Anarkali (lit. 'pomegranate blossom') is a legendary young woman said to be loved by the 16th-century Mughal Prince Salim, who later became Emperor Jahangir. According to some accounts, Anarkali was the nickname of the courtesan (tawaif) Mehr-un-Nisa, though scholars hold varying opinions.
According to speculative and fictional accounts, Anarkali had an illicit relationship with Salim, the son of Mughal Emperor Akbar, who had her executed by immurement. The character often appears in movies, books and historical fiction, most notably depicted in the 1960 Bollywood film Mughal-e-Azam in which she is portrayed by Madhubala.
Contents
Historicity and development
Anarkali was first mentioned in the journal of the English tourist and trader William Finch, who visited the Mughal Empire on 24 August 1608.
Western traveller accounts
The earliest known Western accounts of the alleged relationship between Salim and Anarkali were written by the English travellers William Finch and Edward Terry. Finch arrived in Lahore in February 1611, approximately eleven years after Anarkali's supposed death, while traveling on behalf of the East India Company. His account, written in the early seventeenth century, provides the following description:
... is a faire monument for Don Sha his mother, one of the Akbar his wives, with whom it is said Sha Selim had to do ( her name was Immaeque Kelle, or Pomgranate kernell); upon notice of which the King [Akbar] caused her to be inclosed quicke within a wall in his moholl, where she died, and the King [Jahangir], in token of his love commands a sumptuous tomb to be built of stone in the midst of four square garden richly walled, with a gate and divers roomes over it. The convexity of the tomb he hath willed to be wrought in workes of gold with a large faire jounter with roomes over—head... (sic) ~ William Finch.
Anarkali had a relationship with Prince Salim. Upon notice of the relationship, Akbar ordered her to be enclosed within a wall of his palace, where she died. Subsequently, Jahangir, as a token of his love, ordered a stone tomb to be built in the centre of a walled, four-square garden surrounded by a gate. As per the description given by Finch, Jahangir ordered the dome of the tomb to be wrought in works of gold.
Edward Terry, who visited a few years after William Finch, wrote that Akbar had threatened to disinherit Jahangir for his relationship with Anarkali, the emperor's most-beloved wife, but on his death-bed he repealed the threat.
The legends
According to Lisa Balabanlilar, the majority of legends present Anarkali as a part of Akbar's harem, as a spouse, a concubine or a servant. Thus, as per Muni Lal, Anarkali was a maidservant in the household of Salim's mother, Mariam-uz-Zamani. A common thread across the various accounts is that after realizing the likelihood of an amour between his son Salim and Anarkali, Akbar got incensed and ordered to ensepulchre Anarkali alive in a wall. This brutality enraged Salim and caused him to rebel against his father.
Scholarly claims and discourse
The gravestone in the tomb for Anarkali bears the inscription:
According to Andrew Topsfield, in his book Paintings from Mughal India, (p. 171 n. 18) Robert Skelton has identified these verses as being from the 13th-century poet Saʿdī.
According to Ebba Koch, Jahangir perceived himself as a Majnun prince king, who is almost mad in his love for his beloved. Ebba Koch says that he had his name inscribed as Majnun on the Anarkali's sarcophagus and had pictorials of himself painted as Majnun king; as late as 1618, he reared a pair of Sarus cranes, which are considered in Indian culture to be love birds named Layla and Majnun. Koch observed their breeding and wrote about them with keen interest. According to art historian Ram Nath the Salim Anarkali love legend can not be entirely fabricated myth since nobody would have had the courage to inscribe his name in public as a Majnun (passionate lover) without his approval. Nath says, Jahangir held his father Akbar in very high regard in his autobiography, still in 1599 he rebelled against Akbar and one most possible reason could be that his romance with Anarkali was frustrated by Akbar.
It was just a pomegranate garden.
Anarkali as a wife of Emperor Akbar who fell in love with his son Jahangir
Anarkali was a concubine of Emperor Akbar(and Prince Daniyal's mother) who fell in love with his son Jahangir.
Anarkali was one of the wife of Jahangir speculated either Sahib-i Jamal or Nur Jahan
According to Haroon Khalid, irrespective of incestuous relationship in popular imagination, it is very unlikely that an emperor's concubine would have fallen in love with his rebellious son. Khalid says that the pomegranate garden is mentioned by Dara Shikoh, the grandson of Jahangir, in his work "Sakinat al-Auliya" as a location where the saint Mian Mir used to sit. According to Subhash Parihar, Dara also mentions the existence of a tomb in the garden but does not give it a name. According to Muhammed Baqir, the author of "Lahore Past and Present", Anarkali was originally just the name of the garden in which the tomb of Sahib-i-Jamal, one of the wife of Jahangir, was situated. The tomb later came to be named as that of Anarkali.
Fictional portrayals
Anarkali has been the subject of a number of Indian, Bangladeshi and Pakistani books, plays and films. The earliest, most-celebrated historical play about her, Anarkali, was written by Imtiaz Ali Taj in Urdu and performed in 1922. The play was made into a film Loves of a Mughal Prince, which was released in India in 1928 and stars Taj as Akbar. Another Indian silent film about the tawaif, Anarkali, was released in 1928 by R.S. Choudhury, who remade it in Hindi with the same title in 1935. Bina Rai portrayed Anarkali in Anarkali, a 1953 Indian film. In 1955, Akkineni Nageswara Rao and Anjali Devi starred in Anarkali. Kunchacko directed Anarkali, an Indian Tamil-language film, in 1966.
In 1960, K. Asif's landmark film Mughal-e-Azam was released in India with Madhubala in the role of Anarkali and Dilip Kumar as Prince Salim. According to Katherine Butler Schofield, while as per rumor peddled by European travelers, the emperor Akbar ensepulchred Anarkali alive, the movie Mughal-e-Azam gives the historical legend a twist wherein Akbar himself lets Anarkali run away clandestinely. Schofield says in this case film producer seemingly twists the plot finding it difficult to reconcile an idealized national hero of modern times had been legendarily cruel enough to entomb a woman alive. In 1979, Telugu superstar N. T. Rama Rao directed and acted in the film Akbar Salim Anarkali, featuring himself as Akbar, Nandamuri Balakrishna as Salim and Deepa as Anarkali.
In Pakistan, Anarkali was released in 1958 with Noor Jehan in the titular role, based on the Imtiaz Ali Taj play/script as adapted by Qamar Ajnalvi for Anwar Kamal Pasha's direction. Iman Ali portrayed Anarkali in Shoaib Mansoor's short music video series on the theme Ishq (transl. love) in 2003.
In the 2013 Ekta Kapoor's television series Jodha Akbar, she was portrayed by Heena Parmar while Saniya Touqeer played young Anarkali. A daily soap titled "Dastan-e-Mohabbat...Salim Anarkali" in which Prince Salim is played by Shaheer Sheikh and his beloved Anarkali by Sonarika Bhadoria, was aired on Colors TV.
In 2022 TAJ, a webseries, started. Following the first season 'Anarkali' played a prominent role in the first half of the series.