Visions of Juliana: A Portuguese Woman at the Court of the Mughals

Author(s): TAYMIYA R. ZAMAN

Source: Journal of World History , December 2012, Vol. 23, No. 4 (December 2012), pp.
761-791
Published by: University of Hawai'i Press on behalf of World History Association

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/41858764

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 Visions of Juliana: A Portuguese Woman
at the Court of the Mughals*

TAYMIYA R- ZAMAN

University of San Francisco

The nial nial

seventeenth holdingsda (Estado
holdings (Estado and eighteenth
India) faltering da India)of com-
in India because faltering centuries in India saw Portuguese because of colo- com-
Petitors such as the English, French, and Dutch. Thoughts of quitting
Goa altogether appear in Portuguese correspondence, as do reports of
attacks at sea that harm colonial trade.1 The eighteenth century also
saw the Mughal Empire ( 1 526-1857) balanced precariously around the
possibility of collapse, a consequence of the rise of successor states and
the political aspirations of European trading companies. In such a land-
scape, one Juliana Dias da Costa (d. 1734), a Portuguese woman who
held enormous power and influence at the court of the Mughal king
Bahadur Shah I (d. 1712), attracted the attention of many.
Juliana gained the patronage of the Estado, with whom she kept
up a steady correspondence from 1707 to 17 15, secured an audience
with the king for the Dutch East India Company in 1 7 1 1 , and drew the
attention of the Italian Jesuit Ippolito Desideri (d. 1733), who visited

* For their help with this project, I am grateful to Kecia Ali, Reihaneh Fakourfar,
Beverly Hallam, Javed Jabbar, Bilkees Latif, Shahryar Khan, Miguel Lourerio, Kathy
Nasstrom, Moeen Nizami, Katrina Olds, and the late Jerry Bentley. Beverly Hallam was
especially helpful in sharing her research with me, and Kecia Ali's assistance with Gracias
was invaluable, as were the suggestions of Katrina Olds. All errors in this article are my
responsibility alone.
1 G. V. Scammmell, "The Pillars of Empire: Indigenous Assistance and the Survival of
the 'Estado da India' c. 1600-1700," Modern Asian Studies 22, no. 3 (1988): 473-489.

Journal of World History, Vol. 23, No. 4

© 2013 by University of Hawai'i Press

761

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762 JOURNAL OF WORLD HISTORY, DECEMBER 20I2

India in 1 714.2 Desideri reported from hearsay that Juliana had bro
Bahadur Shah I to the brink of baptism, so impressed was he with
Christian piety and ability to perform miracles.3 Juliana's fame, w
was a combination of her piety and political power, continued aft
her death. She is the subject of an unpublished biography penned
Persian by a Frenchman named Gaston Bruit in 1752, who may h
been linked, by marriage, to her family, and who praises her piety
manner similar to Desideri.4 She also appears in a nineteenth-cent
account in French by Colonel Jean-Baptiste Gentil, who was Br
patron, and married to Juliana's grandniece Teresa Velho. Gentil dr
upon earlier accounts of Juliana to put forth in a dramatic manner
extraordinary political prowess and her spiritual conquest of a Mu
king.5 These visions of Juliana are informed by the interests of th
writing about her, which means that actual facts about her life are oft
eclipsed by tales of her power. Jesuit sources, for instance, depict Julia
as a proxy for their spiritual mission in India, just as Portuguese so
portray her as a proxy for their political aspirations during a time
their power is waning. Men such as Gentil and Bruit portray Julia
embodying a crucial link between Europe and India; she fits well
a landscape in which European travelers, missionaries, and merch
moved easily across different worlds and formed strategic allianc
depending on opportunity and circumstance. As a European wo
able to influence the Mughal king, and valuable to both the Mugh
and the Portuguese, Juliana occupies a position that is similar to th
men such as Gentil, who had served both the Mughals and the Fren
Under formal British rule, following the dissolution of the Mug
Empire in 1857, Juliana's descendants became the subject of m

2 For Juliana's dealings with the Estado, see J. A. Ismael Gracias, Uma Dona Portug
na Corte do Grao-Mogol (Nova Goa, 1907).
3 For a partial account of Juliana's reception of the Dutch embassy, see Rev. H. Ho
SJ, "The Family of Lady Juliana Dias da Costa (1658-1 732)," Journal of the Punjab His
Society 7 (1918): 39-49. An account of Juliana's reception of the Dutch embassy ca
be found in William Irvine, The Later Mughals 1707-173 9, ed. Jadunath Sarkar (La
Sang-i-Meel, 2007), pp. 133-140. For Desideri's account, see Ippolito Desideri, An Ac
of Tibet: The Travels of Ippolito Desideri of Pistoia, S.J. 17 12-1727, ed. Filippo de Filip
Broadway Travellers Series, ed. Sir E. Dennison Ross and Eileen Power (London: Rout
1932; repr., Taipei: Ch'eng Wen Publishing Company, 197 1), pp. 64-66. My page num
unless indicated otherwise, refer to this edition.
4 See Gaston Bruit, Ahvãl-i Bibi Juliana. British Library MS: Add. 14,374.
5 See Jean-Baptiste Joseph Gentil, M emoires sur l'Hindoustan, ou Empire Mogul (P
1822). For spiritual conquest in Jesuit colonial literature, see Ines G. Zupanov, "The
phetic and the Miraculous in Portuguese Asia: A Hagiograhical View of Colonial Cul
in Sinners and Saints: The Successors of Vasco da Gama, ed. Sanjay Subrahmanyam
York: Oxford University Press, 1995), pp. 135-161.

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Zaman: Visions of Juliana 763

scholarly debate because they were a c

which several Europeans continued to
India. British sources from this time int
ana's descendants to lands once held by
agan (d. 1952), the British governor of
work titled "The Jesuits and the Great M
sources about Juliana to historicize the li
interrogate their claims.6 His lengthy dis
investigation into legendary tales about h
stories were in circulation among Euro
because they had been put forth by thos
dants. Moreover, stories about Juliana m
there was an audience for them in the n
centuries among Maclagan's contemporar
and Christian history, or government of
Mughals in ruling India.
The place held by Juliana in the im
British India and the tangible link to th
descendants also fueled visions of a Julia
of fiction, including unverifiable tales of
fantastical claims about her family. Howe
ish power in 1947 and the loss of lands
and her descendants abruptly disappear f
appears again in our century through inv
of Beverly Hallam, one of her descendan
fictionalized account of her life by the In
Latif's account, Juliana is emblematic o
people could claim multiple religious and
by religious violence in India and by the
finds in sources such as Gentil, Deside
imagines Juliana as representing better t
lam's research draws upon the same body
on archival sources in the British Librar
family's descent from Juliana.

6 See Sir Edward Maclagan, The Jesuits and the G

Washbourne, 1932; repr., Haryana, India: Vipin Jain f
181-189.
7 See Beverly Hallam, "On the Trail of Manuel D
A Quest to Verify Oral Tradition through the India O
of British India Society 17 (2007): 24-31. See also B
Penguin Books, 2010), pp. 3-63.

