NURSLINGS, MILK AND MORAL DEVELOPMENT: A CASE STUDY OF IMPERIAL MUGHAL

Since Galen’s time and before maternal breastfeeding was advocated healthful for both mother and child, but also supported wet nursing as a reasonable alternative when mother was unable or averse to breastfeed. The wet nursing practice indeed flourished in times and places of sharp class distinctions. The practice was encouraged by various, sometimes contrasting, motivations, depending on the social group and the personal, economic, and social circumstances. It could in effect range from the inconvenience of a temporary withdrawal from social duties to anxieties about the aesthetic consequences of nursing. Per instance, in some lands it was customary or ritual methods of sequential feeding for future rulers whilst in other the wet nurses of the kings such as the Mughal might beconsecrated. Interestingly milk interpreted as a different form of the mother's blood, was seen to transmit not only nourishment but also central traits of character. This had consequences for the choice of wet nurse. This type of ‘wet-nursing’ indeed had had an important function in strengthening kin ties.