the desert's rose

new place, new faces (part one) 🏜️🌹

note: I know it's not just me who has given a thought on why Hamida took a liking to Jodha even before meeting her. regardless of what the exact reason might have been, it is heartwarming to see that there were a few people in Agra who were ready to accept her and her religious beliefs without argument.

also, this was initially meant to be a one-shot of at least 1000 words but then, I decided to write more, but here we are. 

As the Malika-e-Azaam, Hamida Bano Begum had her duty in the Mughal Empire, making political decisions and granting amnesty to offenders.

When she wasn't performing her royal obligations, she was on pilgrimages to holy sites to seek the blessings of the saints over the empire and more so, her son, Jalaluddin Mohammad.

And when she wasn't on pilgrimage, she found herself in the hojra of her sister-in-law and friend, Gulbadan Begum, narrating her account to the storyteller for the Humayun Nama.

Gulbadan had started drafting the document a few years ago on Jalal's request with her collecting accounts from the ministers who had served in Humayun's court and gathering information from the royal library.

Upon her return from one of her pilgrimages, Hamida had made her way down to Gulbadan's chambers, accompanied by Jiji Anga to share her account.

This was one of the days until one of the eunuchs came in with an unexpected message - that of a wedding which took place in Sambhar between her son and a princess.

Jalal travelling to another kingdom to form political alliances via marriage was nothing new to Hamida, in fact, it was understandable why he'd do that without bringing an entire entourage of the royal family.

Him gaining a new bride without informing anyone back home, however, was what threw her off her feet. From what this eunuch passed on to her, not even Ruqaiya was aware.

Since Jalal always shared this kind of information with Ruqaiya, Hamida found it puzzling that he kept it secret from everyone in Agra, including his chief consort.

However, her initial surprise gave way to a wide smile upon hearing that her son's new bride was of Rajput upbringing - that and that she was the titled Registan ka Gulab.

"Subhanallah!" She raised her head up with her hands out in prayer. "Jalal has done well by marrying a Rajvanshi princess."

Hamida had her own reasons for finding joy in this discovery, one of them being that the Rajputs had extended a hand of hospitality to her while she was on the run. This was also at the time where she was heavily pregnant with Jalal after Sher Shah Suri had laid siege to the Mughal Empire.

She had been at her most vulnerable with her bandhi, Maham Anga, and her husband's chief advisor, Bairam Khan, as her only company.

While in Umerkot, Hamida had witnessed firsthand the generosity of people of a different religion and caste from hers and she had formed good relationships with the Rajputs of that kingdom.

While she eventually had to leave to keep her husband company in Persia, her gratitude towards the Hindus was one of the things that would always follow her till her dying breath.

In addition to that, words about the Registan ka Gulab spread so quickly with the townspeople singing the praises of a young woman in one of the towns she had visited during one of her pilgrimages.

The Registan ka Gulab, according to the citizens, was a woman blessed with pure beauty by the gods and just as beautiful as she was, she had a heart full of compassion towards people and animals.