Exclusive Desk: Jodhabai was not a Rajput girl. She was actually a Portuguese woman. This is what Goa author Louis de Asi Correa claims in his book 'Portuguese India and Mughal Relations 1510-1835'. He claims that Jodhabai's real name was Donna Maria Mascarenhas. News of India Times.

Princess Jodhabai is known in history as the wife of Mughal Emperor Akbar and the mother of Jahangir. His life has also become a Bollywood film. However, a completely new information has come to light about the background of Rajput girl Jodha. Louis, a Goan writer, claims that Donna Maria Mascarenhas, a Portuguese girl, and her sister were wandering along the shores of the Arabian Sea in the mid-1500s. At that time Sultan Bahadur Shah of Gujarat captured them and sent them as a gift to the young emperor Akbar.

Speaking at the launch of the book, Panaji said, "Akbar fell in love with Donna Maria Mascarenhas when he was taken to Akbar's court. He was 18 and married. Jodha was then 18 years old. Akbar saw her and said, this young woman is for me. Donna and her sister Juliana were then taken to Akbar's harem.

Writer Louis claims that the Portuguese and Catholics could not accept that the Mughals had one of them in the harem. On the other hand, the Mughals could not accept a Firingi girl as the wife of their emperor. That is why the British and the Mughals made up the story of Jodhabai. '