baradari

The woman stood in one of the central arches of the baradari, her back to him.

Shadow Princess Indu Sundaresan 2010

Somewhere behind them in the baradari, her servants and ladies-in-waiting had set up a bed with silken coverings, stools for the midwives, who were gathered just beyond in the gardens, carpets on the ground for them to sit on.

Shadow Princess Indu Sundaresan 2010

When the imam continued on, Dara slipped off his thin sandals and climbed into the baradari to kneel alongside his cousin.

Shadow Princess Indu Sundaresan 2010

The light of the baradari glowed upon her skin and the dark frame of hair shimmering with pearls.

Shadow Princess Indu Sundaresan 2010

The imams in the baradari intoned verses from the Quran, their musical voices soothing.

Shadow Princess Indu Sundaresan 2010

She clasped her arms around a pillar in the baradari and rested her head against the soothing marble as a pain began again.

Shadow Princess Indu Sundaresan 2010

For a few steps away, under the stone awning of the baradari, lay his mother, a woman who in life had enchanted him, as she had so many others, a woman who in death he had not yet had the time to mourn.

Shadow Princess Indu Sundaresan 2010

And unlike that day in June, every member of the royal family, including Emperor Shah Jahan, was assembled in the baradari.

Shadow Princess Indu Sundaresan 2010

An unhurried breeze dissolved his shadow, cast large upon the walls of the baradari, and cooled the heat on his face.

Shadow Princess Indu Sundaresan 2010

The flight of the flamingos had stirred a breeze over the shimmering water, and it came spiraling around the baradari, laying its fingers along her flushed skin.

Shadow Princess Indu Sundaresan 2010