Vishkanya - Jodha Akbar | Short Update

The Vish Kanya (विष कन्या; singular: Visha Kanya) (English: Poison girl) were young women reportedly used as assassins, often against powerful enemies, during the Mauryan Empire (321–185 BC). Their blood was purportedly poisonous to other humans, and was mentioned in the ancient Indian treatise on statecraft, Arthashastra, written by Chanakya, an adviser and a prime minister to the first Mauryan Emperor Chandragupta (c. 340–293 BC).

An interesting old track of Ekta Kapoor's show - Jodha Akbar, is going to complete 1 year. As many of you have asked regarding the same, i am posting some details regarding it.

It was shown that a Vishkanya (Poison-girl) came to Agra, with a purpose of assassinating Akbar. The present post is about that same old track of the show. In this regard, i know of 2 references, via my friends. I am mentioning them below.

As per translation, at present:

This was not confirmed, whether the wife of Akbar actually drank poison or not. 
Rest of the details are here :

"Sending Vishkanya was a joint conspiracy of Mahachuchak Begum(Mirza Hakim's mother) and Abu'l Maali ( Akbar's brother in law). The Vishkanya was sent by Abu'l Maali, from Kabul, after planning with Mirza Hakim's mother. (though, in the serial it was not shown that Mahachuchak Begum was also involved.!)

The same account also mentioned the next episode about an attack, after Vishkanya incident, which was quite perplexing. Akbar was attacked in Agra'a Palace only, by a person who acted to be a soldier. And, during a ' jashn/celebration ' attacked Akbar, but missed him. He ate poison and died. So, the actual person behind the attack was not identified, but he was suspected to be a Rajput who opposed Akbar's marriage with the princess of Amer. That time, Raja Bhagwan Das assured Akbar - that Rajputs would not attack from back, and also gave him his word that if it's proved that there was any Rajput behind this attack, then he(Bhagwan Das) will personally fight against them. Akbar believed Bhagwan Das, but launched an investigation further. End-result of the investigation was missing from the source."



References:

I. - A Persian source sans name. We tried getting the translation for this Persian source, but were not very successful, owing to the bad condition. This was supposedly a work of Mulla Abu'l Qadir Badayuni {a court historian of Akbar}.

II. - A Marathi source. This is more explicit. The name of this book is Samrat Akbar. Note that this book is in Marathi language.

For those who want to know, this book can be purchased and the links are here:
i.  http://www.sahyadribooks.org/books/SamratAkbar.aspx?bid=731
ii. http://indy.co.in/en/marathi/1643-samrat-akbar-.html

I don't know reading Marathi language. I have got this via a friend. But for those readers, who are staying near Raigad district in Maharashtra state of India. For them, here are some more details : This book is present in the Library of Bhau Saheb Nene College of Arts, Science and Commerce, District:Raigad, Pin - 402107, Maharashtra.

College Website: http://www.peneducationsociety.in/BNC.htm

Library account number of this book is > 16715     
Library title of this book is > Samrat Akbar
Library registered author of this book is > Godbole Ravindra
 
This modest college houses some rare books of Maratha-Mughal struggle. The number of books are less(under 15,000) but the quality is praiseworthy. For medieval history lovers, this college library is awesome.

We tried contacting Mr. Godbule in order to know more about his sources/references, but sadly, he passed away early this year. A celebrated personality in Maharashtra. A chemical engineer by profession , who worked in civil engineering field. And, finally returned to his early passion, i.e., history ; was an all rounder. He is a recipient of many state awards under the Government of Maharashtra and other organizations for his well written books.

His other works include accounts of the Vedas and of the Mahabharata. He has also written an excellent account of Aurangzeb in a separate book. This was a brief description of this "lesser known author on Internet", who was multi-talented and excelled at whatever he did. Works of regional authors, though less known, are extremely useful.


PS:
This is the same author on whose works were based the last 2 recent blog posts and discussions, on Aurangzeb.

Aurangzeb's Succession to Mughal Throne | An alternate Story
Aurangzeb - Personality Assessment

Article Category : Jodha Akbar.