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764 JOURNAL OF WORLD HISTORY, DECEMBER 20I2

Together, extant sources about Juliana's life traverse six languages,

three centuries, several personal and political purposes, and a mul
tiplicity of genres. This means that a study of Juliana raises numer-
ous challenges. First, while the historical figure Juliana Dias da Costa
clearly existed, facts about her, including her date of birth and par'
entage, remain a mystery, as do the circumstances that brought her t
the Mughal court. Her parents could have come to the Mughal court
as prisoners captured during the Mughal raid on Hugli in Portuguese
India in 1632. The raid, ordered by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan
(d. 1666), was a response to Portuguese attacks on Mughal ships. Her
parents could also have fled to the Mughal court in 1663 from the city
of Cochin, which the Dutch seized from the Portuguese. Alternatively
she could have come to the court of Shah Jahan's son Aurangzeb (d.
1707) as the wife of a Portuguese surgeon sent there by officials of th
Estado da India. The sources seem to agree that she died around 1734,
though her age at death is uncertain.
Second, the sensibilities through which we learn of Juliana and the
political purposes they serve themselves require contextualization;
Jesuit traveler writing about her during her lifetime will have a per
spective that differs considerably from a British government officia
attempting to ascertain whether her descendants' claims to land are
in fact genuine. This article examines extant sources on Juliana in th
light of these challenges and of questions that the sources raise. What
for instance, was the nature of Juliana's power at the Mughal court?
How was her power understood by her contemporaries and by those
penning accounts of her after her death? Is it possible to extricate the
historical person Juliana Dias da Costa from the lore that comes t
surround her in the tales told by her descendants in the nineteenth
century, and what purposes does such lore serve? This article conclude
with my own attempt to track down a descendant of Juliana's in Paki
stan and illustrates how modern linguistic, ethnic, and national bound
aries make the legacy of Juliana difficult to map. Finally, this articl
shows how a historical figure from Mughal India came to be a canvas
onto which several empires and individuals painted their political aspi-
rations and understandings of power.

Conquering a King, Serving an Empire

For Ippolito Desideri, who arrived in Delhi in 17 14, Juliana marked a

successful Christian presence in a foreign land. He wrote that despite
the reluctance of "Muhammadans" to convert, the Jesuits had success-

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Zamari: Visions of Juliana 765

fully baptized several pagans, and that ma

tions at the court of the king.8 Of these
Diaz da Costa" was the "support and orn
the Empire." Endowed from childhood
knowledge of medicine, Juliana was entr
several royal children, along with "intric
sures, and important family secrets."9 Sh
holy cross and she had brought the empe
thing short of baptism; he would kneel be
blessings to churches, and it was rumored
tian on his deathbed at the hands of Juli
eri, "his mother, who by the intercession
miraculously conceived this son, named h
the Baptist in Arabic."10
While patronage of Christian rituals, ar
uncommon in the courts of Mughal kings
"ours," a claim of ownership that marks J
Christian and a European presence close t
Desideri is likely to have heard stories ab
sions and believes that Juliana's parents c
1663, following the Dutch capture of C
writes Desideri, Juliana rose to prominen
through her influence on the king. Desid
day, Bahadur Shah I would send for a con
he would keep in his room for the rest of
out in his palace, reports Desideri, Juliana
flames, and all watched rapt as the fire su
tion her aid to his mission, and writes:

Our Father General has several times expre

and when I left, Rome named her a member
granting her à share of the Indulgences en
year, the King of Portugal sent her various
letter, thanking her for her services to the
anity, Portugal, the States of Goa, and the p
crown. The Dutch East India Company also

8 Desideri, Account of Tibet , p. 64.

9 Ibid., p. 65.
10 Ibid., p. 66.

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766 JOURNAL OF WORLD HISTORY, DECEMBER 20I2

gâtions to Donna Giuliana. Indeed, her name is known and celebrated

throughout this vast Empire.11

Jesuit missions to India had a long history: the first mission c

to India shortly after the founding of the Society of Jesus in 1540
Mughal and Jesuit sources report the presence of Jesuits at the co
of the Mughal kings Akbar and Jahangir. The success of these mis
was debatable as Mughal willingness to engage with Jesuit ideas wa
indicative of imminent conversion. At the same time, the possibili
converting a Mughal king and consequently his subjects figured h
ily in Jesuit imagination.12 In his account of Juliana, Desideri is fli
with this possibility by pointing to Juliana's position in the Mug
household as the custodian of family secrets and the teacher of r
children, and as exercising an influence on the king that benefit
Jesuit missions and Christians in general. The presence of powerf
European men at the Mughal court and of one powerful Euro
woman (recognized as such by the king of Portugal himself) in
Mughal household allows Desideri to imply that both imperia
spiritual missions for conquest are enjoying tremendous success.
The rumors about Bahadur Shah's conversion on his deathbed a
impossible to corroborate, but their presence in Desideri's acc
points to the circulation of tales based partly on truth, namely J
ana's Christian faith and proclivity for helping Jesuit missions (as
sources will also show) but partly on wishful thinking and embel
ment. Francois Valentyn's Oud en Niew Oost'Indien (1726), a re
of the Dutch Embassy to India under Johan Josua Ketelaar, ment
Juliana in similarly glowing terms. Ketelaar arrived in Lahore in 1
the last year of Bahadur Shah I's reign, and wrote that the king
friend to the Christians because of her influence. She arranged f
interview for Ketelaar, inspected the presents he had brought for
dur Shah I to make sure they were appropriate, invited his musicia
serenade the king and princes, and took Ketelaar's entourage to see
Shalimar gardens. When Bahadur Shah I died, Juliana warned Ket
to be on guard against plunderers, and continued to ensure the sa
of his embassy.

11 Ibid., pp. 66*67.

12 See Muzaffar Alam and Sanjay Subrahmanyam, "Catholics and Muslims i
Court of Jahangir (1608-1630)," in Writing the Mughal World: Studies in Political Cultur
Muzaffar Alam and Sanjay Subrahmanyam (Delhi: Permanent Black, 201 1), pp. 249-
derive my point about Jesuit imagination from this essay.

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Zaman: Visions of Juliana 767

According to Valentýn, Juliana took n

helped everyone equally, and was loved by
victory for Bahadur Shah I against his bro
all the Christians were with him, and enco
stand while riding beside him on an elepha
red standards with white crosses on them.
"oracle of the emperor" and mentions tha
called Augustinho Dias da Costa who was
plundered it. He then went to Goa and
born, and at Agra he became a mansabdãr (
to Bahadur Shah I when he was still a prin
captivity after rebelling against his fathe
him faithfully.13 Valentýni account of Ke
served as one of the sources for Desideri, g
India three years before Desideri, when Ba
The two accounts seem to agree about her
the king, and her piety, which allowed her
Reading these two sources together shows
European and Jesuit imagination during he
actual power held by her at the court of th
Juliana does in fact appear to have helpe
that the Portuguese, despite being in co
seem to have benefitted enormously from
Gracias has drawn upon the documents of
Secretariat of the Estado da India to depict
away place," Juliana worked with zealous d
her country ¡patria]. Gracias writes that "her
motherland were skillfully energized by a
government stood out as a blue and starry
the eighteenth century." While Gracias wr
this great lady is scant, something of her
being forgotten, and refers to the Gospel
that are left, lest they be lost" (John 6:12). 14
Gracias's book, published in 1907, is liter
fragments from the past. The first section
he calls historical sketches of the politic

13 I draw my summary of events here from Hoste

Costa," pp. 39-49, and Irvine, Later Mughals, pp. 133-
14 Gracias, Uma Dona Portuguesa na Corte do Grao-M

