Gulbadan Begum's Humayun Nama, Merits and Demerits

Babur's daughter Gulbadan Begum was born in 1523 AD. His mother was Dildar Begum. Hindal was Gulbadan's real brother. He was married to Khiz Khwaja Khan Mughal. For the purpose of collecting material for the Akbarnama, Akbar ordered many people to record the information they had about Babur and Humayun. Humayun Nama composed by Gulbadan Begum is also a result of this order. He has divided his work into two parts - the events of Babur in one and the history of Humayun in the other. Although Humayun Nama Originally written in Persian language but it contains a mixture of Turkish and Persian words. From this it is felt that the author was not only a scholar but was also passionate about reading and writing. Mrs. Beveridge has edited an edition of Gulbadan's original book and published its English translation with commentaries. This book Published by the Asiatic Society.

                Merits of Humayun Nama

Information about female life

Being a woman, its approach is different from other writers and it has described important things about Mughal women. This book is important for the information about the condition of the Begums of the Mughal period.

1.    Description of Woman in War and Love : According to Prof. Rizvi, "The specialty of its history is the vivid pictures of women's life and interesting description of their character. The leadership of the army by Haram Begum, wife of Suleiman Mirza Shahi, has been mentioned very clearly by Begum. Mirza Kamran 's stupidity and Gulbadan Begum has discussed in detail the ill-effects of declaring love to Haram Begum .

2.    Description of the grief and anguish of family disintegration : In addition, According to Prof. Rizvi, "The Begum has mentioned the mourning of Mirza Humayun and the mourning of the Begems and the burial of his corpse. The way Humayun objected to his murder when Mirza Kamran was taken prisoner, Gulbadan Begum was Mentioned in very touching words.

3.    Description of the woman's eternal desire for a son : She has written that how much Maham Begum was worried about not being Humayun 's son and how she tried to get him married to Mewa Jaan. Gulbadan Begum has openly described the preparations made by Maham Begum for the festival on the birth of a son by Mewa Jaan .

4.    Description on Women's rights on the choice of marriage : Gulbadan has written in detail about Humayun's visit to Sindh and his marriage to Hamida Begum, according to Gulbadan, Hamida Bano lasted for about 40 days. The urge to marry continued. Hamida said that she would like to marry whose person that their hand could reach his neck. In the end she agreed. 

Information about Mughal family

What was going on in the Mughal family at that time, how was the social and cultural life of the Amirs and Mirzas and how the Mirzas were working against each other.

1.    Description of Victory Celebration : Gulbadan has given a very interesting description of the way Babar donated money after the defeat of Ibrahim Lodi in Panipat. According to him, not only did he send gifts to his relatives but also to many mystics and saints .

2.    Description of Babur's affection for his relatives: Babar's description of Gulbadan also gives information about how he used to love his relatives. No natural wrath could come in the way of him meeting his relatives on a fixed day. Gulbadan has narrated many interesting incidents of his journey from Kabul to Agra, which shows how eagerly Babur was waiting for him. Babur's affection for Humayun is also written by Gulbadan in a very thrilling manner. Babur's affection for Mirza Hindal is also known from his writings.

3.    Description of the effort for unity in the family : When Humayun was defeated in the battle of Kannauj When he reached Agra, he has given an interesting description of the efforts made by Gulbadan Begum to reorganize the brothers and when all the brothers got organized for some time, Gulbadan described in detail the way Humayun celebrated the occasion. It is quite clear how much Humayun's affection for his mother, sisters and begams was and how much he was concerned for them.

4.    Description of marriages and celebrations : She has described the marriage of Hindal Mirza in more detail and has given not only the seat of various relatives but also the details of the house built for the marriage in very detail. She has described many food grains given in the feast and has left an interesting description of Inam-Ikram very cautiously. In this way Gulbadan Begum is well-versed in the description of festivals etc. She is also unique in describing the customs of the time. Apart from political events, it also describes contemporary customs, social beliefs, etc.

          Demerits of Humayun Nama

1.    Brief political description and faulty chronology : Gulbadan Begum has written that, "When Babur died, she was only a girl of 8 years old and therefore whatever she remembered, she wrote it by mixing the information given by others. That is why Babur’s description is very brief. Gulbadan Begum's chronology is flawed at some places and the subtle political description given by her is very sharp.

2.    Feminine disposition of less interest in war and violence : Gulbadan was a woman and naturally she had less interest in wars and war creations. That is why she has given very little description of wars in general. The details of Humayun 's right over Gaund are only in a few lines. She also gives very little information about the battle of Chausa . He wrote that , "The Mughal soldiers were unaware that Sher Khan reached and attacked. The army was defeated and most of the people and family were taken prisoner ". The incident of blinding Kamran is not found in his work. Perhaps the reason for this was that she did not want to write this heart-wrenching incident.

Conclusion

Gulbadan Begum was not a historian. Humayunnama is his memoir. She was related to the events described in it. Due to this, she gets affected by emotions somewhere and does not remain neutral. For example, she has some partiality towards her real brother Hindal, the events of her death are described in very touching words. Organizing celebrations by Maham Begum, celebration of tilism, celebration of Hindal Mirza's marriage, Maham's desire to give birth to Humayun's son and his efforts to marry Humayun with beautiful girls , mutual competition of Mughal women and many such incidents. Unreachable without description. Gulbadan Begum's chronology is flawed at some places and the subtle political description given by her is very sharp. Despite this shortcoming, the way she has depicted Humayun's personal qualities and his shortcomings is certainly interesting.