The Eunuch and the Emperor: Social Ties and Selfhood in the Writings of Bakhtāwar Khān

While eunuch slavery is a known phenomenon in Mughal South Asia, few eunuchs left behind written traces. The elite eunuch Bakhtāwar Khān (d.1685) is unique in having left behind an extensive archive of his own writings. Through an examination of these texts, including both works of history and personal letters, this article explores the importance of intimacy, companionship, and service within one eunuch’s articulation of a refined authorial self. On the one hand, his writings underline his close association with the emperor, in addition to his wide-ranging participation in and patronage of intellectual life during this period, in the process asserting his place within elite Mughal society. Yet these works also conspicuously leaving out mention of his enslaved, castrated status, a fact known from other contemporary sources. The article will consider how this omission can be juxtaposed with his own words, to better understand the complex dependent positions occupied by even the most high-ranking eunuchs in this period. In doing so, it demonstrates both the usefulness of these life writings in helping us think through the phenomenon of ‘elite slavery’ in South Asia, alongside the limits of what can be accessed about eunuch lives in this period.