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Daughters of the Sun
- Empresses, Queens and Begums of the Mughal Empire
- Narrated by: Shernaz Patel
- Length: 13 hrs and 8 mins
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Publisher's Summary
In 1526, when the nomadic Timurid warrior-scholar Babur rode into Hindustan, his wives, sisters, daughters, aunts and distant female relatives travelled with him. These women would help establish a dynasty and empire that would rule India for the next 200 years and become a byword for opulence and grandeur.
By the second half of the 17th century, the Mughal empire was one of the largest and richest in the world. The Mughal women - unmarried daughters, eccentric sisters, fiery milk mothers and powerful wives - often worked behind the scenes and from within the zenana, but there were some notable exceptions among them who rode into battle with their men, built stunning monuments, engaged in diplomacy, traded with foreigners and minted coins in their own names. Others wrote biographies and patronised the arts.
In Daughters of the Sun, we meet remarkable characters like Khanzada Begum who, at 65, rode on horseback through 750 kilometres of icy passes and unforgiving terrain to parley on behalf of her nephew, Humayun; Gulbadan Begum, who gave us the only document written by a woman of the Mughal royal court, a rare glimpse into the harem, as well as a chronicle of the trials and tribulations of three emperors - Babur, Humayun and Akbar, her father, brother and nephew; Akbar’s milk mothers or foster mothers, Jiji Anaga and Maham Anaga, who shielded and guided the 13-year-old emperor until he came of age; Noor Jahan, ‘Light of the World’, a widow and mother who would become Jahangir’s last and favourite wife, acquiring an imperial legacy of her own; and the fabulously wealthy Begum Sahib (Princess of Princesses) Jahanara, Shah Jahan’s favourite child, owner of the most lucrative port in medieval India and patron of one of its finest cities, Shahjahanabad. The very first attempt to chronicle the women who played a vital role in building the Mughal empire, Daughters of the Sun is an illuminating and gripping history of a little known aspect of the most magnificent dynasty the world has ever known.
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What listeners say about Daughters of the Sun
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
- Sharmistha
- 07-18-22
Repetitive Content
The book Could have been better. Great account of the women. But content is repetitive.
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Performance
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Story
- Farha
- 06-22-22
Confusing book was not laid out well
This book was filled with history but not laid out very well where it spoke of each King and his reign at a time instead it kept going back and forth up and down very difficult to follow.
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Performance
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Story
- Sameer Siddhanti
- 07-25-21
A pleasure listening to every sentence
To begin with the difficult part, the names. There are so so many names. But the good thing is that you need not have to focus on all of them. Prominent names and characters stand out by the frequency of their use.
This book is so well written that each sentence seems to be crafted to an artistic perfection. The author Ira has weaved the history with a literary magnificence. The Narrator Shernaz's soothing yet regal voice makes the listening journey a pleasure at each step.
This was one of those books for me that I listened almost continously every day including the weekends. The history has been captured so well by Ira and Shernaz that it teleports one to the life and times of that bygone era of Hindustan.
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Story
- sajeev varki
- 12-06-20
fantastic book and well narrated
Really liked the intimate details of the first 6 mughals followed by an epilogue. recommend the book highly to those with an interest in mughal India.
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- Beena
- 11-09-20
Amazing
Loved it. Good story. Narration was very good. Wonderful experience. The story was detailed and easy to understand.
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- CMG WINTER HAVEN
- 09-07-19
delightful informative
unreal..the mughal women are heroes..narrator mis reads many words but lilting voice is enjoyable ..
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Story
In 1942, Sam Hawthorne, a young U.S. Army captain, arrives in a tiny, princely state in western India. He carries combat wounds and several secrets, one of which is the real reason behind his visit: to find his brother Mike, an idealistic American soldier who disappeared after joining the local struggle for independence from the British.
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A Nice Enough Romance ( and I HATE Romances)
- By Ellenaeddy on 06-15-14
By: Indu Sundaresan
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The Twentieth Wife
- By: Indu Sundaresan
- Narrated by: Sneha Mathan
- Length: 14 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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An enchanting historical epic of grand passion and adventure, this debut novel tells the captivating story of one of India's most controversial empresses, a woman whose brilliance and determination trumped myriad obstacles and whose love shaped the course of the Mughal Empire.
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Exquisite Exposition
- By Pamela on 05-10-07
By: Indu Sundaresan
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Rebel Queen
- A Novel
- By: Michelle Moran
- Narrated by: Sneha Mathan
- Length: 11 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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When the British Empire sets its sights on India in the mid-nineteenth century, it expects a quick and easy conquest. India is fractured and divided into kingdoms, each independent and wary of one another, seemingly no match for the might of the English. But when they arrive in the Kingdom of Jhansi, the British army is met with a surprising challenge.
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Very entertaining
- By Riverderby on 04-29-15
By: Michelle Moran
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Koh-i-Noor
- The History of the World's Most Infamous Diamond
- By: Anita Anand, William Dalrymple
- Narrated by: Leighton Pugh
- Length: 6 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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On 29 March 1849, the 10-year-old Maharajah of the Punjab was ushered into the magnificent Mirrored Hall at the centre of the great Fort in Lahore. There, in a public ceremony, the frightened but dignified child handed over to the British East India Company in a formal act of submission not only swathes of the richest land in India but also arguably the single most valuable object in the subcontinent: the celebrated Koh-i-Noor diamond. The Mountain of Light.
