured the royal princes were chosen from the influential clans of the Mughal empire. Their family members were high-ranking imperial officials or had on occasion displayed fidelity and obedience towards the emperor. Shams al-Din Muhammad Ghaznawi, son of Mir Yar Muhammad Ghaznawi, a ‘spiritually-minded householder’ (kadkhuda-i-darvish-manish),⁴¹ who had saved Humayun from drowning in the river Ganges after the defeat at Kannauj (in 1540)⁴² became a trusted courtier. He was further honoured when his ‘high-souled, chaste-natured’ wife was appointed as wet nurse to the emperor's son―the future emperor Akbar—and granted the elevated title of Jiji Anakeh.⁴³ She was chosen to be ‘principle nurse’, and Abu'l Fazl writes that she was ‘honored to suckle the prince first’ after Hamida Banu Begam (Akbar's mother).⁴⁴ However, ‘since the period of pregnancy of this purely framed nurse was not yet fulfilled’, she could not thus suckle at first. Hamida Banu therefore asked Daya Bhawal (‘respectable of chastity’) who was the next in line to suckle the infant Akbar on the day of his birth; a special servant (khidmatgar-i khas) of Humayun, she was ‘distinguished for chastity and purity’.⁴⁵ The wives of several other high-ranking nobles were also similarly honoured.

An entire section in the Akbarnamah is devoted to the ‘Honoured Names of the Blissful Nurses and Spiritual-Moulded Cherishes (qawabil-i-ruhani-qawalib) of his Majesty, the King of King’ and provides us with considerable information on the subject.⁴⁶ The passage quoted below illustrates that serving as the wet nurse of the emperor's son was considered a great honour. The paragraph is also transcribed in elegant nastaliq script (in Persian) on the miniature ‘The Infant Akbar Placed in the Care of his Nurses by his Mother Maryam Makani’.⁴⁷ Abul Fazl writes thus about Akbar's birth:⁴⁸

It appears that first of all, he accepted the milk of his royal mother. Then Fakhr al-Nisa, wife [mother] of Nadim Kukeh⁴⁹ was honoured by the charge,⁵⁰ then Bhawal Anakeh, then the wife of Khwajah Ghazi,⁵¹ then Hakima. After these, the chaste Jiji Anakeh, in accordance with her wish, obtained external and internal felicity. After her, Kuki Anakeh, wife of Togh Begi⁵² and after her, Bibi Rupa had their turn of this auspicious service. Then Khaldar [the mole-marked] Anakeh, mother of Sa'adat Yar Kukeh and [Hajji Kukeh],⁵³ was selected for this great boon. And at last, that chaste matron, Pija Jan Anakeh,⁵⁴ mother of [Saif Khan and] Zain Khan Kukeh, acquired a stock of everlasting greatness by obtaining her wish for this great blessing.

For his part, Emperor Akbar appointed a daughter and a daughter-in-law of Shaikh Salim, a prominent member of the renowned pan-Indian Chishtiyya Sufi order, to wet nurse his eldest son, Salim (the future emperor Jahangir) and established a bond with the Chishti lineage. Salim grew up among the Shaikh's descendants and some of them were thus his milk brothers (kukeh).⁵⁵ Other women from the Shaikh's family also served as wet nurses to Akbar's two younger sons, Murad (d. 1598) and Danyal (d. 1604). These appointments reinforced the emperor's personal and spiritual association with the mystical Chishtiyya's Sufi order.⁵⁶ The wet nurses of emperors Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb, too, were from leading noble families.⁵⁷

There were also, however, some wet nurses whose families did not possess great political influence based on powerful clan connections. Consequently, they depended entirely on their close links with their royal charges which, in turn, made them ardent supporters and exceptionally reliable political allies of the prince who grew up among them. To some extent (but not completely), therefore, a kind of patron–client network arose through which the patron (the prince) would give his client privileged treatment (offices and honours) and would in return expect to receive benefits (loyalty and support). On the other hand, by ascribing transmittable attributes to the milk of a wet nurse, a symbolic but powerful bond was created between the child and the wet nurse. The physical and spiritual nourishment that this represented, particularly for princes who became rulers, should not be underrated. It made the office of wet nurse one of great prestige and influence. In brief, the relationship itself, along with its socio-political consequences was immensely complex. It incorporated multiple factors: the pre-modern understanding of human physiology, convictions of faith, commitments of fealty to the ruler, and the politico-military reality of clan organisation.

