A white stone building in old Delhi’s central market district may not seem too different from any of the other neglected structures lining a street crammed with electronics shops selling adapters, copper wire, X-ray films, electrocardiogram jellies—except for a small plaque out front. Bhagirath Palace, it informs passersby, was once the opulent residence of one of India’s most powerful women: a courtesan turned mercenary turned diplomat turned queen.

Begum Samru was the supreme commander of 3,000 troops, including at least a hundred European mercenaries, in 18^th-century northern India. She held court, wore a turban, smoked a hookah, converted from Islam to Catholicism, and dubbed herself Joanna, after Joan of Arc. Yet, she is largely forgotten today, and Bhagirath Palace