Nagamani was only eight when she lost her father, Dr Shama Rao, a doctor in the British Army, to the side effects of mustard gas during World War I in Mesopotamia (modern day Iraq). He was one of the first Bengalureans to have served as a Captain in the British Army during the World War I.
Never in the history of the Mamluk dynasty, had the title of ‘Sultan’ bestowed upon or used to address a woman, because a woman had never ruled before.