Fiction: Shah Jahan’s daughter Jahanara lives like a recluse with Panipat, a eunuch, for company

My name is Panipat. Whether Panipat was my hometown or I was born there, I do not know. I do not even know when I was born or to whom. What I do know is that I was sold in the slave market, bought by someone from the palace and raised as one among hundreds of eunuchs. Later on, I was appointed to the service of the palace, where I bore witness to the rise and fall of three great emperors. Now, I am the head of the eunuchs in the palace.

For the palace-dwellers and the retinue – in the eyes of men – I am unwanted flesh, a hijra, a eunuch – both an auspicious and inauspicious creature. For the women in the zenana, I am nature’s betrayal, a drop that should have coagulated into a female but which, instead, fell down as a male from the climactic peak of creation. This is the reason behind their pity and concern for me.

But I am neither. I don’t have any gender. Do I possess the femininity of a male body or the masculinity of a female body? I don’t know. Just as Time has passed through me, I have passed...

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