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768 JOURNAL OF WORLD HISTORY, DECEMBER 20I2

between the Estado and the Mughal court. These sketches begin with
the reigns of Babur and Humayun and Akbar (1526-1605), and con
elude with the reign of Bahadur Shah I, in which we see Juliana's rise t
prominence. Gracias writes that these sketches are meant to preface
collection of correspondences of the Estado that took place from 17 10
to 1 719 and are important for the reader to gain a good understandin
of the Mughal Empire and the Estado.15 The correspondences, which
constitute a separate section, include letters from the viceroys of Por-
tuguese India to King João V (1706-1750), which report on economic
and political affairs in India. They also include one letter from Juliana
herself, written in Persian in 171 1 (and translated to Portuguese), in
which she invokes the name of Jesus and the grace of the Holy Spirit
prays for the glory of João V's throne, and acknowledges present
exchanged between the Estado and the Mughal court.16 These present
are probably those referred to by Desideri in his visit to India three
years after she wrote this letter.
The records collected by Gracias imply that in the minds of th
officials of the Estado, Juliana was a Portuguese woman strategically
placed at court for the purpose of acting in their interests; nothing is
said of the circumstances that brought her parents to the Mughal court
Instead, in a letter to João V, Vasco Fernandes writes that Juliana cam
to the Mughal court because she was married to a Portuguese surgeon
who had entered the service of the king and who had been sent t
court by the Portuguese viceroy, Francisco de Távora, Conde de Alvo
(1681-1686). If Juliana had knowledge of medicine, as mentioned by
Desideri, this might have been because of the husband mentioned in
this letter. Alternatively, her knowledge of medicine could have com
from her father, were he in fact the surgeon in Ketelaar's account. I
could also be likely that the two accounts have confused her fathe
with her husband or vice versa.
The viceroy mentions that Juliana had fallen out of favor with the
Mughal court and been imprisoned for two months; although Vasc
Fernandes does not seem to know why Juliana fell out of favor, he
writes that it was partially through the interventions of an ambassa
dor sent by the Estado that favor was restored to her, after which sh
continued to be valuable to Aurangzeb and Bahadur Shah I.17 Here

15 Ibid., p. 3.
16 Ibid., p. no.
17 Ibid., p. 127.

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Zaman: Visions of Juliana 769

the Estado is portrayed as having worked

position in court, for she was representing
own. In these correspondences, Juliana i
tor (procuradora) of the Estado. This titl
lobbyist for the Portuguese state in the M
land grants that made her a vassal of th
viceroy of Portuguese India who governe
that the state owes her much gratitude a
entered the esteem of the Mughal king
good Christian, virtuous among Moors.
Juliana's success as a vassal and diplom
written by D. Rodrigo to João V, in whic
your majesty's dignity to honor her lett
good she does for the state." D. Rodrig
de Abreu at the Mughal court, through
municates that he wants weapons such
have, and through whom Juliana sends h
acknowledges receiving Juliana's letter,
municate to her his thanks.19 The vicer
Meneses, who replaced D. Rodrigo, conti
with Juliana. She was rewarded with a v
was seen as indispensable to their mission
Furthermore, because of her Portugue
Estado extend to Juliana's family. While
again, the correspondences record that J
daughter, and a grandson called Joseph B
asked for provisions. She also asked for
the brother-in-law of Joseph Borges da C
roy to João Gomes Febos (the director of
written in 1715 records that Habits of C
These habits signified the political and r
on Juliana and her family. Recipients of t
of Christ were usually pure of blood, wh
were not descended from Jews or Musli
the granting of pensions and social prest
granted to people of mixed blood, and it

18 Ibid., pp. 111-113.

19 Ibid., p. 120.
20 Ibid., pp. 122-123.
21 Ibid., pp. 144-146.

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770 JOURNAL OF WORLD HISTORY, DECEMBER 2012

ing of these habits to Juliana's family members represent

exception.22
In the last of the letters published by Gracias, Vasco Fernandes
assures Juliana that he will do anything she desires, and he writes to
João V to say that he is careful to keep up a good correspondence with
Juliana and to conduct affairs to her liking, hoping that in gratitude
she will return the favor to the Portuguese nation.23 In 17 15, he records
that Juliana must be at least seventy years old and worries that her
grandson might fall from the esteem of the Mughal court and lose his
lands; this is why she might be obliged to buy a village for him in Portu-
guese India. Concern about both Juliana's age and the possibility of los-
ing her allegiance can be read into Vasco Fernandes's correspondences
of this year. In another letter to Juliana, the viceroy writes that the
Estado owes her much diligence and hopes that she will continue to
favor the Portuguese. "We are unlike other Europeans," he writes, and
emphasizes that the Portuguese want no glory for themselves; rather,
they wish only to conserve the reputation of the king. "Write to me,"
he implores. "It has been a long time."24
While Desideri sees Juliana as broadly Christian and European, this
letter shows how the Estado, vying with other Europeans for the king's
ear, was anxious to maintain ties with Juliana, in the hope that she
would favor the Portuguese over other Europeans, especially given that
she was Portuguese herself. Juliana's own allegiances, which Gracias
depicts as patriotic toward her homeland, might have been different.
A clue to the lag in correspondence alluded to by the viceroy might
be found in the accounts of Desideri and Valentýn. Desideri writes
that Juliana has long been asking the king's permission to retire to the
convent of St. Monica at Goa; however, this has not been granted,
given all the services she renders to the empire.25 Valentýn too writes
that Juliana, following the death of Bahadur Shah, mentioned that she
wished to go to Goa.26 The death of her patron Bahadur Shah I in 1 712

22 Ibid., p. 145. For Habits of Christ in Portuguese enterprises, see Fernanda Olival,
"Structural Changes within the 16th Century Portuguese Military Orders," E-journal of Por-
tuguese History 2, no. 2 (2004): 1-20. There is evidence that on rare occasions, people of
mixed blood were inducted into the order. See José da Silva Horta, "Evidence for a Luso-
African Identity in 'Portuguese' Accounts on 'Guinea of Cape Verde' (Sixteenth-Seven-
teenth Centuries)," History in Africa 27 (2000): 00-130.
23 Gracias, Uma Dona Portuguesa na Corte do Grao*Mogol , pp. 158-162.
24 Ibid., p. 140.
25 Desideri, Account of Tibet , p. 68.
26 Hosten, "Family of Lady Juliana Dias da Costa," p. 48.

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 Zaman: Visions of Juliana 771

and her own advanced age could have m

distance herself from political concerns a
of seclusion.
Although her wishes are difficult to asce
that the Portuguese, with whom she had
quite rightly perceived her as a skillful
hold lands in both Mughal and Portugu
both the Mughals and the Estado during a
appeared to be faltering. Juliana herself s
roys with whom she was dealing correctl
allowed to retire to Goa, they would in fa
who were either purely Portuguese by b
to the rule that they be Portuguese by b
assistance.

Between Pirates and Providence

Despite the focus of the Portuguese government on purity of blo

when inducting people into the Order of Christ, the entrench
of the Portuguese in India and of intermarriages between Indians
Europeans provides a more layered context for Juliana's Christian/
tuguese/Mughal identity. The Mughal Empire and the Estado, in s
of their competition over sea trade, cannot be clearly demarcated
one another in a landscape where intermarriage was common, as w
beliefs about royal blood from one house joining with that of ano
because of the vagaries of fate. Although the instability of sea tr
affected economic enterprises, the displacement caused by pirate
plunder often brought fortune to individuals; women and men ca
tured and sold as slaves could be integrated into royal families
consequently, experience tremendous rises in power. In later centu
lives such as Juliana's seem to have lent themselves to a particular
of storytelling in which biographical facts are absent but the rom
of foreign origins, captures at sea, and dramatic twists of fate lives
Gracias, for instance, includes in his historical sketches of
Mughal Empire an account of mixed marriages between European
Indians. He sees Luso-Indian history as unexplored territory to w
he wishes to make a modest contribution.27 Gracias points out