Forms and functions

When a woman from the royal family was six or seven months into her pregnancy, several expectant women residing in the imperial household were chosen as wet nurses in accordance with Mongol tradition.⁵⁸ On the day of Akbar's birth, as soon as the baby had been cleaned and wrapped in ‘swaddling bands’, followed by the call to prayer, the adhan whispered in the child's right ear, and the iqamah in the left, then the tahnik (a pre-lacteal feed) was performed by wet nurses, signifying happiness and prosperity.⁵⁹ Thereafter, the baby Akbar was formally handed over to the chosen wet nurses. This is contrary to Abu'l Fazl's description of Akbar accepting ‘the milk of his royal mother’ before being given over to the wet nurse. The nutritional and immunogenic qualities of maternal colostrum produced immediately after birth was not understood throughout most of the medieval period. On the contrary, it was considered ‘bad’ milk of dubious colour, possessing evil properties fatal to infants. Abu'l Fazl's account apparently draws upon his imagination of the event.⁶⁰

No clear rules existed regarding the number of wet nurses that were to be appointed for each child, or the prerogatives they were to enjoy. Nevertheless, the custom of choosing several wet nurses simultaneously was common, at least for princes. This anticipated the possibility of someone's pregnancy not ‘maturing’ in time for the prince's birth, as in the case of Jiji Anakeh. Another might not have had sufficient milk, or it may have been judged unfit, while others might have been called away to ‘care for their own children’.⁶¹ Equally, if not more, important was the fact that the occasion opened possibilities of harnessing the loyalty and resources of powerful families to serve the royal family. The Persian text in the miniature entitled ‘The Infant Akbar …’ of the Akbarnamah confirms the names of ten wet nurses of the infant Akbar. But it further adds that: ‘many other fortunate cupolas of chastity were exalted by the excellence of this service’.⁶² It appears likely that initially an infant was suckled by a number of wet nurses. After a while, only a few of them would be retained to continue nursing until the child was weaned, probably between two and three years.⁶³

In his autobiography, Jahangirnama, Jahangir writes pointedly that the venerable Shaikh Salim Chishti's (d. 1572) daughter-in-law, mother of infant Shaikh Bayazid, was the ‘first person who gave me milk, but not for more than a day’.⁶⁴ After that he was (like his father Akbar) suckled by a number of wet nurses. Among them was the celebrated daughter of Shaikh Salim (and mother of Qutb al-Din) who probably suckled him until he was weaned.⁶⁵ Indeed, there were several distinguished women who would put the infant symbolically or actually to the breast for a short time. In doing so, they created a web of relationships that was meant to be as significant and long-lasting as that based on blood.⁶⁶ Among the Mughals, as in some other cultures, suckling at the same breast, either actually or symbolically, established consanguineal relationships: a ‘milk kinship’ (sometimes referred to as foster kinship) between children and wet nurses or their husbands.⁶⁷ Having milk siblings expanded one's kinship network and provided more people one could call on for support at critical times. While a prince reached maturity, several of his foster mothers, foster fathers, and foster brothers formed a strong protective circle around him. Upon his assuming the throne, this group could become the most influential clique at the court where the dynamics of kinship moved the levers of power. Many important families were happy to provide wet nurses to the royal family so as to make political capital from the strong emotional bond thus forged between the wet nurses and the princes. Others sought power by trying to marry their daughters into the imperial family.

