Medieval India, an NCERT history text book for Class XI by Satish Chandra, clearly states on page 165: To strengthen his position, Udai Singh married his daughter, Jagat Gosain or Jodha Bai as she came to be called, to Akbar's eldest son Salim (Jahangir). However, there is another twist in the tale. But even Rai does not refer to her as Jodha Bai. Former president of Indian History Congress and chairman of history department, Aligarh University, Prof Iqtedar Alam Khan corroborates Habib's version: It is only a Punjab historian Sujan Rai Bhandari, who in his book Khulasat-ut-Tawarikh mentions for the first time that the Amber princess whom Akbar married was Jahangir's mother. Even Jahangir in his memoirs (Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri) does not mention anything about his mother’s side. And she was certainly not Jahangir's mother. It’s true that Akbar married Amber ruler Raja Bharmal's eldest daughter but her name is not mentioned anywhere.

Here is what some of the country's top historians have to say: Asserts renowned historian and former chairman of Indian Council of Historical Research, Prof Irfan Habib, There was not any historical character called Jodha Bai.

Who was Jodha Bai? Indeed, if she existed at all, it was as Akbar's daughter-in-law (she was married to Jahangir) and not his wife! But, if you go by folktales and K Asif's classic Mughal-e-Azam, she was Amber ruler Raja Bharmal's daughter and Akbar's wife. NEW DELHI: Poetic or creative license is all well, but can you create your own history or push cinematic liberty to the extreme where you end up peddling romanticised folklore as a slice of history? What do you do when there are doubts over the very existence of the character that you hope to recreate on celluloid? These are some of the questions that film-maker Ashutosh Gowariker will have to answer when he sets out to shoot his magnum opus Jodhaa Akbar starring Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya Rai.

History of jodha akbar in hindi book