27 Gracias, Uma Dona Portuguesa na Corte do Grao-Mogol , p. 3.

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772 JOURNAL OF WORLD HISTORY, DECEMBER 20I2

during a time when shipwrecks were frequent as

Portuguese women would often end up in the court
The placing of official documents about Juliana D
midst of these romantic speculations show another
cias frames Juliana's life; she is one of many Europ
a part of Indian society, and the vagueness of her orig
the turbulent times in which she lived.
Gracias also discusses the speculation that the w
king Akbar (d. 1605), Maryam Makani, could poten
Portuguese woman called Maria Mascarenhas, whos
Juliana, was married to Jean-Phillipe de Bourbon d
the French royal house who had run away to Akb
This is faulty; Maryam Makani (d. 1604) was the t
mother, Hamida Banu Begum, who came from a
whose marriage to Akbar's father Humayun (d
mented in Mughal sources. The honorific title tra
dwells with Mary," and royal women often held suc
religion; one of Akbar's Hindu Rajput wives, Hark
instance, held the title of Maryam Zamani (Mary
theless, Gracias's collection of stories, which co
embellishment and seek to find Christian influenc
European women, shows the appeal of such storie
of the Mughal Empire.
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth cent
of the two Julianas would come to be mixed, perh
marriages of Juliana Dias da Costa's descendants in
Gracias's source for discussing Akbar's possibly Ch
who may or may not have been either Maria Masc
called Maryam Makani, or another Mary altogethe
"Reminiscences of Agra" by the Franciscan missio
thome, written in 1895. Writing about the Catho
and about Akbar's support of Christians, Fanth
the existence of a Christian wife called Mary,
Akbar has been denied by Muslim historians. Fant
the story of Jean-Phillipe de Bourbon and discuss
toward Christianity with the same conviction that

28 Ibid., p. 47.
29 For these intermarriages, see, for instance, Gracias, Uma Da
do Grao-Mogol , pp. 197-199. For Gracias's discussion of Maria
Juliana, see pp. 48-49.

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 Zaman: Visions of Juliana 773

Bahadur Shah Ts inclination for the religio

and conquest then appear to be central to h
stood even by later writers with commitm
accounts of these writers, Juliana is a Chri
the symbolic marriage of Christianity to th
The contemporary author Shahryar M. K
of the royal family of Bhopal, which claim
bons of India, writes that even today family
Jean-Phillippe ran away from France bec
by Turkish pirates to the Ottoman king Su
1520-1566). Following several adventures
arrived at the court of Akbar in India. The
and Juliana Mascarenhas also arrived wit
they had been sent from Portugal to be be
tary officers but were abducted by the Du
slaves in Surat. Akbar married Maria and J
Whether or not this theatrical tale is true,
is believed by many.31 Today, for the Bourb
foreign origins enhances prestige in a post
are different by virtue of having a bloodlin
Interest in lost scions of European houses
audiences abroad. An article in The Guard
"Found in India: The Last King of Franc
Napoleon de Bourbon, who has never set
French names for all his children, has caug
bon descendant, a Prince Michael of Greece
written a historical novel titled "Le Raja
reported as saying his family frequently dr
is proud of his distinguished lineage, and e
with the skepticism of historians.32
In an earlier context, Christine Isom-V
how fabricated accounts of royal French wo
following dramatic captures at sea were us
aspirations of states such as the Ottoman E

30 For the original source, see Frederic Fanthome, T

cutta: Thacker, Spink and Co., 1805), pp. 5-17.
31 Shahryar M. Khan, The Begums of Bhopal: A Dynas
(London: I. B. Tauris, 2000), pp. 60-61.
32 Angelique Chrisafis, "Found in India: The Last K
March 2007, accessed 13 May 201 1, http://www.guard
.france.

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 774 JOURNAL OF WORLD HISTORY, DECEMBER 20I2

in the sixteenth century and continuing onward to t

One of the more popular of these traditions was that
cess becoming the mother of a sultan, which made h
of both houses. In the case of this particular princess
to mention that she stayed true to her Christian faith
pean/Ottoman narratives too, Christianity comes to
royal house and to exercise an influence though the
ures of women whose stories hold popular appeal eve
Turkey.
A parallel story points to the cartographic world of the Jesuits and
the celebrated women who were able to navigate it as saints. Gauvin
Alexander Bailey documents the life of Catarina de San Juan (1608-
1688), a woman who was allegedly born into an aristocratic family in
Mughal India and came to New Spain in the early seventeenth cen-
tury. She too became a favorite of the Jesuits, and hagiographies of her
record that while her maternal grandfather was a Mughal prince, her
parents had Christian leanings. She escaped marriage to a Muslim by
hiding in a cave of vipers and fleeing around 1615 to Portuguese ter-
ritories. She narrated that she was then captured by pirates in Cochin,
baptized as Catarina de San Juan by some Jesuits, taken to Manila,
and eventually sold into New Spain; she arrived in Acapulco in 1621.
Despite her marriage to another Asian immigrant, Catarina's hagiog-
raphers report that she remained chaste and gained a reputation as a
prophet who saw the world through imaginary air travel. According
to Bailey, her Jesuit biographer Alonso Ramos notes down her trips to
Asia in great detail and makes sure to point out that it was Jesuit enter-
prise that allowed for the Christian conversions she witnessed among
the kings of Japan, India, and China.34
These parallel stories, in which French princesses command power
in the Ottoman harem, or a Mughal/Christian princess blessed with
extraordinary powers is able to aid Jesuit enterprises through prophetic
visions, help contextualize the power that Juliana Dias da Costa held in
Jesuit imagination. Unlike a man, Juliana posed no political threat to
other men, and as a woman, she was able to inspire through virtue and

33 Christine Isom-Verhaaren, "Royal French Women in the Ottoman Sultans' Harem:

The Political Uses of Fabricated Accounts from the Sixteenth to the Twenty-first Century,"
Journal of World History 17, no. 2 (2006): 159-195.
34 Gauvin Alexander Bailey, "A Mughal Princess in Baroque New Spain: Catarina de
San Juan (1606-1688) , the china poblana," Anales del Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas 71
(1997): 37-73.

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Zaman: Visions of J uliana 775

chastity. Displaced from her origins by s

into the Mughal household but holding ste
Juliana Dias da Costa embodies an intact
does not change despite her circumstan
to this code, she exercises spiritual powe
cally valuable connection between Euro
For Gracias and Fanthome, facts about ei
Juliana Dias da Costa do not matter as m
women present for visualizing the Mugh
virtue of shared bloodlines, or partial to C
nessing the extraordinary faith of women

Hagiographical Revisions: Bruit's Bibi Juliana,

Gentil's Joan of Arc

Hagiographical understandings that were linked to Jesuit imagina-

tion and European enterprises form a framework through which the
accounts of Gaston Bruit and Jean-Phillipe Gentil can be read; both
Frenchmen write about Juliana with special attention to the quality of
her faith and to her extraordinary closeness to Bahadur Shah I.35 Tales
of pirates and providence form the backdrop to these hagiographical
framings, and both authors' accounts of Juliana seem to draw upon
earlier sources such as Desideri and Valentýn. Gaston Bruit's account,
A hvãl-i Bibi Juliana (The Circumstances of Lady Juliana), tracks the
changing fortunes of a woman who came as a stranger to the Mughal
court. Bruit's "Bibi Juliana" is woman of rare piety and distinction, and
he hopes that whatever he has heard from his elders will be contained
in writing for the purposes of history.36 Bruit's account contains within
it details of Juliana's everyday life that are lacking in other accounts,
and his account differs from others because it frames Juliana as having
shown loyalty to the king during times of adversity and as having had
the forbearance and patience of a saint during hard times of her own,
for which she was rewarded by God and king.
Bruit begins his story of Juliana with the Mughal king Jahangir
(d. 1627), who faced rebellion from his son Khurram, who would later

35 For an analysis of the varied landscape of the seventeenth century, see Sanjay
Subrahmanyam, "Further Thoughts on an Enigma: The Tortuous Life of Nicolò Manucci,
1638 c. 1720," Indian Economic Social History Review 45, no. 1 (2008): 35-76.
36 Bruit, AhvaLi Bibi Juliana, fols. 1-2.

