Princess Indira of Winton

Indira of Winton (1 September 977-10 December 1002), was the second daughter of King Ismeil II of Winton and Queen Kurwienne de Hafra. She was betrothed to Diagar III, Duke of Salin, her maternal uncle Hsinpalay IV's illegitimate son, but was involved in the love affair between Diagar III and his Indian wife. She was a victim in this love tragic, who died unmarried and lonely.

Early life
Indira was born in the Korcam Palace, the second daughter of King Ismeil II and his queen Kurwienne. Her mother was the younger sister of Hsinpalay IV, Eadien emperor, which meant she was Hsinpalay's niece. Her name "Indira" was named by her uncle Hsinpalay IV.

At the age of 5, Indira had engaged with Diagar, the heir to the Salin duchy, and was sent to the Eadien imperial court, where she received education and shared games with her fiance. Hsinpalay IV adored her like his own daughter, as she was his beloved sister's child.

A noble described Indira's appearance in his note:

"The Princess looks like her father, with long black hair and beautiful black eyes, energy and happiness showing on her."

Indira kept a good relationship with Diagar. Diagar had no problem with marrying Indira. In his letter to his mother, he called Indira "my miss", what a unmarried young man called his lover at that time. It seemed everything will go well, but accident will happen.

Marriage failure
In January 992, Diagar returned to Salin to prepare his marriage ceremony. Indira didn't following, who would went to Salin for her wedding a few months later as the plan.

However, just 2 months later, Diagar presented a document to the Pharaja, in which a close relationship of cousin between him and Indira showed, therefore their engagement was illegitimate. This astonished both Eadien and Winton. Hsinpalay IV sent a group to visit the Pharaja, asking him to issue a holy decree to legalize the engagement between Indira and Diagar, meanwhile he sent someone to question Diagar's reason of this behavior.

Diagar provided an explanation to his father that he just wanted to follow the god's teaching of not marrying a close relative, which surely can't make Hsinpalay believe. Hsinpalay ordered someone to investigate this matter secretly, and soon found the answer that Diagar had cohabited with an Indian woman. Hsinpalay didn't take this seriously at the beginning. He told Diagar that he can kept that Indian woman as his mistress, but he must marry Indira. Diagar refused to obey his father, insisting to marry his Indian lover, which alarmed Hsinpalay how serious the situation was.

In 993, Diagar held a secret ceremony to marry his Indian lover, which was learnt by Hsinpalay soon after. Diagar publicize this marriage directly. Indira was abandoned by her fiance and felt being shamed. Hsinpalay tried to annul Diagar's marriage to marry Indira to Diagar, but at the same time he began to find other suitable marriage objects for Indira.

In 994, the first child of Diagar and his Indian wife was born, future Lebinreina the Younger. Indira had no hope on her wedding with Diagar, and she didn't want her uncle to be exhausted because of her marriage either, so she vowed to remain unmarried for her entire life, then left the court, which greatly broke Hsinpalay's heart. Hsinpalay had once considered to marry Indira to his youngest son Isatal, but Empress Joana Caterina de Mesarol rejected this, so Hsinpalay had to give up this idea.

Death
Indira had set up a temple in Myubo named "Woman's Temple of Bodhi", and became a priestess. Since then she lived a quiet and lonely life there, although her uncle never gave up marrying her to Diagar.

On 10 December 1002, Indira died. Hsinpalay was silent for a long while after hearing this. He was completely exasperated, as he thought Indira's death was caused by Diagar and his Indian wife. The next January, he attacked Salin, then put Diagar III under house arrest, and took Diagar's wife away. No one knew the end of Diagar's wife. Someone said she was executed by the emperor, and someone said she was sent back to India. Anyway, she disappeared from the historical records. All of her information was deleted in official documents, which was the reason of the loss of her real name.

Indira was considered the most innocent victim in this love tragic. She was buried in the temple she set up, where many noblewomen became a nun or spent their late years including Empress Joana Caterina de Mesarol.