 Khosrow himself claimed that he sent his favorite wife Shirin every year to offer them a possibility of leaving his harem with a dowry for marriage, but that their luxurious lifestyle always prompted them to refuse his offer.South Asian traditions of female seclusion, called "purdah", may have been influenced by Islamic customs, but the practice of segregation by gender in Hindu society predates the Muslim conquests in the Indian subcontinent.Ashoka, the great emperor of the Mauryan Dynasty in India, kept a harem of around 500 women.