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776 JOURNAL OF WORLD HISTORY, DECEMBER 2012

crown himself with the title Shah Jahan (d. 1666). In Bruit's account,
or the accounts of his elders, Jahangir died from sorrow at this rebel-
lion, and his sister, from grief at the loss of her brother, went for haj . On
the way across the sea, she met with Portuguese ships. Her belonging
were seized as were goods for trade, and she was brought, along with
her travel companions, as a prisoner to Goa. When Shah Jahan secure
her release, she returned with a harsh recrimination to her nephew:
"What would become of your kingdom and your power if at the begin-
ning of your reign, the Portuguese are so heedless and headstrong, tha
they feel no need to consult anyone about their doings, and feel free
to disrespect your women and take them prisoners? How will the order
of your empire and the safekeeping of your kingdom end if this is its
beginning?"37 The incensed and shamed emperor, according to Bruit,
grew determined to attack the Portuguese stronghold of Goa and to
punish the foreigners. Bruit writes that Shah Jahan's blockade of Goa,
which included his attack on nearby Hugli, led to his victorious armies
returning with prisoners. These prisoners included Bibi Juliana, a gir
at the time, and her mother.
The official chronicle of Shah Jahan's reign mentions Shah Jahan' s
successful attack on the port city of Hugli in 163 2. 38 The chronicle
narrates that a number of farangis , a term that translates literally to
"Franks," but refers to Europeans in general, who had initially come to
trade, had set up fortifications at Hugli. They had then proceeded to
take control of villages around Hugli, converted locals to Christianity,
and then shipped them off to settlements abroad. The chronicle makes
no mention of the seizing of ships, and particularly of a ship belongin
to Shah Jahan's aunt.39 The expression of female outrage that Bruit
mentions could be a reference to an earlier incident. In 1613, a ship
belonging to Akbar's wife Maryam Zamani that was carrying pilgrim
to Mecca was captured by Portuguese pirates. This led to a reprisal from
Jahangir and a Mughal takeover of the Portuguese town of Daman.40
Although Bruit's narrative of this attack merges elements of two

37 Ibid., fols. 2-3.

38 See Sanjay Subrahmanyam, "Staying On: The Portuguese of Southern Coroman-
del in the Late Seventeenth Century," Indian Economic and Social History Review 22, no. 4
(1985): 445-463-
39 Inayat Khan, The Shah Jahan Nama of Inayat Khan: An Abridged History of the Mughal
Emperor Shah Jahan, Compiled by his Royal Librarian , ed. W. E. Begley and Z. A. Desai (Delh
Oxford University Press, 1990), pp. 84-87.
40 See Ellison B. Findly, "The Capture of Maryam-uz-Zamanl's Ship: Mughal Women
and European Traders," Journal of the American Oriental Society 108, no. 2 (1988): 227-238.

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Zaman: Visions of Juliana 777

historical incidents, the displacements cau

pean settlements figure in Portuguese ac
Catarina de San Juan's hagiographers of
India. The particular vulnerability of wom
Bruit's tale when he recounts both a Mug
arrival of Juliana at court as an indirect r
the attack, Bruit writes that both Juliana
"a begum of the household," whom they
ing the death of the begum, Juliana and
of a Padre Anton Magellan. After her mo
for Juliana to be married to "a man of he
same Portuguese man mentioned in Gr
man is not named and, according to Bruit
Bruit writes that on the ascension of S
Juliana decided to emerge from a long per
household of the king, where she becam
wife, the mother of the prince Moham
Her service made her dear to the begum
However, when the prince rebelled again
under house arrest with his mother and t
duties; this could be the period of disfavo
in the correspondences collected by Graci
distressed at the separation from the be
prayers of Padre Anton. His prayers bore
the begum wrote to Aurangzeb and implo
Persuaded by a surge of forgiveness, the
appropriate servant be initiated.42
When the news reached Bibi Juliana, s
settled on a price for purchase. She w
household for three days, after which th
or not to keep her. On both entry and e
searched. Juliana set off with a ceramic ja
emptied by guards at the palace. When t
she was overcome with happiness. Bruit
Juliana into her confidence and, out of f
on the pretext that she did not want he
sent precious jewels that she hid in Julia

41 Bruit, Ahvãl-i Bibi Juliana, fols. 4-5.

42 Ibid., fols. 6-7.

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778 JOURNAL OF WORLD HISTORY, DECEMBER 20I2

was able to conceal these from the guards outside. The search
servant continued for nearly two weeks, and when none was foun
the begum said she would settle for the woman she had sent away,
Juliana returned to the household of the begum.43
Bruit's account emphasizes Juliana's honesty and discretion; she
not tempted by the jewels and is able somehow to conceal them. P
haps because she is not tempted by wealth and power, both come
her; Bruit writes that the prince promised Bibi Juliana that were
to become king after Aurangzeb's death, he would grant her al
wanted and give her a rank higher than all of the nobility. This
to pass, and Bruit records Bahadur Shah I's victory over his broth
praises for his reign ( 1 707-1 71 1), and his fulfillment of his promise
Bibi Juliana. She was to become one of those closest to the king, w
our author, and to be higher in rank than all his nobles. Her leve
such that when she would ride, she would be accompanied by five o
thousand men on foot. Other people, no matter what their level, w
seek her counsel and favor, and if she interceded on their behalf,
wishes would be granted. "But this kind bibi," writes Bruit, "in w
soul chastity and modesty [iffat] were embedded, despite this we
honor, and high position, would spend all her time in humility
piety [taqwa]."
Bruit narrates that the incorruptible Juliana would begin the
in the early hours of the morning, in which she would purify he
and retreat to a room where she would worship her true creator a
She would emerge four hours later from her place of worship [ib
khãneh] to join the women of the household. Another four hours w
pass in the preparation of food, including the king's favorite dish,
with lentils, which he would devour with delight.44 Another four
would be devoted to sewing, after which she would put on her fo
clothes [UbaS'i darbari] and attend to the tasks of the court.45 In B
account, Juliana moves from the sacred realm of solitude and pra
into the space of the household occupied by women, and event
dons formal clothes to join the king in the tasks of administratin
empire. Like Desideri, Bruit sees Juliana as humble and pious desp
having immense political power.
Her loyalty to the Mughal household, writes Bruit, continued af
the passing of Bahadur Shah I in 17 12; she served his son and suc

43 Ibid., fols. 7-9.

44 Ibid., fol. 13.
45 Ibid., fol. 14.

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Zaman: Visions of Juliana 779

sor Jahandar Shah (d. 1713), and his nephe

yar (r. 1713-1719).46 Farrukhsiyar was str
of the Sayyid brothers (Hasan Ali Khan
Barha), the two powerful army generals re
of puppet rulers on the throne following
Bruit writes that the brothers began to spr
and crowned several kings one after the ot
Bahadur Shah I, Muhammad Shah (r. 171
with the help of the brothers and, accord
ness to all of India.47
When discussing Bibi Juliana's role in su
Muhammad Shah, Bruit focuses on the pow
that the mother of Mohammad Shah grew
ers were capable of doing to her son and
to her saints to keep the king safe from th
two brothers. Bibi Juliana changed the nam
mad Yahya and placed him under the guard
(referred to as Sahib-i Yohãna ), with the
were he granted the strength and indep
nance, he would distribute charity in the n
like all of Juliana's prayers, came to pass. In
mirror one another: Juliana is promised w
for her loyalty to him, and a king is prom
his loyalty to Juliana's saint.
Bruit's story also contains elements of De
ception of Muhammad Shah's grandfather
because of Juliana's prayers, after which
is writing nearly four decades after Desid
ing Juliana's lifetime. Legendary tales atta
power after her death consisted of some o
included her devotion to John the Baptist
tion to influence the fortunes of the king
specific details about the kings who were b
ity in which her prayers protected them se
graphical details about her parentage matte
trate a broader moral aspect of her charact
to wealth. Just as Bruit conflates two inst

