between her own huband and his first wife; yet she had to take up the role of doting mother to Rahim. She was the wife of the great Mughal ruler Akbar, yet had no claim on him as his wife. Even though she enjoyed a lavish lifestyle of an empress and had always been recorded to be the ‘good wife’, there is no record of her own desires and wishes regarding family or marriage or anything. She was merely taking up the roles that were assigned to her. She had to consider a better living as the one of the many queens of the King than the widow of Bairam Khan. Both Salima Sultan Begum and Ruqaiya Begum (sisters by blood and cousins to the King) played a crucial role in the settlement between Akbar and their step-son Jahangir, when the father-duo’s relationship had turned sour, eventually paving the way of Jahangir’s accession to the throne. These two ladies in the court and in the life of the King were the only ladies to have enjoyed an exalted position and regarded women of high rank. Being widely educated on various topics Salima Sultan Begum comes across as a cultivated woman, powerful yet powerless. She had everything a girl can dream of yet nothing was her own, though she was unanimously loved and respected by a