What was life like for the wives and concubines who lived in the royal harems of ancient India?
Most of Ancient India’s kings were polygamous and maintained a number of concubines (or ‘little wives’) in addition to the officially designated queen-wife. All of he women lived in a separate, secluded building known as a harem. The harem consisted of a series of houses linked by courtyards and passageways designed to be cool and moist for the feet that walked on them. The entire staff was composed of women, even the small army that stood guard night and day on the ramparts to prevent any man approaching the king’s possessions too closely. The woman warriors often wore male uniforms and were armed with a full range of halberds, bows, spears and armour.
The official in charge of the harem was the kancukin, who was a eunuch and a powerful person. The kancukin often appears in contemporary (and later) literature and is regularly portrayed as a clownish figure, full of self-importance and perhaps a drunkard or an inveterate gambler. An alternative was for the kancukin to be portrayed as a cantankerous old man, constantly grumbling about his ill-health and the many responsibilities heaped upon his shoulders.
The lives of the women in the harem were mostly those of pampered boredom. All would be well when the king made a visit and the woman’s status was high. However, kings cannot visit all the women all the time, even those who fell into lives of ‘debauchery’ and, subsequently, died of ‘exhaustion.’ For the rest of the time, the women, princesses or slave girls, since status could vary a great deal within the harem, spent their lives trying to make themselves as alluring and youthful-appearing as possible. Not only would this be vital in catching the attention of the king but was also important in maintaining self-esteem and in keeping a position of high status vis-à-vis the other inhabitants of the harem. Depending on the power of the king, new entrants to the harem would be arriving on a more or less regular basis and, generally, would be younger than existing inhabitants and possessed of youthful beauty or at least freshness more likely to catch the eye of a king. The plotting and scheming among the women seems likely to have been intensive, if only to stave off the boredom of living such generally aimless lives. Occasionally, a group excursion might be made to a river for a communal bathing session or else a pilgrimage to some religiously significant location.