46 Ibid., fol. 15.

47 Ibid., fol. 16.
48 Ibid., fol. 17.

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780 JOURNAL OF WORLD HISTORY, DECEMBER 20I2

Portuguese settlements to create a general narrative about plunder

displacement, he uses an earlier tale that might have been modifi
with time to point to Juliana's influence and that of John the Bap
on successive kings. When the Sayyid brothers meet their downf
Bruit writes that Muhammad Shah paid what he vowed to the sai
and raised the position of Bibi Juliana, who died during his reign.4
Next to nothing is known about Bruit himself, or about the st
ries he collected to compose a narrative of Juliana. Other tha
beginning, which does not contain praises to God, the prophet
his descendants, Bruit's account follows the Persianate conven
of praising the wisdom and personal character of the patron, Maj
Gentil (d. 1799), for whom it is composed.50 The storytelling aspec
Bruit's account lacks details about Juliana's service to the Portugu
and Dutch; only her service to the king in adversity and prosperi
seems to matter. The threads of causality according to which a raid
Portuguese settlement leads to the placement of a European, Chri
woman close to a Mughal king suggest that Bruit might have wri
his account to be circulated among European and Indian audien
familiar with Persian, and perhaps with stories of Juliana herself.
Bruit's choice of language and following of Persianate conventi
points to the mixed sensibilities of his possible European audience
patron Jean-Baptiste Gentil was one of a number of Frenchmen pre
in Mughal courts and in the courts of successor states in the eighte
century. Major Gentil had been in service to Shuja' ud-Daulah
1 775), the Nawab of the princely state of Awadh, and held a high
in his army. He had also served as captain of the French service at
Mughal court.51 Gentil's own account of his years in India, the M
oires sur l'Hindoustan, ou Empire Moguí, was published in Paris in 1
after being edited by his son. Besides having in his possession Gas
Bruit's Persian account of Juliana, Gentil married Juliana's grandn
Teresa Velho in 1772, a fact that he mentions in his memoirs. If G
had asked Bruit to compose a text in Persian that consisted of
lected stories about Juliana, part of his family by marriage, such a
tory would have carried with it the romance of India in Franc

49 Ibid., fols. 18-10.

50 Ibid., fols. 1-2.
51 I draw my information about Major Gentil from Sanjay Subrahmanyam,
Career of Colonel Polier and Late Eighteenth-Century Orientalism," Journal of the
Asiatic Society 10, no. 1 (2000): 43-60. For Gentil's atlas, see Susan Gole, Maps of M
India: Drawn by the Colonel J ean-Baptiste-Joseph Gentil, Agent for the French Government
Court of Shuja'ud'Daula at Faizabad, 1770 (New Delhi: Manohar, 1988).

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Zaman: Visions of Juliana 78 1

much the same way the romance of Fren

Bourbons in India today,
GentiPs own memoirs contain a short b
must have been drawn partly from Bruit'
ries about Juliana told to him by his wif
discussed above mention nothing of Julia
ing to Filippo de Filippi in his notes to D
introduced to court a sister called Ang
de Castro, and her daughter Isabella Velh
court duties. Isabella, according to Filipp
de Castro, by whom she had five daughte
GentiPs wife, Teresa Velho.52 Filippo de
tiPs father-in-law, is the same who receiv
at Juliana's request. Diego Mendes then
with the information about Juliana that
memoirs, as could his wife, Isabella.
Gentil was familiar with Valentyn's acco
Juliana names her as the daughter of an
says she was born in Bengal in 1658.53 G
influence in the Mughal household, espec
Like Valentýn, Gentil recounts Juliana's
king that victory was assured to him and
support to the Christians after this cam
Juliana, who rode besides the king on an
who is a champion for her Christian fait
tlefield. Bearing the standards of the cr
powerful, and masculinized. Following an
war between the two brothers, Gentil wr
said of Juliana: "Si Juliana était homme, j
were a man, I would make her a minister
was declared the protector of the Christ
royal title, and the palace of Dara Shikoh
coronation of the king was held on the same
Baptist, and it was Juliana who crowned

52 Ippolito Desideri, An Account of Tibet: The Trave

1 7 12-1727, ed. Filippo de Filippi (1032; repr. Routl
53 Gentil, Mémoires sur l'Hindoustan, p. 367.
54 Ibid., p. 369.
55 Ibid., pp. 369-370.
56 Ibid., pp. 373-374.

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782 JOURNAL OF WORLD HISTORY, DECEMBER 2012

Both Juliana and Jean-Baptiste Gentil inhabited several cultural

worlds. Gentili personal history is tied to both India and France, just
as Juliana's is to Portugal and India, Their association with Indian rul-
ing families, their familiarity with Indian languages, and their place-
ment within a circle of Europeans who spent considerable time in India
makes them products of a cultural fluidity that disappeared after formal-
ized colonial rule, in which Indian and European spaces became clearly
demarcated. The retreating landscape of the past inhabited by Juliana
is one that men such as Gracias hoped to capture by gathering the frag
ments. In the same way, in writing his memoirs nostalgically in France
Gentil composed sketches of many of the characters he encountered
or heard of in India, and his sketch of Juliana as one of these ended
with his own ties, by marriage, to her family. Juliana's descendants, a
an embodied link to this retreating landscape, continued to hold the
interest of scholars of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.57

Myth, Memory, and the Descendants of Bibi Juliana

Among Europeans in British India, stories of Juliana and the favo

accorded to her by Bahadur Shah I would have made for popular cir-
culation among Europeans married into her family in later generations
or Europeans seeking similar advancement in India. In an article for
the Journal of the Punjab Historical Society titled "The Family of Lady
Juliana Dias da Costa (1658-1732)," the Rev. H. Hosten, SJ, speculates
that perhaps Gastin Brouet is Augustin Bravette, a man who married
into Juliana's family; gravestones at Agra, investigated by Hosten, sug
gest as much. This could mean that Bruit's account of Juliana's years
with Father Anton come from family lore as well, given that Bruit
refers to tales that are found in no other source about Juliana. Hosten
also addresses the confusion between Juliana Dias da Costa and Juli-
ana Mascarenhas, whom he says was an Armenian woman doctor a
Akbar's court.58
Hosten's need to address this confusion when writing in 1918
points to how, in these years, the stories of the Bourbons and those
of Juliana Dias da Costa had been tangled up with one another to the
extent that they warranted scholarly investigation. At the heart of th

57 See for instance, C. Wessels, SJ, Early Jesuit Travellers in Central Asia, 1603-1/21
(The Hague: Martinus Nijhofif, 1924).
58 Hosten, "Family of Lady Juliana Dias da Costa," pp. 40-41.

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Zaman: Visions of Juliana 783

tangle were Juliana's descendants, who app

correspondences and historical inquiries of
The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society in
by the historian William Irvine titled "No
Christians at Agrah." The article consists o
J. P. Val D'Eremao, which were in the posse
Henry Beveridge. In these letters, written
D'Eremao (d. 1896) writes that Bibi Julia
mother "one degree back" and that his fam
jãgir from Bahadur Shah I. While he does n
Val D'Eremao writes that he recalls, from
bon and "Brouet."
Val D'Eremao also writes that his grandf
was Bibi Juliana's son. In his note precedin
that Val D'Eremao's statement is to be trea
Bibi Juliana died in the year 1734 at the ag
hardly have been a mother past 1704 and
known, must have been "in the period o
This would mean that Manuel, or any child
would have been ninety-nine years old i
able. Irvine concludes that therefore Capta
Perhaps, speculates Irvine, he was the lady'
his information about Juliana partly from
Muhammadi , which records that Juliana,
favorite of the late Bahadur Shah, died
aware of the memoirs of Gentil.60
Even though Irvine expresses surprise
Mughal sources about Juliana's life, this
the prominence enjoyed by her was less un
might have been to the Jesuits or to Europ
Dutch, French, and Portuguese enterprises
to have been absorbed into the Mughal hou
would no longer factor into how she was p
Also, since several Mughal women, such
lands; took part in political negotiations

59 For this correspondence, see William Irvine and J.

Juliana and the Christians at Agrah," Journal of the Roy
Ireland (1001): 3 <5 5-^8.
60 William Irvine, The Army of the Indian Moghuls: I
(London: Luzac Sc. Co., 1903), p. 153.

