It was an unusual love affair between a woman of Portuguese origin and a Mughal prince. And such was the intensity of their love that the Portuguese woman, Dona Juliana Dias Da Costa, held sway over Aurangazeb’s son, Shah Alam, and she not only helped safeguard Christians in the then Mughal-ruled India but also assisted in spreading on the faith in Portuguese India.
Juliana Nama, a book by former director of National Museum in Delhi Madhukar Tewari and archivist Raghuraj Singh Chauhan, has for the first time pieced together information from five different languages, including Persian and Portuguese, to bring to light the role of this lady-in-waiting to Shah Alam.
Credit: timesofindia.indiatimes.com
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