JODH BAI was the daughter of Raja Maldeo, and sister of Oody Singh of Jodhpur in Marwar. In 1569, Oody Singh gave her in marriage to Akbar, whose favourite she soon became, and a few months after their union, she and Akbar made a pilgrimage on foot to the tomb of Moin-ud-Din at Ajmir. They travelled six miles a day. Arrived there, Moin-ud-Din appeared to Akbar in a dream and bid him seek the interposition of Shaikh Salem, a holy old man who dwelt on the top of Futtehpur Sikri. Shaikh Salem assured Akbar that Jodh Bai would bear a son who would live to an old age, and the Bai remained in a hut near the hermit till the promised boy was born. He was named Mirza Selim, and became the emperor Jahangir of Indian history. She died some time after A.D. 1600. Her tomb was to be seen on the artillery practice ground at Futtehpur Sikri, near Agra, till about the year 1840, but the walls and gate ways were first taken away and then the tomb destroyed in practising mining. No palliation can ever be urged to defend an outrage on the dead, far less can any plea extenuate the act of blowing up into the air the remains of a woman, no other than Akbar's favourite sultana, the empress Jodh Bai, to whom the people of India owed much of the good they enjoyed under his long reign, by inspiring not only her husband, but the most able Mull ammadan minister that India has ever had, with feelings of universal benevolence. Oody le Bros'
was the first of his race who gave a daughter in marriage to a Tartar. Four provinces, yielding £200,000 of annual revenue, viz. Godwar, Rs. 9,00,000 ; Ujjain, Rs. 2,49,914 ; Debalpore, Rs. 1,82,500 ; Budnawar, Rs. 2,50,000, were given to him in exchange for Jodh Bai, at once doubling the fisc of Marwar. With such examples as Amber and Marwar, and with less power to resist the temptation, the minor chiefs of Rajasthan, with a brave and numerous vassalage, were transformed into satraps of Dehli, and the importance of most of them was increased by the change. Truly did the Moghul historian designate them at once the props and the ornaments of the throne.'—Tod's Rajasthan ; Tr. Hind. ii. p. 2.