Maharanis and enigmatic Queens
While it’s interesting that after logging into this account after a while, my most popular story thus far on this site is on correctly identifying ‘my boifrend’s character’, lel
I have been contemplating the concept of Maharani’s and enigmatic queens in and around Asia, with historic insights gathered from several chapters of some really exciting books that I wish to elaborate on.
Ruby Lal who is a professor and scholar of this sort of material, has done great justice to the fundamentally revolutionary thoughts and actions of historic female leaders who were so far ahead of their time that we are still in awe of them, in retrospect. Nevertheless, the impact of these queens during their time was strongly acknowledged and celebrated back then in real-time too, as they literally shaped history, alongside their strong and willful male counterparts.
Ruby Lal et al. have masterfully translated some of these historical accounts, specifically targeting modern, multilingual audiences, for which I am very grateful for, since the Sanskrit text would’ve otherwise remained gathering dust in the public archives until someone arrived to circulate them across the seas.
These powerful historical accounts of the Queens of Indian origin, Asian heritage, Kuveni from Sri Lanka and other historical Sri Lankan queens (of whom I will elaborate on Medium, which by the way is well-suited for this sort of aesthetic), and of the Empress Nur Jahan, whom I’ve fondly tweeted about quite often on um, err, Twitter, mainly since 2020 when I read this beautiful book — the Empress, have sparked a light of understanding of how the female intention and intuition to persevere and innately love and protect one’s very own nature, aptly translates to fierce leadership to protect one’s own sovereignty and land. Empress Nur Jahan was in fact declared the light of the world by her husband Emperor Jahangir, very poetic to be honest, whilst romanticizing history.
This isn’t a comparison between male and female leadership styles (eek), this is simply forming a parallel of female leaders from land to land, who are revered in time, in the same light of Cleopatra, Hatsheput and Nefertiti. This is a new found understanding and appreciation of women, who throughout history, in contrast — and regardless of the narrative at large at present, had in alignment to their love and passion of life, forged ahead to form new kingdoms, ambitiously standing as equals with men of their time, drawing parallels to Gods and Goddesses, with mutual love and respect between the forces of Yin Yang to bless this Earth.