The bond between co-nursers—that is, between the suckled son of the wet nurse and her princely ward—was believed to be stronger than that between the kukehltash or kukeh (milk brothers and sisters) in general.⁶⁸ In fact, it often proved stronger than the contentious relationship between princes of the blood. As only the sons of the emperor could legitimately hope to ascend the throne, disputes among biological siblings were common and the wars of succession could be both fierce and bloody.⁶⁹ All princes had an equal claim and the heir was one who asserted his supremacy: by eliminating all opposition and—if necessary—all opponents. Gulbadan Begam in Humayunnama comments that royal siblings were ‘not brothers’ but rather strangers and mortal ‘enemies’.⁷⁰ On the other hand, there are examples of kukeh attached to each other, for all intents and purposes, as true brothers with steady fidelity. Emperor Akbar refused to punish the treacherous behaviour of his kukeh, Mirza Aziz.⁷¹ Emperor Jahangir considered his kukeh, Qutb al-Din Khan, ‘really worthy’ and to be relied upon.⁷² Emperor Aurangzeb's youngest son, Kam Bakhsh, was prepared to offer his life for the sake of his kukeh, whom the emperor wanted to punish for killing a royal eunuch.⁷³ Rushen Kukeh is noted in chronicles beseeching emperor Humayun's help in the name of his mother Bibi Fatima ‘whose milk the emperor had suckled’.⁷⁴

Milk kinship, along with its methods of creating and limiting ties, can thus be viewed as a strategy to manage social relations. Within the Mughal royal family, at least, such relationships seem to have had greater emotional resonance than those of blood. At another level, they had also served to strengthen the familial bond between imperial half-siblings. In the case of female babies of the Mughal family, it was a custom to squeeze the nipples of a suckling child so that a small ‘milk drop’ emerged—believed to ensure the future well-being of the breast—and the brother of the infant would be asked to suckle the ‘milk drop’. Emperor Jahangir described his closeness to his younger half-sister Shakar al-Nisa Begam (d. 1653) thus:

From her infancy and childhood until now she has been constant in her love for me. Rarely does such affection exist between brother and sister. The first time, as is customary, they squeezed my sister's breast and a drop of milk came out. His Majesty my exalted father said to me, ‘Baba, drink this milk so that in reality this sister of yours may be like a mother to you’. The omniscient knows that from the day I drank that drop of milk I have felt within myself, along with sisterly and daughterly affection, that type of love that children have for mothers.⁷⁵

The many forms that connections based on breast milk displayed and the purposes to which they were put are interesting.⁷⁶ Social relations were altered on account of the connection between a mother's blood and milk, and the notion that milk flowed from a woman because her husband's semen circulated in her body. A man's wet nurses, his milk sisters, as well as some other groups, became part of his maharim: those with whom marriage was forbidden because of close kinship.

‘Milk relationship’ among the Mughals apparently predated their contact with Islam. For centuries it was a distinctive form of fostering allegiance among community members throughout Eurasia, Africa, and Oceania. Moreover, the terms anakeh (milk mother), atakeh (milk father), and kukeh (milk brother and sister) were in use among the nomadic tribes to whom the Mughals linked their ancestry.⁷⁷ The free admittance of the kukeh to the harem—which was otherwise permitted only to near kinsmen—reveals the distinctive nature and the acceptance of milk kinship. The author of Tarikh-i-Rashidi mentions how milk relatives of chieftains used their proximity to the chiefs to increase their own political and social prominence.⁷⁸

As in the case of the Abkhaz of pre-modern Eurasia studied by Peter Parkes,⁷⁹ it was possible for adults in Mughal India to establish ‘milk kinship’ through ‘symbolic suckling’ at the breast. The relationships thus formed involved identical moral obligations. Nicolao Manucci, who was for some time in the entourage of Dara Shikoh, gives an account of ‘symbolic suckling’ between adults. Manucci described how Aurangzeb's brother, Dara Shikoh, compelled Raja Rajrup of Nurpur (now in Himachal Pradesh) to fight on his side against Aurangzeb by making the Rajput raja his son:

To gain him more securely to his side, he [Dara Shikoh] allowed his wife [Nadira Begam] to send for the Raja to her harem … She addressed him as her son, and said she looked on him as in the place of her son, Sulaiman Shikoh … She offered him water to drink with which she had just washed her breasts, not having milk in them, as a confirmation of her words. He drank with the greatest acceptance and swore he would be ever true, and never fail in the duties of a son.⁸⁰

Moral obligations were sanctified in this ritual idiom of sacred breast milk by which oaths of loyalty were sworn. This exploited the parallels between blood and milk, thereby creating a fictive kinship that substituted for one based on descent.

