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It wasn't just another royal wedding, when Nawab Ghulam
Ghouse Khan, the last Nawab of Carnatic, took Jahangir Baksh as his
second wife. Unlike his first wife, who hailed from a Hyderabadi noble
family and chosen by the elders, Jahangir Baksh with whom the Nawab had
madly fallen in love, was a dancing girl, a courtesan otherwise known as
the Tawaif or Kanchen. On November 24, 1848, he married the dancing
girl Jahangir Baksh and awarded her the title Azamunnisa Begum. ('A Hindustani tradition, right in the heart of Madras' by Kombai S Anwar, The Hindu, January 4, 2018) |
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According to Sawanihat-I-Mumtaz, which chronicles the history of the
Nawabs of Carnatic, "Latifa, Tanu and Sajni, known as Sona, were the
dancing girls" and "Aminud Din Khan and Ram Singh Bayragi" were the
musicians often invited by Nawab Umdat ul Umra to perform at the palace
of his senior sister, Sultan Unnisa Begum. Umdat ul Umra, who also wrote
poetry under the pen name Mumtaz, occasionally asked the musicians to
set his verses to Hindustani tunes and even chose the dancing girl to
sing and dance the verse. An occasion like his father Walajah's birthday
was celebrated with Sona singing and dancing the verses of Umdat ul
Umrah set to tune by Aminuddin Khan and Ram Singh. ('A Hindustani tradition, right in the heart of Madras' by Kombai S Anwar, The Hindu, January 4, 2018) |
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