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784 JOURNAL OF WORLD HISTORY, DECEMBER 20I2

trade; and encamped with kings during times of war, Juliana's po

would not seem different from that of any other prominent Mu
woman.61
What Mughal documents do reveal is that the villages held in
Juliana's name seemed to have passed to the D'Eremao family, who
claimed to be direct descendants of hers, and to be linked with the
Bourbons as well. The claims of the family are recorded in the writ-
ings of Sir Edward Maclagan who reports, in 1932, that the D'Eremao
family "is now in poor circumstances."62 The distance between these
poor circumstances and tales of lost grandeur, evidenced by deeds to
lands, would suggest that nostalgia fueled some of the more elaborate
claims of the D'Eremao family. At the time of Maclagan's writing, the
D'Eremao family claimed that the title of D'Eremao came from the
title of Durr-i Yaman or Durr-i Oman (pearl of the Yemen or Oman)
conferred by the Emperor Bahadur Shah on their ancestress, Juliana.63
There is no evidence that Juliana was given such a title, nor is there
evidence that she had any ties to the Bourbons. The Bourbon story
proposed by the D'Eremao family and reported by Maclagan was that
a Jean-Baptiste Gaston de Bourbon, duke of Orleans and the second
son of Henry IV, escaped to India and occupied a place at the Mughal
court a century after Akbar's death in 1605. In this story, Juliana was
married to Gaston de Bourbon. But Jean-Baptise Gaston de Bourbon
died in Blois in 1660, Maclagan writes, and adds that "the whole story
is a confused one."64 Another confused element is added to the story
by Captain Manuel's grandson Paul D'Eremao, who made a statement
in 1885 according to which Juliana was a physician who cured Baha-
dur Shah's mother of a disease in the breast and whose sister Isabel
married a D'Eremao. While Paul D'Eremao's statement concurs with
other sources that mention Juliana's medical knowledge, the story of
her curing Bahadur Shah I of a disease seems to be a later addition.
Isabel remains undocumented save for this statement, and the link
between the earlier Juliana and Jean-Phillipe de Bourbon is dismissed

61 See Ruby Lai, Domesticity and Power in the Early Mughal World (New York: Cam-
bridge University Press, 2005); Ellison Banks Findly, Ñur Jahan, Empress of Mughal India
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993); S. A. I. Tirmizi, Edicts from the Mughal Harem
(Delhi: Idarah-i Adabiyat'i Delli, 1979); and Gregory C. Kozlowski, "Private Lives and
Public Piety: Women and the Practice of Islam in Mughal India," in Women in the Medieval
Islamic World , ed. Gavin R. G. Hambly (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1998), pp. 469-488.
62 Maclagan, Jesuits and the Great Mogul, pp. 186-187.
63 Ibid., p. 166.
64 Ibid., pp. 166-167.

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Zaman: Visions of Juliana 785

by Maclagan, given that no Jesuit source m

Jesuit sources are full of stories of adventur
India and then rise to prominence.65
The most conclusive link between the
comes from land grants such as those hel
passed, like stories, on to future generati
D'Eremao and his son Lieutenant Doming
the D'Eremao cemetery, part of the lands on
officer for the Indian army, Brigadier Hum
in an article for the Journal of the Punjab Hist
"Captain Manuel appears to have succeeded t
near Delhi, part of the estates which had bee
to Donna Juliana Dias da Costa in recognitio
vices." He adds that in his will, Captain Man
lands and his claim to them through his pate
Captain ManuePs will then supports Irvin
Juliana's grandson, and not her son. Bullock
was known to all as "Manuel Sahib," and that
by the emperor Shah Alam (Bahadur Shah I)
for him with his own hands.66
Nevertheless, if Captain Manuel's father
names of this son and his siblings remain u
of his wife. Perhaps Juliana had children wi
referred to in some of the sources discussed
D'Eremaos and their claims to Juliana raise
are worth considering. For one, even thoug
as Irvine said, of advanced age, it seems c
been in error about his own grandfather and
Juliana's son rather than her grandson. Seco
the name D'Eremao? In an article for the Jou
cal Society , Rev. Father Felix notes that Ju
Gracias, had the engraving Fidavi Bahadur S
servant of Bahadur Shah), a fact that is corro
is no mention in earlier sources of the title "

65 Ibid., p. 165.
66 H. Bullock, "Captain Manuel D'Eremao," Journal of
(1032): 155-171.
67 Rev. Father Felix, OC. "Mughal Farmãns, Parwãna
of the Jesuit Missionaries," Journal of the Punjab Hist
published in 1918, this was a paper read, presumably fo
18 January 1913.

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786 JOURNAL OF WORLD HISTORY, DECEMBER 20I2

Oman," claimed by the D'Eremaos to be the origin of their family n

as given to Juliana by Bahadur Shah I.
Could it be possible that Juliana either married or had children w
someone other than her unnamed Portuguese husband? If she did
a son outside of wedlock, there would have been no stigma attach
to this in the Mughal household, nor would her children have
barred from inheritance and royal favor.68 If Juliana was a slave to
Mughal court - and Bruit's account suggests that she was, given t
price was set for her purchase - then it is not inconceivable that
might have had children out of wedlock. Did the sanctity attache
her spiritual persona by Europeans in the later years of her life lea
an omission of the parentage of these children? Could these child
potentially have been of mixed blood? The persistent claims of
descendants, which surface two hundred years after her death, and
absence of the crucial link that ties her to these descendants - her
children and their names - is mysterious. What would justify the o
sion of an entire generation of Juliana's family from all records, to
point that it is her grandchildren and not her children, for whom
asked for provisions from the Portuguese?
A more prosaic explanation could be that at the time of her aski
her son(s) might have been deceased, but that would still not expl
why nothing is known about these children or their father, thro
either oral accounts or written records. Another explanation might
that records pertaining to her children and husband have been lo
Maclagan mentions that Dara Shikoh's house, which she occup
was damaged during Nadir Shah's massacre of 1 739. At the same ti
several records pertaining to her family and their claims to land s
to have survived despite the damage, along with possible evidence
she had children. Maclagan writes that deeds for her lands near D
show these lands to be granted to "Juliana and her sons." Maclagan
writes that "some fifty years ago," (in the 1880s) these lands near
were bequeathed to the Franciscan Mission at Agra by an old co
who claimed to be descendants of Juliana.69
By the time J. P. Val D'Eremao's letters surfaced, these lands m
have been out of his hands, and the family was, as Maclagan repo

68 Concubinage in the Islamicate world has been discussed at length by Leslie Peirc
the context of the Ottomans, and her analysis applies to the Mughals and Safavids as w
See Leslie Peirce, The Imperial Harem: Women and Sovereignty in the Ottoman Empire
York: Oxford University Press, 1993).
69 Maclagan, Jesuits and the Great Mogul , p. 186.

