(i) A Sultan's retinue regalia privileges and a king and family symbolised his greatness.

(ii) Sultans were sticklers for public etiquette and limited protocol, lest subordinates exceed their station. The Sultans had to have the biggest, richest, most elaborate, extravagant, valuable things visible on his person, to dramatise his ascendency constantly, 

(iii) Vijayanagar Rayas styled themselves 'Lords of the Eastern and Western Oceans' by adorning their bodies with precious commodities from overseas trade, specifically, perfumes and precious things like Chinese porcelain.

(iv) The Sultan's home was a larger version of his own body and dramatised his power to accumulate, command, control, and define wealth, value and taste.

(v) Significant features of a Sultan's persona emerged in publicly visible domestic dramas, above all, marriage. Weddings were great events of political life because marriage was the most secure method of political alliance.

(vi) In the inner secret deep inside area of the palace family members vied for influence and engaged in the secret plans that often culminated in wars of succession, in which relatives killed one another.

(vii) At home, the Sultan's honour rested on the stainless virtue of his mother, wives, daughters, and sisters. Women were separated from public view. They lived behind a curtain, pardah, and women in seclusion, parda nasheen, became the Sultan's own virtue.

(viii) Practices of female seclusion spread among elites who modelled themselves on sultans, Hindus and Muslims alike, at all levels of society.