Travels in India (Tavernier) 57.5

57.5

As for the Princesses, whether they are the wives of the King, his daughters, or his sisters, they never leave the palace except when they go to the country for a few days’ change of air and scene. Some of them go, but rarely, to visit the ladies of the nobles, as for example the wife of Zafar Khān, who is the King’s aunt. This is not done except by the special permission of the King. It is not here as in Persia where the Princesses only make their visits at night, accompanied by a great number of eunuchs, who drive away all persons whom they meet on the road. But at the court of the Great Mogul the ladies generally go out at nine o’clock in the morning, and have only three or four eunuchs to accompany them, and ten or twelve female slaves who act as ladies of honour. The Princesses are carried in pallankeens covered with embroidered tapestries, and every pallankeen is followed by a small carriage which can only contain one person. It is drawn by two men, and the wheels are not more than a foot in diameter. The object in taking these carriages is, that when the Princesses arrive at the houses they are going to visit, the men who carry the pallankeens are only allowed to go to the first gate, where the eunuchs compel them to retire, the Princesses then change into the carriages, and are drawn by the ladies of honour to the women’s apartments.