Reading Group Questions from the paperback edition of Shadow Princess.
- In what way does Mumtaz Mahal’s death change the dynamics of the royal household and, ultimately, the future of the Empire? How does her passing affect Jahanara in particular?
- Before her death, Mumtaz Mahal noted that “there was already a slender rivalry” between her two eldest daughters, “so inconsequential now as to almost not to exist” (p. 3). How does this “slender rivalry” develop into a full-blown contentious relationship between the sisters? How much of their dislike for each other has to do with personality and how much with the environment in which they live?
- Why does the Emperor forbid Jahanara, and also Roshanara, for whom he has little affection, from marrying? Why does Jahanara never ask her father for permission to marry Najabat Khan?
- Roshanara is often spiteful toward Jahanara, starting rumors of incest between her sister and the Emperor and setting her sights on Najabat Khan. What does she hope to gain by doing these things? Is her behavior at all understandable? Why or why not?
- How is Jahanara both powerful and powerless? In what ways is she a “shadow princess,” as the novel’s title suggests?
- How is Jahanara influential in matters of state? In what instances are her opinions and insight most critical? Why does she staunchly support Dara as Shah Jahan’s successor and vehemently oppose Aurangzeb’s claim to the throne?
- Why does Jahanara give up her son, Antarah? Does she have any other choice? “In the end, it was Aurangzeb, with his rigid views on propriety and decency, who reached out a hand to his sister’s son, a boy she would never acknowledge in public” (p. 254). Why does Aurangzeb, and not Dara or one of Jahanara’s other brothers, reach out to Antarah?
- Indu Sundaresan reveals in the Afterword that after Shah Jahan’s death, Jahanara returns to court to be the head of Aurangzeb’s harem. Do you find it surprising that she would accept a positions in her brother’s household given her feelings for him? Why or why not?
- Have you read Indu Sundaresan’s novels The Twentieth Wife and The Feast of Roses? If so, how do they compare to Shadow Princess? If not, are you now interested in reading them?