Honour and preferment

It is apparent that the wet nurse and her family held a position of considerable honour in the Mughal imperial household. However, they came to enjoy an even higher status if the prince they had nursed ascended the throne. Abu'l Fazl, in his own elegant style, states: ‘… anakeh and her khandan would become famous throughout the seven climes’.⁸¹ The ritual observance of filial piety towards them by the emperor further confirmed their elevated position. The wet nurse, particularly, was granted numerous favours while she was alive. In death, she was mourned by the highest in the land, accorded a grand funeral, and buried in a tomb fit for the royalty.

The family of Shams al-Din Muhammad, known as the atakeh-khail or foster-father clan (in Mughal history), was an example of such power and influence during the reign of Akbar and in the early years of Jahangir's rule. Shams al-Din's wife, Jiji Anakeh, had been Akbar's principal wet nurse. Her son Mirza Aziz was, therefore, a milk brother (kukeh) of the emperor, and became an eminent amir of the imperial court. After Akbar ascended the throne, Shams al-Din and his sons and kinsmen all occupied high positions.⁸² In the words of Jahangir: ‘Emperor Akbar raised atakeh's family from the dust of the roads to such wealth and dignity as to make them the envy of their peers.’⁸³ Shams al-Din held important positions in the court, including that of wakil (adviser or minister). After the death of Shams al-Din, Emperor Akbar not only reiterated his milk relationship with Khan-i Azam Mirza Aziz Kukeh (d. 1624) by making him ‘one of the greatest amirs’, he also ‘tolerated the most astonishing pettiness from him’.⁸⁴ Akbar, while ignoring the treasonous behaviour of Mirza Aziz Kukeh, commented, ‘between me and Aziz there is a stream of milk (juh-ishir) which I cannot cross’.⁸⁵ For much of the reign, Mirza Aziz Kukeh held important positions.⁸⁶ During its last ten years he was appointed wakil, the highest-ranking minister, with a mansab of 7,000 dhat and 6,000 suwar.⁸⁷ In Akbar's time, this was a mansab rank that only members of the royalty were granted.⁸⁸

Members of the atakeh-khail continued to receive much affection and substantial favours in various ways.⁸⁹ While touring the province of Panjab in 1571, Akbar honoured Mirza Aziz Kukeh by residing at his mansion (in Dipalpur).⁹⁰ When the latter's sister Maha Banu breathed her last in 1599, the emperor was residing in the Mirza's house and personally ‘soothed’ him and his mother, Jiji Anakeh.⁹¹ One of the Mirza Aziz Kukeh's daughters was married to Akbar's fourth son Murad and another to Khusrau, the eldest son of Jahangir. Later, Emperor Jahangir, too, treated Mirza Aziz kind-heartedly. The Mirza was imprisoned several times by Jahangir for outright treachery, but was always forgiven because, as Jahangir writes, ‘his mother had given her milk to my father’.⁹² Emperor Akbar had great affection for his anakeh and mourned her death so deeply (in 1600) that he ‘shaved off his head, beard and moustaches’ ⁹³ as part of the ritual of mourning (as he did when his mother died in 1604). He personally carried the bier of his anakeh (for a short distance) to her burial.⁹⁴ Like the queen mothers, wet nurses were laid to rest in convoluted imperial tombs after being honoured with imperial funerals. As a baby, Akbar grew so attached to Jiji Anakeh that the other nurses accused her of practising witchcraft to prevent him from accepting milk from anyone else.⁹⁵

Emperor Akbar's atakeh or foster father, Shams al-Din, who served Akbar until his last breath, was brutally murdered by Adham Khan, the younger son of Maham Anakeh who was fiercely jealous of Sham al-Din's position and power, and two accomplices, Khusham Uzbeg and Khuda Bardi, on 16 May 1562. At the sight of his murdered atakeh, Akbar was roused to extreme anger and ordered Adham Khan's execution then and there.⁹⁶ Akbar deeply mourned his atakeh's loss and ‘… offered condolence to his sons and brothers, and healed the wounded hearts of the entire tribe by favouring and promoting the members of that loyal clan’. ⁹⁷ The emperor ordered Atakeh Khan's tomb to be built next to that of Nizam al-Din Awliya's dargah―one of the most sacred spots in Delhi—in the immediate vicinity of Humayun's tomb.⁹⁸

