WOMEN'S SPACES
	Of course, elite women were honored by buildings commissioned for them by their male relatives (with the *Taj Mahal* as the supreme example)
*NUR JAHAN*	But women from elite families were also sometimes able to commission buildings of their own choice: Nur Jahan is the obvious case in point; *Ahmedabad* also offers some examples; Ahilyabai Holkar built the *Ghrishneshvara temple*
	The Begams of Bhopal were virtually the only women to rule any of the Native States; they were great champions of women's education
	The huge Taj ul-Masajid mosque in Bhopal was built by Sultan Jahan Begam in the late 1800's
	Life inside a zananah could mirror the courtly activities of the outer world
	Most women wore as many adornments as they could afford (but then, in many elite social groups, so did men)
	The elusive figure of the "yogini," who was depicted (in miniature paintings at least) as socially respectable
	Two portraits: the Indian "bibi" of a Company officer, and a courtesan
	As photography developed from the 1860's onward, photos including women began to be made-- by outsiders, and also by families wishing to record special occasions
	Early depictions of dancers, or "nautch girls" (from nachna, "to dance")
	"Nautch girls" received so much half-fantasizing attention from (male) artists partly because of their romantic appeal, and partly because respectable women were not on view
	Early photographs of dancing girls
	Women and balconies over the street, including some vivid evocations by the American painter Edwin Lord Weeks
	A look at some of the ways women traveled
	Poorer women, and female servants in richer homes, had no choice but to move about-- especially to wells and riverbanks, for water
	Their daily household work also commonly included grinding grain, and often the *spinning* that Gandhi made his own
	Other household tasks-- and for some poor women, work outside the household too
	Women were thought to be especially inclined to favor amulets, talismans, charms, spells, and other practices disdained by the educated
*SATI*	The practice of "suttee," in which a Hindu widow proves herself a *sati* or truly devoted wife by dying on her husband's funeral pyre, became increasingly contentious
*EDUCA- TION*	By the late 1800's, education began to be available to at least some women; it was sponsored by educated reformers, missionaries, or the government
	An early feminist heroine: Pandita Ramabai

 

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