Muslim Slave System in Medieval India c13.19

c13.19

The senior eunuchs or Khwaja Saras had a number of junior eunuchs under them. According to Manucci, there is always one set above the rest who directs and looks after everything that goes on in the Mahal.³³ Of the subordinate eunuchs, some worked as messengers in the harem. Others were posted at the doors to keep a watch on those who came or went out of the palace and saw to it that no unauthorised person entered the seraglio.³⁴ Some others looked after the education of princes. Bernier writes that Mughal princes instructed from infancy to the care of women and eunuchs, slaves from Russia, Circassia Gurjustan (Georgia), or Ethiopia, whose minds are debased by the very nature of their occupation; servile and mean to superiors, proud and oppressive to dependants these princes leave the walls of the seraglio quite ignorant.³⁵