The family of Akbar's other wet nurses, too, benefitted from their services. Zain Khan (d. 1601) had gained recognition through his valour in battle and was ‘distinguished for fidelity and intelligence’. But it is equally likely that he was ‘the object of the favour of Shahinshah’ and thereby became ‘one of the great amirs’ in the imperial household because of his milk ties to the emperor. Zain Khan's mother, Pija-Jan had ‘actually’ suckled the baby Akbar.⁹⁹ According to Shaikh Farid Bhakkari, a near-contemporary chronicler, ‘his intimacy to His Majesty was well-known to the people of the world’.¹⁰⁰ He proved an influential force in Akbar's court, and the many trips that the emperor made to Zain Khan's house further prove the latter's prominence.¹⁰¹ On his death in 1601, the emperor personally visited his sister's house to console her.¹⁰² Later, when anakeh Pija-Jan passed away in 1603, the emperor visited her house and ‘consoled the survivors’.¹⁰³

The children of another anakeh of Akbar's—namely, Khaldar—rose to the highest echelons of the nobility on account of this special relationship. Her son Sa'adat Yar Kukeh was one of the persons who escorted a retinue of royal women for an official hajj to Mecca.¹⁰⁴ Khaldar's daughter, Hajji Kukeh, was elevated to the much respected position of sadr-i anas: chief of the administration and organisation of the Mughal harem.¹⁰⁵ The post was usually assigned to influential women of the empire.¹⁰⁶ Emperor Jahangir granted her the prerogative to recommend deserving women for the award of madad-i-maash, which was a grant of revenue free land for their livelihood.¹⁰⁷ When Sa'adat Kukeh died, Akbar went to his house to express his grief. He condoled with Sa'adat Kukeh's sister, Hajji Kukeh, and also ‘showed suitable kindness to his children’.¹⁰⁸ There is adequate evidence to show that even during the succeeding reigns, ‘milk families’ were well patronised and regularly promoted to leading positions.

Prince Salim ascended the throne, with the title of Jahangir, after his father Akbar's death in 1605. His wet nurses and their families became his most loyal and closest supporters. It was especially the family of Shaikh Salim—from whom Jahangir got his personal name Salim—who gained the most in terms of privileges and positions. Jahangir was very close to his kukeh Qutb al-Din Khan (Shaikh Khubu), whose mother (Shaikh Salim Chisti's daughter) had been his wet nurse. Jahangir and Qutb al-Din grew up together as milk brothers.¹⁰⁹ The news of Qutb al-Din's murder in 1608 affected Jahangir immeasurably. He writes touchingly in his memoirs: ‘What can I write of this unpleasantness? How grieved and troubled I became! Qutb al-Din was to me in the place of a dear son, a kind brother, and a congenial friend.’¹¹⁰ Qutb al-Din’s mother, a dear anakeh to Jahangir, died in 1607; the emperor writes fondly of her in his autobiography:

She had given me her milk and was as a mother to me or even kinder than my own kind mother, and in whose lap I had been brought up from infancy. I placed the feet of her corpse on my shoulders and carried her part of the way [to her grave]. Through extreme grief and sorrow I had no inclination for some days to eat, and I did not change my clothes.¹¹¹

Murad Khan—whose wife Zeb-un Nisa (Dai Anakeh, d. 1671) served as wet nurse to Emperor Shah Jahan—saw his career and those of his kinsmen rise sharply when Shah Jahan ascended the throne. Murad Khan had earlier occupied an official position under Jahangir (adawalati or magistrate of Bikaner). Shah Jahan was deeply attached to his wet nurse, Dai, who was like a mother to him. The emperor granted her the great honour of allowing her to build a mosque in 1635. It is named after her as Dai Anakeh Masjid and is situated near the railway station in Lahore (Pakistan).¹¹² Shah Jahan doted on his kukeh, Dai Anakeh's son Muhammad Rashid Khan, who became his most trusted associate at court. He later died fighting in the service of Shah Jahan's eldest son Dara Shikoh.