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Fascinating
- By Jean on 07-08-17
By: Anita Anand, and others
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Sister of My Heart
- A Novel
- By: Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
- Narrated by: Julia Whelan
- Length: 11 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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From the award-winning author of Mistress of Spices, the best-selling novel about the extraordinary bond between two women, and the family secrets and romantic jealousies that threaten to tear them apart.
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I enjoyed reading this book much more
- By R.Reader on 08-08-12
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Return of a King
- The Battle for Afghanistan
- By: William Dalrymple
- Narrated by: Sagar Arya
- Length: 20 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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In the spring of 1839, Britain invaded Afghanistan for the first time. Nearly 20,000 British and East India Company troops poured through the high mountain passes and re-established on the throne Shah Shuja ul-Mulk. On the way in, the British faced little resistance. But after two years of occupation, the Afghan people rose in answer to the call for jihad and the country exploded into violent rebellion. The First Anglo-Afghan War ended in Britain's greatest military humiliation of the 19th century.
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Tragic story excellently told
- By Shane Hensley on 06-09-21
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Kaikeyi
- A Novel
- By: Vaishnavi Patel
- Narrated by: Soneela Nankani
- Length: 17 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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The only daughter of the kingdom of Kekaya, she is raised on tales of the gods: how they churned the vast ocean to obtain the nectar of immortality, how they vanquish evil and ensure the land of Bharat prospers, and how they offer powerful boons to the devout and the wise. Yet she watches as her father unceremoniously banishes her mother, listens as her own worth is reduced to how great a marriage alliance she can secure. Desperate for some measure of independence, she turns to the texts she once read with her mother and discovers a magic that is hers alone.
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A feminist reimagining
- By CJDsCurrentRead on 05-22-22
By: Vaishnavi Patel
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Inglorious Empire
- What the British Did to India
- By: Shashi Tharoor
- Narrated by: Shashi Tharoor
- Length: 10 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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In the 18th century, India's share of the world economy was as large as Europe's. By 1947, after two centuries of British rule, it had decreased six-fold. Beyond conquest and deception, the Empire blew rebels from cannons, massacred unarmed protesters, entrenched institutionalized racism, and caused millions to die from starvation. British imperialism justified itself as enlightened despotism for the benefit of the governed, but Shashi Tharoor takes on and demolishes this position, demonstrating how every supposed imperial "gift" was designed in Britain's interests alone.
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An entertaining and provocative history
- By James Moseley on 01-07-20
By: Shashi Tharoor
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Meet Me in Bombay
- By: Jenny Ashcroft
- Narrated by: Aysha Kala
- Length: 14 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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It's New Year's Eve in Bombay, 1913, and Madeline Bright, new to the sweltering heat of colonial India, is yearning for all she has left behind in England. Then, at the stroke of midnight, Maddy meets Luke Devereaux, and as the year changes, so do both their lives. Bold and charismatic, Luke opens her eyes to the wonders of Bombay, while Maddy's beauty and vivacity captures his heart. Only her mother disapproves, preferring the devoted Guy Bowen as a match for her daughter.
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Very disappointing.
- By Amazon Customer on 08-23-21
By: Jenny Ashcroft
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The Palace of Illusions
- By: Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
- Narrated by: Sneha Mathan
- Length: 12 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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The novel traces the princess Panchaali's life, beginning with her birth in fire and following her spirited balancing act as a woman with five husbands who have been cheated out of their father's kingdom. Panchaali is swept into their quest to reclaim their birthright, remaining at their side through years of exile and a terrible civil war involving all the important kings of India.
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timeless story
- By Richard on 03-15-08
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Jewel of the Nile
- By: Tessa Afshar
- Narrated by: Lynette Freeman
- Length: 12 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Raised as an orphan by her aunt, Chariline has only been told a few pieces of her parents’ tragic love story. Her beautiful dark skin is proof that her father was Cushite, but she knows nothing else. While visiting her grandfather before his retirement as the Roman official in the queen’s court, Chariline overhears that her father is still alive, and discovering his identity becomes her obsession. Both her grandfather and the queen have reasons for keeping this secret, however, and forbid her quest. So Chariline sneaks on the ship of a merchant trusted by friends.
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Caution the narrator is HORRIBLE!
- By Jacqueline on 06-04-21
By: Tessa Afshar
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The Ottomans
- Khans, Caesars, and Caliphs
- By: Marc David Baer
- Narrated by: Jamie Parker
- Length: 17 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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The Ottoman Empire has long been depicted as the Islamic Asian antithesis of the Christian European West. But the reality was starkly different: the Ottomans’ multiethnic, multilingual, and multireligious domain reached deep into Europe’s heart. Indeed, the Ottoman rulers saw themselves as the new Romans. Recounting the Ottomans’ remarkable rise from a frontier principality to a world empire, historian Marc David Baer traces their debts to their Turkish, Mongolian, Islamic, and Byzantine heritage.