The History of Humāyūn (Gulbadan Begam) 51: 2LIX. Dil-dar Begam (No. 48.)

51

The Heart-holding Princess; Pers. dil, heart, and dār, holding.
Neither her husband, Babar, nor her daughter, Gul-badan gives any clue to her parentage. Her marriage is not spoken of in the Memoirs; it, as well as Gul-rukh's, probably occurred in the missing decade of 1500-10. If Babar held the view that four wives were a lawful number, Dil-dar, of whatever parentage, may be counted amongst them, since in 1509 Maham only remained of his earlier wives, 'Ayisha, Zainab, and Ma'suma having disappeared from the household by death or divorce.
Dil-dār is mentioned once in the Turki text of Kehr and Ilminsky, and then as āghācha. I am too ignorant of the import of this word in the domestic circle to venture to draw from its use an inference as to social status. It, however, as used by Babar and by Gul-badan, supports Pavet de Courteille’s definition of a ‘lady’ in contradistinction to a ‘begam,’ and does not convey reproach to the woman as its occasional English rendering (concubine) does.
The Akbar-nāma (Bib. Ind. ed., ii. 62) makes use of the words ‘Dil-dār āghācha Begam,’ and adds āghā as a variant (cf. App., s.n. āghā). Gul-badan always styles her mother begam, and sometimes hazrat. In enumerating her father’s children and their mothers, she does not mention the parentage of any wife besides Ma'suma Mīrān-shāhī, a Timurid, but no deduction as to the lower birth of the others can be drawn safely from this, and there is some ground for supposing that Dil-dar was of Mīrān-shāhī birth (Cf. infra, p. 277).
Perhaps some indication of non-royal birth is given by Maham’s forcible adoption of Dil-dar’s son in 1519, but I am too ignorant of the nuances of Muhammadan etiquette to venture on assertion or even on opinion in such a matter. That Maham did not take Gulrukh's son tells nothing, since the chief factors in the adoption, i.e., Maham's loss of her own children and wish to adopt, may have become operative only when they were put into practice in 1519.
Five children of Dil-dar are mentioned by Gul-badan: Gul-rang, born between 1511 and 1515; Gul-chihra; Abu-n-nasir Muhammad (Hindal), born 1519; Gul-badan, born 1523; and Alwar, who died in India in 1529.
She is very frequently written of by her daughter; some other authors give of her a clear and pleasant impression; and she is always spoken of with respect and as a good and sensible woman.
Gul-badan, 6b, 16a, 23b, 26b, 30a, 35a, 35b, 38a, 42a, 50b, 51b, 65a, 70b. Jauhar, Stewart, 30, 31. Humayun, 281. Akbar-nama, Bib. Ind. ed., 174. B. M. M., II. 101, 226, 362.