Mir Malik Husain, the husband of Aurangzeb's wet nurse, who was one of Aurangzeb's adherents in the 1656–1659 war of succession, became a pre-eminent noble of the empire during the latter's reign.¹¹³ He was a childhood ‘companion and close associate’ of Emperor Aurangzeb who held him in ‘great esteem and affection’.¹¹⁴ Mir Malik Husain was honoured with the title khan-i-jahan bahadur kukeltash in 1673, and zafarjang in 1675 (with a mansab of 7,000 dhat and 6,000 suwar and a present of one kror of dams). Although frequently differing with Aurangzeb on policy issues, he remained nonetheless in imperial favour. In November 1697, after learning of the severity of his illness, Emperor Aurangzeb visited the dying kukeh at his mansion and remarked movingly on his close ties with him.¹¹⁵ He died on 23 November 1697 and his tomb is in Lahore. Mir Malik Husain's sons—who had developed special bonds with the emperor as his childhood playmates—had shared the same milk and were raised to ‘suitable ranks’ by Emperor Aurangzeb.¹¹⁶

Conclusion

Wet nursing was the usual method of feeding new-born infants among the Mughal royalty. A wet nurse not only suckled and cared for the royal baby, she was also expected to serve the prince she nursed for the rest of her life. The practice fostered an enduring emotional bond between the child and his wet nurse, which was then extended to the entire family of the wet nurse. These women often belonged to leading families of the empire. Their appointment as wet nurses was probably intended to foster close links between the imperial family and the leading lineages. The prevailing wisdom of the time claimed that the wet nurse's physical and emotional attributes passed through her milk to the child. Wet nurses were, therefore, considered crucial for the moral and physical development of royal infants. Thus, a chaste wife of a noble man was considered the ideal choice. The family background of the husband—whose ‘seed’ was thought to affect the wet nurse's milk—was an important consideration, but the mother's qualities mattered more. The practice of wet nurses suckling and bringing up the children increased the fertile period of the royal wives. Their continued reproductive fertility was vital for the empire's survival, particularly in light of the high mortality rate of babies during that period. It was understood that breastfeeding delayed ovulation and could thus also delay conception. Furthermore, cultural norms made sexual intercourse during lactation a taboo.

To be appointed as the wet nurse of the emperor's children was not simply a great honour, it was also a position of great power. Indeed, the post of anakeh at the Mughal court was the highest status that a non-royal woman could hope to attain. In addition to the abundant favours it brought, the position also conferred great honour on her husband (atakeh) and great privileges upon her own baby, who became a kukeh, raised alongside the royal children within the palace precincts. The nurse and her family became trusted associates and ardent supporters of the prince: their fortunes were inextricably tied to his. If the prince they raised grew up to become emperor, the husband of the wet nurse, their sons, and clan relatives (kukeltash) became his most faithful allies: his political eyes, ears, and sword arm. They rose fast on the Mughal political stage and wielded enormous power and influence. When Akbar ascended the throne, the position of the atakeh-khail was suddenly elevated on account of its wet nurse relationship. For much of Akbar's reign the atakeh-khail was the most distinct and influential politico-military assemblage.

Given the privileges it brought, there was intense competition to be selected as the wet nurse of a royal baby. The wet nurses sought, further, to empower and improve the careers of their kin. Clearly, the influence they exercised extended far beyond the harem walls.

It was probably Akbar who started the practice of using wet nursing in India as a vehicle to forge ties with prominent families for political ends. This helped to consolidate the power of the dynasty. Wet nurses were wives of high-ranking and loyal officials, and their bond with the royal family reinforced the position of the sovereign. Amid the silent intrigue and ruthless manoeuvring that prevailed in the palace, a prince's wet nurses and their families were the most intimate and reliable circle of confidantes with whom they shared a common destiny. Yet it must be noted that, despite the close ties of the Mughal princes with their wet nurses and the intense rivalry between siblings, their relationship with their own mothers remained reverential and affectionate.