Feast Of Roses

The story of power behind the veil

The love story of Emperor Jahangir and Mehrunnisa, begun in The Twentieth Wife, continues in The Feast of Roses.

Mehrunnisa, the first woman Jahangir marries for love, is now Empress Nur Jahan. He loves her so deeply that he eventually transfers hispowers of sovereignty to her. But power and wealth do not come easily to Mehrunnisa—she has to fight for them. She has a formidable rival in theimperial harem, Empress Jagat Gosini, who has plotted against Mehrunnisa from early on. Beyond the harem walls, she battles powerful ministers who consider her a mere woman who cannot have a voice in the outside world.

Mehrunnisa fits none of the established norms of womanhood in seventeenth-century India. She combats all her rivals by forming a junta of sorts with three men she can rely on—her father, her brother and Jahangir’s son Prince Khurram. She demonstrates great strength of character and cunning to get what she wants, sometimes at the cost of personal sorrow when she almost loses her daughter’s love. But she never loses the love of the man who bestows this power upon her—Emperor Jahangir.

‘‘ ‘Sundaresan does a spirited job of breathing new life into an old tale…’ —The Statesman