farman

In the early morning a missive had come to her from her Bapa, a gilded farman rolled and reposing on a bed of green silk.

Shadow Princess Indu Sundaresan 2010

Princess Jahanara Begam reached then for the farman and opened it.

Shadow Princess Indu Sundaresan 2010

In the handing over of the farman, Emperor Shah Jahan had made his oldest son very wealthy, almost on par with his oldest daughter.

Shadow Princess Indu Sundaresan 2010

Jahanara asked as she glanced at the imperial farman her father had brought to her for affixing the royal seal.

Shadow Princess Indu Sundaresan 2010

Shah Jahan then took a farman from a pocket of his brocade qaba and handed it to Dara.

Shadow Princess Indu Sundaresan 2010

In the undulating light of the diyas, that very night, Emperor Shah Jahan wrote out a farman —a royal edict—to Raja Jai Singh, ostensibly requesting the land and his mansion at Agra, in reality ordering him to hand them over.

Shadow Princess Indu Sundaresan 2010

She pressed the Uzuk on the farman and waited for the imprint to dry.

Shadow Princess Indu Sundaresan 2010

So a bailiff was posted at the mouth of the Pir Panjal pass, and every man entering the mountains to journey up into Srinagar had to have a special permission farman granted by the court.

Shadow Princess Indu Sundaresan 2010

He signed the farman, affixed the royal seal at the head of the orders, and sent the paper to his daughter Jahanara to read it over.

Shadow Princess Indu Sundaresan 2010

It was midafternoon, the air blighted of moisture; heat hazes wavered over the placid waters of the Yamuna, and Jai Singh sat under the shade of the tamarind at the very edge of his property, the farman on his lap.

Shadow Princess Indu Sundaresan 2010