Manu S. Pillai: The hidden history of eunuchs in India’s royal courts

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.In 1580, the sultan of Bijapur was stabbed to death in his own bedroom. Ali Adil Shah was an interesting type of chap. He ate not less than 12 eggs per day for his health; he liked to read, travelling even to battlefields with books; had interests in philosophy and the occult; and also styled himself a Sufi.

Evidently, his sex life was quite adventurous too. The Mughals—foes to Bijapur—complained, for instance, of how the sultan was “staining the skirt of his chastity”, rolling about in the “dustbin of carnality”. It could just be enemy propaganda, but the story goes that one day Ali asked an uncommonly handsome eunuch to “lie with him”.

The latter went close, only to spring a surprise. Pulling out a knife, he “plunged [it]…into [Ali’s] hypochondria with such force as to put a stop to all sensual desire”. The famous warrior-prince of Bijapur met his end, thus, at the hands of a khassi (castrated man).For much of the last 1,000 years, eunuchs have been an important component of India’s political system under assorted rulers.

Though certain Sanskrit terms have been translated as “eunuch” in lieu of a third gender, “there is no evidence”, writes Wendy Doniger, “that there were eunuchs in India before the Arab invasions”. Muslim court culture, however, created an important space in the form of the eunuchate, an institution inherited from pre-Islamic powers in West Asia and Persia. So much so, that in a few centuries, it was perfectly normal to encounter this class of servants even in Hindu states.