When the lightsome day of his creation arrived, at once was Heaven envious of Earth for his passing,* and Earth exultant o'er Heaven for his august advent. The status of knowledge and insight became exalted, and with rites which are the glory of the ministers of outward show, was that holy essence and pure pearl —already washed and cleansed at the fountain-head of Divine Light and in the ocean of infinite knowledge (ma‘rifat)—bathed and com­posed by the hands of shade-loving, radiance-darting, chaste, rose-bodied nymphs. Even-tempered, spiritually-minded nurses swathed the divine form and heavenly body in auspicious swaddling-bands, purer than angelic veils, and laid him with respect and reverence in the sacred arms and bosoms of pure-dispositioned ones. And then his honied* lips being brought in contact with the benign breasts, his mouth was sweetened by the life-giving fluid.

Verse.

He drew forth milk by the bounty of his lips,
Milk and sugar were commingled.
It was not milk he drank from the breast of hope,
'Twas water from the Sun's fountain that he imbibed.

As the nobly-born Shamsu-d-dīn Muḥammad of Ghaznī had done a good service at Kanauj,* his Majesty Jahānbānī Jannat-āshyānī, shortly before the rising of this light of fortune, (Akbar) in magnifi­cent recompense of his deed, made him hopeful of eternal bliss by promising him the majestic boon, that his high-souled, chaste-natured consort—who has now the lofty title of Jījī* Anaga—should be clothed with the glorious head-dress (mi‘jar) and mantle of distinction, by obtaining the auspicious service of nursing this new fruit of the spring-tide of sovereignty and fortune, and should have the blissful charge* of the nosegay of the house-garden of greatness and glory.

Accordingly her Majesty, Maryam-makānī, Qadasī-arkānī (Pillar of Purity) having sent for that adorner of Heaven's table (i.e., celes­tial caterer) placed in an auspicious moment, the child-treasure in her hopeful bosom. But as the period of pregnancy* of this purely-framed nurse was not yet fulfilled, her Majesty ordered that recep­tacle of chastity, Dāya Bhāwal—a special servant of his Majesty Jahānbānī, and distinguished for virtue and purity—to suckle the infant. It appears that first of all, he accepted the milk of his royal mother. Then Fakhr-i-nisā,* wife of Nadīm Koka was honoured by the charge, then Bhāwal Anaga, then the wife of Khwāja Ghāzī,* then Ḥakīma. After these, the chaste Jījī Anaga, in accordance with her wish, obtained external and internal felicity. After her, Kokī Anaga, wife of Tōgh Begi* and after her, Bībī Rūpā* had their turn of this auspicious service. Then Khāldār (i.e., the mole-marked) Anaga, mother of Sa‘ādat Yār Koka,* was selected for this great boon. And at last, that chaste matron, Pīja Jān Anaga,* mother of Zain Khān Koka, acquired a stock of everlasting greatness by obtaining her wish for this great blessing. Many other fortunate cupolas of chastity were exalted by the excellence of this service. It was as if there were Divine wisdom in thus implanting varied temperaments* by this series of developments (i.e., the wet-nurses) so that the pure entity,* advancing by gradations, might become familiar with the divers methods of Divine manifestation. Or it might be designed that the acute and discerning should perceive that this nursling of fortune belonged to the limpid streams of Divine bounty and was not such as to make spiritual progress by outward nutriment, for as to the spiritual nature of this company (of nurses),* it is evident to all of what kind that was, as also are the lofty degrees of the holy stages of this chosen one.

Among other wondrous indications there was this, that contrary to the way of other infants, his Majesty, the king of kings, at his birth and at the first opening of his eyes on the visible world, rejoiced the hearts of the wise by a sweet smile.* Penetrating physiognomists recognized the smile as the herald-augury of the smiles of the spring of dominion and fortune and saw in it, the opening bud of hope and peace.

After that (i.e., the suckling), in a cradle lighter than a phantom (which the carpenters of the throne of sovereignty had framed of sandal-wood and lign-aloes, and where they had, as it were, commingled civet* and rose-leaves, and on whose corners and sides they had hung rubies and pearls of price) was laid with gentlest movement that unique Pearl of nine mothers o'pearl,* and then they softly swayed and rocked him. For cheer and soothing, they chaunted with musical (mūīqī) rhythm the name—auspicious to begin with and fitting as a close—of the Creator, the Lord of Glory and Bounty. The inmates* of holy hermitages and those who live in the throng of men who are the stewards of time and the terrene and hold together the spheres of the universe, attained their desires and thus were benefits bestowed on the world and on mankind. They sang this gratulatory strain to the darling* of the skies.

Verse.

Hail to thee to whom is committed reason's exaltation.*
The kingly revolution of the universe is for thee.
Like thee, the earth has no garden;
Like thee, heaven's vault no lamp.
Creative ocean rolled many a wave
Till it cast ashore a pearl like thee.
Fate's pencil drew many a sketch
Till she made a portrait like thee.
The world's book is but an allusion* to thee,
Heaven's volume but an analysis* of thee.

It is singular that this name does not occur in the list of Akbar's nurses. This may be due to Māham Anaga's being a title and not a proper name, and it is possible that the lady who was afterwards thus designated, is men­tioned in the list under some other appellation. She may, for instance, be the nurse described as the wife of Khwāja Ghāzī and whose own name is not given. But even if the title were not bestowed till a later period, one would have expected A. F. to have added it to his description, just as he mentions Shamsu-d-dīn's wife by her title of Jījī Anaga. The true explanation of the omission probably is that Māham Anaga means Head or Superintendent of the nurses rather than chief nurse and that the Māham Anaga of the Akbarnāma was not a wet-nurse. She certainly was not the chief nurse in the sense that the child Akbar drew most of his nourishment from her, for we are told that Jījī Anaga was chief in this respect, so much so that the other nurses accused her of practising witchcraft in order to prevent the infant prince from accepting any breast but her own.

Though Anaga seems primarily to mean a wet-nurse, it has not always this meaning. Pavet de Courteille says (Turkish Dictionary, 57) “<Arabic script> et <Arabic script>, nourrice, sage-femme, gouvernante; on donne aussi à la mère du Khān le titre de <Arabic script>.” We find also that the mother of Cingīz Khān had this title, her name being given in the Akbarnāma (I. 72, top line) as “Olun Anaga” though Erdmann spells it Eke. Apparently the Turkish pronunciation is Enge. See Redhouse s. v. He states that it means a sister-in-law, the wife of an elder brother or lady-relative of a bridegroom who is sent to fetch the bride home. A. F. sometimes calls Māham Anaga, Māham Bega and Māham Āgha, and it is generally by the title of Bega that Bāyazīd Sulān speaks of her in the so-called Tārīkh-i-humāyūn. (I. O. Ms. No. 216). He calls her (15) Māham Bega and adds the explanation ke āgha anaga Nawāb-i-īshān būd, i.e., who was head of the Prince's nurses. And then follows the statement that she was accompanied by Jījī Anaga, wife of Shamsu-d-dīn Mu. Ghaznawī who was the Prince's nurse (anaga). (Unless indeed the word is atgah and refers to Shamsud-dīn.)

In the Akbarnāma (II. 55) we are told that Māham Anaga had served the prince from his cradle, but it does not follow that she first did so in the capacity of wet-nurse. It may be remarked too that the fact of our not hearing that she had a husband or a child of about Akbar's age militates against the notion that she was his wet-nurse. Though her son, Adham Khān was a young man at the time of his death, he was probably several years older than Akbar as otherwise Bāyazīd would hardly have named him in the list of servants in Akbar's train at the time when Humāyūn marched to India.