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Zaman: Visions of Juliana 787

in poor circumstances. While the absence o

Juliana's children can be explained away, i
the absence of any oral accounts about the
these claims to land lead back to Juliana
tion of all could be that Juliana's line was
ter Angelique; her sister's grandchildren w
dren, and her lands would be passed down
Mughals gifted land to families without b
descendants. But the jumble of stories in la
the Bourbon myth and the conflicting clai
makes the truth difficult to ascertain.
Interest in Juliana continues in the twen
the unmistakable texture of nostalgia. R
research in 1913 at the cemetery at Agr
Europeans, and most notably, Jesuits, fro
writes that the Christian cemetery at A
graveyard in North India. "We find the
English, French, Portuguese, Italian, Germa
Who were these people? How did they com
Rev. Felix points to specific graves; these
the green island near a dark native Christ
merchants, and "the history of John Philip
Jesuit missions . . . and the story of Dona
Felix is aware not just of a lost past but o
of Juliana.
Rev. Felix believes that while the Jesuits
having too many political ambitions, it is i
that they were able to accomplish in a fore
zealously for the promotion of their faith.
ana, Rev. Felix mentions how instrumenta
plishments. He cites the letter of one Fath
because of Juliana, Aurangzeb exempted "t
which "the Muhammadans themselves w
produces a grant from 1695, which states
descendants are exempted from paying
Bahadur Shah, in the first year of his reign
is not lawful upon mendicants. These exem
the reign of Farrukhsiyar.71

70 Felix, "Mughal Farmãns, Parwãnahs and Sanads,"

71 Ibid., pp. 31-36.

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788 JOURNAL OF WORLD HISTORY, DECEMBER 20I2

Rev, Felixi account, when placed beside earlier accounts of Juli

ana's aid to Christians, is helpful in determining the limits of Juliana
benevolence. She seems to have made sure that Christian mendicants
were exempt from taxes; however, this does not mean that her benevo-
lence extended to all Christians of the empire, or that Christians could
be seen as one entity. She was most certainly a favorite of Bahadur
Shah I, and the Mughals' long history with Christian visitors to their
courts and non-Muslim inhabitants in their households would mean
that her influence could well have included prayers on behalf of kings
and their children or the pledging of kings to John the Baptist. It is
difficult to dispute that she held power and wealth; the Mughal land
grants in her name testify to this, as do the documents collected by
Gracias, which show that she was given considerable importance in her
role as intermediary between the Mughals and the Estado by both par-
ties. She seems also to have looked after her own interests by appealing
to the Estado for provisions for two of her relatives and possibly by
attempting to retire to a convent.
The power and prestige that Juliana Dias da Costa obviously held
while she was alive stands in dramatic contrast to the poverty of
her descendants in British India, where Rev. Felix finds himself sur-
rounded by graves while hunting for lost stories. The elaborate claims
of the D'Eremaos, however, are still formulated with the memory of
Juliana's power close enough to be tangible, as evidenced by deeds to
land held in the family, but distant enough to be understood through
myths that weave in and out of the past without attention to histori-
cal detail, including details about how exactly the D'Eremaos come
to be tied to Juliana. Jesuit attachment in the eighteenth century to
their vision of Juliana as benefactress also stems from the loss of Jesuit
power in India; it is as though the loss of political prestige on the part
of both Juliana's family and the Jesuits leads to her becoming a mythic
figure for both.
At the end of his paper, Rev. Felix laments that "after two hundred
years of vigorous and fruitful life" the Jesuit mission was put to an end
by a Christian king, Joseph of Portugal, in 1759.72 The irony of this is
not lost on the reader: earlier writings portray the mission as a beacon
of hope in a dark landscape and Juliana as admirable for her service to
the Jesuits. The end of the Jesuit mission at the hands of a Christian

72 Ibid., p. 53.

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Zaman: Visions of Juliana 789

king rather than a Muslim one resonates

graveyard with which he begins his piec
the death of the mission and the India
able to flourish. And the names of Chri
mon up the memory of Juliana, who wa
commitment to the propagation of her
adherents.

Shipwrecked in the Present

My research for this article led me to the Gora Qabaristan in Karac

a cemetery that evokes similar sentiments to those expressed by Re
Felix in his attempt to document a past that remains buried beyond
reach. Gora Qabaristan literally means "the burial place for whi
people," and is the colloquial name for a graveyard in which Eu
peans associated with the East India Company were buried. Toda
it is a cemetery for the Christian community of Karachi. The oldes
graves date back to the eighteenth century and include the grav
of a Chaldean merchant, Muslims married into Christian famili
and European merchants, statesmen, and traders. The graves in
Gora Qabaristan constitute a heritage that is shared between Ind
Pakistan, and Britain, and the shrinking space of that heritage in t
homogenizing rhetoric of nationalism. In Pakistan and India, wh
Islam and Hinduism constitute dominant discourses that often rend
Christians invisible, the premodern world presents a past that both
countries reject. Appropriately, garbage and sewage surrounds
graves in the Gora Qabaristan and the statues of angels that gua
some of them.
I had managed to track down a Catherine Val D'Eremao in Kar
chi, and thought I might be able to find graves for her family, bu
was unable to find any. Catherine is now in her nineties and lives i
a Christian retirement home in an old part of Karachi. The home is
small place of leafy trees and high ceilings and antique tiles from t
colonial period that is now surrounded by graceless apartment build
ings, much like those that surround the cemetery. These high-rises
jarring encroachments of the present; obscenely tall and ominous, th
suggest that it will only be a matter of time before they will prevail upo
one of the last remaining buildings from another era. The cemetery
the old people's home are both haunting because they represent how
the space for Christians in Pakistan is now vanishing; Christian spa

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790 JOURNAL OF WORLD HISTORY, DECEMBER 20I2

are often surrounded by security guards, and this at

them marks them even more acutely. They are no lon
the landscape.
Catherine Val D'Eremao's memory has disappeared, a
to ascertain much about her family from what she t
she said that her father was French, and that her people
far away, but "became Indian" eventually. Despite ha
Catherine was aware that her family was different an
something about them that set them apart from oth
seem to know whether she was in India or Pakistan a
that her family had something to do with the Isabel
lege, established under British colonial rule in Luckn
can missionary. At the time I spoke to Catherine, I w
Beverly Hallam, who provided me with a matriculati
Catherine from Isabella Thoburne and evidence that
fact the adopted daughter of one of the descendants o
entine D'Eremao. Beverly herself descends through
D'Eremao through his son Domingo, whose daughter
grandmother of Beverly's grandmother Vera.
Juliana has not been the subject of scholarly inqui
century. The loss or relinquishing of lands by the
and the end of British rule in India in 1947 directly
this disappearance. If the political visions of Jesui
in India coupled with the claims of Juliana's desce
interest in her in the past, today she has resurfaced
sons. Beverly Hallam's work is part of a growing int
and ancestral histories, and Bilkees Latif's semi-fic
Juliana stems in part from a reaction to polarized re
identities in India today. The title of Bilkees Latif
points to her belief that there are lives from the pa
existing beliefs about identity. The graves in the
are evidence of this forgetting, as is the home wher
where an inmate told me: "No one comes here. You come here in
order to be forgotten."
This means that much like the shipwrecks and displacements that
frame earlier narratives about her, Juliana remains shipwrecked in the
fragmented relationship of nation-states with their past and in histo-
riographical categories. Does she, for instance, belong to the history
of Mughal India or to the history of the Estado? Save for a brief letter
to João V, Juliana left behind no writings. Those descended from her
could not hold on to their lands after the loss of Mughal power but held
on to stories about her instead. Of her own parentage and origins, little

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Zaman: Visions of Juliana 79 1

is known. The stories that people write a

of her, but allow authors of her life to place
tions and desires. And the further away one
more extraordinary Juliana seems, for her prom
worlds she was able to inhabit. Yet, perhaps
about Juliana is that she was by no means ex
landscape of Mughal India.

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